1. Saturday 5th March – met a new dachshund called Franklin
Took a stroll around Heaton Park in Manchester with my mum, sister, mum's 2 dachshunds and a fellow owner and her little dachshund. Great fun for all involved.
2. Sunday 6th March – tried Vietnamese food (yum)
Took my mum for Mother's Day lunch at Pho in the old Corn Exchange in Manchester. Turns out Vietnamese (or its Westernised equivalent) is super tasty and tofu turns out to be yummy if it's seasoned properly.
3. Monday 7th March – worked out where the error was in a formula I’d been trying to fix for ages
I'm considered the Excel whizz in my team at work, so it was a relief to finally work out where I'd been going wrong with some conditional formatting a colleague had asked me to apply to one of his spreadsheets. Should have spotted it sooner though!
4. Tuesday 8th March – best typing speed test yet – 80WPM, 400CPM
I've been trying to improve my typing speed for a while, especially since I'm planning on doing Camp NaNoWriMo in April. Apparently 80 words per minute is quite a bit quicker than a lot of people, so I'm pretty proud of that.
5. Wednesday 9th March – tried Nilgiri tea for the first time (yum)
My mum visited India in November and brought me back some loose leaf tea to add to my collection. I finally got round to trying the Nilgiri and it's amazing - almost sweet, sort of fruity.
6. Thursday 10th March – finally named some very annoying characters in Raising the Sun. No more [DAMIEN] lord of brackets.
Raising the Sun is an ongoing writing project of mine. Half the characters in it still have placeholder names (identified by the [] square brackets) while I work out what they should be called. The character formerly known as [DAMIEN] has been bugging me for ages.
7. Friday 11th March – tried the Gallery restaurant. Delicious sausage and mash.
The Gallery is the in-house training restaurant at the college where I work. The students do the cooking and the serving and it'd been a while since I visited it. Suffice to say the sausage and mash was delicious and great value at £3.50...
8. Saturday 12th March – read Snuff in a day. Go me.
Today marked the first anniversary of the death of the great Sir Terry Pratchett. He was and is one of my favourite authors so I took the opportunity to finally read Snuff, a book that my best friend loaned me nearly 3 years ago. And then ploughed through it in a single day. The last time I did that was when I re-read The Hobbit a few years back...
9. Sunday 13th March – visited Robin Hood’s Bay and Whitby
Took a trip up to the beautiful North Yorkshire coast, which I already wrote about HERE.
10. Monday 14th March – almost successfully taught my boss to use lookups in Excel
My manager is trying to get the hang of Excel before I leave. We're getting there, slowly.
11. Tuesday 15th March – worked out how to renew an EHIC. By sorting out Grandad’s
I should probably sort out my own European Health Insurance Card, not just my grandad's. Turns out to be a pretty simple process though. Hurrah.
12. Wednesday 16th March – something to do with the quiz and the French visitors…
Went to the monthly staff quiz at work. Had a bit of a weird England v France thing - quiz regulars versus some French visitors. Great fun and a brilliant discussion afterwards about different sayings in English and French. Brilliant stuff.
13. Thursday 17th March – finished my guide to Excel
I've been writing a guide to Excel, being the team Excel whizz and all that. Finally got it just about finished. Just got to see if anyone understands it now...
14. Friday 18th March – made a delicious chilli cheese toast/fried egg combination for breakfast
Decided to go a step up from my normal buttered crumpets and made some delicious chilli cheese toast with a spiced fried egg on top for breakfast. I was aiming for a flavour like the yummy kejriwal I had at Dishoom in London. Not bad for a first attempt.
15. Saturday 19th March – took the dogs on their first boat trip
On the first full day of a long weekend in the Lake District with my mum and sister, we took a boat trip on Windermere. With the sausage dogs. I'm not sure they enjoyed it, but they behaved themselves.
16. Sunday 20th March – tried and mostly failed to use my CPL properly
I bought myself some basic filters and lenses just after Christmas and I've been trying to get the hang of them. Decided to test out my polariser. Didn't quite succeed. Needs more practice.
17. Monday 21st March – tried Mojito marmalade. It is amazing.
The Hawkshead Relish Company make the most delicious preserves. They even do an cocktail inspired range, including the aforementioned Mojito marmalade. So. Much. Yum.
18. Tuesday 22nd March – successfully got past the chapter of LotR where I got bogged down last year
Like the sad sod that I am, I re-read (or attempt) The Lord of the Rings every year. Last year I got bogged down in the second half of Two Towers because Frodo started pissing me off, but this year I powered on through. Well into Return of the King now. The end is in sight!
19. Wednesday 23rd March – managed to get an ID type photo that doesn’t look like I’m going to murder someone. Woo.
The director of my department at work decided we needed to get our photos taken to put on the wall so visitors know who we all are. By sheer fluke I've ended up with an ID type photo that actually looks sort of normal. This is in contrast to every single ID card I've ever had where I variously look like I want to murder the photographer or stoned or so very pale that I blend in with the background. Hurrah.
20. Thursday 24th March - 83WPM, 414CPM
Because I'm not in the least bit obsessed with improving my typing speed...
20 days down. 80 to go... what other stupid, mundane and sometimes exciting things can I do in that time?
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