Week 40 - Put a request in on a radio show

So, here's the challenge that I did back in January to mark the end of my 50th year. (It didn't turn out to be'the very last one')

Curiously, I found this among one of the more difficult things to do off the list. It's non-sensical really as it was merely a matter of writing an e-mail and sending it- perhaps it was connected to feeling vulnerable and being embarrassed or humiliated, (you know, like putting your hand up in class when no-one else is, and there's a horror that the room will go quiet as they listen to you and you utter the most ridiculous and wrong answer, and tumbleweed passes through the room !!.....No? ah, that's just my insecurities then??)

Anyway, once I'd determined to do it and researched how to, of course it was very simple. What wasn't simple was actually being successful and having the request aired! Being a novice at this, and just a teeny bit naive it only occurred to me on the Sunday morning, that obviously 'Steve Wright's Sunday Love Songs' would be waaaaay over-subscribed!

So, I guess I'll try again sometime, maybe a local radio station?
The good thing for me, though is that I didn't renege on the challenge and the people for whom I sent the dedication still got to hear the sentiments thanks to email.
The good news for you is that you do too!!..........

As the saying goes,'here's what you could have heard!??'

Hi Steve and the team,

This is an unusual request! But I would love you to dedicate a song to my wonderful family on 25th January, MY birthday, which marks the end of my '50 things in my 50th year'.
I have done various challenges which I've never done before and sending in this email is the very last one and I want it to be all about my family.
So to my fabulous husband, John and children Rachel, Alan, Megan, Luc and Nathan I want you all to know how special and loved you are and to thank you for being in my life and being 'amazing' people.
This is also the day the youngest member of our family, baby Erin, is being dedicated, so it seems fitting to wish her a life full of love too!

Thanks Steve, it'll be wonderful to hear this request on your programme,
With love
Karen Sadler in Colwyn Bay,North Wales

Week 39- Host a fundraiser meal

The weeks have rolled into months and incredibly it is fast  approaching the end of May and therefore the first half of this 'new year'. Which means my 50th year was well and truly over ages ago and now I'm catching myself saying things like: 'wow, do you realise it's a whole 12 months since ......'
Fortunately it's not quite so long since John and I hosted a dinner party in order to raise money for Macmillan nurses. This idea had been on my to do list for over a year and even before my father in law was diagnosed with cancer. When we watched an advert on TV during the time of his illness, encouraging people to get their mates round for drinks and put a box out for donations to Macmillan's, we both knew in an instant that we should do it.
Our version was to host a 4 course meal and 6 very good friends, plus a friend's  friend were able to come. We had a brilliant evening; I think the food was palatable and certainly the company, conversation and camaraderie was outstanding. However, what made it even more special of course was the enormous generosity of our friends and the opportunity, therefore, to send a sizeable cheque off to the Macmillan nurses in Winsford, Cheshire.
I'm touched to think that by sharing friendship we support and encourage not only those we know well but their wider families and from there a wider community again. This happens repeatedly I realise all over the world, especially thanks to online giving etc, but when it's tangible and close to home- indeed, in your home, then it's personal and special and sort of heartwarming.
Friends, you know who  you are, thank you once again.

Week 38 - Take up a new activity.... Spinning.

If you're confused as to what 'spinning' is, you wouldn't be on your own. If you have visions of me going to the leisure centre to set up a wheel and begin making thread of course you'd be as completely misguided and confused as I was a few months ago.
Spinning or indoor cycling as it's also called, is a fitness class.
I think it's still a relatively new type of exercising, but it's become very popular and it's an absolute killer!!
John started going in the autumn and kept telling me about all these young women and him, the token male, at which point I thought I'd better go along too! Actually, there's quite a mix of ages and shapes and male and females at the class we go to now and because you have your own bike, to some extent you can control your own pace. Having said that, the instructor puts you through a rigorous routine and constantly urges you to step up the resistance on the bike; you can't really avoid the pressure of trying to pedal as furiously as the keenies around you!
So it is a gruelling workout, spinning hard in the saddle, pushing out of the saddle and also in the hover position and to help and motivate you it is all accompanied by music and shouted instruction.
Incredibly, despite the fact that it's knackering, that I emerge looking like a sweating lobster and that it's early on a Saturday morning, I do actually enjoy it!

Well, not a picture of me I know, but do you realise how unattractive a sweating lobster looks?
These people have definitely not just done a class!

Week 37 - Sunrise

You may be thinking that my 50th year is lasting more than 12 months. Well actually yes it came to an end on the 25th.
I'm nearly there, the challenges are almost all completed, but there are a couple that are on going and will need a little more time.I decided as a final challenge I should follow my son in law's example and fulfill a long held ambition, i.e - write a book!
So, I've actually done 44 of the 50 to date and the other 4 are scheduled, but couldn't happen for various reasons until February.
Do I feel disappointed that I didn't successfully achieve the 50 in a year? Emphatically no! It was always about the challenge of doing different things, about having fun, about writing these blogs -and having a target. I will finish; it'll just be a little delayed. That's alright with me, I'm not so personally competitive that I'm beating myself up! Journeys are as good as destinations in my opinion.
All of which means you get to read my blog for longer, yay!! By the way, thanks to those of you who have made really positive and complimentary comments about the blog -very much appreciated, I love receiving feedback.

Back to week 37 then and early November when I realised you didn't have to get up quite so early in the morning to watch the sunrise. What I wasn't so smart to realise was that going on a cloudy day was never going to be a good idea. For that reason I actually hiked up Bryn Euryn at 7am on 2 separate occasions. Harvey, of course didn't mind at all, as he never refuses more than one walk in a day. From the summit of Bryn Euryn there's a wonderful 360 degrees panorama and on the clear morning it was stunning to see Colwyn Bay waking up to another new day.
There's something very cathartic about witnessing the light dawning effortlessly and night turning to day. No striving, no confusion, no rush- just God's creation doing what it always does. Very reassuring.
The peace and solitude was equally calming. It was a beautiful start to the day.

Week 36 - Live on £1a day for a week.

I wondered how this one was going to work to be honest when I live with two other people. However, those two other people, John and Nathan, were generously up for this challenge too and that made it a whole lot more interesting and exciting 

We decided on menus for the week and planned out what we could afford on just £21 (£3 each x 7 days).Actually,it's surprisingly more than you may imagine. 

Here's what we bought: 

• potatoes
• Onions 
• Pasta
• rice
• eggs
• sardines
• oats
• milk
• tinned tomatoes 
• baked beans
• fish fingers
• frozen peas
• cooking bacon
• small wedge of cheese 
• bread flour
• butter 

 This, amazingly came to less than £21 from Lidl! I thought we may need to replenish milk supply as the week progressed, so it was comforting to know we had another £2.50 to spend.
Breakfasts consisted of porridge every day, and made entirely with water by the end of the week even after having bought more milk!!
Lunches at work were a cheese sandwich. Evening meals included the ingredients you see above.
Were we hungry? - absolutely not. We had plenty of carbs and some to spare at the end of 7 days.
Could we snack or have luxuries? - absolutely not. In fact the biggest negative was that you got bored of the same food.
Could you have lovely fruit and veg? - No! and I for one really missed my fruit at breakfast and the great variety we usually enjoy.
Did we cheat? - well no, but we did allow ourselves tea and coffee and spices from the store cupboard.
The best bit? - getting unexpectedly invited out for dinner at the end of the week and being fed delicious, tasty, varied food including dessert, ....thanks Su and Richard.
The really important bit?- giving the money we would normally have spent away to 'Christians against Poverty'

This was a sobering challenge. We are so extremely lucky and rich to be able to enjoy the vast variety and quantity of great food that we normally consume.

We realised afresh just how difficult and heart-breaking it must be not to be able to provide basic food necessities, never mind anything else.

This is something we should definitely do again.

Week 34 and 35 - Night swim/skinny Dip!!

Both of the above were on my list and I have to confess right now before I go any further, that both got slightly modified.
Okay, let's be totally honest, I didn't actually do either of these things, but life sometimes throws you unexpected circumstances and then you just have to go with them.
So the night swim became a night bathe and the skinny dip was an unforeseen boxing day 'wade'. Both were unchartered territory for me and therefore I deem them acceptable to include on my list.
In my defence regarding the night swim (not that I have to defend myself, but somehow I feel compelled to), one evening in late August I was all set to run out into the waves on Conwy Morfa beach........... when I realised those waves were about a mile away at least! After that, I kept watching the tide tables and the shortening days and my well-meaning husband reminded me that I wouldn't be able to see the jellyfish in the dark. I'm afraid that did it for me (I did freak out rather pathetically in the summer when I got stung by one!)
Happily, in half term I booked a wonderful cottage near Chepstow which included a hot tub. Suddenly, a night time bathe in lovely hot water, relaxing with a glass of wine and under the gaze of the stars seemed a much more pleasant (and easier) proposition. In reality, there were no stars to see, just cloud and rain, but hey, you can't have everything!
Now for the boxing day wade. At one point I thought maybe the boxing day dip in the sea should be one of my challenges and then I remembered that we had something very special already planned for the day. It was the day we were going as a family to Llandwyn Island on Anglesey to commemorate my father in law. It was a significant place for him and as there were 10 of us together at Christmas it was the best time for us to go.
If you know the island, you'll know that it's generally never an island, rather a piece of land connected by a causeway to the rest of the beach. Although we had checked the weather, made arrangements for the transport of 81 year old mum and duly set off very early, no- one it seems had bothered to consult the tides. As we reached the causeway there was already water covering the sand. John managed to give his mum a fireman's lift across, others took their shoes off and walked across and those with wellies on gave piggy backs! I was gallantly carried by one of my nephews.
We must surely all have realised that the return was not going to be any easier, but probably we all hoped that the tide wouldn't rise too quickly. So a little later when we saw a despondent family sheltering at the end of the causeway we knew our hope was in vain. The water was rising, the wind was blowing, the rain was pouring down and there was absolutely no way we could stay freezing, marooned on the island for hours. Unexpectedly, the boxing day dip was back on the cards!
Without hardly any hesitation, we decided our only choice was to enter that icy water,....We all removed our shoes, socks and trousers and across the deepening waters we waded. I should add that Nana was sensibly exempt from this madness and was carried 'Sidan chair' style by her 4 grandsons.
In conclusion here, I return to my point at the start about unexpected circumstances. Sometimes they really do turn out to be the most significant moments. What would have been a pleasant yet poignant family walk on the beach has now become a family story, an adventure, a landmark occasion which will be often recounted and passed down through the generations. The unforeseen drama didn't dampen or destroy our resolve to say our final goodbyes; instead it added to our experience. My father in law would have approved and being the raconteur that he was, it was right, exactly right.

Week 33 - Not a christmas card christmas card!

Well this is a bit of a funny one I know! Most of the 50 things have been about new experiences and challenges and this seems to fly in the face of that ideal.
However, after remembering the amount of money spent on stamps last year I decided that I could use that cash more wisely this Christmas. It's not that I'm against card giving, and I love to send news at this time of year, stay in touch with friends and communicate best wishes for the festive season. 
The truth is though, that these days there is more than one way to skin a cat; in other words, there are other ways to do this.

So, here it is! This is my Christmas card/newsletter to you. What's so great for you is that you have access now to a whole year's worth of news, photos and witty banter!!?If you've been following my blog all year you'll already know what I've been up to (if you haven't,.... read all the entries and then you'll be up to speed! Make sure you go back to week 1 which explains everything.)

The main family news in 2014 is that we lost John's dad, Keith, in June, after an eight months illness with pancreatic cancer. It was obviously a difficult and sad time and yet John was able to spend a day every week with his parents which was precious and a privilege. His mum is remarkable and is coping amazingly.
The summer in fact was full of mixed emotions for the wider family as we celebrated one niece's wedding and another's first baby, both of these events coming only a few weeks after the funeral.
As for our children; Rachel and Alan continue to thrive in Loughborough with their puppy, Griff. Rachel is in her second year of maths teaching and Alan has just started a Phd. Alan has also written a book about his incredible £1 challenge (www.myonepoundchallenge.co.uk)
Megan has now lived in Bath for over a year and is thoroughly enjoying her work as an OT, volunteering in her church and working among young people and homeless people in her area.She lives in a fabulous house  which she shares with 2 other young women and she says it's definitely not a student pad and she feels very 'adult' now!
Luc, incredibly is in his final year at Loughborough and juggling his degree, church and student team work, creating wonderful meals with his housemates and generally living life to the full. He has established himself as arguably the best centre back in La Liga (Loughboroughs indoor football league). Follow @HIMYMata on Twitter.
Nathan is now in his GCSE year,over 6ft tall, still playing rugby and tennis and extremely pleased to have just had his brace removed which he reckons makes him now the most handsome guy in his year!!! It's great that we still have him at home with us but he definitely misses the others and he's very patient and tolerant of his not so young parents!
John and I both work 4 days in teaching and have Fridays off. We have had a sabbatical from Church leadership this year and have spent  time supporting our parents, taking up 'spinning' classes, visiting our children, still tandemming and of course completing '50' challenges. Next year it's John's 50th birthday so we'll see what exciting things he gets up to..

Now for the photos:

Wishing you a wonderful Christmas with those you love and all the best for 2015

Lots of love, Karen, John, Rachel,Alan,Megan,Luc and Nathan xx

(not forgetting Harvey and Griff)