Tuesday, 29 September 2009
Monday, 28 September 2009
Sunday, 27 September 2009
13. Unplugged! (1/33)
I watched "The Tudors" on Friday night (phwoor @ gorgeous men in doublet and hose...shame about the lack of historical accuracy but who cares?!) and then went to bed. Woke up yesterday morning and stopped myself putting the radio on. My unplugged day had begun.
I managed to :
Clean the wooden floors
Do all the washing
Go to the library - four more books to read
Go shopping - I did speak to a couple of people here, well you can't seem *too* rude, can you? :)
Cook dinner
Read one of the library books - "So Me" Graham Norton's autobiography which was really good. Laugh out loud funny in a lot of places.
I held out until 7pm then I plugged back into the world again. So, 21 out of 24 hours isn't bad for a first time and I'm counting it as a success. It's my list, so I can :)
Friday, 25 September 2009
It's been a long, hard tiring week. Could have done with about 12 extra hours a day...
However, some progress has been made and it's the weekend!
11. Posted the first "Saw this and thought of you" present - see previous post.
25. Collect £2 coins - another £6 added, total now £106 in my new terramundi pot.
26/27/28. All on track (4/286)
35. Lay the dining table - I've found that now I have cleared it of junk and put a cloth on it I'm actually using it a lot more.
47. Cross stitch project for someone else - coming along nicely. Hope to have it finished before Christmas.
53. Read some new books (2/50) - Ok, an odd choice, perhaps for the first of my new books but this week I've polished off (ha!) "Executioner Pierrepoint", the autobiography of the UK's last Official Executioner. Not the easiest writing style, but it was a fascinating book.
In the same vein (and also in the same Amazon order) came "The Executioner's Bible" the story of all the UK's 20th century executioners. Sometimes reading more like a long list of crimes and resulting punishments it was nevertheless an interesting counterpoint. There were a few incidents that happened quite differently than in Pierrepoint's book, depending on who you believe.
I'm going to spend a couple of hours in the library tomorrow and I'm expecting another couple of books from Amazon soon. Tudor history this time, so just as likely to contain details of executions. Hmm...maybe I need to get out more? :)
I might also use tomorrow as the first of my "umplugged" days. I'm thinking of revising the exact detail of it slightly, as I know that I'm incapable of going 24 minutes without talking to myself, let alone 24 hours! I think it's living alone...you have to talk to yourself otherwise how can you have a decent argument?! So, the unplugged days will, I think, just be sans electronic gadgets - no TV, radio, DS, computer etc.
98. Update blog once a week - tick!
Sunday, 20 September 2009
Week One - Update
So. What have I done this week?
1. Create blog - done
2. Create a collection on Flickr - done
3. Make a spreadsheet to track these tasks - started
11. Give 10 "Saw this and thought of you" gifts - bought the first, need to post it. I won't put the picture up on Flickr until it's been received, lest I tip the recipient off in advance!
23, Rainy Day fund - I've decided to continue with the saving I'd already started (14.8%)
25. £2 coins - I've bought a new terramundi pot to keep them in (£100)
26/27/28. Financial updates done twice this week (2/286)
35. Lay the dinner table for a meal once a week (1/143)
47. Finish a cross stitch project for someone else - again I won't be posting a picture of this until it's handed over.
48. Finish "Max"
50. Finish the Samurai
96. Blog about each completed item (2/101)
97. Take a photo for each completed item (2/101)
98. Update blog once a week (1/43)
Not bad for the first few days :) Just need to keep the momentum up and remember to take the camera *everywhere*.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
The list
- Create a blog for this list – otherwise, who’d know?!
- Create a new collection on Flickr.com to house the photos
- Make a spreadsheet of these tasks with tracking capabilities
- Volunteer 101 hours of my time (to family, friends, or charities) (0/101)
- Swim 1001 lengths of the pool at the gym (0/1001)
- Get a comfortable pair of earplugs for my MP3 player
- Get a pedometer
- Walk 101 miles (counted on a pedometer, that’s approximately 202,000 steps!) (0/202,000)
- Send a secret to Postsecret.com
- Leave 10 “secrets” in books for other people to find (0/10)
- Give 10 “I saw this and thought of you” cards or presents (0/10)
- Give someone flowers “just because” (0/5)
- Have an “unplugged day” (no speaking, radio, TV, MP3, computer for 24 hours) once a month (0/33)
- Learn to meditate
- Attend an organised act of worship
- Attend an organised retreat
- Give something up for Lent (0/3)
- Read the Bible
- Read the Qur’an (Both this and the Talmud would take far longer than 1001 days to fully comprehend, so I’m just aiming for a basic understanding!)
- Visit a mosque
- Read the Talmud (Both this and the Qur’an would take far longer than 1001 days to fully comprehend, so I’m just aiming for a basic understanding!)
- Visit a synagogue
- Rainy Day fund – save 6 months net wages (14.8%)
- When the Rainy Day fund’s complete – save for a camper van!
- Collect every £2 coin I get in change (£100)
- Check online banking twice a week (1/286)
- Update budget spreadsheet twice a week (1/286)
- Log on to MoneySavingExpert.com twice a week for motivation (1/286)
- File all bills and paperwork once a month (0/33)
- Bake something once a month (0/33)
- Get a new wok
- Get a set of good crockery
- Get a set of good cutlery
- Free/Recycle the old crockery and cutlery
- Lay the dining table and eat at it once a week (0/143)
- Eat out in 10 new restaurants (0/10)
- Collect recipes I’d like to try and stick them in my Dodo Cookbook (0/50)
- Cook one of the new recipes every month (0/33)
- Go on a picnic
- Grow three types of herb on the kitchen windowsill (0/3)
- Grow a chilli plant on the kitchen windowsill
- Shine the sink every evening for a month (0/30)
- Take a packed lunch to work every day I’m in the office
- Make a bento
- Clear the spam out of my inbox once a week (0/143)
- Defrag the computer once a week (0/143)
- Finish a cross stitch project for someone else
- Finish “Max in the Adirondacks” cross stitch
- Get Max framed
- Finish the samurai cross stitch
- Get the samurai framed
- Complete an Advanced Excel course
- Read some new (to me) books (0/50)
- Watch the sun rise at the seaside
- Watch the sun set at the seaside
- Watch the clouds for an hour
- Do ten of the walks in “100 Walks in Warwickshire and West Midlands” (0/10)
- Catch 101 fish (0/101)
- Take a trip on a canal boat
- See the Blackpool Illuminations
- Ride a roller coaster
- Visit an English Heritage / National Trust property (0/20)
- Go back to Scotland for a holiday
- Go back to southern Ireland for a holiday
- Buy a camper van
- Reschedule that month long road trip that got cancelled
- Road trip!
- Go to a museum
- Go to an exhibition
- Go to the theatre
- Go to a concert
- Go to the ballet
- Go to a stand up comedy event
- Visit a war memorial
- Go to the (horse) races
- Go to an auction
- Go to a craft fair
- Go on a weekend city break
- Renew my passport
- Holiday on another continent
- Take a “classic” Rail tour abroad (Banff, Trans-Siberian etc.)
- Complete a “10 things you may not have known about me” set on Flickr.com (0/10)
- Take photos of 26 things around Birmingham beginning with A – Z and post them in a set on Flickr.com (0/26)
- Take photos of items that show the numbers 1 – 101 and post them in a set on Flickr.com (0/101)
- Document a race, march or parade in photos on Flickr.com
- Complete a “Seven Deadly Sins” set on Flickr.com
- Get one of my photos printed onto canvas and hang it in the flat
- Get a set of Moo.com postcards made from my own photos and send them to people (0/20)
- Design and make my own T shirt
- Learn to make a friendship bracelet
- Obtain some new comedy DVDs (0/10)
- Obtain some audio books for MP3 player (0/5)
- Write a letter to a company praising their service
- Make and release a “message in a bottle”
- Get a book signed by its author
- Blog about each completed item (1/101)
- Take a photo that represents each item on the list and post the pictures on Flickr.com (0/101)
- Update blog once a week (0/143)
- Publish a Blurb.com book about this list
- Donate £101 to charity
- Crack open a bottle of really good champagne and celebrate!
So why am I putting myself through this?
A while back I completed "Project 365" which involved taking a photograph every day for a year and posting it to a group on Flickr.
It was an incredibly interesting year. I learned that;
- it's blinkin' hard to take a good picture every day
- it's very easy to run out of subjects (every object in my flat has been snapped!)
- you learn a lot about your personal style in doing something like this
The results of that year's trials and tantrums are here.
Whilst browsing another of my favourite sites I found a group of people taking part in "101 things in 1001 days". Had a look round one of the main sites and got kind of hooked into the idea.
It's a sort of Anti-New Year's Resolution list. For a start, I've got almost three years to complete these things. Unlike Project 365 I don't have to do something every day - but if I leave it all 'til then end life's going to get a little complicated!
So, I wrote a list of 101 things I'd like to achieve. In itself, that wasn't easy. 60 or 70 things? Reasonably easy to identify. The last ten were killers....
But I've done it. I have a list!