Counting our blessings

As well as giving up chocolate (Tim) and snacks after work (Elspeth), we also spent this Lent following Christian Aid's count your blessings - every day we were encouraged to think about those around us less fortunate than ourselves, and donate a small amount of money based on our own lifestyle. It's been a really good exercise for us, making us think about how we live our life, and how a small amount of money to us can seem like a fortune to others.

Some statistics for you: the total amount we ended up donating was £38.66, or just less than a pound a day. Our most expensive day was when we donated 5p for every year before we started work - it came to £2.45 which brought home to us how long we'd spent in full time education, but also how lucky we'd been to have that opportunity: in India 60 million children are forced into work.

We didn't have a 'free' day, but on three days our donation was only 20p - when we

• gave 5p for every fairtrade and 10p for every non-fairtrade cup of tea/coffee we drank that day (while we thought of the fairtrade coffee schemes)
• gave 10p for every bed in our house (while we remembered the homeless who would sleep outside that day)
• gave 10p for every under-five we knew (4.5 million under-fives will die in sub-saharan Africa this year)

I think it shows how a small donation every day can really mount up - without us noticing a difference in our wallets. Rather than exchanging easter eggs this year, my sister and I agreed to donate the money to charity instead: she sent me a cheque so we'll be adding that plus a matching donation of our own.

Christian Aid week this year is 14-20 May and I'd encourage anyone who reads this to put even a small amount of money in the envelope when it comes through your door. based on our experience, you won't even notice it, but it could make a huge difference to others.

Some things

Some things that have happened since last time we posted. I'm not sure I can think back to the last time I myself posted so sorry about that.

Emma and Steve got married. This was nice. I went along in the evening, and much fun was being had by all the beautiful people.

Hitchin band came in the coveted position of not last in the London & Southern Counties 2nd section area contest. Rather disappointing given the effort that was put in by all. At least I didn't fluff most of the rather exposed lead Eb bass line. We're now working on a solo each to help build our individual confidence, so I'm playing Bass in the Ballroom which is a classic tuba solo and I am looking forward to.

Elspeth's grandmother passed away and we went to the funeral in Lincoln. A sad occasion for all. Although I never met Grandma and have only now met Pop, it was moving for me, reminding me of fairly recent funerals of my own grandma and my aunt. The number of people at the church for a lady who had been ill for almost a decade and rarely out of the house in recent years spoke volumes.

Work has been busy. I put in the most highly utilised month by a member of the modelling team on record in March. It's the end of the appraisal year now and we're all looking back over the year and forward at our objectives for the year ahead. I've had a great year and am really looking forward to developing more in the coming year. Recently my boss asked me to be on the lookout for potential future employees with the same kind of background as me as they were very impressed with me. I must have been a successful experiment afterall!

It's been nice to have some visitors at the house - Chris and Sian on a couple of ocassions and Jo for a few days last week. Elspeth's parents are coming down for Easter which will be nice, although I'm going to have to spend some of the weekend keeping up with the studying. We're really enjoying the house at the moment: in particular, spring time in our own garden is lots of fun.

That must be most of it. We've both had a stinking cold for the last week - it must be time for a holiday. I've just noticed that what with bank holidays, weekends away, an anniversary holiday and a couple of weeks of study leave, only 2 of the next 11 weeks I'll be doing a full 5 day's work. That can't be bad.