Week 2

Wow another week has nearly gone by, where does time go?

Realised it was nearly the end of the month and that I really needed to get a shufty on for some of my monthly tasks!! So I baked my dad some Diabetic cookies, had a lovely bath and threw OH out and even conditioned my hair I dont think Ive managed to do that since my son was born 5 months ago!

Tomorrow we are having a no electric night, I love these, we turn the TV and lights off, open a bottle of wine and just talk to eachother whilst playing cards or a board game. It saves us money and I always feel very satisfied after.

I have decided to split

1: Spend a day “visiting” my town with a tourists eyes and go to places I would normally walk past e.g. – museum

into 2 half days so it will be easier with the baby. With this in mind I went to the little museum thats in our local park. I hadnt been in it since I was at lower scool (only a couple of years ago, ha ha!) There was also a nice art exhibition on so I had a good look at everything and then sat outside with Aidan and had an ice cream!

Ive booked to go to see Priscilla the queen of the desert in the west end with some gay friends (yep Im a fag hag!) we booked through Lastminute.com and got the tickets half price, £21! Its going to be a lovely fun day out and I will be able to be me again for a while not just a mummy. We are going in June so not long to wait, yippeee!

Still knitting my squares for my orphan blanket 6 down 18 to go!

Sent the first of my 20 presents to friends just because. One of my Moneysavingexpert friends was the recipient and she was pleased with the contents, it was more special as I hadnt told her to expect it so it was a complete surprise.

Hope to check in again for a week 3 update, bye for now x

The Top 25 Musicals

So here is the list of top 25 musicals I will be watching from, I have seen a few already but I am going to watch them again as they are just such classic films.

1 SINGIN' IN THE RAIN
2 WEST SIDE STORY
3 WIZARD OF OZ
4 SOUND OF MUSIC
5 CABARET
6 MARY POPPINS
7 STAR IS BORN
8 MY FAIR LADY
9 AMERICAN IN PARIS
10 MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS
11 KING AND I
12 CHICAGO

13 42ND STREET

14 ALL THAT JAZZ.
15 TOP HAT

16 FUNNY GIRL

17 BAND WAGON

18 YANKEE DOODLE DANDY

19 ON THE TOWN,

20 GREASE

21 SEVEN BRIDES FOR SEVEN BROTHERS

22 BEAUTY AND THE BEAST
23 GUYS AND DOLLS

24 SHOW BOAT
25 MOULIN ROUGE

Red = Watched

1st Update - Week One

So thats the end of week one of my 1001 challenge.

I am quite pleased with my progress so far as I have managed to cross off 3 of my tasks.

40 - Hold a snake skin (with gloves!) - This was a BIG task for me as I am really, really scared of snake skin, highly irrational I know! I am so pleased I faced the fear as I dont want to pass on my fears to my son Aidan.

64 - Halve my shoe collection - I was very strict with myself and if I hadnt worn them for a while then I listed them on Ebay or donated them to charity. Now I just have to be good and not buy more!!

65 - Sort through my bedroom chest of drawers - Again I was very strict and ended up with 2 bin bags full of clothes to take to the charity shop.

Ive also managed to start a few more of my tasks:

9 -I have begun reading from the BBC 100 greatest reads lists,

5 - My veggies are growing nicely in my garden,

19 - I have looked into Giving blood again but I am not able to for 4 more months as I have not been long had the Emergency Caesaerean.

51 - I have started leaving little notes in the Library books I have borrowed saying " I hope you are enjoying the book"

49 - I have registered on the Olympic website to receive ticketing news.

67 - I have been watching episodes of the Secret Millionaire for free on 4 on Demand.

91 - I am knitting some squares to do my share, I need to make 24 6X6 squares to sew together for a blanket for a child in Soweto.

98 - We went and had a family portrait taken and I am very pleased wth the results as the photos were lovely.

There are a couple more that I will be working on everyday, things like clear my debt and improve my credit rating. I will only blog about these once I complete them.

Thats was a bit of a boring, matter of fact blog so must try harder next time!!

The BBCs 100 greatest reads

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. The Picture of Dorian Gray – Oscar Wilde
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie


Bold = Read

101 in 1001 list

1. Tell my son and my partner I love them every day
2. Try for another baby
3. Move house
4. Send a care parcel to a soldier serving our country abroad.
5. Grow my own veggies
6. Make at least 5 new friends (5/5)
7. Bake a cake at least once a month
8. Make/sew at least 6 material bags to give as presents (2/6)
9. Read the BBC 100 greatest books (18/100)
10. Entertain friends once a month
11. Make someone laugh everyday
12. Complete a Diploma course
13. Visit Edinburgh
14. Adopt a Donkey from Sidmouth Donkey Sanctuary
15. Clear my debts16. Save £10 a month for my sons future17. Recycle more
18. Write a meal plan every week
19. Give blood as many times as possible
20. Write to my elderly Aunties every month
21. Always remember my bags for life when I go to the shops
22. Condition my hair once a month
23. Have a long relaxing bath ALONE once a month
24. Watch at least 10 films I wouldn’t normally watch (10/10)
25. Dye my hair a different colour
26. Go to Occo, the Moroccan restaurant that I always look at but never go into.
27. Have a no electric night once a month
28. Go to PYO
29. Spend a day “visiting” my town with a tourists eyes and go to places I would normally walk past e.g. – museum
30. Research the American presidents
31. Watch the top 25 musicals (11/25)
32. Knit myself a funky jumper
33. Buy some stripy socks in honour of my friend Fay!!
34. Buy locally more often and support the littler shops
35. Go to see a Shakespeare play
36. Buy a pair of flowery Doc Martens
37. Read the work of the poet Laureate each year (2/3)
38. Make a record or scrapbook of my sons life
39. Hold a corn snake
40. Hold a snake skin (wearing gloves!) Glad that ones done!!
41. Improve my credit score
42. Sell my flat
43. Send random friendship cards to each of the 6 houses in the UK with the same address as me
44. Learn how to set up a blog
45. Sit on a horse
46. Visit Warwick Castle again
47. Go back to Shell Island in North Wales
48. Get my £50 pay out from YouGov!!
49. Book tickets to attend a 2012 Olympics event
50. Visit the Library more often
51. Leave a friendly post it note in all the library books I borrow
52. Make my Best friend a 30th Lucky dip
53. Get a water butt and attach it to the gutter
54. Go and see Priscilla queen of the desert in the west end
55. Visit charity shops more often
56. Cook a Thanksgiving meal for friends
57. Talk to at least 1 stranger a week
58. Take the time to write a letter of thanks when I have received good service in a shop/restaurant/hotel
59. Make a snowman
60. Catch little spiders and take them outside rather than squishing them (cant promise to do the same with biggies!)
61. Buy my mum a present on my Birthday
62. Go to a zoo with my family
63. Talk to my Grandparents more
64. Halve my shoe collection
65. Sort through my bedroom chest of drawers
66. Finish Aidan’s Alphabet cross stitch
67. Watch every episode of The Secret Millionaire
68. Buy myself another piece of jewellery from Tiffany’s
69. Visit a Christmas market
70. Have a PJ day once a month
71. Put up a bird table
72. Try Sushi
73. Get a fourth tattoo
74. Organise a reunion with old school friends
75. Attend reunion with old school friends
76. Make myself go somewhere that I really don’t want to
77. Wash up for my Nan at least once a week
78. Check the oil and water in my car every 2 months
79. Clean my car inside and out every 2 months
80. Visit Bath again
81. Visit Wookey Hole again
82. Go to the mountains in the Rhondda
83. Find out more about my Paternal Grandparents who died before I was born
84. Bake Diabetic cakes for my Dad once a month
85. Cook a “takeaway” dinner for my Mum and Dad so my mum can have a night off once every 6 months
86. Feed the ducks at least 3 times (3/3)
87. Organise the photos on the computer
88. Write to my Aussie pen friend once a month
89. Learn to accept help, people wouldn’t offer if they didn’t want to
90. Return to work Part Time and manage to stay Part Time through effective budgeting
91. Knit some squares to do my share
92. Send 20 people a surprise present just because (9/20)
93. Eat chips from the wrapper at the beach
94. Eat an ice cream at the seaside
95. Collect a pretty pebble or shell every time we visit the seaside.
96. Do at least 1 Race for Life
97. Update my CV
98. Get a family portrait done each year (2/3)
99. Sit by a fire talking with my Partner
100. Start to write a Bucket list
101. Visit the theatre at least 6 times (6/6)



Finish Date Saturday 11th Feb 2012


Red = Completed

Blue = in progress