Take one abandoned house.

Add a touch of creativity and effort.

And the willingness of lots of people to get involved.

Plus chalk.

And you end up with something fantastic.

Before I die is a project by Candy Chang that invites people to think, and then contribute, their greatest desire before they do reach their eventual end.

Go here to check out all the photos and more about the project.

Month completed: March 2011

Recently, most of the goals I have been completing have been ones that mainly benefited me (not that there’s anything wrong with that of course!).

So I thought it was time to do one of the goals that benefited someone else. And this goal is exactly that.

For those not aware, the Big Issue magazine is sold by street vendors who are doing it tough, with about half the sale price of the magazine going into their back pocket.

The magazine itself is actually a reasonable read, with an eclectic mix of articles, but the main reason I think to buy the magazine is to lend a helping hand to a person in need.

So I thought it might be nice to do something extra good for one of the Big Issue sellers out there, by giving them way more than the cover price of the magazine, for no reason other than kindness.

But actually, although this goal seems easy, it actually has taken me a while to do because:

• I wanted to find a seller that I felt really needed the cash
• I didn’t want to buy from someone smoking (Big Issue sellers, you make it much harder to convince someone to give you money if we think you are going to buy cigarettes with it)
• It is difficult to know how a seller would react to the offer of charity (some might feel insulted)

On the way home from an event last night, I walked past a seller working near the National Theatre in Southbank. It was a cold night, and he was not trying to sell the Big Issue he had in his hand. He was just asking anyone walking past if they could spare a penny or two, and I thought that this guy could really do with a break.

So I went up to him and asked what he would think if I gave him £20 for a Big Issue. He said he would be extremely grateful, and so I handed over my £20, he thanked me very graciously, and we parted ways.

Shortly after, I saw him leave his post to go home, so I guess he decided to afford himself an early night. I felt good in the knowledge that for one night at least, he could shout himself a luxury or two that he could not usually afford.

Here is the issue of Big Issue I bought:

Are you the kind of person that used to love getting ‘well done’ stickers in your school book for doing your homework? (I know I was).

If you are, you might like Daily Feats.

In their own words, “DailyFeats is where you, and your family, share and earn rewards for your positive actions — your feats.”

Basically, you earn different badges, and different points for the different feats you achieve, from getting up early, eating whole grain bread or doing a work out. Check out the video for more.

Month completed: March 2011

For my birthday, Nat surprised me with an awesome present of a hot air balloon ride during our trip in Barcelona.

I will let the pictures doing the talking on this one, but suffice to say, it was totally amazing (and very, very relaxing).

Here is me helping out getting the balloon set up. To blow up the balloon, there was a massive fan (just out of picture) that blew big gushes of wind into the balloon. Took all of about 10 minutes to blow up.

Getting ready for take off…

After a couple of minutes getting used to being up high in a basket (we got up to 1,100 metres) it was really just a peaceful experience.

This is what you see when you look straight down. Feels like it should be scary, but it’s not.

Nat and I, and the clouds.

We took off and landed in the Barcelona countryside, surrounded by mountains like this.

After an hour in the sky, we landed, albeit a little rockily, on a gravel road. As a team (there were four other passengers with us for the ride) the whole thing from landing to being back on the trailer was about 15 minutes. Super quick.

Afterwards, the pilot cooked us all toasted sandwiches, using the fire from the balloon to heat them (took all of about 10 seconds per sandwich).

Ballooning is probably something I may only do once in my life (it is rather expensive) but it is definitely something I would recommend to anyone – and thanks Nat for the awesome present. I loved it.

Today is my 28th (gulp!) birthday, which means exactly two years left to complete my last 100 or so goals. A goal a week from here on in might be a bit tricky, but nothing worth doing was ever (as one person I read about puts it, the tastiest ice cream is always the hardest to scoop).

Month completed: February 2011

As an Australian, I think it is in my blood to want to be a surfer. And despite living relatively close to the coast I reached the age of 27 without ever surfing.

Which makes me feel a little un-Australian.

Boogie boarding I have done plenty of times. And I love the beach. So this year one of my first resolutions was to start surfing.

Couple of minor issues though – I now live in the UK – and I don’t know too many people in London who like surfing.

That is when I discovered a website called Meetup, which has a London Surfers group with over 300 members.

I put out a message to see if there was any beginner surfers who would be up for a weekend away where we could all learn together. And the response was amazing.

After many messages back and forth (over 100!) we organised the location (we went to Porthtowan in Cornwall, west England), the dates, and who would travel in which car. Then off we went, ten complete strangers spending a weekend surfing. Awesome!

Here’s the beach we surfed on, in Porthtowan, Cornwall. Great beach with amazing views from the cliffs either side.

Here’s the surf school. We stayed at the Backpackers on the second floor.

Our room – proper backpackers style.

The beginner surfers, all ready to hit the waves.

Our instructor took a bunch of photos of us when we were out on the waves, but he hasn’t put them up on their Facebook page just yet. He did get one of me standing (amazingly, I did get up a few times but for no more than a couple of seconds at a time) so I am eager to see what that looks like.

If I was to sum surfing up, I would say it is much harder than I thought, but just as addictive as I thought too. Everyone on the trip was chilled out and great company, and we all loved it so much we are going to start doing a monthly weekend away.

The purpose of Project 183 was to try a whole bunch of things so that I could find the handful of things I want as long-term hobbies. Surfing, I feel, is going to become one of them.

p.s. We have a second beginner’s weekend at the end of March, if you are in the UK and are keen

I thought this comic from Toothpaste for Dinner is quite true.

I am really bad at over-checking my Twitter feed, or Facebook, or just randomly watching videos on YouTube. Maybe computers are like the cigarettes of the 21st century?

I feel like there are two types of people in the world.

Those who avoid things that give them fear, and those that embrace and overcome fear.

And it is the latter group who change the world we live in for the better, and lead fuller lives.

For me, it is when I overcome something that scares me it gives me an awesome feeling of accomplishment inside. And most of the time makes me realise that the thing I feared (i.e. skydiving) wasn’t really that scary after all.

The point of this post is simply to say ‘embrace fear, actively seek it out, and attempt to overcome it‘.

There was an article in the newspaper the other day listing the top 10 things that make people scared.

Here are the top 10, in no particular order:

Buying a home

Marriage

Redundancy

Giving birth/attending birth of child

First kiss

Leaving home

First day on a new job

Meeting the in-laws

Losing your virginity

Operation

What do you think was number 1 on the list? The results may surprise you. Click the image thumbnail below to see them in their correct order.

Were there any missing that would make your top 10?

“We don’t stop playing because we grow old.

We grow old because we stop playing.”

- George Bernard Shaw

Month completed: February 2011

Lots of countries are going through tragic events. But for some reason, the falling apart of Zimbabwe over a number of years is the one that intrigues me the most.

Perhaps partly because of the fact that despite all the condemnation of their president Robert Mugabe around the globe, he is still in power after 30 years.

For those not aware, Robert Mugabe came to power in Zimbabwe in 1980, and in his time the country has utterly fallen apart.

How he hasn’t been assassinated, or overthrown in a coup, or voted out democratically, amazed me, so I wanted to know more.

I recently finished reading a fantastic book on the rise of Robert Mugabe called Our Votes, Our Guns by Martin Meredith, which covered his life up to 2002, and how he first took an active role in creating a revolution, through to becoming the president, and the tactics he used to stay in power as long as he has.

Here are a few things I picked up:

• He spent 11 years in prison, and used this time to strengthen his resolve for a takeover of the country
• He was actually very popular with both the black and white communities in the months after his election, declaring the white colonial past a thing of history and showing a desire for unity and equality
• The democratic, rather than violent, way that he gained power (through an agreement with the British) seemed to leave him with an unquenched thirst for violence
• He is corrupted by power, in a very big way, as are those around him, and violence and intimidation, particularly of white landowners, is the key to his keeping power
• His rival parties have to deal with some really shocking, and scary, things just to get the chance to run around his party (murder being one)

A good book gets you emotional. And this one really got me worked up. It is disgusting the way he has turned a jewel in southern Africa into a destitute wasteland, and it reminded me just how lucky I am to live in a country where the biggest issues I face are a cramped Tube, or a bit of rain. Be thankful for what you have – that’s the message I take away from the book.