So I work in a library part time. It’s a lovely library. It’s called the Language Resource Centre and is part of Newcastle University. I spend lots of time alphabetising shelves. If you let it, there’s nothing quite so meditative as setting yourself down to alphabetise a shelf. And that is very much a side to me I did not remember existing until recently. And then I thought for a bit and remembered how when I was a kid I got told off for switching lights on and off lots of times cos it’d break them so for a bit whenever I left a room and turned a light off, I’d wonder whether it had broken and would turn it back on to check  and then off again and then wonder if that had broken it so would turn it on again to check  . . . and what we have is some pretty clear mild OCD – so it isn’t new, my love of alphabetising and similar such neurotic activities, just – re-discovered.

Anyway, the reason I bring it up is I was sat in work last night just checking my emails after locking up (cos I’m a geek) and a girl with red hair knocked on the door and asked if she could use the wi-fi. I wasn’t supposed to say yes but I did and we got chatting and it turns out she’s currently cycling all around Britain to raise money for a charity to help victims of the conflict in Ukraine. And she’s really lovely and cool and if you’d like to check out her website and maybe sponsor her, that’d definitely be good.

Gonna catch her tomorrow afternoon for a pint and some sightseeing before she cycles off to Edinburgh. So that’ll be nice.

Here’s her website – http://starvinginuk.com/2015/07/24/the-charity/