TGIF!

Life never seems to get any quieter round here, so it's a double TGIF as I now have 2 weeks off work! This week Monkey and I clocked up 6 appointments (should have been 7 but couldn't face 3 in a single day) so unfortunately not a lot of time for reading. However I did read and review The Vagabond King by James Conway. I really liked this book, although I imagine it mightn't be to everyone's taste.

Going back to the micro-volunteering that has been whirling around in my brain recently, I have sold a lot of raffle tickets for our favourite charity's Christmas raffle, and our local pub has kindly agreed to donate the proceeds of one of their fortnightly charity quizes to that same charity. This morning I had a bundle of fundraising items arrive in the post so I ought to take a look at them in a bit.

No blog hop yet, but hopefully I'll be joining in the fun later.

Have a great weekend, TC x

And now for something completely different...

I don't often blog about non-book related things, but the idea of micro-volunteering has been rattling around in my brain for a few days now so I thought I'd share. It's a concept I only came across at the weekend, courtesy of charity The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds on their blog. They are trying to encourage supporters who don't have the time to give up whole days, or the cash to make donations, to do small things that don't take much effort but when multiplied can make a real difference. The post that has inspired me is right here. Great idea, right?

So, looking at their list I'm off to a flying start. For years we collected stamps which got passed on to a friend who passed them on somewhere else, where they eventually made money for a charity. This ingrained the habit of ripping stamps off of envelopes so I have a small stack in a drawer, and now I know what to do with them! I'm already pretty good at the climate change things, and do as much recycling as I practically can. However, how many of us have a stash of old mobile phones, showcasing the development from house brick to teeny tiny smartphone with it's all singing all dancing features? I'm guilty as charged, and have been meaning to finally have a clear out. Now I'm feeling motivated and know I can support one of my fave charities at the same time it may actually happen.

Looking a bit further into it online there are masses of ideas for pajama participation, on sites like this; things like using certain search engines that donate to charity, or clicking on site that will give to charity using money raised from advertising, to different ways of helping save the planet. I'm definitely going to look into more things that can be done easily from home, and hope one or two others might look into the idea and decide to join.

And my next good deed? At the moment I'm selling raffle tickets for the National Deaf Children's Society. They're not a well known charity like some I could mention but they do wonderful work, experienced by my family firsthand. So far friends and family are being remarkably generous, so hopefully we'll help contribute a decent amount to the total.

I'd love to hear from anyone else who is already in the know, especially if you can give me some great ideas!