The Big 50 results

Back in October 2009 I set myself a challenge. To do 50 things that I'd never done before, all before I turned 29. The Big 50 was about taking me out of my comfort zone and forcing me to do things that either scared me or that I'd just never considered doing before (the original list can be found below).

Well, I turn 29 tomorrow so I guess it's time to assess my progress...

Somewhat disappointingly, I only managed to do 22 of the 50. I say disappointingly but the past 12 months have actually been the most incredible year of my entire life. I've emerged stronger, more confident and happier than ever before so I'm calling this little experiment a complete success.

The main things I'm glad I achieved? The most obvious is managing to lose over four stone. My life is immeasurably different because of this. I ran in a 5k race. I visited a new European city and I finally saw a sunrise at Glastonbury. Oh, and I volunteered at a dogs' home, which is something I've always wanted to do.

The things I'm most disappointed that I didn't achieve? Cooking a new dish every month! April 2010 was my nemesis and I didn't manage to cook anything new. What an utter failure! I did cook more than one new thing a few months though so I guess that kind of makes up for it. Also, failing my Flickr 365 was a bit of a disappointment. I got 210 photos in and then I just lost all motivation. Ah well, I'll try again one day. In fact, I'm going to keep everything on the list and try to complete everything before I turn 30.

Oh, and number 42? Well that should be completed in about two weeks.

Bye bye 28, you were my favourite year so far. You were hard, you made me work for what I got, but I bloody loved you. Bring it on, 29!!!

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50 things to do before I turn 29...


1) Live in another country, if only for a couple of months

2) Lose 4 stone in weight. (achieved 21/08/10)

3) Buy a DSLR camera AND actually learn how to use it properly

4) Go spinning (completed 27/10/09)

5) Run in a 5km Race for Life. (completed 19/06/10)

6) Eat a portobello mushroom with stilton on it (I hate mushrooms but C always promised to make me one that I'd like, so I figure I'll do it myself)

7) Go on a ghost walk

8) Learn how to make treacle toffee. I tried once when I was about 11. All I'm saying is this... we had to throw the saucepan out. (completed 16/10/10)

9) Go and hear some jazz at Matt & Phred's.

10) Buy myself a name necklace from Tatty Devine. Or, even better, get bought one by someone else. (Ordered a baby blue one on 03/01/10)

11) Go ice skating at an outdoor rink this Winter. (Completed 03/12/09)

12) Go for afternoon tea somewhere fancy.

13) Visit London for a few days, with the sole purpose of having lots of fun. The next four tie in with this one... (Completed 25-27/04/10)

14) Try a macaron from Laduree, to see what all the fuss is about. Verdict: I think I prefer Paul's. Don't tell anyone though.

15) Go to Borough Market (It wasn't open! Next time!)

16) Visit the Wellcome Collection. Verdict: LOVED IT.

17) Buy myself something ludicrous and decadent from Fortnum & Mason. (I bought some very expensive ginger green tea, in a fancy tin)

18) Go back to New York, relive all the wonderful memories and make some new ones.

19) Get a facial (I know, I know. But I've never had one, or done any of the following three)

20) Get a manicure/pedicure (I'm a rubbish girl)

21) Get my eyebrows waxed (No, I really really am)

22) Get a spray tan (Seriously, just change my name to Bob, shave my head and stick me in a pair of dungarees)

23) Learn how to make the perfect lasagne

24) Take a life drawing class

25) Go kickboxing

26) Finally see a sunrise at Glastonbury. I've been five times but never quite managed it, usually passing out about 10 minutes before the sun is due to come up. (completed 24/06/10 but sadly it was a rubbish sunrise!)

27) Visit at least one European country/city that I've never been to before. (Barcelona, April 2010)

28) Take at least one photograph of myself every day and upload it to the 365 project on Flickr. This starts tomorrow, once the last remnants of this disgusting cold have left my ravaged body. (FAILED)

29) Buy one new CD every month, by a band I've never listened to before. I'm too stuck in my ways and listen to the same songs over and over again, never really leaving my comfort zone.

• November 2009 - Miike Snow by Miike Snow
• December 2009 - XX by The XX
• January 2010 - Manners by Passion Pit
• February 2010 - Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons
• March 2010 - Lights by Ellie Goulding
• April 2010 - Darwin Deez by Darwin Deez
• May 2010 - Colour The Small One by Sia
• June 2010 - Rules by The Whitest Boy Alive
• July 2010 - The Boxer by Kele
• August 2010 - The Flying Club Cup - Beirut
• September 2010 - Fantasies - Metric
• October 2010 - Happiness - Hurts
  

30) Visit the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

31) Volunteer at Cheshire Dogs Home. Although I fear this will lead to me getting horrendously attached to all the dogs and trying to adopt them all.

32) Visit the Imperial War Museum North. (completed 21/08/10)

33) Watch an opera. Apparently everyone should watch an opera before they die. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

34) Go to Cloud 23 for afternoon drinks.

35) Buy some expensive, frivolous underwear just for me.

36) Go to a yoga or pilates class.

37) Walk up Mount Snowdon.

38) Cook a completely new dish at least once a month.

• November 2009 - Jamie Oliver's Southern Sausage Stew; cupcakes
• December 2009 - Lasagne; gingerbread cake; lamb shanks with piperonata; key lime pie
• January 2010 - Spicy pork meatballs
• February 2010 - Chicken Tikka Masala (from scratch)
• March 2010 - Slimming World chips
• May 2010 - Babybel burger; chocolate chip cookies; king prawn and pea risotto
• June 2010 - Lamb cochifrito 
• July 2010 - Raspberry and white chocolate cookies 
• August 2010 - Jamaican corn soup 
• September 2010 - Blackberry crumb bars 
• October 2010 - Treacle toffee; peanut butter & chocolate squares

39) Paint a picture that I'm proud of it, frame it and put it on my wall.

40) Learn to knit.

41) Learn how to make pastry.

42) Move out of my parents' house and into my own place.

43) Finally watch Curb Your Enthusiasm so I can see why everyone loves it so much.

44) Visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

45) Order a cheesecake from the English Cheesecake Company, just because life is wonderful and so is cheesecake. (Ordered a chocolate truffle honeycomb cheesecake for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It was incredible)

46) Buy myself something lovely from Emma Bridgewater. I've only been coveting the pottery mugs for about 6 thousand years after all. (Ordered a pink hearts 1/2 pint mug on 08/01/10)

47) Remember each and every one of my friends' birthdays and get them a gift befitting how marvellous they are.

48) Find the beauty in my life at least once a day and cherish it.

49) Go on the Yellow Duckmarine.

50) Go and see a play that I've not seen before. I heart the theatre. (Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, 01/03/10)

LDN

Source

I'm off to the big smoke on Sunday...


... and I'm tremendously excited!

I haven't paid a proper visit to the capital of this fair isle for years. I don't think last year's fleeting plinth vist counts as a 'proper visit', as fantastic (and surreal) as it was, so I'm hoping to actually see a little bit more of the city this time and actually do some things that I've never done before.

Numbers 13-17 from The Big 50 will hopefully be crossed off (is it wrong that the thing I'm most looking forward to is a Laduree macaroon?) and I'd also like to go to the V&A if I get time. In amongst all my sightseeing I shall be meeting up with various people, including a couple of my favourite blogging/tweeting lovelies. Super excited about that.

Does anyone have any other suggestions/recommendations for things to do/eat/drink whilst I'm darn sarf?

Snap snap snap

I've been naughty.


I've bought myself a new camera. A rather expensive (for me, anyway) new camera. It arrived yesterday and I'm completely smitten. It's love at first sight. I predict that this is one love affair that won't end in heartbreak and me gaining two stone by stuffing myself with pork pies.

It's going to take me a while to figure out how to use it properly (I've only ever had point and shoots before now), hence the slightly out of focus nature of the photo above. I've wanted a decent camera for years but have always been too afraid of spending such a huge amount of money on something that is, essentially, a luxury. After my car it's the most expensive thing I've ever bought. Frightening.

Still, it's a fairly major thing to cross off my Big 50 list. I just need to learn how to use it now.

Any hints, tips, suggestions of things I need to buy (extra lenses? I got an 18mm-55mm one with the camera) and links to helpful sites would be appreciated.

For now, I give you the second photo I took with it last night. Well interesting I'm sure you'll agree...

Hello, 2010

Another resolution: Have more appropriate dinners

Yawn.

I'm awake, barely, at 11.15am and blinking bleary-eyed into the glare of the new year. This is my tenth day off work and my usual structured routine (I never wake up past 8am, even at the weekends) has gone completely to pot. Drinking too much, watching too much Family Guy (damn you BBC3) and The Wire and a huge number of films, rising late (and later) and eating far too much rich food has all left me feeling rather lethargic and weary. I am human slug, hear me roar. Or whimper quietly as I shovel some more cocktail sausages into my gob, more like.

New Year's Eve was, predictably, carnage. It began with pink cava, moved swiftly onto Jaegerbombs and ended with drinking vodka and ginger beer (?) at 6am, via drinking I-don't-know-what from a plastic glass in a club rammed with topless men (gotta love those gays). Great night, seriously, but I've been in a bubble of fatigue ever since and now, with work approaching at a frighteningly rapid pace, I'm in the mood for a few resolutions.

I feel the need to cleanse my soul and absolve myself of festive fatness-induced guilt so, here goes....


In 2010, I want to:-

1) Develop a healthier relationship with food and, in the process, finally lose the weight I've been resolving to lose for the past five bazillion years (may not be entirely accurate). Hand in hand with this, I will start going to the gym more and am going to aim for three visits a week.

2) Complete The Big Fifty and to have as many new experiences and adventures as possible. To be open to all possibilities and opportunities and to grab any that come my way.

3) Learn to appreciate everything that I have and live every day like it's my last. To stop wishing for things that may or may not happen and just let what will be will be. Because things always work out in the end, one way or another.


What are your New Year's resolutions?

You spin me right round...

An entirely different kind of spinning

It's been four long, salad-filled weeks since my fat realisation and this post. Actually, that's a lie. I don't think I've had any salad at all. I have had more broccoli than you can shake a stick at though. And, save for the week when I was a flu ridden monster, I've been to the gym at least three times a week. Plus, I went spinning last night, which not only enables me to cross off one of my Big 50 (tm) but was also simultaneously the most  horrendous and incredible experience of my entire life.

It went something like this...

Five minutes into it I thought I was going to pass out.
Ten minutes into it I thought I was going to be sick.
Twenty minutes into it I nearly fell off my bike.
Thirty minutes into it I suddenly realised that hideous sensation I was experiencing was EVERY SINGLE OUNCE OF FAT ON MY BODY JIGGLING AT ONCE.
Forty minutes into it I was convinced death had come for me.
Forty five minutes into it, it was over and I could barely walk.

Two hours later I felt like I was invincible and couldn't wait to go again.


I can honestly say that I've never felt more positive and more determined than I do right now. I know it's going to take me a long long time to be the weight I want to be and, more importantly, to be as fit as I want to be (in a healthy way, not a PHWOOARR way (although that would be nice too)) but I'm going to do it this time. I'm going to keep the diet chat to a minimum on this blog as I know most people aren't really that bothered about whether I've eaten 24 pork pies in the last week or not (I haven't). So I'm just going to do a little update now and again...

Total weight loss: 10 lbs
Number of gym visits in the past week: 3
Number of bad thoughts about food: Absolutely none. I am pumped for healthiness!
Units of alcohol in the past week: 2 (Woop)
Number of impure thoughts about wine: Again, none. Shocking, I know.

The Big 50

 28, staring me in the face. The swine.

At the moment I seem to be scarily conscious of time passing. The year of 28 approaches like an unstoppable warthog with a particularly inviting piece of lush grass in its gaze. To try and stop it would only enrage it. Nobody enjoys an enraged warthog.

What am I talking about? It's anyone's guess. But, I do have a point, I swear. It's just hard to find amongst the lush grass. Basically, I want to do more stuff. I want to experience things I've never experienced before. So, with that in mind, I've devised a list of 50 things that I want to do before I turn 29. The only rule I gave myself was that they have to be things I've never done before. So, without further ado, I give you....


50 things to do before I turn 29...


1) Live in another country, if only for a couple of months

2) Lose 4 stone in weight. (achieved 21/08/10)

3) Buy a DSLR camera AND actually learn how to use it properly

4) Go spinning (completed 27/10/09)

5) Run in a 5km Race for Life. (completed 19/06/10)

6) Eat a portobello mushroom with stilton on it (I hate mushrooms but C always promised to make me one that I'd like, so I figure I'll do it myself)

7) Go on a ghost walk

8) Learn how to make treacle toffee. I tried once when I was about 11. All I'm saying is this... we had to throw the saucepan out. (completed 16/10/10)

9) Go and hear some jazz at Matt & Phred's.

10) Buy myself a name necklace from Tatty Devine. Or, even better, get bought one by someone else. (Ordered a baby blue one on 03/01/10)

11) Go ice skating at an outdoor rink this Winter. (Completed 03/12/09)

12) Go for afternoon tea somewhere fancy. (Completed 30/12/10)

13) Visit London for a few days, with the sole purpose of having lots of fun. The next four tie in with this one... (Completed 25-27/04/10)

14) Try a macaron from Laduree, to see what all the fuss is about. Verdict: I think I prefer Paul's. Don't tell anyone though.

15) Go to Borough Market (It wasn't open! Next time!)

16) Visit the Wellcome Collection. Verdict: LOVED IT.

17) Buy myself something ludicrous and decadent from Fortnum & Mason. (I bought some very expensive ginger green tea, in a fancy tin)

18) Go back to New York, relive all the wonderful memories and make some new ones.

19) Get a facial (I know, I know. But I've never had one, or done any of the following three)

20) Get a manicure/pedicure (I'm a rubbish girl)

21) Get my eyebrows waxed (No, I really really am)

22) Get a spray tan (Seriously, just change my name to Bob, shave my head and stick me in a pair of dungarees)

23) Learn how to make the perfect lasagne

24) Take a life drawing class

25) Go kickboxing

26) Finally see a sunrise at Glastonbury. I've been five times but never quite managed it, usually passing out about 10 minutes before the sun is due to come up. (completed 24/06/10 but sadly it was a rubbish sunrise!)

27) Visit at least one European country/city that I've never been to before. (Barcelona, April 2010)

28) Take at least one photograph of myself every day and upload it to the 365 project on Flickr. This starts tomorrow, once the last remnants of this disgusting cold have left my ravaged body. (FAILED)

29) Buy one new CD every month, by a band I've never listened to before. I'm too stuck in my ways and listen to the same songs over and over again, never really leaving my comfort zone.

• November 2009 - Miike Snow by Miike Snow
• December 2009 - XX by The XX
• January 2010 - Manners by Passion Pit
• February 2010 - Sigh No More by Mumford & Sons
• March 2010 - Lights by Ellie Goulding
• April 2010 - Darwin Deez by Darwin Deez
• May 2010 - Colour The Small One by Sia
• June 2010 - Rules by The Whitest Boy Alive
• July 2010 - The Boxer by Kele
• August 2010 - The Flying Club Cup - Beirut
• September 2010 - Fantasies - Metric
• October 2010 - Happiness - Hurts
  

30) Visit the South Lakes Wild Animal Park.

31) Volunteer at Cheshire Dogs Home. Although I fear this will lead to me getting horrendously attached to all the dogs and trying to adopt them all.

32) Visit the Imperial War Museum North. (completed 21/08/10)

33) Watch an opera. Apparently everyone should watch an opera before they die. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

34) Go to Cloud 23 for afternoon drinks. (completed 30/12/10)

35) Buy some expensive, frivolous underwear just for me.

36) Go to a yoga or pilates class.

37) Walk up Mount Snowdon.

38) Cook a completely new dish at least once a month.

• November 2009 - Jamie Oliver's Southern Sausage Stew; cupcakes
• December 2009 - Lasagne; gingerbread cake; lamb shanks with piperonata; key lime pie
• January 2010 - Spicy pork meatballs
• February 2010 - Chicken Tikka Masala (from scratch)
• March 2010 - Slimming World chips
• May 2010 - Babybel burger; chocolate chip cookies; king prawn and pea risotto
• June 2010 - Lamb cochifrito 
• July 2010 - Raspberry and white chocolate cookies 
• August 2010 - Jamaican corn soup 
• September 2010 - Blackberry crumb bars 
• October 2010 - Treacle toffee; peanut butter & chocolate squares

39) Paint a picture that I'm proud of it, frame it and put it on my wall.

40) Learn to knit.

41) Learn how to make pastry.

42) Move out of my parents' house and into my own place. (completed 10/12/10, after I bought my own house)

43) Finally watch Curb Your Enthusiasm so I can see why everyone loves it so much.

44) Visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

45) Order a cheesecake from the English Cheesecake Company, just because life is wonderful and so is cheesecake. (Ordered a chocolate truffle honeycomb cheesecake for my parents' 40th wedding anniversary. It was incredible)

46) Buy myself something lovely from Emma Bridgewater. I've only been coveting the pottery mugs for about 6 thousand years after all. (Ordered a pink hearts 1/2 pint mug on 08/01/10)

47) Remember each and every one of my friends' birthdays and get them a gift befitting how marvellous they are.

48) Find the beauty in my life at least once a day and cherish it.

49) Go on the Yellow Duckmarine.

50) Go and see a play that I've not seen before. I heart the theatre. (Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, 01/03/10)


Phew, that was a mission. But there you go, 50 things that, come hell or high water, I hope to have completed before I turn 29. By my reckoning, that gives me about 375 days to complete them which is more than achievable, hopefully. I'm going to put a permanent link to this post in the sidebar and I'll come back and cross things off as I do them.


Go team me!