13. Unplugged! (1/33)

Well...don't you get so much stuff done when you're not distracted by the TV and the computer?!

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 :)

The list

1. Create a blog for this list – otherwise, who’d know?!
2. Create a new collection on Flickr.com to house the photos
3. Make a spreadsheet of these tasks with tracking capabilities
4. Volunteer 101 hours of my time (to family, friends, or charities) (0/101)
5. Swim 1001 lengths of the pool at the gym (0/1001)
6. Get a comfortable pair of earplugs for my MP3 player
7. Get a pedometer
8. Walk 101 miles (counted on a pedometer, that’s approximately 202,000 steps!) (0/202,000)
9. Send a secret to Postsecret.com
10. Leave 10 “secrets” in books for other people to find (0/10)
11. Give 10 “I saw this and thought of you” cards or presents (0/10)
12. Give someone flowers “just because” (0/5)
13. Have an “unplugged day” (no speaking, radio, TV, MP3, computer for 24 hours) once a month (0/33)
14. Learn to meditate
15. Attend an organised act of worship
16. Attend an organised retreat
17. Give something up for Lent (0/3)
18. Read the Bible
19. 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!)
20. Visit a mosque
21. 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!)
22. Visit a synagogue
23. Rainy Day fund – save 6 months net wages (14.8%)
24. When the Rainy Day fund’s complete – save for a camper van!
25. Collect every £2 coin I get in change (£100)
26. Check online banking twice a week (1/286)
27. Update budget spreadsheet twice a week (1/286)
28. Log on to MoneySavingExpert.com twice a week for motivation (1/286)
29. File all bills and paperwork once a month (0/33)
30. Bake something once a month (0/33)
31. Get a new wok
32. Get a set of good crockery
33. Get a set of good cutlery
34. Free/Recycle the old crockery and cutlery
35. Lay the dining table and eat at it once a week (0/143)
36. Eat out in 10 new restaurants (0/10)
37. Collect recipes I’d like to try and stick them in my Dodo Cookbook (0/50)
38. Cook one of the new recipes every month (0/33)
39. Go on a picnic
40. Grow three types of herb on the kitchen windowsill (0/3)
41. Grow a chilli plant on the kitchen windowsill
42. Shine the sink every evening for a month (0/30)
43. Take a packed lunch to work every day I’m in the office
44. Make a bento
45. Clear the spam out of my inbox once a week (0/143)
46. Defrag the computer once a week (0/143)
47. Finish a cross stitch project for someone else
48. Finish “Max in the Adirondacks” cross stitch
49. Get Max framed
50. Finish the samurai cross stitch
51. Get the samurai framed
52. Complete an Advanced Excel course
53. Read some new (to me) books (0/50)
54. Watch the sun rise at the seaside
55. Watch the sun set at the seaside
56. Watch the clouds for an hour
57. Do ten of the walks in “100 Walks in Warwickshire and West Midlands” (0/10)
58. Catch 101 fish (0/101)
59. Take a trip on a canal boat
60. See the Blackpool Illuminations
61. Ride a roller coaster
62. Visit an English Heritage / National Trust property (0/20)
63. Go back to Scotland for a holiday
64. Go back to southern Ireland for a holiday
65. Buy a camper van
66. Reschedule that month long road trip that got cancelled
67. Road trip!
68. Go to a museum
69. Go to an exhibition
70. Go to the theatre
71. Go to a concert
72. Go to the ballet
73. Go to a stand up comedy event
74. Visit a war memorial
75. Go to the (horse) races
76. Go to an auction
77. Go to a craft fair
78. Go on a weekend city break
79. Renew my passport
80. Holiday on another continent
81. Take a “classic” Rail tour abroad (Banff, Trans-Siberian etc.)
82. Complete a “10 things you may not have known about me” set on Flickr.com (0/10)
83. Take photos of 26 things around Birmingham beginning with A – Z and post them in a set on Flickr.com (0/26)
84. Take photos of items that show the numbers 1 – 101 and post them in a set on Flickr.com (0/101)
85. Document a race, march or parade in photos on Flickr.com
86. Complete a “Seven Deadly Sins” set on Flickr.com
87. Get one of my photos printed onto canvas and hang it in the flat
88. Get a set of Moo.com postcards made from my own photos and send them to people (0/20)
89. Design and make my own T shirt
90. Learn to make a friendship bracelet
91. Obtain some new comedy DVDs (0/10)
92. Obtain some audio books for MP3 player (0/5)
93. Write a letter to a company praising their service
94. Make and release a “message in a bottle”
95. Get a book signed by its author
96. Blog about each completed item (1/101)
97. Take a photo that represents each item on the list and post the pictures on Flickr.com (0/101)
98. Update blog once a week (0/143)
99. Publish a Blurb.com book about this list
100. Donate £101 to charity
101. Crack open a bottle of really good champagne and celebrate!

So why am I putting myself through this?

You might well ask...

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!