101 things update
I need cheering up today, so let me tell you about a few more things I have done! Though I've only crossed off about 39 things from the original list, and I have less than a year to get through the rest because I am a terrible failure of a human being tra la, ANYWAY!
19. Cycle to Croydon. DONE
I haven't been cycling much since I moved out of London, because the cars move faster and there are no cycle lanes, and I have no particular places I want to go to nearby. But Croydon Best Friend only lives a few miles away; it can take up to an hour to catch two buses to her house, so I gave cycling a go. It was all right! I got lost twice, had to cross two scary enormous roads and limp up several hills (I only do flat surfaces as a rule), but I did get to South Croydon marginally quicker and much pinker of face than I would have done by bus. A few weeks later, I went to see my friend Ant's wife performing her Edinburgh preview stand-up show, and it was all about cycling in Croydon! Relatable content!
28. Make something out of wood. DONE
This year was my third Glastonbury festival, and I have now figured out exactly how to enjoy it; get up relatively early and wander off by myself during the day, go and see bands with my Goth Glastonbury crew in the evening, go back to camp at the first twinges of sleepiness rather than trying to walk through the late night drunken enormo-crowds while deliriously tired, eat as many apples and peanut butter bagels as possible, and go to the craft workshops. I did a willow-weaving workshop which was quite satisfying, and a spoon-carving workshop for the purposes of this challenge. We sat around in a circle whittling away at our spoons for a couple of hours while our earnest hippy teacher told us about living in a van and how he liked to give trees a hug because they were lonely, and it was all very enjoyable until I suddenly realised that our session was almost over and everyone else had made a spoon, while I still just had a pointy block of wood. Here is what I took away after begging the teacher to try and turn it into a spoon in two minutes.
51. Give up sugar for a week. DONE
This wasn't too hard, apart from a work meeting featuring pain au chocolat. I discovered that peanut butter on cream crackers is a tolerable substitute for biscuits.
76. Go to Dungeness. DONE
I've been meaning to do this for a long time, probably since I was in my teens and my penfriend sent me a tape of Derek Jarman's 'Blue' and told me about his garden. It always seemed impossible to get to by public transport though, involving too many logistical steps and somehow having to catch a steam train. However! After not really thinking about Derek Jarman for many years, I bought 'Modern Nature' from Waterstones on a whim and discovered that I love him; his diaries are such an odd mixture of earnest gardening, fretful film-making, gossiping about famous people, being delightfully rude all the time, and being horribly ill and very stoic about it. The best bits are how silly he and his partner HB are together - this interview brings me great joy every time I read it, which is quite often.
Anyway, the man in Waterstones who sold me the book told me that I could now get a bus from Rye to Dungeness, which sounded much easier than a steam train, although considerably less cool. So last weekend Kevan and I went to Rye and spent a couple of days camping a couple of miles out of town, and on Saturday we caught the bus to Dungeness and spent a few hours walking around the shingle, looking at the oystercatchers and the sea kale and the abandoned boats, checking out the lighthouses and the power stations, and finally walking past Derek Jarman's cottage at a respectful distance and having a look at his garden. It was everything I hoped it would be.
96. Drink the following: bubble tea; dandelion and burdock; a lager shandy, Vimto. DONE
Bubble tea: a hit! I liked this much more than I'd expected and will have it again.
Dandelion and burdock, Vimto: not bad, but probably something that one should acquire a taste for in one's childhood to enjoy properly. My palate is bland and middle-class, so I still prefer Ribena.
Lager shandy: one pint is quite a nice soothing drink, but two pints is way too much sugar and made me feel a bit giddy. I will approach again with caution.
19. Cycle to Croydon. DONE
I haven't been cycling much since I moved out of London, because the cars move faster and there are no cycle lanes, and I have no particular places I want to go to nearby. But Croydon Best Friend only lives a few miles away; it can take up to an hour to catch two buses to her house, so I gave cycling a go. It was all right! I got lost twice, had to cross two scary enormous roads and limp up several hills (I only do flat surfaces as a rule), but I did get to South Croydon marginally quicker and much pinker of face than I would have done by bus. A few weeks later, I went to see my friend Ant's wife performing her Edinburgh preview stand-up show, and it was all about cycling in Croydon! Relatable content!
28. Make something out of wood. DONE
This year was my third Glastonbury festival, and I have now figured out exactly how to enjoy it; get up relatively early and wander off by myself during the day, go and see bands with my Goth Glastonbury crew in the evening, go back to camp at the first twinges of sleepiness rather than trying to walk through the late night drunken enormo-crowds while deliriously tired, eat as many apples and peanut butter bagels as possible, and go to the craft workshops. I did a willow-weaving workshop which was quite satisfying, and a spoon-carving workshop for the purposes of this challenge. We sat around in a circle whittling away at our spoons for a couple of hours while our earnest hippy teacher told us about living in a van and how he liked to give trees a hug because they were lonely, and it was all very enjoyable until I suddenly realised that our session was almost over and everyone else had made a spoon, while I still just had a pointy block of wood. Here is what I took away after begging the teacher to try and turn it into a spoon in two minutes.
51. Give up sugar for a week. DONE
This wasn't too hard, apart from a work meeting featuring pain au chocolat. I discovered that peanut butter on cream crackers is a tolerable substitute for biscuits.
76. Go to Dungeness. DONE
I've been meaning to do this for a long time, probably since I was in my teens and my penfriend sent me a tape of Derek Jarman's 'Blue' and told me about his garden. It always seemed impossible to get to by public transport though, involving too many logistical steps and somehow having to catch a steam train. However! After not really thinking about Derek Jarman for many years, I bought 'Modern Nature' from Waterstones on a whim and discovered that I love him; his diaries are such an odd mixture of earnest gardening, fretful film-making, gossiping about famous people, being delightfully rude all the time, and being horribly ill and very stoic about it. The best bits are how silly he and his partner HB are together - this interview brings me great joy every time I read it, which is quite often.
Anyway, the man in Waterstones who sold me the book told me that I could now get a bus from Rye to Dungeness, which sounded much easier than a steam train, although considerably less cool. So last weekend Kevan and I went to Rye and spent a couple of days camping a couple of miles out of town, and on Saturday we caught the bus to Dungeness and spent a few hours walking around the shingle, looking at the oystercatchers and the sea kale and the abandoned boats, checking out the lighthouses and the power stations, and finally walking past Derek Jarman's cottage at a respectful distance and having a look at his garden. It was everything I hoped it would be.
96. Drink the following: bubble tea; dandelion and burdock; a lager shandy, Vimto. DONE
Bubble tea: a hit! I liked this much more than I'd expected and will have it again.
Dandelion and burdock, Vimto: not bad, but probably something that one should acquire a taste for in one's childhood to enjoy properly. My palate is bland and middle-class, so I still prefer Ribena.
Lager shandy: one pint is quite a nice soothing drink, but two pints is way too much sugar and made me feel a bit giddy. I will approach again with caution.