Globetrotting, early, surprise lamb

I'm gonna walk around the world! OK, not actually. I've signed up to participate in the Global Corporate Challenge, a three-month walk-a-thon to aid charity and increase physical activity. You wear a pedometer everywhere, every day and log your steps (aiming for 10,000 a day), and they track your team's distance on a map of the world.  

I'm assuming it won't be too much of a challenge for me given I walk a lot anyway. I might as well do it for a cause and 'see' the world while I'm doing it, eh? I'm curious to see how far I walk in a day given that my job is not particularly sedentary, even though I'm a desk jockey.

I get to leave work before 4.00pm tomorrow. Yay. The downside is that I'm starting at 7.30am to greet clients as they arrive for a seminar my boss is running. I might have mentioned I'm not good at mornings...but I will get to see the sunrise and I've enjoyed helping to organise the seminar. 

I like it when I think I've eaten every morsel of tasty, tasty lamb in my casserole but then I find another surprise piece.

Tonight at the gym when I looked at the monitor on my exercise bike, most of the readings (heart rate, time, distance, calories etc) ended in '34'.

Fast, flat out, pram dance

Maybe it's because I like my new job, but my work day positively zipped by today. One minute it was 10.30am and then 20 minutes later it was 12.15pm and before I knew it, it was home time. Awesome! (As much as I like the job, I still like not being at work more.)

I ate my lunch in the Treasury Gardens. They're much nicer than the Flagstaff Gardens near my old office. There were lots of workers enjoying the sun, including one man in business attire lying flat on his back with his shoes and socks off. Teehee.

The Federation Bells were chiming when I walked past on my way home. It sounds like discordant clanging to me, but it moved a nearby toddler to a burst of pram dancing.

I read this story on The Age website on Friday night, but forgot to mention it. It's so lovely, it brings a tear to my eye.

Sharing the love and the money

How awesome is this tree trunk in the Botanic Gardens?

It was a gorgeous winter's day in Melbourne today. Blue skies, sunshine glinting off the river, people out walking and cycling, early signs of spring... I wished again that Melbourne were a man so we could get married and live happily ever after.

My friend J - who took me under his wing while I was visiting New York in May -  is planning a visit to Melbourne in the next couple of months. Yay! I'm really excited about showing off my beloved adopted hometown to him. He'll only be here for a few days, so I need to work out a list of must see/eat/do stuff to make the most of the time. 

I was looking at my tax stuff today and realised I gave nearly $1,200 to charity in the last financial year. I'd never added it up before. I feel pretty good about it, but I feel most proud of my contributions to the Smith Family's Learning for Life program, which I have mentioned here before.

I honestly believe there are few tangible things you can buy with your money that can make you feel as good as helping someone else to make a better life for themselves. One of the success stories I read about today was a girl whose family was so poor she had to wear hand-me-downs from her brothers to school. She never would have gone to university without the aid of the Smith Family and now she's doing a masters in linquistics! Wow! That's awesome. 

Dear reader

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from a reader who said he had signed up to sponsor a child through the Smith Family's Learning for Life program after reading my blog about it.

If you are reading this now, I haven't been ignoring you! I've somehow managed to delete your email without trace. I'm hoping you are reading this, because I wanted to tell you how pleased I am that you decided to help give a kid a brighter future. Yay for you.

It also feels pretty good knowing I played a part in it too.

(Feel free to email me privately again if you'd prefer not to make a public comment. )

Giving: it really does feel good

About this time last year, to help assauge the guilt of getting a generous payrise I felt was grossly undeserved, I decided to channel a little of my fatter pay packet into sponsoring a child through the Smith Family's Learning for Life program.

My $35 a month helps a low-income family pay for things like school uniforms, excursions, books, music and sports activities, the sort of stuff that can help kids to feel like they fit in and to enjoy being at school. It also helps to fund literacy programs and mentoring support.

I am on to my second sponsor child (the first left the program due to improved circumstances). His name is Jamie and he's in year 9. This morning I opened a letter from The Smith Family which enclosed his updated student profile. It lists things like his favourite subjects, books and movies and what he likes to do in his spare time.

Under "I would like to tell my sponsor that...", Jamie has written "I'm very happy with my life". It makes me tear up a little when I read that.

If anyone reading this wants to put some money towards a good cause, please consider becoming a Learning for Life sponsor (or making a donation). It really costs very little - less than the price of a meal at a nice restaurant each month - but the difference it can make is enormous. It's an Australia-wide program and it provides support for children from pre-school age right through to university.

The thing I like about Learning for Life is that it's preventative and built on the premise that education is the best way of breaking the cycle of poverty. It helps to prevent kids from underprivileged backgrounds ending up under-educated, unemployed, alienated and worse. It gives them a real chance of reaching their potential and leading happier, healthier and more financially secure lives.

If you need more convincing:

* Every year of schooling completed increases adult wage by about 10%;

* Poverty rates among those aged over 15 decline sharply as education qualifications increase;

* Young people aged 16-18 who are not participating in education are more likely to experience depression and poor physical health by 21;

* The rate of Learning for Life students progressing from Year 10 to Year 12 continues to rise - from 44% in 2005 to 53% in 2007; and

* In 2008, more than 50% of Learning for Life students who completed Year 12 progressed to tertiary studies, up from 21% in 2005.

Imagine thinking you would never be even finish high school and then getting to go to uni! Being a part of that really is an amazing feeling.

You can read some real-life case studies here.