A few things

January 22, 2012

New Year’s Resolutions

As some of you might remember, my New Years Resolution for 2011 was to donate no less than 2% of my income to charity, a big improvement on my 2010 effort. Happily I succeeded, donating a total of £732.58 last year, about 4% of my income. Some charities I chose because of their cost-effectiveness, others because the causes were particularly appealing.

2011 donations

I’m hoping to do the same again this year, which should be all the easier given some great news I got in November (see below). This year my New Year’s Resolution is a little more abstract: I am going to work out what to do with the next few years, so hopefully the next time someone asks me what I intend to do with my life, I’ll have an answer.

Madagascar & Azafady

I’ve been accepted to a short-term Community Construction programme run by Azafady in Madagascar. For about 4 weeks in April-May of this year, I’ll be working with a group of other volunteers to build a school in a rural community. Like the earlier expedition to Costa Rica I went on, I’ll need to cover the costs of the trip, including flights, jabs and gear, plus a minimum donation of £795. Anyway, this is all explained in a lot more detail here.

Projects update

Despite my plan to get rather a lot done last year, and even finish a few of my web projects.. I didn’t. Quelle surprise! Most of these, plus some new ones, are still on the go. In a couple of weeks a shiny new website for Lightmill Films should be finished, and we’re planning to shoot another short film in the next couple of months. Lightmill news and the articles I promised on “The Profit” will all be posted on the Lightmill Films blog once we have that set up. In the meantime, Lightmill updates via our Twitter account and Facebook page.

Survival of the Fittest

No life update can be complete without a photo of me pulling a silly face, so here is one. In November I took part in a 10 km obstacle course around Battersea Park/Power Station with a bunch of like-minded lunatics. It was quite a slog despite my vague attempts at training (maybe I should have cut down on the takeaway pizza the month beforehand?), but I was very pleased to finish, and amused to find this photo of myself online afterwards.

Movember

Speaking of amusing photos, a big thank-you to anyone who sponsored me or my team for Movember. It was a good laugh for a great cause, I think we raised £765 in the end, which more than makes up for looking ridiculous for 4 weeks!