RETROFITTING, REPORTING AND RULING OUT

So I guess I'm thirty. No more DD whatever. This is it. It's happened. I'm into my third decade. Aaaand, I didn't complete a heap of tasks - like a heap of them. I'd say if success was measured by being half finishing something, then I am totally unsuccessful. Totally. Eleven out of thirty-nine does not exactly reek of success.

Totally unrelated, but pretty cool picture from the TATE a few years ago in LDN town.

On the plus side, I can retrofit a good chunk of these tasks AND, seeing as I didn't really start this project until after I got back from Central America in June...aaaand I actually didn't want to do about 8/39 of the tasks, it aint so bad....

Here's THE LIST to save you from looking...
COMPLETED (11/39)
3. Learn Spanish. MASTERED!
4. Re-read a year 12 English book. 25/08/12: started reading Tess of the D'Urbervilles.
8. Make a Women's Weekly cake.
10. Get Dad to teach me confit duck.
11. Have a VB and a pie floater at Harry's Cafe de Wheels.
12. Invent my own 'signature dish' or drink.
16. Do a triathlon. Entered the Husky Tri - to be run in Feb.
19. Climb a high mountain.
20. Swim across a large body of water. Do you think The Basin is big enough?
21. Go to MONA. Flights booked  DONE!! 
33. Grow a sunflower. In progress. 

RETROFITTERS/COMPLETED BUT NOT NOTED (5/39)
6. Master the art of social media. A daily operation...
13. Make a perfect Omelet. A work in progress. Almost there...
22. Take a bike tour in a foreign land. I am stumped on this one. Suggestions welcome.
24. SCUBA at the Great Barrier Reef. P'raps I can ride a whale here. 
32. Find a mentor. This one is tricky.

EXTENSIONS (12/39)
1. Start a business.
2. Write and publish a short story.
5. Create a self portrait that is worthy of framing. Setting aside time each week to 'create'.
7. Make something from scratch and sell it. Perhaps this can partner with #1
14. Learn to sail. A summer activity.

15. Learn to surf. A summer activity.

17. Run a half marathon. Entered the Sydney Half in May

26. Go hot air ballooning. Hmm...no immediate plans.

27. Go to a drive-in cinema. Randwick Racecourse opens their drive-in in 2013. 

36. High-five ten complete strangers. I have high fived a few...

36. Run in fancy dress for charity. Missed out on the city2surf. Need to plan the next event. 

39. Match make. Hmmm...

ACTUALLY HAVE ZERO INTEREST IN COMPLETING (8/39)
9. Make my own alcohol. This might end up being a bag of Skittles + Vodka jobby...
18. Cycle from Sydney to Palm Beach. Booked in to do this 18/10/12 with a group of pals.23. Ride a creature bigger than a horse. A camel? Where can I ride a camel? Or a whale. 
25. Spend a night in a famous or historic hotel. Hopefully tick this one while in Tassie.28. Join/start a laughing club. Started this one - I have stalled...
29. Stay up all night and watch the sun rise. This is a spur of the moment thing, I think.
30. Devise an elaborate April Fools. I have months to plan this one. 
31. Learn to juggle. Who wants to teach me? 
34. Get a letter to the editor published in a magazine. Need to start this one. 
37. Get my photo with 5-10 celebrities. I stalled at Justin Hemmes.  

Give me a couple of weeks and I'll retro fit, report back and rule out the remaining tasks. Happy Hump Day

 

WOK ALL OVER ME

DD 31

Wok breath. It's something that my Dad keeps banging on about. I have no idea what it is, but it sounds pretty gross. Regardless, Dad loves to cook anything in a wok. Anything that needs a bit of heat through it, he'll toss around in a wok for a while. I think I once caught him flipping a slice of toast about and serving it with a cup of wok-warmed tea.

Dad must have breathed his love for woks all over me, cos I too have a certain affection for ye olde deep fry pan. Actually, it was Dad who gave me my very own wok for my 25th birthday. He has since schooled me in wok-seasoning and explained why washing your wok with a scourer or heaven forbid, detergent, is a true crime. A culinary hate-crime.

It's getting out of hand. All it takes now is the clank of spatula on wok to send me scuttling like a cockroach into a Thai restaurant - living in Sydney, where there are more Thai restaurants than hipsters, this is a pretty time consuming, waist line expanding problem.

Poor Pablo bares the brunt of my fondness for this magical steel accessory. Whenever it's my turn to cook, I just open the fridge and tip its' contents into the wok. Olives, strawberries, butter, pickles, yoghurt, anchovies....in it goes! I think it's fairly safe to say that although I may never have a signature dish, facilitating a heavy wok breathing session is my forte. In the name of ticking off items from THE LIST, I will happily claim that any time I get woktastic, I am ticking off #12 Create a signature dish. Yesssss!!!

TINY TRI AND THE MARATHON EFFORT WITH TESS

DD 55

Yep. I've been ticking some serious boxes.

 

A couple of weekends ago, I wheeled my $100 rusty old bike to the transition area of my very first triathlon. After draping my red gym shorts over my handle bars, I skipped down to join 110 other 24-29 year old girlies, all dressed in tight and mean looking black tri suits (think S & M style - zips and lycra...) 

As I waded over to the start line, adjusting the very fluro straps of my very lurid speedo onesie, I started to think I was very unprepared. These girls looked serious. Focused and serious. There I was, prancing about in my tight and bright get-up like a goon, totally oblivious to the pain that would hit me at at about one hour ten. Luckily, by then, I would only have nine and a half minutes to go and I would have been in a complete and utter state of euphoria for the first hour and ten of the race. Seriously euphoric. I was waving at strangers as my rusty old bike carried me through the streets of Husky. I think I threw out a few 'woo hoooooooos' to an old dude who was waiting at a bus stop. Good times - but one hour ten through to one hour nineteen; that shit was no longer fun.  

Nevertheless, I finished that race. I finished it and promptly burried my face in a watermelon. Then I nearly threw up and had to lie down. Then I felt really happy and ate an old doughnut that Pablo found on the floor of the car. Weird. It was such a rollercoaster of peaks and troughs that I needed a gosh darn sleep to recover. What a day.  #39 do a triathlon. TICK.

Oh! Oh! And THEN! The next day, sitting at the edge of Jervis Bay, waiting for Pablo to make his fifth lap of the Huski Long Course tri, I turned the last page on my seven months of Thomas Hardy punishment. Yep, that's right, after seven months, I finally finished Tess of the D'Urbervilles, Cripey jeez. I've never been happier to finish a book.

 

In other less listy news, my inner birthday crazy lady reached fever pitch on Valentine's Day, which also happens to be Pablo's birthday. The birthday be-arch enforced compulsory party hats instead of helmets for the cycle down the hill to the beach - don't worry, Dad, we cycled on the footpath. On the sand, the birthday boil exploded into a shiny mess of pantless party hats - yep, they all swam in those cardboard crowns of festivity. 

Aaaaand sadly, on Friday along with 22, 620, 600 Australians, I said goodbye to summer. BYE SUUUUMMEEEER!!