So, I’m late again with my blog, but for very good reason. I went to stay with my Gran this week and she doesn’t have wifi, or even much phone signal or 4G at her house. After being quite ill 3 weeks ago, I’m pleased to report that she’s doing quite well for an 89-year old.
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I shall start my writing from the previous weekend, where I joined my mountaineering club for our annual Christmas dinner trip to our club hut, Inver Croft, up near Achnascheen. The hut is a 10-minute walk from the road along boardwalks, carrying all your kit, and it has solar panels for electricity (not much use in the winter) and no hot water, so its always a bit of an adventure. Saturday saw my first New Munro of the challenge, done in quite some style with an 11-hour day up the remote Maoile Lunndaidh. It started in the dark with a 9km walk-in along a track, then some step-kicking up snow, with an exciting (if unintentional) icy, rocky, snowy, heathery, grassy scramble at the top, before a long walk along a broad ridge to the summit. We were completely blessed with a stunningly sunny and still day and views stretching into the distance of the snowy mountains all around. Perfect after a month or so absence from the mountains! The walk out was then 11km along the same track, finishing a good 2 hours into darkness, but rewarded with a spectacular meal of smoked salmon starter, venison stew and Christmas pudding. I also managed to try a Salted Caramel Liqueur, adding to my 30 types of alcohol item. 

Sunday morning proved less adventurous, as I got up to find that my legs hadn’t particularly enjoyed their 11-hour day. After a long lie-in, instead of driving straight home, I completed another random act of kindness by going on a thorough cleaning spree of the Inver Croft kitchen, while the rest of my car mates enjoyed a full-day’s mountain walking. While I generally like things to be clean and will grab a tea-towel to help with washing up, I think this was above and beyond the normal call of duty. My clean-up took about 6 hours and included helping finish off the previous night’s washing up, scrubbing all the work surfaces, cleaning both industrial hobs, and then getting to work on the food boxes and shelving, where I found old mice poo and a very mouldy and sticky something glued on to the back of a shelf (possibly a pepper or chilli?) Hopefully the next visitors to Inver Croft will enjoy a more hygienic kitchen experience.

I was only at home for a few days during the week, but I did manage to squeeze in a new film on a night in by myself: the rather cheesy musical Walking on Sunshine. I can’t particularly recommend it unless you want some nice eye-candy to look at. I’m sure Matt is gutted he was away for that one…… I also visited my friend Lindsey for some more work-related activities for our joint yoga retreat, and I’m sorry to report I missed an ‘Opportunity’ that I could have taken……I was playing with her son Bram (who is 3) when he asked me ‘Do you want to smell my feet?’ – the words ‘No Thanks’ were already out of my mouth before I remembered my challenge…..
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I also sent another letter – maybe not quite in the spirit of the challenge, but it was the challenge that prompted me to do it when I otherwise wouldn’t – I completed a postal entry into the Loose Women competition to in £200k. If I don’t write any more blog posts, its because I’ve won…..

​Wednesday saw the start of a long weekend trip to Wales to visit family, with my Dad first in line. After a nice lunch out in Cosmos (another of my 30 restaurants, 9 now in total) we went home and I took my 5th opportunity of the Challenge when Dad asked me if I wanted to watch a Star Wars marathon with him ahead of the new film coming out, helped along by sharing a bottle of bucks fizz (I am now over half way on my 30 types of alcohol challenge, in less than 2 months!) We decided on the first 3 films (or last 3, depending on your point of view) and I was surprised as how much I enjoyed them and how much I actually remembered from seeing them at some point in the distant past. I was slightly surprised by the number of casual gender discrimination and sexist scenes and comments in the film – it just goes to show how much things have changed!  I will now hopefully have more clue what is going on in the new film when we go to see it.

On Thursday, I went to my Gran’s house to stay with her for the weekend. I spent the evening with my cousin Lizzy and her 2 boys, and got to read another book (again a children’s book) to her 3-year-old George – the ever classic The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This is particularly apt for George, as I think he has modeled his eating habits on the book!

I also popped in for a nice quiet chat with my aunty away and bumped into my cousin and her boys again there who were ‘just leaving.’ Instead, I took another ‘opportunity’ to step into their world for a 30 minute war, complete with a protection wall built from yoga mats to hide behind. My aunty and cousin also joined in and the five of us spend a happy and noisy time rolling around on the floor.
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I really enjoyed seeing my family and am once again so grateful for the way all of my extended family get on, support each other and have a jolly good time full of laughter when we all get together. It was great to spend time with my Gran in particular, as despite a 60-year age gap, we can gossip like 2 teenage school girls. She’s my inspiration.

I’m now away for the next 2 weeks with family for Christmas and leading on a Scout Mountaineering course over the New Year, but will hopefully get a chance to update on the next few week’s adventures.
This week’s learnings are:

1. Family is so important to me. Cherish the time you have with them, let them know they are loved and that while you might not always physically be there, you’re only ever a phone call and a short plane ride away. I consider my Gran one of my best friends despite a 60-year age gap!
2. Kids ask random questions. No, I do not want to smell your feet. Yes, I would like to shoot my aunty with a bazooka.
3. Sexism and role models in film stars have come a long way since 1977. I always used to fancy Hans Solo but didn’t realise he’s such an arrogant pig!

Another busy week on the ‘30 things of 30 for 30’ challenge, although I am slowing done on some things and yet to get started on others!

The week started with a Christmas Ceilidh with my mountaineering club, thus adding another type of exercise to my tally, bringing me to 6. It was a fantastic evening, with a great band and some of the more unusual Ceilidh dances. In addition to the normal Gay Gordons and Strip the Willow, we also did dances where the guys had to pretend to be rutting stags, complete with growling, and another where we galloped around the room at will, until they shouted find a circle and you had to grab the nearest people you could find. I also ended up with ceilidh bruising, from doing a ‘basket,’ or ‘helicopter’ as Matt calls it, where 2 men and 2 ladies form a tight circle with arms round shoulders, and spin around until the ladies feet come off the floor.

The next day saw a Christmas meal at a fellow mountaineers house. He provided the turkey and few other staples, while other guests brought the rest. Matt cooked 40 pigs in blankets, although he was disappointed at the way the bacon shrank when it cooked, so they became ‘pigs in scarfs’ and we also made some cheese straws (unfortunately I do these fairly often, so it didn’t count as a recipe for my challenge. ) While at the party, I engaged in the festive spirit, with some sherry and also some champagne, adding to my ‘try 30 alcohol drinks.’ We also watched the film ‘Elf’ to get into the Christmas spirit, and as it’s a film I’ve never seen before, it counts towards the 30 new films tally, bringing that one to 6. I also had a chance to educate an American on how Christmas should be done. She’d never heard of Trifle, Christmas Pudding, Devils on Horseback, Christmas Cake, Christmas Crackers and quite a few other Christmas traditions. She even said they don’t normally have turkey!

​Both occasions also seemed appropriate opportunities to do something different to my hair, so I found a handy clip to keep the hair of the back of my neck while getting sweaty at the ceilidh, although I did look like a flamenco dancer and I actually put some time and effort into using curling tongs for the Christmas meal. Although the curls looked equal lengths in the mirror, I could not get them to look equal lengths in the photo!

My Christmas-mad friend Kristina came to visit on Sunday, in a flying 26 hour stopover. We packed a lot of Christmas in, starting with a panto (oh no we didn’t) a visit to the Christmas markets (complete with Baileys Hot Chocolate) and a visit to the Virgin Money Street of Light (good, but not as good as Fremont Street in Las Vegas, which is what we were both expecting) We finished the night with a meal at my favourite restaurant Maison Bleue, (you have to try the haggis balls!) taking my restaurant count to 8, and my alcohol count to 14 with a vodka, lime and lemonade. (I liked it, it didn’t like me the next morning.)

​We had planned to go The Dome for brunch the next morning before Kristina left, but the weather was rubbish and we were both still full from the previous night’s meal, so Kristina instead (strongly) encouraged me to put my Christmas Tree up. While I am normally highly excited by the thought of Christmas trees, and had been half tempted to put it up when the clocks went back in October, I hadn’t got around to doing it before Kristina arrived, and was feeling a bit lethargic about it, partly because I need to dismantle a stack of shelving to get the Christmas tree out from behind it. However, I am so pleased that I have now done it, with a lot of encouragement from Kristina, and I’m very pleased with the result, brightening up my lounge. I’m counting this as an opportunity taken, as its not something I would have done on my own. 

This week also saw another colouring picture completed and finally I met another ‘interesting person’ at my swing dance class (and in the subsequent pub meet) called Alex. Alex is a member of the International Scottish Country Dancing team and between Christmas and New Year, he is meeting his Swiss girlfriend and the rest of the team in Vienna for rehearsals for a competition. As with the other new interesting people I’ve met, I did not get around to asking them for a photo.
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Things I’ve learnt this week:

1. Christmas is a lot about the tree. I’ve turned into a Christmas Tree snob and find myself criticising other people’s tree attempts on facebook.  I’m dreading if I ever have kids and have to let them join in the decorating as they won’t understand that it’s a precision task….
2. Christmas in America sounds rubbish. Thankfully, they have Thanksgiving which seems to have more tradition to it.
3. There is actually a Scottish Country Dancing championship, and its international!

So, things are starting to slow down a little, plus I’m getting more forgetful at taking pictures of what I’ve been up to.

Big news this week is that, together with my friend Lindsey, we announced a Wellbeing Retreat that we’ll be running together, including yoga, walking and coaching in a beautiful part of the Scottish Highlands. (See http://www.reachthepeak.co.uk/wellbeing-retreat.html if you’re interested in finding out more.)

​Lindsey is a qualified yoga instructor, so in order to trial what will be offered on our retreat, I joined one of her yoga classes this week, which counts as one of my 30 types of exercise. I have never done yoga before, and was surprised at how easy it was to pick up as a newbie. It’s completely non-competitive, so you’re just able to take each posture as far as your own body allows and as far as you want to stretch yourself (both literally and figuratively!) I was impressed to see Lindsey do a full-on yoga headstand as well, although it was a little beyond my capabilities in the first lesson!
 
While staying at Lindsey’s, I was also able to read another book to her son, this time learning all about the workings of the body, from none other than Dr Suess: Inside Your Out. Highly entertaining and pretty educational, for both Rory and me!

We (Matt and I) had a film night at the cinema this week – with our unlimited cards at Cineworld, it encourages you to go and see things you wouldn’t normally choose, and also means that while you’re there, you might as well see 2 films. So on Sunday evening, we saw Steve Jobs and then Bridge of Spies. I was left unimpressed by Steve Jobs – I hadn’t realised he was actually a bit of an asshole (at least, that’s how the film portrays him) and the history of Apple isn’t quite my area of interest. It was also hard not to keep picturing Kate Winslet as Rose from Titanic, rather than a bookish Polish assistant with a dodgy accent. I guess first impression count for more than you realise sometimes. However, I did learn, (or at least, the film suggests) that the original Mac logo of a rainbow-coloured apple with a bite out of it is a tribute to Alan Turing, the father of computers, who was homosexual and rumoured to have killed himself by eating a poisoned apple. 

​Bridge of Spies was far more my type of thing, starring Tom Hanks, which automatically makes it a good film. Set in the cold war, Tom Hanks gets involved in negotiating with Russia and Germany for the exchange of spies. It was tense and interesting and a more realistic spy film that James Bond. 

Also over the weekend and into the week, I’ve had trouble getting to sleep at night. I have found that getting up and colouring pictures is a good way to while away some time at 4am. I produced this rainbow coloured one to brighten up my night-time and it’s my favourite one so far!
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On the hairstyles front, I realised I’ve been a bit lazy with trying anything new, so dug through my drawers to find some old hair bits. I found this black velvet wire contraption that is supposed to help you do buns and twists. I used it to do one of their suggested styles, the half bun. Not particularly inspiring, but more interesting than my normal ponytail. 

I also made a start on my challenge to lose 30lbs, dropping 3.5 lbs this week by following Step 3 of Cambridge Weight Plan (for which I am  consultant.) My weight has always been a bit of a rollercoaster and I noticed some resistance to sharing progress via my blog, in case I can’t keep it up or put it back on next week. However, I’m hoping it will at least make me a little bit accountable to keep up progress this coming week!

My tips and learnings from this week are:

1. First impressions count more than you might think – make yours a good one
2. If you notice resistance to telling people about something, reflect a little on the reasons why. It could help you to unpick some of your own limiting beliefs about what you’ve committed to do, such as believing you won’t succeed. This then gives you something to work with!
3. Colouring in really isn’t just for kids and is a far more entertaining way to spend a night than watching rubbish TV