But don’t panic!!!
I know, I know, I know.
Progress isn’t looking all that great right now. Still only done 2 things from my list and I’m nearly 8 weeks in. But here’s the thing:
1 – Beat Steve Davis at Snooker. Still no reply from the man himself. Will chase him again but I may ask my other mate, Ronnie O’Sullivan, if he fancies a match.
2 – Break A World Record. Since, provisionally, deciding that I was going to set a World Record and not break one I haven’t done much else but I am hoping to get this done by the summer. And for those who don’t know, I am aiming for the most cream pies in the face in a minute. I’m checking with Guinness on what conditions I’d have to abide by on this.
3 – Buy A House. Well I’m still saving and hopefully in the next few weeks I might be off to do my very first “house viewing”. Very exciting!!!
4 – Buy A Tailored Suit. I’m going to get this made at the end of the year so no progress yet.
5 – Carve A Pumpkin. PENDING. Calcott Hall Farm Shop have offered me a Pumpkin, come Pumpkin season, for this particular thing.
6 – Climb A Mountain. PENDING. A friend and I are looking at Scafell Pike in about May for this one. He’s got a really fancy camera so we should have some pretty good photos from this.
7 – Complete A Rubix Cube. I am going to start this one this week (w/c 24th Feb). I reckon it’ll take me a good few days of working at it, with instructions.
8 – Conduct An Orchestra. I have a friend who is a composer and I’ve been brain-storming some ideas on this one. Nothing in stone yet though.
9 – Drive A Tractor. PENDING. Back to #5 and Calcott Hall also offered me the chance to drive one of their Tractors which is tres cool!!!
10 – Feed A Zoo Animal. I can’t tell you about this one. All will become clear in time. Shhhh!!!
11 – Find A Four-Leaf Clover. Not sure where to start with this one. I’ll come back to it.
12 – Find My Doppelganger. I saw a stat online recently that everyone has approximately 8 “Doppelgangers” which has increased my hope of this one but then I realised that’s 8 in 7,000,000,000 so who knows.
13 – Fly A Hawk. I have found a local Aviary to Brentwood and so will be in touch with them. I’m really hoping that they’ll bring a bird of prey in to the studio. Would I be the first person to present radio with an owl on his arm?? World Record!?!
14 – Get A Piercing. People have asked what I’m going to get pierced and I’ve said, “Probably my ear.” I’d quite like to do this one live on-air if any qualified ear-piercers are willing to come on the show and do it for me??
15 – Get Cream Pie’d. The most popular one for volunteers by a long shot!!! Thank you all for asking to help with this one. I am aiming to tie this in with #2 as mentioned so standby for details.
16 – Get Mentioned In A National Newspaper. Not sure how I’m going to go about doing this yet but I’ll think of something. I’m also open to suggestions??
17 – Get My Car Washed In A Drive-Thru Car Wash. Sounds simple. I guess it is. But I haven’t given this one any thought yet. Might do it on the way back from Scafell Pike (see #6) as I imagine the car will get a wee bit filthy.
18 – Give Blood. Right, so I’ve already tried this but apparently I was “black-listed” from doing it!! Turns out my GP didn’t reply to the Blook clinic when I previous tried to give blood at University (note that I tried, did not succeed so this one still stands as something I’ve never done). The lovely nurses at Brentwood’s Blooc Clinic are getting the thumbs up from my Doctor and then I’ll get this one booked in.
19 – Go To A Book Signing. DONE!!! See previous blog for my review.
20 – Go To A Festival. I was thinking of one of the big ones (Reading, Leeds, Glasto) but they’re quite expensive. Plus I wanted to do something a little more local. So I’m thinking maybe Standon Calling which we were big followers of last year on the PhoenixFM Breakfast Show.
21 – Go To A Murder Mystery Dinner/Evening. A friend said she may be able to help with this. I’ll let you know as and when things get organised.
22 – Host A 24hr Radio Show. Well the boss at Phoenix said yes, in not so few words, I just need to pick a date to do it.
23 – Learn A New Instrument. This is one of the ones I’m a little concerned about. I’ve previously said that I want to be able to pass Grade 1 at least on an instrument that I can’t play. Any ideas what to choose?? ps. I can play drums, guitar & piano.
24 – Learn To Dance. Hopefully this will be tap dancing and hopefully I should be starting that this week. Time dependent.
25 – Perform A Stand-Up Set. PENDING. If you listen to the show, you’ll know I’ve made friends with the Laughing Pod Comedy head honcho and he has agreed to find me a slot on one of his nights at The Ivory Rooms in Billericay which I am very excited about. I have also already written most of material too. Wanna sneak preview?? Hahaha, yeah. Not likely sunshine!!!
26 – Plant A Tree. Another one of the relatively easy ones which I could and probably should get done sooner rather than later so that I have something to show for it by the end of the year. Maybe I’ll grow a Christmas tree. They grow quickly right??
27 – Play A Part In A Musical. I did make an enquiry as to an audition but I was quite unwell a few weeks ago and missed it. I will keep my eyes and ears open for more auditions.
28 – Pull A Pint In A Pub. Haven’t done anything with this one yet but I’m hoping I can help The White Horse (Coxtie Green Rd, Brentwood) with some promotion in return for a lesson in “Pint Pulling”.
29 – Ride A Horse. PENDING. One of the girls in the office owns a horse and has offered to teach me but she did recommend waiting a few months for the weather to improve. Apparently, with all the bad weather we’ve had, the horse has been kept inside a lot more than usual recently as is quite restless and not a very good/easy ride at the mo. It’s not called a challenge for no reason!?
30 – Ride A Segway. I’ve reached out on this one but with no response so far. Can anyone help?? I only want to borrow it for 5 minutes. Supervised I assume.
31 – Ride A Tandem Bicycle. So there’s a bike hire place in Thorndon Country Park. I’ve dropped them an e-mail today (Sat 22nd Feb) to perhaps join me in the studio and once their “season” starts at the end of March I’ll get myself a bike hired. Who wants to the Jerry to my Tom?? The Hardy to my Laurel??
32 – Ride An Open-Top Bus In London. Was thinking of doing this one in the summer when the weather’s a bit better. Probably do it during the World Cup when everyone else is in the pub. See?? Not just a hat-rack my friend.
33 – Scuba Dive. Haven’t looked into this properly yet. I’m thinking that I’ll probably have to do some practice in a swimming pool first. Does this count as Scuba Diving??
34 – Send A Message In A Bottle. PENDING. So I wrote my message while on-air this past week. Got my bottle. All I need to do now is put it in the sea. May take it down to Southend (nearest coastline for me)
35 – Shoot A Gun. This might seem like a bit of weird one but I’ve watched a lot of TV and film where people seem to have no problem hitting the smallest target in the world while it’s moving and their doing a barrell-roll through the window of a moving train so I want to have a go. Anyone know of any local gun ranges??
36 – Sky Dive. PENDING. So Saint Francis Hospice, friends of PhoenixFM are hosting 2 of these fundraising jumps this year. I’m pretty much signed up to do one. Probably the one in September giving me a chance to raise a nice healthy sum of money for them while ticking off #36 on my list.
37 – Spend The Night In A Treehouse. Sounds simple but I don’t think people have Treehouses anymore?!? If you have one, even the most basic of one, can I borrow it for a night?? All I want to do is sleep in it for one night and that’s it. Nothing else. If you have a business that wants some free promotion on my show, I am totally happy to do this.
38 – Stilt Walking. Anyone know a local circus school??
39 – Walk On Fire. PENDING. In May, the Brentwood Centre are hosting a Firewalk. And yes I am signed up to it. 800C apparently. A bit warm then.
40 – Write A Children’s Book. PENDING. Being the creative type, I have ideas, thoughts and stuff bouncing around my tiny little brain all the time. And a few years ago, I wrote a children’s story. Turns out, according to the Chicken & Frog Bookshop (who are a little knowledgable on the world of children’s books I’ll have you know) it’s actually pretty good!! It needs a little tinkering and some drawings done for it but it has some potential so I’m working on it with them for now. Standby for more on this soon.
And now on to your suggestions. Yes, the things on my list that my friends, family and listeners of the PhoenixFM Breakfast Show have come up with.
41 – Wear A Pregnancy Belly for 24 Hours (Liz). Errr, where do I get one of these from?? Any ideas will be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
42 – Host Story Time (Ruth). I’ve been asked if I’d host story time by a local library and the Chicken & Frog so I just need to organise a date for this.
43 – Perform As A Living Statue (Michelle). I do have some rather wonderful friends don’t I?? Yeah, so another for the summer I think.
44 – Kiteboarding (Philly). I have no idea. Anybody??
45 – Be An Extra (Richard). Thanks to the Mr. Frog (of Chicken & Frog) I have been put in touch with the Casting Producer of Eastenders!!! How cool would that be?? I’ll let you know if anything comes of this contact. I really hope so.
46 – Book The Most Expensive Room In A Hotel (Nic). DONE. See previous blog for my review of this one.
47 – Get Chased By A Police Dog (Sally). Now, strangely enough, what I was expecting to be quite a difficult one has already turned up first contact with a Police Dog Trainer. I will enlighten you all as to when and where this is happening if you fancy watching me get mauled by a big dog. You sadistic bugger!!!
48 – Walk Hadrian’s Wall (Kyle). It is what it is and I need to plan a trip to the far North I guess. More to follow.
49 – Drive A Steam Train (Alec). Another one of the tasks I thought might be near impossible but it would appear not. Just down the road is a company called Epping Ongar Railway who do Driver Experience days!!! How cool is that?? So I’ve made contact with them and hope to complete this one in the coming few months.
50 – Complete A Cross Stitch (Becky). A fairly straight-forward task I’m guessing but I have no idea how to cross-stitch, so not so straight-forward. Anyone fancy teaching me??
And that’s where I am. So not doing as bad as you first thought eh??
It was while talking to my friend about #8 that the phrase “just ask” came up and he’s bloody right. If you “just ask” you might find that you can actually do more than you thought. So I am hereby introducing the use of #JustAsk into the #50ThingsRobHasntDoneYet
If you can help in ANY way, shape or form then please let me know. I am willing to do/help you with something in return for your help so please #JustAsk. And hey, if you want to do any of the things with me, let me know too!!!
Be sure to check back to this blog regularly to read more about the whole challenge and individual parts too.
I know this has been a long blog, but hopefully you’ve enjoyed and maybe even been inspired to carry on doing/start doing something you’ve been thinking of giving up on. I’ll write to you soon.
Cheers for your *ears
Rob
*eyes
