Month completed: February 2009

Today marks the six month mark of when Nat and I landed in London to embark on our two-year adventure.

The adventure now looks likely to extend past the two years, because we are having such a great time. This six months has just flown by.

One of the main reasons for coming to London was to use it as a base to see Europe. So far, we have been able to make the most of this plan, with trips already to:

• Ireland
• Belgium
• Amsterdam
• Venice
• Edinburgh
• Bath

Luxembourg is coming up next, and then I have trips to Bali (to catch up with the family) and Japan (to catch up with a great mate) in May to look forward to.  Sorry if my listing of trips is making you jealous, but while over here, Nat and I are trying to do as much as we can. We are realising now just how far Australia is from the rest of the world.

Highlights so far include:

- Falling in love with Guinness, and going to the Guinness factory in Dublin

- Going to Edinburgh for New Year’s Eve

- Watching England play soccer at a packed Wembley stadium

- Finding a place to live within 24 hours of arriving

- Eating Belgian waffles and drinking Belgian beer in Brussels

- Having access to cheap theatre, and seeing my first ever pantomime

Only lowlight is Nat hurting her hand in Edinburgh, which required emergency surgery and has meant she is now eight weeks into a twelve week physiotherapy recovery. I think she is enjoying having me doing more of the cooking and cleaning though!

If you are ever in the London area, let me know. I am always looking for an excuse to indulge in a pint.

Month completed: January 2009

First came the record player.

Then the radio.

Then the TV.

The Boom Box.

The Sony Walkman.

The MP3 player

Then the iPod.

Who’s know what next!

As the years have progressed, so have the number of things around us that make noise.

Most of them are pleasant, otherwise we wouldn’t have them, but what I have also found pleasant is to be surrounded by nothing but my own thoughts.

Which is why I am really enjoying walking to work at the moment – it gives me 45 minutes in which to consume myself with thoughts and ideas, with the only distraction being the constant sound of traffic, and impatient London commuters barraging along the footpath.

So, this goal, to spend a day in silence, while sounding hard, was actually one I was really looking forward to.

It could only be done while Nat was away, so I chose to do this goal last weekend while she was away in Dublin with a friend.

Achieving this goal meant adhering to the following:

• Not uttering one word
• No TV
• No radio
• No music

Basically, nothing that involved noise.

Of course, noise from the traffic outside, and the birds flapping their wings were still there, but these are hardly controllable.

And by the end of the day, I had made a few interesting discoveries:

• I felt the urge to speak to myself many times
• The allure of having a TV on is very strong
• I like music in the background
• You can still communicate with people without uttering a single word
• You achieve a lot when you spend time in silence

Point 4 was most intriguing – here is what I achieved during my day of silence:

• Wrote half a dozen postcards to send back to Australia
• Did the grocery shopping
• Made a stirfry
• Washed and dried all the dishes
• Bought a doona and sheet set
• Learnt all the features of a new digital camera bought the day before
• Did a load of washing, including some hand washing
• Ironed the shirts for the following work week
• Read 80 pages of a new book I just bought
• Went out and photographed the snow that had just started falling
• Put all the clean clothes away
• Prepared the next day’s lunch
• Put out all the rubbish and recycling

Most of this list seems like mundane chores (which they were) but to get them all achieved meant the following few days were much more relaxed, and I could come home without the need to do them hanging over my head.

Communicating with the staff at Argos, where the doona and sheet set was purchased, was interesting. I found that without saying a single word, I was still able to get my message across, and didn’t feel at any time like I needed to speak to communicate what was required. I had a new appreciation for what it is like to be mute, as well.

Some people may say that to really spend a day with silence, that day must be spent in a secluded forest with no access to anything apart from the trees. I argue that to spend a day in silence while in extremely close proximity to a TV, radio and iPod is many times harder to achieve.

So, if YOU are feeling like everything is becoming too busy in your life, why not spend a day in silence. Or at least, unplug the TV for 24 hours. You will have a very fulfilling day, I guarantee.

Although you will look like this towards the end of the day!

Month completed: February 2009

If at first you don’t succeed; try, try, try again

Or in the case of this goal:

If at first you don’t succeed, leave it for a year, then try again just once more

I really like Sudoku puzzles. They are based on a simple concept of finding the right box for the right number, they require systematic logic to solve, and there seem to be limitless number of puzzles available.

Most of the time a puzzle is classified as easy, medium, hard or difficult. But I had heard of a Sukodu puzzle that was considered the world’s hardest.

AI Escargot.

Here is a description of it from it’s creator, Arto Inkala, a Finnish mathematician -

“AI Escargot demands those tackling it to consider eight casual relationships simultaneously while the most complicated variants attempted by the general public only require people to think of one or two combinations at any one time.” Read more.

So of course, completing this Sudoku, and thus saying I had officially completed the world’s hardest Sudoku, offered immense appeal.

Early in 2008 I tried to complete it. I used my usual system of solving a Sudoku puzzle, but despite close to 40 attempts, I could not crack it. I was extremely close on one occasion, completing the puzzle only to realize that one row had a duplicate number in it.

After 40 attempts, I thought I had been though every possibility and was deriving nothing but annoyance from the puzzle.

So I stopped trying. I put it away. To try again another day.

Until last weekend, when I decided to have another try.

As I mentioned at the start of this post, to my utter shock, on my first attempt, I cracked the puzzle. As you can imagine, my jaw almost hit the ground.

What I take from this goal is a great sense of accomplishment, but more so I take away the lesson that sometimes when in a situation that looks to have no answer, the best thing is to just leave it alone. Forget about it. Go do something else.

And when you re-visit it, with fresh eyes, the answer might just be staring you in the face.

A year long wait might be a bit over the top though!

If you want to see my completed AI Escargot, click here. But don’t click it until you have had a go.

UPDATE – One of the comments below also contains a correct answer. Interestingly it is different to mine. Please avoid the comments if you want to work it out for yourself.

Month completed: January 2009

As suggested by several people, I made sure that some time in January I found the time to get acupuncture. Last Saturday was that day.

Because it was the first session, the first 20 minutes were spent doing an assessment of my health. This involved looking at my tongue, and asking me to describe the current state of my number 2’s (among other things).

The diagnosis was that I needed some stress relief and that I had an on-going cold – both true.

I then got to lie down on the bed, and while listening to the nice relaxing background music, the needles started to go in.

Because there wasn’t too much wrong with me (and it was only the first session), I had only seven needles put in (one in the head, one in each arm, and two in each leg). Most gave a bit of pain or a weird sensation when they went in (apparently this is good, said the acupuncturist, as this means that she found my Chi).

This photo isn’t much good, unless you get the magnifying glasses out to see the needles. You might be able to spot the one near the base of my right leg.

While the needles stayed in for the next half an hour, she gave me a neck and shoulder massage, which was nice.

As the session finished, and she took the needles out, she mentioned that I may experience a sensation that the needles are still stuck in, for the next few hours. But this is normal, so don’t get concerned.

So as I started to get ready to leave, and I felt this feeling in one of my legs, I thought nothing of it.

Until I noticed that she had left one of the needles in!

She blamed having to take photos with throwing her rhythm out – not that I was too concerned – I almost got a free gift to take away with me.

So – my verdict on acupuncture.

For stress relief it worked. I was left in a great state of calm and care-free for hours after the session, and it did feel like it  had temporarily lifted a weight off my shoulders.

For curing a cold, it didn’t do much, but it was only the first session, and the fact that London is experiencing the heaviest snowfall for 18 years probably doesn’t help with that.

Will I go back?

Yes. The next time I am stressed.

Live performances have never really been my thing.

Not because I don’t enjoy them when I go, but just because I seem to prefer a nice movie at home, or a quiet night with friends, to the hustle and bustle of a night at the theatre, or the noise of a live concert.

(plus I have been known to be a bit tight in the wallet department in the past)

So goal 78 aimed to make me go out and see more. This covers anything live that isn’t sport, so this could be band gigs, theatre productions or even Carols by Candlelight!

Moving to London made the goal much easier, with the abundance of live theatre to see, at relatively cheap rates if you look hard enough.

So here are the ten performances I have been to. I plan to go to many more before I turn 30, and have just become a member of the Barbican Arts Centre, which has monthly film, live theatre and classical musical performances.

1. The Phantom of the Opera (Princess Theatre, Melbourne)
This was one of the best things I have ever seen. The singing was amazing, the set design even better and I would recommend it to anyone. And no, most of the singing wasn’t opera!

2. Spamalot (Her Majesty’s theatre, Melbourne)
Classic must-see for any Monty Python fan. Should-see for everyone else. Very good.

3. The 39 Steps (The Playhouse at the Arts Centre, Melbourne)
A murder mystery comedy based loosely on the work of Alfred Hitchcock. 4 actors played the roles of 130 different characters remarkably well. Laugh out loud funny.

4. Gotan Project (The Roundhouse in Chalk Farm, London)
Not really my scene, but really impressive musician-ship. Their style is tango with some jazz, funk and pop. Actually, their style can’t be defined. The band played with a random selection of movie scenes playing throughout, and tango dancers dancing at the front. Very weird, but I liked the fact that it was different to anything I had heard before. But for me, the music was ‘background music’ for me.

5. We Will Rock You! (Dominion Theatre, London)
Great show, great cast, standing ovation at the end. Only let-down was that the cut off my favourite Queen song, Don’t Stop Me Now, halfway through (it was meant to happen, but I was just getting into the song).

6. Les Miserables (Queen’s Theatre, London)
Good show, but Nat tricked me into going by saying that it wasn’t all singing. Yes it was, but it was well worth seeing anyway. We had bad seats, so I sprung 50p for a hire of some binoculars.

7. Dylan Moran (Hammersmith Apollo, London)
Famous for his role in Black Books, Dylan Moran played a good set, but for me he had lots of smile moments, but very few laugh out loud moments.

8. Amateur Comedy at the 99 Club (Oxford Circus, London)
Amateur comedy was just that. Had a few laughs, but there was nothing memorable. MC was the funniest, which is a sign of the quality of the night.

9. Amateur Comedy at  Hardimans Hotel (Kensington, Melbourne)
Four acts – three were no good, but a musical duo called Elbowskin were unbelievable. I definitely would pay to see them again. MC’d by the Fabulous Adam Richard from Fox FM, who was pretty funny too.

10. Cinderella – the Pantomime (Wimbledom, London)
Have to say, even though this is meant for children, I laughed the whole way through. Loved it, and will definitely be doing more pantomimes next year – even if it does embarass Nat a little that I turned into a big kid.

My favourite – We Will Rock You!

Month completed: January 2009

The purpose of this goal was just to be a little bit crazy.

And if wearing pyjamas in a public place wasn’t crazy enough, I decided to up the crazy a little, and achieved this goal yesterday wearing pyjama shorts in minus 5 degree (yes, that is 5 degrees BELOW zero) weather. It was the coldest I have ever been!

The public place chosen, as you can see in the photos below, was Piccadilly Circus in central London. Can’t get much more public than that.

I won’t say much more about this goal, other than I am glad it is done. As is Nat, who almost died of embarassment in being associated with me yesterday.

Check out the sexy legs!

I even managed to rope a couple of fellow Aussies in to a photo. They may have been awestruck in my presence. Perhaps.

Good friend Mark, originally there to take the photos for me, couldn’t help being part of the fun. Neither could Nat, who took this photo.

Most would say this is an easy goal. But any time I enter the kitchen and my meal doesn’t involve a microwave, I am filled with trepidation.

And I have heard that fish is a tricky one to get right. So that is why it was on my list.

I cooked these fish with my brother Nicholas. We choose a couple of beautiful barramundi, and bought all the ingredients for a great beer batter. The plan – beer-battered fish and chips.

The most important ingredient in any good beer batter is the beer. So we choose Coopers Original Pale Ale. Highly recommended.

And I learnt to cook fish.

Doesn’t this look restaurant-quality!

It probably doesn’t look like it, but I actually enjoyed it. I even made it again a week later, and impressed Nat.

Month completed: September 2008

No posts for a while, as I was off experiencing what Ireland has to offer. Nat and I spent six days in Kilkenny and Dublin, going to castles, drinking too much alcohol, and generally having a great time.

My highlights were visiting Kilkenny Castle, and the Guinness factory.

Month completed: July 2008

Getting a bit of publicity for Project 183 has meant that I have started to get some requests from people to help me achieve certain goals.

One of the generous people who offered their assistance to me was Sarah, who offered to teach me some basic sign language. To be more specific, Auslan (Australian Sign Language). Sarah is very experienced in Auslan, as both her parents, and her two sisters, are deaf.

After about 25 emails back and forth, we managed to arrange a catch up at Fed Square, and over a hot chocolate she taught me:

- the alphabet,

- numbers up to 20,

- hello / goodbye,

- how are you?

- my name is…

- I’m really great

- Where is the toilet?

- I’m hot / cold / hungry / thirsty

- Nice to meet you

I plan to teach Nat now, so that we can speak to each other in a whole new way. I also plan to continue to learn new words on an on-going basis.

While writing this post, I stumbled across sign language keyrings (the letter H is below, although it is different to what I learnt). 

Click here to check out the full range. 

Footnote – You may have noticed that I achieved this goal back in July. I actually also wrote the text for this post back then too, but was also going to put up a video of me doing some sign-language. Unfortunately, things kept getting in the way, and rather than delay this post any further, I thought I would just put it up as is.

Month completed: August 2008

At the start of last year, my younger brother Nicholas was accepted into the primary school teaching course at Deakin University that he wanted.

Just one hitch – it was in Warrnambool (about 3 hours away from Melbourne).

After some early hesitation, he is now loving Warrnambool campus life. The campus even has a golf course that is free for students!

Last weekend I went down to pay him a visit, and we took Warrnambool by storm (although Warrnambool is usually in a stormy state anyway).

Here is what we got up to:

We went whale-watching and seal-watching, but saw neither.

We tried a bunch of different cheeses at CheeseWorld. My favourite was the Vintage cheddar.

We tried to take a photo of us ‘drinking’ the milkshake out the front of CheeseWorld. We did get better after a few tries. I look as if my milkshake was made with rancid milk.

We went back in time at Flagstaff Hill Maritime Village, which was actually much cooler than it sounds. It was a little like Sovereign Hill in Ballarat, with olden day buildings and history. There was a treasure hunt designed for children that we did as well (you are never too old for a treasure hunt). The building shown is the Ship Chandlers, which was our favourite of all buildings. We were even offered volunteer roles at the Village, as policemen, barmen, bankers or whatever we wanted to be.

While at the Maritime Village, we had an olden day photo taken.

We visited a market that sells all kinds of vintage items, including turtlenecks…

…and blue caps.

Nicholas managed to smash a smash-proof glass at the local Safeway.

We made fish and chips, which turned out a treat.

The Saturday night was spent at a multi-million dollar sound and light show. The highlight of the show was the extremely non-enthused tour guide, who avoided all eye contact with the group and spoke in the most monotonous tone EVER. She was so bad that she was good.

After the sound and light show we went back to his dorm, ate Cheeseworld cheeses, and watched old episodes of Sooty and the IT Crowd.

And to any Warrnambool locals reading – yes, we did visit the Dirty Angel.

What was my number one highlight of our brotherly weekend in Warrnambool?

The massive fly that did the backstroke in Nicholas’ milkshake while he was drinking it. So very, very funny.