Falling short

When you're seven and a half that half is very important. Today I am 38 and a half and whilst that half is pretty meaningless in many ways to me now, in some ways it's highly significant. It's significant as it marks a quarter of the way through my 40b440 challenges time wise. However, you only have to glance across to the left to see which challenges have turned red and been completed to realise that already I'm falling short. Until yesterday only 4 had been fully completed so with a bit of an effort (and with the help of my friend Malcolm) I've now bumped that total up to six but it's still falling short of the 10 that I should have done by now if I'm to complete them all within the 2 year period I've given myself. 


Now to be fair to myself I have started a number of others. I've done a few more legs on my Cheshire ring walk. I've now walked from Manchester to Warrington (sort of) but that's still only 17 out of 97 miles (or 120 depending on which references you read) so I'm still under my quarter way mark.

It has been somewhat wintry of late though so I think I can pick up the pace on this one over the next few months. 

 If you've been following my 40b440 journey you'll know that I'm on the way to Eurovision in May; that I've vaguely begun with the recording a song challenge and that I've danced in one of three capital cities so far. But there are an awful lot more challenges to do... more of which shortly. But first let me tell you about the two challenges I mastered last night. 

Firstly it was poker night at mine, using board game bank notes as cash (I'm not daft enough to bet real money... for goodness sake I'm the girl who until a few weeks ago had never sampled Tequila... clearly I'm not a natural gambler) So with Malcolm's tutoring (and the hierarchy of cards being displayed on a nearby laptop) I mastered the basics of Texas Hold 'Em. But more importantly I worked on mastering my poker face... frankly Lady Ga Ga would be proud of this one: 

So after beating Malcolm in my first game (ok he may have won the second) we turned our attentions to the next challenge. A nice easy one. Watching Poirot whilst wearing fake moustaches and speaking in fake Belgian accents. I think you'll agree that the tache suits me!

So that's six complete but with 34 more to do over 18 months I need to up my game so expect to see a few more turning red over the next few weeks. I will need your help though. For example if you want to walk some of the Cheshire Ring or fancy starting a Mexican wave then let me know in the comments which challenge you can help with. 

Eurovision - Making Your Mind Up!

For all Europeans you'll know and understand what Eurovision is. For those elsewhere, imagine American Idol but with every county in Europe (and a few from outside...but that's another story) represented by a contestant: Then remove 90% of the talent!

For Brits it means something a little different to the rest of Europe. Whilst Europe thinks we look down our noses at the contest the truth is we have a great fondness for it. Yes, we don't take it too seriously but that doesn't mean we don't love it. In fact we embrace the campness, the poor singing, the dance routines of people in native costumes. We applaud the absurd and vote for the maddest entry.

I've watched Eurovision for years, I've hosted countless parties complete with score cards for all but I've never attended... until this year.Today there are two UK/Eurovision Song Contest Announcements:

1) Ageing rocker Bonnie Tyler (she of "Holding out for a Hero" and "Total Eclipse of the Heart" fame) will be representing us with a somewhat underwhelming tune called "I believe".

(http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/eurovision-2013-watch-bonnie-tyler-1748466)

2) I shall be in attendance!

( Honest no Photoshop was used here! )

This year's competition is in Malmo, Sweden (last year's winner becomes the host in the following year) and I have my plane ticket booked for Copenhagen, Denmark (which is just across the Oresund bridge), a hire car sorted and most importantly my Ticket for the big gig. Now unfortunately despite my best efforts I wasn't able to get a ticket to the Saturday night final in the stadium. The website and phone number were both chocca and the tickets sold out in just 22 minutes! (I know, who knew it wasn't just me eh?!) So I've plumped for the next best thing. I've bought a ticket to the Jury final on the Friday night. As you may know the votes are decided half by a public phone vote on the night (you're not allowed to vote for your own country) and half by a jury vote - each country has a panel of industry experts as their jury. The jury's make their decisions based on what is essentially the dress rehearsal the night before. And this is the show I'll see in the stadium. It's the same show but I'll have a better seat and be able to share my wisdom of who deserves to win in advance. On the Saturday night I plan to find a big square in Malmo where they're showing the contest and the voting so I can watch there and wave my Union Flag in support of our (hopefully not...) nil point entry. Last year we came second to last. We haven't got far to fall and thankfully as we contribute millions towards the programme it means we get an automatic buy into the Saturday night final (yes there really are semi-finals these days).

So will this year see the new Abba? Will someone like Celine Dion compete for a random country (see 1988 competition)? Will we all be shocked when a Ukrainian juggling skater rapping wins? Who knows!

I'm genuinely excited about going, not just because it will give me a chance to dance in another capital city but because it's good harmless fun. Life is about making memories and I think a few more will be made on this trip. Do I expect us to win: Not remotely. Do I hope we will despite all the obvious signs we won't: You betcha!

If you're going yourself and fancy meeting up or if you're a friend of mine and fancy a few days holiday in Denmark/Sweden then let me know. Real life can take over if we let it so why not make your mind up to do something totally random like this? The spirit of Eurovision is about unity and having a great time. So embrace the crazy... let's go to Malmo this May!