To be continued

This post was intended to be a review of how everything went in 2013 – I hope to do this in a future post - but a number of attempts at writing that post have ended in a bit of a mess so better just to give an update on basic success/failure and where I go from here…… so here goes………..

Well, I didn’t finish the twelve original challenges in 2013 – and I have a further confession to make, I have not spent a day in public wearing a Sunderland FC football shirt (the forfeit that the adjudicating panel demanded on NYE 2012). I think I therefore have some explaining to do!

First things first, I have to explain my lack of success with the twelve labours. Well, the best I can come up with was that it was a busy year (mostly in a very good way). Looking back I can honestly say that given everything else that was going on it was always going to be hard to do everything in the spirit I had intended. I didn’t want to get into a habit of just ticking the challenges off without them being genuine experiences. Of the 6 I did complete I only think I took the soft option on the religion challenge – and I wasn’t/am not ready for a religious conversion!! On the positive side, I completed 6 new years resolutions and there’s not many people who can claim that. More importantly, those challenges did take me out of the comfort zone and inspired other activities that made it a great year.

Now there is the small matter of the forfeit – why haven’t I done it? Well, the truth is I just point blank refused when pressed by the panel. In my view the idea of the challenges was to get out of the comfort zone which I had done – the forfeit was just an exercise in humiliation. Much better just to keep going and finish the job off! To this end I explained the challenges I believe I had completed to the panel in Cask, Pimlico, London on NYE (now joined by Charlotte Smith – welcome to the jury Charlotte!) and it was agreed that I had only 6 of the original tasks left to do. These are…….

• Learn a craft (it was agreed that making one friendship bracelet per committee member would be sufficient).
• Participate in a team sport
• Get a poem published in the evening chronicle
• Join and participate in an amateur dramatics society
• Ride a horse
• Learn to play the ukulele (properly!)

To compensate for needing an additional 12 months to finish these off, two additional challenges will be set. These are…………..

X. Dye hair unusual colour

And

Y. An additional challenge voted for by blog readers, suggestions have been – run a half marathon dressed as a woman, get my legs waxed, busking with ukulele on Northumberland street, serenade a couple I have married (in my role as ordained minister) with ukulele. Any more suggestions are welcome and I’ll set up a vote in an upcoming blog – one thing I would  like you to consider as that the purpose behind the challenges is getting out of the comfort zone, not just humiliating me ;-).

 

I’ll continue the blog with updates on my progress throughout the year J