You Win Again

Today, if I had no conscience, I could have crossed off a challenge. If only my parents had brought me up to lie, cheat and steal I could be ticking off number 12: Win a competition and celebrate accordingly.

At a trade fair I ran into a couple of my former colleagues. I'll call some Chris and Bjorn (for those are their names). They were chatting to a somewhat dull man about something I didn't fully understand. I stood and listened and after the appropriate amount of time excused myself but just a few moments later the aforementioned dull man... I'll call him Nev (Not because that's his name...just because that strikes me as a dull name)... came up to me and said the golden words to me
"Would you like to enter a competition?"
Now if you've read my previous post on this challenge you'll know that those words are like the red flag to a bull or a bottle of St Tropez to an Essex girl. So far I have entered 360 competitions through one of those competition websites (this is in less than 3 months) and I even gave up £3 of my last £4 in November for the chance of winning a Pudsey Bear. I really do go crazy for a competition so Nev offering me another opportunity to win...well he wouldn't have to ask me twice. He did have to explain the rulesmore than twice though as, bless Nev, a Gameshow host he will never make! So I filled in my entry form and he kindly then said the words that led to my inevitable downfall: "Shall we fill in forms for Chris and Bjorn too?" 

Well, had I been a statistician I may have said "No!" to this question, clearly I'd be lessening my odds of winning but because I was excited for them to potentially win I declared "Absolutely!" and Nev and I filled in the forms putting my phone number as the contact on all 3 entries.

You can imagine what happened next. I'm working away at my desk when the phone rings. 
"Hello, It's Nev here! Good news!" 
My interest in what Nev has to say has never been higher...I squeal delightedly.
"Bjorn's won a prize!"
My heart sank slightly. A lesser person than I would have felt robbed, frustrated with Bjorn but thankfully I'm a pretty good loser and to be honest I was just delighted for my friend to win something. After all if I can't win it I'm glad it's going to someone lovely. (Plus it was only a £10 gift voucher!)

So I arranged with Nev where to leave the prize for Bjorn then, as he didn't even know he'd entered the competition I claimed the prize for myself and spent my tenner

...only joshing! 

Had I been more Machiavellian perhaps I would have done this but instead I emailed Bjorn to tell him he was a winner of a competition he had no idea he'd entered and told him where he could pick it up. Because that's what friends do. 

Besides if you believe in Karma you could say I have just raised my chances of winning one of those 360 online prizes now! Perhaps next post, instead of a Bee Gees track as a title I'll be posting one by Hot Chocolate (and I don't mean You Sexy Thing!).

RIP

It is with deep regret that I write the obituary of the 40b440 plants. The plants, known individually as Nasturtium, Marigold and Morning Glory sadly lost there lives after a tragic night in frost conditions. They were just under three months of age at the time of death and will be sadly missed by their black fingered gardener, Daybarkle. 

The plants, which had been thriving only a few weeks previously had been moved indoors due to inclement weather but were put outside to gain some much needed sunshine during the daytime. However, their neglectful gardener failed to remember to bring them inside when it turned dark. They were discovered covered in ice and clearly in a deceased state. Despite best efforts to revive the plants they were declared dead on the scene. 


Daybarkle plans to hold a small service for friends and family of the deceased only. Floral donations may just be seen as insensitive on this occasion!





On the plus side Spring is only a few months away now so I guess I'll be planting some new seeds then and having another go at the challenge.

Here's a little sneak preview how one of my other challenges is progressing...

                                                                                                                 ...more on this soon!

Tequila!

If there's a lot on your mind it's there to help you forget,To relax and rewind and leave behind the regret,First sip makes you well before you know it it's time,And you're saying to hell with the salt, lemon and lime,Salt, lemon and lime, time Tequila, 

That's the curse of Tequila.....

(Terrorvision, Tequila)

It may seem strange to you that I could have reached the age of 38 and never have tried Tequila but the truth is that I am one of those people who is full to the brim of common sense. This has been both a blessing and a curse in my life. I recall being a teenager and a friend's mum going round the group saying: "Vera, you're so pretty; Elsie you're so glamorous;  Liz, you have so much common sense". Not what you want to hear really but I guess it was true. It's for this reason alone that I've never been drawn to trying Tequila. Clearly it's the sort of substance that fools people into thinking they're fine and then BAM! I've never wanted to be locked in a small room with Jedward and Jar Jar Binks...and I've always suspected that a Tequila hangover may well feel like this.

So it was with a certain trepidation that last night I faced the challenge of trying Tequila. My team mates in this challenge were some trusted old chums: Sally (who kindly donated the Tequila...complete with tiny Sombrero lid and took the photos); Lucy and Doug. 

We wanted to do it properly so we squeezed a little lime on the back of hands, applied the salt and prepared ourselves for the potential horror. As it turned out only Sally had tried it before...and she had declared she wouldn't be doing it tonight. This did not speak well for the challenge. 

 

We prepared ourselves and on the countdown of three licked the salt, downed the shot and sucked our lime.

We'd done it! Challenge 2 of 40 complete. Easy as! It is an odd flavour and experience but was surprisingly fine.

Needless to say my common sense kicked in at this point and whilst Lucy and Doug went back for more...

 I happily declared that I'd achieved it and wore my tiny sombrero with pride.

On to the next challenge then. Hopefully I have a week off work soon so I'm hoping to complete at least 3 that week. (If anyone has the Star Wars films or the Godfather Trilogy and can lend them to me that would be a great help). 

To give you a little progress on some of the ongoing challenges: it's good news and bad news. I've now walked 9 miles of the Cheshire Ring (volunteer companions still very welcome) which is good (just 88 miles to go). The bad news though is my plant growing. When I last posted a picture it was all going so well, but the frost was due so I brought the window box inside and things have gone down hill ever since. Whilst the Marigold's have flourished the Morning Glory is virtually dead and the nasturtiums are a few days away from extinction.  My claim was that I couldn't cross off the "grow something" challenge until one of them had flowered. This is looking less likely by the week. Will I manage to turn things round? Probably not!

Picture Perfect Walk

The Winner Takes It All

Now some people have rightly commented that some of these challenges I have done before. It is true, for example, that I once made a costume for one of the witches from Macbeth. However, this isn't about doing all new things: it's about having fun!

Most of my my challenges are definitely new to me but one that is an old friend is Number 12: "win a competition". I am one of those annoying people who wins things. So far in life (amongst other things) I've won two holidays, a lovely Parker pen and pencil set, a Guildford flames hoodie, a voucher for Macdonalds, a record token, several boxes of chocs/bottle of wine and 48 packets of crisps. I'm sorry, I know it seems unfair that I seem to take the prize home more often than you but answer yourself this honestly: Do you enter many competitions? I enter loads. Really I do. For example this morning I have entered 62 online competitions. Can you say the same is true for you? So is it any wonder then that I win more competitions than you?!

Now it's not to say that I am lucky in all the competitions I enter. I doubt very much I'll win any of the 62 but you can't win if you don't take part. Plus my luck is clearly directional. I am freakishly lucky at raffles...in fact if you see me buying a raffle ticket you probably shouldn't bother getting one yourself as I'll be winning that. But if you ask me to cut the pack in cards I will always lose there. I am good at cards however so lady luck serves me well there....but you know the old saying "lucky in cards: unlucky in love"? Well trust me it's a saying and in my case it seems to be spot on. 

I'll confess that it's not every day that I enter 62 competitions (and I dread to think how much junk mail I'm going to get as a result of it) but as it's cold out and pay day isn't until tomorrow this was the only one of my challenges I could think of attempting today. Plus a lot of the prize draws I took part in were for things that could help me with other challenges should I win the prize. I entered to win a trip to a French vineyard; money to spend at HMV/Amazon (need to get those DVDs after all); a couple of camcorders (fitness video). I also entered anything I could see that would help me get a vacuum cleaner after mine wasn't working very well so I took it apart and now it's worse/smells funny/ and I have a leftover screw! 

So will I win any of these? Almost certainly not. But someone has to win and why shouldn't it be me? This is just the first attack. If this doesn't work I'll try again and then I'll start on the local radio competitions too. Of course the big worry is whether this particular challenge will become a "watched kettle never boils" type of challenge. When I'm not worried about winning I win loads but when I'm trying to win will I suddenly become as successful as the UK in Eurovision (post Katrina and the Waves)? 

Watch this space to see if the winner takes it all. 

Vierzig vor vierzig

This week I decided to have a fairly impromptu trip to Berlin to cheer on a friend who was running in the marathon. Berlin is a surprisingly delightful city and much cheering was accomplished. But this was not the only thing that was achieved. For I am pleased to declare that...

I have completed my first challenge!

After my practice at Bury Market when I spotted a little street market I decided to check it out. With my haggling head on I scanned the stalls eager to find something I wouldn't hate to have in my home. I finally settled on some cute little prints of animals. Sadly nothing to do with Berlin but I could at least picture it in my home. I asked how much...she said 10 Euros. Taking a breath and being brave I said "Would you take 8?". She paused. The fierce negotiation battle had begun. What number would she come back with I wondered? I held firm remembering Martin Lewis' instructions for haggling "Don't fill the silences"...I braced myself for her counter offer. "Ok" she replied! OK?! Well that was unexpected. I left with my purchase in hand and a mixed feeling of achievement and frustration I hadn't gone in lower still. But mostly feeling pleased that after almost a month I had finally achieved my first challenge.

Here's a little pic of my purchase:

But that's not all...I also managed to do my first dance in a capital city:

Not the most flattering pic but I'm salsa-ing away happily near the Marathon finish line here. And as if that wasn't enough I thought you'd like to know how my plants are coming along (get ready to be impressed!):

On the far left is my now dying heather (we'll pretend that doesn't exist for a moment) Then from L to R I believe we have Marigolds, Morning Glory and Nasturtiums. Now I'm a little concerned that I may just have planted these at a very silly time of year as frosts will be upon us soon enough so any tips for helping them survive would be appreciated. My theory is that I cannot cross the challenge off until one of them flowers. 

And lastly as you may have noticed I have learned the German for 40 before 40 - 1 down, 9 to go! (So glad I didn't go for 40!)

So what next? I honestly have no idea. I still haven't begun my Cheshire Ring walk but assuming it's not too damp this weekend I may try and do some of that. 

Don't forget to keep your comments coming and I've now added a followers gadget on the right so go ahead and sign up to read more. 

Market Economy

This week I was determined to complete my first proper challenge so I figured I'd pick one that could be easily achieved in an afternoon: Haggle for something in a market.

There are just 2 aspects to haggling. First find something you want to buy and then try to get a lower price for it than advertised. Simple enough concept so last Saturday I headed off to the World Famous Bury Market ready to complete challenge number 8! 


Yes, it's news to me that it's world famous too! I had a good look round, searching for the perfect item to buy. I was nervous at the prospect of haggling - I don't mind admitting that I'm horrifically English at times and so the idea of behaving out of character was filling me with trepidation as I rehearsed over and over in my head phrases such as "How about you give me 5 of those for the price of 3" or "I don't really want to pay more than a fiver for that". I'd even read Martin Lewis' top tips on haggling. I was taking it seriously. I'd done my research, rehearsed my lines. I couldn't fail.

Unfortunately I wasn't feeling too well on the day in question so the fish and meat hall wasn't really a good option. Instead I browsed the many market stalls in the market hall and outside in the larger market area. But herein lay the fundamental problem. Whilst I was psyching myself up for the second part of the haggling task I hadn't anticipated the fact that even after half an hour of searching every stall in Bury's World Famous Market...there was nothing I wanted to buy!

To be fair my first clue that I don't have similar tastes to the good folk of Bury was when I walked past 2 bridal shops which looked like they could have been featured in "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding". Now I'm not being snobbish here - there's nothing wrong with wanting to look like one of those flouncy-lady toilet roll covers it's just that it's very much not my style and I frankly don't want to waste my money on tat! (OK maybe a little snobbish then!). I couldn't even bring myself to buy anything as a gift for someone else it was so bad. 

Now I know you're probably judging me but until you've walked a mile in my shoes (which unlike the ones in Bury market are not neon coloured leopard skin stilettos) and seen the selection on offer then you'll just have to trust me on this one. 

I went home disappointed with myself for bailing on my first task, disappointed with Bury's World Famous Market and disappointed with the coach loads of tourists who apparently buy that rubbish. Shame on you coach loads of tourists! 

So I failed. My first proper failure...I doubt it will be my last but my week didn't end there and I'm pleased to announce that there is a silver lining to my poor challenge week. This morning I glanced at my window box - assuming that it had become waterlogged after the downpours this week. But what did I find?...

My Marigold's are growing! I know they're a long way from being flowers still but this was a truly exciting moment for me. Perhaps I won't fail all my challenges after all. 

It's all in the preparation

So this week is the first full week of my 40b440 so you're probably wondering by now how many of my 40 I've completed....well that would still be zero, zilch, nada, nil!

However, that's not to say I've forgotten all about my list. No, siree! This week has largely been about research and development. For research I have, after extensive googling. ordered a book and a map about walking the Cheshire Ring (all 97 miles of it...not in one go...what do you think I am? Fit?!) and for development I have now drilled the holes in my window box, filled it with compost and planted some seeds (and an already grown plant that I was recently given). Photos will follow for this little venture but I can't actually find the wire for my camera at the moment so will get back to you on that one!

I've also taken my first photo of the Blue Peter garden so I've not been slacking!

One of the other exciting things I have done (and I confess I did this a few weeks ago in preparation) is that I have bought a plane ticket to Copenhagen. "Copenhagen?" I hear you cry. "But that's not on the list" (well unless you count dancing there for one of my capital cities). Well no, going to Denmark is not technically on the list but going to the Eurovision Song Contest is! Now the Eurotastics amongst you are probably scoffing at me now saying "You silly girl, next year's Eurovision is in Sweden not Denmark." But here's the thing, it's not happening in the capital Stockholm (which is a pity as I have a friend there so could have stayed for free). No, next year's Eurovision is in Malmo, Sweden's third largest city which is right next to the 5 mile long (yes I did say 5 miles!) Oresund Bridge which links to Copenhagen. It was £150 cheaper to fly to Copenhagen than direct to Malmo. Now you see my cunning plan. (Bet you didn't think you'd learn stuff from my blog did you?!)

(It's long I tell you!)

One (or technically 2) of the other list items I've attempted is that I spotted a competition to win a chance to meet Ben Ainslie! Not sure when the draw date was but pretty soon I think so may have already failed on that one!

I've also had a few volunteers to help me with certain challenges - thank you so much all of you who've offered so far - I will try and accept as many of these as I can so expect a call/email in due course. The response to my blog so far has been amazing. Please keep reading and routing for me.

I currently have next Saturday free so my plan is to tackle something then - it may be starting my walk (if you'd like to join me on a short leg of this... especially if you have a car let me know on the comments) or I might tackle one of the others - suggestions welcome. With so many to choose from it's hard to know where to start. Logically I need to be completing one of these every 2 weeks so perhaps I need to do one of the ones I can finish in one go. But which one do you think I should go for first?

No, Woe, Woo: Which one are you?

Welcome to my blog and Happy Birthday to me! There are three different approaches to getting older. There are the No-ers: People in denial of their aging, these are the ones who lie about their age or just avoid telling you how old they are. Then there are the woe-ers: These are the people who get miserable about their birthdays; lamenting and moaning. They refuse to let you throw parties for them and are generally miserable bods. I however fall in to category 3…the Woo-ers. We are the annoying ones who get excited by our birthdays; we throw ourselves parties; happily announce to everyone how old we are (yes, I will be that old lady who says “I’m 89 you know!”) and clearly we like to set ourselves ridiculous challenges that centre around our special day!

So today is day 1 of my 40b440 challenge and I feel I should start it by tackling something on the list straight away. As I’m not in Rome the Trevi fountain is out straight away and as I have birthday plans it needs to be something small today. One of my birthday gifts was a window box so number 21 looks like a good place to start. Now, some people have green fingers and are naturally good with all things botanical: I am not that person! Plants tend to die within weeks of me owning them. The idea of growing one from scratch is not as simple as one would expect (with my black fingers involved) but hey where’s the fun without the challenge eh?!

Obviously I’ll bring you some updates and photos along the way but if you have any suggestions or questions for me on this or any of my fabulous 40 then fire away. I’m hoping this blog will be a pretty interactive thing so all comments welcome. Now go get your party hat and let’s celebrate! 


Here's a little photo update: