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.

Completed Challenge 25# - A day in the life of an octopus!

Just out of a long hot bath as it turns out wearing a heavy octopus head all day makes you pretty achy!! But despite the crick in my neck and the flush of embarassment in my cheeks it was totally worth it for the £104.54 that was raised!

The worst part of the day was sitting in briefing in front of all my colleagues who I pray normally take me seriously. This was swiftly followed by having to walk past kid after kid who did a double take or just stood in front of me laughing. I had also managed to time this day with my dog coming in for animal care. This went absolutely fine but was certainly not my proudest moment cleaning dog muck up dressed as an octopus! It did lead some Year 11 students to come running out and emptying all their change out to me saying they felt it was a new low for me.

There were some great moments when a student watched my dog cuddling up to me and said "ooh she must like seafood" and when my year 7's carried on working, and whinging about working, as if nothing else was happening.

Being made to carry on wearing it for a drink in the pub after work was not what I bargained for but did lead to another couple of quid from the punters - all in a day's work.

Thanks to the challengers and costume makers and everyone that donating!!

Completed Challenge 28# - No Social Media!

Success! I made it through the month. No crisis happened. No really horrid photos or posts. But truth be told I did miss it.

It didn't help that Facebook emailed me daily to say I had notifications. They would also tell me I had friend requests and messages. I would mull over what these could be and whether people would think me rude for not responding. I had two major events during the month and I was jealous not to be involved in the fun anecdotal statuses afterwards or prolong the fun flicking through the photos.

I missed the odd invitation to things and a few funny stories. But it's important to remember I didn't miss any major life events and it didn't reduce my contact with my best friends. If anything I tried to contact them more as I couldn't just 'spy' on their lives through Facebook.

One friend sent me a 4 page letter catching me up on everything that was going on with them which was really sweet. I wrote a lengthy letter back and we realised we had shared far more than we ever would have done on Facebook. I was reminded that it simply does not replace the connection we have with people in our real lives.

So thank you to the challengers, it was a good thing for me to do. Thank you to those who donated. Thank you to  everyone that still contacted me. And thank you to everyone who welcomed me back to the social media world today!!

Please remember you can donate to support this or any other challenge at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense

Challenge 30# - The last one!!

Ah the last one. If only I was writing this having completed all the others but the truth is I've still got a long way to go.

Having said that, this is probably the most important one and really one I've been working towards all along. It comes from the team at SENSE asking me to raise awareness of the charity and what they do.

It's absolutely phenomenal to raise lots of money but just as important to me that the charity reaches a wider audience. This may mean more money in the long run; but it may also mean someone who really needs help might see there is something out there for them.

So as an ongoing challenge I'm doing what I can to publicize my experiences and the work that SENSE does. That's why I'm writing this blog and posting what I can on social media. Obviously not during my challenge ban! I'll also be continuing to get information in local media and if I can get any interest from women's magazines I will be doing this as well.

In addition to this I'll be hosting (with some generous help from my family) an afternoon tea on the 17th of May in my home village. I'll be completing a few challenges, telling people about the experiences I've had and a bit about what impact the money can have.

Please take a moment to click on the link below and find out more about the fantastic work that SENSE does day in day out. The people they help are facing far more than 30 challenges on a daily basis and I am in absolute awe of them.

http://www.sense.org.uk/content/how-we-help

I am particularly interested in the work that SENSE does for children and young people. There is a great video explaining this work at:  http://www.sense.org.uk/content/services-children-and-young-people

Challenge 29# - Ballet!

I can dance. Sort of. Ok, it's one of those things I did many moons ago but it's like riding a bike right? So when my friend Hannah said I had to perform a 3 minute piece of ballet there was a moment when I thought "yeah I can do that".

Then she said:

That I had to include a pirouette and pas de chat...

That it had to be in a public place...

That it had to be to the song Breathe by the Prodigy...

At that point I realised that the picture below was more of an apt view of my ability to dance.

So date, time, location all to be confirmed. Humiliation guaranteed. If you can possibly support this challenge please donate at www.justgiving.com/30before30sense