It's now been 12 years since I started this blog. I am certainly (much) older, but hopefully not any more boring compared to my earlier me! I think it's high time I posted for one more time and claim the last 4 Things completed. As you have probably guessed by now, I don't like leaving business unfinished. Neither though do I want to wait forever before I can "properly" completed it. Life is short and one Thing I have learnt over the years, is that sometimes it is OK for Things to simply be good enough. There are indeed battles that you need to give, striving for perfection, but this should not apply to everyThing (pun intended).

There is also another good reason why I need to get on with Things: I bought 101 Things you wish you'd invented, 101 Things to do to become a superhero, 101 Things you need to know and some you don't and.. 101 Things to do before you die. If, on average I need 10 years to complete each list, then I'd be giving the last book a very different meaning!

So...

Thing 73: Have a sleepover 
Not only did I have a sleepover, but I actually organised one when I was 17!

Thing 59: Camp out in the backyard 
I have gone camping and/or slept outside. Such experiences have never been the most comfortable ones. These reminded me of numerous times when I had to "camp" overnight involuntarily at an airport somewhere, waiting for my next flight. No pain... no gain. So this Thing is officially done.

Thing 74: Become a spy
That would have made sense 15 years ago. Now we have social media. LOL!

Thing 55: Invent a new trend
I have often thought of myself as being an innovative and enterprising individual. I would not though refer to myself as a trend-setter. So it seems I am more on the "invention" side as opposed to the "new trend" side of this Thing. Personally speaking, this is more than enough for me. I've never really cared much about what others thought or did and hence if I was to do something, I would have done it for myself, and not for setting a new trend.

Given that the last Thing written up was one on inventing something... one can only interpret this as a sign that the next book and list of 101 Things to go through should be the one on the Things I wish I'd invented!

Thing #53: Succeed at something you are bad at

Many people can not sleep when they travel, for example on a train or a bus or an airplane. I am not one of them. In fact I can sleep even before the plane takes off. I find it helps kill time more effectively to starring at the clouds for hours and hours and hours (and hours). The only problem is that when you are on a plane everyone feels obliged to talk to you, it's good customer service after all. The cabin crew will offer a mint, before explaining the safety measures. Then they will bring some food (which you don't really want to eat), then they will bring the drinks, then the coffee/tea, then they will come back to pick things up and then... oh then they will try to sell you duty free. Surely, if I wanted to buy duty free I would have done all my shopping when I was at the airport. As if the above are not enough, the captain needs to inform us of the route we are going to follow and the flying level. Does it make any difference? I got on board at point A and I want toget out at point B. That's all it matters to me. Why am I saying all this? It's because it's impossible to sleep with all these disruptions.

Anyway, to complete this Thing I managed to stay awake for about 30-35 minutes in the taxi that brought me to the airport. This was a great achievement if one considers I failed the last three times and this is the exception and not the norm!

Thing #21: Stay in bed all day

It's almost midnight and I have now officially spent a day in bed. I actually feel rather tired from doing not much so I think I will now go to sleep. Well, more accurately, I will just sleep.

Thing #21: Sleep all day

Last night I went to bed at 10:30 and woke up at 12:30. Feeling a bit tired from going to the gym yesterday I went back to sleep (as if there was something else to do at 12:30). I woke up around 7:00 thought it's early, and went back to sleep until... 7:30. Being consistent (or predictable - you choose) I slept again only to wake this time at around 9:00. Having the laptop next to me I checked my messages. No news-good news! Well how many emails can you really have between 10:30 Friday night and 9:00 Saturday morning? Of course, spam does not count. I made a coffee (so I had to get out of bed for a few minutes) picked up a few things and went straight back to bed.

Why am I telling you all this? Simply because I am trying to complete Thing #21: Sleep all day. As there is no chance I could spend a whole day sleeping (even if I did not sleep at all during the previous night) I thought to change this slightly and 'Stay in bed all day'. This is probably more difficult as far as I am concerned, as I will soon get restless and would like to get out of bed, but I have the utter confidence in me.

To members of the secret society: To help me get through the next 12 hours 50 minutes, feel free to contact me.

Thing #20: Stay up all night - Done!

Done, lets now go to bed and sleep.

Stay awake - Update #4

Almost fell asleep 22 minutes before the end! :)

Stay awake - Update #3

Time until Saturday, 1 December 2007, 07:40:00 (London time)

It is 0 days, 1 hour, 31 minutes and 32 seconds until Saturday, 1 December 2007, 07:40:00 (London time)

Stay awake - Update #2

Good news! I double checked the book and it does not say that I have to stay awake between 7pm and 9am. It actually says: "Tick the box if you have stayed up later than..." and boxes from 7pm to 9am. So technically, staying up all night does not necessarily mean until 9am. In fact, in London today sunrise is at 7:40am (sunset was at 3:55pm). If you don't believe me then visit http://www.sunrisesunset.com/. Hence, to stay up all night I need to stay awake until 7:40am. That is only 292 minutes or 17k seconds away, i.e. about 5 hours. (countdown) Piece of cake!

Stay awake - don't try this at home!

I am trying to keep myself awake tonight to complete this Thing. If you 'try', then it's more difficult than it actually is. Anyway, to help time pass I watched an ice hockey game, and then played cards until 1:30am. I have another 6 and 1/2 hours to go. Lets hope I can complete this Thing in one go.

Thing #20: Stay up all night

I have stayed up probably too many nights in my life, so once more won't make a difference. So, this Friday I plan to stay up all night (i.e. from 7pm to 9pm). I will be updating you on my progress as time goes by. Feel free to send me messages during the night and keep my motivated!