Looking back at January

It's the last day of the first month of the challenge, so it seems as good as time as any to review what has been done and what needs doing.

13 Facebook Recommendations:

Well, I'm still on the look out for recommendations, but I have 2 DVD's to watch that been recommended. Won't happen this Saturday though, because it is National Pro Wrestling Day. I am 31 years old.

13 Recipes:

A few recipes have been planned, but nothing has been cooked, largely because Katie has turned into a bit of a kitchen hog, spending hours in there cooking all kinds of healthy meals. Don't worry though fat lad fans, I'm avoiding the quorn!

13 Meals Out:

Another one that is proving difficult, with Katie's health kick combined with her working crazy hours. She is even working Valentine's Day, that was supposed to be a banker! I won't be defeated though.

13 Random Acts of kindness:

I'll be honest, I totally forgot about this one, and haven't given it a second thought since I wrote my first point. Which is proof, if proof were needed, how unnatural being kind to people is. Every single arsehole you ever met? They were all people weren't they? Yeah.... I knew it.

13 Letters:

I've decided on a few people that will be getting the letters, but I've decided not to put on here who they are until after the letter has been received. And the contents will remain private.

13 Blogs per month:

This will by my 13th blog of January. Well done me.

13 Family days out:

Snow knackered my plans for the Tranmere game, but I've a few things up my sleeve for when the weather is more clement.

13 New Foods:

Hmmm, not really given this much thought either. I should really start with working out if I can find 13 'new' foods that I've not tried before. Tricky.

£13 for Charity per month:

First donation has been made, on the look out for causes.

13/30 Autographs:

I've got my list of victims, but still need to get to the post office to buy a fuck tonne of stamps. A job for payday.

13 (minimum) Postcrossing:

Seriously, where the hell do you buy postcards? I've been on the lookout for a month, and I can't find them anywhere!!

13 (minimum) Geocaches:

Oh shut up, did you see the snow? Plus my chair is very comfy and I've got V+. I'll get around to it.

13 @Replies or Retweets from famous people:

I'm up to 5 (Olly Mann, Christina Martin, Bethany Black, Michael Legge and Roisin Conaty) and 3 near misses (people I thought were famous enough to have a wiki page, but aren't)

So a decent start, the ball is certainly rolling, but there is still plenty to do.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades

I just had a tweet from someone who I class as famous Sadie Hasler but by my own stupid rules, she doesn't count as she doesn't have a wiki page. Gah!

Last day of the month tomorrow, so I shall be recapping what I've done, and what still needs to be achieved.

2 Challenges COLLIDE!

One of the list of 30 people that I need to try to get autographs from has sent me a tweet!

Don't get your hopes up too much though, it wasn't Gordon The Gopher. It was however @theollymann Newspaper reviewer and Podcaster. And it doesn't get more famous than that.

Read more about Olly here - Olly Mann or listen to his genuinely brillant podcast here - Answer Me This

Snow and RL stop play.

Well, Tranmere vs. Swindon was called off due to a frozen pitch. I wasn't totally devastated because it did mean that I got to stay in the warm and didn't have to change out of my Sponge Bob Lounge Pants (both fashionable AND sexy).

Unfortunately, our broken bed is beyond repair, which means that for rest of the month, money is tighter than  a gnats chuff. So Challenge wise, my focus will be forced to shift to things that cost no money. Current plans include finding out how to request the autographs/collecting agents addresses, deciding who will get the hand written letters (and possibly start writing them) and maybe even a bit of Geocaching. It's still early doors, and I'm in pretty good shape to get this all done by the end of the year.

Love to your mothers.

Tedious Twitter Update

4th Celebrity Tweet/ReTweet from Christina Martin @christinamartin

At least when I've got these out of the way, I'll forced to make my blogs slightly more interesting.

Baking like a champ....

Planning a challenge - Cooking

This Sunday, I shall be cooking a 3 course meal for my lovely family.

After studying my cook books, I think I've found some recipes that tread that fine line between 'sound delicious' and 'probably won't kill us all if I get something wrong'.

So, we will be having:

Chicken Soup with Locksten
Beef Stew and Herb Dumplings with Dauphanoise Potatoes
Chocolate Chip Cookies.

I know the pudding isn't quite as fancy as the starter and the main, but I'm planning ahead, if we are too full for the 3rd course, we can have them the day after.

However, my big question is this....the challenge was to cook 13 things from scratch over the course of the year. Does this count as 1 thing, or 3 things? I think 3, but Katie disagrees. What does anyone else think? Does anyone else care? Stay tuned for details (and pictures on Sunday).

Pictures of food on a blog.... I'm amazed nobody has thought of this before!

Day Out Ideas

As you may or may not know, the whole 'family day out' thing is pretty new to me. And it's been a long, long time since I was the one being taken to places so I doubt those places even exist any more! There is no way the Birkenhead Priory is still around, I haven't been there since the early 90's. Things just aren't built to last any more *sigh*

Anyway, I've had the following ideas, and I'm hoping the friends who have small people will give me some advice on if these places are any good. Obviously, no advice is required for the first idea, it's non-negotiable.

Everton Stadium Tour

And because it would be nice if Kate joined us on at least some of these days out, I'm also looking at:

Tam O'Shanter Farm
Underwater Street
The Yellow Duck Marine

Has anyone been? I'd never even heard of Underwater Steet. Are there obvious places that I'm not thinking off. We will be going to Chester Zoo, but not for a few months. I like my animals depressed, not depressed and freezing.

Conrad Stafford Bain (February 4, 1923 – January 14, 2013)

Not challenge related, but I do an, admittedly unpleasant, side challenge every year called Dead Pool. The idea of this is to predict which celebrities are going to die during the year. Cheery and life affirming I'm sure you would agree.

Less than 3 weeks into the year, we have had our first death. Mr Drummond has passed.

Conrad Bain

TMZ Story

My Dead Pool Picks

A lengthy update

Well, payday has finally been and gone, so we can get the ball moving on some of these challenges.

Firstly, my first two recommendation DVD's have arrived.

Recommended by Simon, we have:

and recommended by Vicky, we have:

I'll be watching these as soon as possible, ideally the weekend, assuming real life doesn't get in the way.

Secondly, thanks to many suggestions from my dear friend Alex on which celebrities to attempt to get autographs from, the final list is as follows:

Olly Mann

Tim Key

Joe Wilkinson

Wil Hodgson

Paul Rideout

Tim Henman

Nick Berry

Gordon the Gopher

Steve Brookstein

Mat Horne

Neville Southall

Nicholas Lyndhurst

Emile Heskey

H from Steps

Marti Pellow

Helen Zaltzman

Isy Suttie

Josie Long

Phillipa Forrester

Anneka Rice

Trisha

Joanna Page

Holly Willoughby

Sue Barker

Carol Vorderman

Lisa Stansfield

Letitia Dean

Jennifer Saunders

Sheridan Smith

Kathy Burke

Now if only I had the first clue how I would go about contacting any of these people. At least I have the whole year to do it. I don't suppose anyone reading this is 2nd cousin (twice removed) of Letitia Dean? Or old drinking buddies with Gordon The Gopher? Let me know!

I've booked tickets for Ethan and I to go and see Tranmere Rovers vs Swindon Town on Saturday 26th January. For some reason Katie didn't want to join us on that one.

And finally, this months charity contribution.

I've donated to The Clatterbridge Cancer Charity via Four Great Nurses, One Great Wall using the JustGiving page. A worthy charity and excellent fund raisers.

Small Update

Well, it's all been a bit quiet here at Challenge HQ, mainly due to waiting for payday, which will *hopefully* be today, so more updates to come in the near future.

The rubbish Twitter challenge is the only one that I'm making any real headway with, having had a message from Bethany Black (@BethanyBlack) and a ReTweet from Roisin Conaty (@Roisinconaty) so that's something.

Right?

First achievement!

Admittedly minor, but it still counts, alright!

The weak link in my challenges was always going to be Challenge 13 (Tweets/Retweets from famous people) so why not try and get it out of the way early.

Yesterday, the comedian and professional angry man Michael Legge wrote a blog. I read it and liked it, so tweeted and recommended my followers do the same, to with Michael tweeted and thanked me. Okay, it's not a classic anecdote to tell the grand-kids, but it's a start.

You can read the blog here
You can find out more about Michael Legge here (I particularly recommend Do The Right Thing)

If you are a twitter user, you can follow Michael at @michaellegge and me at @rsshghs

And so it begins...

Happy New Year!

Well, the challenges start here... it's amazing how little you can get done on New Years Day, but I thought I should start as I mean to go on and give a bit of an update on the various challenges.

I have been given a few suggestions for things to watch from Facebook friends. Some things I've never heard of and know nothing about, and other things that I have no interest in seeing (thanks to my evil sister). It wouldn't be a challenge if people only suggested things I think I'd like though.

I have 5 addresses to send postcards to for Postcrossing.com, so as soon as I'm able to buy postcards, I'll be saying hello to total strangers in Spain, Holland, Russia, Germany and Japan. Where on earth to you buy postcards from if you don't live at the seaside?

For one of the family days out, I'm thinking of taking the boy (and Katie if she wants to join us) to a Tranmere match. Can any Tranmere fans recommend any of the upcoming games? And where is a good place to sit?

And finally, a sincere thank you for all the positive feedback I've had from people so far. I know this isn't a life changing challenge, but the support from everyone has made me want to push on and get things moving.

To be continued!