Gymnastics

I've been working nights this week so I'm a little drowsy now but I'm out the other end and playing at a friend's wedding tomorrow. I'll be off to the practice studio as a result in a bit to brush up on the set.

However, I feel it is necessary to document my experience as a gymnast. I turned up at the venue, admittedly slightly hungover, expecting a state of the art gym complete with lifesaving safety equipment to help me from not breaking my neck. I was met with a small door in an arch underneath a railway bridge. Here's me looking 'up for it'.

You may or may not be able to see the scrawl on the door in chalk denoting the name of the premises. As you can see, a pretty professional enterprise.  I would also like to thank my friend Michelle for coming with me. I would have been 100% more awkward turning up to a majority female activity on my own.

Anyway, on entering I was actually slightly lifted (not literally), as the place at least had a toilet. We were all then subsequently put through our paces in forward and back rolls, hand stands and head stands. Verdict: It was actually pretty fun and as a result of the stretches at the start I was able to touch my toes with ease for the first time in a number of years.

Took me a while to bring up the issue of the backflip, but when I did at the end, the fact that our instructor Amelia didn't laugh in my face was encouragement enough. So, the game is on. I have £20 riding on this.  And that's a flipping lot of money.

Rather disturbingly though, on my way out, Amelia called out with the words, 'hey, are you guys cheerleaders?' Now on the one hand, in her mind it is plausible that I have the capacity to be a cheerleader. On the other, it is plausible in her mind that I have the capacity to be a cheerleader.

See you next time for my Christmas update.

Playing the Wine Glasses

This week has involved music, food and fun. Simple as that. After the hammer blow of the lock picking saga, I think I have just about managed to regroup. And it helps that it is becoming more and more festive. Indeed the decorations have shot up with a vengeance in the house. See below.

Now, before I get to the main task, I also managed to contribute to one of my other tasks by way of my culinary adventures in the kitchen. By this I mean that I cooked the first of what will be seven key dishes that I can reliably deliver at will, with devastating skill should the need arise.

Contrary to what you can see, it was actually quite tasty. And it had Hollandaise sauce in it which is generally understood in chefs' circles to be exclusively for the big boys.

Now onto the wine glasses. It was well fun. However, my efforts pale in significance to some of the stuff on youtube. You may say I have too much time on my hands but some people have taken it to a different level. With minimal practice and some scarce and fairly shoddy glasses, here's what I produced.

If you liked that, there will be a version of Silent Night on my youtube page. Given more time I could see myself getting obsessed with this activity. Almost as addictive as lockpicking and balloon animals!

I have a busy couple of weeks in line now so I think my next task will have to span both weeks.This includes an adult gymnastics class for the end of the week to get working on my back flip. (No joke).  Any suggestions for  bumper Christmas week tasks to perform to redeem myself would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I had a bit of free time so I rather randomly recorded this cover of Stand By Me. Hope you like it!

Lockpicking!

As you may or may not be aware, my task for this week was to 'master lockpicking'. I'm sorry to say that it is my first failure. Turns out picking locks is well hard.

It became clear early on that practice would be the key. However, as the week went by, it became more apparent that a miracle would be closer to the mark. I tried a few things and even plucked up the courage to walk into a key cutters to ask if they had any lock-picking tools. I was promptly told this would be unethical in a place that sells keys and I was on my way.

I really tried. Honest. And I don't like admitting defeat. I could have picked an easier task but I'm sure yale all agree that would have defeated the spirit of my year out.

To cap this disappointment off, I was involved in a spectacular coincidence for this week's finale when I locked myself out of the house for the first time ever. You literally couldn't write it - although I literally just have.

When I called the locksmith out and he said he could either drill the lock in (£125 and drastic, considering my housemate would be back in several hours) or attempt to pick it, I jumped at the latter. Needless to say the jovial, plump little polish locksmith had no luck even with my practiced and experienced supervision and we had to admit defeat. This all tells me two things... One, our house is impenetrable and two, failure at picking locks is not such a bad thing.

Next week I shall learn and perform a song using wine glasses.