Tag: rubbish

Unicycling Day 5

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 2 Comments

September’s Challenge was indeed a challenge today, I seemed to have regressed slightly. Brought on maybe by a heavy fall early on in today’s practice. Upto this point I was going ok, I think ‘the fear’ has returned.

So in an attempt to stay positive I awarded myself a gold medal for a number of reasons:

  • Recovering from a ‘heavy’ fall
  • Effort
  • Fighting ‘the fear’
  • I was wearing my Team GB t-shirt

You can also see I have watched far too much of the Olympics…kissing the medal and biting medal to check for gold content.

This sums up how I am feeling about unicycling at the moment….

Unicycling Day 2

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 7 Comments

After the second day of the challenge, I'm definitely improving. I've had various comments that suggest riding on the grass is not the best plan of action. Initially this was purely done to avoid breaking limbs, but I think I am now ready to move to level hard ground, God help me!!!!

I didn't really intend on blogging every day, and I especially didn't intend on posting a video every day, but progress has been made so I feel I must tell the world…..

 

Unicycling Day 1

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 3 Comments

The start of a new month brings another monthly challenge: learning to ride a unicycle.

This is by far the most difficult challenge of the year, I wasn't too confident of success, and after viewing various YouTube video clips I was even less so. Even the 'experts' look as though they will fall off at any minute. Unicycle was ordered from Amazon for the bargain price of £45.

The first 5 mins of the challenge didn't go very well with various heavy falls, including ankle and elbow injuries. I was actually having trouble even getting on the bloody thing. So back to YouTube for some advice, and thanks to 'Coach Bob' I found a successful way to get on the unicycle. After another 10 mins I had discovered how to avoid hitting the deck, even if it meant letting the unicycle go flying through the air.

So with a new found confidence AND 2 hours of practice I am happy to report some success. The video below may not actually show said success but I'm feeling a lot more confident that this challenge is actually possible.

Although the video doesn't show it I was able to complete around four full pedals before stacking it.

I'm actually quite looking forward to day 2!

 

Swimming #6

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 3 Comments

Today saw a return to the immensely inviting Bourne Outdoor Pool…..

It was a very hot day in Bourne today so when Marie and I went to experience the delights of the pool we did expect it to be pretty busy. What we didn't expect was that every single person in Bourne AND the surrounding villages to be there. It was packed.

We stayed for about an hour trying to avoid kids wedged into rubber rings and various objects flying through the air – tennis balls, beach balls and the occasional small child. Swimming was nearly impossible far too many people, at one point I managed to collide with a ridiculous old man in his rubber ring that seemed intent on floating wherever we wanted to swim. Therefore not really much to report on the swimming front except to say: do not go to the outdoor pool on a hot day.

Swimming #1

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ Leave a comment

We move into August, which means another monthly project: swimming.

Now I can actually swim, not particularly well, and not particularly fast, but I could survive being dropped into a lake. Therefore the purpose of this month's project is to learn to swim better, maybe with the distant idea of completing a triathlon. My initial plan was to swim 2 or 3 times a week. But I have now decided to also include a 'tour' of the local pools in an attempt to give me more to say in this blog.

So #1 took me to my local pool at Bourne Leisure Centre, swimming is £4.45 a session. It is what they call a 'leisure pool', this means it has various 'fun' stuff going on: flume, wave machine,water spouting out everywhere and 1000s of kids. This makes swimming in a straight line rather tricky, and I use the term 'swimming' quite loosely. Now I can swim a kind of breaststroke, even my backstroke takes me from one end of the pool to the other. The problem I have is trying to do the front crawl, I have trouble breathing, it really knackers me out AND my hair gets in the way!!

A couple of things that have come out of session #1: I maybe need a couple of lessons to sort out my technique and I need to get my hair cut!

 

Carrot Cupcakes

~ Phil Lengthorn ~ 1 Comment

I must first admit to a big error: veering from my initial plan of only using recipes from 'celebrity' chefs.

Today's Carrot Cupcake recipe was taken from one of those dodgy 'Book Club' books that had been left in the staff room at school. May I just say at this point that I did not buy said book, I just stole the recipe. Big mistake.

After a run of reasonably successful baking a failure was always on the cards, although no one could have possibly guessed as to the size of the failure. Let me explain:

  • Carrot Cupcakes did not really taste of carrot.
  • Cakes did not really 'rise'.
  • The cake cases used were muffin cases, therefore making the cakes look even less 'risen'.
  • Icing was a disaster: did not set, in fact it would have worked well as a dipping side dish.

Final outcome was less than impressive, although they did taste ok, if you like carrot cakes that don't really taste of carrot…

And now for something completely different, and rather impressive considering she is only 8 months old, my niece, Grace, can do a fantastic Les Dawson impression…