The End

So, I have come to the end. Before I bring things to a close, a word or two about my final challenges. As you may know, one of my tasks was to buy an antique and sell it for a profit. You may also know that I went to Portabello Road market and bought a rather dashing draughts and backgammon set for a hard fought £10 and promptly placed it on ebay. 

 I can now tell you the outcome...I sold the board. The price? £10.49. That's right, I succeeded in my challenge by 49p. But a profit is a profit (providing we forget about the postage and packaging excess above the ebay allowance.)

Now for my final task. You have seen me back flip in stages throughout the year and the final challenge was to complete a full back flip from standing position. Below, I have uploaded two pieces of evidence that show I have completed this, bringing my tasks to an end.

All good things must come to end, and so too must the previous 12 months. As this is posted, I am  no longer on my year out - back to the day job! This year has been one of the best in my life so far and it is no cliche when I say it has flown by. I've achieved a lot, met some fantastic people, been to some inspiring places, learned many lessons and gained a plethora of skills, some of which I can build upon and some of which are completely useless. Last week I'm proud to say I finished the first draft of my novel and can honestly say it was a hugely enjoyable and rewarding process.

If you were to ask me what the biggest lesson I had learned from this year was though, I would have to leave my tasks and escapades aside for a moment. Above all a year is a long time, and as I think I have shown, if you apply yourself well, you can get a lot done. Conversely, it can also seem like a very short period of time and if you don't take these opportunities when they arise, they can pass you by. There is no doubt that this year has been important.

I am now embarking upon the rest of my career as a doctor - hopefully a long and successful one. There is still a lot to do and now that I have started, I know there is more to come. These blogs have been a great way for me to document what I have been getting up to and hopefully they have been a source of entertainment and at least some mild amusement for some of you. I am privileged to have met many great characters this year and would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to those who have supported this project and left such positive messages along the way.

So, I will take my leave for now. I will be putting an extended video montage of the year up at some point and if people would like, I will return in a month or so after settling back into normal life with a new project - monthly tasks! And with that, I bring this adventure to a close.

W

Antiques and Fire

This week I'm pretty sure I broke my toe. Because of my massively high pain threshold and unrivalled levels of manly braveness, I've not made such a big deal about it. I think I did it mid back flip on a trampoline but I can't be sure. But either way, I've totally broken my toe.Nevertheless, it takes more than broken bones to stop me, which brings me onto one of my tasks for the last week.

I ventured over to Portobello Road market - an experience in itself - and I scoured its depths for an antique the likes of which has never been seen so I could sell it on for a profit. My accomplished nose for antiques finally settled upon a backgammon and draughts board, exquisitely carved from the finest mahogany. I then became embroiled in an epic battle of wits with the vendor, spanning the extremes of pricing and challenging the boundaries of barter economy. He offered £15. I declined and offered £10. He took it.

And here it is!

You can currently see this on ebay where it boasts one current bid of £3 and 4 watchers. I repeat 4 whole watchers. It is well fun, and may just have awoken an ebay monster in me. The gavel drops on Thursday so you will hear the results in my next blog.

A shout out this week also to the man who spotted me 10p in the post office. He saw I was unable to pay for an envelope due to my lack of 10 pennies (something I will easily be able to afford when I sell my backgammon board for thousands) and paid for me. What a nice guy. If only there were more people like him in the world.

Onto my last item on the agenda this week and I'm afraid it's not good news. I have to announce my second failure of the year after the lockpicking affair. This week, I attempted to make fire in the style of Ray Mears. I diligently collected the required types of wood, looking like a nutter in the woods carrying a bag of sticks. I returned to set about making the flames.I tried, I really tried. The wood however was not good enough and as you all know, a good workman cannot take any blame if his tools are not sufficient.

So, this week I learned something very important. If I ever found myself in a survival situation in which fire was required, I would die.

Until next week.
W

Voice Overs

Bit of fun this week. Tried my hand at voice overs. I think that being a voice over artist would be a tremendous way of life. Rock up to a comfortable recording studio, perhaps cradling a warm beverage, read through some basic lines of dialogue and then speak words into a microphone before collecting a pay packet every time it is replayed. What's not to like?

With that in mind, I have produced a voice over reel which now stands available for those who would like to hear it. Random I know. But fun.

So in addition to all of this, I allowed a friend to take me along to a Spanish event in central London and it was very interesting indeed.  As you enter, you place a sticker on your chest stating the language you speak and the language you are learning - they call it an intercambio. Needless to say, the number of times someone came up to me and spoke to me in words that I simply did not understand was high. That was half the fun though and in the end I befriended several Spaniards and one Czech girl who thought I looked like Arsenal player Thomas Rosicky. Not 100% pleased with that.

So, my mission continues.Anyone wants me to provide my voice for events, recordings, advertisements, then just let me know!

World Records

This week has been warm. We all know that. The tarmac has begun to make the roads slippery and it would also seem some of the train tracks have melted. But the weather is not the only thing hot off the press. Oh no. This week I broke a world record.

Now when I began to devise a list of things to do at the start of this year, I put 'break a world record' down, not really thinking about the implications of completing such a task. As time went on, it became clear that it was in fact going to be very difficult to do something better than anyone has ever done on record. I had suggestions, yes. One of these, as I recall, was to wear a particularly comfortable Jedi costume for as long as possible. This was clearly as impractical as it was desirable.

Having turned my thoughts to what I'm good at, I struggled. The term 'jack of all trades but a master of none,' has applied to me in the past. But now I have finally found something that I can forge ahead with as a master above all others...

Ear wiggles.

Above you see my successful attempt to beat 86 ear wiggles in 30 seconds previously set by some bloke in India.My attempt clocked up 89 wiggles. I found several attempts of this record on youtube and they all seemed to lead to one website. Recordsetters. I am now at the top of this list. Here is the link ... http://rec.st/i07q1 ... and just for fun, below is a screenshot.

Unfortunately I have still got some work to do in convincing Guinness that this is a valid record category but I will not let them sleep until they accept. This cannot take anything away from my achievement. And in the mean time, on to my next escapade.

W

Last Month: knots and doppelgangers

So, we reach the beginning of the end. July will be my last month as a man of relative leisure. Things have gone fast, that's for sure but no time to dwell on that for now. I have still been tied up with lots of activities in the past week. I had a busy week at work and with that always comes the potential for tempers to fray - never fear, my colleagues up at Airedale Hospital were as pleasant and cheery as they always have been. That said, I do believe last week may have been the last time I ever work up there (unless events take strange turns in the future) - so I would like to take this opportunity to big it up. A lovely place to work, some tremendous people and some fond memories.

I have been experimenting with a few tasks this week. One of these has been knot tying. Great fun and very useful - if I were to find myself in certain survival situations that is. Youtube has been my ally here and it should be noted that listening to people describing knots on headphones can have a strange calming effect over you. Good to go to sleep to. Also good to send you to sleep is watching videos on ways to convert between different units of measurement such as fahrenheit to celsius. As you can imagine, this is for very different reasons. Nonetheless, I'm glad I roped myself into it as both efforts were useful and informative and have served to bolster my general knowledge of things.

In order to take advantage of the long working week, I took the opportunity to use this as my week without TV. As expected, it was well hard. But not as hard as I had expected. As long as there is something there in its place, it's easy to string along. Although I did find myself singing the Frasier theme tune pretty much all week - maybe some sort of weird withdrawal symptom - and the fact that I missed 5 episodes of Neighbours was also somewhat distressing.Knot to worry.

One last thing to add. If anyone thinks they see me in London (or indeed anywhere in the world) then do let me know. If it turns out that I am nowhere near you then it may turn out to be the mysterious doppelganger that has been lurking, mainly up until now, in the London area. I have had several reports of this strange - but probably incredibly dashing -  individual crossing paths with people I know that were convinced it was me and so if you see him, do knot let him go. Grab him, find out who he is and tell him to stop tormenting me.

Together we can solve the mystery.

So, as we come to the last month, I have decided that the weekly task has now served its purpose. I have several final bits and pieces that I want to complete before things end and these are listed at the end of this blog. They will be completed on an ad hoc basis from now on and so the next few blogs will be a surprise. In addition to these, I will be finishing off my novel and consolidating all that I have learn this year. So sit tight and observe. W

Complete my back flip training
Produce fire like Ray Mears
Buy and sell an antique for a profit
Attempt a world record
Learn how to moonwalk

Back Flips and More Holidays

So this is where I have been for the last week or so, making some efficient and luxurious progress on my novel. I'm aware that this will be distressing news for many of you seeing as most are in full time employment and have to go to work every day. Far from me trying to rub this in, I am merely reporting how much of an awesome time I've been having.

So as you may know, I didn't have a specific task this week but it has been jam-packed nonetheless, even with the holiday. It seems to me that everyone in the world seems to have been doing some sort of triathlon/ iron man/ tough mudder this weekend. I have been hard pressed to avoid seeing ridiculous times smothered all over the social network sights of this world. Thankfully, I didn't feel too bad about myself as I did the 10k run in London myself. Ok, it's no triathlon but still, at least I can look myself in the eye at night knowing I haven't totally slobbed out.

This brings me to my next piece. The backflip. I've been working hard and I can now bring you video evidence of my progress. I refuse to stop here, as it needs to be done on a hard surface before I can say I have done it completely but things are certainly going the right way. Behold...

So there we have it. For my task this week, I will be learning some basic knots and also learning how to convert units of measurement. This obviously sounds mind-numbingly boring but necessary in life.Don't worry, there'll be some other stuff more exciting I'm sure!

W

Bird calls and more holidays

First of all, the collective term for birdwatchers appears to be 'a convulsion' although that is the grand total of 5 minutes research and I will happily stand corrected if this turns out to be spurious. Although I really hope it's true.

I have been brushing up on my bird calls this week and I can now say I can confidently identify a good number of common garden birds. My particular strong point is the House Sparrow. This task has been strengthened as it has coincided with BBC One's Springwatch series, which is awesome.

I have also been busy this week working again and earning some money but I took a bit of time out to grab a BBQ with some mates from my former stomping ground.

I am now on holiday again in Menorca and living it up. It's an alright life.

So for the next week, I will be concentrating on my novel by the pool in the sun and I will not be completing any other tasks in the meantime. On my return I will be getting on with some Spanish tuition and back flip learning which is also in the offing and of course my next task which is yet to be decided.

I should mention next Sunday I am running the 10K in London for Macmillan Cancer and if anyone wants to donate some money, the link should be on my facebook page. So until next time...

Will

Wolf whistles and Fish

My task this week was two-fold. 1) Learn how to wolf whistle. I had it in the back of my head that this could potentially produce a slip up. Nothing of the sort! Check it out.

 

I am genuinely quite proud of that one. It's been a packed week which has seen me attending two gigs, taking part in some gardening, watching Expendables 2 (the bit with Chuck Norris is awesome) and having my first Spanish tuition lesson - which was muy bien.It also saw me ironing out the second fold of my task - 

2) cleaning and preparing a fish. The fish in question was a rainbow trout and I certainly took care of it as this will show...

 

So that was fairly harrowing at points but it wasn't done just for the halibut. I hake not being able to do things and bless my sole, I didn't want to be floundering around the next time a fish needs gutting. Actually it was quite interesting and a tremendous skill to have in the bag. 

So next time, I will have been brushing up on the phonetic alphabet and my main task will be to learn and be able to recognise some common bird calls. That way, if I ever find myself in the presence of a group of 'twitchers', and should I wish to impress them, I will be more than able. Come to think of it, I will also find out what the collective term is for a group of birdwatchers. 

I'll leave you with the dragon that appeared in my pint glass.

Wilderness and beyond

As a small select number may now know, I am back in the UK. But where did I leave you last time you might say? Well I believe it was in the vicinity of San Francisco, so I will continue my account from that point.

Having had a great time thus far, I made my way inland to Yosemite national park and, to what I consider to be one of the highlights. I camped out in this amazing place for two nights down on the valley floor in the busy campgrounds, using the days to walk around groves of more giant trees. Although I saw no more Mountain Lions, I did see plenty of Deer and even a Coyote. This is the view from one end of the valley - pretty spectacular I'm sure you'll agree.

However,  for my last night I decided to make my way to the visitors office to get a wilderness permit and a bear cannister (massive black box to put food in so the bears don't attack you) and packed up my rucksack.

I then embarked upon a 5 hour trek out of the valley into the wilderness with my tent and spent the night at a place called Eagle peak. This was one of the best things I have ever done and here are some of the views I had from my makeshift campsite. From here I made myself a brew and some soup and watched the sun set over the valley - all this with not a human for literally miles.

Anyway, with Yosemite behind me I began to bring my trip to a close with a spectacular drive down highway 1 over a couple of nights, stopping off at some lovely beaches and ended up in LA where I once again met up with my mate Dave. Once again my friend, thanks for putting me up. From there we hit Vegas. Amongst the highlights were seeing Calvin Harris playing a DJ set from our sun loungers complete with ice buckets of beer, and being accosted by two women late at night in the MGM grand lobby who genuinely thought that Dave and I were rock stars.

So, all trips have to come to an end, and this one was no different. I drove around 2,189 miles. I met some quality people along the way. I did some cool things and saw some amazing spectacles. And I am pretty sure I left half of the insect population of the western United States on the windscreen of my rental car. Since I have been back, I've had to regroup and wash lots of clothes but I am now back on it. As such, my next weekly task shall be to learn how to wolf whistle  (something I have always wanted to do). In addition, I shall add in the task of learning how to clean and cook a fish from scratch.

W

P.s.

One last thing. Just this weekend gone, I watched one of, if not the best football matchs of my life and if you haven't seen the videos yet then please watch them. I don't normally mention Watford on here as I am aware many will not have a clue what I am talking about and will inevitably get bored but this is an exception. Quite simply incredible.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=3nAwOXGIrVQ

Mountain Lions

I began this week where I finished the last, unsurprisingly in Seattle, where apparently Ronnie Corbitt has taken up driving taxis. Nice city, although I stayed in a fairly sketchy area around China town. I managed to cover just about the whole city in one morning after my phone completely died via the city’s underground buses to buy a new cheap US phone. This still all gave me time to head up the space needle where I chilled out to some pretty awesome views. 

From there I picked up my rental car. A brand spanking new Ford Focus which drives like a dream. From Seattle I headed for the cost and ended up in a lovely little place called Cannon Beach which I’m told is where they filmed the Goonies. Here was the view I was met with.

The beach was so nice and the sand so good that I felt guilty walking on it with my shoes on. Definitely a place to visit again if I get the chance. So time for my first stop off and I was lucky enough to have someone willing to put me up in Portland. Bit of legend called Joey Colando, so once again, cheers dude. 

After picking up the worst chickpea and tuna wrap ever at a cafe the next morning (the only chickpea tuna wrap I have ever and will ever have) I hit some waterfalls along the Columbia River gorge. Apart from being a lovely day, it was also amazing to see. I then carried on a scenic drive into the mountains and out of nowhere got myself involved in a massive blizzard which provided me with some scary moments driving as I was on the edge of a cliff. Thankfully unscathed, I joined the highway south and embarked upon one of the nicest drives I’ve ever had to the soundtrack of what I think was the perfect shuffle selection I’ve ever experienced on my ipod – this  definitely involved AC DC.This was all despite the town of Boring.

After this I recouped at a motel and started out along highway 199, which is the best road I’ve driven along so far. It took me through forest and canyons and threw me out of Oregon into California and the first of many groves of giant Redwood trees. These are something you have to see to believe. Enormous, up to 2,500 years old and 300 foot high. I camped out in this setting and it was awesome.Here is the morning view at the campsite.

The next day I drove down the cost and saw more massive trees, stopping off halfway to hike into one of the forests. The geeks among you may or may not know that this is the area where they filmed Return of the Jedi. The place did indeed look like the forest moon of Endor. 

Anyway, here’s my big moment. After hiking for an hour without seeing anyone at all I turned back satisfied towards the road and the car. Shortly after this I spotted movement on the pathway not 10 yards ahead of me. At first I thought it was someone’s dog. An unusually massive dog. As it turned in front of me and jumped into the bush by the path I saw its massive tail and realised it was in fact a Mountain Lion, or Cougar. I froze and realised that to get out of there I would have to pass the path where seconds ago had been a large carnivorous predator. Thankfully I wasted no time and as I made my way back to the car, now less than relaxed. I zipped up the collar of my jumper around my neck which is the site where I’m told they like to go for first. That night I camped out in another redwood grove, campfire blazing, warm cup of tea and soup, the dangers of the Mountain Lion all forgotten.

From here, and following a brief petrol scare, I moved onto San Francisco and met up with some more friends who helped me out with accommodation. Thanks once again to Liz and Cory! They really sorted me out. San Fran. What can I say, great city and Alcatraz well worth a visit. Then who should turn up by complete unbelievable coincidence on a work training week, but my good friend Craig and his work colleagues. Very random.  As such, suitable celebrations at the bar on top of the Marriot hotel were in order complete with the following view before catching some food with some live jazz.

Great week, great people and great times. Next week... Yosemite, highway 1, La and Vegas.

Week 3

Another week has gone by and once again, it has been excellent. I left off still in Banff and residing in a cracking little cabin with some excellent people. Fresh from the hot tub, and in the presence of some pretty magnificent footwear from one of my fellow passengers...

... I moved onwards via plane to Vancouver where I met up with my mate Dave. After sampling some fine pub food on Tuesday evening, We made an early start on Wednesday morning on the bus and ferry to  Vancouver Island. Our destination was a place called Tofino on the west coast and as such it required a long drive through some pretty spectacular mountain scenery. It was remote in places but it was OK as I'm pretty sure the bus was being driven by Liam Neeson.

It was a miserable day when we left so it was a nice surprise to find lovely clear skies when we arrived. What a nice place Tofino is by the way. Small enough that pretty much everyone knows everyone and the hostel we stayed in seemed to be a focal point. There were certainly some characters staying there. One chap was a typical surfer dude called Troy (also a dab hand at karaoke by the way) who was kind enough to take us out surfing on one of the numerous and spectacular beaches. As it is freezing cold, we donned full wetsuits complete with boots, gloves and hats. I should mention Dave had difficulty in differentiating between the leg and arm holes of the wetsuit with inevitably hilarious consequences. Having said that, we all looked ridiculous. Nevertheless, it was a great day surfing and one capped off with beers, pool and BBQs. The next day, we ventured onto a small boat bound for some remote hot springs an hour up the coast. The journey was punctuated with sightings of Sea Lions (which were massive) and a Gray Whale (obviously also massive).

On arrival at the spot in question - only reachable by boat- we hiked through some stunning rainforest led by a mysterious dog which appeared from nowhere, until we reached the hot springs. It was completely natural and connected by a small inlet to the sea which maintained pretty much a perfect temperature. This allowed us to relax and drink some beer. It was frankly, an absolutely brilliant day.

Back at the hostel, I learned of an impressive talent held by one of the other guests. Tremendous guy called Alex he was, and he had cycled all the way from San Diego to Vancouver Island. His claim to fame however is being the world record holder for juggling the most balls at once...11. He showed us a video and everything and here's a link if you don't believe me.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWX4QSmnw6g

We met many most excellent people and it was a pleasure to exchange stories and shoot some pool with all of them. Alas, as nice as Tofino was, we couldn't stay for ever and so we journeyed back to Vancouver for a night of more barbequed meat and beer at our friend Ed's house. Think beer pong, impromptu guitar singalongs, dancing in the living room to Michael Jackson and generally having a good time. Once again, thanks for having us along Ed.

So that pretty much brings us up to date. I am currently writing this in Seattle where I've bussed it down to today and I now have a free night to get things together before the next leg. I've said bye to Dave, so once again cheers for being a generally all round good guy my friend, and I move to picking up the rental car tomorrow for my road trip. Stand by for some insane road trip action.
W

Week 2: Banff and Weddings

So this is the second of my blogs on the subject of my month long excursion across the pond. What a splendid week it has been. Most importantly it has seen the wedding of two very good friends but it has also been an opportunity to meet some great new people and forge some new friendships. Everyone involved has been exceptionally welcoming and good spirited. I left off having been snowboarding and to an authentic ranch type bar, which I’m told was the actual setting of a scene in Cool Runnings. Then came the stag do. It took place in the town of Banff as did the wedding, deep within the Rocky Mountains, in a location befitting dignity and decorum. The Groom in question wore a dress all night and was significantly intoxicated. I should add, he wasn’t the only one. I went home with his handbag although I’m not quite sure why.

For the week leading up to the wedding I thought I would stay in a hostel to save a bit of money. It was a nice hostel actually although its only downfall was the fact that (as in most hostels) the showers were outside the rooms which all had locks on. This meant that you had to take your key card with you whenever you went for a shower – a task I excelled at until one particular afternoon. It resulted in me having to venture down to the main hostel building, through the subzero temperatures outside, in nothing more than a towel in order to regain access. Not my finest moment. 

In the absence of any tasks during my travels, I thought I should at least make myself a bit useful, and so I devised a mini task. Sewing. One of the sleeves on my jumper had split to an unacceptable degree and so, in a spare moment, I bought a sewing kit and stitched up the offending split. I figured, if I can sew up people, I can sew up a jumper. Unfortunately, the repair job in question has displayed ominous signs of disintegration as of this evening, but nevertheless it holds fast for now.  Below you can see my handiwork.

The wedding itself took part in a cracking location amidst mountain forests and reports of bears waking up from their winter slumber. Bride and groom were glowing and the speeches were both moving and hilarious. The food was tremendous and I attempted line dancing with varying success. Another nice touch involved the father of the bride sneaking an old song into the DJ set that the groom and I played together in a band long ago, which was a lovely gesture.

Here’s a link to the latest version of the song if you wanted to listen. (Sorry, couldn’t resist a plug).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEIabK65pQ4

After the wedding, a group of us moved into a cabin for a few days to enjoy the rest of our time in Banff. At the risk of repeating myself, everyone was brilliant. We spent a lot of time listening to some band called ‘Alt J’ or something, and I can only be thankful that our visit also coincided with some sort of Arnie season on the Canadian movie channel. We spent time in the hot tub, we perused the town of Banff and its numerous gift shops and pubs and we snowboarded.Then this happened.

Although it looks like the aftermath of a viscious bear attack it is actually the result of a nose bleed suffered by the groomsman after  punching himself in the face during an elaborate leap from the mountainside.

Anyway, although I have enjoyed my time here, it cannot last and I must move on. Once again, for those who may read this, a massive thanks goes out to all who have been so welcoming and I genuinely wish I could stay longer. However, I must continue onwards towards Vancouver and Tofino and beyond. May the adventure continue. 

Ps. While I was bored at the airport I put together this little video using some trance music. Hopefully you enjoy! Until next time! 

Canada

So it's been a great week frankly! It is week one of my travels and I am currently writing this blog from the balcony at the lodge I'm staying in. This is the view.

It started off pretty well back in England last week when I managed to get included in the round of drinks that a random American chap was ordering for letting him go first at the bar. I was rewarded with a cocktail flamed with a blow torch and served in a ceramic power ranger's head. The round came to £130 which I felt more than a little guilty about.

Midweek I flew out to Calgary where I was kindly put up by my good friends and things have been fairly non stop since then. Big up to Jake and Meg! So far I have line danced in a proper cowboy club, I've survived a cracking stag do in Banff and have fitted in a day of snowboarding as well. I'm also pretty sure I was initiated into a massive group of Japanese skiers all wearing identical yellow jackets who surrounded me in a car park while I was eating a subway. They pointed and laughed at me a lot.

Any way, it's pretty beautiful out here so long may it continue. I'll keep things updated as and when they happen.

W

Odd jobs and BBC

My task this week was to learn odd jobs and assorted skills that frankly every man should possess. I won't lie, Youtube has been even more of a friend in this than usual. Aside from that I also enlisted the help of my aptly named book which  you can see below. For some reason, this is in mirror writing so, to translate - 'How to Fix Everything For Dummies'.

I am now fully versed in the workings of most home boilers and plumbing systems as well as being a dab hand at dealing with faulty electrical appliances. If you need your radiator bleeding then look no further. I now roll like this...

So as well as the task, this week also saw the last days of BBC Television Centre. It is a place that conjured up many aspirations as I was growing up and I thank myself lucky that I have been able to walk past it most days this year before it is mercilessly ripped down to make way for flats and a new cinema (of which there are two a mere 5 minute walk away). It's closure marks the end of my dream to one day go there in some shape or form, perhaps as part of one of the large charity events such as Children In Need, and seduce Fearne Cotton in those hallowed corridors. Of course, the end of that dream more likely came about when she married the son of a Rolling Stone and subsequently bore his child.

On Friday you may or may no know that the occasion was being marked with a gig by Madness. I was going past at that time anyway and so I thought I'd hop off the tube to see if anything was going on and this is what I saw.

Pretty cool eh? It was quite a site to behold and I felt pretty privileged to be witnessing it all. Something which all seems to be happening with a bit of a whimper and far less fanfare than the occasion deserves in my opinion. And although it looked good from the outside, Madness?! They were almost literally rubbish. Maybe they've not heard of a small band called Gun Hill Riffs. 

In other events, I attended a rather nice gin bar in central London even though, despite the best efforts in the past of one person in particular, which I appreciate, I still don't actually like gin. It insists upon itself. In a separate event, I believe I saw the tallest man I have ever seen walking around the shops. He can't have been shorter than 7 foot so I followed him for a little while just so I could look at him. Phenomenal.

So, I must sign off the usual blogs for around a month now, as I am about to embark upon a rather lengthy trip over to North America. As a rough outline, I will be hitting Calgary, Banff (snowboarding!), Vancouver, Tofino (?surfing), Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Yosemite, Coastal Redwoods (where they filmed the forest moon of Endor in Return of the Jedi), LA and Vegas. Should be alright. I will of course bring some holiday blogs to the table and keep it all updated with how I'm getting on. Normal service shall resume on my return. Until then...

                                                                                                                                  W

Unicycling!

So my weekly task was to learn how to unicycle. Quickly, it has become apparent that it's well hard and as such the task has now changed to 'beginning to learn' how to unicycle. At this, I have excelled. The video below shows some of my trials and errors before the best run I've had towards the end. Tremendous fun!

The unicycle is a peculiar piece of kit. As I continuously fell off it, I wondered who it was invented by and why they invented it. Surely, someone capable of inventing such a thing lacks any sort of common sense or strength of mind. I have been unable to find the exact inventor of the unicycle but some say that it evolved when people riding penny farthings would lean forward and found that they didn't need their back wheel. Clearly these people were idiots. Nevertheless, I'll see where it takes me for the rest of the year.

 Amongst other activities, I attended a personal training session this week at a full on proper gymnastics gym in my quest to learn a back flip. It was a tough session, not least because of the warm up that I was given - to do a 4 length scramble through a massive foam pit. This genuinely almost killed me.Still, great fun and a proper big time gym. See below!

 

At this stage I can achieve half a back flip. For obvious reasons, this is not particularly useful and so I am returning next week to continue.

In other news, I spent most of Tuesday walking around with my flies wide open and on Wednesday I witnessed one man on the tube virtually inhaling an entire pack of ready salted Pringles. It was truly a site to behold.  

So next week will see a continuation of back flips and the task will be to educate myself on some general odd jobs that all men should know. Should be a goodun!
W

Periodic Table

I've had a good week this week. Done a bit of work and earned some money, which is always helpful. February has been reasonably good to me and after a long drawn out process of interviews and exams (that have, frankly got in the way of a lot of fun to be honest!) I have learned that I have a job on the GP training program come August in Oxford deanery. I guess in a world in which one has to make a living by working, that's good news and a weight off the old shoulders.

So, that done, time for full concentration on the final half of my year out. It's been a great first half and I sense the second will be at least as good! I feel I have achieved a lot although I did go to a rather random but quite awesome evening at a central London pub. It was one of those pubs in which you could imagine epic 19th century expedition to deepest darkest Peru being conceived and planned. The night I went, it was hosting a night of talks from various adventurers who were telling us all about their escapades. One girl was telling us all about how she had become the first woman to have run across the entire north American continent, running 45 miles a day in the process. Whilst I sat there listening and sipping down several pints, I thought about how I have been scaling staircases like a penguin for 2 weeks after running 13 miles. I guess some people are just in a different league!

Either way, my task was to learn the entire periodic table this week. Now learning the periodic table in spare moments on a night shift is rather tedious I must say, and more than a little tiring, but I got it done. Hopefully it shall be useful in the future although how, I have no idea. Interestingly it was devised in 1889 by the Russian chemist Dimitri Mendeleyev, who was able to predict the existence of elements that had yet to be discovered because of the gaps that occurred. So don't say I never teach anyone anything. Take a look below.

Having purchased a unicycle, I can't wait any longer so next week's task shall be to learn the unicycle to a respectable level. Hopefully I don't break my leg.
W