Quids for kids
I mentioned a few days back that I was running a half-marathon with my sisters, to try and raise money/awareness of their charity, the Moldova Project, which helps destitute families in Eastern Europe.
The race is in Bristol in two weeks, and will be attempted simultaneously by the four Watson siblings- me (no previous half-marathons; currently performing at festival while raising baby; very tired); Paul (no previous half-marathons; self-made international football coach; just back from Micronesia with foot infection, can’t train); Lucy (no previous half-marathons, has to balance training with working at Toys R Us) and Emma (no previous half-marathons, and when I suggested training, said ‘oh-oh, running…!’ in a worried voice; continually stresses how much she dislikes running).
At the time I first mentioned this, I didn’t have a link to sponsor me. They’re not able to use Justgiving and so on because they’ve not got a charity number yet, because the charity’s in its infancy and you need £5,000 a year to be in your account. But anyway. Various people on this site suggested a Paypal account. This has now been done. The unwieldy link is below.
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=K2MCW3QDC6BTE
You don’t need a Paypal account to donate through this; you can just do it with a credit card. I did it this afternoon. But ideally I’m looking to attract sponsorship from people who aren’t me.
The website www.themoldovaproject.com will give you more information on this plucky underdog of a charity which I am hoping to make a little bit richer by hauling my festival-weary limbs through 13 and a bit miles. Please have a look. I realise many people reading this site are students or other categories of people without a pot, as they say, to piss in. But any sort of contribution would be massively welcome. And the rest of you, sell your pot, piss in the garden and sponsor me. (NB ‘sell your pot’ is not an endorsement of drug dealing to prop up charities.)
By the way I’m aware I have not actually succeeded in running the distance yet, and you might feel you don’t want to donate money for something that’s not yet happened. So feel free to just write a ‘pledge’ below and then give us the money if and when I do stagger over the line, if you prefer.
As with other fund-raising initiatives I’ve done on this site, there is absolutely no obligation for anyone to get involved, and you shouldn’t feel in some way diminished as a reader if you don’t/can’t. But you can understand it would be a bit perverse of me not to try and reach my most loyal supporters with a cause which is particularly dear to my heart. OK. Thanks.
And the other thing I was going to say today: as the ‘are exams getting easier?’ debate continues both here and in the wider world, I’ve made it the subject of my Yahoo blog this week. Partly to voice my opinion that students deserve credit; partly because it’s the sort of point of view that will piss off many of the nutjobs who are always writing abuse after my Yahoo blog. Enjoy!
Posted by Tim Minchin · Run Timmy! RUN! on September 13, 2010
[...] he will donate £150 to Children and the Arts… and if I fail, I’ll donate the same to his mob. If you too have gambler’s bones, feel free to use the “comments” box to pledge [...]
Posted by Joanne Sheppard on September 3, 2010
Consider yourself sponsored. I don’t care whether you finish or not. Frankly, I couldn’t run to the end of my street, so it would be churlish if I was to refuse a tenner to a man who was willing to attempt 13 miles on the basis that he didn’t quite make it.
Posted by Ellie W on September 2, 2010
I will donate the same amount as I did for Adam Hills’ charity auction. £1.17 – that was me. Ask Jason Byrne. I totally will, though, at least because I’m enjoying your book and running is hard.
Posted by Tibbs on September 1, 2010
Just sent in my donation. Good luck on the run!
Posted by Aislinn on August 27, 2010
Hello. I have just read my previous comment from Zoe’s phone, and do apologise for it.
I am off to donate now. My bank account’s balance has spiralled downwards since returning to Edinburgh for the second time in one month, but I can more than definitely spare some for this – especially as I know what it’s like trying to raise money for charity by moving a long distance by foot.
I’m sure you, your brother and your sisters will all manage it without a problem. If my walk is anything to go by, your feet will be killing you by the end of it, but you’ll also be immensely proud of yourselves.
GOOD LUCK!
Posted by Heather/Tibbs on August 25, 2010
Well, if I can afford to fly over to the UK to see comedy shows, it would be pretty silly of me to then turn around and say I can’t afford anything for what sounds like a very worthwhile charity. So I will definitely be sending a donation your way, probably tomorrow morning, once I’ve gotten some sleep and can remember my PIN.
Posted by Amy H on August 24, 2010
Wow. Having read the training regimes of all four Watson siblings, I went straight to donate. Think you all deserve the money simply for attempting to run 13 miles…
Posted by Alex on August 23, 2010
This is my pledge for an unspecified amount, depending how much is in my bank.
Posted by Katie on August 23, 2010
I absolutely promise that the minute I get paid, you will get a donation.
x
(Also, anyone who says exams are getting easier are welcome to try sitting the Biology paper I sat earlier this year. It was bloody difficult. Let’s see what they say after that.)
Posted by Lydia on August 23, 2010
I’ll go and have a look at your other blog now. And I want to donate, but I’ll have to wait until after work next week, when I get paid, lol. I don’t think I would ever be capable of running that far. I did the Race For Life last year, which is three miles and that was something of a struggle for me.
Posted by Adrian on August 23, 2010
Hello,
just finished your “Crap at the environment” book and was looking for some of its recommended websites. Ended up here somehow!
Good to see someone doing something for Europes poorest country. Finish the half marathon walking or running (or cycling) and update your site with the news and I’ll chip in a few quid.
Poor Moldova hardly gets a look in with publicity for its plight. Its floods are not big enough, its odd earthquakes to small, its poverty not heartrending enough for the media to take much of a look.
Good Luck.
Posted by Rachael on August 23, 2010
Some of the people who comment on those articles really are crazy aren’t they? At least I hope they are because it scares me that they might really believe the stuff they write. Good luck with the running, I will endevour to find you some money.
Posted by Josh on August 23, 2010
Mark, it’s been far too long. I’ve been on holiday you see and have just caught up on the whole of August. I see that I managed to miss a VLR, not only that but a chance to defend Coronation Street. I’ll make sure I get in for the latest one POST HASTE. I’m glad your show’s going well and even more glad that the shirt situation is not a write off, that would mean I’d have to re-do the forum tiniwatson emote.
Good luck for this running, but remember it’d put a bit of a dampener on your optimism TYSIC if you died, so look out.
Posted by Laurs on August 23, 2010
I will donate as soon as I get paid on Friday. Promise. It’s a good cause. Good luck with the run, I have every confidence in all four of you. x x x
Posted by Kathryn on August 23, 2010
I just sponsored you. I feel virtuous.
Sounds like the exam debate could continue for a while. I shall refrain from adding to it.
Posted by liam_nolan123 on August 22, 2010
Everyone’s got an opinion – great show yesterday, by the way
Posted by Phill on August 22, 2010
May I just say a big +1 for your Yahoo! blog. Pissing off the kind of nutjobs who write abuse on your Yahoo! blog are always cool, plus it reminds me of this cartoon:
http://xkcd.com/481/
Posted by Clembear on August 22, 2010
Hopefully you’ll get some sort of training montage wrangled and that’ll sort it.
Its a odd question about exams getting easier – they still take a lot of work regardless. You’d hope that people would get better at taking exams over time too – that’s what learning is. I have a suspicion curriculums have got wider too – some English Literature A-levels talk about structuralism and Marxist critiques of books, which are more like undergrad level. My physics A-level had some basic quantum theory in too which used to be post-grad – so in that sense, the material is harder. And over time, teaching will probably improve/will get easier to explain difficult material. So you’d expect improvement.
Anyway, normally these stories are excuses to put pictures of beautiful teenage girls on the front page, jumping up and down. Hmm.
Posted by Heather Jones on August 22, 2010
Ok, I’ve just sponsored you – £10. No pressure, but that’s my investment – as an incentive for you to do the run, I mean.
Good luck to the Watsons quartet: bless you, but you all sound like a rather illprepared bunch (I suppose you could always walk the 13 and a bit miles if it came to it) More power to your elbow(s) – or should I say knees!
Posted by Kate B on August 22, 2010
Annoyingly I can’t donate anything as I don’t have a credit card. BUT I’m going to get my mum to pay some in and then I’ll pay her back. And maybe I’ll manage to convince her to pay some in herself, hopefully she’ll understand it’s a very good cause. Good luck on the half-marathon! I’m sure you’ll all get to the end.
Just wanted to add that I LOVED you’re yahoo blog today (not that I didn’t love this one too). Being of “exam age” it’s nice to hear something positive for once about the exams we take. You’ve made, what is left of, my day. Thanks!
Posted by Linsey on August 22, 2010
It’s not often that the words “sell your pot, piss in the garden and sponsor me” have been used to get people to donate to charity, but it’s a heartwarming plea, and I will indeed do my part. Good luck with the running!
Also, I finished reading Eleven today (I’ve been really busy recently…) and it’s bloody brilliant. Congratulations, you should be very proud of it! x
Posted by Zoe Fell on August 22, 2010
Hello. I am totally hacking into Zoe fell’s phone. It is Aislinn. This achieves absolutely nothing. Ha ha ha. Love xx
Posted by MusicalLottie on August 22, 2010
Blargh, I started to write a whole long ramble and it made no sense whatsoever. I think I commented yesterday or a couple of days ago, saying that I do think exams are getting easier. You make an excellent point about being prepared for formulaic exams in your Yahoo blog, with which I totally agree. The problem with this is that unless the teacher is very good and gives background and encourages their students to read around the subject, the students prepare for the exams only, and end up with very narrow knowledge. The teachers who are then products of this sort of education (my generation, I might add) will then not have a great deal of knowledge or experience to pass on to their students.
I don’t just say ‘exams are getting easier’ just because results get better each year. I say it because my teachers told us about their exams – for example, my chemistry teacher had to memorise log tables for maths, and the whole periodic table in order to pass chemistry A level. Also, the maths A levels for our particular exam board were reformed a year or two before I sat mine in 2007, and the old papers were more difficult than the ones we ended up sitting.
HOWEVER. Students still have to work jolly hard for their exams, and it’s unfair to try to take that away from them! (It is *so* stressful, and I for one am glad I don’t have to go through it again.) It’s unfair to bang on about something beyond their control. The cynics should, if they feel that strongly about it, use their energy to try to reform the education system, working with those who set the exams – not criticising those who sit them.
Ahem. *steps off soapbox* Apologies for the rant; as you may be able to tell, this is something that rather gets my goat.
Back to the blog … It’s good to know all four of you are running the half-marathon. It sounds like you’ll all be propping each other up, and falling over the line together! I’m sure you’ll all get to the end
Posted by amycool on August 22, 2010
Oh, how rude of me…good luck! I once ran 3 miles. It was really really hard. I’m sure you’ll be okay though as you have your family to drag each other round.
Posted by amycool on August 22, 2010
What you need is richer blog readers.
I would love to be able to sponsor a family one day when my boyfriend is earning lots of money as a doctor but for now I will see how much I can part with without risk of going in the red before next payday (in 24 days). Annoyingly, I have £15 on a clothing voucher card that I’d happily donate as I hate clothes shopping, but it’s not technically money. And a Borders gift card with about £20, which I will never be able to redeem. This is of no help to you. 
Posted by Rachel/Pandora on August 22, 2010
Good luck with running assorted Watsons!
I will do sponsoring as soon as I can. I don’t doubt your running ability, just my bank balance. Once I’ve finally found a job I’ll be more than happy to donate to an excellent cause. x
Posted by Ivan (@ivanbrett) on August 22, 2010
Good luck with the half marathon! I’ve never done that distance, but I’m told if you can run 8 miles you can run 38. I’ve also been told that carrots make your hair go curly, so don’t trust everything you hear.
Posted by Misha on August 22, 2010
Just to prove i’m genuinely not kidding about the 94p.
A screen shot.
http://i34.tinypic.com/2zrnlv4.jpg
Posted by Nuala on August 22, 2010
Oh, and play french cricket
Posted by Nuala on August 22, 2010
Good luck with the half marathon. May amble (drive) into Bristol to cheer you all on. Impressive to get all 4 of you doing something together. We mostly drink and argue (not necessarily in that order!).
Posted by Misha on August 22, 2010
2 weeks you say? I don’t get paid til the start of september now.
Buy you are more than welcome to the 94 pence in my account.
Really. I take being broke to entirely new levels! Either way, good luck! I sturggle to run for more than about 10 minutes before something gives way. Because I am unfit.