Easing myself back into blogging after taking a little break, here's an update on my 30 Things project:
Since we're at the half way point, I'd like to say I'm ticking off a further 10 items (!), but this month I can only tick off numbers 8 & 9. We had a fun family photo shoot and I've added 50 new names to my recently created Family Tree. Still, it's progress! Sorting out my storage and building a new desk area for the office are still "in progress"... I'm now skydiving with my little sis and little bro, so that's all booked up for the summer, and I've booked my tiger moth flight and London Eye ride for June. What else is happening? Well, I'm planning to visit my old school and write a children's story with the Infants and do a presentation on travel and being a writer with the Juniors. If that comes off (hopefully in June), I'll be able to tick off two more items - 15 & 22 - as I hope to self publish the story on Amazon and re-visit the school at a later date to show the kids what they created. At this point in time I am wondering whether I'm going to complete all this by November 6th. I do know I'm really excited about the next few months because some of the things I've wanted to do for ages and ages are packed into there. Guess I'll just keep my fingers and toes crossed and I look forward to updating you all next month! 1. DONE - Fly First Class long haul from anywhere to anywhere 2. BOOKED - Take a photography course 3. BOOKED - Experience the Caledonian sleeper train to Scotland & ride around Edinburgh in a funky Billy Connolly style Trike 4. BOOKED - Visit 1 of the countries in my Top 3 “before it changes forever” list - Cuba 5. IN PROGRESS - Sort out proper storage for my favourite belongings 6. DONE - Try 3 new variations of foods 7. Walk the beautiful Jurassic Coastline 8. DONE - Complete a family tree with at least 50 people on it 9. DONE - Fun family photo shoot 10. BOOKED - Fly in a Tiger Moth 11. BOOKED - Tandem sky dive 12. DONE - Bake a marble cake just like my mum’s 13. DONE - Make a decent curry 14. Finish writing the Dalton Trilogy 15. IN PROGRESS - Self publish an informative eBook or a children's book on Amazon 16. Publish a paid article 17. Feature photos on shutterstock.com 18. Catalogue my last 10 years of travels 19. Lose 14 lbs 20. Host a dinner party from scratch (3 courses) 21. IN PROGRESS - Build a new desk area for the office 22. IN PROGRESS - Do 1 presentation to an audience 23. BOOKED - Ride the London Eye 24. Interview 3 Indie authors from Twitter 25. (Market and) sell 100 copies of Little Child 26. Take a weekend TEFL course 27. DONE - Achieve 3000 unique visitor hits on my website in a month (Feb 2012 was 2816) 28. Make some serious progress on my Writers Bureau course 29. Local book signing 30. Walk parts of the Thames Trail
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Just a quick update on my 30 Things - I managed 3235 web hits for March in the end.
Very pleased with that result! Here's a little update for this month on my 30 Things project. I can happily tick off 3 items - 12, 13 and 27 - and 3 and 4 are now booked up and ready to go for May. Items 5 and 21 are still a work in progress and I've also booked 2 for June 1st - a photography course / walking tour around London photographing the iconic landmarks of our Capital with an expert guide and photographer. The timing couldn't be more perfect with it being on the eve of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Although, still disappointed I didn't get tickets for the concert... 1. DONE - Fly First Class long haul from anywhere to anywhere 2. BOOKED - Take a photography course 3. BOOKED - Experience the Caledonian sleeper train to Scotland & ride around Edinburgh in a funky Billy Connolly style Trike 4. BOOKED - Visit 1 of the countries in my Top 3 “before it changes forever” list - Cuba 5. IN PROGRESS - Sort out proper storage for my favourite belongings 6. DONE - Try 3 new variations of foods 7. Walk the beautiful Jurassic Coastline 8. Complete a family tree with at least 50 people on it 9. Fun family photo shoot 10. Fly in a Tiger Moth 11. Tandem sky dive 12. DONE - Bake a marble cake just like my mum’s 13. DONE - Make a decent curry 14. Finish writing the Dalton Trilogy 15. Self publish an informative eBook on Amazon 16. Publish a paid article 17. Feature photos on shutterstock.com 18. Catalogue my last 10 years of travels 19. Lose 14 lbs 20. Host a dinner party from scratch (3 courses) 21. IN PROGRESS - Build a new desk area for the office 22. Do 1 presentation to an audience 23. Ride the London Eye 24. Interview 3 Indie authors from Twitter 25. (Market and) sell 100 copies of Little Child 26. Take a weekend TEFL course 27. DONE - Achieve 3000 unique visitor hits on my website in a month (Feb 2012 was 2666) 28. Make some serious progress on my Writers Bureau course 29. Local book signing 30. Walk parts of the Thames Trail So for the 3 items I'm ticking off - first up, I hit over 3,000 web hits for this month. Current total stands at 3,134 but the site is on North American time, so there's still time to bump up that figure a bit more! I'll update in the morning... Next, you may have seen my tweet yesterday with my triumphant marble cake. Thrilled to have baked one just like my mum's with the added excitement of it being my very first cake attempt! Finally, today I cooked a delicious King Prawn Korma with my own yellow rice. This is my first ever homemade curry... And what else have I been up to this month? Well, apart from blogging, I've been eBaying, re-designing our gardens and gutting a bedroom to re-decorate. So, just a few things on the go...!
We're taking a short break from the author platform and online presence so I can update you on my 30 Things progress! The list has been slightly edited (see highlighted bits) to better reflect my forthcoming plans, now that things are finally slotting into place for the rest of the year. Nothing I can tick off this month, but I am making progress on Items 5 & 21 and the revised 3 & 4...
1. DONE - Fly First Class long haul from anywhere to anywhere 2. Take a photography course 3. DELETE - Climb something on our island like Snowdon or Ben Nevis REPLACED WITH - Experience the Caledonian sleeper train to Scotland & ride around Edinburgh in a funky Billy Connolly style Trike 4. DELETE - Have a canal barge holiday REPLACED WITH - Visit 1 of the countries in my Top 3 “before it changes forever” list - Cuba 5. Sort out proper storage for my favourite belongings 6. DONE - Try 3 new variations of foods 7. Walk the beautiful Jurassic Coastline 8. Complete a family tree with at least 50 people on it 9. Fun family photo shoot 10. Fly in a Tiger Moth 11. Tandem sky dive 12. Bake a marble cake just like my mum’s 13. Make a decent curry 14. Finish writing the Dalton Trilogy 15. DELETE - Exhibit Little Child at a mental health exhibition REPLACED WITH - Self publish an informative eBook on Amazon 16. Publish a paid article 17. Feature photos on shutterstock.com 18. Catalogue my last 10 years of travels 19. Lose 14 lbs 20. Host a dinner party from scratch (3 courses) 21. Build a new desk area for the office 22. Do 1 presentation to an audience 23. DELETE - Experience a murder mystery party weekend REPLACED WITH - Ride the London Eye 24. Interview 3 Indie authors from Twitter 25. (Market and) sell 100 copies of Little Child 26. Take a weekend TEFL course 27. Achieve 3000 unique visitor hits on my website in a month (Feb 2012 was 2666) 28. Make some serious progress on my Writers Bureau course 29. Local book signing 30. Walk parts of the Thames Trail I've also been reading Yahoo's article this morning - 10 places to see before you die - and can happily say I've already seen 3 of the 10 (which was more than I expected!) I've travelled through the Canadian Rockies on the fabulous Rocky Mountaineer, stood up close, been sprayed with and microlighted over the thunderous Victoria Falls (Zambian side) and marveled at the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx in Egypt. Still so much to do though...! I'm home from an abso-bloomin'-lutely magical holiday to Canada and what a fun family filled January it has been! I have to reiterate that it's got to be the best start to a new year ever. Since being back I've been laughing my way through Series 2 of Mrs Brown's Boys and getting addicted and highly strung on Series 1 of 24 (which incidentally Wikipedia tells me premiered in America on the Fox Network on my 19th birthday). My over active imagination means Colin and I are nightly prowling the streets of America saving innocent lives. In my dreams I've got quite good at shooting a gun and dodging bullets! We've only watched 8 eps - and we're a bag of jangling nerves. Means it's good script writing if we're this hooked so early on, so hats off to the writers.
Here's something I strongly believe in - never listen to the critics. What am I referring to? Well, it's actually my album of the month - Beyonce's 4. I was under the impression it was full of retro tunes, totally different to anything she's done before and a record I definitely wouldn't buy - or even like. How very very wrong I was to listen to those critics. I played it on the plane (both directions in fact because I loved it that much) and have since purchased the deluxe version on iTunes. It's a fabulous mix of styles that compliment each other so well. I am rocking it! Now onto the MAIN event - today brings a close to the first quarter of my 30 Things project. I've got off to a bit of a slow start (having finalised the list 2 months after my 29th birthday - whoops) but I can tick off 2 items on that list: 1. Fly First Class long haul from anywhere to anywhere - DONE Thanks again to Air Canada for the totally unexpected upgrade! Flying 3,000 miles across the Atlantic with funky mood lighting, champagne, my cool pod that morphed into a bed with 5 weird and wonderful settings AND massage, the endless stream of inflight entertainment, brekky, a 5-course lunch, drinkies on tap and jumbo salt and vinegar nuts... was a pleasure and yep, I'm so easily pleased! 6. Try 3 new variations of foods - DONE A cold Brussel sprout sarnie courtesy of my Aunty Pat (was pretty darn good) Poutine courtesy of my cousins Phil & Shan (apparently of Polish origin - chips with gravy and cheese) Red & green dragon rolls courtesy of my cousin Lissy (salmon and avocado sushi) So, 2 down... and only 28 to go!!! I'm going to leave you with some pics of happy snowy Canada memories - the first country I've visited in all 4 seasons believe it or not - and let's see what the "leap" month of February has in store for us... I've achieved some amazing things over the last 10 years or so that really mean a lot to me personally, but I am always striving for something more. After all, isn’t Life there to be embraced? And I certainly don’t want to waste a second! Quitting the day job for the time being may be considered foolish in the current economic climate, but I have been saving like crazy to be able to take a year out – and it just so happens to coincide with the last year of my twenties. With all the things I want to do, it makes sense to have a list and that's where “30 things to do before I’m 30” comes in. This list will give me focus and a plan of action rather than stumbling through my time off and perhaps wasting... well... time.
So, in no particular order, this is how I want to spend the last year of my twenties: 1. Fly First Class from anywhere to anywhere 2. Take a photography course 3. Climb something on our island like Snowdon or Ben Nevis 4. Have a canal barge holiday 5. Sort out proper storage for my favourite belongings 6. Try 3 new foods 7. Walk the beautiful Jurassic Coastline 8. Complete a family tree with at least 50 people on it 9. Fun family photo shoot 10. Fly in a Tiger Moth 11. Tandem sky dive 12. Bake a marble cake just like my mum’s - and then eat it with no remorse! 13. Make a decent curry 14. Finish writing the Dalton Trilogy 15. Exhibit Little Child at a mental health exhibition 16. Publish a paid article 17. Feature photos on shutterstock.com 18. Catalogue my last 10 years of travels 19. Lose 14 lbs 20. Host a dinner party from scratch (3 courses) 21. Build a new desk area for the office 22. Do 1 presentation to an audience 23. Experience a murder mystery party weekend 24. Interview 3 Indie authors from Twitter 25. (Market and) sell 100 copies of Little Child 26. Take a weekend TEFL course 27. Achieve 500 hits on my website (1 day only) 28. Make some serious progress on my Writers Bureau course 29. Local book signing 30. Do the London night hike 2012 and / or walk part or all of the Thames trail |
AuthorBlogging is an amazing concept so here I am giving it a whirl. You'll get words. You'll get pics. Sometimes a vid or two. You'll get tongue in cheek, the odd humble opinion and an honest insight into my travels and writing life. Maybe even a few gems along the way. I'll be musing on home turf as I see more and more of the UK and sharing my experiences further afield on holidays and adventurous trips across the globe. Archives
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