The Coffee Shop

I can honestly say that I've never known an hour to go as quickly as it did this morning. I thoroughly enjoyed being on Richard Spurr's show - I think we shared the same sense of humour, but if you're reading this Richard, then I'd like it back please... Did a more in depth paper review with another guest, combined with listeners calls and music and managed to show my inner geek by announcing to the whole of Nottingham that I want my husband to build me a Tardis in our back yard. So all in all, quite a good morning and here's what I'm planning to do in the following week task wise:-

• Edit and load my short film onto You Tube
• Finish The Lord Of The Rings book
• Start A Suitable Boy book
• Order a few more books off the Top 100 list
• Go to a baseball match
• Possible skinny dipping although if the weather is anything like it is today, then that will be a definite no

Unfortunately the proposal for the column in my local newspaper went down like a lead balloon. The reporter fired rapid questions at me about my book club and didn't really give me a chance to expand any further, so I guess that's a no then! It's also looking unlikely that I will be able to go to the next England match. I'm fine going there by myself, but coming back the bus doesn't get into Nottingham until 1:15am and I don't fancy walking the streets looking for a taxi at that time of night. Hubbie understandably is a little worried about my safety, so I'll just have to wait until they do a Saturday match.

Right, really must start this editing - hope you all have good weekends!

The Saturday Shift

There was a time when I was a kid that Saturday mornings meant sitting in my pyjamas eating Texan bars and watching The Lone Ranger. Much as I would still like to do that, what can I say, I grew up and so tomorrow I'll be one of the two guests on the Richard Spurr show on BBC Radio Nottingham. So when you are having a lie in tomorrow, think of me in the studio and if they were still around then I would say have a Texan bar on me. Should be a good show, so do tune in!

What I Did on Tuesday

• Read The Two Towers - number 2 book of The Lord Of The Rings
• Tried to find someone to come to the next England match with me at Wembley
• Tried to download the software to play and edit my film, gave up and then husband took over!
• Sent a proposal to the local paper for a possible monthly column
• Posted a request for a seat in an Executive box at Nottingham Forest on Gumtree (if anyone knows of anyone who has a spare seat, then I am willing to pay a reasonable price to do this)
• Started reading 'The Return Of The King' - number 3 book of The Lord Of The Rings

What I did on Monday...

Radio appearance went very well. I was awake, alert and managed to find some interesting stories in the papers, well I thought they were anyway! I've also managed to do some more of the 'research' behind some up and coming tasks. I've now got a list of a local (well Sheffield!) baseball team and also the dates of when England next play at Wembley and I've even found the address of a possible (whispers) skinny dipping location, as well as writing to a celebrity chef to ask if I can appear on his show. I'm in the process of editing my short film, at least I will be when I can get the software to download and I'm also going to put forward a proposal for a column in the local newspaper, in the next day or so. So potentially I have a few tasks bubbling away, begging to be completed, let's just hope I can cross another few off my list pretty soon!

A Very Quick Update...

I'm on BBC Radio Nottingham tomorrow around 8:30am, which means another update on my blog and another paper review. I did (sort of) make a list of things I wanted to achieve by this date, so just to update you...

1) I've read three out of the five books I wanted to read - pesky Count of Monte Cristo threw that one out.

2) I made a short film - just got to edit it and load it onto You Tube
3) I haven't booked the surfing yet, just need to organise a date with hubbie and then it's done (may do that today!)

4) Haven't written to the tv show yet re the celebrity chef, but may also do that today.

5) Haven't looked into baseball yet (must do that soon before the season ends).

6) Have located a spot for the (ho, hum!) skinny dipping, just need to check it out.

7) Haven't started to learn French as yet.

So pretty dismal month but then again, I have been busy doing the old job search and sometimes I found it quite hard to concentrate fully on more than one thing, so I'm not going to beat myself up too much! Here's to the next month and hopefully August will bring a few more task completions!

BBC Top 100 Reads - Brideshead Revisited 86/100

I was a little too young to watch the epic TV show show in the eighties and I only managed to watch the remake film last year, which kind of went over my head some what. I'd heard so much about the story, so this book had a lot to live up to. It didn't disappoint. The tale of Charles Ryder who comes to Oxford to study and is immediately captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte is completely intriguing. Charles then visits Sebastian's family home of Brideshead and willingly at first, becomes involved within their eccentric family life, until he becomes to recognise the spiritual and social distance from them.

Don't let the paltry 326 pages fool you. This is an epic of a novel, one that I feel you don't gain the full impact of such from the first read and one which I hope to read time and time again. The recent film certainly didn't do this book any justice and perhaps one day I'll watch the TV show to see if that bares a fairer reflection. Until then, another book crossed off and now onto The Lord Of The Rings!

The Countdown

I was going to leave this until my 39th birthday, but I just couldn't resist to see how many days I had left of my challenge before I turn 40 - approx 475 days to do 22 tasks - gulp! So I've thrown down the gauntlet and I'm going to go all out to get as many (if not all!) completed by the time I turn 40. I might as well take full advantage of the spare time that I have at the moment and put it to good use, I guess. So here goes, hopefully I will be completing my next task in the next week or so. Watch this space...

The One That Nearly Defeated Me...

The Count Of Monte Cristo looked so promising when I first started it. The tale of a man wrongly imprisioned on the eve of his wedding, left to languish in a prison cell for numerous years until one day he escapes and seeks to avenge the men who betrayed him. In practice the tale sounds mesmorizing but 1400 pages is why too long for this story. It has taken me over 3 weeks to finish and I've lost count of how many times I put the book down, after desperately trying to get to grips with the tale. At one point I even considered giving up altogether, but it's on my task list and therefore I have to complete it - that's what I kept telling myself anyway - and complete it I did, this morning, thank goodness! Now on to Brideshead Revisited which I hope is a little less tedious.

Thank You

When I first started this blog, I didn't think any one would read it. To me, it was just a record of trying to complete my list and I didn't really understand the concept of the blogging community. Now three years later, I've just received my 40th follower, so I wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to everyone that follows me, the regular commenters, the lurkers and the ones that listen to me babble on, whenever I appear on Radio Nottingham - your support is much appreciated!

The End