I guess like many people who live and work in work in tech centres around the world, on my journey by train I often pass people without anything so simple as a home to sleep in. At this time of year as the temperatures have plunged below zero at night I find this particularly upsetting, as they are almost always young and or suffering from mental health problems.

Yesterday my wife sent me a picture of her church newsletter with an article asking whether you could sleep out to raise money for a homeless shelter this winter. It so happens that in my home town of Slough, there is such an event this Saturday. Despite an expected low of 5°C (that is 41°F for my American readers) it took me less than 10 minutes to decide that I should.

Help me to help my community?

If you would like to help my fundraising I would be very grateful if you feel you can make a small donation to my appeal at my JustGiving fundraising page .

Better still – Help your community

We all spend time complaining about things that make life hard e.g.:

• the traffic on our commute
• poorly specified work items
• ‘the management’
• items added mid sprint
• annoying customers
• the difficulties of finding a meeting room

It helps to remember that we are the lucky ones with well paid jobs, warm offices and homes to sleep in. Don’t forget to open your eyes to the world around you and do something to help those who don’t have such luck.

TLDR

• Do something to help those less well off in your community
• If you can’t do that please consider sponsoring me at my JustGiving fundraising page

A reminder:

If you want to ask me a question, Twitter is undoubtedly the fastest place to get a response: My Username is @AlexanderOnTest so I am easy to find. My DMs are always open for questions, and I publicise my new blog posts there too.