The French Thing...

So on and off I've been listening to French on my I-pod as I walk to work. It isn't working. I'm okay with the first chapter or so, but then my mind starts to wander and before I know it I've missed sections. It doesn't help that the recording is full of stuff that I wouldn't probably ask for in English never mind a foreign language. I'm a little bored to say the least. So this afternoon I've written out 40 sentances, phrases, words and numbers that would be of the most use to me and I'm going to see how I get on with those. I'm hoping it won't take too long...

And for those who listen in, my next radio spot is this Wednesday, 16th March - around 08:30am.

An Update...

Well apart from having the week from hell this week, which involved me being back in Nottingham and for part of the week my car being in Solihull (won't go in to it, but it was all to do with a well know break down service and their lack of customer service) I am still attempting to learn French! I am finding it pretty difficult due to the fact that I have the memory capacity of a goldfish, but I'm hoping the more I listen to the disc, the more will sink in. So far I know how to order a coffee, tea and beer, none of which I drink...

Some Good News...

Well, it's been a while, hasn't it? Nearly a month since I last posted and probably one of the longest times I've gone without posting since I started this blog. So what's new, well... I have a job! I've started working for a charity as a Community Fundraiser, which is an area that I really wanted to get into but there never seemed to be the right roles, until now. I've just completed my first week and apart from the fact that I've started at their busiest times of year, I love it! I love being busy and it seems to have unearthed the old Janette that is highly motivated and wanting to be a success. Long may it continue!

Of course I'm still thinking about this blog and trying to at least plan some of the outstanding tasks into my busy working life (never thought I'd ever be saying that again!) In particular I'm also conscious that I started to learn French and then abandoned it half way through December and I hate leaving things half finished. Well, I now walk to work, so I've down loaded some French phrases on my I-pod and in the half an hour it takes me to walk in, I can listen to at least 5 sections of my French dialogue (it has 10 collectively). Here's hoping that it doesn't take me too long to learn them all and I can cross another task off my list!

And just before I go, I'm on BBC Radio Nottingham tomorrow (14th Feb) at 8:30am approx. Hope you can tune in!

Where I'm At

Well my first radio appearance of this year is done and dusted thank you very much and went okay. Unfortunately my good intentions of starting back learning French went slightly astray this week when my feeling grotty suddenly turned into gastric flu, not pleasant and I won't go in to any more detail about that!

So what beholds me in 2011? Well I'm going to try and enjoy life. A simple request you may feel, but the last six months of being unemployed have not been great and have had more downs then ups. I figured I could spend the rest of my time at home miserable or I could turn it into something positive (circa Field of Dreams; if I'm positive a job will come!) So I'm going to take each day as it comes and try and knock a few more tasks of my list in the meantime.

One final thought, a few people have started to ask what I'm going to do with this blog once I've hit 40. Well I've always been conscious that this blog is about my 40 things and that I don't stray too far from that, so unless it's task related then it won't be updated after November. However, after several failed attempts I have started another blog which will be continued after my 40th, which is here if you are interested my other blog. It's mostly about my writing but it will cover other aspects of my life as well.

Right back to the French me thinks...

Happy New Year

It's been a while since I posted here. I feel the need to apologise for my absence, but December ran away from me, as I guess it did for everyone. Well new year, new me or that's what I'm hoping! After I've finished with the old learning of French (hoping to complete Feb/March time) going to try and cram in as much as I can before I turn the big 4-0 in November (gulp, where did all the time go since starting this blog?)

Any ways, keep reading and following and hopefully I won't disappoint in the completion of tasks!

I'm also on BBC Radio Nottingham this Wednesday if you want to listen on at around 8:30am.

Parlez-vous Francais?

This week, I will be mostly listening to my new ear worms french CD. This has 200+ essential words and phrases anchored into your long term memory with great music, or so it claims! I'm hoping by the end of the week, I will at least be able to speak a smattering of French - here's hoping anyway!

Saving Animals

Yesterday morning was spent mostly writing. I Joined Activate, a Born Free campaign group about a year ago and every 2 months I write letters to the Heads of countries where the designated animals are, hoping to get them released from captivity. It's an easy enough task. Born Free provide you with all the info and it only takes around 30 minutes to draft and write a letter to the relevant person.

So far I haven't had a reply from anyone, but I think this is quite normal. I've tried sending emails and snail mail but still nothing. I'm hoping that one day I will and even better that one of the animals I'm campaigning to be released is actually taken from a life of misery and cruelty and put back in it's natural environment.

Sadly the two bears still languish in a pit in Berlin, Lucy the elephant is still kept indoors in Toronto and 18 Dolphins are still confined to a training regime in the Philippines, all of these I've written letters to the relevant people in the hope that they will be released. Thankfully Tom and Misha, the two Dolphins rescued from Turkey are now in a deep sea pen in a peaceful marina - this happened quite quickly after we were sent details of the campaign, so I can't claim a helping hand in that one!

If you want to get involved, please visit - Born Free, I'm sure a few more people putting some weight behind one of the campaigns will make all the difference and you never know I may just be able to cross another task off my list ( 15. Rescue an animal from captivity).

13) Read all the BBC Top 100 Reads

Well, it has taken me a while to do this (this was one of the original tasks I started over three years ago!) but finally today I have read the last page of A Suitable Boy and therefore completed reading all of the BBC Top 100 reads. It hasn't been an easy task. There have been some books that were personal favourites that took little to no time to complete, there were others that within the first chapters I found them tedious and incredibly difficult to complete and then there were others that complete took me by surprise, that I wouldn't have thought that I would have enjoyed but I did.

It has been a long task, one that I thought would never complete but it has taught me a lesson that I can't love all books, even though my premise of completing the task was to push myself into reading books I wouldn't otherwise have chosen, sometimes that didn't work when I felt like throwing some out of the window.

Below is my list of the books that stood out for me:-

The Ones That Surprised Me
1. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
2. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
3. The Pillars Of The Earth - Ken Follett
4. A Prayer For Owen Meany - John Irving
5. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
6. The Shell Seekers - Rosamunde Pilcher
7. The Stand - Stephen King
8. The Clan Of The Cave Bear - Jean M Auel
9. Kane & Abel - Jeffrey Archer
10. Holes - Louis Sachar

The Ones That I Nearly Threw Out Of The Window
1. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
3. Middlemarch - George Eliot
4. One Hundred Years Of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
5. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
6. Dune - Frank Herbert
7. The Count Of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
8. Crime & Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
9. The Magus - John Fowles
10. The Woman In White - Wilkie Collins

And now, quite happily I can attack my to be read shelf and as for my tasks, I'm on to the learning a new language next.

I don't Speak French Part 2

Now that I've nearly finished my BBC Top 100 reads, I've been debating whether or not to do any more tasks this side of Christmas. Then this morning in my in box, up popped this:- Groupon, which is a voucher for ear worms, a musical brain training cd that allows you to learn key words and phrases for a chosen language. For a fiver I thought it was worth trying out and hopefully by Christmas I might have another task to tick off!

One Down, One To Go...

Just under 1500 pages - I'm thinking I should finish this in a week?