Long time, no post

It’s been a while. Between no internet while my mom moved house, answering questions from the charity commission about EDV’s registration, and working on our website’s redesign, this blog has been sorely neglected. But, no longer! Since my last post, EDV has incorporated as a company, thereby creating a legal entity separate from its founding [...]

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Moving House

It seems that my life has become about projects – and the bigger the better. Over the next few months, we’ll be selling the house where I grew up. Moving is always stressful, but leaving the house where you were raised is always a particularly startling experience. When I was first on the road a [...]

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The importance of public benifit…

We’ve just finished our application process. Our papers will go in on the 25th of this month. And this is exactly what we’re trying to avoid… Three out of the 12 charities selected for an initial round of tests by the Charity Commission are not providing sufficient public benefit to justify their charitable status, the [...]

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L’Aquila: The Deployment that Wasn’t

We went into Italy to see if the affected population needed our help, and they don’t. So there won’t be an EDV deployment in Italy.Part of me is sad, but I keep shushing that part as one hushes a child asking slightly embarrassing questions. This is the ambulance chasing, adrenaline junky that I suspect exists [...]

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Charities and Social Media

A recent article from Third Sector Daily on Charities and Social Media is a miracle of mixed reviews. The NSPCC has raised more than £10,000 through Facebook since it set up an application to allow users to make donations in 2007. “It’s a brilliant way to attract new supporters and engage with them, rather than [...]

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Italy

Unless you live under a rock, you know that there was a magnitude 6.3 earthquake in the Abruzzo Region of Italy. The city of L’Aquila was especially hard hit, as many of its buildings were hundreds of years old, and were obviously not up to modern, ant-seismic regulations. The figures are remarkable. Over 12,000 volunteers [...]

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Charitable Incoporated Organisations

If there’s anyone else out there who’s heavily involved in a charitable company, you know that you have to submit accounts (accruals, not the simple kind), annual returns, and annual reports to both the company house and the charity commission every year. I’ve only linked to either the Charity Commission or Company House for these, [...]

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Trading an impact driver for a makeup brush…

Just back from my first ever Hen Do – always funny to be around a group of women these days as I’ve become a great deal more familiar with cement mixers than hair straighteners. Remarkable that, even after months at home, when it comes time to get dressed up for a night out I find [...]

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Fear with just a dash of jealousy

Continuing my love affair with Stumble, I found a great article on exactly the kind of travel that inspired me to go to South America. In a very Rolf Potts way, the author, Tim Patterson, reminds us how much shit (and it really is shit) we accumulate when we live at home. I remember clearing [...]

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Ireland – or, as I like to call it, the land of the never-ending pint.

It’s remarkable the difference a change in scenery can make – especially when the new scene is Ireland. As an American, castles amaze me. I think that often Europeans forget that for me, 200 years is old. So if you show me a structure from 1300, I’ll stand and stare for quite some time. To [...]

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