35 Before 35 – An update

Now that my 30th birthday has passed, I thought it was time to take a look at the progress I’ve made so far on my 35 Before 35 challenge .

First of all, a request. I’m up to 32 things on my list (which you can view here), which means I still need three more! Any suggestions? Some of the things on there are probably going to be quite expensive (hot air balloon ride! Stay in a five star hotel!), so maybe something that isn’t going to break the bank…

So, how far have I got with the items that are already on the list? I’ll do this in numerical order, I think…

Number 3: Learn Spanish. Welllll, I joined Memrise, used it for about three days, then completely forgot it existed. And I haven’t been on Duolingo for months. Not the best start…

Number 13: Read (or re-read) 50 non-fiction books. I have read two so far – The Importance of Being Trivial by Mark Mason (scroll right down in the linked post – I wrote about it briefly after my revew of Emma) and What Are the Seven Wonders of the World? And Other Cultural Lists: Fully Described by Peter D’Epiro.

Number 15: Read 20 books in German. I put this one on the list because I almost never pick up books in German when there are English ones to be read! I’ve managed three German books since starting the challenge though: Schattenfreundin by Christine Drews, Schwesterlein, Komm Stirb mit Mir by Karen Sander and Mordsfreunde by Nele Neuhaus. All three are crime novels – it’s difficult to find much else by German authors, and I prefer to read books that were written in English in the original!

Number 18: bake 10 different types of biscuit (cookie for the Americans). I’ve baked one type of biscuit so far, Chocolate Cherry Cookies. You can read all about that here.

Number 21: Read all those books from the BBC Big Read Top 200 list of books that I haven’t before. That makes a total of 132 books, and so far I have read 6: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen, Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Emma by Jane Austen, A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving, Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks, The Shell Seekers by Rosamunde Pilcher and To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.

Number 28: Play blacklight (glow-in-the-dark) minigolf.  I did this in Berlin, and posted about it here.

I think I’ve made a pretty good start to the challenge. Hopefully I can keep it up!

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Photography challenge

The list for my photography challenge has been completed! Thanks to all who gave me suggestions.
I’ll just briefly recap what I’m talking about for those who didn’t see the other post then give you the list.

So, I’ve decided to take part in Project Zero, also known as 101 Things in 1001 days.
For one of my 101 things I set myself the following challenge:
Assign a theme to each month of the 1001 days. During that month, take 50 photos relating to that theme. I didn’t manage to come up with 33 themes all by myself, so I asked the blogosphere for help… and received some great suggestions. Thanks guys!
So that I wouldn’t be tempted to put all the easy themes at the beginning, once the list was completed I typed it into the list randomizer at random.org. The order that it rearranged the themes into is the order I will be doing them in. The only other rules I’ve set for this challenge are that all photos must be taken during the month in question, all photos must be taken by me and all photos must be taken with the theme in mind (no taking photos of a blue flower just because it’s pretty then remembering that it’s currently “blue month” and using the photo for the challenge). I decided on 50 photos per month so that I don’t have to worry about only taking good photos… with 50 to choose from surely some of them will end up being usable!

And now, without further ado, here is the list:
August 2009: The Games That We Play
September 2009: Karlsruhe through my eyes
October 2009: Planes, Trains and Automobiles
November 2009: Looking Up
December 2009: Wooden
January 2010: On the Ground: An Ant’s eye View
February 2010: Spots andStripes
March 2010: Doors
April 2010: Circles and Spheres
May 2010: Flags
June 2010: Shoes and Socks
July 2010: Food, Glorious Food
August 2010: Some Like It HOT
September 2010: Pink
October 2010: Signs
November 2010: The Natural World
December 2010: Shadows
January 2011: Entertainment
February 2011: Water
March 2011: Man’s Best friend
April 2011: Flowers
May 2011: Blue
June 2011: From the Heart
July 2011: Here Comes the Sun
August 2011: Books, Books, Books
September 2011: Numbers
October 2011: All In a Row
November 2011: Let the Music Play
December 2011: Drink Me
January 2012: Multicoloured
February 2012: Soft and Cuddly
March 2012: Snail Mail
April 2012: Let There Be Light

The 1001 days ends on 10th May 2012, but instead of trying to take 50 photos in 10 days I’ve decided to start taking the photos for August now. The 1001 days officially start on my 26th bithday… full list of 101 things coming soon!