I found a penny!

This day a whole year ago, I decided to see what would happen if I picked up all the pennies I saw on the ground. I was to put all the pennies in a jar.

As I suspect happens with many a loopy personal quest, I developed some rules along the way:

(1) if you spot a penny but picking it up would put you in genuine physical danger; or

(2) if the company that you're in would make it just too personally excruciating to duck down and grovel on the floor for a single penny,

then you're allowed to take the equivalent money out of your purse and pop it in the pot.

So...

I've learnt that sometimes chewing gum can masquerade as a 2 pence piece (oh yes, there have been some near misses) and that whilst most people are happy to magnanimously indulge a girl who stoops to scoop up coins, some people are actually mortally offended by it and say so out loud.

I've learnt that people mainly drop 1p or 5p. But sometimes they drop whole pound coins. And once they drop a FIVE POUND NOTE.

In fact, they've dropped TWENTY ONE POUNDS AND EIGHTY ONE PENCE!

Now I'm going to double it and give the lot to a charity. I haven't completely decided which one but I think it feels appropriate to give it to someone who works with London's homeless community. I'll update once I've found the right place.

It might be tricky to give the habit up - so perhaps I'll see you back here this time next year!