venta

My month of self-imposed beverage exile ended yesterday. By the middle of the day I'd managed to work my way through hot-water-with-lemon-juice (my usual first drink of the morning), fizzy cranberry squash, coffee, banana smoothie and prosecco. I added proper beer (Old Speckled Hen, as it happened) in the afternoon and improper beer (Tsing Tao) in a Chinese restaurant in the evening. Tea appears to have been an unexpected omission which I and my giant magic doesn't-fall-over-mug are now remedying.

( The problem with programmers )

And if you were intending to donate me WaterAid some money - or were waiting to see if I succeeded before you committed cash - it's not too late!

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.