Over the hump!

Progress on my 2011 Manifesto has been going grand this last month or so. July has been my busiest month so far for ticking things off the list - 6 items in just 3 weeks! And now I have checked off more than half - 21 items out of the 37, plus I still have an additional 6 items that are 'in progress'.I have enjoyed the focus that making this list has given me. I am all too guilty of sitting on the sofa reeling off all the things that we could've, should've done! (but at the time I was obviously preferring to sit right there, and I'm OK with that too for the most part!) But it does remind me of my favourite quote of all time 'You'll never regret the things you do as much as the things you don't' and let's face it, I don't often look back and grumble that I would've rather spent my time chillin' out at home on the sofa!

The 'Growing my own vegetables' item (#10) was 'in progress' for a while. But finally this month I thought it deserved to be checked off! I successfully harvested green onions, leeks, lettuce, arugula and peppers (and so far just one baby cherry tomato - but lots of others are ripening as we speak!) This was the first year I had my own veggie beds so I was excited to get stuck in...it's been a huge learning curve for me. After a month of eating lettuce for nearly every meal I have figured out I will need to pace it out next year! I will also plant LOTS more onions as they've been awesome! I would also like to try some squash next year (and although they were OK, I wouldn't bother with the leeks again - they were very small)




There are a few items I have some concerns about achieving- and they involve exercise! Whilst I'm now only a little behind schedule on the logging 600miles running/walking this year, I am a long way off my pace from last year. I'm wondering if the few extra pounds I'm carrying this year is enough to make that difference, it's that or I'm getting old(er!) The sub 56' 10km could have been overly ambitious, but we'll see. Yoga and a Bike ride....uh, yes no plans for either at the moment - must figure something out!

We did get to see a very funny live comedy show (#27) at a local golf club - the Hacks Comedy tour (With a quartet of comedians off the telly apparently - I'd never heard of them, but then I don't watch TV, so...!). And as well as being great entertainment we got a steal of a deal - $10 per ticket including our first drink! A very cheap and entertaining date!

A couple of weeks back we went camping (#20) A group of us from Chris's work all took off on the motorcycles (About 10 bikes) for a weekend. It was supposed to be a 2-nighter, but I got to 2 days before we were heading off before I realised I had to be at work on the Monday so we just had the one night camping, and a full days riding in Washington! A fun night with half a dozen tents crammed into one camping spot right by the river in Midway, BC! (there were 3 basic choices when pitching your tent - either the street lamp, the snorers or the the slope of the river bank!) - we plumped for the street lamp and got a reasonable nights sleep, before packing up the tent the next morning with Chris's wallet still inside! (it was packed up and strapped to the bike before we realised - doh!)

And this month I also finished reading my second non-fiction book this year (item #29 check!). Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Loved this book. Wishing I'd bought my own copy rather than borrowing from the library. A fascinating account of the Tarahumara tribe of the Copper Canyon of Mexico - plus some interesting debates on the topic of barefoot running and injury free running. As well, just a truly uplifting and inspiring 'story' of ultra-runners (crazy, crazy people who run races upwards of 100m - for fun -like I said - crazy!) and the Mexican tribe they travel to race with.

Some good progress, now it's just those nitty gritty 'why did I publicy state I'd do those things' left to go!