brianelsey.com

44. Re-decorate bathroom

Bit of a cheat but I’m claiming it!

I stripped all of the old paper off the walls with my son. The ‘cheating’ part is that I paid someone to paint etc. afterwards. Still… job done, the bathroom has been re-decorated.

41. De-clutter my computer space at home and get rid of what I can

Had a big tidy up today and threw loads of stuff away including old routers, graphic cards and modems!

Was really surprised what I discovered in all the ‘junk’, lots of useful material I had been saving for future website content. Can still use it as it’s history related, happy days.

36. Place a bet on a horse

Can’t remember which horse I backed now but it was in the recent Grand National.

My wife, son, daughter and myself placed a small bet each on the National and my daughter won… £72… Unbelievable! That’s a small fortune for an 11-year-old. Me? I won nowt.

62. Write a letter of praise to a company for good service

Went to Manchester last weekend to watch a show. Before the show we had time to shop and eat.

We ate at the Bella Italia in the Arndale Centre, fantastic food and service, couldn’t have wished for more. Prices were reasonable too. Sent an email of praise for good service. If you’re in Manchester I can recommend them.

5. Do a sponsored walk

On Saturday, 21st May 2011 a few of us (via wiganworld) got together and did a sponsored walk in aid of a local charity.

We walked from Parbold in Lancashire to our home town, Wigan. A distance of seven and a quarter miles with 5 pubs en-route to slow us down.

The weather was on our side too.

My son and daughter pictured with a new friend they met at Gathurst:

Sponsored Walk

47. Learn javascript

Since going self-employed 12 months ago I’ve had the time I’ve had to learn javascript, jquery, ajax etc.

With my knowledge of programming over the years and the similarity between PHP and javascript I’m pleased to say it’s not rocket science!

javascript snippet

89. Stop smoking

Probably the toughest on the list for me and I’ve done it! 27 years of smoking 20+ a day to no cigs at all.

It’s tough, very tough. I’m on day 44 as I type this and could murder a smoke right now but I’m not.

Best of all, I’ve done it cold turkey – no patches, gum, pills. If I can do it anyone can!

66. Enter 10 postal competitions

I’ve entered 10 postal competitions. I did win one too! It was a years subscription to Lancashire Life Magazine for winning their Sudoku competition.

69. Save £10,000

Didn’t take me long to save more than this sum, yay!

Complete 10 x Times Cryptic Crosswords without help

Completed my 10th Times cryptic crossword, #24742, January 10th, 2011.

A couple of favourites from this one:

(12ac) Fortieth sport Times follows (4)
(15ac) Hurry up – fish included in special offer’s beginning to go (5,1,3)

Answers:
(12ac) sport=RU (Rugby Union), Times=BY (This threw me for a while as Time is usually T), answer=RUBY
(15ac) fish=HAKE included in special offer=SALE… S(HAKE)ALE, beginning to go=G, answer=SHAKE A LEG