Thanksgiving

Topically, this post is about giving thanks and yesterday, due to my increasing facial adornment, I was likened to Henry VIII which was particularly apropos as Thanksgiving came to prominence in England during the English Reformation.
That nugget not only finally justifies the history degree, but also represents a gift of knowledge from me to you and when it brings you a single-point victory in a local pub quiz night, don't forget those who helped you on your way.

Before I continue, it needs to be said that Alison and I have always struggled with the idea of a work/life divide. This may be because we work for ourselves, or it may be that subconsciously we harbour treacherous and treasonous criticism of our current reality and have succumbed to the logic and pathos of such socioeconomic commentators as Tibor Scitovsky, Barry Schwartz, Ernst Schumacher and Making Magazine, okay I say we; Alison doesn't read the magazine.
One of the consequences of this is that we do not differentiate between the people who share our lives:
We treat everyone the same; our friends and also the people we work with.
On the negative side, this way of living clashes with people who expect us to deal with them on a purely commercial footing, who are expectant of a sleek, product-, brand- and service-driven experience where the customer is always right and cash is king.
However, on the positive side, Alison and I get up in the morning because we actually want to do the work for the people we do it for; it is certainly not for profit but simply because to us, they are friends and we would not have it any other way.

I hope that will go some way to explain and convey how deeply impacted we have both been by the host of sincere, encouraging, heart-warming, personal, sharing and simply wonderful messages that we have received over the past 24 hours. That is not to mention the phenomenal generosity shown to us and our cause which has given our fundraising an amazing boon.
Every communication makes us humble, proud of how we live and work and honoured to share our lives with you.
Thank you.

p.s. I promise that I will write something less intense and hopefully funny tomorrow.
p.p.s. I will wreak my re-wengy for the stretching video.