October - A Month in Review

13 Recommendations 

The Return has arrived, but I've managed to avoid it so far. We are watching The Blacklist, is anyone else? It's excellent

13 Recipes:

I'm getting back into the swing of things, so this will come next month.

13 Meals Out:

Another for the list. Not a great experience though!

13 Random Acts of kindness:

Another good month, but I'm fast running out of ideas.

13 Letters:

I've a cunning plan. They are going out in Christmas cards! Clever eh?

13 Blogs per month:

10 months done.

13 Family days out:

2 done, 2 future ones booked and a possible for this weekend.

13 New Foods:

It's too soon to talk about it.

£13 for Charity per month:

12 donations done, so one more in the next 2 months and this will be sorted

13/30 Autographs:

Challenge Completed!

13 (minimum) Postcrossing:

Challenge Completed! 

13 (minimum) Geocaches:

Fuck

13 @Replies or Retweets from famous people:

Challenge completed!

Trying something for the first time - Chocolate Bacon Soda

I like chocolate.

I enjoy bacon.

I love fizzy drinks.

Bringing all these things together should be the perfect drink, right?

Turns out, in actual fact, something being fizzy and tasting of chocolate is possibly the worst thing in human creation. Even Ethan wouldn't drink it, and his favourite drink is Apple and Mint! 0/10

Trying things for the first time - Strawberry Fanta from Thailand

I have had this for a while but I've been putting it off, largely because I was expecting it to be disgustingly sickly. Surprisingly, it wasn't that sweet at all.

It was very red, like Tizer used to be in the 80's before they took out all those tasty chemicals. And is smelt like medicine that had a fake strawberry flavour added to stop kids spitting it out in doctors faces.

But to taste, it wasn't bad. It tasted of strawberry flavour rather than strawberries but that is hardly a surprise. I finish the whole glass and while I probably wouldn't have it again, it wasn't unpleasant.  6/10

Tomorrow I'll be drinking Bacon Soda. I can only hope that goes half as well...

Family Trip Out - Tranmere Rovers vs Bristol City

We never made it to Tranmere vs Swindon earlier this year due to the snow, so Ethan and I will be going to this bottom of the table clash between Bristol and the Super White Army.

Also joining us with Katie (watching her first ever match), birthday boy Harry, Sarah and Michael. Should be a decent match.

Family Trip Out - Beauty and The Beast

Despite last years less than impressive 'Knights of the Round Table' pantomime, we have decided to once again give the Port Sunlight Players a chance with this years effort. It's not very festive, but at least Ethan will know the story this time!

http://www.gladstonetheatre.org.uk/jswhatson.shtml

Random Act of Kindness - Becoming a bone marrow doner

I thought the next natural step from giving blood would be becoming a bone marrow doner.

So I went to http://www.anthonynolan.org/What-you-can-do/save-a-life/Online-application.aspx and filled it all in and... I'm too old. Which was a bit of a kick in the chaps.

I can still join the register, but need to do it at the same time as giving blood.

For more information, look here - http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/bone-marrow-donation/Pages/Introduction.aspx

Random Act of Kindness - Giving Blood

I used to give blood but haven't done it for years. So I'm going to again.

I went to http://www.blood.co.uk/ and found my local blood letters are 0.3 miles away and the next session is Saturday 9th November. So I signed myself and Katie up for it.

You should sign up too, you never know when you might need a bit of the red stuff back.

Random Act of Kindness - Reserve a place for a homeless person at Crisis at Christmas

I am a huge fan of Christmas, anyone who knows me will already know that. I get excited far too early, I start shopping far too early and I let Ethan listen to Christmas songs in the car after December 1st (there have to be rules!)

Illness aside, Homelessness is pretty much the worst thing that I can imagine happening to someone. And if the last few years have taught us anything, we are all only a few missed payday's away from being on our arses. So I have paid for a random homeless person to have a place at Crisis at Christmas

One place at Crisis at Christmas provides...

• welcoming support from people who really care

• three nutritious, hot meals including Christmas dinner

• the chance to shower and change clothes, have a haircut and get a health check

• expert advice on life-changing issues like housing and employment

• an introduction to Crisis year-round services for training and support for the future

It’s a gift that always changes lives, and often saves them

If you want to learn more, please go to - http://community.crisis.org.uk/reserve

Charity Donation - Cancer Research UK

As mentioned in this earlier post, Stu Blackburn, 'the other end of Dobbin' is also running the London Marathon next year, raising money for 

For my insults in Stu's direction, see John's post.

To sponsor Stu go to http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/stubee 
or Text STUB52 £(amount) to 70070
For more on what Cancer Research do go to http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/home/

Night Out - The Dixie Dean Story

Katie and I went to see The Dixie Dean Story on Thursday. Clearly this is something that had far more appeal to me than her, but I will try to do both side justice.

I enjoyed it. It was just a fella on stage being Dixie and a narrator. 'Dixie' was pretty good, told the story well and had very impressive 'keepie uppie' skills. The narrator was okay, but a lot of it was very dry dates and stats making it hard to follow the timeline. I don't think they did enough of emphasise quite how big the feat of 60 goals in a season was (and is) and they skipped over the fact that Dean hated the name Dixie.

Katie didn't totally hate the story, enjoyed her interval Bacardi and was confused why there was booing when it was announced that Ian St John was in the crowd.

I wonder why NME don't do couples reviews?

Trying New Food - Shredded Beef Quesadilla

While at the Chronicle, I decided to try Shredded Beef Quesadillas for the first time. I'm not really a fan of Mexican food on the whole, but as the old saying goes, when in Bebington....

They arrived, and they were a little but underwhelming. They literally were just pulled beef in the soft shell and nothing else. I'm not a fan of extra stuff for the sake of it in food, but these looked very plain. There were bloody tasty though, enough for me to want to go back for them again on Saturday (It was a disappointing return though).

I googled for images though, to see what it was I was missing, and while as a rule they look pretty simple, I do think they would be improved with a nice cheese.

Maybe I will try cooking them at home!

 

Family Trip Out - Revisting our first date

As always, Ethan was away for half term, but rather than getting distracted by other things like we usually do, Katie and I made a point to actually go out and do things together.

Firstly, we decided to go back to the place where we had our first date, The Chronicle. The benefit of this being a night out as part of a long term relationship rather than a first date meant that my lack of nerves lead to being able to both eat AND drink this time. Score!

I had a very nice pint of Bombardier while Katie took advantage of the 2 for 1 cocktails.

The food was very nice, but as I tried something new, that is for another blog. However, I will end on a word of warning...

We went on a Tuesday, had a lovely night and really enjoyed the food. So we decided to meet our friends on Saturday night for something to eat....it was a mistake. I had a pulled beef burger that was as tough as old boots, and unfortunately, the meal that night wasn't the last I saw of it. And that was definitely the fault of the food, rather than all the alcohol I washed the taste away with.

Charity Donation - Macmillan Cancer Support

Years ago, I had the displeasure of working for the Child Support Agency for nearly 5 years. I worked that for that because a) I was too stupid to know better and b) some of the people there were brilliant.

I'm still in a prawn cracker syndicate (with a sideline in losing football bets) with 3 of those brilliant people, one of which has just signed on to run the London Marathon for the first time next year.

This is remarkable because John, when we first met, could not be described as a natural athlete. However years of running has caused his waistline to recede as rapidly as mine has expanded.

And despite having knees that those with the proper medical training would describe as 'fucked', I am fully behind him in this. Not literally. I'll be miles away at home not watching it on telly. Unless he and Stu do it as Dobbin from Rent-a-Ghost. I'd watch that.

And if you are lucky enough not to know what Macmillan do, here is some info

So please, if you know John or hate cancer, please help him reach his lofty target. If he exceeds it, he will totally run it dressed as a horse*

*Come on John, it's for a good cause! Plus it's 4x the good luck built in!

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/hughesy3006