Bucket List

Being made redundant has had a surprising side-effect of making me evaluate what I want to do with my life and working, sleeping, working isn't filling me with glee. After thinking carefully about changing career, what that would entail, re-training and eventual salary all taken into consideration, I've come to the conclusion that it's not going to happen anytime soon. So my other option to improve my life is to do something in my spare time which excites me and makes working for the money to do stuff well worth it. Hence the bucket list (first 10, in no particular order) ....

1. Detox for a month - apart from improving my general health and making me realise what junk I put in my mouth, I think this is a good discipline exercise. I have no self-discipline and need to learn it so I can stop doing things which are bad for me and make me feel bad (eating junk and not exercising being a prime example of this). Of course I'll do a proper one and not just stop eating for a month. I have a few books on starting with a week-long juice diet and ending with introducing foods slowly until at the end of the month I'm eating proper food, but healthy, non-processed foods.

2. Cycle a national trail - Inspired by my lovely boyfriend who is a total nutter and planning on cycling Lands End to John o'Groats next year. I'd like to cycle part or or all of a national trail and I'm pretty sure there is a coast to coast one across the penines. This means I need to buy a proper bike and start cycling - Pete what are you turning me into?

3. Learn to swim properly - Pete, this is your fault too. I can swim and can quite happily swim 64 lengths breast-stroke in just under an hour. But I'd like to learn how to swim front crawl properly, face in the water and everything!

4. Learn a second language and use it - Probably french is the best bet as I can still remember some from my school days. Evening classes and audio books are the way to go.

5. Have a signature dish - I can cook passable food but I'd like to be able to just pick up a pan and create something marvellous instead of squinting at a cook book every 5 seconds to make sure I'm following the recipe correctly. I bake good brownies but they're not actual, proper meal time food. So, I'm thinking a main course and a dessert, which I can cook from scratch and from memory.

6. Do something for charity every year - I'm volunteering for 'Race for Life' marshalling in a few weeks, so that's 2009 covered. This could be volunteering, getting sponsored for something or just setting up a regular payment.

7. Do a long distance walk - National trail or some kind of team event, not sure about the details of this one. But it's another chance to train myself and get some discipline in there.

8. Restore something - I'm talking furniture or antique-y type thing. This could be simply recycling a beautiful piece of furniture into a useable thing or proper restore from the scrapheap.

9. Raise dogs - I never had large pets as a child (only goldfish, hamsters and stick insects). I've graduated onto a cat which was a challenge to see if I could take on a long term commitment and put something before myself. I think I'm doing a pretty good job with Lily, she seems to like me most of the time and keeps coming home which is a good sign. So the next step is dogs, I think I'll get more out of dogs (mainly cos they don't bugger off for 19 hours a day, stalk in, eat food and disappear again).

10. See the Northern Lights - No idea of the details other than I need to travel north to achieve this.

The next 10 will be coming soon.

Resolutions Update

Nearly half way into 2009, so here's an update on my resolutions:

1. Get fit, stay fit. Well I cancelled my gym membership and vowed to do DVDs at home, go swimming and do a yoga or pilates course instead. The DVDs are a bit haphazard but I'm hoping to get more into a routine over the summer. I do go swimming maybe twice a month (I know, not good enough). I did do one pilates course but didn't feel it was value for money, so I'm recording half hour shows on the TV channel 'Body Balance' which is mainly yoga and using that for flexibility training. So, probably a fail on this one.

2. Music. I started with excellent intentions and bought a new CD up until April and then it fell by the way. A new CD a month isn't going to happen now (see third resolution below). Fail, again.

3. Say 'Yes' more. Well I did try and improve my work attitude but have got very disillusioned with work in general and now I'm leaving my current job. A new job used to be a regular thing with me, probably staying about 12 months in each until my current one. I've been here for 4 years and things have got a bit stayed. So, with a new job will come a new attitude (well I have to at least create the impression with my new work colleagues that I'm a nice person). This one is ongoing me thinks.

So, all in all, not very good. But I have 6 months left to pull it all back. I think I will forget about number 2 for now and replace it with an 'eat healthily' one which is more achievable.

Must try harder.

Frugal Living

I'm trying my hand at being frugal, it's harder than it looks. For years I've had a good job with a decent wage and I take that too much for granted, I don't shop for a bargain, I'm too quick to go for named brands instead of supermarket's own. I eat too much convenience foods and rarely bake anything from scratch. So, as my part of saving for the economic downturn, I'm trying to live on less money and eeking out bargains wherever they may be.

Things I've done so far:
1. I've swapped my ISA savings to one with a better interest rate. OK, that's not saving money but just gaining a little extra.
2. I've set myself a food budget of £25 a week (previously I'd have quite happily spent double this).
3. I'm cooking from scratch and using up left over food (today I had a pasta salad for lunch made with pasta left over from Saturday and I'm also cooking a potato bake with mince left over from Saturday too).
4. I've had a clear out and found some forgotten gifts which can be given to someone else (I bought them for myself but chucked them in a cupboard and forgot until now).
5. I've read all my meters (gas and electricity) and sent them off to get an actual bill instead of an estimated one - why is it that nPower think I use £40 of gas a month?
6. Compared my usual Body Shop face wash (£6) to Simple from Boots (£3) and used my Boots points to get it free.
7. Written a shopping list and compared prices on www.mysupermarket.com to find the cheapest place to shop.
8. Trawled around Asda (yes, I have downsized my supermarket from Sainsbury's) with a calculator to make sure I didn't go over budget (actually spent £3 under and bought some extras which weren't on my list).
9. I went into town with Pete at the weekend and didn't buy anything!
10. Joined the library so I can still read loads of books but not buy any.

Things I'd like to do:
1. Re-use where possible - everything from old clothes to cardboard boxes. Old clothes which aren't good enough for charity can be cut up into dusters or odd cloths. Cardboard boxes can be cut up and made into a cat scratcher - I bought one (before my frugality) for £5 and it's just some cardboard strips wrapped around each other.
2. Buy supermarket own brand everything where possible - OK so Asda's own margarine might be pushing it but own brand flour, sugar etc is OK.
3. Make my own - chutneys, jams, biscuits, cakes etc. Although I did compare Nigella's Breakfast Bars to Frusli ones and they only work out 7p cheaper each and that's not taking into account the energy used to cook them.
4. Not turn the heating on - OK this is a little too easy over summer, but come winter I'm not going to turn the heating on until I've layered up on clothes and gotten under a blanket - sorry cat.
5. Make presents - I'm knitting now, so expect blankets and other wonderful things made from squares of knitting. I can make my own candles which are pretty decent and I've been busy making some cross stitch things (bookmarks etc) which are useable. I'm also going to bake biscuits and chutneys for Christmas and hope my family appreciate them.

I think it's possible for me to live on about two thirds of what I have been spending on junk. I'll try it for the next few months and maybe some of the habits will sink in and stick with me.

Pig racing, lots of dogs and some knitting

I went pig racing on Friday with a friend from circle, I had no idea what the expect. We arrived half way through the second race (of six), lots of people were crowded round a table on which 5 fluffy, oinking pigs were slowly making their way across. The basic premise is that at the start of each race you can buy the pig (for £3) and get a share of the winnings if it comes first, or you can bet on one or several pigs (£1 a go) and get back around £2.50 if it wins. I placed 5 bets and won on 2 of them. There was also a raffle which I won 2 prizes in and a 'name the pig' game which I didn't win, even though my preferred name of 'Peter' was an excellent choice. It was a really good evening hosted by Junior Chamber which is an organisation like circle but for men and women and more business orientated.

I'm learning to knit. Well, I say learning, I actually mean re-learning as my Mum taught me to knit when I was young. I've decided to practise by making squares, then building them into something, so mostly blankets. I bought some lovely raspberry coloured wool and made a start at Pete's house on Saturday, I thought I could spend an evening making one square a week and pretty soon I'd have a decent sized blanket. Well, that was the plan. Having to take a break every 3 rows cos your fingers ache, slightly marred my progress. I spent most of Saturday and Sunday knitting (or taking breaks from knitting) and have managed a grand total of 25 rows ... that's half a square ... in 2 days.

In one of my many break from knitting, Pete and I went to Burghfield Fair. It was full of doggies! They had two large roped off areas where they were constantly having dog shows (waggiest tail, cutest bitch, handsomest dog etc), agility courses and dog tricks. It seemed everyone had brought a dog and there were so many springer spaniels (which is the dog Pete wants). There was also a hog roast which looked delicious but had a huge queue and lots of other stalls with tombolas and crafts. It was gorgeous weather and a very relaxing way to spend the afternoon. Plus we made it back in time for the Spanish F1 which Pete was so looking forwards to that he slept through most of it.