After the ignominious failure of the bothy task at the weekend, I feel I need to get back on track. The next task is Postcrossing, an online postcard exchange scheme.
So, yeah, postcards, eh? Remember them? Sort of like Facebooking someone an image file, except instead of clicking on the image you just turn the card over. And instead of clicking "like" you just, you know, decide whether you like it or not.
This postcard is going out to a lady in Lotte, which apparently is near Osnabruck in Germany.
I think I'll only consider this task complete when I get a postcard back to me in return.
This weekend I was supposed to accomplish task number one, to spend the night in a bothy. An unfortunate mishap sadly got in the way, but a lesson was learned about the importance of making the best of misfortune.
A bothy, in case you don't know, is a hut in an isolated area, left unlocked for hikers to use as shelter. Most of them are in Scotland, but there's also a few in England and Wales. My goal, along with my chums Dave and Mairi, was the Moel Prysgau bothy in the Elenydd region of mid-Wales.
The trip started well, with the three of us driving through some spectacular countryside. Midlake, an American folk-rock band I discovered at Glastonbury last year, were playing on the car stereo.
Dave and Mairi seemed particularly intrigued by Midlake, not least because the music fitted surprisingly well with the scenery we were driving through. At one point Dave jokingly commented, "Shall we just forget about the bothy and just drive around Wales listening to Midlake?" This would turn out to be something of an unintentional prophecy.
We parked up by the huge dam of the Claerwen Reservoir.
Brummies, this is where your tap water comes from.
We then headed out into the Arban Valley, in one of the most isolated areas of the UK.
After a while trekking up the valley, we came to the conclusion we'd be better off on a path that was lower down. We crashed down through some gorse, down to the lower path, and carried on walking. No problem.
Then, a few minutes later, I suddenly looked down at the side pocket of my trousers, where I'd stuck our map. The map was missing. We looked back at the thick gorse we'd pushed through. Somewhere in there was our map.
Bugger.
No matter how much we searched in the gorse, we just couldn't find the map.
The Elenydd, as I said, is a very isolated place. You can walk all day and not see another person. Traipsing around in it trying to find a bothy without a map sounded like a very bad idea. There was nothing for it but to retrace our steps back to the car.
Despite monumentally failing at the first hurdle, none of us were bummed out about it. We spent a very pleasant day driving through spectacular scenery, listening to some good music and generally chatting and putting the world to rights. Who can complain about doing that?
Before driving back, I took a few photos of the surrounding area.
So, here's the lesson of the day. When plans go awry you can sit and complain about it, or you can focus on the positives and make the best of things. We chose to do the latter, and as a result we didn't come home thinking of it as a wasted journey.
Also, another lesson. If there's a bunch of you heading out into the wilds, take more than one map.
Might as well start the challenge with a task that's relatively straightforward to organise.
Everybody has a great movie that they've never got around to watching. Mine just happened to be Casablanca.
Having never seen it before, I was wondering whether it would live up to its reputation, or if it would seem dated, nearly 70 years after its original release.
As it happens, I thought it stood the test of time pretty well. There may be a distinct lack of CGI exploding helicopters or rampaging dinosaurs, but it remains a suspenseful, thoroughly-engrossing drama with good writing and outstanding performances. Curiously, the most often-cited one-liners from the film - "Here's looking at you, kid" and the frequently-misquoted "Play it, Sam" didn't actually strike me as being the most memorable in the film.
On a side topic, here's a hilarious review from Nostalgia Critic about how the 90s Pamela Anderson movie Barb Wire is essentially a bad rip-off of Casablanca.
This blog is inspired by Melissa Wolfe's 101 Things in 101 Days challenge. As you can guess from the blog title, I've made my own challenge slightly less ambitious.
I'm giving myself a year to do 52 Things. The list is not yet complete, and that's where you, the readers, come in. Ever imagined me as your personal string puppet? If there's something you think I should do, leave your suggestions in a comment. The better suggestions may be added to the list.
