36

I think the word "failure" is the best one to describe my "36 before 36" challenge. To be honest, the day came out of nowhere and hit me before I'd had a chance to take stock of where I was! Having a baby also makes it very difficult to find time to even vacuum, let alone take hot air balloon rides and the other follies I'd put on my list!


The plan was to complete 36 things before 36. I came up with the title last year when I was expecting; well before this blogger labelled it "uncatchy": http://faithhopeandcharityshopping.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/40-before-40-36-before-36-wasnt-as.html


It was one of the stranger birthdays of my life. Firstly, no one apart from my husband, dad and mum remembered. I thought my sister had forgotten, but she called me at 5pm to ask if I'd received her present and hung up on me in anger when I said it hadn't arrived.


MrPBR and the baby took me out for a meal and I tried to forget about this surprising phone call. But the next day when we were out for a walk, she called again and said she'd been led to understand that I would be in on my birthday and that I must have missed the delivery. The reason I was out was because I had bought my dad a new fridge as a surprise, so had driven down to the west country while he was out to ensure that someone was there to sign for it.


If I'd known she wanted me to stay in, perhaps I could have been, but usually when delivery people miss you, they leave a note to say where the parcel is.


She told me that she was angry because she'd paid extra to ensure the gift arrived on time and then hung up on me again before texting MrPBR to ask him to confirm our address. We've only lived here three years and she's been here several times! So I didn't get a present, got shouted at and still don't know what she sent! SHe said she was going to cancel it, so I guess I'll never know!

So I felt stupidly tearful when I looked at this list to see where I'd got to.

It's not a total disaster though; I have done the following:

3: Grow all of our own vegetables.

I've planted potatoes and tomatoes. I could hardly call it self-sufficency though!

13. Win a competition:

I won a camera that I gave to a friend as a birthday present!

17. Sell something upcycled:

I rescued some shelving from the tip and painted it with a tin of 50p paint that I spied in the bargain bucket at B&Q. I then sold it at a boot sale for a tiny profit. I don't think I'm going to make my millions from upcycling!

18. Make a baby friend
BabyPBR has a number of cute little friends from NCT, playgroups, singing classes and other activities. He has far more friends than I do!

21. Declutter anything not needed.

I am going to pat myself on the back here. The house is still a tip but a lot of things have gone. I've done two boot sales in the past month and I have very few belongings. The problem is that we have a tiny house with a total, total lack of storage. This is compounded by my parents' divorce a few years ago when my mother disappeared for a while and I had to store her belongings. We know where she is now, but she can't face unpacking her stuff as it brings back bad memories.

34. Have MrPBR compliment something I've cooked.

I have discovered the joy that is www.approvedfood.co.uk and accidentally ordered lots of pasta. Except when it arrived it turned out to be semolina! I wasn't sure what to do with this glut of semolina but discovered this recipe for orange cake WITHOUT flour!

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/orange_cake_57974

MrPBR loved it so much, he's asked me to keep making it, so there is usually some in the house!

So I'm now 36 but I'm going to keep going with the list and I'll turn it into some sort of "lifetime challenge". THis blog by Dannie has proved to be very inspirational http://myultimatelifelist.blogspot.co.uk/