Category Archives: Bucket List

Cheese Rolling

  By Emma | May 28, 2012 - 2:00 pm | ,
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It’s such a shame when local, age-old traditions stop happening due to Health & Safety or local politics.  The Cheese Rolling event that has for a long time, taken place at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire no longer has the sponsors and committee it requires to keep the event going officially. With a week to go before the ‘due date’ of the event (moved this year due to the Diamond Jubilee), it is still unsure if the event will take place.  For the past few years, the event has happened and been staged by local enthusiasts and it is presumed to be the same this year.  The police have even applied for a few road closures in anticipation for it happening. Rather obviously, the event has, in the past, had quite a few sprains and broken bones associated with it which I am sure makes would-be organisers and sponsors nervous.  In 2009, the last official running of the event, a mere 18 people were hurt, which out of over 5,000 attendees, I don’t think is all that bad.  After all I think everyone participating and those watching would all agree that they were there at their own risk. So, fingers crossed that the … I need to read more … →

Cello

  By Emma | May 21, 2012 - 8:11 pm | , ,
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I’m not entirely sure why, but I have always wanted to learn how to play the Cello.  It is such a beautiful sounding instrument and, to me, seemingly impossible.  I think my first love of it came when I was about 9 or 10 and I remember a girl at school playing in assembly; she was brilliant and was a Grade 8 standard at only 13; I think she later went on to become a professional musician in an orchestra. Due to my love of Cello’s I do love finding music online and often try to find the slightly different and more interesting pieces too .. and I thought I would share some of my favourites. Smooth Criminal The Cello Song Somebody to Love Rolling in the Deep – Beautiful cover of Adele’s amazing hit. And possibly THE best Cello piece ever written being played by one of the most talented musicians whoever lived – Elgar Concerto by Jacqueline Du Pre. Perhaps I should try to find the time and money to get some lessons and cross off Item 418 for a second time!  

How I’m Doing

  By Emma | May 9, 2012 - 9:13 pm | , ,
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I thought I would do a short post just as a ‘Yay me’ type thing really!  When I had my birthday at the end of April I decided that I would stat trying to get myself sorted (again) and have so far been doing OK… No Smoking = 24 Days (Item 16) No Fizzy Drinks, fattening crisps, Chocolate or Sweets = 12 Days (General diet and 362 for a second time!) 365 Project & Journal Writing = 9 Days (Items 878 and 468) I know to a lot of people that these things probably seem minor things, but for me, there is a real deeper meaning to all sorts of things in my life and I am proud of myself.  I also completed the first ‘load’ of Thank you cards for my birthday gifts (Item 8) and have signed up for a great project to find myself a penpal (Item 399) which I will post more about that later! So all in all, May is turning out to be a good month so far..!

Phonetic Alphabet

  By Emma | May 5, 2012 - 10:56 am | ,
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Wikipedia defines this as … A spelling alphabet, voice procedure alphabet, radio alphabet, or telephone alphabet is a set of words used to stand for the letters of an alphabet in oral communication. Each word in the spelling alphabet typically replaces the name of the letter with which it starts (acrophony). It is used to spell out words when speaking to someone not able to see the speaker. The lack of visual cues during oral communication can cause confusion between utterances of nearly identically sounding letters. For example, lips are closed at the start of saying the letter “bee” but open at the beginning of the letter “dee” making these otherwise similar sounding letters more easily discriminated when looking at the speaker. Without these visual cues, such as during announcements of airline gate numbers “B1″ and “D1″ at an airport, “B” may be confused with “D” by the listener. Spelling out one’s name, a password or a ticker symbol over the telephone are other scenarios where a spelling alphabet is useful.” We use this all the time at work (I work in events where travel is a major part of my daily tasks) and so had to learn it pretty quickly! I can now recite the whole alphabet of course, but … I need to read more … →

2012 Games Maker: Update

  By Emma | May 1, 2012 - 4:23 pm |
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It occurred to me this weekend as I was sorting a few bloggy things out that I hadn’t updated the blog with details about item 227 which is all about my volunteering at the London 2012 Olympics.  My last post was back in August last year as I had been given my date for my interview. In the intervening months, I have made a decision not to go ahead with it.  It was down to a few reasons really; the main one being that I would have had to use pretty much all of my annual leave from work, as well as some unpaid leave too and if I’m honest, using all my holiday to go and do what I do every day for a job just didn’t really turn me on. With that in mind, I need to change the wording on the item and I think that it will now read something like .. “Volunteer at a nationwide event in the UK” .. kinda the same but not as specific! I do have a few friends that are volunteering throughout the event and I know that they have been impressed with the training and events run for them … I need to read more … →

Random Acts of Kindness

  By Emma | April 30, 2012 - 3:09 pm | ,
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Random Acts of Kindness are heartwarming things .. there’s even a Foundation that has been setup up in their honour.  The phrase is believed to have been coined by a lady called Anne Herbert who is an American writer after she wrote the below phrase on a place mat in a restaurant in the early 80′s. “Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty” I love helping other people and seeing the looks on their faces when you can give them something or help them with something that makes their day.  I have always wanted to start doing small random acts of kindness .. more than just volunteering my time with charities and good causes; something more personal, more individual. I was on a train on Saturday afternoon on the way to visiting my parents in Devon. At the first stop, I watched a teenage girl run from the other side of the car park towards the train – I was rooting for her to make it, and she did.  She jumped on in my carriage which also happened to be the carriage with the conductor.  As she collapsed breathless into the chair opposite me she was swearing and looked … I need to read more … →

The Sistine Chapel

  By Emma | March 17, 2012 - 3:25 pm | ,
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Religion is such a touchy subject these days and although most people would admit to being spiritual and not religious as such, I have recently realised that I have quite a few friends that are religious in one form or another and it has made me think about my feelings a lot more. One thing I can certainly, freely and happily admit is that I find churches calming, beautiful and I love going to have a look at the artwork and things contained within them.  I also love church music – the harmonies the echo .. it really is something wonderful.  I went to a CofE school and we had chapel services 3 times a week at least, and often more as I was normally ‘in’ at the weekend for the Sunday service.  I was a member of the chapel choir and loved singing the choral music .. some of my favourite pieces still calm me and make me smile to this day. I think there are several places in the World that must feel extra special, and the Sistine Chapel (in my books) is one of them.  I found this lovely website that gives you an idea of what … I need to read more … →

Flowers from a friend

  By Emma | February 20, 2012 - 6:00 pm | ,
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One of the items on my life list is to receive flowers from someone other that my mum or best friend.  As it was valentines day recently, the subject of giving flowers came up and I said that no one had ever bought me flowers before (apart from my mum).  The next day I had these waiting for me on my desk fron my friend Nicky. Did you know the history of flower giving?  This website says … Not surprisingly, the tradition dates back to prehistoric times when flowers often had medicinal and herbal attributes for our ancestors. Giving flowers was a charitable thing to do, something that persists to this day. There have been remnants of flower petals in several grave sites found by archeologists. Moving forward several thousand years, there are records of flower giving dating back to Egyptian hieroglyphics and Chinese writings, as well as in Greek and Roman mythology. In more recent times, the practice of giving a flower flourished in the Middle Ages. At that time the strict guidelines of the church prevented couples from showing open affection in public. Giving flowers allowed them to show their emotions without the worry that someone would see … I need to read more … →

The Theatre

  By Emma | February 19, 2012 - 6:00 pm | ,
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I love going to the theatre .. or just seeing people perform in general.  I think that we can sometimes forget how talented people can be these days .. with some able to become so-called celebrities by singing badly, having a bit of money or by doing the most demeaning things they can think of, we forget there are some seriously talented people in the World at the moment.  Brenda Blethyn also once said “I hate that people think going to the theatre is a special occasion. I wish people would treat it as normally as going to the cinema.“ I so completely agree with this and would go as much as possible if I had the money .. and that’s goes for the cinema too! I cannot recall how many times in my life I have been to the theatre .. so will recall the most memorable and start keeping track from now for item 22 – Go to the Theatre 100 times.  For the sake of this item, I have decided to not count Musicals .. only plays allowed!

The Artist

  By Emma | February 18, 2012 - 12:17 pm | ,
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If you haven’t heard about The Artist then I would love to know where you have been!! The black and white silent film has taken the World by storm and washed up at the BAFTA’s and is set to do so again at The Oscar’s.  I REALLY want to see this film but really can’t justify the expense of the train to Basingstoke, the cost of the ticket and the train back .. it frustrates me that something as simple as going to the cinema is so expensive these days. I completely get the frustrations the industry has about pirate DVD’s and websites and things, but really .. £11 ($17.50) for a 2 hour film?! I have a really long list of films I wan to see at the moment.  Now that Netflix has made it to the UK, I am using it to rate the films I’ve seen so that it can help suggest new ones for me .. and it seems to really work because I seem to be noting down film names all the time! Some on the list include: The Usual Suspects Hard Candy The Contract Reservoir Dogs (I know .. it’s terrible I haven’t seen it … I need to read more … →