59. Make my Christmas Pudding

A little background to this might be useful.

A few year ago I started to make my own Christmas puddings, as I could never find one that I really liked. I’m not a fussy eater, but I just don’t like nuts in my pud. But, the only way I could get a nut free pud, was to buy the nut allergy. However, that was alcohol free too.

So I started to make my own.

The recipe I’ve put together actually makes up 3 puddings. I usually have one that year, keep one to mature for the following year, and give one away to a friend. When I made my last batch two years ago, the person I was giving the 3rd pud to had a wheat allergy, so I changed key ingredients to make it wheat free. As there was no chance of them getting the 3rd pud this time, I went back to my standard recipe, although I did still tweak it further.

The process of making the pud is a long one. Over two weeks ago I started to soak the fruit in ¾ bottle of brandy! The dried fruit soaked up so much that the sultanas started to resemble grapes again!!

The next stage was compiling all of the ingredients, mixing them together, and then steaming them in a Bain Marie for 4 hours! Yes four!

Well, the smell in the kitchen was awesome!! It smelt like Christmas was coming! I really can’t wait to taste it, with homemade custard. My friend that is getting the 3rd pud is looking forward to theirs too.

Goal 59. Completed!

46. Complete a half marathon

In February 2013, I went out for a short 4 mile run, as part of my training plan for what would’ve been my 5th London Marathon. But, I injured my knee. Badly! I split my patella tendon, and when the tear healed it left a tendonopathy. Basically the scar tissue rubbed inside the knee. Sounds bad, and it was. My physio at the time said it was incredibly unlikely that I’d be able to do any long distance running again.

Well fast forward 5½ years, and I did my first Parkrun. That was last year. Since the I’ve really got back into running. So much so that I felt it was time to start pushing my knee, to what I knew I could do with it.

So, after doing a few 5k Parkruns, and now a few 10k’s too, I decided it was time to up the ante, and signed up for a half marathon!

Like with my previous Runthrough events, I was again joined by my two girls. Although they only ran 5k’s.

The course was at the Lee Valley Velopark, which was where a lot of the cycling events were held during the London 2012 Olympics. It was billed as being a flat course. Well, it wasn’t! A short one mile loop, that had two very short but sharp up hill sections. It also got quite boring after a while, and even struggled to keep count of how many loops I’d done.

Anyway, going in to the run my training had been ok. I’d managed an 8½ mile run in, with lots of 5k runs thrown in. On the day though I wasn’t feeling particularly great. My head mainly, rather than anything physical at the moment.

I wanted to go under 2hrs, for the first time ever, and made a 2hr long playlist on Spotify. Nothing like a bit of inspiration. The last time I did a half marathon event (in 2009), it did in 2hrs 5mins. I had gone as though as 1hrs 56mins in a training run, but that was the weekend before I injured my knee.

Well, it went a little better than planned! I had loads of music left, as I finished in 1hr 49mins dead!

I was shocked!! A massive PB!!

With everything that’s been going on over the last few weeks, I didn’t expect that. It’s clear that the physical and mental sides of my body aren’t connected at the moment, as I felt awful, but my body was in great shape! Clearly it’s telling the other crap going on doesn’t matter.

The other plus side was that both my girls hit 5k PB’s too!! So a good day all round.

So that is goal 46 completed, and my 3rd medal towards goal 50!!

Just a short little update to the blog, as not much has happened recently. But here is a little snapshot of the progress on a few of my targets.

12. Buy flowers once a month

This is still happening each month. I usually try and buy the flowers at the beginning of the month, but August’s flowers I deliberately left until near the end. Why? Because we were waiting for Claire’s exam results.

Last September Claire went back to college, to retake her GCSE maths. Well she only went and bloody got the pass mark she wanted!!! I was so proud of her!! The flowers were part of a little celebration for her.

This month’s flowers were as a good luck gesture, as she’s decided to go back again, and this time retake her GCSE English! Good luck babe x

45. Achieve my 50 Parkrun’s status

Yesterday I completed my 7th Parkrun, and again I achieved a new PB at the Greenwich (Avery Hill) course. My time was 21mins 36secs, just 4secs faster. I’m not sure if I can get any more out of that course. The other thing is that I’m really starting to think that getting to 50 will be a tough ask, as I’m really not sure how I can fit them in. We’ll see though.

46. Complete a half marathon

I’ve marked this as in progress, as I’ve entered one next weekend. Yes, you read right. Next weekend!

It’s at the Lee Valley Velopark, and a nice flat course. This will be my longest run for over 6½ years. Fingers crossed it goes well!

17. Pass my ground exams for flying

Yesterday too I also sat my first two ground exams, for my PPL.

I’m not going to lie, the run up to these have been very busy, and at one point a complete nightmare. First was Gilwell Reunion, then starting a two week course training, that had a very intense exam at the end of it. Plus a county camp weekend in between.

What also didn’t help was a complete mental breakdown, when I accidentally found out some news about someone that I used to be close to. This totally threw me, and caused a very serious episode, and a concerned friend calling the police to check up on me. I was fine, just not in a very good place, and I’m not entirely sure why.

Anyway, the reason I say that was just to show my preparation for the ground exams was, to put it mildly, a bit shit.

But, I went down to Rochester and simply hoped for the best.

The two exams I sat were Air Law, and Operational Procedures. The pass mark for both was 75%. Well, it went a little better than planned. I passed both! My mark for Air Law was 100%, and for Operational Procedures I scored 91%! To say I was pleased was an understatement!

So that’s more progress on these items, with a lot more to come over the next couple of months planned.

50. Achieve 10 medals for running

When it comes to running I’m not having much luck with weather. As the last few events have been bloody hot! So trust me to enter a 10k on the record breaking hottest August bank holiday weekend.

When I was looking at events a while ago I had earmarked the Runthrough 10k in Greenwich Park, mainly as it was local. My girls also wanted to the the 5k one for the same reason.

Anyway, it would be fair to say I was a little unprepared. I hadn’t run for a month, as I was concentrating on my cycling for Ride London, and I’d been on holiday. I had a done a quick training run a few days before, but wasn’t exactly in the best shape. At least that’s what I felt.

The course that runthrough choose is slightly different to ones that I’ve helped steward at. On this one, you have to do 3 laps of the park. For those that know Greenwich Park, will know that means “that hill” three times!! Bad enough on a normal day, but when the temperature was around 26°c at 1000, you can imagine how bad it was.

Normally on a 10k I don’t need to take in water, but this time I did at the end of the second lap. I was sweating so hot that the letters that were printed on my vest actually fell off!!!

But I somehow managed to post a very respectable time, of 50mins 18secs. Got to admit I was shocked at that. I does make me wonder what I could have done on a flatter course, cooler day, and not been on holiday.

So, another running event completed, and another medal to add to the collection. Just another 8 to go until I chalk off this goal.

43. Eat at 7 different restaurants with Claire.

When I originally set this goal I’d completely forgotten about our holiday coming up. It honestly hadn’t even come into my thinking. Maybe that’s because for the first time in 20yrs, Claire & I went on holiday, as just the two of us.

We spent a glorious week in Ibiza! Not we did we do a fair bit of letting our hair down, we also ate a number of different restaurants. So as to not make this goal too easy, I set a ground rule…. we had to eat a minimum of two courses, and a drink obviously.

This rule actually discounted the first three places that we ate at for dinner.

They were Ibiza Rocks Bar, El Gaucho, and Peppers. At the first two we only ordered mains. However, at Peppers we’re even stricter as we did actually have a starter and main. But this was more of a bar, it was billed as Thai Street Food, we were watching football, and then there was shots at the end. The less said about the “Gas Chamber” one the better.

So, to the first restaurant that I counted. The famous Cafe Mambo! A stunning seafront view, awesome food and amazing cocktails. It was a gloriously hot evening, and after dinner were stunned by the sunset we witness as we walked around San Antonio bay, back to our hotel.

The next night (Friday) we had already planned on going “out out” so wanted to have a meal of sustenance. My thought was a paella. Well, we were on a Spanish Island after all. We found a nice cafe nearby, on our first night that did nice meals. But one evening I spotted from our balcony a restaurant called Restaurant Pyrenees. I checked it out, and it looked great! A proper Mediterranean style restaurant.

A nice light starter of flatbreads, with olives and alioli, was followed by a mixed paella. It was also washed down by a lovely sangria too!! But, oh my god was we full at the end of the meal!

On our penultimate night we were in a dilemma. We had spent the afternoon in a bar watching the day’s football unfold, and were planning on going back to the rock bar, Can Rock, later. But we had a bit of a crave in for pizza. Literally a minute away from the bar we were in was a rustic pizzeria. Why count a pizzeria? Well it cooked wood fired artisan pizzas and calzones, and we had starters too. Calamari for me, and Croquettes for Claire. The pizzas were awesome! Fresh, wood fired, and full of flavour. Because of that we counted it.

I had always planned on having a special last night meal. So had to a little research on locations. As I said in a previous post, it was our 20th Wedding anniversary, which made this holiday the 20th anniversary of our honeymoon too. Well, I struck gold!! Just a 5 minute walk from our hotel was restaurant Es Virot. Another bay side location, but a lot quieter than Cafe Mambo.

As it was a celebration I ordered a bottle of cava, to accompany the meal, which was wonderful.

The food, the setting, and that we got to eat while watching the sun set, was the perfect way to end our holiday. The perfect end to a perfect week.

So that’s four more restaurants ticked off on goal 43. Just one more required.

It’s been about six week since my last crossbow competition, and today I had the last one of the outdoor season for 2019. The short drive up to Nuneaton once again, followed this time by the Nationals.

The weather was even worse than last time I shot here, with the tail end of the previous day’s storm, making conditions extremely windy. But what didn’t help was some very heavy showers either!! My 55m & 45m scores were well under par my PB’s. But somehow I managed to equal my PB at 35m’s! Still not sure how that happened! I finished the comp with 470/600, which all things considered is very good.

So that’s my outdoor title was retained! I’m the GB national champion for a fourth consecutive year.

That’s also more progress made to goals 36 & 38.

I am now eagerly awaiting the updated world rankings to see if I can move up from my current position at number 3. My fingers are well and truly crossed.

No. 32 Learn 10 songs on my ukulele.

Originally when I set this goal, I thought that this would take some time to achieve. The main reason is that with all my commitments, I don’t actually get much chance to play, and when I do I’ll either play my bass, or acoustic guitar.

Recently, as part of a plan to increase the usage of my old scout group’s church, my old cub leader set up a ukulele club. This was great!! a superb opportunity for me to join others a play. I had my first session this week, which was the group’s second, and there was a mix of expertise levels from complete beginners to experienced players. I would categorise myself as an intermediate.

That session covered a few chords, and 3 songs. When the saints go marching in, Jambalaya, and He’s got the whole world in his hands.

Now, I’m not actually going to count these 3 songs in my challenge. Why? well that’s mainly because of what happened next.

After the session I started surfing on YouTube, and found a lot of play along songs. Because of this I not only nailed my 10 songs, I actually learned about 20!!

So here is the complete this of ukulele songs that I learned:

Can’t help falling in love. Sweet Caroline. I’m Yours. Hound Dog. You’re the one that I want. Take me home country road. Can you feel the love tonight. American Pie. Someone you loved. Count on Me. Shotgun. Delilah. It’s my life. Shake it off. Dumb ways to die. This is me. A million dreams. I wanna be like you. Stitches. And finally, You’ve got a friend in me.

I have started a few more, but they are work in progress. However, for now goal no.32 is complete.

90. Celebrate our 20th Wedding Anniversary in style.

The 7th August 2019 marked exactly 20 years since mine & Claire’s. The last couple of years have been a bit rocky, it would be an understatement to say, but things between us now are stronger than they’ve been for a long time. So, as this was a big landmark anniversary, I decided to pull out all the stops.

The first thing I had to source was an appropriate gift. For 20yrs the traditional gift is china, but the modern day gift is platinum. Trying to find a suitable gift with those restrictions that I placed on myself  wasn’t easy. But I struck gold! (pardon the pun). I found a company that makes personalised gold & platinum song discs. So I got one made up with our first dance song.

Claire loved it!

But I still had to make it more special.

About 3 years ago we went as a family to the OXO Tower restaurant, to celebrate Laurie’s GCSE success. It was such an amazing meal, that we vowed to go back. But, for special celebrations only and I couldn’t think of any better.

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It was a wonderful meal, and a perfect way to celebrate our anniversary.

But, the celebrations didn’t end there, as we decided to make a second day of it too. The next morning, despite riding 100 miles on my bike a few days before, dusted off my old hybrid bike and had a leisurely ride into Greenwich. There we had a lovely light pub lunch, before riding back home. It may not sound much, but it was a lovely relaxing day, and the first time we’ve been out riding together. Which, will prove useful as Claire has agreed to do London to Brighton with me next year, in my new Team Mr Men and Little Miss. But more about that next year. 

Goal no 90, completed. 

61. Complete my second Ride London 100.

Well, I did it!! This year there was no emergency diversions, taking out a few miles, and the weather was so much nicer. All 100 miles, both of the big climbs conquered (Leith Hill and Box Hill), in a very quick time of 6hrs 50mins 44secs.

I crossed the start line at 0820, and kept and extremely fast average pace of around 19mph, for 40 miles! I shocked myself with that. But as it was a warm day, I was drinking a fair bit so needed a pee stop. I’m glad I did, as just 2 miles later I ground to a halt with some serious congestion. I basically had to walk a mile due to the sheer volume of riders. This held me up for about 40mins. After last it was plain sailing.

I completed all of the big climbs without stopping, and in fact didn’t stop at all for the remainder of the ride.

As I came round the final bend, with the finish line in front of me, I could see my support squad of Claire, Laurie & Holly, cheering me on. I was buzzing! My legs were on fire, and aching like made after caning the last 30miles to ensure I got under 7hrs, but I was on top of the world!

After I’d collected my medal and kit bag, I met up with them at Mind’s meeting point. Here I met with the charity’s events team for a good a chat, and pics. What a great day, and I am so glad I hit my fundraising target for them.

Goal 61. Complete!

As a footnote to this ride, much like my London to Brighton one, there is one last thing to add. Mind have been a great support to, and not just for Ride London. Their support and help for my own mental health problems, caused by that sudden life change last year, made even being here to do the ride possible. As a result my justgiving page will remain open for further donations at: justgiving.com/simon-emmett-rl2019.

Even though I’ve hit my personal fundraising target, I still made a further donation to them, and will continue to champion them. This now my second personal donation to a charity, and further progress towards goal no 54.

It’s been a very busy month with work, which is why I haven’t been able to blog much. In fact, during July, I worked a spell of 20 shifts, in just 23 days. This also included 12hr weekend shifts, and night shifts!!

Anyway, despite this I’ve still progressed a few items on my list. So here’s what I’ve been doing.

12. Buy flowers once a month. July flowers bought for Claire on 12th July. A lovely bunch of mixed roses.

18. Successfully obtain my Private Pilot’s Licence. The hours are clocking up quite nicely now. I’ve got 15hrs 35mins in the log book, and flying in circuits. So, plenty of take offs and landings! Still lots more to go.

29. Learn how to swim up to 750m. Steady progress with this. I’ve had a few lessons now, and my technique is improving a lot. I can now swim 50m without stopping; which for me is a massive step forward. My lessons have taken a bit of a snag for the summer. Better Leisure, in their infinite wisdom have changed my lesson time from 7pm, to 7am!!!!! So it doesn’t look like I’ll get many lessons in for the duration of the summer.

41. Be confirmed at Church. I have had a meeting with my local vicar, Father Clive at The Ascension, in Plumstead. The ball is now rolling, and I have a fair bit of reading to do in preparation for it.

One last update, and I decided to leave this one until last despite doing the others in number order.

10. Beat my eating disorder, and get my weight up to 10.5 stone. This has been going well. The therapy that I have received, along with the support from my family and close friends, has been amazing. Coupled with the complete blocking of the toxic individual that led to me developing the disorder, I am well on the road to recovery. One friend being a family member of that individual, who has cut them off too because of their actions, has also been a great support. This has helped my weight to increase to 9st 6.5lbs. (up from the low on 7th April of 8st 13lbs). All positive.

So, as you can see there is lots going on, with lots more planned over the next few weeks.