Dancing Queen - Part 2

Välkommen tillbaka! 

Copenhagen was not my only stop on my Scandinavian trip. Having danced by the Little Mermaid I crossed the 5 mile long bridge into Sweden and was immediately stopped and breathalysed at the toll booth. Even if I'd wanted to have had a drink I probably couldn't have afforded it, so I was given the all clear and off into Sweden I went. 

I stopped to see some sites along the way:

Southern Sweden is chilled out, stunning, full of history and - for this week at least - gloriously sunny. Below is the most southerly point. 

For those Wallander fans Ystad is the home of Swedish gritty drama. To me it was just an attractive town.

Sweden's answer to Stonehenge is Ales Stenar, it is a stone circle of 59 big old stones (many taller than me). There are a lot of stone circles and such like in Sweden. I like to think Obelisk and co. enjoyed a lot of Nordic holidays.

 Unlike Stonehenge, it's free to visit and there are no barriers to stop you exploring, touching, staying all day - you just have to climb up a big old hill to see it. 

Now I've lived in a lot of places and traveled a fair bit and I've need to furnish homes along the way plus I really like meatballs. So as a result I've visited a lot of IKEAs. 13 in fact. Including 3 international ones. I'm aware this is weird but hey I'm in Sweden - the home of flat pack so you can imagine that when I discovered that the first ever IKEA was within driving range of my accommodation: I had to pay it a visit. 

 Obviously it's been rebuilt since the original one - that was was built in 1958 after all - but the whole town of Amhult is full of IKEA factories and distribution centres. I have to admit this felt like something of a religious pilgrimage to me. I had visited my Mellby Mecca; my Billy bookcase Boudhanath Stupa; my Lundskar Lourdes. Or if you want to put it another way...I've now been to 14 IKEAs!

I had decided to stay in a cave. Like you do. Its not the first cave I've stayed in and may not be the last but that's just how I roll. Or as it's a cave perhaps that should be rock!

But I digress - you don't care about my holiday: it's all about the challenges. But I appreciate you sticking with me thus far. So as you may know my main reason for my Nordic trip was to have my first live experience of Eurovision. Usually I spend the night with a score card and a few friends who equally love the craziness and brilliance of the event. But this time I wanted to be there in person and to be part of that craziness. I had carefully followed the ticket website and was ready at the time they were released but sadly neither my phone nor my computer got through before they had all sold out in 22 minutes. 

However I bought the next best thing: a ticket to the jury final. This is the dress rehearsal for the main final and it's also the show that the music industry panels, that represent each participating country, get to place their votes. You see the same show and interval as the main show but for about 1/3 of the price. So was it good? Will Cyprus be giving Greece 12 points?! 

Course it was! 

Here are a few pics not just of the stage before the show and the show itself but of me wearing the dress that I had made specially for the event (see previous post: Sew Macho).

So I think from that we can conclude that I can now cross off the following challenges:

33. Attend the Eurovision Song Contest

24. Make and wear a piece of clothing

and 17. Do something ultra-patriotic

Not bad for a week's holiday! 

Oh and when I returned this is what my window box looked like, so number 21 is also well on its way.

Dancing Queen - Part 1

Hej 40b440ites! 

Well it's been a glorious week away in Denmark and Sweden and have I got news for you (not in a Paul Merton/Ian Hislop kind of a way). 

In fact I have so much to tell you that I'm going to split this into (at least...) 2 parts as I don't want to lose you through boredom/exhaustion along the way.

So on with part one of this entry. A week or so before I set off on my Nordic travels I replanted my window box with 2 types of flowers and 2 herbs and before I left I was already seeing some life of growth. However, if you've been with me from the beginning you'll know that last time I attempted to grow some plants it ended in certain death for all the little seedlings. So will I fare any better this time? Would there be anything left by the time I returned? Would the birds have eaten everything? Would a frost strike again? Or would Manchester rain have drowned them? 

Well obviously I'm not going to tell you yet! Don't you know how a story works? You'll just have to keep reading to find out what happened when I returned. (Such a tease!)

Now back to the main event... my Scandinavian adventure. It began in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen. I was travelling by myself and needed to take a picture of me dancing (it being a capital city and all) so I carried my camera around trying to select not just the perfect location but also psyche myself up to approach a complete stranger and say something along these lines:

"Hello stranger, would you be so kind as to take my photo? I will be dancing in it so if you could catch the very heart and soul of my movement I'd greatly appreciate that."

Then of course I would need to dance in front of said stranger.

It might surprise you but I'm actually a lot more shy than I appear. Contrary to popular belief the idea of speaking to someone I don't know, let alone making a complete fool of myself in front of them isn't on my top 10 list of things I'd like to do (yes, ok it is on my top 40 things to do before I'm 40). But that's kind of the point whilst this list is fun, a lot of these challenges are actually about pushing myself out of my comfort zone and doing something a little bit braver than I would normally allow myself to do. 

Oh, and then there's the tiny issue of having virtually no sense of natural co-ordination and balance needed in the art of dance.

Eventually I decided that there could only be one photo destination in Copenhagen. Despite it being a truly beautiful city with many fine buildings and remarkable statues and monuments, somehow it's best known for one of it's more unremarkable, insignificant sites: The Little Mermaid Statue. Some of you may be expecting it to be a towering effigy of Ariel from the Disney film. I'm afraid you're about to be very disappointed. 

In fact she's barely a mermaid at all and only the size of a slightly malnourished teenager. If you think you're surprised see how shocked (and slighty amused) this Danish plug socket is:

I'd been considering asking a handsome Dane to help me waltz or maybe asking an entire school group if they'd conga with me but as I surveyed the setting something rather significant dawned on me... I would need to dance on rocks... next to water. Remember when I mentioned about balance and co-ordination? A last minute adjustment was needed to my dance style so bucking up my courage I approached a fellow tourist and asked him to take a photo of me hand-jiving!

 
Ok, so I know it's not the most impressive dance style and you won't see it on Strictly this winter but it's a perfectly legitimate dance style and it means I'm now 2/3 of the way through this particular challenge having already Salsa'd in Berlin.

Watch out Romans I'm coming to badly dance at you before I turn 40 next year. Rome may not have been built in a day but with my help it could crumble in one!

You may of course wonder what led me to holidaying in Denmark. Unless of course you've read other posts in which case you'll already know that the chief impetus for my travels was to attend Eurovision. Well, you'll just have to wait until the second installment to discover how I managed to cross off not one, not two but three of my challenges in the process. 

Dancing Queen: Part 2 coming to a computer near you soon... stay tuned (this advert has been rated appropriate to all audiences)

You're still giggling at the socket aren't you? Go on go share it with someone else and feel free to share your surprised inanimate objects in return.

May the fourth be with you

Many of my 40b440 challenges are things I've never done before. Some are challenges that I've never done well before. Others, like this one, are things that are just a jolly good idea. 

If memory strikes me right Empire Strikes Back was the first film I saw at the cinema when I was just six years old. We had a family trip to a cinema in Birmingham whilst visiting our grandparents (My brothers will correct me if I've remembered this incorrectly). I'm pretty sure I saw the other 2 original films on telly as a child. As a grown up I felt obliged to see the new ones and didn't hate them but equally didn't get very excited by them. But I've never actually sat down and watched them all. 

Of course the first argument is whether to watch them in order of release or in story order. If you do the latter you don't get the twist in Empire but as I already knew it then it made more sense to watch in story order. 

Clearly I had to do my viewing this weekend as May the 4th (Star Wars day) fell in the middle of it. So armed with the dvds (thanks to Jon and Peter for the loan) on Friday night I sat myself down to watch the (arguably) worst of the 6 films (do you call it a sexlogy or a bitrilogy or something else?): Phantom Menace. 

When I saw this at the cinema I went with low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. I'd forgotten how much humour there was in the franchise. Expectation is a funny thing though as watching this one now I was hit by how little humour there is in it. However, with the help of IMDB I was surprised at how many people were in it that I either didn't realise or had forgotten about. Here are just a few:

Brian Blessed, Celia Imrie, Dominic West, Sofia Coppola, Keira Knightley, Greg Proops, Peter Serafinowich and Richard Armitage. 

Ok some of them are just voices and small cameos but I was still surprised to discover them. Also (and I know you're going to think me thick now) but I hadn't actually realised Frank Oz did the voice of Yoda. As soon as I realised I could only hear Fozzie Bear. 

To help me get to know the characters I'd kept one of my secret santa gifts for this occasion:

I only allowed myself permission to stick in each one, once the character had appeared on screen. 

Saturday morning I watched Attack of the Clones and noticed a marked improvement in the films. When it came to Revenge of the Sith though something unexpected happened. I realised I'd not actually watched this before. I'm not sure why I didn't bother watching this at the cinema when it came out. Maybe I'd been so underwhelmed by the other 2 I didn't bother. Whatever the reason I'd clearly blanked this thought from my mind. I actually quite liked this film, largely because I'd never seen Anakin's journey to becoming Darth Vader so it felt like putting the last piece in the jigsaw. 

Now the highlight of my viewing was still to come - the original films! 

To add to the excitement I'd recently discovered these little treasures at the supermarket and had been saving them for this occasion: 

Yes, Star Wars lightsabre lollies! You want them now too don't you? The only real choice is whether you indulge your dark side with Strawberry or go Jedi with Lemon/Lime!  As you know half of this challenge was that at least one of the films had to be watched whilst wearing a Star Wars related costume so my decision of which lolly to go for was already predestined. Now you may find it difficult to tell the difference between the two photos below so remember to look out for the lolly as your clue! 

I know: uncanny. *

The classic Star Wars movies are without doubt superior to the recent ones and I put a lot of this down to the brilliant Han Solo. Until he arrives half way through A New Hope it doesn't really feel like it kicks in. That said, he's still only my third favourite character with Yoda and R2D2 tying for joint first place. I kind of feel sorry for R2 - he's really the hero of the series. Frequently the one who saves the day - although how he'd have coped if the galaxy's electronics worked like modern mobile phone makers, who all have different charger connectors, I'm not sure. Thankfully for the little drone industry standards across the galaxy are consistent in this instance.

On to Empire Strikes Back and I must confess my ability to suspend my disbelief was waning as I found myself thinking "How hard could it be to find this hidden rebellion when they've clearly placed a large order for matching arctic uniforms?". I tried to put these thoughts to the back of my mind and just enjoy the film but I did struggle a bit during this one and found my mind drifting off in the second half. 

I re-focused though for what I (perhaps controversially) think is now my favourite of the six: Return of the Jedi. I know that I'm meant to like Empire or A New Hope best but do you know what? I'm a girl! I confess it - I like Ewoks! I like Darth's moment of redemption! I like the comedy in this one. 

The one thing that did bother me though was that feeling of Jedi-sexism. Why didn't they train up Leia instead of (or as well as) Luke? She's clearly more mature, calmer under pressure, a better shot... poor mistake Yoda! Mind you the film probably would have been significantly shorter if they had. No doubt some Star Wars geeks will now correct me as to why this is wrong. ;-)

So my overall verdict of Star Wars. There's no denying they are classics, and rightly so. But will they be featuring in my top 10 movies ever? Probably not. They're great family films; enjoyable and should be on everyone's must see lists but that one factor remains: I'm a girl and I just don't care that much! 

Of course if there were no Star Wars I'd have no reason to dress like this so maybe there's still hope for me as well as Darth Vader...

(Thanks to Jon for the costume loan - it even does the breathing noises! and to Ste for taking the pics)

* If you too want to have Princess Leia hair you'll need a some hair bands, hair grips, the link below and some socks.... yes, really!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ls2k3QdkiCQ

Sew Macho.

About a year ago my kind friend Clr (She's from Stoke on Trent and they don't believe in using vowels there) lent me her sewing machine. Since then the most action it's got has been some repairs and alterations - mostly just turning trousers up as I'm a shorty. The only 2 items of clothes I think I've ever made were both costumes rather than clothes. An 80s Flashdance style 

t-shirt (essentially just a big square with 4 holes in appropriate places) and a witch costume (from MacBeth) for my GCSE Drama where the aim was for it to look badly made and raggedy (I succeeded!).  Let's just say the staff of Saville Row are not fearing for their jobs.

Needless to say I've never actually tried to make something that looks nice or wearable. So to complete challenge 24 I needed to up my game a bit. So did I rush to the sewing machine and practice my stitching like any budding seamstress? Of course not! No, I sat on my sofa all morning watching "The Great British Sewing Bee" and claimed it was research. Actually to be fair I did learn a lot of little tips and it gave me more confidence and motivation to make my frock. Plus it's a mighty fine telly show - check it out on the iplayer before it vanishes.

So first step was to buy a pattern and the material. I had a spot of luck here as the girl in the shop clearly didn't understand the pricing policy and instead of charging £10 per metre for the 2.20metres she just charged me £2.20 in total! I might have pointed out her mistake but I was also purchasing TGBSB Book at twice the price it would have been on Amazon so felt that pricing Karma had evened itself out nicely. 

Once home the first step was to print out, alter and cut out the pattern. Typically the pattern only came in sizes 12-16 which infuriates me. If 16 is the National average why would you make that the largest size?! So after some calculations, paper sticking on and a lot of snipping the pattern was ready.

I wasn't convinced my calculations were right mind you so was a bit nervous but had to just go with it and start chopping the fabric. Now as you know I'm off to Eurovision in a couple of weeks time so I'd decided to make a Union Flag dress for the occasion. Here's a little sneak peak of the fabric in Sepia:

  Part of my "research" had taught me that you spend almost as much time at the ironing board as you do at the sewing machine when you're making clothes so I'd set up mine and frankly my iron hasn't been used that much in years. (That's more to do with my failure to be a domestic goddess than the dress needing much pressing).

So with the neckline done I learnt how to do gathering stitches and put in sleeves before trying to tackle a zip. I'm afraid I failed to understand all the instructions at this point so just busked it as best I could. With the final seams sewn and a final press my dress is now complete.

But the keen eyed amongst you will have noticed that making the dress is only half the challenge. I still have to wear it so I'm afraid you'll have to wait until Eurovision weekend to see that one. Look out for me on your TV screens... I'll be the one with the ill-fitting dress falling to pieces on air!

And to keep you going until then, here's a little vintage treat for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=999ph8iRT4o 

I'm Loving Angels Instead

Good news 40b440ers... (Feel free to choose yourself a better collective noun - you're no Beliebers/Little Monsters I know) ... Today I crossed off another challenge from the fabulous 40. As you can guess from the title of the post it wasn't number 3 or 13 - and it certainly wasn't number 27. No, today I conquered challenge 37.

I've never been to the Angel of the North, never even driven past and seen the heavenly host surveying the A1. So I thought it would be a good plan to do so - but to just see it: well, where's the challenge in that? Somebody sees the statue every second of every day. That's 90,000 views every day or 33 million every year. Albeit a lot of those will be the people who live locally or commute past it seeing it repeatedly but still it's not enough to just see it. You've probably worked out by now that I'm no thrill-seeking-bungy-jumping adrenaline junkie so I decided to mark my visit by paying homage to the statue itself in a more visual way.

If you've never seen it: It's big! I know this may sound like an obvious statement but its 54 metre (175 foot) wingspan is bigger than a Boeing 757 or 767 jet and almost the same as a Jumbo jet and at 20 metres (65 feet) high that is the height of a five storey building or four double decker buses. I've had the privilege of seeing a couple of Anthony Gormley's other installations including "Another Place" at Crosby beach which I found eerily striking and Sound II in the crypt at Winchester Cathedral but neither of these artworks is on the same scale as The Angel. He's proper big! 

So how do I honour this colossal cherub? Well clearly by dressing up as an angel using my dressing gown, some fairy wings and a 99p halo from Wilkos! Who could argue that wasn't a fitting tribute? 

Here I am looking positively Angelic despite the wind trying to steal my dressing gown.

And here is proof I achieved challenge 37. 

It actually doesn't have a bent wing, it was just my first attempt at taking a panoramic shot! Hopefully you can get an idea of scale when you see the people that are up close to the statue.

Up close and personal, this is what his steel frame looks like. 

I must thank my road trip buddy, Fola, for this escapade: he coped with me winding him up for the 5 hour round trip as well as the embarrassment of taking photos of a mad woman in fancy dress at a national landmark and he even had to deal with his first ever trip to IKEA (we were so close to the Gateshead one it felt rude not to pop in... have I mentioned I have an IKEA obsession? If not more about this next month after my trip to Eurovision).

Now before I head off to start packing my Buck's Fizz skirt I have more news. A while back I won a baseball cap and other goodies signed by Olympic Sailor Ben Ainslie and I promised I would celebrate accordingly. It took a while to think of something that was of suitable level and relevance but I hope you agree that this hits the spot. I drank some pink champagne whilst watching the rather bad movie "Charlie St Cloud" which features Zac Ephron going on about sailing and baseball throughout. Could there have been a more apt celebration? I think not!

But that isn't the end of my 40b440 endeavours for I've also been out an about in Manchester taking photos with my lovely friend Kimberly (who makes a very fine photography assistant/security guard) in order to produce my first Manchester Photo Montage:

It may be that in time this grows but for now I think it's good enough to tick off challenge 34. 

People sometimes ask me why I'm keeping this blog and trying to do these challenges and the answer is simple. Life is about making memories and having fun. It has to be. I'm having a blast on my journey...perhaps you're beginning to make your own list too. Why not tell me about it in the comments section or if you're enjoying the blog spread the word. The more 40b440ites (I've changed your name already) that help me on the way the more fun we'll have. Go on... be an angel! 

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!