Top of the Pops

Like most busy parents of young children, contact with my family is usually a hurried call in between bath and bed routines, or whilst cooking supper. Sound familiar? Anyway today my family got lucky. Having finished my 12 mile run and eaten a nutritious lunch of poached eggs on toast I tackled the ironing mountain (oh the glamour that is my life!). As usual just as I started the job in hand the phone rang and I immediately recognised the number as my folks. Answering the phone "Hi Mum" I was surprised to hear the deeper tones of a male voice on the end; Pops!

Now I don't know about you but it is very rare that my Dad calls me and it always makes my heart skip a beat immediately imagining the worst! I am delighted to reveal that on this occasion nothing serious was being reported, indeed the opposite.

It transpires that my dear pops had taken the concept of one million pence on a roadshow. Today he went about offering to relieve acquaintances of their loose change all for the 1,000,000 pence cause.  Two pockets later my cause was 252 pence richer. Now whilst this is nothing to write home about but as is our unofficial slogan (borrowed and tweaked from a household supermarket where horseburgers are all the rage) every penny helps!

Now the exciting bit (on the edge of the sofa yet?) is that 2 or 3 people mentioned that, like most people, they have a change jar at home. Apart from the occasional raid of silver for school dinners or parking the dull coppers are left lonely in the jar. So it transpires that these lovely people have pledged their copper jar contents to the 1,000,000 pence cause which is great news. I mean who really EVER pays for anything with a copper? And do you know anyone who actually cashes it their change jar? They (and the annoyingly little 5ps) just clog up purses and pockets across the land, rarely being passed into a till, let alone reaching the heady heights of a bank safe!

And so it got Pops and I chatting about how we can give a home to these lovely tarnished coins. A few hours later and I am the proud owner of 100 x 8oz paper cups (minus the tea bag!).

Now I plan to fashion a "piggy bank hole" in the lid and brand with 1,000,000 pence for colleagues, friends and acquaintances to pop on their desks/ in their staff room/ by their change jar so they are constantly prompted that we are more than happy to accept the brown stuff. Their insignificant change is one step closer to the million. So if you want one please add a comment to this blog and I will be sure to deliver one in person!

So where some dads seeing their daughter take on a challenge similar to mine, might sign up to the run the marathon, others might pledge huge sums of money, and some might simply smile and mutter "that's nice dear", in my Pops together with his creative might and confident quirky approach to everything really is Top of the Pops!