Monday 28 August 2017

50 by 50 - THE LIST

Thanks to family and friends I have had many interesting, and some quite outrageous, suggestions... I will mention no names here (Prof).

So here they are, the final 50 in no particular order. To be completed, hopefully by November 2019.


Attend a six nations rugby match
Aqua zorbing
Visit Barcelona
Go to the bingo
Keep a blog going between now and my 50th birthday
Go for a swim in the North Sea on Boxing Day - no wetsuit
Sing in a choir
See Cirque du Soleil
Go climbing
Try coasteering
Watch comedy at the Edinburgh Fringe
Attend a county or test cricket match
Develop a habit of carrying out one Random Act of Kindness per day
Buy an eyepiece and start studying wildflowers
Attend a festival (as an inpatient not an day patient)
Organise a flashmob
Read a novel in French
Watch a French tv series
Catch up with Game of Thrones (am only on Series 2)
Ghyll scrambling
Try glass blowing
Do the Great North Swim (or other long distant open water swim)
Learn how to play Go (the ancient Chinese game not the board game with aeroplanes)
Go fishing
Gain an understanding of global economics
Go to the dogs (greyhound racing)
Visit the Houses of Parliament in session
Learn and use 50 French idioms
Visit Maine, see a moose (and the Cowins)
Visit a famous museum of modern art and try to understand (not the Baltic)
Do a mud run
Attend a murder trial (not as a defendant)
Attend a non league, non friendly, football match (hhmm Gateshead perhaps)
Compete in an olympic length triathlon (this is the big challenge)
Brew my own beer
Take a patisserie class, preferably in Paris
Learn to play a Grade 3 piano piece
Raise pigs (for meat)
Throw a pot on a potters wheel
Be able to do a pull up - just the one
Read all the Harry Potter books (sshhh I still don't know what happens)
Read a Russian classic novel
Go sea kayaking
Take a spinning class
Be able to do the splits
Learn to Tango
Go mobile phone and computer free for 62 hours
Try a new craft
White water rafting
Visit the Yorkshire Sculpture Park

So now I am looking for willing volunteers to play with me for many of these. Already have a few sorted (Barcelona, bingo, climbing, modern art museum) but would most definitely welcome more people to join in, especially the FLASHMOB.

I will blog as I go on these and keep the list updated as I complete them. To do and completed..we knew I'd get some colour coding in there ;)

Finally to fund raise or not?

On one hand it seems a good opportunity to raise sponsorship for a good cause, on the other hand I am never very sure about asking for sponsorship to do something that I am already planning to do as a personal challenge (eg the sprint tri I have just done) or for fun, and let's face it, many of these are for fun. It has been pointed out to me by my nearest and dearest that raising sponsorship may add extra pressure turning it from a "could" to a "should" and make me insufferable to live with.

All thoughts or fund raising ideas welcome.


Saturday 26 August 2017

50 By 50 - why?

So it seems I am pretty useless at keeping a blog up to date. However I have a new plan and it involves blogging so I have pulled this off the shelf, blown off the dust and will use it as a platform. Well it saves setting a new one up. It has been interesting (for me only, I do realise) to read back over my old blogs. So if the only purpose this serves is that in another 5 years I look back and remember what life was like with old teenager/young adult children, me nearing the end of my 40s and realise once again that I can not stick at blog writing for very long then that will be enough.

Update on the last few years - eldest and youngest daughters still performing in various ways. Eldest is well and truly off the payroll and lives with her football playing partner, they have in fact just moved to Tyneside so are very close by. We don't know how to do this one - she has lived away from home for the best part of the last 12 years, but very excited to find out. Middle son is a fairly soon to graduate philosophising politician, who still holds a considerable interest in music and *whispers* voted Brexit. We have all managed to not start referring to him as the black sheep but it's been a struggle. Always good to be challenged in one's thinking I guess, and he is very good at doing that. There are still various animals around, the ducks and hens are doing their best to increase in numbers as we speak, we seem to have acquired another cat and the bees are no longer with us. Have managed to whittle the sheep down to 2, not counting the ones in the freezer.

So 50 by 50. I have decided to find myself 50 things that I have never done before to try and do before the age of 50. These will not necessarily be challenges ( I just don't want to climb any Munroes or do the 3 Peaks in a day) but they will be ways of broadening my horizons and living life to the full. A few events and a (thankfully short lived) health scare recently have made me realise that life really is short and for living, not putting on hold until I have more time.

Thanks to friends in reality and on Facebook I have had numerous suggestions. I am spending this weekend deciding on the definitive list and then will be looking for willing accomplices.......so start hiding now.