May - A Month in Review

13 Recommendations 

No change on the recommendation front.

13 Recipes:

I made roast potatoes for the first time, and I'm waiting for step by step instructions for home made pizza that I'll hopefully be doing in June.

13 Meals Out:

I forgot that we went out for Ethan's birthday, and I didn't write it up. I paid for myself, Katie and Ethan, so that counts, right?

13 Random Acts of kindness:

Business as usual, I wasn't nice to anyone this month

13 Letters:

I've bought some nice paper and envelopes, so this will start to happen very soon. And going back on my word, I did say I wouldn't say who was getting a letter before I wrote it, but I have decided one of the letters will be for Ethan to have when he is older. A letter from the past, talking about the first year of having him in my life. Nobody will read it until he is an adult. (Same comment for 4 months in a row now. I am a twat)

13 Blogs per month:

5 months in a row! I'm pissing this one.

13 Family days out:

2 ticks in the box for this month, and other things booked.

13 New Foods:

Abandoning curry slowed this down, but I tried a new fruit and I have something in the fridge for tomorrow.

£13 for Charity per month:

7 donations done and one planned. Good.

13/30 Autographs:

2/30. Finally getting somewhere with this one!

13 (minimum) Postcrossing:

Well, it's all been kicking off here. 10 sent and 5 received, well on target.

13 (minimum) Geocaches:

Not started, but I'll be able to box off a load of these all in one go.

13 @Replies or Retweets from famous people:

Another 2 this month, catching up on what I missed in March and April. Things are really starting to move now. I just need to pull my finger out and start writing letters and geocaching.

Celebrity Autograph

That's right, I've been mingling with the rich and famous again. I say mingling, I opened my post...

Anyway, this is another tick for the celebrity autograph challenge, and it's certainly a big name.

That's right, look impressed. Because it is impressive.

Post Crossing - Another card arrived!

This time from someone called Oxana, he or she is a doctor originally from Russia but they now live in (and send postcards from) Israel.

Call me sad, but I'm really getting into the Post Crossing thing!

Post Crossing - An Update

So far, I have posted 10 cards. 1 each to Spain, Japan and Holland, 2 each to Germany and Finland and 3 to Russia.

Of these, 6 have been received, the 3 to Russia and the 1 to Japan are yet to arrive.

In return, I have received 4 cards, 2 from Holland, 1 from Ukraine and 1 from the USA, which means my address has been given to a further 2 people, and more cards could arrive at any time.

It genuinely is quite nice to recieve a card from a total stranger in the post, and I recommend it to anyone, especially if you have kids. It's relatively cheap, fun and is good to improve your geography.

First Autograph

I'll be honest with you.

I don't like tennis. Not even during Wimbledon when everyone seems to like tennis for a fortnight.

It has never really grabbed me, but as my first autograph has just arrived, I for one will be cheering on Tim Henman this year. I reckon this 2013 is his year.

Come on Tim!!

Walking With Dinosaurs

As I mentioned last month, I didn't really know what to expect from this family trip out. It was foolish of me really, as there was a clue in the title. There were dinosaurs. And they were walking... mainly forwards and backwards, not a lot of side to side action before crabs were invented.

It was clearly aimed at kids, both in tone and timing (starting at 7, finishing before 9 with a 20 minute break in the middle), but it seemed to hold the attention of most of them, and it was certainly visually spectacular.

I have stolen these pictures from my sister, so if you want to know what the spectacular views I saw were, imagine these, but 2 seats over.

Cooking from scratch - (Healthy) Roast Potatoes

Okay, I know roast potatoes aren't the hardest thing in the world to cook, but before last night, I'd never actually cooked them before. However as I've been cooking 'Slimming World Chips' a lot lately, I thought I'd try the same method for roasties.

I started, like the maverick I am, by peeling some potatoes.

Look, some potatoes.

Then I chopped them

Look, some chopped potatoes

Then I boiled them

Look, some boiling potatoes

Then I put them in a roasting tin, covered in Fry Light

Look, some boiled potatoes

Then you roast them for an hour, and Bob's your mothers brother.

Look, some roast potatoes

And very nice they were too!

Fin.

Twitter Update - 2 more names!

This month I have had tweets from Helen Zaltzman and Margaret Cabourn-Smith.

Neither of these exchanges really stand up to repeated viewing, but as they are on 2 of my favourite podcasts, I'll instead use this blog to promote them. Do your ears a treat and give these a go:

Answer Me This

Do The Right Thing

Film Fandango

Alex Horne Breaks the News

Richard Herring's Leicester Square Theatre Podcast (RHLSTP)

Enjoy. And if someone listens and lets me know what they think, I might stop recommending the same things over and over again!

Trying Food for the first time - Sharon Fruit

I saw these for sale when I was doing an ASDA shop the other day, and as I've never tried them, I thought they would be perfect for this challenge.

I should note, they didn't have a picture, and I made a conscious decision not to Google  so I had no idea what to expect. What arrived was a pack of three fruits that looked like this:

As this stage, I'm a bit concerned that they similar to a tomato. I bloody hate tomatoes, and I am right to do so because they are evil. 

I cut the weird freaky Pokemon top off, and it looks like this:

I'm no expert, but that's still looking like one of Satan's testicles to me. But I'd come this far, and I wasn't ready to to back out yet. One more slice and I was ready to taste.

To be honest... it was okay. With it's smooth skin and tasty insides, it was like someone had shaved a peach. If you are going to Google 'shaved peach' to see if they look like this, do it when you get home from work.

The strangest thing about it was, I was actually disappointed that I liked it. I thought it would be easier to write a funny blog entry if it had tasted disgusting. I think these challenges are slowly breaking me.

Days/Evenings out - Daniel Kitson

I don't really have much more I can say about this evening, it was excellent as Kitson always is, but he throws so many ideas at you, it's really hard to put into words what the show is about, especially without spoiling it for anyone that still plans on seeing it.

But I will say this, for anyone that has seen Kitson before, this is far more 'stand up' than his most recent shows have been, and it is also far more positive. You walk away thinking that things actually will be okay.

Everything that man does is fantastic, so once again I'm going to link to the downloadable goodness.

Kitson

Random Act of Kindness... Does this count?

Okay, this does count as something that I didn't *need* to do, technically, but doing it was the right thing. But I can't decide if this should count as a random act of kindness for this challenge. So I'm leaving this up to a vote.

I was in the local balloon shop (because yes, we have a local balloon shop), stocking up on Birthday odds and sods for Ethan. I noticed when she was totting up on the till that she hadn't charged me for something, I pointed it out and thanked me for my honesty. But it was only 50p.

So is this an act of kindness? Or just not being a git?

The choice is yours!

Charity Donation - Wirral St Johns Hospice

An old collage friend is doing a sponsored dog walk this month. I'll be honest, I don't really know much about the dog walk. I don't know if it is long, or fast or they have to do it dressed as humans (but I really hope they do!)

What I do know however, is that the charity is one that is well worth supporting. Wirral St Johns Hospice.

You can find out more information here but the basic jist of what they do is summed up like this:

The aim of Wirral Hospice St John's is to warmly welcome people with progressive illness, which has failed to respond to curative treatment, into the quiet calm of a highly professional caring atmosphere, which comforts always both them and those who are important to them.

I don't think the importance of that can really be overestimated.

If you would like to sponsor Ginette, you can do so here

Postcrossing - An update

Things have started to move in this area.

After finally getting around to posting my original 5 cards, they have started to arrive at their destinations!

The cards that I sent to Spain, Germany and Holland have arrived, which means my address has been given to 3 people for them to send me a postcard. I'm genuinely excited by this!

Because they were registered as 'arrived' on the site, I was also able to request a further 5 address, so today I posted 2 cards to Russia, 2 to Finland and 1 to to Germany (joining the ones still travelling to Russia and Japan).

You can peoples stats and some of them have sent thousands, and I can see why, it can get addictive. As a hobby it's pretty cheap too, Postcards are next to nothing and the cost of an international stamp is 88p

If you want to give it a try, the site again is http://www.postcrossing.com/. Give it a shot, you might make a new friend. Or even an enemy. Lets face it, enemies are much cooler if they have a foreign accent.