#12 Kiss a random person 7 August 2010

The Brampton Mile. On my last day in Chesterfield England I was treated to the Brampton Mile. Basically 17 pubs on a long street. Not unlike the Monopoly Pub crawl that we did in London only this on is very easy in that there is no searching for the pubs.

All the pubs were very different and we had a great time at all of them. Then we came to about our 10th or 11th pub? Flirty and cute like I also am, I was ordering the drinks from the bar and talking up the bartender. Sometime during our stay at the bar I decided to go get the bartender because I wanted to take a picture with him.

He came around the bar and was very kind and cheerful to take a picture with me, but what I wasn't expecting was when the picture was over he reached around me and kissed me. A bit startled but always quick on my feet I said, "wait, can you do that again?" Then looked at Donna and said, "take a picture" This time he really kissed me. Whooooo.

Going back to high school, about 10 minutes later a guy came around to the table asking if the bartender could have my phone number. Then he came back with the bartenders phone number on a piece of paper for me. How cute is that? Seriously, felt like I was in high school again and having runners do the notes with the check the block if you like me. Hee hee.

So, he kissed me first. He was a total stranger and it was one really good kiss.

#55 Build a Sand Castle on the Beach 6 Aug 2010

      Visiting friends; John Goddard, and Tim & Donna McLeod, in the northern region of England, they decided to take me to Scarborough. Little did they know that they were getting themselves into one of my goals off the 101 list. It was a beautiful British day, which meant windy with a chance of rain (thankfully it did not rain till on our way home). We got to the beach just in time for me to say, "I want to build a Sand Castle!"

      We all agreed it would be fun so we went to the pound shop. Hee hee not the dollar store but the pound shop, and got some buckets and spades. Then we were off to the beach. They were expecting a quick lump in the sand, I was expecting a full on estate. Plans were in the works. It didn't take long till Tim was banned from the project and we found him a new job. He was to obtain water in the smallest bucket we had. It suited him well.

      John was constantly fighting with personal urges that kept springing up as Donna and I bent over to build the sand castle.

     It took us about 2 hours to complete our Sand Castle. All of us admitted it had been a great time. It is a wonder how as adults you forget how much fun you had as a kid doing simple things like playing in the sand. We all got to go back to our inner child that day. Tim maybe a little more than the rest of us.

     The hardest decision was whether or not to destroy the castle when we were finished and all the pictures were taken. We decided to take a walk and get some ice cream to mull it all over. When we were walking past a young boy had started to play with the castle. Tim and I yelled at him and told him to jump on the castle. He said no and that he couldn't.

     We told him that he could and that he should because we built it and we were telling him to. After a few minutes of coaxing he finally gave into temptation and jumped onto the castle smashing it. Tim then gave all of our pales and building utensils to a young boy who looked like the other and asked, "are you his brother?" the boy said yes. "Go tell him that he cannot come home until he rebuilds it exactly like it was" Isn't Tim lovely.

     Absolutely brilliant day and wonderful achievement. I had more fun building a sand castle with my friends, acting like a 10 year old then I could ever dictate in words.

#45 Attend the Moulin Rouge Performance in Paris 21 August 2010

Absolutely amazing! I feel as though I could leave this blog entry just with those two words and be describing the whole performance. Major and I decided we needed to take a trip together before we PCS and we only had a short weekend so this was the perfect knock off the list vacation.

Leaving early Saturday morning we drove to Paris in the Volvo, top down of course (it was a beautiful sunny day). At the show we sat next to two lovely girls from Melbourne, Australia. The dinner was lovely and then the performance.

I was truly surprised. It was more than I expected it to be. They had a few intermission performances that were outstanding in of themselves. A juggler who was spinning glow sticks he made it to 7 but was most successful at 6. These two men who were acrobats and could lift and balance each other in ways the body should just not move. And the last performance was a venquilitrist, he was quite funny.

But the girls, the costumes and yes the all very Aston Kutcher looking men were fabulous. The whole evening was magical. I left the hall full of life and spirit.

# 40 Clean out the Closet and donate clothes 2 Aug 2010

         It took a lot to do, but I finally did it. I buckled down one day and said THIS IS IT!!!! I had so many clothes that I haven't worn in years, clothes that are really cute but if I tried to wear them someone would say "She is way too old to be wearing THAT!", and then there are the clothes and are too small/torn/faded/worn out/just need to go.
         So, I started by taking everything out of my drawers, closets, and out from under my bed and piled it into a big heap on the livingroom floor. I put a movie on and grabbed a bier. I knew this was going to be a long event. Every item was held up to pass the "do I liked can I still get away with wearing this" test. If it passed this round it then went on to the "does it fit" round. If it passed again it went into the keep pile. If not it went into the donate bin.
         After two movies and I think 3-4 biers I finally finished. I put all the keepers back in the closets and drawers, and ended up with 3 very large overstuffed donation bags. I am not talking your average grocery bags. I am talking you just went to Macy's and bought bedding bags. On the bright side, I no longer have to wonder if the outfit I chose will fit and I always have a hanger when I open my closet.
         Like I said, it was painful. Getting rid of clothes always is, you never know if you will lose the weight to fit into those really cute jeans I use to wear in high school that will never be in fashion again. lol. It is done!!!! Now I don't have to ship so much back to the states. Hooray !!!

# 79 Playing the Lotto 21 May 2010

         During my vacation to see my sister and nephews I took a quick stop to play the lotto and some scratch-its. Matthew thought it was very funny that I hadn't done either of these before. He actually had to help me fill out my Mega-Millions Power Ball slip.

        Just before stopping at the gas station to pick up my scratch-its and lotto ticket the whole family went out for Chinese food, which was very very good. So, naturally I had to use the numbers on the back of my fortune for my lotto numbers. I also played two more times on the slip with my own made up numbers. But wouldn't you know? The fortune numbers are the ones that actually won something! Well it was only 10$ but still better than nothing. I had fun playing the scratch-its. Those were more like playing a game then gambling.    

        All together, it was a fun experience and my whole family got a laugh out of the fact that of all the things I could chose to do in life I chose to play the lotto because I hadn't ever done this before. Just another thing I wanted to experience.

         The man behind the counter was kind enough to take a picture with me. I think he thought I was crazy and was just being a good sport to get me out of his store.

#14 The Monopoly Pub Crawl 19 June 2010

The Mission: To visit 26 pubs in London in the course of one day successfully drinking one alcoholic beverage at each pub.

Timeline: 1030am-1130pm

The Crew: Tim and Donna McLeod, John Goddard, Mike Hill, Lisa Anderson, Will Arden and ME!!!!

Last ones Standing: Tim and Donna McLeod, John Goddard and ME!!!!!

With a combination of tube rides, train rides, cabs, rickshaw and a WHOLE lot of walking 26 pubs were visited with the 26th pub coming with great relief. Many blisters appeared on the feet of the group. Everyone attributed my fairing so well to being in the Army, I say it is because I prepared and wore the proper shoes.

We began our journey with 7 members in our Dash Tour group but by mid-way dwindled down to the remaining 4 that completed the game. I have to admit the first half of the day wasn’t the most fun as it seemed like we were just rushing from bar to bar. But as the day turned more into a competition and we had to get creative in order to find the next pub the day became full of laughs. Tim, Will and John decided that I was the Community Chest.

By the time we got to the last pub Tim couldn’t walk anymore but we didn’t care. We had made it. Finally we could sit back and enjoy a drink. I personally took over 100 pictures. We have a picture of all of us outside every pub as a group as well as a few others along the way. For now the pictures can be seen on my Kodak Gallery Page.

This tour I definitely saw a different side of London. As a tourist you see Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Tower of London etc. But by walking from pub to pub I saw the slums of London all the way to Park Ave. When walking past the Ritz Hotel, Donna and I overheard the doorman ask a couple who was trying to enter the hotel say, “Are you guests of the hotel?” When they replied no and that they just wanted to go in for a drink at the bar, the doorman replied, “I’m sorry we have a very strict dress code, you cannot come in.” This couple wasn’t even badly dressed. Donna and I had to snicker a bit.

The last picture is of our British Monopoly Board that is signed by a bartender from every pub that we went to. Dash is sitting on the board to represent that this was a Dash Tours event. The day was a lot of fun. A lot of work but all good things come at a price. If it was easy everyone would do it.

#8 Improving my geography knowledge with 500k on Traveler IQ

This has taken FOREVER but I finally made the cut today. If you ever want to make yourself feel stupid this is the game to play. You really think you know your geography and then you just can't seem to get it. At one time I had everyone in my office playing this. Some of us where like, "we are college graduates! How can we not get this!" I will still play from time to time and see if I can better my score, but I doubt it.

Give it a whirl and see how you do: http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq