Task number 68: See Eddie Izzard perform live.

After months of waiting, I finally achieved this one. On 11 November 2009 I rented a car and went to see Stripped at the SECC in Glasgow with Rebekah, Ben, his flatmate John, Camilla, Tor, and three Norwegian friends of theirs.

He was still pretty funny – I was glad to see he'd pulled back from the crudeness of Sexie and gone back to his thinking-man's-comedy roots. Although maybe a little too much – he became quite self-referential: for example, dropping "covered in bees!" (one of the most memorable lines from previous shows) occasionally into the dialogue. This is fine if (like me) you've listened to his 1990s and early 2000s shows time and time again, and don't need such lines to be in context to make sense, but it's not so great for trying to convince newcomers to be fans.

Still, I was glad to see the jokes weren't as rude as the picture on the poster suggested. Also, he seems to have stopped dressing like a woman. Is he getting too old for it? :P

Here is a review from the Guardian. It's a year old, but it's the same show, and says everything rather well, I feel.

5. Climb five Munros (excluding Ben Nevis)

On Easter Saturday (11 April 2009) my good friend Ben, his brother Jonathan, Rebekah and I drove to Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) in my dad's Nissan Micra (which was in Scotland at the time because my sister Joanna had borrowed it for a visit to St Andrews with her boyfriend Tom). The plan was as follows:

1. Take morning train from Edinburgh to Leuchars
2. Be met by Joanna at the station, drive her back to St Andrews, and then set off for Loch Earn.
3. Arrive and eat lunch.
4. Leave Rebekah in the car reading while the manly men set off to conquer the mountain.
5. Reach the top of Ben Vorlich, triumphant in our strength and fitness.
6. Climb the next mountain over (Stuc a'Chroin) if we thought we had enough time and energy left.
7. Come back a slightly different way to make it a nice circular route.
8. Drive through the beautiful Scottish countryside, past Loch Tay and on to Pitlochry.
9. Visit the Edradour distillery (if we arrived in time).
10. Drive on to Aberdeen via pretty country roads for dinner in a pub (if time).
11. Drive back to St Andrews after dark on the main road (since after dark it's speed and not scenery that matters).
12. Leave the car with Joanna and take the train home to Edinburgh.

What actually happened was as follows.

1-3. As above.
3½. Realise that my dad had sent the wrong map – Loch Earn itself was right at the bottom and the path up Ben Vorlich headed south and soon disappeared off the edge. Also realise that I've forgotten to bring the route printout I made. Shrug shoulders and say "never mind".
4-5. As above (ascent of Ben Vorlich took us a very respectable two hours).
6. Look over at Stuc a'Chroin and be amazed at how close it is.
7. Gamely set off down the other side of Ben Vorlich.
8. Be confused about how what looks like it's supposed to be the path is getting more and more vertical. Lament over lack of appropriate map.
9. Decide that can't be the path and we'll go up what looks like the easiest way, which is only a slight detour to the right.
10. Discover that our "easy" way wasn't so easy and the "slight" detour wasn't so slight after all if we plan to avoid a vertical rock climb. Make way gingerly along steep slope on slippery wet grass.
11. Finally reach the top of Stuc a'Chroin, our second Munro of the day. Decide that the Aberdeen plan isn't going to happen.
12. Begin descent and completely fail to find the way back described in the route. Blame lack of appropriate map.
13. Spend an hour wading through a bog.
14. Find some ground which is dry but quite springy and therefore painful to walk on at the angle we need to. Try to drift closer to the path we came up on.
15. Rejoin Ben Vorlich path.
16. Arrive back at car park to a very worried Rebekah who has finished two whole books while we were gone. By now it is 7pm.
17. Set off for home. Get stopped by police five minutes later beside Loch Earn as car didn't appear to be as green as the DVLA thought it was (Joanna has painted it with flames). Discover my dad's tax disc is out of date but persuade police officers this isn't my fault. Be very thankful they didn't notice I wasn't wearing my glasses, and that we had abandoned our plan of taking Joanna and Tom along as well (making 6 in a 5-person car). Continue with journey.
18. Realise we won't make it to St Andrews in time for the last train back so drive straight to Edinburgh instead. Apologise to Joanna and Tom that they'll have to take the train instead of driving to Edinburgh the next day, and promise to pay their train fare.
19. Arrive in Edinburgh around 10pm, drive straight to Papa John's and buy far more pizza than we can possibly eat.
20. Return to my flat and eat all the aforesaid pizza. Ben and Jonathan go back to Ben's.
21. Wake up the next day almost totally unable to walk. Manage to hobble through day, including a trip to the park with all climbers plus Tom and Joanna.
22. Wake up on Easter Monday not all that much more able to walk. Feel very glad I took this day off work.
23. Thankfully back to normal on Tuesday.

Photos to follow when I can get them off Ben's camera.

1. Lose 5 kilos by 30 June 2009

I weighed myself on day 1 (1 January 2009) and resolved to do the same on the last day of every month during the 1001 days, and on day 1001. In addition, I had specific weight loss targets, the first being to lose 5kg from my day 1 weight in six months (i.e. by 30 June). For consistency, weighing was always done just after getting up in the morning. Here are my weights for the first six months.

1 January: 89kg
31 January: 88kg
28 February*: 87kg
31 March: 83kg
30 April: 84kg
31 May: 82kg
30 June: 82kg

*I actually forgot on 28 February and weighed myself on 2 March instead, but as that's only 30 days since the last weighing I think it's OK.

31 March came as a bit of a surprise! I'm now a little worried that I've lost too much weight and won't be able to meet my second target, which is to be no heavier on 31 December 2009 than my 30 June weight (whatever that might be). Losing weight as summer approaches is a lot easier than losing it in autumn and winter, when your body naturally fattens itself up anyway. So from a difficulty point of view, it's more like continuing to lose weight than trying to stay the same.

Once 2009 is up I may set new weight-related targets, but those will have to be separate from the 101 things.

Task number 35: Watch every film that has won Best Picture at the Oscars

On 15 Feb 2009 I rented No Country for Old Men (Best Picture Winner 2007) from Moviebank. Not bad. Very slow-moving but great at building up tension, and pleasingly indie-ish and non-Hollywood. And Javier Bardem played an excellent psychopathic villain. But, annoyingly, my Moviebank card had just expired so I had to put another £10 onto it in order to use the credit I already had! >:(


On 22 February 2009, the Best Picture award for 2008 was won by Slumdog Millionaire. As I had already seen this on 20 January 2009 (within the 1001 days), I could therefore tick off another Best Film (albeit retrospectively). Prior to the ceremony, my chances of doing this were quite good, as I'd also seen Slumdog Millionaire's main rival for this award, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, since the start of my challenge.

I loved this film to bits, and cheered (either outwardly or inwardly) every time it won an award. I thought they were all thoroughly deserved. I don't believe I need to elaborate on this any more for those who've seen the film, and for those who haven't, the best way to find out why I think so much of it isn't to read anything I could write.

On the night of 28 February 2009 I watched the 1940 Best Picture winner, Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca, on TV. It started slow and seemingly quite predictable, but the ending was exciting and confounded the expectations I'd had at the beginning. By the time the film began to approach the climax, I could absolutely see why it deserved to win Best Picture.

On 3 March I rented Million Dollar Baby (2004). Rebekah's post on wotmania pretty much said it all: Clint Eastwood + Morgan Freeman = movie magic. Well, not quite all, because Hilary Swank was also very powerful. No wonder she won Best Leading Actress.



On 15 March The Departed (2006) was on TV. It was extremely cool. I never thought I'd see Leonardo diCaprio being cool. Also, I now know why everyone thinks so much of Jack Nicholson. And Martin Scorsese. I need to see more of his films.

Also, I was really kept on my toes trying to remember who was on what side and which of the two main characters knew what about the other one, but I expect that's just me being slow.



For my birthday my mum very kindly bought me membership of LoveFilm, which should make my progress with this task much faster! On 22 January I watched my first LoveFilm DVD, 1938 winner You Can't Take It With You. It was rather moralising, but still quite enjoyable, with lots of comic moments. Thinking back to Rebecca, it seems that most of the old ones appear quite badly made to my modern eyes at first, but as they go on I'm able to see what made them deserving winners.

Task number 89: Buy Rebekah flowers

Rebekah's birthday on the 31st of January provided me with an opportunity to paint my first task green.



I bought them on my way home from my friend Ben's the night before, and managed to preserve the surprise by hiding them in the wardrobe until the next morning. Then when Rebekah came out of the shower they had magically appeared beside the bed :D.

I've begun to think that I should really have made this more than just a one-off, but as nearly all of them are either long term or only doable in summer, it feels good to have one ticked off by the end of the first month.

Edit, 9 August 2009: I also bought Rebekah flowers on Valentine's Day, 14 February, and today for no particular reason other than that she was feeling down.

Task number 44: Cook a new recipe every month

On 19 Jan 2009 I cooked a tuna and pasta bake. Despite me forgetting to put the tuna in until after it had come out of the oven, Rebekah said she was impressed! I haven't yet decided what to cook in February but I'm hoping to elicit a similar reaction.

Task number 29: Read 50 books in 12 months

In this post I will keep track of the books I read each month until I complete the 50-book challenge. I am currently aiming to complete this by the end of December 2009, but according to my rules for this task I can retroactively move the start date if it helps me complete the challenge. So if by the end of 2009 I haven't read quite enough books, I could (for example) move the start date to 1 March 2009, discount the books I read in January and February 2009, and try to read enough to make up the difference by the end of February 2010. However, to stop things from getting too messy, I won't declare a start date that isn't the first of the month.

Books begun the previous month will be shown in brackets (). Books begun in one month and finished in a different month will count as half a book in each month. Therefore, if I get to 49½ books and my year is almost up, I'll have to read another book to at least the half-way point in order to complete the challenge, or else move the start date.

Square brackets [] indicate two books for which I forgot to note down exactly which month I finished them in, so I have allocated them according to my best guess.

2009 (50.5)

January (3.5)

(Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro)
Storm Front – Jim Butcher
The Book of Illusions – Paul Auster
The Tales of Beedle the Bard – J.K. Rowling

February (5)

(Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov)
The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow – Jerome K. Jerome
Lord of Light – Roger Zelazny
The Player of Games – Iain M. Banks
The Sparrow – Mary Doria Russell

March (4)

Night Watch – Sergei Lukyanenko
Use of Weapons – Iain M. Banks
The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
The State of the Art – Iain M. Banks

April (5)

The Kindly Ones – Neil Gaiman
The Wake – Neil Gaiman
(These Old Shades – Georgette Heyer)
The Shadow of the Wind – Carlos Ruiz Zafón
[Excession – Iain M. Banks]

May (4)

[(Selected poems 1923-1958 – E. E. Cummings)]
(Inversions – Iain M. Banks)
Fool Moon – Jim Butcher
Feersum Endjinn – Iain M. Banks

June (5)

Look to Windward – Iain M. Banks
Dali's Mustache – Salvador Dalí and Philippe Halsman
The Masqueraders – Georgette Heyer
The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Eye in the Pyramid – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson

July (4)

(Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog) – Jerome K. Jerome)
Grave Peril – Jim Butcher
A Canticle for Leibowitz – Walter M. Miller, Jr
Espedair Street – Iain Banks

August (4)

(The Gone-Away World – Nick Harkaway)
Unspeakable Desolation Pouring Down From The Stars – Frank Key
The Golden Apple – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Baudolino – Umberto Eco

September (2)

Leviathan – Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson
Un Lun Dun – China Miéville

October (3)

Family (Law Basics) – Elaine Sutherland
1066 And All That – W.C. Sellar (Aegrot: Oxon) and R.J.Yeatman (Failed M.A., etc. Oxon)
Don'ts for Husbands – Blanche Ebbutt

November (5)

Pawn of Prophecy – David Eddings
The Last Hero – Terry Pratchett
The Reluctant Fundamentalist – Mohsin Hamid
A Pig at the Wheel – Michael Bland
Queen of Sorcery – David Eddings

December (6)

(Thomas Jefferson: American Humanist – Karl Lehmann)
Magician's Gambit – David Eddings
Contract Law in Scotland – Hector MacQueen and Joe Thomson
Summer Knight – Jim Butcher
Foucault's Pendulum – Umberto Eco
Castle of Wizardry – David Eddings

Challenge complete!