Having the time of my life...

I went to the Dirty Dancing auditions today! it's been a crazy day, and I had moments of doubt, but I did it and I'm so proud! (of course I didn't get through to the next round, I'm not that good of a dancer!) Anyhoo, here is my wee diary of thoughts throughout the day...

6.08am: ooh my god, what am I doing? I'm so excited! woke up at 3.45 couldn't sleep, kept wondering why I'm doing this and if it makes me a loser, after all when I told one of my friends he said he thought that turning 30 was making me go a little bit crazy, and it's an early start and a train journey and seems like a lot of effort and morning off work for something that's just for fun. Then I thought no, it will be something I'll be pleased to have done, just once, and I worked the weekend to justify it, and it's a fun thing to do - it just happens that for a day of holiday some people like things like theme parks, my idea of fun is to go to an audition for the national tour of Dirty Dancing! And now I'm excited, I'm on the train, full hair and makeup, having scoffed my breakfast as was running late, got things to read (just Vogue - nothing too intellectual at this time of day!), and chose my green shoes to wear for the audition, and I feel alive so this is what it's about - seizing the day. That's why I changed my mind this morning, or at least what convinced me to come - I don't want to feel I'm missing out on life by being too lazy to get out of bed and do something. Plus, surely the early start will have kicked my body clock into touch after all the bank holidays we've just had.

7am: strangely crapping myself! I think I'm nervous not because I want it but because of the thought of walking into a room of casting people who may laugh in my face, and other dancers who will be ace and me trying to keep up and feeling like an idiot, but I think I need to challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone, it will be scary but exhilarating.

My one wee souvenir of the day: my number :)

10.45: So, it's over, and it was so hard but so fun! I haven't done a pirouette in a seriously long time, and totally couldn't manage a double pirouette, but I learnt the routine and kept up and I definitely wasn't the worst dancer there! And I ache already haha and I have ballet tonight for the first time in 10 years...ouch. Ah my face is glowing with the fun of it! We danced on 'Stay' from the film soundtrack, a lovely wee chacha, and we learnt the routine in bits, all 40 of us on stage in the Patrick Centre at the Hippodrome, then split into two groups to practise again, then back together for a bit more style on top of the steps, then into 4 groups, then the actual audition in front of the associate choreographer. Groups of 8, two rows, dance it twice rotating rows between goes, so no hiding at the back and copying anyone!! It was a crazy experience though, I was outside at 7.20 this morning queuing, they finally let us in at 8.30 because they decided to do the process of taking CVs and giving us numbers outside (madness!) then we were just sat waiting and kept being told 'soon' or '15 minutes' so we didn't really know when to warm up, and then eventually went in around 9.30 and spent about an hour with learning the routine and auditioning. There were some really sweet girls there, and some were really good, and it was weird being back sat with a group of dancers all warming up etc. I can't believe I just did that actually!

Cinder toffee, honeycomb, hokey pokey. Whatever you call it, I just made it!

Today I learnt that something that I expected to be difficult, scary and messy was actually simple, exciting and not all that messy. Valuable life lesson.

I wanted to make cinder toffee because I saw Nigella Lawson make it on TV a couple of years back - she said it was the perfect gift to take when you are a guest in someone's house since flowers have to have a vase found and chocolates often just get put to one side, but according to her nobody can resist hokeypokey (classic Nigella innuendo!). Now, I'm thinking that wine is a pretty good thing to take to somebody's house, but I suppose it can be a minefield and it's not appropriate for all times of day. So cinder toffee seemed like a good thing to be able to make. The only trouble was that it looked quite scary - the bubbling up process looked like the kind of thing I could come away from with third-degree burns. And I'd been told to use a pan that I never wanted to use again because it would be forever scarred by toffee remains. As it turns out, it's easy to make, exciting like making proper popcorn, and easy to clean (the potential for burning myself silly still remains, but I think I can manage to be careful long enough to make it again).

So, step one, assemble the recipe and ingredients:

Credit here goes to Nigella Lawson's "Nigella Express" for the recipe.
Step 2: weigh out the sugar and syrup

Step 3: mix the sugar and syrup. This is the only time you are allowed to stir, Nigella says that once it's on the heat there is to be no stirring. This stage made me nervous because it doesn't have so much of a stirring consistency as a big lump of stickiness consistency...

Step 4: turn on the heat and let it start to melt, turn to goo, then start to bubble away...

Step 5: turn off the heat and whisk in the bicarb of soda. This is where it should be a 'whooshing cloud of aerated pale gold'...

Finally: pour straight out onto baking parchment and leave to cool (and stick the pan in a bowl of soapy water!)

That was the first go. That cooled and remained a sticky, stretchy, gooey kind of toffee. It was bubbly, but it was just one big slab that didn't break but just stretched. So second time around I let the sugar and syrup bubble much more before pouring in the bicarb of soda and it was a lot more whooshy and has puffed up on the tray...

So now I am waiting to see if this one sets hard and then bring on the chocolate!

Now, in the interests of honesty, I should admit that I started writing this post while the first lot of toffee was setting, or rather, not setting. Ah, I was feeling so smug and 'oh life lessons' and it was all soooo premature! But the second set does appear to have set, so let's reconsider the life lessons - I shouldn't have given in to fear the first time around: I didn't let the sugar bubble up enough because I was afraid of it either burning or bubbling over and burning me. Now, I'm thinking that this was a rational fear, so the lesson is not necessarily to resist fear, but that we can always learn from our mistakes.

Whatever the lesson, I've made cinder toffee!!

Here's looking at you, kid...

It's Casablanca night! Wow! I am in love with this film! I can't believe I've never seen it before. I especially can't believe that I've never seen it given how many famous lines come from it, plus the main song - As Time Goes By. "Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine." "Here's looking at you, kid." "Play it, Sam." "We'll always have Paris." "Louie, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship" Oh my goodness! And Humphrey Bogart. And Ingrid Bergman. Seriously, such beautiful people! And that moment, when Ilsa knows that Rick of Rick's Cafe Americain is Rick from Paris, and his reaction to the song and then his face when he realises she's there, and her face when she sees his...wow. I LOVE this film! It seemed unusual as well to have the character who is a victim to love be the man, I'm sure it's usually the woman who is left abandoned by her man, hurt and crying, but here it's Rick who has been left without an explanation, deeply in love. And despite how much his love has affected him and he won't have Sam play the song, and he loves Ilsa, he still believes in something more than his love - be it Laszlo's love, Ilsa's marriage, the greater cause: the resistance and the fight against the Nazis - there is something more important than the thing that has consumed him and made him him. "The problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." And according to the little documentary on the dvd the studio released 50 films a year, one a week, and they obviously knew this could be something special given how much they paid for the script, but it was still just one of their 50 films a year. I want to watch it again already! But there will be nothing just the same as my first time, I'll know the characters a bit before discovering them - I thought that Rick was a bit cold, a bit of a manly man with something to hide but not hiding so much love, now I'll know that love, or lost love, has made him this way, I doubted Ilsa thinking that she had no intention of leaving Paris with Rick, that she didn't love him like he loved her, I doubted Rick thinking that maybe, just maybe, he really would leave for Lisbon with Ilsa, I knew the French police officer was contemptible but I didn't quite believe that he would betray Laszlo and Rick, after all it was part of Free France not Occupied France, and now I'll know these things when I watch it again and I'll be looking for signs, but then that's the joy of the first watch and the later watches. Ah, Casablanca, we'll always have Paris.

Nobody puts Gemma in the corner

I'm soooo doing the Dirty Dancing audition! seize the day and all that jazz! so I'll be getting up bright and early one morning in a few weeks, heading over to Birmingham in my non-baggy clothing, with my heels for dancing in, CV and photo (what does one put on a CV for dancing?) ready to dance and if all else fails do Joey-style jazz hands!!!

Friends: Joey teaches the audition dance

No. 26: my first and last visit to a strip club

So this one was on my list because friends have been recently and I was feeling inquisitive - I don't like to have not done things. And now I've done it. Well, it was a few weeks ago now but I've been busy.

And...I'm glad we went because it's crossed off the list, but seriously, I'm never going again! There's not much to say - I don't want to get into a whole palaver about the objectification of women etc, it's all been said before much more eloquently than I will ever say it - but despite feeling uncomfortable and weird (apparently I shrunk about a foot haha!!) I am happy to have done it, it's out of my system, I've experienced it, and I'm living - one step closer to turning 30!

Open auditions???

I just had an email through from Birmingham Hippodrome that they are holding open auditions for Dirty Dancing in a couple of weeks and, in the spirit of doing my 30 list, it is soooo tempting to do this!!! Let's be clear, I am fully aware that I am such a god-awful singer that they will laugh in my face, but it would be an experience....

Alive and tango-ing!

I'm just on the train home from Birmingham after doing our tango performance last night and I'm tired but elated. I feel amazing, on a total high - tango makes me feel good anyway, but combine it with the feeling of being alive that comes from crossing something off my 30 list and it's the most exhilarating feeling. I went through cycles of stress and calm - while I was at the milonga waiting for Peter to arrive I was a bit stressed, then I relaxed a bit, especially once we'd danced a tanda of Di Sarli to warm up. Then seconds before we performed I had the same 'bollocks, why in the name of crap are we doing this' feeling (eloquent!), calmed down a little, then the music started up, we took the embrace, I was momentarily thrown when we started on a back step instead of a side step because we always start on a nice big side step, and then finally relaxed into it. It was the most connected tango I've ever danced, I was concentrated so hard on Peter and on the music that it's the most inside the dance that I've ever felt. I had a couple of moments of thinking my legs would turn to jelly, and I discovered that my body's reaction to stress is to get a watery runny nose (classy!) but overall I enjoyed it immensely. I'm not sure it's the best we ever danced, but it looks nice, and by the time we did the second dance on D'Arienzo I was much more comfortable.

Wow I've just realised my ability to waffle, especially when it comes to tango, but I wanted to write this while I'm on my way home before I lose the feeling because I want to be able to read it later and feel it again. I think this feeling will stay with me for a while though, it's a kind of crazy energy right in the centre of me that feels alive and feels like the world is an amazing place with so much to experience and so mug to give if you just take it. Which sounds really wanky and self-help booky but it's a feeling I want to keep and keep on creating. Right, I'm going to chill and read On The Road and marvel at how great a writer Kerouac was (it says in the introduction that he spent 7 years on the road and 3 weeks to write the book - phenomenal). And I'll sort out photos/video when I'm home.

Food for thought

I just remembered reading this in the Indy earlier in the week and it's made me think about why I'm doing my 30 list and what I'm getting from it. I hadn't really questioned my motives, it was just about making the year fun and not because I was stressing about turning 30. But as I've done it, particularly the strip club (which no, I have not written about yet, not sure that one needs sharing haha!) it made me think that it is good to get some of these things out of my system so that I don't have regrets when I'm older about things I wish I'd done...I certainly don't want to turn into a certain you-know-who and behave like a teenager when I hit 50 because I resent the things I didn't get the chance to do. So it was just about living life to the full. But now I wonder whether that puts me into the narcissistic category of this article (haha the fact that I'm panicking and writing about whether I'm being narcissistic is probably what makes me narcissistic!!!) and if I'm not then I want to really be engaging with the world like this author says. I don't know. I'll re-read it. But it's definitely food for thought.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/features/female-midlife-crisis-has-an-epidemic-of-narcissism-made-women-delusional-2267394.html

Nerves!!

Eeeek! the nerves finally kicked in at 6.30 this morning! I woke up with my heart racing and thanked the lord that I'd been on that performance course a couple of weeks ago and learnt how to deal with nerves...much deep breathing etc later I got back to sleep and am now well rested.
I've got plenty to do today which is going to be good. I baked a lemon curd layer cake last night to take along with me as the event is for charity (I've never made lemon curd before and I swear down that was the most stressful thing so far - I was convinced that I would end up with lemony scrambled eggs and I have to say that the usually helpful Delia was somewhat confusing on this one having said 'stir frequently' to then saying that you don't need to stay with it, just come back and stir 'from time to time'. Delia, there is quite a difference between 'frequently' and 'from time to time'. But it worked (I erred on the side of caution and went with 'frequently') and it was a lovely sweet but sharp lemon curd to go in between the four layers of lemon cake with lemon icing on top. Yum. At least I hope so! At the same time I managed to mess up making chocolate cornflake cakes...it turns out that if you accidentally buy Galaxy caramel instead of just chocolate then it reeeeally doesn't work. Still, I've eaten one for breakfast today - they are made of cornflakes after all so they are totally a breakfast food - and I'll be baking again in a bit, which will be therapeutic. Apart from the baking, I've finished securing the beads on my top as a few were loose, so it's just nails to paint and I'll be ready to go, and I'll fix my hair and makeup when I get there. Eee, that's out of the system now and I'm back to being excited - in around 12 hours I'll be one step closer to 30!!!!

Tango preparation...

Tomorrow evening I will be one step closer to 30 - it's performance time! I'm actually quite excited :) and I haven't had an attack of nerves yet, which in that weird over-thinking it way has made me panic slightly haha, but no, I'm feeling calm. We've been practising for a few weeks now, so I feel fairly confident - we've managed to get through quite a few dances without me say 'ooh, sorry' halfway through!!
So, I don't know what music we're dancing on, that's the man's job to choose seeing as he is the one who has to be inspired to improvise on it. Actually now writing about it is making me slightly nervous, this is good, get it out of the system, but seriously, what were we thinking agreeing to do a performance which is improvised?!?!... But I know we're dancing on Di Sarli, and then on D'Arienzo so we've been practising on those orchestras. And I've sorted my outfit - black skirt, pale pink corset top with black beading, my favourite shoes which as dusky pink at the front and black at the back, chandelier earrings in pale pink. Just need to remember to take plenty of sticky tape to keep the top fixed in place :) but it makes me feel like a proper tango dancer, love it!! so tonight I need to bake cakes to take because it's a charity event so I'm doing my bit - Easter nests and lemon drizzle cake - and then tomorrow I can do my nails and toenails and decide what I'm doing with my hair (hair up - I noticed on the video of our practise last night that it looks so much more elegant when my hair is up and you can see my neck). Wow, how feckin narcissistic do I sound?!
Anyway, we've had our final practise last night, time to get ready now, and then Saturday night is performance - fingers crossed, break a leg, merde and all that jazz!

More than 30 before 30...

I just realised that I haven't posted anything for a while and I did have a wee panic last week that I'm going to get behind and not complete everything, so I've been checking the list and dates and things I need to save cash for etc.
But I've been off list too, maybe I'll call these things 'off-liste' as in 'off-piste'... I like it. Where was I?...I've been doing other things that I've never done before.
Ooh, I've got the boots, had them for a month or two now, but just haven't written anything because I don't have a photo of them yet. But what else, ooh, I gave Dad the voucher for his hot air balloon flight for his 60th birthday last week and he was so excited! it came attached to a helium balloon for added balloony effect, so we've booked it for May now, and I've got fingers and toes and everything crossed that the weather stays good on that day!

Books: I've finally got my copy of Mockingbird...actually that is photo-worthy because it's a beautiful edition. I'll do that later. But I haven't started reading it yet, I feel I should just sit down and do it in one rather than dragging it around in my handbag for days. But I read my first Evelyn Waugh - Decline and Fall - and it was funny, I enjoyed it but it was more of a handbag book than a bedtime read, and I need a break before I start on Vile Bodies. So I'm reading Love in the Time of Cholera just now - I got it as part of World Book Night and started it on the train last week and I'm enchanted! I remember struggling to get into One Hundred Year of Solitude so I was expecting this to be the same, but it is compelling reading and lovely lyrical writing. It's also kind of dreamy with an undertone of love having all kinds of negative aspects too so it appeals to my slight cynicism.

Movies: I had my first Marx brothers movie night at the weekend! I can't believe I've reached 29 without seeing any of their films, shocking. So I turned off my phone, dimmed the lights, popped the corn and settled down to a double-bill of Duck Soup and Monkey Business and I laughed more than I have laughed in ages!!! Man does Groucho talk fast though! it's defo going to take a few goes to have really seen it properly :) and he has some amazing one-liners, and Harpo's physical stuff is hilarious. So I'll be trying A Night at the Opera next.
And to honour the passing of the greatness of Elizabeth Taylor I'll be having Elizabeth Taylor movie night next weekend.

Work: I'm judging my first ever moot tonight. And my second one - both of the semi-finals. Should be interesting.

So lots of firsts, and I'm loving it :)

Tango jet-lag!

The tango festival was amazing! and I completely have tango jet-lag now - my body wants to wake up at lunchtime and dance until 3am :)
I'm feeling so energised now, it's fantastic. I want to dance nonstop! they are the most generous teachers, they seem to be always happy with endless energy and it's contagious. I learnt so much, particularly to make my steps 'mas grande' but I did manage to get through the whole of Sunday's workshops without being told 'mas grande, mas grande' so I think my legs are obeying...gradually! I think there are too many things to say, and not really the words to say them, tango is just a feeling and it makes me smile, and I can't put it into words.

Ooh, but the musicality workshop was amazing (they all were, but this one especially) so I have resolved to buy music from a different orchestra each month and listen, listen, listen, so that I know the music from inside, so I have just ordered a bunch of CDs. My favourite orchestra is Canaro at the moment, it just makes me smile :) but I want to expand on other things so I've ordered some Fresedo as I only have one cd of his orquesta and it's so elegant, and I have ordered some D'Arienzo con Echague because they are fantastic but I don't have much.

So I am on a tango high at the moment. Tango is good for the soul. I think my soul wouldn't be complete without tango.

It's tango time :)

Love it! and kind of wish I had signed up for the workshop on decorations now...

Tangooooooooooo!!!

So my list clearly did not include 'learn to travel light' - I'm going away for a weekend of tango festival and have packed 6 outfits, boots, 2 pairs of shoes and 7, yes 7, pairs of tango shoes! I still might change my mind about my dress for the Gran Milonga though, the one I've got for the milonga de aperture is fine, but my other one is quite a plain jane...although I've got gold glittery shoes to wear with it, so actually maybe plain is good otherwise I'll be as spangly as a christmas bauble and that's not a good look.

But the main point, a weekend of tango!!!!!! I'm so excited! I think we've got 5 workshops, 2 milongas (10pm-3am - Buenos Aires is coming to Birmingham!).
(Random question, is a thermos supposed to fizz?...mine has just started and I'm slightly nervous it's about to explode or something...)

Where was I? Sebastian Misse y Andrea Reyero, coming over to Gallo Ciego in Birmingham organised by my teachers Loyd Vidal y Sandra Bernard...all amazing tango de salon dancers, it's going to be fab!!! And I haven't managed to get over to Birmingham for classes the last few weeks so it's going to be great to get in some dancing with Peter, and I can't wait for the milongas :) So I've packed and I'm at work, had Biagi on, now got Canaro on and having a sneaky squiz at the occasional video of the maestros over a cup of tea.

Tango is life!

30 before 30: No. 11 ...the book has been ordered!

I have ordered 'To kill a mockingbird'! I went to Waterstones and searched the shelves, it wasn't in fiction, it wasn't in classics...mystery. Then I got distracted by the other books - I've been watching 'Glamour's Golden Age' on BBC4 and am having a 1920s thing so I wanted Evelyn Waugh's 'Vile bodies'...also not there. It seems that they had one copy of each but they were both sold at the weekend - I must have a book choice doppelganger in Leicester pre-emptively buying all my books! either that or I've started sleepwalking again and have gone sleep-shopping and then squirreled the books away...I like to think that if I did sleep-shop I would sleep-shoeshop not sleep-bookshop, so I'm blaming the book doppelganger.
Anyway, they did have 'Decline and fall' so I got that. And then I saw 'On the road' which I half read in my first year of uni but apparently my short attention span had already set in by then because I didn't finish it. And that was on 3 for 2 so I decided to see whether they could order any of my books on 3 for 2.
Long story short (because let's be honest, this is not the most interesting story of my life...although it is kind of an exciting story just because it forms part of my 30 before 30) I ordered 'To kill a mockingbird' - a teeny tiny baby step towards No.11 :) And while I wait for it to arrive I have Decline and fall, my first book by a Bright Young Person,! and On the Road, and Norwegian Wood (the third of my 3 for 2, because I'm reading Dance, Dance, Dance at the moment and I'm loving my Murakami, but it's time to have a break from my Japanese phase now).
Wowzer, I just managed to say in 5000 words what could have been said in 15...it's a talent.
Summary - 'yay for me, I ordered a book' :)

I am sooo a watch wearer!

Yesterday for the first time I remembered to check my watch for the time rather than my phone.
And this morning I almost left the house without it but felt slightly naked and realised it was my empty right wrist giving me this sense of nudity - it is confirmed, I am a reformed character, I am now a watch-wearer!

'30 before 30' No 23. join the watch-wearing members of the world in their time-keeping abilities

No. 23 can be crossed off the list! Meet Marina, my new watch...

...isn't she a beauty?!

Big thanks go to Sally for giving Marina to me for my birthday. She's very pretty and dainty and I already feel like a slightly more grown up person (haha!)...No seriously, at the law ball on Friday I wore a long, dove grey dress and this felt like the perfect accessory, tres chic. I can feel the start of an accessorizing habit! Marina is classy and I think she needs a slightly more rough and ready little brother of a watch for the occasions when it might get hurt (this is clearly for my alter ego who goes rock-climbing and other such active things...but any excuse to accessorise, eh).

I still have the habit of checking my phone for the time, cue half an hour of rooting through a handbag full of crap, find the phone then think 'doh! I have a watch'...and then check my watch even though I already know the time. But today when I did my gardening (I really am only 29,  I promise!) I remembered to take my watch off first so that it wouldn't get scratched - maybe wearing a watch is making me wise and sensible?! This could be the making of me.

On another note, I heard an ace song today. I had never heard of Brenda Holloway before but she has an amazing voice, truly beautiful:

Brenda Holloway - Think it over

So this is the theme song for my day of celebrating my birthday with my dad (who bought my the plants for today's gardening) and being a watch-wearer.

The list...

Today I am 29 so here is my list, with one year to complete it. Apart from the first one they are in no particular order, just the order they popped into my head...

1. Become a doctor (not a proper medical doctor, just get my doctorate).

2. Fly in a hot air balloon - because I have a plan to surprise someone else with this, so it can go on my list too.

3. Get a mani-pedi-facial - I can't believe I've reached 29 and never had a manicure!

4. Have tea at the Ritz - I'm a huge fan of tea and cake, so we're going to glam it up - in the words of Irving Berlin "If you're blue and you don't know where to go, why don't you go where fashion sits? Puttin' on the ritz"

5. See the Blackpool Illuminations - I have never been to Blackpool but feel some strange nostalgia for the place so I want to see the Illuminations, see the Tower Ballroom and Winter Gardens, very British!

6. Ride a horse - and I've been warned to wear sensible underwear :)

7. Knit a sweater - I have knitted scarves and other straight things but nothing as ambitious as a sweater, the whole idea of making something the right size scares me a little, I'm going to have to pay attention to 'tension' etc...

8. Make pottery - I did this as a child but it collapsed, so I'm going to make a pot.

At this point in telling someone my list they said 'why not just travel back to 1950?'...funnily enough, the next thing on my list was almost that:

9. Buy a vintage 1950s dress - I like the style but want proper vintage not just vintage-looking.

10. Buy a pair of Christian Louboutin heels - it's going to take some penny saving, but they're iconic!

11. Read 'To kill a mockingbird' - how have I never read this?

12. Enter a photography competition - I have no aspirations to win, but after taking photos for so many years I feel I should enter one of them into a competition.

13. Go to a rugby match - it looks like fun, muscley men in shorts.
14. Test drive a sports car - I love the idea of turning up and getting to drive a fancy car for a short time, and for free!

15. Eat lobster - just because I've never tasted it. 

16. Learn to ice skate backwards - it really frustrates me that I can only go round in circles going forwards, I don't even skate that often but it would be nice to be able to turn and go backwards...many bruises are anticipated.

17. Get a pair of knee high boots - I can't turn 30 without having owned knee high boots! 

18. Go to a 'Sing Along a Sound of Music' - dress up as Julie Andrews, sing along with a whole cinema full of people meaning there must be someone else there as musically challenged in the singing department as I am, audience participation...sounds ace!

19. Watch 'Casablanca' - again, how I have not already done this?!

20. Visit the Supreme Court - I teach law so I feel I should have seen it. But I'm planning to do the tourist visit, you get to visit the library and everything :)

21. Get leopard print pumps - I've never had anything leopard print, it seems a little tacky, but in a small quantity it looks nice so pumps will be perfect.

22. Ride the paternoster lift all the way round - this lift terrifies me. I went once and took forever to pluck up the courage to get in, felt sick and realised the fear of going over the top outweighed the fear of jumping out, so I've never been over the top and under the bottom.

23. Start wearing a watch - so that I don't always have to search for my phone to know the time, it seems like a 'proper grownup' sort of thing to do.

24. Make and play a pinata - combines the joy of sweeties with the arts and craftsyness of papier mache, plus an excuse to have a party :)

25. Make cinder toffee - just because it looks fun.

26. Go to a strip club - tacky but it kind of has to be done!

27. Go wine tasting - why not?!

28. Visit the Barber Institute - because I spent 6 years on campus at Birmingham Uni and never once visited the Barber Institute which is slightly shameful.

29. Do a tango performance - this one made it on the list because our teacher asked us, otherwise I'd never have had the courage or the gumption to do it

30. Go speed dating - it has to be done once!

Sounds like a plan, Stan...

So, a couple of weeks ago I realised I was soon going to turn 29 and it seemed somehow dull to let my 30th year fade into insignificance. I'm not having dramas about turning 30...well, not yet anyway (although this morning I did have a slight wobble about whether I can face 35 more years of tort tutorials, but save that for another day) so as I was saying, this is not an 'I'm turning 30 crisis', it's a 'turning 30 should be fun' sort of a plan. Plus, I've been ill for the past 6 months, nothing serious, at least I think not although the doctor hasn't actually diagnosed it yet, and that made me think that life is for living - very Hollywood sentimental, I know, but hey, why shouldn't life have a bit of cheesy sentimentality to it?! (that sounds v Kate Winslet in The Holiday, "I'm looking for corny in my life" :)
I'm still finalising the list for now, fine tuning and waiting for inspiration - I've got 29 things so far so just one more to go. Some are exciting, some are random things that I have just never done before and that it seems somehow wrong to turn 30 without doing. Anyway, the big reveal will be Saturday, my 29th...