101/1001 (Week 139)

I Need a Doctor (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Apologies for my absence during the past two weeks; I’ve been feeling under the weather.

First, an urgent announcement for Doctor Who fans: check out today’s Google Doodle.  But don’t blame me if you lose three hours of your life.

Now for the update.

I have completed quite a few tasks:

Lose some weight.  More than a little; less than a lot. 

11kgs/24.2508lbs so far!

Get the first series of Glee on dvd

£1 for the set at my church summer fair! Such a bargain made me feel a little…gleeful 🙂

Write 1001 new poems (1089/1001)

88 over the odds and there are still 37 days to go! I’m thrilled to have reached this goal.

Go to the theatre

I’d have been happy with once; four times in five months was just wonderful, dahlings.

Learn the names of the New Testament books as they appear

Done. I could recite them for you but I don’t think you’ll hear me over there.

Learn the names of all the Kings & Queens of England in order

Done. From Egbert to QEII. This one was great fun.

No, really.

I have added a new task:

Make a video of me reciting all the lists I’ve learned and post it on my blog

The question is, will anyone watch it?

I can tell you now that I’m not going to complete all of the tasks by the end of the challenge, but I’m pleased with what I HAVE done.  

But what I’m really, really pleased about is that there are only 37 days left until the whole damn thing is over.

 

101/1001 (1)

Sarsm had a good idea: let’s do 101 challenges in 1001 days.  I didn’t think it was a good idea at first (too much like hard work), but I’m always banging on about grabbing opportunities so I thought I’d better grab this one and hold it gingerly by the fingertips and see what happened.  Once I’d hit on my first challenge and was able to start with something already done, I began to warm to it. 

This is how blogging about the challenge is going to work: I’ll put a copy of this post on its own page, for reference; I’ll update it regularly.  When I do something interesting relating to the challenges, I’ll blog about it as normal.  When I’ve completed a challenge, I’ll highlight it in red and bold. 

1. Accept a challenge I don’t really want to do.
2. Find another 64 challenges for the list.  (0/64) All suggestions gratefully received but not necessarily acted upon.  I’m a wimp.
3. Get a job.
4. Hit 100,000 visitors on my blog (39,036/100000)
5. Learn how to upload new photos from the camera to the computer for my blog instead of relying on the Hub.  I’ve been blogging for almost two years; I think it’s time.
6. Learn how to scan photos for my blog  See comment in Challenge 5.
7. Hug a stranger.
8. Submit thirty poems to competitions or publishers (0/30)
9. Blog 1111 times (1/1111) I don’t think this one is really a challenge for me but I need some that are achievable to keep me going.
10. Try out three new recipes (0/3)  To make up for the last one, this is a huge challenge: I hate cooking; I hate new recipes more than I hate cooking.
11. Try three new foods (0/3)  I’m not adventurous with food but trying new ones is how I discovered peppers, my favourite vegetable, so I’ll give it a go.
12. Read thirty books (0/30)  I lost the habit of reading for pleasure while studying for my degree.  I’m looking forward to this one.
13. Watch 101 new films (0/101)
14. Tell a joke every day for the next 1001 days (0/1001)
15. Visit five new museums/galleries (0/5)  This will be harder than it sounds because I’ve visited all the local ones and travel finances are restricted.
16. Make home-made lemonade. 
17. Manage ten real sit-ups.  Never ever managed it in 47 years of life.
18. Manage twenty real sit-ups.  I was going to make this a challenge on its own but I need to do it in baby steps; I did consider the challenge, ‘Manage 5 real sit-ups.’
19. Write 101 new poems (0/101)
20. Get 101 different flags visiting my blog (134/101) This was a little easier than I expected; I just went to the flag counter and I’ve already had 134 flags visit even before I start the challenge.  So, to make it harder and make up this list…
21. Get 101 different countries visiting my blog (78/101)
22. Save £1 for each completed task.  Once I get £101 together, I can treat my family.  £1 per task is my limit because, as the saying goes, there’s always too much month at the end of the money.
23. Finish editing SA Poems.
24. Send off SA Poems to a publisher.
25. Start learning to play the guitar.
26. Buy a guitar.
27. Walk the dogs for 1001 hours (0/1001)
28. Lose some weight: more than a little; less than a lot.  This is deliberately non-specific because I don’t care enough to work that hard at it, but I could do with shifting a couple of kilos for my health now I’m approaching heart attack season (I suddenly realised the other day that in fifteen years I’ll be 62 – that was enough to give me a heart attack there and then).
29. Go back to computer school.
30. Get the first series of Glee on dvd.
31. Mention Maltesers in my blog for 10 consecutive days (0/10)
32. Don’t mention Maltesers in my blog for 10 consecutive days (0/10)
33. Go to the theatre.
34. Reach 13000 comments on my blog (5204/13000)
35. Learn all the words to the South African National Anthem.  I did start to learn it for the World Cup last year but I never quite got there.  When I know it, I will post a video of me singing it with my eyes closed, to prove I know it.  It will have to be with me singing along, though, if you want some tune to it. 
36. Learn how to post videos on my blog.
37. Decorate our bedroom.  We’ve been in this house 14 years and it has never been decorated (if I discount the sticky-back plastic).

As you can see, my list falls somewhat short of 101 things to do so if you have any decent/amusing suggestions, I’m all ears.

By the way, if you think this sounds like a fun thing to do, why not join us?  You tailor the tasks to yourself and set your own start date.  You’ll love it.  We have a badge and everything! 

Be Careful What You Wish For…

Image via Wikipedia

  

Today is my birthday.  I mention this, not in a warped desire to have people I’ve never met send me polite but sincere greetings; nor in a masochistic desire to be reminded – as if my aches and pains and grey hairs weren’t already doing it – that I’m getting old; but because I have nothing else to blog about.

Oh, all right!  You forced it out of me: I am entirely masochistic and I love to be noticed (hence the daily blog).  It’s my birthday and I’ll lie if I want to.  I don’t think I’ll tell you my age, though (it’s my birthday and I’ll be shy if I want to).

 

The day started yesterday, with a visit from my friend Alison, who brought me a huge bouquet.  This morning it was the turn of the Hub, who gave me a decent MP3 player.  He bought me a cheapish one for Christmas and that broke so he sent it back and they replaced it and that broke so he sent it back and they replaced it with another kind and that broke from overuse a couple of months ago – right about the time Glee finished and the albums came out and I had a ton of decorating to do.  I think I wore it out.

Next, it was the real presents, from the son who hasn’t deserted me. He has been asking for weeks what I want for my birthday, and each time I have replied, ‘Maltesers.’   Sure enough, my first gift from him was a box of Maltesers.  So was my second and third.  The Hub gave me his first gift: four boxes of Maltesers.  That was followed by a bottle of expensive wine.  Then it was back to Spud, who handed me a large gift: two cunningly disguised boxes of Maltesers. 

My youngest son is going to do well with women, because he has mastered the art of listening to what they want, then supplying it – out of his own meagre savings as well; what woman could resist a man with a small bank balance but a big heart?  (No women, so long as they don’t know about his secret stash, hoarded for the new PS3 game coming out on Friday.)

Spud also wrote a special song to celebrate my day; it goes like this:

One day closer to dying
One day closer to death
Your tale has been told
You’re getting old
Soon you’ll take your last breath

It’s my birthday and I’ll throttle my child if I want to.

My plans for today have been made for me:

1. Wait at home while the Hub goes gallivanting off to the hospital to find out why he’s got a girly disease. 
2. Crack open my expensive bottle of wine with my blonde friend this afternoon.  I have to share it with someone or I will have one glass and it will sit in the fridge for months.  The last bottle of wine I has was opened in January and finally chucked out in August. 
3. Eat.  For my birthday meal, I fancy steak, egg & chips – it’s my birthday and I’ll fry if I want to.  Or maybe a nice chicken pasty and apple pudding of some sort…it’s my birthday and I’ll eat pie if I want to.  I’ll let them decide: I refuse to cook because it’s my birthday and somebody better make me something nice for dinner.  
4. Attend Spud’s school’s careers evening. 

Finally, I will go to bed at eight while they watch the match.  Don’t feel sorry for me: I need some alone time at the end of the day; how else can I wade into nine boxes of Maltesers without having to share them?

 

 

 

 

I’m A Gleek

and I hope to get the t-shirt to prove it. I already have the music and I’d better get the dvd for Christmas or come December 26th I’m offering my whole family on Freecycle. Don’t stop believing it boys, because I mean it: what a girl wants, she better get.

I absolutely LOVE Glee (it won’t surprise you to learn that I also adored Fame in the Eighties). I thought Lea Michele singing Don’t Rain On My Parade was the best moment of the series – though Chris Colfer and the football team singing Single Ladies comes a close second – and I have hurt my eardrums by playing it over and over at full blast on my MP3 player.

I never saw the point of an MP3 player before the Glee albums, despite having one of the first to come out (though in those days it was known as a ‘Walkman’), but now I don’t go anywhere without it. Unfortunately, I can’t concentrate on anything with all that music blaring so I have to find something dull to do. This has led to me frightening the Hub, who is not used to me doing housework voluntarily, but I just take a bow and carry on.

I also spend a lot of time dancing with myself; I might look stupid, but it should even out the chocolate intake. And the Hub is so sweet: when I am ready to drop after all that dancing and cleaning – think Mr Myagi and ‘Wax on; wax off’ on dirty cupboard doors – he tells me, ‘I’ll stand by you; lean on me.’ And I tell him, ‘My life would suck without you.’

Who knew that a cheesy but incredibly fun tv series would reveal our endless love? It’s not a bad romance, really; even after twenty-eight years. Maybe it’s a man’s, man’s man’s world, but I’m a funny girl and he’s the one.

If you are wondering by this stage what I’m rambling on about, here’s something to help you; it might cast a little ray of light:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_in_Glee