30 Before 30 ~ The Results

It’s been a 30 Before 30 kind of week, hasn’t it? It’s because I want to put it all to bed and get started on 31 Before 31!

When I first started making these lists, I was 27, and I began with 28 Things I wanted to achieve before my 28th Birthday. I managed four. Then I did 29 By 29, and crossed off five. So here we are at the end of 30 Before 30, and I have managed a grand total of eight!

I know that this doesn’t seem like all that many; it means, after all, that there are 22 that I didn’t do! But it’s three more than last year, and I’ve finally got to the point where the next list I make is going to be much, much more realistic!

I’m sure you are all aware of what eight items I managed to cross off this time, as I have been pretty anal about keeping you all apprised of my progress. I posted about two of them this week! But to keep things tidy, I have decided to round things up!

The first thing that I actually managed to cross off was number 3 – Think of a new blog name. Lady Writer just wasn’t doing it for me any more, and it took me ages to settle on a name, but I’m thrilled that I did. My blog feels more like my own ever since I renamed it!

Next up was number ten – Get further than C in Alphabet Weekends. This has been going on for so long I actually despair of us ever reaching Z, but it was nice to be able to cross off another letter. I will probably include this on the next list too, because it gives us a little bit more motivation to get on with it!

My main problem with getting anything done on my lists is that I tend to wait months before I start actually doing anything, and then I run out of time. Number 8 – Fly a Kite wasn’t completed until July! I am mighty glad I did it though – it was so much fun and I want to do it loads more!

The kite-flying was a specific activity that I planned in order to cross an item off the list. But my trip to Cardiff ended up happening really quickly and it was quite by coincidence that it also happened to fulfil the criteria for number 7 – Go to Scotland/Wales/Ireland.

In October I crossed off number 22 – Have a bra fitting. It had lingered on all the lists I had made, so it was about time. I feel like I have barely stopped talking about my bra ever since, but it’s ever so nice to be wearing one that fits properly!

Number 27 – Go to Brighton had lingered for a while too, so I’m glad to have finally got it ticked off! My GBF Richard has expressed disapproval since I went without him, so there’s a return trip on the cards at some point!

Finally, you are fully aware of the last two items that I completed, because I blogged about them yesterday! Number 12 – Bake 10 unique cakes seems to have taken ages to complete, but that was the general idea! Ten cakes worked out to about one a month once I actually started baking them, though it ended in a bit of a sprint finish!

And finally, number 25 – Have watched at least 15 new films from the BFI list of Top 100 British Films. Another sprint finish – there will be another film challenge on my 31 Before 31 list but I’ll be sure to get started on it a bit earlier in the year!

So that’s that. 8/30. Not great, but still something to be a little bit proud of! My 31 Before 31 list will be published in the next couple of weeks!

30 Before 30 ~ Cakes

This is it, the last 30 Before 30 update before I move on to 31 Before 31. Eep! Actually, there will be another general roundup to remind you all of what I have achieved (not that much, but still), before I move on.

Anyway, so I managed to bake the two cakes I required to cross off number 12 on my list. I didn’t get around to doing posts for them, because the last two weeks or so have been manic, so I’m cramming them into one post, and rounding up the cakes item at the same time!

Ginger Cake

As always, apologies for the less-than-stellar photography skills on display here. Before I start another baking challenge I’m going to try and get some tips on photographing food.

This cake was a bit of a disaster. I got the recipe from Polly May and the Like after she blogged about it and her sister tweeted about how delicious it was. When I came to bake it, I realised that I couldn’t find my loaf tin, which is still bugging me because I only bought it last year! So I decided it would have to be a round cake, which didn’t really work, because it’s not that kind of a cake! And then when I came to make it, it just didn’t feel right – the mix didn’t seem right. I baked it anyway, and fed it to my ginger sisters who seemed to think it was OK, but if I make it again I will make sure I have the right tin! Also, as you can see from the photo, it was a tad overdone on one edge. Oops!

Maltesers Cake

This is a recipe that I came across on Afeitar’s blog. It’s a Nigella recipe, but I think the name is a bit of a misnomer, because the only Maltesers are on top!

I was much more happy with the outcome of this one, though I haven’t actually eaten any of it myself. I made it on Sunday when my sisters, nephews and niece came round for some tea and cake in honour of my birthday (I always seem to be feeding my sisters cake!). I got a bit stressed out whilst baking it, but I think it turned out OK. I had fairly positive feedback in terms of taste too; I couldn’t bring myself to eat it because it had Horlicks in, and I could really smell it whilst I was baking it. I don’t think I have ever drunk Horlicks, but I can’t stand the smell of it (it reminds me of the old people’s home where my nan used to live). So I haven’t tried any of it, though there is still some left so I might bite the bullet and see what it tastes like.

So that takes my total to ten!

Ten cakes, not all of them wholly successful, but all of them fun to make. And I enjoyed eating most of them too!

My favourite was probably Herman the German Friendship cake. That’s a very tasty cake!

12. Bake 10 unique cakes

30 Before 30 ~ BFI Films

The problem with a challenge like 30 Before 30 is that is has an inbuilt deadline. I had until I turned thirty to achieve each item, and I’ve never been particularly reliable around a deadline. Actually, that’s not strictly true; I nearly always get things done, but I like to take them right up to the wire, And so it was with this particular item on the 30 Before 30 list.

25. Have watched at least 15 new films from the BFI list of Top 100 British Films

As I explained when I first set my 30 Before 30 list, I picked fifteen films from this list for a number of reasons. Firstly, setting myself a challenge to watch 100 films (or 86, discounting the fourteen that i had already seen) in a year was folly. Never going to happen. Secondly, there are a handful of films on the list that I have no desire to watch. So I thought fifteen was ideal; perfectly achievable in a year. Especially as we already had a number of the films on DVD.

As it was, I did achieve it. But only just. I had to extend the deadline, ever so slightly. I tried watching Oliver Twist on Netflix on Sunday night, the night before my birthday, but I fell asleep. This is no reflection on the film, I’m sure it’s great, but I was tired after a long weekend of actually celebrating my birthday. This mean that if I was going to cross number 25 off, I would have to watch the fifteenth film on my birthday itself. The way I look at it is that it’s my game, and therefore my rules. My birthday counts as the last day of the challenge. So when I saw that Alfie was on Film4 on Monday night, I thanked my lucky stars and watched it!

So here are the fifteen films that I watched. I started with The Ladykillers on 6th January, and finished with Alfie on 12th November.

• I watched at least one film from the 1930, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. The earliest film I watched (and on the list) was The 39 Steps from 1935. The most recent film I watched was The English Patient from 1996.
• Noël Coward wrote one of the films I watched, Brief Encounter, and directed and starred in another: In Which We Serve.
• Michael Caine starred in three of the films I watched: Educating Rita, The Italian Job and Alfie.
• Anton Walbrook is in two of the films: The Red Shoes and The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, both of which were produced by Powell and Pressburger. (He’s dreamy, in that 1940s film star kind of way.)
• Eight of the films were nominated for BAFTAs; six of them won.
• Ten of the films were nominated for Oscars, and four of them won (Noël Coward won an honorary award for “outstanding production achievement” in In Which We Serve).

It’s tough to pick a favourite out of the fifteen films that I watched, because I genuinely enjoyed them all. Both Genevieve and Brief Encounter were particular favourites of my mum’s, so it was nice to sit down and actually watch them all the way through after all these years. At a push, I’d probably pick The Red Shoes, Educating Rita and Goldfinger as my favourites.

I’m planning on keeping the list running, and crossing them off as I watch them. There’s no deadline now though, so watching (almost) all of them will take me years!

25. Have watched at least 15 new films from the BFI list of Top 100 British Films

Progress Report ~ October

October seems to have been a really long month. Usually it feels like no time at all since I wrote the last Progress Report, but this time I can barely remember doing it.

It has been a busy month, all told. I have crossed off two items from my 30 Before 30 list, watched some more British films, and I’ve baked some more cakes!

See 52 New Films

This is testament to how busy my month got; I watched three films in quick succession on 4th, 5th and 7th October, and then nothing else! All three films are on the BFI list, and I watched them all on Netflix, because they were kind enough to give me another free trial! I loved them all, particularly Brief Encounter, which my mum loved and for some reason I had never seen. I also loved Educating Rita, because Julie Walters is just awesome in everything she does. As for The Red Shoes, it’s quite long, but very good. I love anything where I get to watch fantastic dancing!

  

Read 75 Books

I feel like I have hardly read anything this month, and yet I did manage to finish four books. I finally got to the end of A Dance With Dragons, it took me so long! Now I just have to wait until the next book is published, but at least I can now read about the series to my heart’s content without the fear of spoilers! I just finished Moranthology, and I adored it. It made me laugh out loud on multiple occasions. Read it, I beg you!

  

30 Before 30

As I mentioned, it’s been a busy month on the old 30 Before 30 front. All my life I’ve been the sort of person who ignores a deadline right up until it’s approaching on the horizon, then I leave it some more, and then I start to panic about it. It’s not a trait that I enjoy having, but there’s no changing now!

I went to Brighton! This has been on all of my lists since I started making them three years ago, so I’m really pleased that I can finally cross it off, and it won’t make it onto a fourth list! Number 27 – Go to Brighton, is crossed off!

Another one that has been on multiple lists is Number 22 – Go for a Bra Fitting. It was only ever a case of pulling my finger out and arranging it, and I’m glad I did. Not least because it caused a huge laugh for me and all of my friends. The post got a great response; I think it’s one of my best I’ve ever written!

As I mentioned above, all three of the films I watched this month were on the BFI list. I was having a surge, trying to get to my target of fifteen. Then life got in the way, and I didn’t get any more done in October. I am now up to eleven on Number 25 – Have watched at least 15 new films from the BFI list of Top 100 British Films. Four more to go, eleven days left!

And finally, I managed another cake in October, so I am close to completing Number 12 – Bake 10 Unique Cakes. I baked some Jelly Bean Buns last week taking my total to eight, and I have plans for a Ginger Loaf this week, as well as Malteser Layer Cake next week. I will cross this one off!