An unusual first day of the month

Normally, I'd be sleeping in on a Friday. Nine in the morning would be my usual wake up time, if not slightly earlier. That is considered 'late' at home but that's the norm if I do not have work scheduled for that day. Well, guess what time I woke up this morning....

I woke up at half-past five this morning! Yup, on a perfectly good 'oh-so-nice-to-sleep-in' day, I was up before the sun was. I've not done that in a long while, to tell you the truth. The last time I did that was probably two months ago when I had a morning shift at school. I had to be at school at 6:55a.m.

This morning, Audrey and I had to be at Epping station by 6:30a.m. We both had our uniforms - a light blue t-shirt with slightly darker blue sleeves printed with a pair of jeans in a double helix style. They weren't very thick so we had to wear a long-sleeved t-shirt inside. And boy, it was definitely a cold day today. The wind was a killer.

Through our assignment this morning, we accidentally found out that males are more willing to fork out cash and spend a considerably less amount of time thinking when purchasing merchandise in the name of charity. We also noticed that there are people out there who bother to do some good, some in bigger ways than others. One lady, especially, made a big impression. She approached us, panting, and said:

I just knew that I had to come to the train station today. I drove but something told me nah, I have to go to the station.

Wow.

And to think that most people just walk past you as if you are invisible. I mean, you don't have to shoot daggers at us if you don't want to buy anything. It would be nice if you SMILED at us or just said, NO THANK YOU. Is that so hard? Sigh...

Anyways, we managed to raise $2518.20 this morning. That is 4 hours worth of inviting people to buy wristbands for $3, pens for $4, CMRI 50th anniversary badges for $5 (these were our bestsellers) and limited edition Grant Hackett badges for $10.

I'm glad I put my name down to volunteer today. Now I really know what it feels like to be someone at a public area trying to raise funds for a charity organisation. Before, I could only imagine. Oh, and also because I got to meet the Hon. Maxine McKew MP and we had a photo taken together!

So, support children's medical research! Buy a badge! It's Jeans for Genes Day!