Lent 2

These are the activities from the last couple of weeks of Love Life Live Lent:


• Make a list of things you want to say sorry to God for, say sorry, then throw the list away.

Haven't got round to this one yet.

• Buy a coffee and give it to someone on the way to work.

This one seems to be aimed at commuters & I don't pass anywhere to buy a coffee on the way to work. So I made coffee for my colleagues instead.

• Do a chore or errand for a member of your household.

I got round the lack of anyone else in the household problem by offering to help people out with a few things. So far, I've babysat a museum for part of my lunchbreak, went out at lunch to buy chocolate for a colleague, and out another time to buy teabags for another colleague!

• Hold a fundraising tea break.

Not quite sure how I'll achieve this one? I did buy some books at work for a charity appeal for the local hospice. Can that count?

• Think of 3 blessings of the day and be thankful.

This was actually relatively easy, if rather thought-provoking. The day I did this was the day of the soup run in Slough, during which it poured with rain. It was easy afterwards to feel very thankful to return to my warm, dry flat with ample food to eat and plenty of clothes to wear.

• Today why not slow down and savour an experience, e.g. a meal, a piece of music, a few pages in a book.

This is Boulter's Lock on the Thames on the outskirts of Maidenhead. It's a beautiful spot for a Sunday afternoon walk in the March sunshine. We stopped to watch a boat going through the lock, and also had lunch on a terrace overlooking the river (which got rather cold after a while).

• Try to walk or cycle a route you would normally drive.

I couldn't do this this week as I was recuperating from a stomach bug, but next week it should be light enough for me to cycle to work on the cycle path. It doesn't have lighting, and I don't really want to cycle through Slough (can't think why...) which means waiting until there's enough daylight for the cyclepath.

• Half the world lives on £1.40 a day, can you?

No. I think it costs me at least £1 in petrol to get to work (see above, I suppose I could have cycled), plus I usually spend around £4 a day on food, so even when I cut that right back it is still very difficult. Plus it costs around £1 a day (averaged over the year) for electricity (no gas connection) for my flat. Rent works out at £19.56 a day and council tax at £2.40. Water works out at 43p a day. So it costs me £28.39 a day just to have a roof over my head, transport to work and food. No, I can't live on anything like £1.40 a day.

• Do a garden or neighbourhood tidy-up.

I've been trying to keep the communal bin area for my block of flats tidy. It tends to attract fly-tippers dumping stuff, and I hoped they'd be discouraged if there wasn't already piles of junk already dumped there. Plus the delightful man and his friends in the flat below have a tendency to leave beer cans all over the grass outside, so I've been collecting them up and putting them in the recycling bin. And feeling depressed that it's costing me £19.56 a day just to live here. But then I should count my blessings (see above) that there's a roof over my head...

• Limit yourself to only checking email or texts once today.

I suggested to my boss that I did this on a work day, but I don't think she was impressed. So I did it on a Saturday instead, but that was a bit of a cheat as I went into London for the day, with no email access!

• Buy something from a charity shop and reverse haggle.

I think this could be an interesting one to try. I haven't been near a charity shop for a while, but once I've cleared out some clothes (see Lent challenge somewhere above or maybe in previous Lent post?) I'll go to Oxfam!

• Offer to babysit for friends.

I've offered to babysit for a colleague, who has a really sweet daughter. These are the socks I knitted for her first birthday last year. Nothing actually arranged yet, but I did offer!

• Give someone an apple today.

I was all primed with an apple ready, but then I forgot about it! Oops.

• Why not use a "buy one get one free" and give one away?

Have yet to find a BOGOF offer that's both something I actually need and also something that I can imagine someone else wanting.

• Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth today

Easy peasy. Already do this one.

• Have coffee or lunch with someone you don't know well

Was a bit stumped with this one, as I wasn't sure where to find someone I don't know well to have lunch with. In the end several of us agreed to brave the (very intimidating) dining room at work on Friday and talk to some people we don't know. Unfortunately we'd forgotten that school finished for Easter on the Wednesday so the dining hall wasn't open on Friday.

• Defrost your fridge and then think about climate change.

Fridge defrosting now!


Haven't thought about climate change yet!