Monday 3 January 2011

But it turns out we're rubbish at ongoing tasks...

So we have actually got quite a lot crossed off the list now, but there are some things which we are a long, long way behind on, and quite a few which, actually, it seems like a good idea to scrap.

#2 - So we're clearly woefully behind in terms of updating the blog but this is something we can catch up on.

#3 - There are things we have missed taking a photo of, which is actually a real shame. It would be so great to have the record to look back on. Will do what we can to take 'catch-up' photos, and to take pictures from now on, but have to recognise that sadly, some of the items on the list will not have a photo. (And, actually, what on earth would I take a picture of for #80 anyway?!)

#4 - We're way too far behind on this one to catch up - sadly funds do not allow. Which is a shame because all the money at the end would have been lovely. Time to rethink this one...

#7 - This is a bit too vague. We have visited new places in the UK but have had difficulties deciding whether they were worthwhile enough to be included in the list. Something more specific needed here, but hopefully still about new experiences / places.

#15 - Jo and Adam moved and now live about 30 minutes down the road, so this one is a bit irrelevant now.

#32 - see #7, really, it's the same thing. Not interesting or challenging enough.

#36 - Something I have learnt about myself - I really, really don't care about gardening. Whenever anyone asks what our plans are for our new garden I can't help groaning. At the moment it is an expanse of grass and concrete path and, actually, that's fine with me. I only kill plants anyway. I have no motivation for this one at all, and neither does Chris, so it's definitely one that needs changing.

#39 - We perhaps have managed this one but can't remember. Will change to something still food related but not requiring monthly committment, I think.

#47 - Major fail. So our cars will probably never be as well maintained as they should, but this is dull. Something more exciting, please.

#49 - Actually, we've already done this once (when we thought we'd decided not to move, after all), but we have moved so it needs doing again, and therefore I've left it.

#65 - We've now been married more than 2 years, and therefore should probably get on with this one.

#70 - This just isn't 'us'. I copied it from someone else's list and actually, it just doesn't suit.

#72 - The house move has meant that we no longer have a breakfast bar, so eat at the dining table every day. Not relevant anymore.

#77 - We haven't kept up with this but it would be such a great record to have. Am going to make a renewed effort from now on.

#81 - So we've definitely missed weeks, but this is something we both really enjoy when we actually make the effort to do it. It's staying on the list.

#82 - We're rubbish at committing to something on a monthly basis, what can I say?

#84 - I'm not sure about this one. Leaving it on there for the time being, to possibly be reinstated at some point.

#87 - See #65. This needs to be a priority. 

And that just about brings us up to date. Vital statistics on 3rd January 2010 (Day 368 - 633 still to go).
Tasks completed: 30
Tasks underway: 15
Tasks to be changed: 10
Which leaves 56 tasks still to be completed.

Better get going! 

Sunday 2 January 2011

Things what we have done since last time

There are more things crossed off the list than we'd managed on 14th February 2010. Here's what we've been up to in the last 322 days.

#9 - This was a recent one. We were meant to go on a fabulous tropical holiday this Christmas but unfortunately our flight was cancelled due to all the snow. Within an hour of realising our holiday was cancelled, we were on our way to a fab hotel for a spontaneous weekend away instead. We have disagreed slightly over whether this counted, as we were planning to be away anyway, but since it was a total change of plans, made on the spur of the moment, and since it required a completely different wardrobe, we have decided to count it. So there.

#14 - Italicised because we have plans for a weekend in a campervan with Jo and Adam. Actually this was meant to happen at the start of December (snow, again!) but should be happening in the next few weeks. Will strike through when we've actually managed it.

#21 - We did this. A visit by my tweenage cousins provided the perfect opportunity for us to don those fabulous two-tone shoes and knock down a few pins....or whatever the technical terms are...Chris won, by the way.

#23 - Two nights, actually. This was the hotel we visited for our spur of the moment weekend away. It's fab - try it sometime - www.crabatchieveley.com

#24 - Thanks to my parents' birthday gift to me, we saw Katy Brand at the Nuffield Theatre one Sunday night in June. 'Twas very, very funny. "One c**k in every hole...we call it Pearl Harbour, 'cos it gets everyone involved"

#25 - How we know we are getting old - we happily paid money to watch a firework display, and even remarked what good value it was at £4 each. When we were students we gladly stood in the drop zone for the fireworks because being in danger of being burned alive was far better than the prospect of paying £2 to be in the safe bit.

#33 - On holiday in Portugal this summer. It was very small, cheap and ancient, but nonetheless was the first car we'd ever hired. And most of the time we stayed on the correct side of the road.

#34 - We did this in July. Eeek....

#35 - ...and finally managed this at the end of August. Well, with what we owe on our mortgage, and our parents, we probably bought the front door but, still, it's a start.

#37 - Very proudly transported from the old house to the new was our newly planted aero-garden crop - which produced a grand total of 4 teeny-tiny strawberries and then died. They were delicious though.

#38 - The move was the perfect opportunity for a good clear out (so why does Chris still have 2 whole drawers - big ones - FULL of t-shirts?!)

#40 - The move also solved this one, with the rather brilliant solution of a whole room (well, basement workshop) for the drum kit to live in. Most of the time I can even forget it exists. Heaven...

#41 - Yep, did this before we moved too. Have since acquired more...

#46 - See #41

#48 - In that phase every new homeowner goes through, we rapidly decorated 3 rooms (living room, study and spare room) before getting fed up and becoming so used to the peeling wallpaper, bare plaster and other imperfections of the remaining rooms that we now fail to notice it.

#51 - Not much that can be said about this one, really, except that it's very comfy.

#53 - After more than 5 years of being together, we finally managed to agree on, and purchase, a time piece. It has pride of place in our kitchen. We brought it all the way home from Portugal, so must have really liked it.  It's purple.

#57 - Success just the other day, taking full advantage of the January sales. Chris chose a lovely (& very smart) coat as his birthday present (how exciting...as his other presents I have chosen socks and boxers, what a lucky man he is!).

#58 - A new house has meant that lots of people have come to visit, hence plenty of opportunities for hosting dinner parties. Much fun and alcohol at all of them.

#59 - The arrival of baby Scarlet has provided us with even more opportunities to send things, so we're doing just about ok with this one.

#62 - Just about keeping up with this one, too.

#64 - 2 babies in the family this year have meant 2 quilts, plus Jo requested a cushion cover for her Christmas present. In fact, I've also sent another cushion cover as a secret santa gift AND have nearly finished a quilt for my mum (though she had to make do with a photo of it for her actual birthday today).

#66 - Just before Christmas we had an open house / housewarming for the neighbours, and just after we had all of Chris's family round for a post-Christmas bash. We may well have the second lot of guests back.

#69 - We had one BBQ with our good friends Geoff and Zara before we moved, hopefully next summer we'll manage more in our new garden (though we may have to find a way of anchoring our BBQ so it doesn't roll down the hill which is all our garden consists of).

#80 - No actual success yet, but we have indeed completed the starting part of trying. 

#89 - Chris now wears contact lenses most of the time.

#90 - He's had 2 in fact (and I may have tagged along) - one in Buxton in February and the other on our anniversary in October.

#92 - In italics because Chris has managed this part. I did get a temporary one but am not counting that as, after all, it was only temporary. I'm working on it.

#94 - Chris and I are now both regular donors.

#98 - Gone.

Wow, it seems quite a lot now I've written it down.

Still to come, the things we won't be doing, and what we might change them to.

Definitely time for some updating...

Well past time, in fact.

And we started so well...

What happened is that life got in the way, we got busy and pretty much forgot about our 101 things in 1001 days project. After a couple of months, if one of us would idly mention it to the other, we both just imagined ourselves so far behind on it that it seemed pointless revisiting the list and the blog. But in that quiet time between Christmas and New Year I found myself thinking about it again, and decided to have another look at the list. To my surprise, we weren't anywhere near as far behind as I thought we were. Unintentionally, we crossed quite a few things off the list this year anyway. And we both agreed that it's a worthwhile project we'd quite like to carry on with (despite the 10 month gap). So, here is the update, in 2 posts as it will no doubt be lengthy. 

Sunday 14 February 2010

Day 45 - #28

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.

Today we had a really great day visiting Marwell Zoo. I'd never been before, and am not always a big fan of zoos, but I was really impressed with Marwell. Despite the rain, and the cold, we had a really enjoyable day.



Saturday 6 February 2010

Day 37 - more #39, #86 and #97

So, it's a new month, and we're still making progress with our weekly and monthy tasks. Today I made raspberry cheesecake brownie, so that's our new food for the month. It's a bit too much really, I'd probably either just make the cheesecake or just make the brownie next time. Also dread to think how many calories must be in a slice!

I've completed #86 - only weighing myself once a week for 5 weeks. Surprisingly, it wasn't actually that difficult, although I think my waistline has suffered because I haven't been able to 'see' the consequences of what I've been eating, and it works the other way too because I like to be able to check whether what I'm feeling about myself is true/reasonable. Chris suggested this one and I agree with him that I do normally weigh myself too much, but once a week isn't quite enough for me. I think going forward I'll try to limit myself to just 2 or 3 times a week. I am glad I've done this challenge, because it has been a good way to get myself out of a 4-5 time a day habit, which has got to be good.

And, we've also done #97, clearing Chris's overdraft. We always had the savings to cover it but hadn't paid it off because Chris thought it was interest free. When it turned out it actually hadn't been for around 8 months (not exactly his fault as it was meant to be, but then again he hadn't noticed that it wasn't!) we decided we'd better pay it off pronto. So, for the first time in around 7 years, Chris no longer has an overdraft. Now we only have mine to go (which is much, much smaller...*smug*...and also definitely is still interest free!). I'm not sure what photo we can take for this one...I guess maybe a picture of a bank statement with a positive balance!

I'm still going with HPAD (#84) although missed 4 days at the end of January due to being utterly snowed under with work. I'll tag them on to the end to make sure that I still have 365 photos at the end of the project. I'm really enjoying taking a picture a day - it's a challenge but also really nice to have a record of what my month has been like (as I'm using it mainly as a photo diary). Hopefully as the weather cheers up I'll be doing more interesting things as well!

Monday 25 January 2010

Day 25 - #39

Well, we didn't manage to frame the wedding picture but I did do the first part of #39 - cooking something new every month. I made pollo con arroz (chicken with rice), and it was pretty good. Will definitely make it again, anyway.


Sunday 24 January 2010

Day 24 - Still making progress

Well, as predicted, now we're back at work things have slowed down a lot. Still, we're making good progress on the weekly things - our walks and eating at the dining room table, for example.

And Chris has done really well on #88, he has well and truly given up sugar in his tea. He's been talking about doing it for ages so it's really nice that this 101 things project gave him the last bit of motivation he needed.

We've been looking at quite a few houses, haven't found anything yet but we're staying positive as there seems to be more coming on to the market all the time at the moment. We'll definitely get there this year, anyway.

I think I'm doing well on #86 - am 3 weeks in and haven't weighed myself at all this week, so that's good. It's not actually been as hard as I thought, I just wonder if I can keep it up once the 5 weeks has gone. I'm also enjoying doing HPAD (#84) and have kept up pretty well with that so far (although I do need to take 2 pictures today to catch up).

On Thursday I bought a new frame for our wedding photo poster, so hopefully we'll get #71 done soon - today if we're really good.

I think we need to get going on some of our trips and things - although we are going away at half term (I don't know where, it's a surprise for my birthday) so hopefully that might help with a couple of those items.

There's only a week of January left so we're going to have to make sure we play a game together this week and also that we cook something new - I think I might try to do that today if I get the time.

So, lots still to be done...off I go!