...and in June

This is a screenshot from my phone. It relates to doing a good turn for a stranger and this is even better because I never met the person I helped.

I was walking along the Cromford Canal when I saw a dog lead atop a wooden post. The owner(s) had had the foresight to have a mobile phone number embroidered onto the lead, so I texted the number and a day later received a reply to say the lead had been retrieved.

I can put this alongside all the other and regular acts of road gallantry I bestow upon the motoring world.




An unexpected opportunity arose to build sandcastles with two out of the three grandchildren, not at the seaside but in Crich. A special event "Beside the Seaside" was on at the Tramway Museum and so Sue and I were able to amuse them for 4 hours there and spent some time in the sandpit.

We did. also, go on the trams, even though that wasn't one of my 60 tasks.







One of my tasks is to have a photo taken with someone famous, though, of course, this is going to depend greatly upon happenstance.

As an alternative, I have managed to elicit a FB response from Katie Hopkins: "Wow, you are a sad-looking bastard". I'm particularly pleased with this.





Over the last 10 weeks (April-June), I've been doing an excellent online course about Shakespeare and, through that, undertaken to try to write a sonnet.

I've never written such before and looked online at various forms but they all advised that the basic form of the lines was iambic pentameter. Anyway, for good or ill, I came up with what's written here (to the rt) and you can judge for yourself its worth.






So, all in all, fewer achievements than I hoped for - I'm trying to do 5 a month, but not a bad return. If my children's point was to make me active, that's being achieved and I'm sure I'll catch up in July.

May Progress

One month in and the following things have happened:

I have begun documenting my 61st year, via this blog;
I have begun saving £1 a day and now have £31 deposited in my piggy bank;
I have done something nice for a stranger (although this was achieved via courtesy whilst driving);
I have begun learning a circus skill (diabolo - more challenging than it looks);
I have written a letter to Brian Blessed and posted it.
I have worn nail varnish in public - 2nd May, I wore it all day.

So I'm on track - 60 things in 12 months is 5 a month. Some of them are begun but not complete and some of them will be revisited.

The one that's truly complete, though, is writing a letter to Brian Blessed. To help that process, some of my birthday presents were a writing pad, a pack of envelopes, a Parker fountain pen and Brian's autobiography "Absolute Pandemonium", so I wrote him a short two-side letter, telling him why I was writing and asking him some questions based upon what I had read in his book. There's a photo of the handwritten letter on FB. I have no expectation of him replying - I had to write to him via an address his FB page provided - but we'll see.

I'm writing this in a cafe in Melton Mowbray, footling away a day whilst waiting for Sue to enjoy her day of pampering at Ragdale Hall. The footling is supposed to involve some marking and it will. But not till I'm really bored.

More next month...

The Kindness of Family

For my 60th birthday, my wife and children organised for a secret weekend away in deepest Norfolk and festooned me with gifts, based around The List.

It was one of the most poignant moments of my life. I won't bother to list everything that was given to me but it was easily the most gifts I've ever received (and that includes childhood). Some of the gifts were lovely - a diabolo for the circus skill; the two writing pads for the sonnet; the OS map for the Hadrian's wall walk - and some of them were grotesque - the leg waxing strips, baseball cap and cowboy outfit spring to mind.

That doesn't matter. It was, quite simply, truly a moment in which the thoughtfulness of my family towards me was writ large. Strangely, though, I wasn't moved to tears, as I normally am with kindnesses. What I felt was warmth, acceptance and valuing of me. I felt both complete and humble. There was no need for tears..

Thank you.

The List

They wrote out the List in whatever order the ideas came to them. In order to make it manageable, I've categorised them.

Creative
write a cryptic crossword
compose a sonnet
make cheese
freestyle rap against Matt (my son)
brew own beer
design and make a t-shirt
learn to knit
create a hanging basket
go glass blowing
learn semaphore
learn a circus skill
learn to yodel
paint a self-portrait
make Sue (my wife) a piece of jewellery
create a flower press
build a sculpture out of unusual garden stuff
write a letter to Brian Blessed
build a sandcastle with Iona, Arlo and Gus (my grandchildren)
make a Jamie Oliver 30-minute meal in thirty minutes
buy a scrapbook to document my sixtieth year
write a memoir of my sixtieth year

Adventurous
wash hair in Aira Force
dye beard purple
try shark
wear nail varnish to work
take a martial arts lesson
go orienteering
apply to be on a quiz show
hire a camper van and drive from John O'Groats to Land's End
get photo taken with a famous person
go skinny-dipping in the sea
appear in the local paper
visit all 4 UK capital cities
get a body piercing
organise a canal holiday
get a facial
star in a play
dress as a cowboy for the day and leave the house
climb a mountain
walk Hadrian's Wall with Andy (friend)
play a game of golf
visit 2 castles

Altruistic
do something nice for a stranger
volunteer to play cribbage at an OAPs home
host a murder mystery weekend
go to Iona's (granddaughter) school to listen to readers
bake mince pies for my neighbours
tell someone a very deliberate lie
surprise Sue with something pleasant
start an online petition

Odd
buy and wear an item of leather
call Dragons' Den with a business idea
wax legs (for charity)
take 6 different forms of transport
do a family tree
unlock my bike
save £1 every day and then do something unusual with the £365
watch IMDB's top 20 films
buy an album from 6 different musical genres
eat only vegetarian meals for a week

What's it all About?

It all started when my children (now in their early thirties) got their heads together and drew up a list of 60 things they thought I should do during my 61st year of life. It was my 60th birthday on Sunday 1st May 2016 and so the countdown has begun to get through the list.

What I'm going to do is post a monthly report, on the first of every month, charting the progress I've made with the challenges I've been set. In that way, I hope to keep on top of it all.

If you're middle-aged and interested in the subtle ways in which children get revenge for their upbringing, read on. If not, move on - there's loads of other blogs.