DONE: No.42 - 50 Good Deeds

50 Good Deeds - Random Acts of Kindness, Good Manners, call it what you will, I've tried to be a nice person this last year!  In actual fact I kind of stopped counting each tiny, little thing I've done, which could be classed as 'being nice,' a long time ago and could have actually called time on this challenge in August.  But I was never going to do that was I!  It has been too much fun to be nice for a change.

Over the last year I have tried my best to be nice and helpful and kind and generous and I did try to keep a log of positive things I've done.  This is a difficult one to 'evidence' though.  But I know what I've done.

The good deeds have been very disparate but I've tried to categorise the sorts of things I've done in this 50 Good Deeds Task

1) Feeding Cats   2) Helping Lost Folk 3) Being sponsored, and sponsoring other folk 4) Donating
 5) Being more friendly to homeless folk 6) Helpfulness and kindness 7) Volunteering

Main things which I have enjoyed, remembered, been a little proud of:

•  There are a lot of homeless folk in my current home town of Cardiff - far too many in actual fact and the majority of them are young.  I'm as guilty as the next person for walking around and not 'seeing' them, not 'acknowledging' their existence.  This past year though I've tried to be better and more aware.   I've been a lot more open this year to giving a few bob here and there when I can, I've given bottles of water and a whole lot of fruit.  Don't tell Stewart about the fruit though cos he thinks I'm eating it each day.  I also bought a Tescos 'meal deal' one lunchtime for a young lady down on her luck.   My parents were always huge supporters of the Big Issue and I've tried to remember to buy a few.  During one of our recent exceedingly cold spells I gave a pair of thermal gloves to a bloke I passed on the street.  And in general I've tried my best not ignore these people who are absolutely no different to you or I.   I know it's a not a lot, but it's something.

•  Feeding Cats-  this is basically being neighbourly and in return for looking after a couple of cats my own guinea pigs get cared for when I'm away.  Below, a picture of Narla and Simba, the fur babies I often look after.

•  One way I was regularly able to be helpful was by helping lost folk - of which there seems to be loads in Cardiff, generally of three different types.  Lost international students in January or September.  Obviously this is where I'm in my element, I love being able help and I love being able to give a good impression of 'friendly' folk in Cardiff.   We also get a lot of tourists and I love being able to help by pointing out how to get to the Castle or give directions down the Bay.  Finally, during international rugby matches there are always lost supporters who are glad of being given a direction or two.

• I have done a few different sponsored activities this year and have also tried to sponsor other folk doing amazing things.  I can't begin to say how much I have appreciated each single donation I received in the form of sponsorship myself.   I've been more likely this last year than ever before to chuck change in a bucket for charity collections.  The charities I have been able to raise money for include:

 And then there are loads of different small things I've done, I've volunteered at a few sporting events which were actually great fun, I've baked a few times throughout the year and shared the spoils with my work, Stewarts work and even the ladies at the Guide Dog Cymru training school though whether sharing my cupcakes, chocolate truffles and gingerbread cookies counts as a good deed or cruelty well who knows.  I also gave away my handmade bars of soap too.

Finally, you all know by now the trauma we have faced recently when we lost both parents in under two months.   Being back in Cardiff I was able to reflect on the good we were able to do after my Mum and Dad passed away.  From donating money collected at the funerals to the British Heart Foundation, to taking scores of bags and boxes of things to a huge range of charity shops, to even requesting a van (!) from the BHF to come and collect a huge amount of clothes and finally we were able to donate their furniture, bedding, crockery and practical household goods to the Whitlawburn Housing Cooperative for them to help future folk in need who they will rehouse.   One of the nicest and sweetest things I was able to do recently was this.  My Mum was an avid knitter, and a good knitter as well.  One of her favourite things to do was to knit baby cardigans.  When we were clearing the flat I came across around 20 beautifully handknitted baby cardigans she had completed but hadn't given away. Well, back in south Wales I have found a charity called the Cwtch Baby Bank which distributes clothes and equipment to young families in dire need and I took along the remaining gorgeous cardigans for them to pass on to any young Mums who may not have much for their newborns.  I got a lovely acknowledgement email from them yesterday.  I don't think anything I could have done over the last year means more than passing on something from my Mum.

 

So, I'm calling time on Task No.42 - 50 Good Deeds, though I have plenty of ideas of other ways to help and spread love and good karma.

 



DONE: No.48 - Snowboard

What a beautiful day it has been here in Cardiff!  This challenge was supposed to happen earlier this year but had to be postponed because of the sudden death of my Mum.  Wasn't sure if I'd keep it in, but, we did decide to go ahead.

So, off we went this afternoon to the Cardiff Ski and Snowboard Centre, a really friendly and cool wee place that I previously didn't even know existed!  I've always had it on my travel bucket list that I'd love to go snowboarding in Andorra - a fairly random to thing to want but it's there nonetheless. 

When we first arrived at the centre we were given knee pads to put on and our snowboarding boots - this was a bleeding challenge in itself and you needed a degree in Engineering just to work out how to put them on, but finally we managed.

Once we were kitted out we were taken to a fairly flat part of the slope and after being taught how to .
lock and unlock our boots on the board - also freaking difficult - the first thing we were taught was how to fall!  Oh, dear......  We were taught how to best fall forwards, and backwards.  Hands in fists and land on your bum or your forearms and knees.  The way to learn this is to do it, so we had to intentionally throw ourselves on to the ground!  Early days, but I'm sure I'll have a bruised bum tomorrow.

I thought as absolute beginners we'd probably only be allowed to play around on the flat part of the slope, but no, you've got to be adventurous so we spent most of the day probably half way up the slope.   The amazing thing was, it was only the two us, so it was basically private tuition provided by the lovely young Ollie, a gorgeous young man with patience and humour, and great at encouragement.  I loved him.

So, now we were half way up the slope you are taught how to stand up from the sitting position - I couldn't manage, I always needed a hand up, and we were also taught an amazing manoeuvre which was to be sitting facing forwards and then somehow roll over while the board is stuck to your feet and end up facing backwards.  I'm SO sad that Stewart wasn't able to capture this on film as I reckon I was being as graceful as a beached whale, but I could actually do this.  We actually spent a fair amount of time sitting on our bums as you have to keep unbuckling yourself from the board and have to sit down to lock yourself back in.  It's pretty technical stuff and not entirely straight forward.

But anyways, we then got to go down the slope loads of times, I can't entirely remember the technical terms but we did toe things and heel things, we went down sideyways, backwards and then started to learn how to change direction - point in the direction you want to go and lean on the leg, you kind of look like a demented superman.

I must say that I was in awe of Stewart, he was an absolute natural, could stand up by himself and pretty much did all his runs completely unaided.  Me, I felt more comfortable with the lovely young Ollie keeping an eye on me but I definitely did build confidence as we went on.

 

 

So, eventually, our time was up.  Ollie said that we had both been really quick learners, Stewart in particular, but he was complimentary about me too, don't know how much of that was just his brilliant customer service ability, or maybe it's just that now when do things and try things we properly go for it.  It wasn't an easy thing to do and the risks of hurting yourself were real but quite frankly, you do just have to get on with it and go for it and try.  This was a fun day and something I think we'd both like to do again.

 

Cheers everyone, see you soon.

Lesley

x

 

 



DONE: No.41 - Celebrate a National or International Day of Something Each Month

So, another challenge completed!  Huzzah!  This is the first of my year long, long term ongoing challenges to be finished.  A year of celebrating a national or international day of 'something' each month.   Started in April last year and today, with it being National Cocktail Making Day (USA) I have finally celebrated 12 'somethings' in a row.  Apologies if this is a slightly bizarre post - the signature cocktail I have created today - in the name of my 'challenge' has totally gone to my head :) 

This was actually quite a difficult and testing and 'having to be inventive' task.  Even though there is basically a national day for absolutely everything you can think about and even some you never ever would think about it, was tough to find one thing each month that I could do something with.  I think I'm reasonably happy with my attempt though.   I can evidence easily 10 out of the 12 days though.  So here's the summary of what I 'celebrated'.

 

April 2017 - World Penguin Day.  This was a good place to start, me and Stewart absolutely adore penguins and indeed we completed a one off challenge quite a few months ago - 'Be a Penguin Zookeeper for the Day'.   On this particular day though I went in to work wearing penguin socks, a black and white top and then in the evening I went round our house cataloguing all the penguin items we have.   There were, from what I remember 150 plus individual penguin things we have.

May 2017 - National Crazy Golf Day.  Me and Stewart, who both love playing crazy golf, we trundled off to the Celtic Manor golf club near Newport.  Yes! THE Celtic Manor which has hosted a Ryder Cup Tournament and also played host to the worlds top leaders during the NATO summit, but, they've also got a really cute and adorable wee crazy golf course.  We had a pleasant afternoon here, Stewart narrowly beat me in the end but I did get the only hole in one of the day.

June 2017 - National Say Something Nice Day - This is one which is difficult to evidence but from my diary entry for that day I went in to work and complimented my workmates throughout the day  basics - 'you look really nice today' or 'good job and thanks for your help'.  I would hope though that I generally say something nice to folk each and every day.

July 2017 - World Chocolate Day - Even though I'm not actually a huge chocolate fan I decided that for this month's micro challenge I would endeavour to make my own chocolate sweeties.  Rather than concentrating my efforts on one type - which considering my inabilities in the kitchen would have been the sensible route, oh no, I chose to make three separate chocolate sweeties.  All of which were distributed between my work, Stewart's workplace and the ladies at the Guide Dogs Cymru training school as I made the sweets while we still had Timber, our guide dog in training,  So, the three types of sweeties I handmade were, chocolate truffles, white chocolate truffles and boozy chocolate fudge.  Think the straightforward chocolate truffles went down the best.

August 2017 - National Mountain Climbing Day - living in South Wales I'm used to being around hills and valleys.   Can't say I enjoy it, I have always hated inclines and hills, probably my own fault as a smoker - let me walk 20 miles on the flat and I couldn't care less, make me walk 100 metres up a hill and I shall want to kill you!  Still, we had this opportunity in August so one evening after work, we drove to the start of a local 'mountain' the Garth and walked up it.  And actually, it wasn't too bad!

September 2017 - National Mudpack Day - not a lot to say about this, it's self explanatory - had to wear a facepack.  Haven't done this in a long time, there comes a time in some peoples life where we all of a sudden think, 'f*ck it' - I've lived my life, it's going to show on my face and there are other things to worry about rather than my appearance. However!  I have to say this actually did make my skin feel really smooth and tight afterwards and even a cynic like me was impressed!  It was just a cheap mudpack out of Savers, I do remember though that it was Welsh seaweed.   Probably due another go by now.

 

October 2017 - World Pasta Day Tried a food related task.  Not sure why I keep doing this to myself - when am I ever going to realise I really should keep away from kitchens.  In actual fact though, this was actually quite a positive experience.  To make your own pasta involves purely flour and eggs and theoretically it's really easy and it kind of was.  The problem was doing this purely by hand with no wee machines or gadgets at all, so I couldn't get the pasta thin enough. It was way too chewy and thick but the actual taste was fine.  I even turned this in to a 'two for one challenge' and decided to have October as Italy for my monthly 'International Cooking Challenge'.

 The pasta I made I turned in to a pasta with cheese sauce with pancetta and leeks and peas and it was actually alright!

November 2017 - St Andrews Day For this month's 'national day' challenge I should have done something interesting like a whisky tasting or a stuff my haggis.  Instead, I decided to try and make a notoriously difficult Scottish sweet delicacy - tablet.   Oh I tried SOOOOO hard.   Using sugar and condensed milk (it's no wonder we've got rotten teeth) I stirred and stirred and stirred and my tablet was looking good, until the next morning when I got up and it was a congealed mess - it tasted beautiful right enough but it was still a congealed mess.   I put the effort in though.

December 2017 - National Elf Day  A straightforward one.  Went in to work dressed as an elf, as you do.  I actually made this more exciting by trying to make Christmas gingerbread cookies the night before to share with my workmates.  They didn't exactly turn out to be the beautiful Christmassy shaped biscuits I'd hoped for but they tasted alright.

Nearly there - thanks for staying with me so far!!!!!

January 2018 - Burns Night - an easy one this.  Each year, Scots all over the world celebrate the life and times of our national bard, Robert Burns.  I've been doing this on January 25th each year for as long as I remember.  I could write a whole post about the significance of Burns night, and even hosted my own really cool Burns night a few years ago.  This year- we just went to our local pub and had the traditional haggis, neeps and tatties.

February 2018 - National Weatherpersons Day A difficult one to evidence this so you'll just have to trust me. If you've been following this blog you'll know that I'm doing a long running challenge which is to complete 50k or miles of 'weatherman walks'.   These are a series of hikes which Welsh national treasure - Derek Brockway the Weatherman undertook, filmed and wrote about.   I've become a bit of a fan of Derek the Weather.  So even though I can't prove what I did to celebrate National Weatherpersons Day I can promise that I researched him and found a whole lot out about him and that was the day I discovered that we would be able to actually walk WITH the weatherman.   This walk, up Pen Y Fan, was supposed to be happening tomorrow but because of the weather it has been postponed till the end of April. That's fair enough.   This particular walking task has really grown on me over the last year and I can't wait to do the ultimate weatherman walk.  AND - to meet him.

So, finally, we get to month 12.  A full and complete year of celebrating each month a specific national or international day of something!!!!

March 2018 - National Cocktail Making Day.  The ultimate way that I could round off a year long challenge.  Cocktail making.  I decided that of course, if I was going to do a cocktail related challenge there really could be only way to go about that.  To come up with, devise and create my own 'signature' cocktail.  So I did!!!!   It's called 'The Pink Lelly'!!!    Had to be pink, had to be pretty alcoholic.  Of course I made enough for two glasses and when I gave Stewart his, well, lets just say he's in love with the Pink Lelly.  

If you do want to know, it was made with cava, Campari, peach schnapps and pink grapefruit juice and it was bloody delicious!  It seriously does taste good, I'm on my second and it's gorgeous!  Might have found a hidden talent here. 

So, another one ticked off.  This is the first of the long term ones to call time on.  Looking back through this blog I can see that in actual fact it was probably a wee bit more interesting than I thought initially.  It's a fairly eclectic bunch of things I've done, none of which would deserve challenge status in their own rights but put them all together - yep, I think this is an interesting job well done.

See you very very soon!

Lesley
x

ONGOING: No.7: 50k/Miles of Weatherman Walks - No. 5 - Barry Docks to Rhoose

Hello there my beautiful blog friends!  I feel as if someone has stolen the last three months from me and also that I have been cocooned indoors for too long.  For obvious reasons fair enough. But I have definitely spent too much time indoors recently hiding away, eating badly, not sleeping, not 'living'. So I thought it was high time that I burst out of this routine and try to find a way out of a potentially negative situation, should it go on for too much longer.  It's not what this whole year of challenges is about, it's not what 'life' is about.  'Life', is about getting out there and doing, and trying and being and living and experiencing, and breathing.  Ooh - not like me to get all deep and thoughtful!

So!  Time to blow away the cobwebs and start getting my 'mojo' back.  And what better way to start than with the longest, so far, of our 'Weatherman Walks', the series of hikes myself and Stewart have been doing following in the footsteps of the legendary Welsh weatherman, Derek Brockway.   Today's hike was our first non-circular walk, and started from Barry Docks and would end up at Rhoose.   8 miles in total and it took us just under 3 and 1/2 hours - though we did stop for a coffee and a bacon butty in Barry Island.

Barry Docks train station is where we started this walk and for the most part this was a coastal walk following a fair amount of the Welsh Coastal Path Trail.  It was bloody freezing to be honest, very windy - but absolutely bracing!

From Barry Docks, we walked along the waterfront and got stymied fairly quickly.  Where Derek described wasteland that we could walk across, it's now a housing development/building site which we had to circumnavigate.  Thankfully, we're getting used to discovering that the directions for these walks are often out of date.  Still, we managed to rejoin the route and headed across the sands of Jackson Bay.  It was bitterly cold, but every now and again the light was just lovely and the sun would come out. 

It wasn't too much further along this proper coastal path until we arrived at the Valleys Mecca - BARRY ISLAND!  Home of a funfair, a really good crazy golf course, beach huts and also where the Welsh part of Gavin and Stacey was filmed!  Today though, the beach belonged to hardy dog walkers, and the funfair was shut.  We did stop here though for a bacon butty and a coffee - mainly to get a heat!

We could have stopped at 'Nessa's slots' but though the thought of spending the afternoon in an amusement arcade was tempting, it wasn't what we set out to do - maybe next weekend though!

After Barry Island, we continued mostly on beach, crossing a causeway at one point and heading towards Tower Bay.   While walking across the causeway the wind picked up and kept blowing the sand in amazing ways, tried to capture but have failed, though I haven't yet seen Stewart's photos.

We passed by Barry Lido - didn't even know they had one!  Derek mentions that this is where he learnt to swim, and Stewart remembered coming here when he was younger as well.  After Barry Lido we were heading to a very pebbly beach.  There was a wee incline beforehand when we headed up a steep footpath to the cliff top - this part of the walk felt like 'part two'.  The first half was mostly coastal and along the shoreline with defined normal paths, the second part was 'up' and off the beaten track.   Kind of more adventurous to be honest.

 






Still, once we hit this pebbled beach we were heading into the home straight and the actual goal of today, to reach Rhoose Point, the southernmost tip of  mainland Wales.  Also the end of our walk.   There is a stone circle here which I got excited about until I realised that it's not actually ancient, it was put here in 2000 by the company who were helping with the land reclamation and landscaping of the area.  The stones are made of North Wales slate.  This actual part of the coastal path consisted of lots of bigger boulders we could clamber over.  Which we did.   And then, we headed to the train station to travel home, me feeling absolutely knackered but for once in a wholesome physical way.  Look out by the way for the next of our weatherman walks - in the coup of the year we will be walking WITH the weatherman himself, oh yes, we're going to be walking with Derek 'THE Weather and the Legend' Brockway.  Ti-ra for now, as they say in the valleys. x