Samaritans.

This time last week I was doing something I’ve wanted to do for years; starting the process of volunteering for Samaritans. They have a lengthy selection and training process so I may not be successful this time round (or in fact at all) but I’m very keen so keeping my fingers crossed. I went to the North London Samaritans information day and spoke to four Samaritans about what they enjoy and what they find difficult about being a Samaritan, I had already felt fairly certain that it was what I would like to do and now I am convinced. That individual branch received 6000 calls last year – they are speaking to people in despair or distress, those on the brink of suicide and even some who are in the process of suicide as they call. Often they are speaking to people who have nobody else to talk to so it is an incredibly important service and it helps an awful lot of people.

I found out that each branch has to fund itself entirely so that’s around £25,000 a year that they have to find. I’ve set up a monthly direct debit and also joined Easyfundraising which is a site through which you can set your charity of choice (North London Samaritans) and then shop online and a percentage of your purchase price will go to that charity! I’d never heard of it but its a pretty brilliant idea, completely free and loads of big name shops are signed up to it; Amazon, John Lewis etc. You just need to remember to login and go through Easyfundraising whenever you shop online.

After a really interesting morning learning about Samaritans I spent a couple of hours sitting in the park with Nick in the glorious March sunshine – the first of this year!  Then went for a very lovely evening out with my wonderful friend Leona. She took me out to for a late Birthday surprise supper at Blackfoot where we pigged out on delicious pork products until we were fit to burst and then followed it up with cocktails down the road with two more very lovely friends – a real treat!

Since then I have been mostly with lurg – it’s just a nasty cold but it does NOT want to leave me! I’m almost fully recovered and am still blowing my nose every 3 minutes. Never mind, regardless of that I’ve managed a pretty busy week what with a trip to the affordable art fair on Wednesday and an evening bowling at Rowans on Thursday – probably more fun than is advisable!

This morning I filled my art quota while Nick was out running by doing a self portrait; I used a charcoal pencil which is a medium I have yet to master – I was intending to use it as an experiment in charcoal portraiture but it feels more like a normal pencil and so the resulting picture looks more like a rough pencil drawing! Still, it’s been ages since I did a self portrait and I quite like it – complete with bed hair and dressing gown.

I’ve been meaning to share with you for ages the two CDs which I have settled on as the ultimate driving CDs! If you don’t know them you are in for a real treat. My favourites being Good Times 3 disc 1 and Desert Island Mix disc 2.

I shall leave you with a funny that happened months ago and I decided to make into a sketch for you, I might try to do more of these in future!