Last week I signed off with "I think this project is beginning to take off again".
Well it's happened. The absolute best week of the project so far.
We start small.
Wednesday night, remembering last week's self-service till triumph in Tesco, I went for a late-night flit to the 24-hour Tesco for nothing in particular. You get an interesting crowd in there after 10 o' clock.
Sure enough, a penny was sitting there waiting for me in the change dispenser.
Friday morning, I had just got off my bus and crossed the road, but my timing was all wrong. I spotted a penny dead ahead on the pavement, but it was at the point where two pavements intersected, and shuffling in from the left was an older man with a walking stick, right toward the penny, my penny.
It was like a scene from the worst action film ever made. Would I make it in time to bend down, pick it up, and get out of the man's way before he shuffled right into me and fell over?
It all seemed to happen in slow motion. Thankfully, my penny pick-up skills are now so finely honed that I bent down, nabbed it and got out of his way quick as a flash. No senior citizens injured today.
Saturday morning, I was so bored I had taken to laying on my back on my bedroom floor, contemplating my life. After about half an hour of this, with no meaningful conclusions reached, I decided enough was enough, I would get out and have an adventure.
I got the bus into London, got off in Hammersmith and decided to meander aimlessly through the streets to see what would happen to me. First, I decided I would go to the pub. I'd never been to the pub on my own before, and I figured there was definite adventure potential in getting drunk with strangers.
First though, I decided I would stop off at the newsagents for some reading material. I walked into West Kensington, near the GAAPweb offices, and was walking over a bridge, buoyed by the bright afternoon sunshine and my feeling that I was a bold, free-spirited adventurer, ready to go anywhere the wind blew me, when right there on the pavement in front of me, I saw it.
I could scarcely believe it. A crisp ten pound note, sat on the pavement, waiting for me to come and get it. Nobody dead ahead, and when I swivelled round to look behind me, nobody there to see me pick it up. Just me, and it.
Needless to say, it's now in my jar.
From despondency to elation in a matter of hours. Life's a beautiful thing.
The only downside to finding such a glorious amount in one go is that, because of my self-imposed rules on putting all my finds in a jar until the project ends, I now have to look at it sat there on my shelf, knowing I can't spend it.
If you're interested in how the rest of the day panned out, I did go and find a pub, and had one of the chats of my life with a very open-minded Greek/Albanian barmaid and a classical singer called Derek. What a day.
Sunday - two offerings from mum: 2p from Tesco car park and 5p from by the fruit machine in the social club where she'd been line dancing in her new shoes for the first time.
Week Thirty-five
How much found: £10.09
Total found so far: £24.93
How it could now be spent: a crate of 24 half-pint bottles of Magners.
This project has proved you don't really need to work for a living, but if you like getting up early, commuting in packed trains and getting home knackered, why not browse our jobs?
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