Thing #78: Hold a jumble sale - Update

I have now posted a few items on eBay. Lets see how they go! In the mean time, I decided to sell a few of the books that I bought some time ago and never read. I filled a bag and headed to the second hand book store, only to find out that they have over-supply and would not be buying more until after the holidays. Desperate to avoid having to return with the heavy bag, I went to a second second-hand bookstore and things got more complicated. They offered credit for three brand new books, but that meant I would have had to return to check if the books had been sold. That's just too much hassle. In retrospect, I should have offered to give them away for half the credit value, but in cash. That would have closed the deal and I would have completed this Thing. Anyway, I came up with a better idea. I will give them to friends or release them in the wild using bookcrossing.com (remember Thing #34?). Hopefully, one of my eBay items will be sold and I will get to announce this Thing completed!

It's Christmas Every Day

From Wikipedia:

Andy Park, is an electrician from Melksham, Wiltshire, England, who styles himself "Mr. Christmas" after having celebrated Christmas day every day since 1994.

In 2001, Mr. Park estimated that since he started celebrating, he had got through 30 artificial Christmas trees, 10,000m of tinsel and 10,000 balloons, at a (then) estimated cost of £100,000.
Each day he eats breakfast (turkey sandwich and mince pies), then goes to work, until returning around at lunchtime to eat a full roast turkey dinner before watching a recording of the Queen's Christmas speech, sherry in hand. In 2006, it was reported that the Queen had politely declined an invitation to broadcast her speech from his house.

In an interview published in 2006, Mr. Park was quoted as saying that over the previous 13 years, he had consumed 4,380 turkeys (one a day), 87,600 mince pies (20 a day), 2,190 pints of gravy (half a pint a day), 26,280 roast potatoes (six a day), 30,660 stuffing balls, 219,000 mushy peas, 4,380 bottles of champagne, 4,380 bottles of sherry and 5,000 bottles of wine. However, in 2001, he was warned by his doctor that the diet was affecting his health after his weight increased to 19 stone (121 kg).

In 2005, he released a single entitled "It's Christmas Every Day", with a video featuring Mike Reid and produced by Andy Whitmore. There were suggestions in the media that much of the information was an attempt by Mr. Park to attract publicity for the single.

On 15 December 2007, in an interview on the BBC Radio 4 program Saturday Live, Mr. Park confirmed he was still celebrating every day. On 25 November 2008, the Daily Mail reported Mr. Parks had to change his celebrations somewhat due to the credit crunch.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope Santa Claus brings everything you asked for and even more. And while waiting boring yourself, there are 101 things to do out there! It's almost 2 years since I've started working through my list and I have 'already' completed 2/3 of it. Only 39 things to go! By next Christmas I should have hopefully be almost there!

Thing #78: Hold a jumble sale

Jumble sales are so yesterday, so I will be trying to sell a few things I have not used for ages on eBay. Well, it's mostly computer components that came out from PCs that gave up on me (it's not my fault they can't work as much as I can). I don't expect to get much for them, but at least I will doing my bit for the environment. After all, I'd rather see them come back to life and serve a purpose to sitting in a box accumulating dust. Even better, this whole thing of looking for items to sell made me ask myself what I really need to keep and what I don't. Guess what? I started getting rid of things. After all, this is a good time to do so and start 2009 clean - literally and metaphorically. In fact, as I am in the process of clearing the corners this very moment. I will conclude this post right here and get back to it.

Thing #8: Learn how to play an instrument

A few months ago I bought an instrument hoping I was going to learn how to play it. How difficult can it really be to play a small drum? Well, I hit it a few times and it made this not-so-nice sound. After all the main criterion for buying it was: does it fit in my suitcase? Fast forward to yesterday, when I went out for some Christmas shopping and I came across the Guitar Hero kit. This truly gives a whole new meaning to air guitaring! So, turn on the volume and enjoy!

Thing #71: Do something nice without being ask

Some people need help, but they can't ask for it... because they are unconsious... in a telephone booth. I came across one such case tonight so I thought to do something more than nice and alert a near by policeman that there was someone in need of help.