Geofftech - 50 pence - Contributors 51 to 75

It's still Monday 1st December, and my PayPal payments that have arrived over the weekend have taken me into the 51-75 bracket. So with thanks to Andy Bettison (51) and Jennifer Fry (52) for your 50p's! They are extremely welcome - thank you!

Finally, I checked my email one more time before shutting down for the night, and found I'd got another donation via PayPal. Hmm.. I think Roland's mention of my website on MacTeens.com must be getting some attention!

Anyway, big thank you to Ed Grantham from Loughborough for officially becoming number (53) !

The next day Tuesday 2nd December, a bit of a coup as it's the Christmas party at work, meaning that there were lots of drunk people willing to give me 50p. Ok, maybe not lots, but a few...

First up, thank you to Peter Chase (54), who thinks that "All this madness will lead to something someday", (what, like an asylum?), but also chooses The Beatles with "The long and winding road" as his song.

Then, later, Kevin Whichello (55) storms into the office and is pressing a 50 pence piece into my sweaty palm even before I can say 'Hello' to him - as he was that eager to contribute. Thanks Kevin!

Finally Dileep Sundaresan (56) who was another one of those that had been 'holding out', but finally succumbed when he realised how silly the whole thing is. Either that, or he was high on Christmas Spirit. (Or beer, in his case). Cheers mate.

Wednesday 3rd December and I get another 50 pence in the post today, from Chris Richardson (57) who stuck a 50p inside an envelope and posted it to me .. see how easy it is? Thank-you Chris!

In my emails I get another couple of PayPal donations, so huge thanks to George Moore (58) who actually gave me £2!

So I've had to email him back thanking him, but also to arrange £1.50 back to his PayPal account, as the main fun of doing this is to see if I can get five-hundred individual people to get on board.

Thanks to David Ginn (59), for another 50p via PayPal .. he's from Arkansas and i'm most grateful - cheers David! And just as I was about to logoff for the night, when another email popped up - taking me into the sixty-something range .. so thanks to Howard Jarrett, mate of Ed Grantham (53) for becoming number (60). Marvellous! It would appear that David (59) found my website as mentioned in the mp3car.com forums.

Onto 4th December, Thursday and the first email of the day comes from Richard Innes (61) somewhere in the UK, who confessed to being "a bit dubious" about the whole thing at first before being convinced that it was silly enough to participate. Thank you Richard!

Another physical fifty pence piece arrives in the mail today (a '2002' dated one- they're quite reare as you'll see if you look at the statistics page), so thank you Paul Durrant (62) from Norfolk for your contribution. He later gets back to me and picks "Santa Gey Gezunderheit" as his song (Translated: Santa go in good health), which is an original song in wonderful collection of Christmas Carol tunes by a Klezmer band. And they're all available at this website here! : www.oytotheworld.com

I head into work, and when I get there a colleague and good friend Janet Robinson (63) calls me up and asks for a favour - she needs a cable that she think I might have lying around - which I do. Never one to miss a chance I say to her "How much is it worth?", she says "A pint?" (about £2 worth!), and I say "Can do it cheaper than that .. how about 50p?" and the deal is sealed, and everyone is happy. I get 50p, she gets the cable she needs, and I've saved her £1.50 ! You see how nice I am really? She also later nominates a tune.

"After much careful deliberation" she emails me ''I've decided to go with 'After the Watershed' by Carter the Unstoppable Sex Machine. It got banned 2 days after release for ripping off a Rolling Stones sample". No probs Janet.

More emails when I get home .. thanks to Joe Stepnicka (64) from Florida for your contribution via Paypal - nice one!

Also thanks to fellow Dave Gorman fan Simon Knight (65) from Cornwall for also donating online - much appreciated!

Thank Crunchie it's Friday! The 5th December, and I didn't think I was going to collect any 50p's today as I wasn't really making an effort, until one of my work colleagues Rainer (who hasn't donated!) tells me that his girlfriend would like to donate and starts to hand me a 50 pence piece. "Woah!" I say .. as really she's got to hand me the 50p over herself.

Luckily she was coming in to meet Rainer after work, so we all met up down the bar where I collected it in person. She wasn't keen on being photographed though, so what you have is a picture of Sophie Lidbetter's (66) hand instead. Thank you Sophie!

Whilst in the bar, I bump into my online-spiritual-brother James Brookbank (67) (we were separated at login) whom I amuse by buying a beer. ie - He gives me 50p, and then I shell out £8 on a round of beers. So I'm down financially, but up in the total number of 50p's - and that's what's important!

Before I leave, I spy an ex-colleague that's floated into the bar to catch up with old friends, so without trying to feel too guilty about having an exchange that goes along the lines of:

"Hello, Will you give me 50p, thanks, good-bye" in less than a minute, one Mr. Steve Brown (68) gets on board. Thanks Steve.

And just before I leave for the night, there is one final minor crowing moment. Rainer then tells me that he will contribute, but as he's a snooker fan, he'll do it when I get to 146 people, thus making him number 147! (The highest score of a maximum break in snooker) - I like it! Sports theme based numbered contributors! I could get someone that like darts for 301, and er... so on (!)

Saturday, 5th December, bagged just one more for me .. I helped one of my mum's friends fix his PC at home the other week, and he kindly posted me 50p in an envelope as his way of saying 'thanks' to me .. but thanks to you Alan Smith (69) for your contribution!

Nothing on Sunday, 6th December, but then on Monday 7th an envelope turns up for me work from Tom Auckinson (70) who is a friend of contributor Ed (#53) and got persuaded to contribute!

He points out in his letter, that he's sent me a rare 1999 dated 50 pence piece - which is true! Did you know that most 50p's in circulation are from 1997? See the statistics page to find out more about the different 50p's in circulation. Oh, and thank you Tom.

Tuesday 8th December, and I get an email from my mum (#23) telling me that she's definetely collected £1.50 from people that I know, but I won't officially count it until I next see her. I think I'd better pop round and see her soon...

Wednesday 10th and I get an email from a chap at work (Hello Wayne!) who tells me that he'll give me 50p if I sent him an original of one of my photos off of my gallery page. I've sent him to him, so now I await his money!

Thursday 11th, and I get a message off of Janet (#63) which made me laugh out loud. It said:

"I told my mum abuot ur brave fight against capitalist oppression and pursuit of shared wealth... she's given u 50p!"

So that's another one due, but I have actually yet to receive it.

Also, confusingly, I have officially got another 50p - in the form of a cheque - from my brother in-law Rob MacDonald (71) thank you! He wrote on the note inside "Victor Lewis-Smith ... visionary or philistine?" in reference to the VLS article about me from one of my tube jaunts. But I'm actually confused about the donation, because my mum (#23) told me that she'd already collected 50pence of them when she saw them recently.

Things really perk up in the evening though - Contributor Janet (#63) emails me - her mum is in town! So I nip out for five minutes to go and meet them in a local pub, along with her sister (who's name escapes me right now) and a friend Martin (who's surname also escapes me).

I chat to Janet's mum, who asks me when my next tube escapade is, then amuse them all by buying a round of beers (Total cost: £5.40), before collecting three fifty pences off of them all (Total collected: £1.50), which means i'm technically £3.90 down on the deal, but three contributors up! And look! That takes me to 74 which means I need only one more to take me over into the next group of 25!

Anyway, so thanks to Janet's mum Beryl Robinson (72) - who at the age of 63 also become my oldest contributor so far, Janet's sister - Sharon Wilson (73) who Janet asks me to say is 37 years old, although I suspect she's not! and also Janet's colleague Marty Whiteley (74) joins in a contributes as well - marvellous - thank you all!

And welcome to Friday 12th of December where Wayne Johnson (75) who promised me 50p if I sent him one of the originals off of my photo gallery, does just that .. and two 20p's and one 10p piece turn up in the internal mail this morning - thank you Wayne! That ends this group of 25, meaning you can now click the 'next' button below...