25 Climbing The Monument

Well you can't spend the last bank holiday of the year doing nothing can you? Ok, normally I could quite happily but I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to crack on and get something ticked off my list.

I've been in London for 22 years (yes, it really has been that long since I came down here to University as a wide eyed teenager) now and I've been past the Monument so many times and yet never been to the top of it. Today was the day to rectify that.

Having seen the weather forecast I thought it would be best to do it in the morning as it was meant to rain in the afternoon, so following roping in my friend Laurie to climb it with me we met up late morning, just as the heavens opened in typical British fashion.

It's a lot of steps up to the top but we did it with only one stop to take a photo (well that's my reason and I'm sticking to it) and the views were certainly worth it.

Amazingly there weren't many people up there with us. They must have seen the weather beforehand. The only shame was that we couldn't climb all the way to the urn at the very top but I'd seen enough of stairs by then.

An Action Packed Year Ahead

I thought before I turned forty it would be a good idea to put a list together of 40 things that I wanted to do in the coming year. Now that I'm here I'm starting to regret this idea. It all seemed a bit of a laugh at the time I was putting the list together but with only 49 weeks of the year left, fitting 40 things in is looking increasingly daunting.





Turning forty isn't as traumatic as you'd think. When you have friends who take the opportunity to remind you of how old you're going to be you don't have any choice but to accept it and get on with it. Following a fun day of drinking, food and good company the day before, the actual start of my fifth decade began with a bang (in my head). Plenty of cups of tea later and some help from Lindsey, the house was put to rights and I could relax and take in my upcoming adventure. More accurately I managed to vegetate in front of the TV watching Batman films - not an auspicious start

So what's on the list?

1 Stop smoking
2 Learn to dive
3 Try surfing
4 Go to the British Library
5 Visit Kew Gardens
6 Visit Vegas baby (and Sea
ttle to see Duncan & Amy)
7 Start my Internet business and see if it works
8 Decorate the house
9 Take an open top bus tour
10 Go on a steam train
11 Watch an open air film
12 Get a spray tan
13 Learn to give a good massage
14 Host a dinner party
15 Do a stand-up comedy spot (eek!)
16 Go for a floatation session
17 Try colonic irrigation
18 Have a food fight
19 Learn to play guitar (properly this time)
20 Try an exercise class in the gym
21 Make a snow angel
22 See the northern lights
23 Smoke a Cuban cigar
24 Throw a TV out of a window
25 Climb The Monument
26 Grow a plant from seed
27 Make my own wine
28 See Newcastle Utd play at a stadium (home or away)
29 Write a blog of my 40 @ 40 list and how I get on
30 Try Internet dating
31 Try Acupuncture
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40

And yes, there are some spaces free still as I'm still looking for things but I'm sure they'll get filled up throughout the year. It's a big list and there are some daunting challenges ahead but I'm not going to shy away from anything (well maybe one or two).

My job now is to get through all of these. Lets see how I get on.