Final List of Challenges For 2005

After some deliberation, here are the final 12 challenges I intend to undertake, with some additional information.

Challenge #1: LIGHT:
Currently there are 6 bare bulbs in my flat. I've been meaning to put lightshades on them for years, but have never got round to it. It's about time I sorted this out. I'll have to think about colours... and shapes...

Challenge #2: BED:
My flat has two bedrooms. The main bedroom is where I sleep and has a bed and wardrobes and other bedroomy type things. My second bedroom is where I have dumped loads of old books, CDs, videos and other assorted rubbish. I'm going to make an effort to make it tidier, get rid of some stuff and get a bed or futon in there. This will make my parents happy, but will hopefully not encourage them to come and stay too often :-)

Challenge #3: DATE:
Potentially a tricky one... the challenge is to find a girl and go on an actual Date with her. For dinner, for a film, or for any of the other things that two people can do on a Date. The first part of this challenge will involve finding a suitable girl...

Challenge #4: COUNTRY:
Here I have to visit at least one country that I've never been to before. Should actually be quite easy if I go on holiday, which I fully intend to do. But there might be other shorter opportunities too.

Challenge #5: PROMOTE:
In the old days, I'd have qualified as an actuary and then been pretty much automatically promoted after two or three years. This doesn't seem to happen so much now, so in which case I will have to be more proactive in looking for opportunities. Or it might just happpen on its own in which case this challenge is a gimmee.

Challenge #6: SKILL:
My task here is simply to learn a new skill to a minimum level of competence. Not really sure what this is going to be, but it's one that I should start sooner rather than later to give me sufficient time to get ok at it.

Challenge #7: RADIO:
A friend of mine recently won a pile of albums from Dermot O'Leary's Saturday afternoon Radio 2 show. This made me think... I can do that too! My challenge is actually slightly easier than winning something though. All I have to do is get my name read out on any national radio station. If I happen to win something at the same time, then that's a bonus.

Challenge #8: PUB:
This is quite a fun challenge. There are about 50-70 pubs within the city walls of York. I intend to obtain photos of me having a drink in every single one of them during the course of the year. This is one that shouldn't be too hard unless I leave it until the last minute: One to two pubs a week is more than achievable. 50 in one week is a little more ambitious. There is a small task to do first, and that's get a list of all the relevant establishments so that I can tick off places I've been to. I think there is one from the last pub treasure hunt that should be an adequate starting point.

Challenge #9: COOK:
I'm not too bad at cooking if I can be arsed to do it, but generally I'm too lazy and easily tempted by pizza. Since I have Resolved to cook more this year, then it makes sense to take it to the next step and cook for someone else too. But not just anybody else, no, that would be too easy. It has to be somebody that as of the start of 2005, I had not met. This might be easier if Challenge #3: DATE goes well. I think there's an implicit condition that if I give someone food poisoning then that attempt at the challenge is failed.

Challenge #10: SOBER:
This is quite an easy one, despite what certain of you may think. Seven consecutive days with no alcohol at all.

Challenge #11: EBAY
I've never used eBay to buy or sell anything. But I do have a lot of old stuff I don't want - old CDs, DVDs, other random junk. A lot of it is the rubbish cluttering my second bedroom and hindering Challenge #2: BED. So I intend to start auctioning off some of it. This challenge is to make a £200 profit before the end of the year from various sales. I have absolutely no idea whether this will be easy or hard.

Challenge #12: SONGS
My final challenge for the year is music related. In 2004 I had intended to write a pile of songs. For one reason and another, I only managed one and a half. In 2005, I will write and record on the laptop 10 whole songs. One of them has to be upbeat.

I'll put a list of the challenges in the sidebar to be ticked off as I complete them. One nice thing, is that these potentially give me at least 12 easy posts later in the year! Good luck to me!