Moving my blog!

I have lost motivation in my 3o before I'm 30 challenge mainly because I slipped on a lot of the montly tasks. For this reason I am amalgumating it with my to 30 and beyond blog. Any tasks on this one which is not do something every month etc I will be adding to my to 30 and beyond and will now just post on that blog. So if you want to keep reading about my adventures please go here: www.to30andbeyond.blogspot.com

1 step forward, 2 steps back

Well it's the end of January and I think I can safely say that I'm pleased the month has gone. Unfortunately things have not gone quite as I had planned.

The creative writing course I was booked on to do was meant to start last week but I got a phone call from the college the day before saying that they did not have enough people signed up to do it and so they have cancelled it. I am really disappointed about it as I was looking forward to starting it. I had also rearranged some extra work hours to work around the course time so that ended up being a waste of time. There are other colleges that are running creative writing courses over the next few months but they all seem to be as twice as much as this one cost wise. They are also general creative writing courses whereas the one I was going to be doing was for writing children's stories which I had particular interest in. I may wait and see if they try running the course again at another time.

There is also another task that looks like it is going to have to be put off until a later time and that is to be in a tv show audience. I have free tickets to go and see Britain's Got Talent a week on Wednesday but unfortunately because it's during the day I can't find anyone who is able to get the time off work to be able to go. I'm also a bit doubtful about spending the money I'll need to get there as I have a friend coming to stay the weekend before and I'm going away to stay with my brother the week after which will both involve money being spent! I'm a little disappointed about this as I was getting quite excited about it but I am still signed up for tickets to other shows so I will just have to wait for this task and see what else I may be offered to go and see.

I have also not managed to not use my credit card this month. I fell susceptable to the January Sales and treated myself to some clothes on Joe Browns website. I'd been sent a further discount code off sale items for the website and I love their clothes so decided that as I haven't bought any new clothes in a long I would treat myself! I also used my card for one of my other tasks. I was looking at the website for the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh during the festival and noticed that a lot of the tickets are already selling out. I didn't want to miss out on this so bought our tickets for when we're there for the weekend in August. I don't feel bad about using my credit card this month as I'm pleased with the clothes and the Edinburgh Tattoo should be brilliant. Most of the money for that one will also be given back to me (some already has been) by my friends also and I'll be paying that straight back onto the card. As for the Edinburgh Festival task the plans are going well for that. As I said a few months ago the hostel is already booked, I've just bought tickets for the Tattoo and one of my friends also booked our flights from Southampton this month too so all is set for that!

So all in all my challenge hasn't really gone forward this month at all but rather gone backwards. Still just under two years to get the things done though so plenty of time!

Haiti

I have changed my mind for what my charity donation was going to be this month. The one I was going to give to can wait until next month. I'm sure we are all aware of the earthquake in Haiti and the results of it so there's not really much more to say about my donation this month. I have given through the British Disaster Emergency Committee.

New Year

I'm a bit late to doing my new year post but hey I like to be different! I went back to work yesterday after a nice long 3 weeks Christmas holiday. As the students don't come back until next week it's very quiet and I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do for a few hours on a quiet afternoon at work than update my blog!

I am pleased with the progress of my challenges and felt that the number I got done last year was good. As this year I have the whole year I am expecting to complete a lot more. I already have a few in the pipeline.

The first task I will be starting on this year is the creative writing course. I signed up for one in the summer last year at a local college and that starts in two weeks time on a Tuesday evening. The course is writing children stories. I am looking forward to it although quite nervous as I haven't really done much writing before! It should be a good way to try it out though! It is only a short course of 8 weeks so it's not too big of a commitment if it turns out I'm rubbish or that I don't like it!

The second task that I have in the pipeline is to be in a TV audience. As I have already blogged I have free tickets to go and see the auditions for Britain's Got Talent in February. I'm hugely excited about that and can't wait! I just hope that I can actually get in as the tickets don't guarantee entry as they over ticket!

As well as those two things I also have the Edinburgh Festival booked for August. I have booked a hostel and got three friends who are wanting to come along so everything is set for that. All we need to do now is to book the flights up to Scotland to save the time spent on a train.

I'm sure that I will do some of the other things this year as well, such as go to Longleat, but they will be planned more in the short term. As for my monthly targets I'm not doing too badly. It looks like that I will be able to add another month to not using my credit card as I get some more money next week and I haven't had to use them so far this month. I'm behind on my swims by quite a bit and I have to admit that this weather isn't encouraging me to get undressed to jump in a pool! I may have to increase my swims in other months to reach the overall target. I haven't yet given to a charity this month but I have chosen which one I'm going to give to and will blog about that when I get round to doing it next week. The other target that I'm not doing well on is cleaning my car inside and out. I now find it hard to do the inside of it as I no longer have a drive way so I can't reach where I park my car with the hoover! I may decide to change that target to something else or I will just change it to car wash.

I am looking forward to another year and the exciting things that I can find to do!

Christmas in the Sun

I have just arrived back from spending the last week in Lanzarote. I have wanted to go somewhere abroad for Christmas for a really long time and it was soooooo nice to spend it somewhere warm and sunny. In fact it wasn't just warm but hot, hot, hot! There was a very long delay in leaving Gatwick and instead of boarding at 8.10am we boarded the plane at 7.30pm. Having to hang around in the airport for that long certainly wasn't a great start to the holiday and our tempers were beginning to fray by the end of it! I had taken my pack of Uno cards with me and we were thankful for those eventually!


As the plane was so late we got to lanzarote in the middle of the night so didn't see anything of it until we got up the next day. And Lo and Behold it was chucking it down with rain! In fact it continued raining for all of that day and through the morning the next day! It did brighten up though and for the rest of the week it was very hot at about 25 degrees. Having left England in the snow it was glorious to be in the warmth! We spent Christmas on the beach and opened our presents on the balcony. My friend got me a book called Wreck this Journal. I am very anal over my books and hate even breaking the spines of a page getting bent! The point of this book is to completely trash it by doing things such as breaking the spine and scribbling in it and so on! I had fun doing that!


While in Lanzarote we went to Timanfaya which is where the volcano erupted for 6 years. It was amazing and it looked like a completely different planet. Supposedly a lot of the films which are set on the moon are filmed there because of the landscape. It was fascinating to see the lava flows and molten rock. The land was so hot that just putting some straw on the earth causes it to set fire in just a couple of minutes! I loved looking around and getting a feel of the place. I still can't get my head around the explosion and what it must have been like.




The holiday was really nice and I have come back feeling relaxed and sunned. Finally here's a picture of the view from the road outside our apartment:

Naomi House

My Charity this month is Naomi House. It is a local charity to Winchester and is a hospice for Children with disabilities and life threatening illnesses. They give care for the children and respite for the parents. They unfortunately lost a lot of money earlier this year due to banks collapsing and this made their future look very uncertain. They have managed to get some of this back but not all. They are a charity and are always in need of more finances and with the economy as it is and the bank problems earlier this year they have never been in more need. If you'd like to find out more about them then click here!