The end!
Yesterday was the deadline for my 101 things in 1001 days list. Did I finish everything on the list, or is a LITANY OF FAILURE? Here follows a lengthy summary...
1. Do something nice for my mum. FAIL!
2. Ditto my dad. FAIL!
3. Ditto my grandparents. DONE! Though this doesn't mean I can stop being nice to my grandparents!
4. Spend an evening with my brother. FAIL!
5. Invite my cousin Colin to the pub. FAIL!
Hmm. I see my parents almost every week and get on fine with them, but I can't think of anything specifically nice I've done for them. It's been years since I hung out with my brother, and I have not met up with my cousin in London ONCE despite him living about four miles away. I am a sorry wretch and will die alone.
Moving on!
6. Go to a metal gig. DONE! Isis, December 2008.
7. Find a guitar teacher and have some lessons. DONE! September 2007
8. Work through my book of bass until I can play everything in it. FAIL! Nope, didn't get around to that.
9. Get my oboe out and play through my book of music. FAIL! Nope, nor that.
10. Learn all the words to 'Jackie' by Scott Walker in the right order. FAIL! DAMN! I could have done that this week, but I haven't! And Lucky Voice still haven't put it on their karaoke list, despite my requests. Sigh.
11. Become an Owl. FAIL! Oh dear, I really should have done that by now - I've done almost all the work for it, but so slowly that I have to retake my First Aid certificate already. Chief Owls are irritated with me!
12. Finish my placement and portfolio to get my Playwork qualification. DONE!
13. Look into helping out with Ladyfest London 2008 (and do so if people are nice and there's a suitable opportunity). Changed to: give some blood. DONE! 2nd March 2009.
14. Learn to cycle safely round Hackney. Hmm... I'm not sure about this. I managed to cycle to Tesco and back, and got as far as Stoke Newington once, and then my brakes broke and I gave up cycling. But I have already written FAIL so many times that I'm going to allow myself a pass for this one.
15. Go swimming every week for two months, YES TWO MONTHS LAZY JO. FAIL! I gave up swimming after nearly drowning once, but that was ages ago and I should be over it by now. Tsk.
16. Take vitamins every day for a month. FAIL! I couldn't remember for more than a week.
17. Give up booze completely for a month. DONE! May - June 2008. This was definitely worth doing.
18. Give up drinking at home for a month. DONE! Completed 21st August 2007.
19. Give up caffeine for a week, that's quite enough I would think. FAIL! I didn't really want to...
20. Give up cheese for a week. DONE! Feb 2008.
21. Cook 15 different recipes from books/recipe cards, and cakes don't count. DONE! Thanks, Guardian Weekend magazine.
22. Make a sorbet. DONE! I made it last weekend and nice people ate it. It was like frozen jam!
23. Drink a gin-based drink (therefore probably undoing all the good work, but still, I must try!). DONE! August 2007, thanks to randy_gibbons.
24. Register my Oyster card. DONE! 18th May 2007. And again when I lost that one.
25. Go to Derby Nottingham! and visit annasilverlight. DONE! 21st February 2009.
26. Go to Manchester and see minnesattva, andrewhickey and irrtum. FAIL! Boo, too bad, that would have been fun.
27. Go to the Isle of Man and see why Mark Kermode makes such a fuss about it. FAIL! It's quite far away. Admittedly, New Zealand is further and I managed that all right.
28. Take Ewan to Hull. DONE! Mid-November 2009. It was rather more fun than you'd expect a November weekend in Hull to be.
29. Get round the Capital Ring (we've started this already but are only three walks in). DONE! Autumn 2008, I forget when.
30. Go to the opera with monkeyssk8. DONE! 21st May 2007.
31. Go to the pub with mrs_leroy_brown. DONE! 1st June 2007.
32. Go on mzdt's boat if he'll let me. Oh yes, I did this! DONE!
33. Gettigerpig to teach me how to DJ. (Edit - or anyone, really...) DONE! Steve and Ewan taught me how and I DJed at Poptimism twice.
34. Send silver_shoes_21 the Red Sparowes CDs I've owed her for over a year already for goodness' sake. FAIL! I forgot. Sorry Julie.
35. Read ten proper big classic books, and Moby Dick doesn't count cos I've already started it. FAIL! I think I managed five or six. Fie on my increasingly short attention span.
36. Borrow ten library books which aren't work-related and read them all the way through. (Oh dear, it says little for me or for London libraries if I think I can only manage ten...) FAIL! I managed one! No wonder London libraries aren't that great, it's down to people like me!
37. Join some kind of video rental place. DONE! September 2007 (I joined Lovefilm for a while)
38. Get involved in something in my community (working for Hackney Play doesn't count). DONE! I joined the management committee of my local adventure playground. That was a bad idea.
39. Get a full-time job. (NOT bus surveys.) DONE! I've been at Indiejob for almost exactly two years. Hooray for stability!
40. Pay all my bills on time for a year, INCLUDING CREDIT CARD BILLS. FAIL! I should probably stop paying bills by cheque through the post, as I often forget to send them off in time and get exciting fines.
41. E-mail Radio Fivealive when Mark Kermode is on it (and get it read out if it's interesting enough). FAIL! I had nothing sufficiently interesting to say. I am going to meet Mark Kermode at the end of the month though! Hooray, also yikes!
42. Locate and write to my old lecturer and say hello/thanks. FAIL! See previous point about being a sorry wretch.
43. Listen to three episodes of In our time right through and be able to remember what they were about afterwards. (Hahaha look, this week's broadcast is about Victorian pessimism!) DONE. Dull.
44. Go to Hackney City Farm. DONE! 20th October 2007.
45. Go to the Geffrye Museum. DONE! 24th May 2007.
46. Go to Chat's Palace. FAIL! It was intimidating.
47. Go and see a Shakespeare play at the Globe. DONE! 13th August 2007.
48. Go and see Wicked. FAIL! But I'm going in a couple of weeks' time, so all is not lost!
49. Go and see misterant in a play. DONE! Very obligingly, he performed in The Homecoming last week. He was good despite the play being horrid!
50. Knit Ewan a scarf he actually likes. Sorry Ewan! Changed to: get my deposit back from my Battersea landlord. DONE! That took two years and involved many threatening letters...
51. Think of something awesome for Ewan's 30th birthday. (Probably not a scarf.) (I did OK at this so let's consider it DONE.)
52. Register with a local doctor. DONE! 2nd June 2008.
53. Register with a local dentist and actually go for a check-up. DONE!
54. Go to five different religious services (weddings and carol services don't count). FAIL! I went to two. Way to avoid dealing with your religious angst issues, Newham!
55. E-mail all my Danish friends IN DANISH. (I contacted all of them in December, either by e-mail or by Christmas card and letter, so I think that's DONE.)
56. Have a conversation in German. FAIL!
57. Write up all my lesson plans and anything else that's missing from my teaching file. DONE! 3rd August 2007.
58. Go to a self-defence class, preferably a whole course. FAIL! I had a look but couldn't find any.
59. Learn enough computer skills that I have the equivalent of an ECDL, or even an ECDL itself. FAIL! I have learned enough to do my job, but am still largely bewildered by Excel.
60. Learn how to clean with vinegar and lemons and suchlike. Hmm... I have read about this and cleaned some stuff with baking powder, so let's consider it DONE.
61. Learn how to use stupid Mooncup. FAIL! I agree that they are a good idea with regard to throwing off the tyranny of the feminine hygiene industry etc, but I also think they don't suit everyone and as far as I'm concerned they're thoroughly uncomfortable and I threw mine away. This does not make me a bad feminist, thank you.
62. Learn about printing with lino-cuts. DONE!
63. Learn about silkscreen printing. DONE!
64. Make an owl t-shirt. (Another owl t-shirt.) FAIL! Lost interest...
65. Learn to sew passably well. I can sew a hem and stitch a thing onto another thing, so I consider that DONE.
66. Learn to use a sewing machine. DONE!
67. Make a skirt. DONE! Here it is!
68. Make the cow t-shirt I imagined when I was in New Zealand. FAIL! Also lost interest.
68. Learn how to make big papier maché heads like in that Cuban film I saw. FAIL! I know how to go about it though, and I did make a papier maché pig.
69. Finish my second legwarmer if it's the last thing I do. DONE!
70. Do my share of the comic I'm drawing with littlebun. FAIL! I don't know where I put it! Wah!
71. Do a new comic of my own, preferably Freeze-Dried 4. FAIL! I started one, but it wasn't good enough to finish.
72. Knit something for the Portsmouth baby. DONE!
73. Knit something for rainsinger's baby. DONE!
74. Knit a cosy for my Tube Walk whistle. DONE!
75. Organise another Rubbish Karaoke. DONE!
76. Organise an evening of Dance Dance Revolution and Drum Drum Revolution like I meant to last year. FAIL! Instead I met demiabeille, who's much better at that sort of thing.
77. Learn how to light a barbecue and invite people round for burnt tasty grilled food in my garden. DONE!
78. Grow something edible in my garden and eat it. DONE! Potatoes, courgettes, squash, beans and a couple of beetroots and strawberries! Oh, I miss my garden.
79. Teach my clematis to grow up something. Oh dear, my clematis is dead... it went up a trellis a little bit before its demise though, so DONE!
80. Clear up the rubble at the bottom of my garden. DONE!
81. Make successful compost. FAIL! I tried for two years and my compost did not compost!
82. Have conversations with all of my bedsit neighbours. (I'm never going to manage this! Perhaps I'll change it to another local ambition.) Well, lots of people moved in and out of those bedsits, but I talked to at least one occupant of each while I lived there, so I consider this DONE!
83. Only shop in local shops for a week. No supermarkets! Not even M&S, I don't care how tasty their three bean wraps are! FAIL - I worked too late to get back to Hackney before the shops closed, and in Battersea my local shop is, in fact, a supermarket.
84. Watch Spartacus FAIL! I have plans to do so with my flatmate at some point soon, but it's very long.
85. Watch a proper Stanley Kubrick film. DONE! It was Full Metal Jacket.
86. Watch something else that Ewan thinks is great but which I don't really want to watch. (DONE - I watched Blade Runner. Probably some other ones too.)
87. Go camping. DONE - End Of The Road festival, September 2008.
88. Walk ten miles in a day. I'm pretty sure I did that on a Capital Ring or London Loop walk, so that's probably DONE.
89. Learn how to do the knots that keep swings up on adventure playgrounds. FAIL.
90. Get my tax return sorted out. DONE!
91. And the one for next year too. DONE!!
92. Put money in an ISA (also, find out what an ISA is). DONE!
93. Get on the electoral roll and find out who my local candidates are. Er... I don't suppose there are half-points? It turns out that I am on the electoral roll already, but I still need to do the second part of this.
94. Do some proper writing, not just on LJ, before I completely forget how to put a sentence together. (Today I sound like Bridget Jones. Cripes.) FAIL!
95. Get my ears pierced once more. DONE! I have many holes in my ears!
96. Go to a pub music quiz and WIN THE FVCKER. FAIL! I have entered many pop quizzes and done reasonably well in them all (especially the big music industry pop quiz where my reputation is awesome), but haven't won any. Sigh.
97. Do something excellent with several_bees. DONE! September 2007. We went to the Kensington Roof Gardens.
New additions
98. Go to a drumming workshop. DONE!
99. Join a trade union. FAIL! I don't know if there is a trade union for record company data monkeys.
100. Find a way to get involved in the LIMPICKS. FAIL! Since moving out of East London, I've rather lost interest in the Olympics for the time being.
Oh yes and 101. Knit an jumper. DONE!
Sooo... I judge my total to be 60 things out of 101 things! I suppose that's not too bad. And anyway, I'm glad I had a go and it certainly motivated me to get things done and have adventures. Thank you to all the nice people who helped me. I think I'm going to have another go at this soon...
1. Do something nice for my mum. FAIL!
2. Ditto my dad. FAIL!
3. Ditto my grandparents. DONE! Though this doesn't mean I can stop being nice to my grandparents!
4. Spend an evening with my brother. FAIL!
5. Invite my cousin Colin to the pub. FAIL!
Hmm. I see my parents almost every week and get on fine with them, but I can't think of anything specifically nice I've done for them. It's been years since I hung out with my brother, and I have not met up with my cousin in London ONCE despite him living about four miles away. I am a sorry wretch and will die alone.
Moving on!
6. Go to a metal gig. DONE! Isis, December 2008.
7. Find a guitar teacher and have some lessons. DONE! September 2007
8. Work through my book of bass until I can play everything in it. FAIL! Nope, didn't get around to that.
9. Get my oboe out and play through my book of music. FAIL! Nope, nor that.
10. Learn all the words to 'Jackie' by Scott Walker in the right order. FAIL! DAMN! I could have done that this week, but I haven't! And Lucky Voice still haven't put it on their karaoke list, despite my requests. Sigh.
11. Become an Owl. FAIL! Oh dear, I really should have done that by now - I've done almost all the work for it, but so slowly that I have to retake my First Aid certificate already. Chief Owls are irritated with me!
12. Finish my placement and portfolio to get my Playwork qualification. DONE!
13. Look into helping out with Ladyfest London 2008 (and do so if people are nice and there's a suitable opportunity). Changed to: give some blood. DONE! 2nd March 2009.
14. Learn to cycle safely round Hackney. Hmm... I'm not sure about this. I managed to cycle to Tesco and back, and got as far as Stoke Newington once, and then my brakes broke and I gave up cycling. But I have already written FAIL so many times that I'm going to allow myself a pass for this one.
15. Go swimming every week for two months, YES TWO MONTHS LAZY JO. FAIL! I gave up swimming after nearly drowning once, but that was ages ago and I should be over it by now. Tsk.
16. Take vitamins every day for a month. FAIL! I couldn't remember for more than a week.
17. Give up booze completely for a month. DONE! May - June 2008. This was definitely worth doing.
18. Give up drinking at home for a month. DONE! Completed 21st August 2007.
19. Give up caffeine for a week, that's quite enough I would think. FAIL! I didn't really want to...
20. Give up cheese for a week. DONE! Feb 2008.
21. Cook 15 different recipes from books/recipe cards, and cakes don't count. DONE! Thanks, Guardian Weekend magazine.
22. Make a sorbet. DONE! I made it last weekend and nice people ate it. It was like frozen jam!
23. Drink a gin-based drink (therefore probably undoing all the good work, but still, I must try!). DONE! August 2007, thanks to randy_gibbons.
24. Register my Oyster card. DONE! 18th May 2007. And again when I lost that one.
25. Go to Derby Nottingham! and visit annasilverlight. DONE! 21st February 2009.
26. Go to Manchester and see minnesattva, andrewhickey and irrtum. FAIL! Boo, too bad, that would have been fun.
27. Go to the Isle of Man and see why Mark Kermode makes such a fuss about it. FAIL! It's quite far away. Admittedly, New Zealand is further and I managed that all right.
28. Take Ewan to Hull. DONE! Mid-November 2009. It was rather more fun than you'd expect a November weekend in Hull to be.
29. Get round the Capital Ring (we've started this already but are only three walks in). DONE! Autumn 2008, I forget when.
30. Go to the opera with monkeyssk8. DONE! 21st May 2007.
31. Go to the pub with mrs_leroy_brown. DONE! 1st June 2007.
32. Go on mzdt's boat if he'll let me. Oh yes, I did this! DONE!
33. Gettigerpig to teach me how to DJ. (Edit - or anyone, really...) DONE! Steve and Ewan taught me how and I DJed at Poptimism twice.
34. Send silver_shoes_21 the Red Sparowes CDs I've owed her for over a year already for goodness' sake. FAIL! I forgot. Sorry Julie.
35. Read ten proper big classic books, and Moby Dick doesn't count cos I've already started it. FAIL! I think I managed five or six. Fie on my increasingly short attention span.
36. Borrow ten library books which aren't work-related and read them all the way through. (Oh dear, it says little for me or for London libraries if I think I can only manage ten...) FAIL! I managed one! No wonder London libraries aren't that great, it's down to people like me!
37. Join some kind of video rental place. DONE! September 2007 (I joined Lovefilm for a while)
38. Get involved in something in my community (working for Hackney Play doesn't count). DONE! I joined the management committee of my local adventure playground. That was a bad idea.
39. Get a full-time job. (NOT bus surveys.) DONE! I've been at Indiejob for almost exactly two years. Hooray for stability!
40. Pay all my bills on time for a year, INCLUDING CREDIT CARD BILLS. FAIL! I should probably stop paying bills by cheque through the post, as I often forget to send them off in time and get exciting fines.
41. E-mail Radio Fivealive when Mark Kermode is on it (and get it read out if it's interesting enough). FAIL! I had nothing sufficiently interesting to say. I am going to meet Mark Kermode at the end of the month though! Hooray, also yikes!
42. Locate and write to my old lecturer and say hello/thanks. FAIL! See previous point about being a sorry wretch.
43. Listen to three episodes of In our time right through and be able to remember what they were about afterwards. (Hahaha look, this week's broadcast is about Victorian pessimism!) DONE. Dull.
44. Go to Hackney City Farm. DONE! 20th October 2007.
45. Go to the Geffrye Museum. DONE! 24th May 2007.
46. Go to Chat's Palace. FAIL! It was intimidating.
47. Go and see a Shakespeare play at the Globe. DONE! 13th August 2007.
48. Go and see Wicked. FAIL! But I'm going in a couple of weeks' time, so all is not lost!
49. Go and see misterant in a play. DONE! Very obligingly, he performed in The Homecoming last week. He was good despite the play being horrid!
50. Knit Ewan a scarf he actually likes. Sorry Ewan! Changed to: get my deposit back from my Battersea landlord. DONE! That took two years and involved many threatening letters...
51. Think of something awesome for Ewan's 30th birthday. (Probably not a scarf.) (I did OK at this so let's consider it DONE.)
52. Register with a local doctor. DONE! 2nd June 2008.
53. Register with a local dentist and actually go for a check-up. DONE!
54. Go to five different religious services (weddings and carol services don't count). FAIL! I went to two. Way to avoid dealing with your religious angst issues, Newham!
55. E-mail all my Danish friends IN DANISH. (I contacted all of them in December, either by e-mail or by Christmas card and letter, so I think that's DONE.)
56. Have a conversation in German. FAIL!
57. Write up all my lesson plans and anything else that's missing from my teaching file. DONE! 3rd August 2007.
58. Go to a self-defence class, preferably a whole course. FAIL! I had a look but couldn't find any.
59. Learn enough computer skills that I have the equivalent of an ECDL, or even an ECDL itself. FAIL! I have learned enough to do my job, but am still largely bewildered by Excel.
60. Learn how to clean with vinegar and lemons and suchlike. Hmm... I have read about this and cleaned some stuff with baking powder, so let's consider it DONE.
61. Learn how to use stupid Mooncup. FAIL! I agree that they are a good idea with regard to throwing off the tyranny of the feminine hygiene industry etc, but I also think they don't suit everyone and as far as I'm concerned they're thoroughly uncomfortable and I threw mine away. This does not make me a bad feminist, thank you.
62. Learn about printing with lino-cuts. DONE!
63. Learn about silkscreen printing. DONE!
64. Make an owl t-shirt. (Another owl t-shirt.) FAIL! Lost interest...
65. Learn to sew passably well. I can sew a hem and stitch a thing onto another thing, so I consider that DONE.
66. Learn to use a sewing machine. DONE!
67. Make a skirt. DONE! Here it is!
68. Make the cow t-shirt I imagined when I was in New Zealand. FAIL! Also lost interest.
68. Learn how to make big papier maché heads like in that Cuban film I saw. FAIL! I know how to go about it though, and I did make a papier maché pig.
69. Finish my second legwarmer if it's the last thing I do. DONE!
70. Do my share of the comic I'm drawing with littlebun. FAIL! I don't know where I put it! Wah!
71. Do a new comic of my own, preferably Freeze-Dried 4. FAIL! I started one, but it wasn't good enough to finish.
72. Knit something for the Portsmouth baby. DONE!
73. Knit something for rainsinger's baby. DONE!
74. Knit a cosy for my Tube Walk whistle. DONE!
75. Organise another Rubbish Karaoke. DONE!
76. Organise an evening of Dance Dance Revolution and Drum Drum Revolution like I meant to last year. FAIL! Instead I met demiabeille, who's much better at that sort of thing.
77. Learn how to light a barbecue and invite people round for burnt tasty grilled food in my garden. DONE!
78. Grow something edible in my garden and eat it. DONE! Potatoes, courgettes, squash, beans and a couple of beetroots and strawberries! Oh, I miss my garden.
79. Teach my clematis to grow up something. Oh dear, my clematis is dead... it went up a trellis a little bit before its demise though, so DONE!
80. Clear up the rubble at the bottom of my garden. DONE!
81. Make successful compost. FAIL! I tried for two years and my compost did not compost!
82. Have conversations with all of my bedsit neighbours. (I'm never going to manage this! Perhaps I'll change it to another local ambition.) Well, lots of people moved in and out of those bedsits, but I talked to at least one occupant of each while I lived there, so I consider this DONE!
83. Only shop in local shops for a week. No supermarkets! Not even M&S, I don't care how tasty their three bean wraps are! FAIL - I worked too late to get back to Hackney before the shops closed, and in Battersea my local shop is, in fact, a supermarket.
84. Watch Spartacus FAIL! I have plans to do so with my flatmate at some point soon, but it's very long.
85. Watch a proper Stanley Kubrick film. DONE! It was Full Metal Jacket.
86. Watch something else that Ewan thinks is great but which I don't really want to watch. (DONE - I watched Blade Runner. Probably some other ones too.)
87. Go camping. DONE - End Of The Road festival, September 2008.
88. Walk ten miles in a day. I'm pretty sure I did that on a Capital Ring or London Loop walk, so that's probably DONE.
89. Learn how to do the knots that keep swings up on adventure playgrounds. FAIL.
90. Get my tax return sorted out. DONE!
91. And the one for next year too. DONE!!
92. Put money in an ISA (also, find out what an ISA is). DONE!
93. Get on the electoral roll and find out who my local candidates are. Er... I don't suppose there are half-points? It turns out that I am on the electoral roll already, but I still need to do the second part of this.
94. Do some proper writing, not just on LJ, before I completely forget how to put a sentence together. (Today I sound like Bridget Jones. Cripes.) FAIL!
95. Get my ears pierced once more. DONE! I have many holes in my ears!
96. Go to a pub music quiz and WIN THE FVCKER. FAIL! I have entered many pop quizzes and done reasonably well in them all (especially the big music industry pop quiz where my reputation is awesome), but haven't won any. Sigh.
97. Do something excellent with several_bees. DONE! September 2007. We went to the Kensington Roof Gardens.
New additions
98. Go to a drumming workshop. DONE!
99. Join a trade union. FAIL! I don't know if there is a trade union for record company data monkeys.
100. Find a way to get involved in the LIMPICKS. FAIL! Since moving out of East London, I've rather lost interest in the Olympics for the time being.
Oh yes and 101. Knit an jumper. DONE!
Sooo... I judge my total to be 60 things out of 101 things! I suppose that's not too bad. And anyway, I'm glad I had a go and it certainly motivated me to get things done and have adventures. Thank you to all the nice people who helped me. I think I'm going to have another go at this soon...