44. Have matching sheets and towels

This is a bit of a silly one, but it's on the 101 list, so I'm going to tick it off all the same! Much like everything in my life, my towels and sheets are an assortment of various patterns, textures, sizes and materials. But after a marathon session of painting and decorating, we used a lot of the old holey (not holy - tee hee) stuff to cover our furniture, and as it's covered in paint, dust and my tears, it's had to go.
In the meantime, my sister has provided us with a new set of towels so we now feel like we're staying in a luxury hotel with nice, crisp towels! It's only a small touch, but I instantly feel more grown up!

20. Reading list - Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh

Have just finished one of the books on the list - Brideshead Revisited which I started on Friday night. It took a bit to get going and though I am a philistine, it’s not quite as good as I expected a classic like this to be. In fact, I much preferred Evelyn Waugh’s other famous masterpiece Scoop. However, I’m glad I read it as it’s an interesting insight into the changing times experienced by people in the decadent 20s before moving to the war period and a great story about an eccentric family and the facade they put up in the face of problems of adultery, alcohol and religion.

Now for the next book on the list...

20. Wuthering Heights

I have changed number 20 as it pertained to decluttering which I think I have covered elsewhere in the 101 in 1001 list. Inspired by others’ lists, I have changed it to reading all of the books on the BBC’s top 100 reads list. For each that remains unread, I will donate a sum to the Alzheimers Society.

I've made a start on this. As well as the books I've completed so far in my life, I bought and finished a classic that I had always meant to read thanks to the list; Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte - very embarrassed to admit I had not read it before. It was superb, very readable and suspenseful, and for me, totally unpredictable, so much so that I nearly returned back late to work after lunch yesterday as I was engrossed! I finished it early this morning after starting it on Monday!

in other news, I can’t tick it off the list yet, but I have booked to go abseiling! Bit scared though, but who wouldn’t be when staring down a gorge, held by nothing but a rope!!

17. Smarten up the campervan

The intention was to give my beloved VW a fresh lick of paint as his bodywork was a fetching mixture of red and white! However, it’s a very long story but our previous neighbours were a bunch of horrible snobs who didn’t like my campervan “as it’s an ugly white blob not in keeping with the rest of the street”. So, after my beloved VeeDub broke down, I decided that he would be better off with a new owner who could easily fix him and whose neighbours would appreciate him! So one day, the plan is to buy another camper that won’t need smartening up!

7. Buy a house!

We moved in at the weekend! During the boom years, we were offered massive mortgages, even a 110% mortgage at one point, which seemed ludicrous to me as it was obvious things could not be sustained and a housing slump of some sort was on the cards. So we diligently saved and saved and saved (with a special thanks to the wonderful MSE Martin Lewis without whom we would still be flailing around), only for the predicted slump to arrive with astonishing speed and immediacy. Suddenly banks weren’t so keen to lend, and my tax dollars were being directed at the likes of RBS and HBOS so that their failing staff could receive massive bonuses to reward them for their ineptitude, now called “risk-taking”, instead of the NHS and other actual worthy causes. But I digress......we have finally, finally, finally moved into our own home and look forward to spending the next 25 years paying it back! We are both very excited and will be spending the next little while either finding our possessions a home or putting them on ebay!

6. Keep trying to be vegan

A few years ago, I remember buying a big packet of cheap chicken legs – there were 48 in there, and I remember thinking: “what a massacre – 12 chickens had to die for those”. Ever since that moment (and the moment a day or two later when I realised that chickens have two legs, not four, and so it was therefore 24 chickens that made the sacrifice for me!), I have felt a bit strange about eating meat and have only eaten it a couple of times since then, mostly at people’s houses when I can’t bear to make someone cook a separate dish for me after being so kind as to invite me round. I can’t give up fish though, see number 21 on my list for info!). Since the beginning of the challenge, I have been drinking rice milk and trying to buy non dairy cheese and cream. I have found this extraordinarily difficult and much, much harder than giving up meat. Rice milk is fine in dishes, in cooking and in smoothies, but it’s an acquired taste in tea and coffee. The non dairy cream is fine too, although it feels a bit synthetic. However, I can’t give up butter and much happier with normal cheese, although I did enjoy Quark, the non-diary alternative. I am going to knock this attempt at being vegan on the head now – at least I tried it for a couple of months....

14. Do more cooking. Have a signature dish that I can make for people

My cooking is legendary. Tales of just how bad it is have spread far and wide, from the time I poisoned my sister with an evil omelette to the occasion when I tried to fry a glass of Japanese Cola in a glass which ended with my housemate trying to tell me off, but laughing too much to be able to do so. So every Monday since this challenge began, I have been allowed into the kitchen to cook something while my partner barks instructions (such as ‘don’t put that in there!’ and ‘how about turning the oven on’. Last night, I made a ricotta and spinach lasagne following a simple recipe from Delia.

(Note - There’s something I should add to my 101 in 1001 list; being so famous that I don’t need my last name any more....)

Anyway.....there were no complaints after dinner and no ill effects so this could be my signature dish. It’s got spinach in it, thereby providing one of your five a day, it’s not got meat in it and it’s got pine nuts in it. What’s not to love?