DONE: No. 20 - TRY ARCHERY PROPERLY

 

Maid Marion, Katniss Everdene, and your Scottish bird from Brave, Princess Merida, eat your hearts out!  Well, actually no, you don't have to.  The twelve month countdown has officially begun as of yesterday (May 26th) and I ticked off the next thing No.20: TRY ARCHERY PROPERLY. We have both tried this before but only for fun on hollybobs.   I was hoping that today we'd get more 'goes' and be able to concentrate a bit more.  After a brilliantly sunny and hot week in south Wales we arrived at the Taff Valley Quad Biking Centre hoping for amazing views over Pontypridd.   Instead, we got this:

Still, absolutely no problem at all and the free ranging sheep were an added attraction.  This centre is known particularly for it's quad biking trail but you can also do archery, clay pigeon shooting, an assault course and a few other things.  It's well established and popular.

But, to the archery.  They do have an outdoor field practice area but because of the weather today we were in the barn.

This was absolutely fine and even comes with very authentic farmy poo type smells!   So, there were about 9 one of us but I reckon I got the chance to shoot easily at least 20 plus arrows over the 90 minutes.  I will admit to inner childish tantrums as I was not as good I'd hoped but I will absolutely put this down to not being fully free from frozen shoulder and all the shitty restrictions that brings. I know the stance you need - perfectly demonstrated by Stewart (who came a very close second overall in the competition).  I just could not get my elbow/shoulder high enough.  Technically, your elbow should be the height of your ear - see how Stewart stands.  I couldn't even get it to shoulder height - boo!!! But, it's not about excuses,  I gave it my best shot and at least I was hitting the target - not that I could really see it!!

 

 

Another thing tried, a really enjoyable day for the two of us and we even finished with a very nice pub lunch.  I think June is going to be fairly quiet and then the fun will pick up again in July.  See you soon!

 

DONE: No.17 - Have A Go At Glassblowing

Have a go at glassblowing, nope, no idea where this idea came from but it may turn out to be one of my better ones! I am SO very glad we did this.

We chose to go to the Original Bristol Blue Glass studio which was a wise choice. Right from my first phone enquiry these guys couldn't have been more welcoming and accommodating.  We booked to visit on Wednesday and had an easy trip through to Bristol and found the studio easily.

When we got there we got taken downstairs to the actual glass studio where a group of talented glass blowers were all busily working away. Was really surprised at how young they all were but as I'm doing these tasks cos I'm nearly 50 I guess it's not surprising really! But these guys are hugely talented and skilled  as can be seen by the beautiful items we passed in the shop.   The studio space is relatively small but hot, unsurprisingly.  Must be such thirsty and difficult work, particularly in the summer, when we get one!

Myself and Stewart both got the chance to make/create/blow our own glass baubles. I was really surprised that it doesn't take a lot of breath. Gently, gently is the way.  As novices it was a two person job and to be honest, it was Jay, our friendly glass blower who was doing the shaping and controlling the molten glass. 1200 degrees is the temperature required to make the glass pliable. Unfortunately I forgot to ask what it is that gives their glass the striking blue colour.

 Once the bauble has reached the optimum size, probably the size of a wee grapefruit you have to tap the top of the brass tube you've been blowing through and the tap somehow gently breaks the bauble off. It is no longer 'red hot' but blue by now. An extra bit of molten glass goes to seal the top off and creates a loop. And that was it! Took about 20 minutes but an exceedingly enjoyable 20 minutes. To be honest, until I came here I don't think I'd ever seen glass being blown but I'd have loved to stay and watch the real artisans at work.

It's not possible to take your 'work of art' or unique creation home with you straightaway. Got to give the glass time to cool down. But, after a couple of days waiting, my own and Stewart's arrived safely through the post today. And I'm well chuffed with them!  If you're interested, and near Bristol, I can thoroughly recommend this place. So friendly and professional. The Original Bristol Blue Glass Company, Bath Road.

DONE: No.29 - 50 Shades Of Pink

So, 50 Shades of Pink....this is kind of like a guilty secret.   I absolutely adore the colour pink! Not to wear oror anything, I just like pink things. Well, I love pink things. It is a happy colour.

I didn't completely stick to this task as I originally imagined it which was to find and take a photo of a pink thing every day for 50 days, instead I gave myself a total of 50 days to find stuff. Got there a lot quicker than I anticipated.  Not much else to say about this seventh completed task/thing to do. Probably the most random photos on here are the carousel horse and the pink flamingoes which live on a colleagues desk.

Happy National Miniature Golf Day - ONGOING - No.41 - Celebrate a National or International 'Day of' Something Each Month

Happy National Miniature Golf Day!!! This is for Task No. 41 - Celebrate a National or International 'Day Of' Something Each Month.


So, miniature golf, adventure golf or crazy golf - it's all the same thing and I've always loved it.  Played courses all over the place, in the UK, in Europe and in North America.   Some folk say crazy golf is for fun - for me and Stewart, hell no, it matters, we're competitive and we both want to win!!! 


For today however we chose to visit the 'Adventure Golf' course at Celtic Manor Newport - home of the Ryder Cup from a few years ago no less!  In fact, I also think this might have been where Obama and other world leaders stayed when Cardiff hosted the NATO summit - would love to think of Obama playing this crazy golf course.

It's a lovely wee course with lots of water features and something we've never come across before - at least twice you have to pull yourself across the water feature on a the raft - that was so cool even though with my frozen shoulder I did have to let Stewart do it.

Can choose to play 9 holes or 18 - of course we chose the 18 holes.  At £9 a pop I really didn't think it was bad value either.  It's pretty, it's difficult and they also have a lot of Celtic features and also have a hole based on The Bridge at St Andrews.

A lot of fun was had today - I have to admit that both of us had balls land in the water features a few times and in the end Stewart did beat me, narrowly - but, I was the only one to actually get a hole in one, on the course that when we started Stewart had said 'they've designed this course so nobody will get a hole in one'.  I DID !!!!!!  Huzzah :)

DONE: No.21 - Ride A Segway

To ride a segway was not something I have always had a burning desire to do - though I was surprised to discover that they have actually only been a 'thing' since 2001.  But, this was BRILLIANT fun!

We went to a local place to us, Mountain View Ranch which is in Caerphilly, and up the mountain as the name helpfully suggests.  This was our first visit here but I think in general it is a place geared towards young families - it just so happens that they also offer a segway trail for grown ups too.

We arrived at our alloted time slot, 12 noon and discovered that we would be the only ones doing the trek at that time - think 4 is the maximum number.

We were each of us given a helmet to wear and then one at a time were given instructions as to how to stay balanced, and then move and steer the segway.  To be honest I was a bit apprehensive beforehand that it would be tricky but it seriously isn't.  There was a small practice track that we had to play on for 10 minutes before heading out.

A few times round this track and then we were off.   Mostly on grasslands, but being on the side of the mountain there were quite a few hilly bits as well which were a lot of fun going up and down as you really have to shift your weight forward to go upwards and you don't half fly - well, the fastest you can go is just over 12 miles an hour but it feels pretty fast at the time.  We, spent at least 50 minutes whizzing through parkland and past picnicking families.  We did all mostly behave ourselves though the more confident we became the more I think we would have been happy to go faster.   We even got to the stage where could shout 'look, no hands'.

This was SUCH fun and surprisingly so.   I would definitely go back and do this again, for sure.  Knowing now that it is actually easy to control I think I'd like to go full pelt on one.