The wheels they stood still while the wagon went round

[venta]

So, I am already wondering why I thought this was a good idea. I've decided to accept WaterAid's sponsored "Just Water" challenge, and drink nothing but water during the month of January. They say it will make me feel good. I suspect it will make me feel like an idiot.

I've often heard it said that people who are trying to raise money via sponsorship are really just trying to tack a charity's name onto something they want to do anyway, like going to Ghana or running a marathon. Rest assured that this is something that I absolutely don't want to do. It sounds miserable.

Water-related projects aren't the most effective form of charitable donation (according to people like GWWC). But I can never quite shake the idea that water is such a basic requirement that we need to try. If you haven't got safe water, you're pretty much stuffed for everything.

I know people make their decisions about charitable giving in lots of different ways. Please don't feel any kind of obligation to make a donation! But if you want to, or if you're the sort of person who mostly gives money to charity when presented with a handy opportunity, then you would be most welcome to sponsor me here:

https://www.wahoo.wateraid.org/uk/event/wateraid-just-water-challenge-ecw

If nothing else, you could consider it a fair price for the right to mock me when you're having a lovely cup of tea, or a nice pint, and I am not.

Comments

[deborahw37.livejournal.com]

You will feel better for it but kudos to you! I don't think I could give up coffee.

Is there an option to paypal a donation?

[venta.livejournal.com]

I had to give up coffee when it started making me ill - though I have recently discovered the delights of decaf. Tea's what I'm worried about!

WaterAid don't offer any PayPal options, which is a bit rubbish of them, but there seems to be a mechanism by which I can add what they call "offline donations" to the page. So if people trust me not to run off giggling with the money (or spend it all on Secret Tea) they can send a donation to my personal email address. I realise that's a bit flaky-sounding, though!

(If you are not a spam robot of some kind, then knowing that my website is blacktreacle.com and my name is elizabeth is enough for you to deduce my email address!)

[exspelunca.livejournal.com]

Dobbin and Daisy (looked round for to see). The Dad wants to know what's wrong with water with a few tea leaves or hops in it?

[venta.livejournal.com]

One kudo to you.

There is nothing wrong with water plus leaves or hops. Think of this as a sort of self-imposed beverage exile!

[lathany.livejournal.com]

It's not letting me donate at the moment. I entered all my details and then the page processed... for a long time. So eventually I gave up, killed all the browsers and then tried again.

Now, as I'm entering details the page is expiring. Again and again and again.

I'll leave it for now and try again tomorrow.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thank you for trying!

I'm new to this online sponsorship idea, and I'm starting to think that site isn't great. It seems to behave quite badly (from the admin end) under Firefox.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Breaking news (having checked my email) - looks like you have successfully made a donation! So thank you again :)

edit OK, now I'm confused. I've had a confirmation email, but the site hasn't updated to show a new donation. I have no idea what is going on :(

[lathany.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I'll wait and see what it says tomorrow. And possibly what my credit card company thinks in a couple of days. If it's only sent the email then I'll have another go later in the week. After all - there's plenty of January left.

Thing is, I did eventually quit out of its processing - but it had been going long enough that I was fairly confident it was stuck by then.

[lathany.livejournal.com]

OK - according to my credit card (online statement), the money has gone through successfully. So it's only the website which isn't showing the donation. Not quite sure how that happened, but at least we now know what happened!