A round up of #30things

Well, the year is almost over and here is a little round up of some of the challenges I have not had a chance to blog about (it's been a busy year!) Enjoy and please don't forget to donate on my Just Giving Page!

#No1 - Drink a beer at Oktoberfest 

Sadly, due to starting a new job I was unable to fly out to Germany for this festival (I will get there one day!) so instead last year on my actual birthday (30th), my family took me to the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. Here they have an Oktoberfest  bar where I proceeded to drink a pint! Challenge achieved! :-)

#No2 - Kiss 5 men from 5 different countries

So far I have kissed one Italian and one Englishman! Just 3 to go!!

#No3 - Learn something new

I have learnt to play the Ukulele! A little boy at school has been teaching me and so far I can play two chords 'C and 'F. Sadly, my ukulele is not the best quality and it is hard to tune it properly. However, my little teacher persevered and he taught me this song. Sorry it is not the best singing, I have a cold, and the ukulele is untuned!! My teacher friends will know the significance of the song :-).

#No5 - A random act of kindness

I am a firm believer that we should live our lives completing random acts of kindness all the time. Acts of kindness should come from the heart and be completed by the do-er to bring joy to others. I would like to hope that throughout my life I naturally complete acts of kindness.  Wikipedia states A random act of kindness is a selfless act performed by a person or people wishing to either assist or cheer up an individual person or people. Either spontaneous or planned, random acts of kindness are encouraged by various communities.
So I decided to complete as many acts as kindness in December as possible, so here are the acts I have completed so far, some small but all I hope acts of kindness - some more random than others:
1) I held a festive Christmas lunch for my lovely old work colleagues and friends.
2) I baked cupcakes randomly and brought them into work for my team.
3) Whilst driving along, I stopped the traffic to let a cyclist cross the road.
4) I volunteered for the night at the Chestnut Tree House Snowman Ball working on the silent auction as well as other jobs.
5) I volunteered at Crawley FC to sell Santa Suits and hats for Chestnut Tree House Children's hospice.
6) And finally, my favourite - after hearing on the radio that a local animal hospital was running low on dog and cat food to feed the growing numbers of injured hedgehogs, I headed out to the shop and made them a delivery! Merry Christmas hedgehogs!

#No10 - Learn a new language

As part of my new job, I now teach Spanish each week! I can now introduce myself, say the days of the week and the weather in Spanish. Most importantly I can say 'Feliz Navidad!'

#No13 - Run 250 miles in a year

I will do a quick tot up but not sure I will make this one - but definitely over 200!!

#No19 - Try a new sport

This one should have happened in many different forms. First, my lovely work bought me wind surfing vouchers however the weather and time has meant this will now have to take place next year. My sister also got Paddle boarding vouchers however the weather prevented this from taking place. I began to panic, worried that I would not be able to fit this one in on time then sitting on my bed I noticed my Ultimate Frisbee, a present from my lovely old colleague Mr G. He had introduced me to this game whilst on residential with the Year 6's where we played on mass. It was such great fun, he bought me my own. I quickly googled to see whether it was a sport, and indeed it was. So there you have it - a new sport achieved! :-)

#No25 - Go to the Bingo

Last Sunday, I attended my first ever bingo at one of the local bars. Not only was it free, I only went and won a bottle of prosecco! Not bad for my first bingo outing!

#No29 - Appear on TV or in a film

Over the year, I have appeared in many videos put on youtube however my favourite has to be our end of year staff panto where I played 'Dorethy'. The video is too big to upload however my teaching colleagues can vouch for me being in it! :-)

#No30 - Go to a festival

This year I have been to several festivals - Amberely and Worthing Beer festivals and the Capital One Summertime Ball. However, this year I went to the Cowes Sailing Festival for the first time ever. I watched boats sail and I attended the evening entertainment! Lot's of fun to be had!

Onesie Roller Skating Flashmob #No16 #No20

Today, I realised the importance of having wonderful friends and family as they turned out in force to help me with three of my challenges. It was a mere idea a few months ago to combine the challenge of roller skating for a mile in a onesie with organising a flashmob however today this thought came to fruition. Dressed in a range of onesies, some with face paints and some matching, we skated, cycled, scooted and walked a mile along Bognor Promenade in the glorious October Sunshine. All with smiles on our faces and plenty of laughs to be had. The people of Bognor looked shocked and bewildered, as did many of us, however they shared their prom with us and marvelled at the strange spectacle. The team did well - navigating around a train and many pedestrians, we even picked up a cyclist and a few walkers! The pace was slow, due to a range of skating abilities!! However this did not matter as it added to the fun (the movie has been speeded up though! It was half an hour long!!) I will be posting a seperate movie entitled 'How to Roller Skate by Mrs Payne!' :-) Yes it might not have been your usual flashmob and the film is not your usual flashmob style (try filming and skating at the same time!) However in my books it is and was a flashmob and was a success. My participants only got the details of the event a few days before!

Our youngest recruit being two and half month old baby Ethan, who smiled most of the way - I think that was the giant bananas fault! Young and old, we all did it, reminding us all that Arthritis can affect all ages - young and old. Life is for living and having fun, most importantly do it being surrounded by wonderful, kind and loving people. Thank you to my everyone who took part today, be it skaters or photographers, you are all stars. Tomorrow is the start of Arthritis Week and I will be posting more as the week goes on, however today was all about raising awareness and having fun, something I think was had by all.