116: 25 Before I’m 26 Pt 2

13. Read 3 of the 6 Jane Austen novels (In Progress)
I started this one of with the aim to finish it, I started Pride and Prejudice and I’m part way through – my phone has it at about 16% but I could have sworn I was further than that oh well! I have Pride and Prejudice on my Kindle (and on the Kindle iPhone app so I can squeeze in reading here, there and everywhere. I have a paperback copy of Sense and Sensibility and Northanger Abbey but haven’t started them yet. I also have a copy of The Mysteries of Udolpho which appears in Northanger Abbey.

14. Watch the 3 Lord of The Ring Films (again) (1/3)
I watched The Return of The King while curled up feeling ill back in about January but that was as far as I got. I guess this is something easier to fit in between now and my birthday.

15. Read the 3 Lord of The Ring Books.
This didn’t happen. In my mind I was going to read The Hobbit and then move onto The Lord of The Rings and do them all in one go but again it didn’t work out. It’s three days to my birthday and I’m not even a third through The Hobbit.

16. Meet @Ellefie in person (If you don’t read it go read her blog – she’s my birthday buddy).
Again this didn’t happen the two times that I was most recently in London and had time to spare, Ellefie was busy, when she was free and could spare the time I wasn’t in London or was already on the train home. We will make it happen this year!

17. Watch all 17 Studio Ghibli feature films (no 18 is being released in July 2011 – 8/17 as of 21st January).
I managed eight of the films but no more than that. Leading up to Christmas – Film Four showed all 16 out of 17 (Arrietty had come out in the Summer and was too recent for televising). I sat down and set the TV to record all 16 films but the signal cut out on a few of the recordings and I think at one point the computer (that runs our TV) had been switched off or unplugged for about 24 hours and so that meant that the two films that fell in that window were also missed.

18. Watch Breakfast At Tiffany’s.
I either got this for my birthday or it happened to be on TV but this was a good one – it’s an iconic movie but part of me didn’t get what made it so iconic (If you can enlighten me that would be good). Then again part of me wanted to go buy a ticket to New York and jet off as soon as possible!

19. Finish His Image My Image by Josh McDowell.
This one was added, as this time last year the pastor at our church told me to read this book. So I did.

20. Finish One Day by David Nicholls (Done – 1st May 2011)
When I heard that the film was coming out, I had to read the book first. I really liked the book overall but I think there are bits I would change – but that’s just my opinion.

21. Go to a concert.
Somehow I heard that Cerys Matthews was on tour last May and so I got tickets. I wasn’t really sure if any of my friends would want to go with me so I booked a single ticket and got myself over to Milton Keynes. I’d never been to The Stables before and seeing as I had misread the ticket as well I ended up arriving in Milton Keynes over an hour early so I grabbed some food (It’s so lonely sitting in a restaurant on your own when everyone else is with family and/or friends). I had an amazing time – I’d ended up sat right at the front right in the middle. When Cerys did Galway Shawl/Strange Glue I was singing along – I’m not sure the people around me appreciated it though. I wrote about the concert the following day – you can read about it here or watch the video of Galway Shawl/Strange Glue here (unfortunately it’s not the version from MK).

22. Cook a Roast Dinner
This was going to happen at the end of last week but it turned out that the joint needed over two hours from frozen and we didn’t have that kind of time to do it! That was a shame as I was actually really excited about doing it. I might be able to fit it in this weekend but then it’s passed the deadline really.

23. Home make at least one Christmas Present (Done)
I made my Mum’s Christmas Present and made my Secret Santa present for Caz. I was so chuffed!

24. Read My Life in France by Julia Childs and Alex Prud’Homme. (Done)
Read, Loved, Seen the film (which is loosely based on it/Julie Powell’s imaginings of Julia Child).

25. Cycle to Sandy and back
Yeah so didn’t happen! Chris suggested this one because he knew it really would be a challenge but having cycled across town to my friends house and nearly dying, Sandy was going to be too far away.

You can find Part 1 here.