50 things before i'm 50

 Today 3rd January 2023 i turn 41 OMG this is not possible!!! Well sadly yes it is as 41 years ago today i arrived into this world.

I have decided to do something different and have given myself 9years to do it in. That is to complete 50 different tasks before i turn 50. Some are going to be easy others are going to be hard and other are going to cost money so i will struggle with them. I am going to add the list below and update as i go.

If they are make lists of take photos i will save them all to a file and just add a number beside it on here. I am going to gave to change them to red once done and write done at the end as i can't strikethough on here.

50 things to do before I’m 50

Before I turn 50 in 2032 I want to complete all of the following things 

1. Write a letter to myself for my 50th birthday and open it on that day.

2. see the Lion King in London

3. See Wicked in London

4. Re-visit Camden market and Camden

5. Get free tickets to a concert (somehow!) *got to ABBA in Whitehaven Aug 2023

6. Spa day/weekend

7. Go to Charnmouth and/or Lyme Regis fossil hunting

8. Take 50 photos with 50 different people I know (8/50 done)

9. Read 50 books (3/50 done)

10. Have a real Christmas tree

11. Visit the dolphins in Scotland

12. See Bryan Adams again

13. Have a go at Axe throwing *did aug 2023

14. Go to the Big Butterfly world in Stockton

15. Get a blue Peter Badge *CANT AS AN ADULT

16. Hold a monkey/marmoset/cotton top

17. Visit monkey world in Devon

18. Link the Whitehaven Lackey Family to my tree *did dec 2023

19. Attend a viking re-enactment battle

20. Attend a kite festival (Lytham St Annes 8th sept 2024)

21. Pick pumpkins from a farm

22. Get my phto with 50 different “welcome to ……” place signs

23. Send a message in a bottle and see if get a reply

24. Attend 5 international scout camps (all different if possible) (1/5 done)

25. Try foods from a different country not tried before *did jan 2024

26. Attend a Christmas market and have hot mulled wine

27. Attend the Fire Festival linked to Mabon in Scotland

28. Leave a random act of kindness note in a book or on food

29. Go back to Peterborough Beer Festival *did Aug 2023

30. Visit Merlins Cave in Cornwall *did oct 2023

31. Eat proper Cornish ice-cream in Cornwall *did oct 2023

32. Visit the Witchcraft museum in Cornwall *did oct 2023

33. See a solar eclipse

34. Spit roast a chicken on an open fire *did aug 2023

35. Watch 50 different movies (21/50 done)

36. Go to Threlkeld mining museum

37. Visit Muncaster Castle *did feb 2023

38. Visit china town Manchester and eat in an all can eat buffet *did jan 2024

39. Attend the Winter Droving in Penrith *did nov 2023

40. Find a real crystal on a beach *did oct 2023

41. Eat fish & chips at the beach but not at home *did oct 2023 Cornwall

42. Try a new flavour ice-cream *did may 2023 bubblegum

43. Go to the theatre/cinema 50 times (6/50 done)

44. Play crazy golf at 50 different locations (2/50 done)

45. Swim in an outdoor pool *did june 2023

46. Try glass blowing or similar

47. Visit 50 different museums (8/50 done)

48. Use a hot tub or get own *did 2023

49. Campfire on the beach *did aig 2023

50. Tattoo linked to being 50

Encase I can’t do any of the above I have a reserve list of things

51. Make a playlist of 50 no1 songs from date of birth *did 2023

52. Attend a festival (music/light/Chinese new year etc)

53. Visit the caves in yorkshire

54. Wine tasting

55. Visit to a brewery

56. Visit a waterfall

57. Meet someone famous

58. Wreck it room

59. Visit Harry Potter world again

60. Sort the garden out so accessible and easy to maintain (started 2023)

61. Watch a drag show

62. Swim with Dolphins

63. Re-visit Seaham beach and the blast and find decent coloured sea glass

64. Drink coffee in 50 different shops/locations (12/50 done)

65. See cirque de solei

66. Visit i-fly Manchester

67. Make the books linked to covid, photo a day etc and book for Jay

68. Visit Alnwick castle where Harry Potter was filmed *did dec 2023

69. Make this into a book to keep and add all of the images and facts etc

PLUS a few I would love to do but don’t think will happen

70. Get K to be mine 

71. Visit Dawn in Florence SC

72. Visit Cathie in West Virginia

73. Visit Malta

74. See the Northern Lights (ideally in Norway)

75. Visit Flanders Field as so many ancestors died there

76. Go to Saintfield in Ireland as ancestors from there

77. Save £50 a year from starting this challenge

78. Save £5 per completed task on here

79. Qualification in Genealogy

80. Get to one of the fairy pools in the lake district

81. Clear all of the clutter and junk from the house that isn’t needed

82. Travel 1st class (like I can afford that!) *did jan 2024 free upgrade WOOHOO!

YES i know there are 80+ things on my list but i also know some of them may not actually happen, so i have added extras!!!

***UPDATE*** for some reason this post didn't get publish back in 2023, i have found it today sat in drafts. SO i have updated the bits and hopefully now it posts.

By Jan 2024 i have managed to do 21 of these!

hogwarts week 6

 Hogwarts week 6 sees us going to Slytherin for the first time.

The lessons were:

unicorn milk - this involed adding food colouring to milk and then touching gently with washing up liquid and watching what happened

dragon spotting - matching up the dragon info with its name

glow in dark flowers - white fflowers, tonic water, glow in dark paint and see what happens

making a mandrake - this was from clay

popindio - making things pop spell

enchanted objects - he had to write about enchanted things

next week he is in

hogwarts week 5

 hogwarts week 5 back in ravenclaw

Week 5 saw the following lessons:

2 dragons - research and compare 2 dragons

making a cardboard knight bus

crystal ball prediction - he had to repdict what he thought was going to happen

make a famous wizard - he had to invent his own wizard and what it was famous for

instant ocean - this was a potions subject, although there was changed it didnt work fully for some reason

bits to ice cream - this was making ice cream in a bag. it tasted horrid!

Next week is a 1st visit to Slytherin

hogwarts week 4

 hogwarts week 4

This week saw my son in Hufflepuff house. His lessons were:

a dragon stained glass window (he had to colour it with sharpies).

Edible floo powder - from sherbert, glitter and popping candy

tarot cards - learning about them and how they work

disappearing penny  - using water and a glass

a brooms eye view - 4 writing tasks linked to being on a broom

a new wizard sport - this was good he had to write about a new sport, but if he could make it in real life he got extra points. He went with giant frog racing, whereby people rode on the backs of frogs and competed as a team to win.

He was sorted into Ravenclaw for next week

HOGWARTS week 3

week 3 at Hogwarts my son was in Gryffindor again. He got a large amount of points this week and gave Gryffindor a big lead.

His lessons were as follows:

Gringotts vault - this was a general lesson. it was a box i had made with holes cut in it and a plastic cup in each (think halloween punch out game). each cup had a small gift/item inside and was then covered in gold paper and had a "harry potter" number added to it. These numbers were also on keys that had been hidden around the house with clues.

Dragon impressions - this was a care of magical creatures lesson and what dragons meant to my son.

Bertie Bots challenge - this was 2 parts. part 1 was how many beans were in it (son spent ages weighing jellybeans, and proper trying to work out total) the 2nd part was guessing flavours from appearance and possible smell and then eating them to see if correct.

magical store - making his own magical store and writing about what it sells etc

inverted balloon - this involved heating a glass bottle and placing a balloon on top and it *should* suck the balloon into the bottle.

He was sorted into hufflepuff for next week

Hogwarts week 2

 Today marks week 2 (day) at Hogwarts for my son.

We didnt have any arguments over work today, he just got on with his "pre-sorted" tasks that he picked last week. He was sorted into Gryffindor for this week, meaning that any points earnt for tasks go to there.

His lessons for today were as follows:

Weeping werewolf (care of magical creatures), this invovled lemons, washing up liquid and bicarbonate of soda. The ingredients cause a reaction.

Tarantallegra (spells) this involved him using just dance on the wii to make his legs move!

Describe snape (potions) he had part of the story and then he had to use bits from it to describe snape.

Bean in a bag (herbology) this involved putting runner beans into a zip lock bag with wet tissue to make it grow. he needs to log what it does daily.

Butterbeer fudge (cooking) this didnt quite work as it didnt set so we had to re-boil it and then add some cornflour to set it. BUT it did taste really nice!

cloud in a jar (divination) this involved hot water in a jar with ice on the lid and then adding hairspray to see the cloud form.

as well as the above he had 5mins to find words in the giant wordsearch (A3 in size), he could do some tasks from the OWLS book, he had to fill out his time table and write his daily prophet newspaper.

He has been sorted into his house for next week (Gryffindor again) and he has picked his 6 lessons.

Hogwarts/Harry Potter treasure hunt for trunk

 Many months ago i found a post online here (nothing to do with me) that gave me the idea for my sons trunk. So before i start the hunt, i will explain the box.

I used an old shoe box, the straps were pieces of cardboard stuck onto it. i bought a small hasp to fix on it.

the whole outside of the box was covered with kitchen towel and glue, which gave it a rough texture. I let it dry and then painted it all. I fixed on the  hasp and glued over the screws as they were slightly bigger than the box. I printed an assortment of images - hogwarts, platform 9 3/4, mauraders map, 3 broomsticks etc and his name, and stuck them to the box and covered with pva glue. The box/trunk was now complete.

Onto the treasure hunt. as per the blog entry here , my son had to go on a hunt to find his trunk. The clues had been printed onto mini scrolls (word art shape) and laminated. There were dummy keys and real ones, you need to make sure that the keys needed early are in early places and not later ones. the scroll he was given had the following info on it:

Dear Mr Watson, 

before you can fully enter Hogwarts you need to find your missing trunk. To do so you need to work through the clues, keep hold of anything you find as they will be needed. Good Luck.

Outside in the "toy shed" you will find an assortment of wand blanks, one of these is your new wand. Remember the wand chooses you not you it, so you will need to close your eyes and feel the best one. Also with the wand blanks is further instructions.

Professor Dumbledore

He went to the toy shed  (which had a sign saying "olivanders"), and he picked his wand and read the 2nd clue:

clue 2 - Inside the owlery* you will find some feathers, you need to gather these to make your Quills. There's also a key with wings and another key. *the owlery is my dining room window and it has has plush/toy owls hanging from the curtain pole.

Along with the quills and keys there was another clue.

Clue 3 - In Flourish & Blotts stationary store* you will be able to gather the materials for your ID card. *Flourish & Blotts was the drawer that holds all my pens, staples, hole puch etc. 

There was also the next clue.

Clue 4 - the words "go to the upstairs library" are among the pens as well as a key. *The upstairs library is the bookshelf at the top of the stairs.

Clue 5 - you find a stack of books that will help you with your studies. There's also a "gringots  coin".

and the next clue.

Clue 6 - One of they keys fits the bank vault. You open it to find a well deserved snack and the words  "the mirror shows the most desperate desire of a persons heart, a vision that has been known to drive men mad.". *This clue was on a lockable money tin labelled gringots bank. 

Clue 7 - it says "some keys have been dropped by an owl down the chimney. They could be important."  *this clue was on the "mirror of Erised".

and the next clue

Clue 8 - one of your keys unlocks professor snapes potion cupboard where you can find a simple experiment to do today. *This was on the fireplace.

Clue 9 - well done for finding the correct key to the cupboard. your simple experiment is here and an image of moaning myrtle. *the potion cupboard is one we keep all of our sceience things in and i had locked with a bike lock. 

clue 10 - how many "POINTS" do you get for hitting Myrtle in the head?" * this was in our bathroom which we had named myrtles bathroom, there was also a key.

clue 11 - Deep in the restricted cellar you will find your trunk that the pesky elves have hidden! *This was on the hogwarts house points chart.

The drinks cellar was my outdoor cupboard that has a couple of shelves for alcohol. Obviously you can change the clues to fit your own house etc.

This was alot of fun.