If I were young, I'd flee this town

I've been putting of writing this post as I wanted to really reflect on the magnitude of the task before committing it to the inter-web for public consumption. OK, lets not dramatize things...Let me start at the start.

When I left Microsoft midway through last year I had time to think about what I'd done with my life over the previous 7 years. Whilst there was alot to consider one particular tally stood out above the rest.

Recreational spending...Basically, over 7 years of having a regular paycheck paid into my account, I could quite easily estimate, (rather crudely but amazingly accurate), the amount I spent on socializing over the years. Before I get into the figures I'd like to point out that I'm not an alcoholic( haha, alcoholism denial jokes here we go...). I don't think that I drink more than my friends, although I think my particular spending pattern was flawed in the very fact that I just drank in pubs/clubs as opposed to drinking at home during the week.

So here goes, over 7 years, assuming that I went out once a week and that on each of those occasions I spent 100euros( this is a sum estimate so that accounts for weeks where I went out more than once or when I attended a major social event, Xmas, weddings, funerals..) the total spend would be:

7*52*100=36400.....36 THOUSAND EUROS!!!

Yep, I was stunned too...I mean honestly stunned. It still pains me to arrive at this figure. I'm pretty confident this figure sits comfortably between conservative and exaggerated - meaning its as accurate as its going to get!

In my hand now it could buy me -
A 2nd hand Porsche 911 or
A Phillipe Patek watch or
1.2 Kgs of pure gold..

(Don't believe me? http://sharetabs.com/?moneywellspent ??)

Certainly, in my hands now the money could buy me any one of the above, but since I've already spent that money there's not much point in speculating on what it could have bought me. ( As the saying goes; If my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle..)

So whilst mulling over this on the Trans-Siberian( plenty of thinking time to be had on that epic trip) I came up with the only solution I'd be happy to pursue.

To spend the next 7 years fundraising for charity with the goal of raising an equivalent sum. As I've already selected Room to Read as my cause of choice then it looks as if this will be the beneficiary of the majority of these funds.

When I succeed in raising the 36400 Euros(41000 USD) the money will be spent on the following : http://www.roomtoread.org/involvement/adopt.html

So whilst I've been planning this for some time, today marks the true beginning of the project for me. I'm not sure this will be an entirely solo project, but I guess it will have to be to begin with.

And so here goes: http://amillionwordsforcharity.blogspot.com/. Funnily enough completing a marathon is part of a longer term goal for me, so it makes perfect sense to use this as a mechanism for generating cash. The million Words concept just ties into an existing channel and is going to be appearing on the side of my backpack as I run my wee legs off around Wellington over the next few months.

Roll on December 31st 2009, and having a respectable reason to raise a glass!