No backing out now, I've paid my deposit of £100 and booked my skydiving adventure for Friday 19th July 2013 at Headcorn Aerodrome, here in Kent. I am so excited about it. I didn't really anticipate feeling like this. I thought it would be a case of 'OK, that's the skydiving sorted, what shall I do while I'm waiting for the date to come around?' but no, I feel like a child in the last few days before Christmas. No other word for it, just excited. I've also got my fundraising page set up, so please, if you're able to, give generously. I'm raising money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity and I can't think of a worthier cause. Every penny I raise really will make a difference.
http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AlisonForsyth1
I have 55 days to try and raise as much as possible and in the meantime I'll have plenty to keep me occupied. For starters I'll have to get in the skydiving zone by getting in some practice. This will involve lying face down, spread-eagled on the bed, adopting the free fall position for several minutes at a time, whilst wearing 'flying suit' pyjamas, swimming goggles and a small backpack. Then there will be numerous repetitions of jumping off a chair whilst adopting the 'holding on to the parachute' position simulated by holding the straps of the backpack I had donned earlier for the free-bed-fall. Once I can cope with the height of the dining chair I may progress to a step ladder, although I believe current UK health and safety legislation says I need a certificate to be able to use one of those and I'm not sure if my medical certificate for certified nutters who want to skydive counts.
Oh and I'll also have to keep watering those darned sunflowers!
Friday, 24 May 2013
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Extra! Extra! Read all about it!
A brief update to lead up to something a bit more substantial at the weekend. I'm still trying to get a celebrity to reply to a tweet or at least retweet me, so far no luck. Fancy being let down by Zach Braff (my nearly birthday buddy!), Donald Faison and Johnny Depp (might try him again when it's his fiftieth next month and suggest he joins my bandwagon) - life just ain't fair! Tonight then it was the turn of Graham Norton, perhaps not quite as ambitious and therefore hopefully a more realistic chance - he seems to have retweeted other mere mortals and I'm not so different, so you never know.
I've also been tracking down places in the local area where I can eat snails and oysters, although not together, so look out for one of the two coming up shortly. Let's just hope that's not a literal event, I fully intend keeping them down, after all neither can be as bad as kangaroo testicles, crocodile penis or other such delicacies as offered by Ant and Dec! Hmm, now maybe I should try tweeting them?
Arrangements are also firming up for the skydiving event. I have a provisional date outlined, the basic web page for donations organised and now just need to pay my deposit and make the booking - roll on pay day and then watch this space for details.
Seven of the eight sunflower seeds I planted have germinated. Tiny though they still are, I hate them - sorry, but they're just not growing on me yet (totally intentional but poor pun!). Unfortunately I still have plenty of seeds left for a second batch ... and a third ... and a fourth. Just how many do I have to grow to full maturity in order to count this as a fifty first? Surely one's enough?
So hopefully this will keep you going until the weekend, when I can update you with some proper news. TTFN :)
I've also been tracking down places in the local area where I can eat snails and oysters, although not together, so look out for one of the two coming up shortly. Let's just hope that's not a literal event, I fully intend keeping them down, after all neither can be as bad as kangaroo testicles, crocodile penis or other such delicacies as offered by Ant and Dec! Hmm, now maybe I should try tweeting them?
Arrangements are also firming up for the skydiving event. I have a provisional date outlined, the basic web page for donations organised and now just need to pay my deposit and make the booking - roll on pay day and then watch this space for details.
Seven of the eight sunflower seeds I planted have germinated. Tiny though they still are, I hate them - sorry, but they're just not growing on me yet (totally intentional but poor pun!). Unfortunately I still have plenty of seeds left for a second batch ... and a third ... and a fourth. Just how many do I have to grow to full maturity in order to count this as a fifty first? Surely one's enough?
So hopefully this will keep you going until the weekend, when I can update you with some proper news. TTFN :)
Friday, 10 May 2013
Tweet tweet please retweet
A bit of a quiet week for the fifty firsts this week. It's been more about the planning of things to do than anything else.
So what have I been up to? Well, I've made sure my sunflowers got watered daily but there's no sign of life stirring in the soil as yet. Hopefully there'll be something to report next week and a chance to upload a photo of green shoots to Facebook and Twitter by next weekend.
I've also deposited my medical certificate for the skydiving with my GP and got a call back today to say it's ready for collection, so hopefully that means there is a signature attached and I can go ahead and book the event. There's only one minor contraindication in my medical history - several bouts of glue ear and grommets in my left ear over the last twelve years. Obviously the change in air pressure at altitude is likely to affect my ear, but as I'm currently waiting to go for my next biannual visit to the ENT surgeon, I can't see that it would make much difference - I'm already deaf right now and who knows, it might actually do me some good! Anyway, I pick the certificate up next week and then it's just a case of booking the date and raising some sponsorship.
I sent my first tweet to an actual person this week, so I suppose that counts as a fifty first. I singled out Zach Braff for the privilege, but the downside is that despite asking him for suggestions of things to do, I didn't get a reply or a retweet. I was hoping for one or the other in order to make it a good addition to the list. So do I count it anyway or do I persevere and only count it when someone of celebrity status replies or retweets? Perhaps I could make it into a bit of a contest and get a few A listers to go up against each other to be the first to tweet Alison's Fifty Firsts!
Sorry, just a short post this time. I'll have more to report next time, promise. Now about that celebrity tweeting, maybe @donald_faison would be worth a try, particularly if he can get one over on @zachbraff ... I'll keep you posted!
So what have I been up to? Well, I've made sure my sunflowers got watered daily but there's no sign of life stirring in the soil as yet. Hopefully there'll be something to report next week and a chance to upload a photo of green shoots to Facebook and Twitter by next weekend.
I've also deposited my medical certificate for the skydiving with my GP and got a call back today to say it's ready for collection, so hopefully that means there is a signature attached and I can go ahead and book the event. There's only one minor contraindication in my medical history - several bouts of glue ear and grommets in my left ear over the last twelve years. Obviously the change in air pressure at altitude is likely to affect my ear, but as I'm currently waiting to go for my next biannual visit to the ENT surgeon, I can't see that it would make much difference - I'm already deaf right now and who knows, it might actually do me some good! Anyway, I pick the certificate up next week and then it's just a case of booking the date and raising some sponsorship.
I sent my first tweet to an actual person this week, so I suppose that counts as a fifty first. I singled out Zach Braff for the privilege, but the downside is that despite asking him for suggestions of things to do, I didn't get a reply or a retweet. I was hoping for one or the other in order to make it a good addition to the list. So do I count it anyway or do I persevere and only count it when someone of celebrity status replies or retweets? Perhaps I could make it into a bit of a contest and get a few A listers to go up against each other to be the first to tweet Alison's Fifty Firsts!
Sorry, just a short post this time. I'll have more to report next time, promise. Now about that celebrity tweeting, maybe @donald_faison would be worth a try, particularly if he can get one over on @zachbraff ... I'll keep you posted!
Wednesday, 1 May 2013
Eat your heart out Vincent van Gogh!
A bit of a quiet week this week. I have done something for the first time, but due to confidentiality issues I can't talk about it, which is a trifle frustrating!
Not to worry though, my lovely son-in-law came up with a new suggestion for me - planting, growing and nurturing some sunflowers. Now I know it doesn't sound like much, but trust me, this is quite a big deal. For as long as I can remember, right from early childhood, I have been frightened of sunflowers! Yes, I know it sounds silly and it's completely irrational, but there it is. To be fair, since my teenage years it's been more of a dislike than an actual fear, but we're not talking some sort of mild 'they're not my favourite type of flowers' kind of thing. Other people may enthuse about how the sunflower's golden tones emulate the sun, or how they provide food for birds and insects and encourage pollen distribution in the garden, but not me. As a child I remember having to pass some peering over the top of a high wall on my way to school, their giant faces leaning over to spy on me, enormous leaves moving in the breeze as if to reach down and grab me like some malevolent alien beanstalk more at home on Doctor Who and with no redeeming golden harp or bags of money at the top. I would cry at the thought of having to walk past them, pulling at my mum's hand and dragging my heels until she eventually gave up at my stubbornness and crossed to the other side of the road - only marginally better. Even worse than that, my best friend's dad insisted on growing them in his garden every year - a true test of our friendship that I still managed to go round to her house despite my anxiety. Other children might have had nightmares about monsters under the bed; for me it was giant sunflowers outside my window, tapping on the glass to try and get in.
Anyway, you'll be glad to know I've moved on from those days. I no longer cross the road to avoid sunflowers, I don't dream about them coming to get me and they haven't reduced me to tears for many years, but I still don't like them and I have never had any desire to want any in my garden. So you see how this is a bigger 'Fifty First' than it initially appeared?
Well, not one to resist a challenge, you'll be pleased to know that I've bought a packet of seeds, so that's the first step. At the weekend I'll plant some and then 'll check them every day and water them regularly. I'll even make sure that once they've germinated I keep them away from my rabbits until they're big enough to plant out in the garden. And I daresay that I can keep them past flowering to provide food for the birds in the autumn. The only problem is that when I bought the seeds in the supermarket whilst doing the weekly shop, only the dwarf variety that will grow to about a couple of feet instead of six or eight feet or more were available.
Do you think that counts?
Is it a cop out?
Do I really have to go and buy some proper giant sunflower seeds?
Not to worry though, my lovely son-in-law came up with a new suggestion for me - planting, growing and nurturing some sunflowers. Now I know it doesn't sound like much, but trust me, this is quite a big deal. For as long as I can remember, right from early childhood, I have been frightened of sunflowers! Yes, I know it sounds silly and it's completely irrational, but there it is. To be fair, since my teenage years it's been more of a dislike than an actual fear, but we're not talking some sort of mild 'they're not my favourite type of flowers' kind of thing. Other people may enthuse about how the sunflower's golden tones emulate the sun, or how they provide food for birds and insects and encourage pollen distribution in the garden, but not me. As a child I remember having to pass some peering over the top of a high wall on my way to school, their giant faces leaning over to spy on me, enormous leaves moving in the breeze as if to reach down and grab me like some malevolent alien beanstalk more at home on Doctor Who and with no redeeming golden harp or bags of money at the top. I would cry at the thought of having to walk past them, pulling at my mum's hand and dragging my heels until she eventually gave up at my stubbornness and crossed to the other side of the road - only marginally better. Even worse than that, my best friend's dad insisted on growing them in his garden every year - a true test of our friendship that I still managed to go round to her house despite my anxiety. Other children might have had nightmares about monsters under the bed; for me it was giant sunflowers outside my window, tapping on the glass to try and get in.
Anyway, you'll be glad to know I've moved on from those days. I no longer cross the road to avoid sunflowers, I don't dream about them coming to get me and they haven't reduced me to tears for many years, but I still don't like them and I have never had any desire to want any in my garden. So you see how this is a bigger 'Fifty First' than it initially appeared?
Well, not one to resist a challenge, you'll be pleased to know that I've bought a packet of seeds, so that's the first step. At the weekend I'll plant some and then 'll check them every day and water them regularly. I'll even make sure that once they've germinated I keep them away from my rabbits until they're big enough to plant out in the garden. And I daresay that I can keep them past flowering to provide food for the birds in the autumn. The only problem is that when I bought the seeds in the supermarket whilst doing the weekly shop, only the dwarf variety that will grow to about a couple of feet instead of six or eight feet or more were available.
Do you think that counts?
Is it a cop out?
Do I really have to go and buy some proper giant sunflower seeds
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