100 Days, 100 Things: Days 81-100

Wow. At the time this post is published, I should be in Iceland. It seems both ages and no time at all since I started planning this and it still doesn't quite seem real. I managed to freak myself out towards the end of last week wondering if maybe I was just imagining the whole thing and come Monday it'd be back to work as normal. Don't ask - I was half asleep at the time.

Anyway, here are the last 20 of my 100 sometimes interesting, but more often mundane things.

81. Tuesday 24th May - envelope stuffing
Yes. That's how thrilling my day got. I spent the day stuffing envelopes with our apprentice. Fun fun fun.

82. Wednesday 25th May - venison sausages
Because once again, food is the most interesting thing in my life. Seriously, though, venison sausages are delicious.

83. Thursday 26th May - invigilating
Which lead to me being overly amused that it's a decade since I took my GCSEs. Aww. Also, I finally managed to offload the Chomp bar that's been sitting on my desk for the last seven months onto Molly. FINALLY.

84. Friday 27th May - ESTA
Following the successful application for my Canadian eTA last week, I tackled the USA's equivalent. It asked me whether I was planning on engaging in terrorism and I was oh so tempted to click yes just to see what happened. Don't worry, I resisted the temptation.

85. Saturday 28th May - Shakespeare overload
My sister and I took a weekend trip to Stratford-upon-Avon, home of the Bard. Two plays in a day - Cymbeline and Hamlet, plus the first time I've eaten Thai food at a restaurant. Very nice. Also, Stratford is pretty.

86. Sunday 29th May - sunshine
Second day of our trip to Stratford mostly consisted of me buying a few bits for my trip (mosquito net, finally!) and then enjoying the sunshine outside the theatre. Amy got sunburned.

87. Monday 30th May - surprise surprise...
Family farewell lunch which my dad had intended to be a surprise until my mum, not knowing this, accidentally gave the game away. Nice though, especially the amazing cake from Patisserie Valerie.

88. Tuesday 31st May - tech support
My grandad is finally attempting to join the internet age. Unfortunately for him, his router isn't behaving and my mum volunteered me to have a look at it. My usual ability to fix basic tech things failed completely, but I'm going to blame the old line he has instead of my inability to work out what was wrong with the damn thing...

89. Wednesday 1st June - lunch with Wendy
Wendy effectively managed me in my previous office and since she's away at the moment, we thought we'd best meet up before I left. That is all... see how my life is thrilling right now?

90. Thursday 2nd June - minor freak out time!
Today I realised that I will be in Canada in three weeks' time. Oh good god. I also discovered my phone is not unlocked. Fuck.

91. Friday 3rd June - "smells like weed"
Molly tried my oolong tea. I love oolong. It's lovely, but it does have a slightly unusual taste and smell. As demonstrated by Molly casually stating, in the middle of the office, that it smells like weed. I hadn't really noticed the similarity before but thinking about it... maybe.

92. Saturday 4th June - even more Shakespeare
Toddled over to Manchester to see my mum and catch yet another play - this time King Lear. Very good. In other shocking news, I bought clothes. Not just any clothes. I bought shorts. It is a well-established fact that my legs are not just white, they are blindingly pale, so this may turn out to be a bad decision.

93. Sunday 5th June - Nandos and puppies
I'd never understood the appeal of Nandos but I've been a few times now and I think I'm falling in love. Yummy chicken. The afternoon was spent lounging in the sun, attempting to get some sort of colour onto my aforementioned blinding legs and watching the dogs pretending to be hot dog sausages because it was just so warm.

94. Monday 6th June - umm...
It looks like nothing interesting happened on this day. Second to last day at work? Uh... nothing booked. Nothing interesting cooked... yup. Supremely normal day.

95. Tuesday 7th June - last day
My final day at work, most of which was spent either in a minibus or at work's Skegness site invigilating another GCSE exam. 3 and a bit years I worked there and that's the first time I've been to the Skegness site. Hm.

96. Wednesday 8th June - WASH ALL THE THINGS!
Yeah... I probably didn't need to wash everything, but I did. Because... oh, I don't know. The washing frenzy was followed by a lovely evening with the folks from my previous office, eating tapas and then toddling on down to the pub for a pint and a quiz.

97. Thursday 9th June - towel of doom
Ah yes. The fabled towel of doom has made a reappearance in my life. It looks like it's had a body wrapped in it, courtesy of 3 years of red hair dye stains. I found 3 bottles of the aforementioned dye in the top of my wardrobe and figured, what the hell, I'm going to dye my hair again. Took all three bottles because either a) I missed quite a bit or b) the dye's that old it wasn't taking properly, but I think it's sorted now...

98. Friday 10th June - I drank how much?
Actually, I didn't drink that much. I went out with the most recent set of work colleagues and had a couple of pints of cider (not a problem). Unfortunately, I also had a JD & coke and a shot of sambuca and that was enough to make my stomach hate me.

99. Saturday 11th June - WHERE TRAIN?!
Even with the slight hangover from the above night out, I managed to drag myself out of bed early on Saturday morning to go and see Flying Scotsman with my dad. Unfortunately for us, the timings given last week turned out to be no longer accurate and as we were walking up to the track we saw steam billow up above the houses. No glimpse of the fabled Scotsman. Most pissed off. Somewhat made up for this with cheap but yummy breakfast at Tesco's cafe...

In other news, my phone is now unlocked. I think. Huzzah.

100. Sunday 12th June - DON'T PANIC!
AAAAAAARGH. Actually, I haven't done much panicking. Which is nice. Dad had to drive me to Doncaster, but aside from that my trains all ran on time and I got to spend a lovely afternoon in London with Claire. Claire, who has gifted me this lovely little koala called Harold, crocheted by her own fair hands.

Someone pinch me?

Oh good god. What am I doing?

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 61-80

Oh my. The start of my round-the-world Grand Tour is getting close, isn't it? Here's the next 20 of my record of silly, somewhat mundane things in my last 100 days before departure.

61. Wednesday 4th May - Staff Quiz
Which I won with my usual team. Hurrah.

62. Thursday 5th May - closed? Why are you closed?
Apparently my local pharmacy closes early on a Thursday. So having walked all the way down there, I had to walk all the way back without my anti-malarials. Did pick up some biscuits on the way though...

63. Friday 6th May - Doxy-whatnow?
Said pharmacy opens till a sensible time on Fridays so now I have enough Doxycycline to keep my protected from malaria for nearly 2 months in a malarial area. So that's South East Asia and Southern Africa covered.

64. Saturday 7th May - Fotherby & Utterby walking
Took an afternoon stroll around the pretty villages of Fotherby and Utterby with my dad. Shame it was so hazy because I imagine the view from this hill is amazing when it's clear.

65. Sunday 8th May - Cambridge
Spent the afternoon exploring museums in Cambridge. More on that here: Swords, fans & pounamu.

66. Monday 9th May - lookup lessons
Successfully got a colleague using lookups in Excel. Hurrah!

67. Tuesday 10th May - fish pie again
I'm getting good at fish pie. Can't imagine I'll be making much of it while I'm away though...

68. Wednesday 11th May - umm...
Apparently nothing happened on this day. At all. Not even something boring. Oh well.

69. Thursday 12th May - hair
First haircut in nearly 3 years. Got almost 6 inches taken off. Already missing the length, but it's so much easier to manage now!

70. Friday 13th May - Cook Islands daydreaming
I made the mistake of reading THIS ARTICLE on Never Ending Footsteps. And now I really want to go to the Cook Islands and I think I could probably afford to do it. Umm... do I need to add any more destinations to my plans?

71. Saturday 14th May - ballooning. Also, bún.
My mum finally got to take a balloon flight having missed out in India and the UK in recent months. We also paid another visit to Pho in Manchester and I tried bún. It was delicious.

72. Sunday 15th May - Wembley
Down to Wembley with my dad to see Grimsby Town win their playoff final and get promoted back into the Football League. Much fun.

73. Monday 16th May - frequent flyer ahoy!
Joined a frequent flyer scheme. I figure I'll be taking enough flights over the next year that I might as well see if I can get anything back from them.

74. Tuesday 17th May - pre-audit success
As ever, there is an audit going on at work. The pre-audit check went OK. Woo. That is all.

75. Wednesday 18th May - Mail Merge success!
Somehow I managed to get a Mail Merge to walk on a huge amount of data at work. Haven't used it in about 5 years, so I was pretty pleased with myself.

76. Thursday 19th May - budget spreadsheet
In addition to my pre-trip itinerary/budget spreadsheet, I now have a sheet to use during my trip to keep track of expenses. Happy times.

77. Friday 20th May - clickety clack
My mum has very kindly donated her old Nexus 7 tablet to me for my travels. Unfortunately, I hate the onscreen keyboard and I need to be able to type at a reasonable pace to keep up with the blogging and whatnot. So I've bought myself a Bluetooth keyboard and it is wonderful. Clickety keys are much better than that swiping crap.

78. Saturday 21st May - radars & railways
Took a walk on the Lincolnshire Wolds Walking Festival to see the old radar station at RAF Stenigot, coupled with a short walk down the old Bardney-Louth railway. More on that here: Radar & Railways.

[IMAGE]

79. Sunday 22nd May - Wembley take 2
A return to Wembley with my dad. Unfortunately there was to be no repeat of the previous visit's success and we went down 1-0 to Halifax in the FA Trophy final. Ah well. We're still going up!

80. Monday 23rd May - tablet tapping
Having got my keyboard to make blogging via the tablet easier, I decided to see how easy it would be to compose, format and post from said tablet. Turns out I can do it and it only takes a little bit longer than it does on my laptop. Bodes well for keeping up the blog while I'm on the road!

Less than 3 weeks to go now. How much more can I cram in before I leave?

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 41-60

This is part 3 of my attempts to note down something interesting, new, weird or stupidly mundane each day in the countdown to finishing work before I set off on my round-the-world Grand Tour adventure. Things are getting both more mundane and more interesting. How this is even possible, I have no idea...

41. Thursday 14th April - made pho.
Having tried the Vietnamese noodle soup at Pho in Manchester, I decided to have a go at making it myself. My attempt at chicken pho turned out pretty nice, especially with the pile of beansprouts I dumped into it!

42. Friday 15th April - pasta bake?
Looks like nothing interesting happened on this day. First pasta bake in a couple of years was as exciting as it got.

43. Saturday 16th April - took a walk on Saddleworth.
My mum was supposed to be taking a balloon flight from Bakewell for her birthday but the weather turned against us. Instead, we took the dogs out for a walk on Saddleworth Moor, something we've been meaning to do since Mum moved to Manchester nearly 2 years ago.

44. Sunday 17th April - finally did some proper gardening.
I can't remember what I actually did. Possibly I dug over the veg patch? Or did I put the onions in? Nah... I think the onions went in the week after... Nope. It was this day. Onions, shallots, garlic and potatoes. All going in a bit too late for my liking and none of which I'll have the joy of eating because I'll be on the other side of the globe. All the more for the relatives.

45. Monday 18th April - blogged for the first time in ages.
Which, I do believe, was the last post in this series. You can read it here: 100 Days, 100 Things: Days 21-40.

46. Tuesday 19th April - created an overly detailed packing list.
I almost always use a packing list for holidays and short trips, so I figured I need a super-awesome one for the Grand Tour. After all, how on earth am I going to make it all the way round-the-world if I manage to forget something along the way?

47. Wednesday 20th April - started planning Australian adventures.
Claire got her flights booked to join me in Australia over the New Year, so we could finally start planning what we want to do in those 2 weeks. Too many things to do!

48. Thursday 21st April - overdosed on pretty AirBnB listings.
Falling a little bit in love with AirBnB, especially given how many awesome listings there are for Sydney at New Year.

49. Friday 22nd April - started laying out all the things on the aforementioned packing list.
And started worrying that a) I've forgotten some things and b) it won't all fit in my rucksack...

50. Saturday 23rd April - The Complete Walk.
Took a trip to London with my sister to see as many of the 37 films which made up The Complete Walk as possible. 15/37 - not bad going considering the technical difficulties. So much Shakespeare! And topped off with an evening of Shakespeare on the BBC when I got home.

51. Sunday 24th April - booked my first AirBnB.
Got the accommodation booked for my stay in Sydney over New Year with Claire. A lovely little studio apartment a little way out of the city centre for less than half the price it would have been to stay in a hostel, let alone a hotel.

52. Monday 25th April - fell off the blogging wagon.
Yeah... my attempts to keep blogging regularly are not going so well. Doesn't bode well for me keeping on top of it while I'm away, does it?

53. Tuesday 26th April - booked Australia flights. Poor bank balance.
Sorted out internal flights for the two weeks I'm spending with Claire in Australia, just to make sure we actually end up on the same flights. My bank account doesn't know what's hit it this month...

54. Wednesday 27th April - more jabs.
Back to the doctors to get yet another jab, this time for my Hep B booster. Also got my prescription for anti-malarials sorted, so that's another thing I can stop worrying about.

55. Thursday 28th April - played the bath game with the dogs.
We took the dogs out for quite a late walk because the weather had been foul all day. When we got back, we played the game where I chase them round the kitchen with the towel in an attempt to dry them off. They love it - they get like puppies again. Might not like getting wet, but they really like avoiding getting dry!

56. Friday 29th April - more jabs.
Yet another jab, but hopefully this one is the last one I'll need. Certainly the most expensive - anyone want to explain to me why the Yellow Fever vaccine is so very costly? At least I don't seem to have had any side effects from it yet.

57. Saturday 30th April - dogs on the beach.
Took the dogs down to the beach. They love the beach. Poppy invited herself to someone's picnic and Mum nearly had to pull her out of a bag of crisps. Sneaky sausage dog.

58. Sunday 1st May - "Not even for me?"
Someone let slip to my nanna that I'm going away for a year and now she's spending every time I see her trying to talk me out of it. We have now had such classics as "But I might not be here when you get back!" and "You won't change your mind? Not even for me?" This is exactly why I didn't tell her.

59. Monday 2nd May - fixed my "critical error".
No thanks to Microsoft. My Windows 10 threw up a glitch and basically broke my start menu. Microsoft's fixes didn't work, but the one I used last time this happened did. And Microsoft don't seem to know a thing about it. Thanks, guys.

60. Tuesday 3rd May - uh...
Not a lot happened. Other than a minor freak out when I realised that it's now less than 6 weeks until the Grand Tour kicks off. Yeep.

Excitement is setting in! Less than 6 weeks to go!

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 21-40

I am inching ever closer to my final day of employment and the subsequent departure on my Grand Tour. Here's days 21-40 of my attempts to find something interesting, funny or ridiculously mundane that happened each day of my final 100 days here.

21. Friday 25th March - first gardening of the year
Finally got round to doing some gardening - cleared out my veg patch, tidied up some pots and trimmed back the chamomile bed. Just in time for the dogs to arrive and paddle all over it the next day!

22. Saturday 26th March - took a stroll to the churchyard
With Mum being over for the Easter weekend, we took the dogs for a walk up to the churchyard. Lovely peaceful place.

23. Sunday 27th March - had a rare moment of vanity
Anyone who's met me (or seen all the "Stupid Selfies" that we took in New Zealand) will know that I'm not especially concerned about how I look. So the joy of fitting comfortably into an old size 6 dress for the family Easter lunch was indeed a rare moment of vanity. Up yours, uni-drinking-weight.

24. Monday 28th March - cooked Sri Lankan style food
Treated my parents and sister to my first attempt at Sri Lankan style food. Delicious egg hoppers with coconut gravy and a couple of fresh pickle type dishes. Turned out pretty good - will have to try it again.

25. Tuesday 29th March - attempted to train our apprentice on Excel
I was only sort of successful. I struggle to explain things like Excel to other folks because I constantly make the assumption that they know more than they do.

26. Wednesday 30th March - ate too much pizza
We got a new system installed at work for our student records and to celebrate the demise of the seriously outdated and temperamental old system we had a pizza and prosecco party in the office. And, true to tradition, I ate too much pizza and spent the afternoon trying not to fall asleep.

27. Thursday 31st March - made colleague's day by gifting him the Excel guide
Said colleague finished in the department the next day and it was great watching him going through the guide and finding things he didn't know he could do. Clearly the guide was better than I thought it was.

28. Friday 1st April - 5kDay1 for Camp NaNoWriMo
I take part in National Novel Writing Month and its less frantic Camp sessions every year. The latest session kicked off today and somehow on a work day I managed to write 5000 words in a 24 hours. Pretty pleased with that.

29. Saturday 2nd April - drank too much cider. Ugh.
Have I mentioned how Friday is Cider-Day in my house? I don't drink much any more - just a pint of cider on a Friday evening. So going out for a colleague's leaving do was... interesting. Three pints later and I ended up persuading my dad to come and pick me up because my brain went from "OK. I'm fine." to "I hate it here. The crowd is making me anxious. I want to go home." in about 3 minutes flat. Mature. The bar was nice though...

30. Sunday 3rd April - watched Snow White for the first time in years
Apparently Snow White is just as creepy and terrifying as it was when I was little. That thunderstorm at the end with the vultures and the evil queen? Jeez.

31. Monday 4th April - killed off third character within 10,000 words
Returning to my Camp NaNoWriMo project, I killed off yet another character. It wouldn't be so bad, but they've all been killed by the same person and she's my protagonist. This might be a new record for novelling deaths...

32. Tuesday 5th April - pulled off my first 1k30min of Camp
I write relatively quick (see all the comments about typing speed in my previous 100 Days post), but writing 1000 words in 30 minutes is still something of an achievement for me. Makes writing 50,000 words in a month much more feasible.

33. Wednesday 6th April - confirmed colleague's return
So, yeah. The colleague who finished on April 1st and on whose leaving do I drank too much cider? Turns out the new job/life situation wasn't really what he wanted, so he's coming back. So that was weird...

34. Thursday 7th April - compliments?
A colleague greeted me with the words "you're quite small, aren't you?". I assumed she meant short, because yes, I am. Apparently she meant I'm skinny. I'm not. I'm in proportion with my height, no matter what the rare moment of vanity above might suggest.

35. Friday 8th April - 1130 words in 20 minutes
Yeah, so my writing speed is still going up. Woop for that. In non-writing news, I made a delicious fish pie with a cheesy crumble topping. It was amazing.

36. Saturday 9th April - spotted Terry Deary at the Lowry
Went across to Manchester for Mum's birthday. Went to see a play called Bad Jews, which was excellent - very funny and yet sad. Really enjoyed that, but I think I was more pleased about seeing Terry Deary in the lobby afterwards. I had nearly the entire collection of Horrible Histories books as a kid, so I was pretty tempted to join the queue of small children waiting to get books signed.

37. Sunday 10th April - made friends with some more dachshunds
Gotta love sausage dogs. Took my mum's two on a walk with some other daxies. Lots of fun. Astley Park is pretty, too. But mostly I just wanted to dog-nap any of the dachshunds.

38. Monday 11th April - met an adorable husky
Anyone else noticing a bit of a dog obsession? Anyhoo, met a lovely husky pup. Very friendly and just wanted to lick my hands. Possibly because it was just a friendly dog. Possibly because I'd done chicken for tea...

39. Tuesday 12th April - did my travel guru thing
Tried to help colleague find a suitable train for Manchester. Also bollocked recently returned colleague for thinking he doesn't need travel insurance. More on that in a future post, probably.

40. Wednesday 13th April - got my first travel jabs. Ouch.
Turns out I need not only a Hep A and Typhoid booster, I also need Hep B and Rabies boosters and then I need to get a Yellow Fever jab. Just the Hep A/Typhoid to start, though. My poor arm.

100 Days, 100 Things: Days 1-20

Well, we're well into the final 100 days until I finish work. My last day will be June 10th and my flight out to Iceland will be the following Monday 13th. I figured I should do something to mark this last 100, so I set out to note down something new or interesting or funny each day. Here's the first 20.

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?