Completed Challenge 30# - The Last One!

Ahhh this is a great feeling! The last one. I can't believe it. It has been such an amazing experience and a fantastic way to turn 30. There has been so many highs (and few lows!) but for all it's taken out of me, I've got 10 times as much back. I've had 30 great challenges and formed some new friendships along the way.

I'll update next week with a final total as I'm reliably informed a few more people want to donate. If that's you and you're reading this - www.justgiving.com/30before30sense (just a little hint!)

So onto the last challenge which was to publicize the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been ongoing throughout and I've really enjoyed chatting with people about the charity and making people aware of the work that they do.

Every challenge has contributed towards this but in addition I have worked hard on this blog, received some press interest and taken part in an afternoon tea to publicize the challenges. I also carried out some of the challenges at the two schools I've worked in during the challenges to publicize the challenges and charity to my students.

The afternoon tea was a huge success, lots of people who had been involved in the challenges came a long and we all ate a lot of yummy cake. My fantastic mother had made a PowerPoint of all the challenges with some videos which was a great talking point. I brought leaflets, posters and balloons to show people and also information on what the charity does and where the money can go. One of my challenges was to produce a map which had been mounted beautifully and I found out the challenge was expanding even further to be lit at night which was a fantastic feeling.

I was lucky to have some short articles in local press at the beginning of the challenges and was even more pleased to have two large articles towards the end. One was in my local paper the Matlock Mercury and the other published on my actual birthday was a double page spread in the Derby Telegraph. This really meant a lot to me as I could reach I wider audience about SENSE and hopefully inspire them to do some challenges of their own.

Last but certainly not least I publicized the challenges through this blog. At first I found it quite hard to write and it can feel like you're talking to no-one. But then I got more and more hits and I began to really enjoy the process of documenting my challenges and taking stock of what I had achieved. The hits went up daily with the more humiliating ones attracting a lot of attention. The winning post was ballet dancing at 189 hits! As this was an unusual thing to do for my 30th and something that has consumed my life for the last year you can imagine my delight when I post the total hits this blog has had.

Thank you so much to everyone who has helped to promote the challenges and the charity SENSE. This has been a real team effort and I could not have done it without you!

Completed Challenge 2# - Bathing in Beans

I think the photos and videos will probably speak for themselves here! It. Was. Awful. Bathing in beans is one thing. My parents somewhat stretched this to "roll up, roll up, pour beans on our little girl."

There's the odd tentative ladle, there's the strategic pour down her back and then there's the good old fashioned throw all over her. This is all with the wonderful soundtrack of my little niece wailing "nooo" and crying and she thought people were bullying her beloved aunty.

I was caked in the stuff. Had a real walk of shame back to my parents, bare foot and dripping with beans. You only had to follow the trail to find their house. But it was my last big challenge and a lot of people turned up to support (read laugh at) me.

Thank you so much, we made a whopping £80 between the beans and the peas followed by another £10 when we donated the left overs to some local pigs. It was so lovely to see everyone who has supported me along the way and talk through my challenges. I was super humbled.

It may be a long time before I or my poor little niece can eat beans again! Here is a little snippet of my lovely brother in law finishing it off and a range of photos of people doing their worst. There are tonnes of other pictures of me humiliated doing the rounds.

Completed Challenge 24# - Pea Eating Contest!

When you search for this on google it's such a rare event that my page actually comes up 6th!

I teamed this challenge with an afternoon tea I was having to promote the charity. This meant there was a lot of support and quite a few contestants! People were also more competitive than I imagined. My 3 year old niece decided she wanted to compete with me so I'm using that as an excuse for why I did so badly!

The winner, by a country mile, was Katie who ate a whopping 59 peas in a minute. Clearly a proficient chopstick user - or put in some practice. Aoife and I were pretty lame in comparison and managed less than 20. My mum had thankfully laid on a lot of cake as most people were keen to take the taste away.

It was a really fun challenge and a good way to get the party going! Thanks so much to my sister Tessa for all her organisation and for everyone for taking part.

Completed Challenge 26 - Showjumping!

It's probably worth admitting at that start that I did fall off. Not even in a dramatic way. More off a whoops, I'm falling, I'll just slide off kind of way. But as the saying goes I got back on the horse and jumped again. All be it a little shaky with a few tears.

My friend Kim, who is a fab friend, a trusted drinking partner, and one of the few people I can go on holiday with also turned out to be an amazing teacher. I was so glad to have someone I trusted completely guiding the way and I felt instantly comfortable.

She had made a lot of effort to protect me from injury - at her birthday party last year I cracked a rib roller skating and the guilt lives on. Despite that being entirely my fault! She was also very patient and Rupert the horse was very forgiving of my rookie skills.

It was a full workout for Kim who had to run me round the jumps to train me and to spur on the slightly lazy Rupert. I was doing pretty well and she let me go it alone, I lost my confidence a bit and slid off but I was so proud of myself. No broken bones, not even a bruise!

This was the only potentially really dangerous challenge I really did and it felt an amazing thing to achieve. It's given me the confidence to go riding again with Kim in the summer.

Huge thanks to Kim, everyone at the stables and especially Lucy for the loan of a wonderful horse, her support on the day and being so sympathetic when I made a fool of myself! Please see below for videos of Kim's great training and the not so epic fall.

Remember you can support this or any other challenge by donating at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Completed Challenge 19# - Watch The Mirrors!

Well, watch the mirrors indeed. This was very nearly the one challenge I didn't manage! Even with a thourough clean up of the garage it was an incredibly tight squeeze.

I began the mammoth task of clearing out old stuff in February. I gritted my teeth and started to be ruthless. I had kept so much old school stuff in the belief that I would 'absolutely use it someday'. But now I have the job I've always wanted and I whittled down to 2 boxes that I could take with me to my new office.

It was fun to begin with. Going through old stuff and thinking how far I'd come. Then it was boring. Then it was hell. I piled my car up and heading for the tip only to be told by the guy peering at the headings on my paper that they don't take "trade waste!". It's paper! "You're a teacher - it's trade waste." Turns out I'm not charming enough so had to head off.

Following this the challenge has whittled away at me. There was tyres there but I didn't want to change them over til the weather was better, there was a chest freezer that a friends having but I hadn't sorted out delivering. So at the weekend I was ruthless again, made a plan and prayed that my measurements were right and that the freezer would fit in our car (the bigger car!).

With all this sorted tonight, I was pretty pleased with myself. Until it came the time to actually drive it in. With a lot of huffing and 'stop', 'turn a bit', 'no less', 'no right' from my husband it fit. Just.

Now we're wondering what to do with all the empty space in our garage and I have itchy fingers for some more storage boxes...

Completed Challenge 22# - Karaoke

This one comes with a warning: IT IS AWFUL! I think people genuinely assumed I was being modest. Everyone can sing a little bit right? I can't. Not even a teensy bit. The copious amounts of wine helped the confidence but not the pitch. I also outraged my friends by admitting I'd never seen The Bodyguard, did not sing it in the shower and did not know the words.

If you doubt any of what I'm saying watch the clips. If you value your ear drums or your sanity don't! It is split into 3 as such a long song.

Please remember you can make this humiliation worth my while by donating at www.justgiving.com/30beforesense

Thanks to Kate, Sarah and Fran for their wonderful, candle-lit, backing dancing!

Completed Challenge 29# - Ballet

A great feeling to have the penultimate really embarrassing one done! I was less scared about this than the flute as I figured a little improvisation would go a long way. However there were some moves Hannah had specified so I was busy you-tubing those to make sure I incorporated them in some way.

Hannah had kindly (read cruelly!) chosen a very contemporary and long song. This did at least mean I could choreograph a chorus to give something to link my general flaying about together. My next door neighbours kindly donated and came a long and although they were very kind they did mention that there was a lot of twirling my hands, pointing my toes and hoping for the best. They were right!

Another dimension was the requirement to dress like a ballerina. I found myself pulling a tutu over my head as the 30 year old figure did not quite lend itself to such slender dress.

Apart from a few curious kids, the audience was somewhat limited which I was grateful for. The sides of the bandstand also afforded me a degree of secrecy! But it's not something I will be volunteering to do again and I'll certainly be keeping my head down in the supermarkets and pubs for the next few weeks.

Thanks to Hannah, Sophie, Maria and Laurie for their support and encouragement. I especially enjoyed listening back to their narration while filming!

Ballet attire and happy challenger

Now for the video! Please keep your laughter to yourself! I've had to split the video into 2 as it's too large. An added bonus of these challenges is some new IT skills.

Completed challenge 23# - play us a tune!

Off all the challenges this has been one of the hardest. Unlike the others, where although they were often things I didn't particularly want to do, this was something I didn't want to do AGAIN.

I had stopped playing the flute as a child as I hated to play in public or perform really in anyway. So in preparing for this challenge all those feelings came back with the added difficult that I couldn't play. I had naively assumed it would be like riding a bike; but I didn't remember any of the finger placements or even how to play music.

On the Monday before the challenge I was really frustrated and worried that this might be the first challenge I was unsuccessful at. I was whinging away to my sister about not wanting to do it. Then at work one of my special needs children showed me their holiday scrapbook where they had cut out my picture from the paper. It gave me the perspective and push I needed to remember what I was really doing this for.

I practiced every night til I had cramp in my fingers and by the performance felt almost ready. I had highlighted sheets of the finger placements, written all letters underneath all my notes. It turned out I needn't have worried as the other musicians and audience at the pub were so friendly and accommodating that they put me very much at ease.

I don't think I'll be rushing off to become a musician any time soon, but a hige thank you to Geoff and all at The Flying Childer's who supported me. This time I truly have done something I didn't think I would be able to do.

Please see below my many cheat sheets, and a video of the very short performance.