Yummy Music [Foals, alt-J, Everything Everything, Haim + Phoenix]

Although I've struggled to cut down on spending in certain areas during my maternity leave (yes, I have a serious Costa addiction), I have really deprived myself of certain luxuries. Along with new clothes, the most noticeable of these deprivations has been music. I haven't downloaded a single MP3.

But in order to cushion the blow of my maternity leave coming to an end, I've treated myself to some shiny new music to listen to during my new commute. They are pretty much all tracks I've been listening to on Spotify already, but laptop speakers aren't known for their quality. I played a couple of tracks in the car today and am actually looking forward to being in the car alone so I can crank up the volume and get the proper sound experience!

The albums I downloaded were alt-J's An Awesome Wave, Foals' Holy Fire and Everything Everything's Arc. These are all relatively new bands to me, but I think each is very special. I fell in love with Foals and Everything Everything the first time I heard them (My Number and Kemosabe were my respective entry tracks for each). alt-J were a little different, as I wasn't sure about Tesselate when I first heard it, and it wasn't until I heard Matilda that I got them.

I tried to download something by Haim too, as I adore the tracks I've heard from them so far. There was only an EP on Amazon so I held off, but it turns out that is all there is floating about just now so I'll probably go snag it. I also keep meaning to get some of Phoenix's newer stuff, as I bought Alphabetical about seven years ago and although I've liked what I've heard of their subsequent releases I haven't got round to actually buying anything.

Phoenix were a LaunchCast radio find. Man, I loved that service, nothing has ever come along to fill the void left when Yahoo stopped it. Yes, Spotify and Last.fm are ok, but they really are just poor seconds. The ratings and recommendations on LaunchCast were so much more on point that anything I've found through the other two services. I think it is because it gave you a chance to rate on a scale, rather than just simply loving or banning, starring or following. LaunchCast got me through my years at Strathclyde uni, and I think I'll always mourn it. But no one else I speak to ever seems to have heard of it...I guess that makes me a total geek an early adopter of the highest, coolest, fingerbangonthepulse order.

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Wedding Dresses + Tablet Favours

I managed to pop into The Wedding Planner yesterday, to pick up a goodie bag I won via their Facebook page.  The bag itself was a little disappointing, as it was pretty much just promotional fliers and some samples, but I know these were left over from their open day so I wasn't expecting much in the way of actual goodies.  One of the samples really stood out for me though - tablet by Alba Favours.  Since the wedding show at Hampden, I have really been drawn to the idea of using tablet in our favours...which was a bit left field given that I actually don't like the idea of edible favours.  But it's quintessentially Scottish, which ties in with the location of our wedding, and D and I are both huge lovers of the stuff so it's also got the personal touch.  And who wouldn't want tablet, it's a total please-all?!  What I liked about this tablet, beyond it's texture and flavour which were pretty damn good, was the fact that it was love-heart shaped.  I've never seen tablet come in anything but cubes or slabs, so this was really very cool.  So Alba Favours are definitely going on the ideas list!

I appreciate that tablet may be a mystery to anyone not Scottish.  So to save any confusion, the tablet I'm talking about has nothing to do with medicine.  Or health.  In fact, it's pretty much the anti-health, being basically made entirely of sugar, condensed milk and butter.  It is brittle but still has a sort of fudgey element, and good homemade tablet is grainy when it dissolves in your mouth (the commercial stuff can be too smooth for my tastes).  I think it goes without saying that is is rich and tooth-rottingly sweet, but it's incredible...especially with a nice cup of coffee.

Anyway, I've gone off in a tangent from what I set out to write.  Although the rest of the goodie bag wasn't as exciting, at least going to collect it finally got me off my bum to book an appointment to look at the dresses in the shop.  They have two Ronald Joyce ones in particular that made my heart kind of flip when I saw them at the recent Loch Lomond Wedding Show (I should warn you that the page has a video that starts on load-up...a video which the back of my head is in!). But I've already done my research and I know designers like Joyce are totally out of my budget.  And I don't mean my financial budget...I could probably stretch to that if I raided the savings.  But my moral budget just screams "are you serious?!  For a dress?  For a dress you wear once?  Really?"  And whilst I know it's the dress...I'm the type of girl who baulks at spending more than £20 on a pair of jeans, even when I know I'd wear them to death.  To spend hundreds or even thousands of pounds on one item - no matter how important an item it has been hyped up to be - is just insanity to me.  The whole wedding industry disgusts me in how willing they are to take advantage of people and encourage ridiculous overspends. Whilst I appreciate that a lot more goes in to a wedding dress than it does to a £5 t-shirt, I am sceptical that the mark-up is relative.  And though no doubt I will feel incredible for one day in £1,000 worth of dress, I would feel pretty crappy afterwards when I realised that the cost of that one outfit could have funded a family holiday.  I have to keep that thought in mind, even when I try on the dress...that no dress could be totally "me" unless it suited my moral ideals as well as my body shape.

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On weaning like a crunchy mama [baby food purees + Annabel Karmel]

Whilst I wouldn't identify as a crunchy mum (especially when it comes to delaying or abstaining from vaccinations...an utterly irresponsible act, which requires a rant entry of it's own), there are definitely elements of my parenting that are at the very least...chewy.  According to this cute quiz, I scored a 37, which means I am "sprinkled with granola" (on a scale of "jello" to "grape nuts").  I use cloth nappies (though I am fast losing patience with my stash of leaky Tots Bots and am not willing to fork out to try different brands), I occasionally wear Mini Milk around the house or on dog walks in a woven wrap, I had a drug and intervention free birth (you could go as far to say that I didn't have a hospital birth, although that last part was not entirely by choice!) and very much support the importance of that approach.  I don't co-sleep with Mini Milk unless he's really unsettled, but I did with Half Pint and the Mini Milk has never slept a night in a room without me.  And beyond parenting I do try to recycle most of our waste, I'm looking at reducing our meat intake, I'm not allergic to second hand items, I really want to switch to more natural cleaning products and in general live a bit of a cleaner life.  But there are a lot of un-crunchy things about how I live and parent as well - I formula feed and use dummies, we have a lot of electronic toys, I believe in discipline and routine, I drive, I like a good burger, I very much believe in medical science and I enjoy a lot of mainstream culture, commercialism and attitude.

But one thing I am trying to be crunchy about is baby food.  The only pre-made stuff Mini Milk has had was some sachets of pure fruit purée I bought when we were away in Mull last week.  I couldn't transport the frozen purées I had at home, and it would have been impractical to try to make some whilst we were away.  But anything else has been either mashed or poached single fruits (banana, mango, pears and apples), puréed single vegetables (sweet potato, carrot, spinach, broccoli, peas) or mixed vegetable purées.  These last ones are from recipes I've been using from Annabel Karmel's Top 100 Baby Purees, which I picked up in an Oxfam bookshop in Oban last week.  When I worked in Waterstones, the parenting section was one of my areas.  In general I used to turn my nose up at the parenting "gurus" whose books I shelved, and I don't think I ever snuck one up to the staff room to read on my lunch break (I was more into the Stitch'n'Bitch books back then...not that I can knit a single row).  Karmel was one of these gurus, and I really did have the attitude that she was making a ton of money off the back of simply telling people to get food, stick it in a blender and then give it to their baby.  And actually, I nearly didn't buy this book the other week for precisely that reason.  But I'm so glad I did.  Whilst I cook most meals from scratch, and enjoy doing so, I don't really have a chef's mind of how to combine flavours and textures myself.  Everything I cook is from a recipe, or at least based on something I've done before.  So I was fine introducing first flavours of single foods to Mini Milk, but I actually don't mind admitting that I needed direction in stepping up the variety...and Karmel appears to be the woman to offer that guidance.  I suppose I should add here that I don't have anything to compare her too...there is nothing to say that the recipes in the free Cow & Gate booklet I got through the post are any better or worse than hers.  But what I've tried so far has been a success, so I'm not going to knock this particular guru.  Especially when her recipes incorporate things I possibly wouldn't have thought to try until he was much older, such as onions and leeks.

I would be curious to know how crunchy other people are though, so if you take that quiz let me know your results!

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101 Things In 1001 Days

START DATE :: 4th March 2013
END DATE :: 30th November 2015

COMPLETED :: 03
IN PROGRESS :: 33
NOT YET STARTED :: 65
FAILED :: 0

goals 01 - 12 :: weight/health/fitness :: click to expand
Renovating the Temple





Get back to my goal weight, and maintain it for the rest of the 101/1001 period
By this I don't mean my Weight Watchers goal weight, although obviously I will need to get back to that first. My ultimate goal is a weight I was happy at before and feel I will be happy at again. However, it is not as low as I was at my lightest, because I want a weight I can realistically maintain without getting all weird and unhealthy about it.





Do a Couch to 5k running plan
There are so many of these about, and I don't know if they're all the same. All I know is that I am not a runner, so this is a really big goal I've set myself. I think I'll try the NHS version of the programme, simply because I'm hoping it really is written for our nation of total beginners!





Create a recipe book with diet recipes
Nothing makes it easier to stay on track with healthy cooking than simplifying the whole process. Having all my favourite recipes together in one file - including any tweaks I may have made to the original, and written in a way which works for me - would just be a handy tool to have.





Work out twice a week on a regular basis
It seems such a small thing, but I go through fits and starts with my exercise attempts and I really need to make a proper commitment to it. Losing weight is one thing, but conditioning my body to be a shell I'm happy with is a whole other issue which can't be altered through diet alone.





Reduce my body fat percentage by 5%
Now, I don't know a whole lot about the science of body fat, or whether this will be an impossible task. I may find that if I complete all my other fitness goals, this one will sort itself out...who knows? I don't even know what my current percentage is, but I'm willing to bet it's above the ideal range so I don't think 5% is unrealistic.





Do the 30 Day Shred
Gillian Michaels is a wee hero of mine, I think she is phenomenal. But I've always been too chicken to do anything more than watch her force other people to work out. Now, it's my turn. I know this wont be enjoyable or fun! I will consider it achieved if I manage either to get up to level 2, or I at least manage 30 days at level 1. I think level 3 is an impossibility!





Complete the Zero to 1650
With a son who swims competitively, I feel ashamed to think of how I've neglected my own swimming...it's time to see if I still have the stamina I used to have!





Don't start smoking again
I'll admit it...part of me is just waiting for the opportunity to light up again. But apart from the fact that it would be financially selfish of me to spend the kind of dough I used to on my own disgusting vice, there are a million other reasons why I shouldn't give in to this. I would like to have kicked the habit once and for all.





Walk 300 miles
Not all in one go...I'm not a sadist. But walking really kicked my body back into gear in the months since Mini Milk arrived, and it's such a simple way to get some exercise that I want to keep it up. I can walk a mile on the flat in 15mins, so I had toyed with the idea of 500 or even 1001 miles. But I'm aware that I do have quit a few other fitness goals here and I don't want to set myself up to fail, so I think 300 is more realistic. Especially when coupled with goal #20.





Take a Pilates class
Just because, really. I enjoyed the DVD I did when I was pregnant, so lets see where this interest can take me.





Join a gym...and go!
I was at my fittest when I had a gym membership, and I need to admit to myself that having somewhere I make time to visit is the only way to keep my exercise motivation up. I just lack that momentum when I only work out at home, because it's too easy to avoid.





Use the Slendertone for at least 8 weeks
Now we have one, I should at least test it out to see if it's all gimmick. I have realistic expectations though, after a big weight loss and two pregnancies I don't think any amount of magic will get me a six pack!



goals 13 - 25 :: family time :: click to expand
My Brood




Get Mini Milk an Elf on the shelf
I love Christmas traditions, and we have quite a few now. But pretty much every one we have is something I started with Half Pink. I'm carrying them on for Mini Milk, but I'd like to start one in his honour too. Plus, the creepy little elf doll appeals to me!





Go on a family holiday abroad
Obviously I'd love this to involve all three kids, but that decision isn't mine to make. I just really want to hang out with the kids by a pool, play in the sand by the sea, show them some culture and enjoy some great food with them all whilst making some memories that we'll share forever. Plus, it's been waaay too long since I last went abroad...I'm getting cabin fever!





Take the kids to Center Parcs
Again, I'd love this to include all three kids. I've always meant to give this a try and I've heard nothing but good things about Center Parcs breaks from others...and perhaps it could work as a warm up for goal #14.





Sign Half Pint up for piano lessons
He has always shown an interest in my piano at my parents' house, and I've been a bit rubbish at encouraging his artistic side because his sporting ability gets a bulk of his time. I think we need to give this a try to see if it suits him, before he heads to high school and gets all the extra homework and responsibilities that come with that part of his life.





Do the Great Scottish Swim with Half Pint
This will need to wait until 2014, when Half Pint will be old enough. Hopefully it will still be held in the same place, and we can hire wet suits...or this could get pricey! I have to have completed goal #7 first too.





Take Half Pint on the Jacobite (aka the Hogwart's Express)
This is probably a birthday trip. He's reading Harry Potter and I think he'd get a kick out of this. Plus, I love the chance to soak up some beautiful scenery!





Learn and use at least five baby sign language words
I remember how a lot of Half Pint's late baby/early toddler tantrums stemmed from an inability to express his needs. Hopefully using even just a few key signs will help ease that stage for Mini Milk.





Be the dog walker once a week
One for my little fur baby - the Pooch and I need to have some bonding time.





Don't feed Mini Milk jarred baby food at home
Ideally I wont be using jarred food much outside of the home either, but I know there will be times where that isn't practical. I want to make the bulk of his food myself and definitely only feed him homemade food at home (although baby rice and porridge are ok to use).





Give the kids their own special space
If/when we move to a new house, I want to do more than simply paint the walls the colour that the kids chose for their bedrooms. Obviously, the outcome of this depends on the house we get and what the kids want, but I want there to be at least one aspect of each of their rooms that is personalised for them.





Take Mini Milk on at least ten days out, with picnics
Obviously the older kids can come too, if they don't think it's too lame. I'm thinking that we have to revisit some of my favourite places we've visited with Half Pint and Pink Milk like the aquarium or Deep Sea World, Edinburgh Zoo, Blair Drummond and Kelburn. I also want to try Findlaystone and Lamont Farm, although we've never been to them before.





Play crazy golf with the kids
Can you believe I've never played real crazy golf?! And I think the older kids would still be up for this.





Make sure our new house has a dog-free area of the garden!
I want a garden that isn't just a dog toilet, that was can sit out in during the summer and more than anything I want to make sure Mini Milk has a safe place to play.



goals 26 - 33 :: improving my appearance :: click to expand
How to be a Woman




Learn how to curl my hair
I am so bored of it just sitting there when I wear it down!





Visit the Benefit make-up counter for a demo
This is on here because I was meant to do this years ago, but had to cancel and then never did it. And if I'm going to trust any stranger to smear stuff on me, it's gotta be lovely Benefit stuff!





Get my teeth whitened before my wedding
A must - years of coffee and ciggies have wrecked my smile, and my confidence.




Get into a skincare routine
I ain't getting any younger and I've been lucky that my laziness hasn't got me in trouble so far. I know that wont last, so it's time I at the very least got into the habit of taking my make-up off at night!





Learn how to wear my hair in three new ways
I may be a mum, but its time to stop looking like one all the damn time!





Learn three new make-up techniques
I only started really wearing full make-up in my mid-twenties, and my skill set is limited. I need to try some new looks.





Get my nails done monthly
This will have to wait until I'm back at work to start, as it's an extravagance I can't justify on maternity pay. But I think I could spare one lunch break a month to feel better about myself, and this includes my toenails in summer so I can enjoy wearing cute shoes.





Get my hair done every ten weeks
Again, an income-reliant extravagance that needs to wait until I'm back at work, but I hate how I feel when my roots get bad...so I'm going to try and eliminate that feeling!



goals 34 - 42 :: improving + neatening everyday life ::click to expand
Oh Just Grow Up!





Clear all my things from mum and dad's house
I've been a homeowner for long enough - it's time to stop using my parents house as a storage unit!





Interior design our next home
I want to have a solid idea about how our rooms are going to look before we start. Pinterest, colour palettes, plans. I hate decorating, so I'd rather just do it right first time so we don't have to think about it again for a good few years!




Get serious about savings
This is a priority once we've paid for the wedding, to make sure we always have a financial cushion. I think these baby steps are a good approach.





Reclaim my inbox
My email is about 99.999% shite circulars and junk. I need to make this stop!





Have an address/birthday/date book
I envy people who get their cards out on time...I think this is what middle age is meant to feel like.





Get some decent art/ornaments for the house
Surround myself with beautiful things? Don't mind if I do.




Brush the Pooch at least once a week
I have dropped hints, nagged and actually even cried at the amount of dog hair that has to get hoovered up every day. It's clear no one else is going to do this, so I need to add it to my chore list for my own sanity.





Learn ten new housework tips and use them regularly
Who'd have thought it, I'm actually a wee wifey underneath it all.





Have a solid answer/decision/plan
This one is private, but it needs to be here.



goals 43 - 46 :: doing my bit for good causes :: click to expand
Pay It Forward




Regularly donate blood
I am a big supporter of the blood bank, but due to pregnancy haven't been able to give blood for a while. Once the nine month post-baby period is over, I want to get back into this.





Donate a shoebox to the Operation Christmas Child appeal each year
Preferably two actually - one for a boy and one for a girl - but I'll aim for at least one.





Take part in the Race for Life
If I complete goal #2, its only right that I push myself by taking part in an official 5k. Doing one for charity would give me motivation.





Reinstate my charitable direct debits
Another one of these goals which has to wait until I'm back at work, but my Red Cross and NSPCC donations are just a small thing I can do for others.



goals 47 - 59 :: adventures in cooking, baking + tasting :: click to expand
Foodie Fun





Cook "Christmas" dinner
Christmas day itself looks set to always be spent with one set of our parents or the other, but I like the idea of trying to cook the most important meal of the year at least once. So I'm going to give it a try for the pre-Christmas meal we have with Pink Milk rather than going to a restaurant for it.





Have four baking go-to recipes perfected
My baking sucks. I've tried to bake cakes, cookies, muffins...but they're never anything to be proud of. I'm not aiming for Parisian patisserie, but homely mum stuff would be an achievement.





Barbecue something classier than cheap burgers!
I think I'm pretty good when it comes to putting meals on the table, but our barbecue offerings always end up being sawdust burgers from Farmfoods. Its such a rare treat in this country to dig out the BBQ, I feel it should be honoured with more than just frozen crap wrapped in cheap white buns.





Try real sushi
For years I had convinced myself that I didn't like fish. Turns out that was a lie. But raw fish is still a leap I haven't made. It's time.





Plant a herb window box with at least three types of herb
I'm sick of dried herbs, I want to use the real deal in my cooking. But buying fresh herbs seems a bit of an indulgence, surely it makes more sense to grow them? Of course, there is the slight issue that I kill every plant I even look at...but maybe I'll discover green fingers if I'm getting to eat my efforts!





Perfect five non-diet main courses
I learned to cook when I learned to diet. The two have always been linked. I need to spread my wings.





Bake bread
Either using my mum's bread machine, or by going totally old school. And I need to do it until I get it right.





No meat for a month
Not for any political reason or anything, this is just to see if I can. And to see if it has any impact on my weight. And, y'know...to lessen my chances of accidentally eating a doped-up horse.





Bake a birthday cake
Once I manage goal #48, this would be cute to try.





Actually make something from The Pioneer Woman Cooks
I've drooled over her blog for years, and treated myself to her book...but my fear of the calories has always held me back. Well, no more!





Make my own hummus
Shop bought stuff never satisfies in the way the homemade hummus I used to order in a little tea shop did. I need to try and recreate that natural, wholesome taste and comforting mouthfeel.





Try tofu
It would seem that I'm intolerant to Quorn, which doesn't really help goal #54. Maybe tofu isn't as bad as it looks...? And maybe as a sub-goal here, I should give Quorn another try just to see if I get the symptoms again.





Make something from Babycakes
My mum bought me their book a good few years ago, but the ingredients were from another world. I've noticed recently a few of these strange things being available in regular supermarkets, so maybe finally trying one of the recipes is no longer an impossible dream!



goals 60 - 66 :: getting more involved in blogging :: click to expand
Blog Off




Blog my 101/1001 journey
The whole point of this list is to enrich my life with little achievements, so I need to commit them to memory.





Blog twice a week, most weeks
Sometimes I can go nearly a month without writing a thing. I want to get back to being the prolific blogger I used to be, so that when I'm old and grey I have something to look back on.





Complete the blogging month - completion entry
This isn't really anything official, it was just a bunch of blogging prompts I found and combined to give me a different topic each day. But it may kick start my blogging and get me in the right frame of mind to complete the other goals in this section.




Write 30 diet blog posts
Probably just in here first, but possibly I'll put them together eventually on a blog I unsuccessfully tried to start on another blogging platform. I just feel I have a lot of knowledge in this area, and I want to share it with others who may be on weight loss journeys. I know how vital tips from others in the same boat have been for me over the years.





Reply to every comment I get in my blog
I've slacked with this terribly over the years, and as a result my friendships have slipped. Its time to show my appreciation for those who take the time to read and reply.





Do a blog hook-up
I'm actually not even 100% sure what this involves, but I've seen other bloggers do it and it looks like fun!





Do a "day in the life" photo/blog post
I saw this on a lot of other 101/1001 lists I looked at for inspiration, and I think it sounds like the dorky sort of thing I'd enjoy doing.



goals 67 - 70 :: recording my life in pictures :: click to expand
Snap Happy





Complete my photography course
This gift from the Milkman is a fantastic opportunity for me, so I need to make sure I take it. My photos are my most prized possessions, but I need to improve my abilities





Take a photo of the same view once a month for 12 months
Obviously this can wait until goal #67 is completed for the best results!





Do something with all my digital photos
Firstly I need to better organise them, and then I plan to print enough to fill my existing photo albums and then step it up a notch and get a bit more creative...like making photo year books in the Project Life sort of vein.





Actually use my photo negative scanner
I'll feel a lot more comfortable if I know that I have digital copies of at least some of my old childhood photos.



goals 71 - 78 :: becoming my soul mate's wife :: click to expand
Hey Baby, I Think I Wanna Marry You




Have a spa hen party
A tacky hen do in a nightclub which ends with me puking into a gutter, wearing an L-plate covered veil and willy-shaped deely boppers is the stuff of nightmares for me. I would much rather spend time being pampered and drinking fine champagne with the women who are most important to me.





Make my own wedding favours...
...or at least personalise them. I've pinned too much crap on Pinterest not to do this!





Make my own wedding table centre pieces
Pinterest clearly has my soul...





Make my wedding stationery...
...or at least personalise it. Yeah, Pinterest has a lot to answer for.





Find an alternative to real flowers
Particularly for my bouquet, but also if we have posies for my bridesmaids or button holes for the guys. I think real flowers are such an expensive waste.





Find a sleeved wedding dress
There can be no compromises here! I don't like my upper arms and I don't want to spend the most important day of my life worrying about them being on show. But I also don't just want to throw a bolero over my dress.





Get married!
This is the most important goal on this list, but also the only one I don't really have to worry about as I know nothing will stop this happening.





Book (and go on) an incredible honeymoon.
We deserve this. But I'm not getting bogged down in details, because I know anywhere we go will be great. Every holiday we've had together has been wonderful, because we always have such a great time in our own company.



goals 79 - 84 :: seeing more of my home patch :: click to expand
I'm Out and About So I'm In With A Shout





Go to the Willow Tearooms
 I've been to pretty much everywhere on the Mackintosh trail, but never the Tearooms...which is mental considering I have a weakness for both the architect and the chance to stuff my face.





Visit Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis
I spent years walking and driving past both of these when I studied at Strathclyde and then did placements in the Glasgow Royal, but I've never set foot in either of them.





Take a cruise on Loch Lomond
I love my Loch so much that I'm getting married on its banks. But its banks are all I've been on - I want to experience it from a different angle.





Go on the Falkirk Wheel
My uncle has raved about it for years, and my (future) in-laws have also said what a nice day out it is, so I really want to visit it.





Do at least five treasure trails
I found this site by accident when searching for inspiration to put my list together. It's kind of nerdy, but I think it's actually quite a cool idea and a chance to get more out of a day out with the kids.





Add to our camping kit...and use it!
This may require buying a whole new family tent as our current one only has three rooms, but we'll play it by ear!



goals 85 - 101 :: random bits and pieces :: click to expand
Don't Phone, It's Just For Fun





Read at least 75% of the print books I own
That's 75% of the unread print books I own. And while I'm at it I should decide which of my read books I want to keep hold of and which to give to charity.





Watch all the DVDs I own
It's ridiculous the amount of DVDs I've bought and then never actually watched.





Get some pretty fishies
It doesn't have to be some massive tropical aquarium, just a nice tank with some beautiful wee swimmers would make me happy.





Read 10 classic novels I should have read, but haven't
I did this before and really gained from the experience. I may not have liked everything I read, but it broadened my mind and I'd like to do that again.





Re-join the library for the whole family
It's time to suck it up and face the massive fine that's probably awaiting me for that book Half Pint lost years ago...




List all my books on Goodreads
This should help with goal #85!





Watch 10 classic films I should have seen, but haven't
By this I think I mean classic to my generation rather than the golden age of Hollywood...though I'm not ruling anything out just yet. I am so sick of people acting like I'm from Mars because I haven't watched Labyrinth or The Godfather. For a film fan, there's a lot of films I'm embarrassed to say I haven't seen.





See a play
I haven't decided if musicals count here...but I need to see something live on stage. I don't think I've been to anything other than gigs and comedy shows since I left school!





See a ballet
Pretty much what I said for #92.




One evening a month without television
As great as the programmes the Milkman and I watch are, sometimes I think the goggle box gets in the way of us really enjoying our time together. It would be nice if we could make the time each month just to hang out, whether we go on an actual date or just chill out at home





NaNoWriMo 2015
I think out of all the things on my list (well, along with goals #2 and #6!) this is the scariest. Notice how I've left it until the very last month of my 101/1001 time frame?! I'm hoping that by then everything else will be completed, and so even if I don't feel up to the challenge I will simply guilt myself in to completing it!





Complete a grown ups puzzle
I saw this on so many other lists I looked at for inspiration, and I loved puzzles as a kid. I know I have one kicking about that never got done, so I'll give it a shot!





Research my product ideas
I have a couple of ideas for products lurking in the back of my mind. But literally ideas are all they are. Even if all I do is Google them and find that someone has already had the same idea, at least I'll have moved the process on from where it is just now. You never know, I could be sitting on a goldmine...





Actually find a Geocache
I've made about three attempts at different caches and been thwarted every damn time. I'm starting to think I'm doing something wrong!





Learn at least the basics of guitar
I think combined our household guitar collection is sitting at three...and I can't play a note.





Put £10 in a jar for every completed task
Perhaps the thought of saving a grand will motivate me during the dark times!





Make a new 101/1001 list!
I just think how great it will feel if I manage even half the things on this list. In life it is so easy to get caught in the daily grind, and its sometimes hard to lift your head to stop looking down at the treadmill of sleep, work, eat, work, sleep, work, eat, work, die. I don't want to look back at life and realise I never did make time to try that food or read that book or go to that place. But the pleasures in life don't have to be big either. Yes, I have a whole section here about getting married which I will grant is one of life's biggies. But on the whole, this list is comprised of things which are just little steps to make life that bit more satisfying. I think that's pretty important.

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