June 25, 2008, 4:56 pm : It’s been a while…. again

Filed Under: 94 Things, About Me
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Lets hope I can get back in the posting habit this time.

I may have said, I’ve been in college since September on an art access course, which means once I pass I go to Uni. All of which should be finalised in the next few weeks, after which I will hopefully be a little less busy. And, of course, once everything has been marked by the moderator I will be updating my art site with loads of new stuff.

I really need to get all the finance stuff sorted out for my uni course, but I’m stuck until i can get a figure for what my dad earns. Student loans are scary, as is the idea of a student bank account and actually becoming a uni student. I’m sure though that I will document my demise well with updates here.

One thing I have managed is to add to my 80 things list, not really achieved any more but it is now 94 things. The new items on the list are mostly places to go or see, hopefully I’ll get the list up to 100 eventually. Here’s what’s been added;

81. Visit Easter Island
82. See Niagara Falls
83. Visit New England in Autumn
84. Go to the Grand Canyon
85. See giant redwoods
86. Go to the Great Wall
87. Visit Polonnaruwa (Sri Lanka)
88. Visit Tad Lo Falls
89. See the Plain of Jars (Laos) with a guide
90. Photograph Notre Dame
91. Go to the Rhine Valley
92. Visit the Giant’s Causeway
93. Visit Stonehenge
94. Visit Prague

I will add them to the original list too.

Well, next week i get to put up an exhibition of my work for the moderator, after that I will know for sure if I have passed. Until then I’ll just spend my time worrying, which I’m sure will be productive.

December 5, 2007, 3:44 am : Iceland

Filed Under: 94 Things
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Finally able to post now.

My parents sent me, with my sister to Iceland for my birthday. It was in hope of seeing the northern lights(#1 of my 80 things) but we were sadly out of luck there as the weather was wrong for it. But we still had a great time exploring the country.

It was a self drive holiday, which was scary seeing as we were in a 4×4 (normally a bad thing in cities, but needed in Iceland), it was left hand drive and we had to drive on the right hand side of the road. In essence we had two people driving all the time, so the passenger would spot anything the driver couldn’t, it worked well, we delivered ourselves and the car back in one peice at the end.

While the hotel wasn’t exactly the worlds best, it was warm and dry which is good enough. Iceland is a very expencive country, so as we are both fairly broke most of the time, we survived eating pot noodle and sandwiches (made from breakfast food we snuck out in a napkin) and only buying one meal a day.
On our first day there we explored the capital city, Rekjavik, where we were staying. We got a good feel for the place and walked to the old cemetary. It was a lot of fun, but with all the travel the days before (we stayed in London the night before the flight) combinded with the walking and cold, we got back to the hotel and just fell asleep for an afternoon nap.

The whole of the next day was spent driving the Golden Circle route. This took us through Þingvillir national park, where we watched the sunrise at about 11am, then on the Geysir. This route was tricky, we had to go the long way around as there was an impassible road where so much snow had fallen only Jeeps would get past (our 4×4 was a Skoda). This added about an hour to the journery, I was driving and the worst was right at the end. The road right before Geysir was completely covered in ice for about 5km. I had to dive very slowly and still skidded a few times.
Of course we did get there, we went to the café/shop first, both desperately needing the toilet! I also found a lovely hat which was all (fake) furry and warm, but like I said it was expencive there, so i had to buy it and nothing else.
Outside we walked around the Geysirs, getting to the bigger on just in time for it to go up. Geysirs stink of sulphur, that horrible rotten egg smell, and we were down wind. Quickly moving up the hill, there was a fair crowd gathered, and some amazing views, it was now just gone 4pm and the sun was headed back down.
We ended up driving back home in darkness, which is a scary experience when you’re not used to the roads or car.
We didn’t go too far for the rest of the holiday. We went to the weekend flea market, but were disappointed, having expected something like the street markets in French villages that we went to as children, it turned out to be second hand clothes (unwashed), a few food stalls and brik-a-brak. We thought about going to the Blue Lagoon, but decided it would be too expencive for us, so went to a local outdoor pool. it was -3°C at times, and snowing, so we were glad of the geothermal heating.

On our last night we went out for a big dinner, I had wanted to try Puffin, but it was very expencive whereever we found it, so we found an Italian resturant and stayed there, in fact the whole time we were in Iceland we never managed to try Icelandic food.

The last day, when we were going to fly home, we went to the Pearl to try to see some views of the city, but poor weather prevented us. We ended up spending most of the day in the airport, but again, at least it was warm.

There’s a whole page with some of the photos I took here, and it’ll be linked to in the navagation too.

September 9, 2007, 12:44 am : An update on a few more

Filed Under: 94 Things
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11. Learn French again

Well I bought a CD and phrase book which I’m yet to open, but hopefully it will help remind me of at least the basics.

12. Buy the DVDs of all my old videos

I bought a few DVD’s, they were cheap in Tesco. Of the four DVD’s I bought, only two replace old videos, one was Spiderman, it came as a two set with the second film which I didn’t own, and the Secret of My Success, a Michael J. Fox film I’ve had for a few years.

24. Go back to school

My art access course starts on the 18th. I’m very much looking forward to it and if I pass it I can go straight on to university.

60. Learn more about Buddhism

I found a small book which explains the basics of Buddhism, I’ve not yet finished reading it but will as soon as I can.

September 9, 2007, 12:10 am : 27. Go for a proper walk on the Moors

Filed Under: 94 Things, Pets
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Today my sister and I went for a walk on Dartmoor with our dog. While this doesn’t seem all too exciting, it really was, and I’ll explain why.

We have had our dog for 10 years now and from the day we got her home from the rescue she has hated being in a car, she gets car sick and will normally either throw up or poop. But today we thought we would at least try, she has calmed down a lot since she was a puppy and we were taking her in our, smaller, car instead of dads where she has to sit in the big boot and gets flung around any time we go around a corner or hit the brake. We started by preparing the car in case she was sick, covering the back seats with an old shower curtain and some towels. When all the equipment was ready (leads, water, treats, etc,) we got the bean bag she normally lies on and put it in the back of the car. My sister then got in the car and I handed her the lead so the dog would jump in. It’s a three door hatch back so I pushed the seat back into position and got into the drivers seat. Setting off she wasn’t sounding too stressed, my sister was holding on to her and had treats to keep her attention. The plan was to see how she was once we got to the top of the road, we got there and while she was whining a little we decided to keep going.

As soon as you get on the moors there’s a small cafe on the left, we stopped there deciding to do a short journey first time and try going further another on another trip. After getting past the gate behind the cafe we switched to the long lead so she could wander about a bit. She was loving it immediately. A normal walk for her is about 10 minutes long up the hill we live on and back down again, same old houses everyday and we all just want to get back as soon as we can, but this time everything was new and fun. Even for us, we could look at the views around as well as watch how much the dog was enjoying it. On our usual walk she is always pulling at the lead and jumping at people and dogs we pass by but this time she just walked a bit a head of us, sniffing about, when we came to people or dogs she paid little to no attention to them and wasn’t even too bothered when we passed a group of ponies. In the end we managed to walk for about an hour and a quarter on a beautiful sunny day. We stopped at the end of the walk at the cafe. Before we could get back to the car to get the water bowl another dog walker gave us a ice cream tub full of water, which was nice of them, except I got the feeling they were telling us we should have thought to bring our own, when we had and had also been giving her water from a bottle during the walk. Finally we had some lunch and took the dog for a quick walk to let her pee and then headed home

I think I got the better end of the deal, sitting in the back of the car on the way home as the dog was so tired she just lay on the seat panting.

It really was a great day, and not only did the dog have the best walk of her life so far, I got to cross something off my list. Hopefully we will be able to go on more walks like that with the dog, as i said getting further onto the moor each time.

September 2, 2007, 3:58 am : 18. Donate Blood

Filed Under: 94 Things
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I’ve hit a bump in the road. I received a letter inviting me to a donor session, it came with a form, one of the questions on which asked if I’d received or think I’d recieved blood since 1st January 1980. Well I was born in ‘86 and had open heart surgery when I was a kid, so i acutally can’t donate at all.

That sucks!

July 28, 2007, 2:06 am : 18. Donate blood

Filed Under: 94 Things
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I got my official organ donation card in the post yesterday. It’s not exactly the same as blood donation but it’s close, except the list is for things to do before I die whereas to donate my organs I will have to be dead. But never mind that, it’s a step in the right direction at least.

Also, I sent a lotto ticket to one of my friends (#63) last week, it lost, and I went swimming again yesterday(#61).

July 21, 2007, 12:39 am : 61. Start swimming again

Filed Under: 94 Things
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Done.

Went swimming after I found out the art group I go to was closed for the day. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep going. They only do a women only day on Friday at the same time as the art group, but I’m going to try to balance the two.

July 17, 2007, 5:45 pm : Starting off

Filed Under: 94 Things
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Since I now have my list of 80 to-do’s, I had better keep tract of what I’ve already done or am planning.

From the top of the list down, I am hoping to go to Iceland for my birthday in November, so will hopefully see the Aurora then. (#1)
I have started a blog to keep track of how things are going with the old pets home project. (#2)
I called the people at the blood donor place awhile ago, I registered and they said I would be sent a sort of welcome pack, but that hasn’t come so I’ll get back on to them as soon as possible. (#18)
And I have taken a photo every day for the last 4 days on a disposible camera and will continue to do so until the camrea runs out after 39 pictures. (#44)

Will update again as soon as possible.

July 15, 2007, 12:03 am : 80 94 things to do before I die

Filed Under: 94 Things
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There are loads of books of things to do before you die, websites too, mostly with a number around 100 at the start of the title. I even own one, it came free with a magazine. Some of the things in it are very interesting, so I will steal a little from there, but some things on this list are just things I want to do. Oh, and I could only come up with 80 for myself, but that’s still quite a lot when you think about it, esspecially when some lists only have 10!

Here’s hoping i didn’t repeat any:

1. See the Aurora Borealis
2. Set up a home for older pets
3. Visit New Zealand
4. Swim in a bioluminesent bay
5. Adopt or foster children
6. Write something worthwhile
7. Own a house
8. Walk on Lava
9. Swim with dolphins
10. Grow a sunflower
11. Learn French again
12. Buy the DVD’s of all my old videos
13. Learn to drive a motorbike
14. Walk through a proper waterfall
15. Write a will and include a charity
16. Sleep under the stars for a night
17. Find and, at least, write to my uncle Tim
18. Donate blood
19. Do something good for someone I don’t know
20. Watch the sunrise on a beach
21. Ride in a horse-drawn carrage
22. Take a proper photography course
23. Hold a bird of prey
24. Go back to school
25. Teach
26. Buy a plant and keep it alive
27. Go for a proper walk on the Moors
28. Read the Bible until I can’t stand any more
29. Ride a horse at sunset on a beach
30. Stroke a killer whales tongue
31. Watch a lightning storm at sea
32. Learn the constellations by heart
33. Buy a sandwich in a shop and give it to a homeless person
34. Fly a plane
35. Eat an unusual species (non-endangered)
36. Clean up a natural area
37. Take a first aid course
38. Buy a balloon from a seller on the street and give it to the first kid I see (with parents permission)
39. Build a bird house
40. Be vegetarian for a month
41. Visit my old schools
42. Write my family tree
43. Meet a bonobo
44. Take one photo a day for a month with a disposible camera
45. Plant a tree
46. Help someone with a mental illness
47. Kiss someone under mistletoe
48. Work on a farm
49. Make and bury a time capsule
50. Volunteer
51. Visit a graveyard and tidy up some forgotten graves
52. Learn Chinese
53. Keep a small flower garden
54. Go canoeing
55. Have a picnic with friends
56. Send shoe boxes to Africa
57. Make a scrapbook
58. Give a bunch of flowers to a random stranger
59. Live aborad
60. Learn more about Buddhism
61. Start swimming again
62. Walk more
63. Send Friends Lotto tickets
64. Enter a photography competition
65. Spend a night in a tree
66. Go to New York
67. Sheer a sheep
68. Milk a cow
69. Help build a house
70. Own a newfoundland
71. Learn to knit
72. Hold a snake
73. Holiday in a caravan
74. Backpack around the country
75. Sit in a feild for a day reading
76. Build a natrual shelter and sleep there for a night
77. See Rocky Horror live
78. Grow my own vegetables
79. See a rainforest
80. Take up horse riding
**UPDATE**
81. Visit Easter Island
82. See Niagara Falls
83. Visit New England in Autumn
84. Go to the Grand Canyon
85. See giant redwoods
86. Go to the Great Wall
87. Visit Polonnaruwa (Sri Lanka)
88. Visit Tad Lo Falls
89. See the Plain of Jars (Laos) with a guide
90. Photograph Notre Dame
91. Go to the Rhine Valley
92. Visit the Giant’s Causeway
93. Visit Stonehenge
94. Visit Prague

I will be posting about these things if and when I ever manage to do them. I have actually started #44, I took a rather random photo yesterday and will do another later today.