Card No. 3 - Write A Poem

My challenge for Week 3 was something I was actually looking forward to. Well... I was looking forward to it more than some of the cards in the deck!

My task for the week just gone was to write a poem. There were no restrictions and no rules so it was completely up to me. I threw around a few ideas and subject matters but eventually settled on something that I'm learning more about every day... myself. It's an attempt to express what is, and has been going on at times in this head of mine. Not sure how much sense it will make and it's probably breaking every literary convention going but here goes...



Factory Setting

A ball of wool, hidden in plain view.

A twisted gathering of every conceivable colour,

Each strand an idea, a dreamer’s hope,

Ravaged by time, now threadbare, now duller.

Pick one, decide, and unravel its course,

A beginning, an end, a most simple endeavor,

Betrayed by a glance, a path much more travelled,

A strand misplaid for now, maybe forever.

The gameplays of life remained printed in blue,

On paper yet to protest the laying of ink.

Repeating its orders, a broken thirty three and a third,

Not tonight sir, you’ve had too much to think.

Where confidence is king a pauper plied his trade,

Paralyzed dreams stuck fast under life’s thumb.

Mental mountains made from meager mounds.

I had, Mr. Waters, become comfortably numb.

In the shadows, in the wings, I run over my lines,

Waiting for the curtain, don’t want to get it wrong.

I awake centre stage, a crowd with breath baited,

A rabbit in the headlights, it was raised all along.

Scattergun prophets offer up a new cure,

Offering tonics and notions of every which kind.

Inspiring pages, a forced change of the guard,

Opened the door to my soul and the gate to my mind.

Staccato rhythms of a fleeting mind hushed,

A cease-fire called and a civil war run.

The bridges are burned with no way of retreat,

Time to make some shit happen, time to get some shit done.

A sleeping giant subdued now woken from slumber,

A fire now stoked by the fear of regretting.

This reprogrammed dreamer will unravel the strands,

Vowing never to return to my factory setting.

fin.

Week 3! - The Card Has Been Drawn. Designer, Nerd.... Poet.

Card Number 3 has been drawn. By next Sunday my task is to deliver a new poem. Apologies to everyone in advance!!

Card No. 2 - Try A New Sport. Done (Sort of!)

So... I'm now two weeks into my 52 week challenge. This week was a pretty easy one on paper. All I had to do was try a new sport. Pssst, that's easy. Or so I thought! As per usual, I underestimated that life (and work especially!) has a sneaky habit of getting in the way of the best laid plans!

Monday turned into Thursday, which soon became Saturday, without a single new sport tried. I'd investigated a tonne of them but never got around to organising something definitive. So I did what most people in that position would do!... I panicked! 

I had a conversation during the week with someone who is involved in a particular sport that I'd absolutely love to try. It's not something that you come across on a local playing most days of the week and unfortunately it didn't end up happening this week. I'd go so far as to say that taking part might even change my outlook on life. I don't know when it will happen but I'll be sure to write a few words about it here when it does.

Even though a few things fell through, I resolved to honour my commitment to posting something every Sunday. I've also promised myself that trying new sports and activities isn't going to be limited to one week. I want to continue it during the entire year and hopefully discover some new things outside of swimming, cycling and attempting to go to the gym. Surfing is pretty high on that list and I have unfinished business with a stand up paddleboard too!

Having resigned myself to not doing my sport of choice this week, I began looking for an alternative! Little did I know that my answer would involve a domestic appliance! Extreme Ironing started in England in 1997 and if you question it's position at the table of extreme sports then I suggest you take it up with the 'Extreme Ironing Bureau' or 'Extreme Ironing International'! It's even got a Wikipedia page so it must be legit!!

Having studiously glanced over the rules for extreme ironing I decided it was the 'extreme sport' for me. So with the help of my incredulous assistant Eimear, I grabbed the ironing board and headed off. Ye can judge the results for yerselves!!

I've concluded that I must have several screws loose!!

Week 2 is done and dusted but I've more sports to add to this particular chapter before the year is out.

Card 3 of many has been pulled from the deck,
It could be a beauty or it could be a wreck.
It's one I'll enjoy and it shan't be a curse,
By this time next week I must coin some new verse.

To write a poem is then!


 










 

Week 2! The card has been drawn! - Looks like I'm trying a new sport this week!

Well that's one week out of the way! I survived 7 days as a vegetarian and celebrated at lunchtime with a massive, structurally unsound chicken and bacon sambo! I was dreading the week with no ham, burgers, pizza, chicken and chorizo (far from chorizo you were raised Farrell!) but it was actually a breeze and dare I say it, quite enjoyable. I rediscovered many of the foods and vegetables I should have been eating all along, eat what felt like a tonne of spinach and learned that Quinoa is very good for you! That's all good and well but nothing that a piece of cow, chicken or pig couldn't improve!

With Week 1 done and dusted, it was time to pull the second card. The Jack of Diamonds means that I have to try a new sport between now and this coming Sunday. I'll try find something interesting but suggestions are welcome!!

Quidditch or Dodgeball anyone?!  

  

Card No. 1 - Become a Vegetarian For An Entire Week! (Part 1)

My sister unwittingly laid down a pretty substantial challenge when she picked out card 1 of my 52 Thinks in 52 Weeks challenge! Becoming a vegetarian for an entire week was something I hadn't expected to have to do so early in 2015 but I guess that's the beauty of a blind draw every Sunday! I'm not one for sharing photos of my dinner or anything but I guess the idea of this blog is to keep a track of how all the different tasks are going!

I have to be honest... I wasn't looking forward to this week but now, more than halfway through, it actually ain't so bad! As someone who builds pretty much every meal around the delicious meaty bit, it meant making a few changes! Four days in however and I haven't cracked... not yet anyhow! 

I was feeling sorry for myself on Sunday night when I was reminded that the week doesn't officially kick off 'til Midnight. That was at 11.30 and by 11.45 I'd raided the fridge and inhaled all the chicken, ham and whatever else I could get my hands on! That's one way to bring on the meat sweats!

Monday was the first proper day back at work. It was also the day my little sis went back to London after the holidays. I'd promised that I'd bring her for lunch to 37 West to try their legendary Chicken Melt. I'd walk miles for that sandwich and was looking really forward to it until she turned me into a vegetarian! I can however heartily recommend their Goats Cheese & Roasted Vegetable Wrap! She had the melt just to rub it in! Having looked up a tonne of vegetarian recipes I was wondering what to do for dinner 'til my deadly housemate Cáit announced she was making a Lentil Curry. Sorted! Delicious it was too!

The rest of the week has been a breeze. Breakfast isn't normally a time when I lay into a cooked ham so I guess it kinda looked after itself!

Lunch has been a mix of carrot & chilli soup and wraps of varying degrees of success. Practice makes perfect I guess and think I cracked the vegetarian wrap recipe with a custom creation in the Gourmet Tart Company today! (If I do say so myself!)

Dinners have been a little more tricky. I had great intentions to create a couple of vegetarian masterpieces this week but there's time yet! Tuesday was my first effort at a Sweet Potato, Chickpea and Spinach mash. Probably looked better than it tasted but I'm determined to perfect it! (It'll have Chorizo in it next time too!). Wednesday was looked after by the good folks in the Oslo who do a kick ass vegetarian Lentil Dahl. I'd love to say that I created something spectacular for Thursday's edition but... eh... I made a particularly good beans on toast instead! I blame time constraints! :-)

So... 4 days down. Just another 3 to go in Round 1 of a 52 Round marathon!

There'll be another card pulled on Sunday. Hopefully I'll be able to tell ye what it is without also having to admit I succumbed to a quarter pounder with cheese in the meantime!!

First full week of 2015 and the first card has been drawn at random. My dear darling sister, in her wisdom, has picked out the 6 of Spades which means I have to become a vegetarian for a week until next Sunday, 11th of January! Wow, this is gonna be tough... thanks Aisling!

I'll update the blog with some photos of progress over the course of the week. First challenge of 52 accepted! :-)

6 of Spades courtesy of Aisling Farrell... thanks Sis!

This year I'll be doing something I haven't done very much the past few... I'll be getting sh*t done. Too many plans and great intentions have fallen by the wayside and this year is going to be different, with the help of a pack of playing cards. 52 cards, one for each week of the year.

Each of the 52 cards in the deck will have a task written on them. Each Monday I will ask someone to blindly select a card. I have to complete the task written on the chosen card by the following Sunday and post proof to this blog by that evening.

Here's to 52 weeks of getting sh*t done, new experiences and a whole heap of great memories!