101/1001 (Week 60)

 

It’s been seven weeks since the first anniversary of this challenge.  I’ve done some things. 

Have the courage to play the drums in church.

I finally played drums in church; not with sticks, with hands.  I don’t know what the drums are called but they are fun to pound.  When the children were absent and the call came out for volunteer drummers, I sprinted over the top of the pews before I had a chance to chicken out like last time.

They are similar to the ones in the above picture.  I kneeled in front of a congregation of old ladies and bashed away at those drums as if I was a toddler, and it was one of the best times I’ve ever had in church.  Can’t say the same for the old ladies because if the rhythm is gonna get me, it was taking a day off that Sunday.

Blog 1111 times (1017/1111)

No surprise to learn that I over-achieved on that one. 

Find another 64 challenges for the list. (32/64)

I have a new one*:

Do a REAL spring clean.

This may not sound like much of a task but if you’ve been around this blog for a while you know relations between me and the dust bunnies are frosty.  The house is cluttered and the bunnies breed like, well, rabbits.  I have compiled a list of tasks for each room and I intend to trail a blaze to dirt and dust over a month, starting on Monday. 

Blame the sun: it came out one afternoon last week and showed me where the dirt was.  Not pretty; and I say that as someone who doesn’t see dust.  It’s like my brain has a blind spot; I just don’t notice it.  I think it goes back to my teens, when it was my job to dust the whole house every Saturday morning – a job I hated.

 

Dust bunnies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Do you have a housework task that you hate, because it was your job when you were young and wanted to be prowling shopping malls with your mates instead of choking à la Pigpen in Peanuts?

*I did have two new ones but, by the time I finished writing about the first, I forgot what the second was.  Perhaps my second new task should be to pin a pen and paper to my sleeve.

I still need another 32 tasks for my list.  Any suggestions?  They can’t need money to complete, because I don’t have any.  Other than that, go crazy.

I also need help with this one: Find 26 unfamiliar words, one for each letter of the alphabet; then use them in a post a day for 26 days. (Words: 22/26).  I’ve been stuck on 22 words for months now.  I need new words for the letters J, U, X and Y.  The more obscure, the better.

Expose myself to twenty new experiences (9/20)

I’ve had three new experiences in the past seven weeks.  The first came about by accident: I was a welcomer at church.  I have never done this in all my years of attending church.  Someone put me on the rota by accident and I just happened to see it so I turned up early, smiled a lot, and had fun.  Welcomers also carry around the collection plate, another thing I’ve never done.  I count them as one task, however, because I’m not a cheat, especially to myself.

The second new experience was to help deliver a writing workshop, instead of attend one.  My writing group – Stockport Writers – gets free use of a room at the art gallery every month, which means we don’t have to charge people to attend.  As a thank you, we ran a workshop last week for new writers.  We had a good turn out and, although I was nervous at first, by the end it was just like chairing one of our meetings, but with two other people.

Great fun, and it helped prepare me for another workshop I’m co-delivering (i.e. Welcome-thanks for coming-listen to Pam do all the real talking-thanks for coming-bye) next week, in aid of the church website.  Though we could probably cancel it now, with all the great ideas you’ve already given me.

The third new experience was plastering and plumbing and other DIY tasks.  I will write about it in another post when the photos have arrived.

Finally, it occurs to me that I might need to change the wording of that last task; exposing myself is not to be recommended in this weather; just ask the soon-to-be-dust dust bunnies…

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