Read something that shakes up my complacency

During a pre-birthday gathering I'd been admiring a friends well stocked bookshelves, and asking if they had read anything interesting recently. A prolific reader, she reeled off a number of "good books". The conversation then intertwined the 50at50 challenge, and my desire to do things that took me out of the ordinary, both in the physical and mental sense.

"I could recommend a few books that would shake up your complacency". And so another challenge was accepted.

In fact I received three books from this thoughtful couple. The first now completed. This is not a book review, but it did change my view of history, and how a life and that of generations to follow can be impacted. Essentially the generational stories of two sisters, one sold into slavery the other a slave trader's wife.

My favourite passage:


Now, keeping her head down and fighting back tears as Tisha and her friends called her "white girl", Marjorie was made aware, yet again, that here "white" could be the way a person talked; "black" the music a person listened to. In Ghana you coud only be what you were, what your skin announced to the world.

Prepare & eat a food you have never tried before

Family friendly fun! Especially during Lent.

Friday afternoon trip to Grand Frais to order the Gigot d'agneau for Easter Sunday lunch, and my eye catches the amazing selection of fruits they have on display.

So many exotic choices, and I've not tried many of them before - opportunity to complete another challenge!

I picked up Salak (or snake fruit), Mangosteen and Red dragon fruit.

I've eaten Dragon fruit before, but not the Red variety, so in my books this counts 😆

Elevenses Saturday morning, and we gather in teams to prepare and score the three fruits, me and J, and E & P.

Results:

3rd Place
Salak: Taste 5/10, Look 6/10 (I love the shiny Brown pip), Texture 5/10 (crunch but not too juicy), Smell 3/10 Overall score 19

2nd Place
Mangosteen:  Taste 9/10 (really delicious), Look 2/10 (reminded us of the larva we find in the garden), Texture 8/10 (soft & juicy), Smell 1 (no discernable smell) Overall score 20

Winner!
Red Dragon Fruit: Taste 8/10, Look 10/10 (the colour was so rich and luxurious), Texture 7/10 (soft & easy to swallow), Smell 2/10 Overall score 27

Summary
A really fun, and relatively inexpensive way to engage with the family, try new things, broaden our horizons and fill our tummies with something healthy. A good challenge, and one I would repeat with the family or even as a larger group (dinner/brunch guests, birthday party etc).

Practicing second challenge - spontaneous meal invites

So the challenge given, precisely, was

  "Invite one (or more) people over for a meal with no advance notice (for you or them)."

I've no idea why Family B thought this would be stretching and challenging 😏

Ok, yes we do like to have he house in order before people come over, and true I am a planner, so spontaneity is not usually the order of the day. But I do like the idea, especially the concept of feeling led in the moment in who to invite.

So last weekend we started practicing. The Friday night we discussed some ideas, which I know is cheating a little already. Brunch felt like it hit the spot - easy to prepare, leaves the rest of the day free, gets us up & ready nice and early and so on.

Next who to invite? Well, since Family B. supplied the challenge....so the invite was sent, giving less than 12 hours between invite and arrival time, assuming acceptance.
WhatsApp sent, it was just a case of waiting, and thinking about some tasty things to serve.

"It's a yes! And we will be +1, if that's ok?" was the response. Awesome, an unexpected guest makes it feel more like we are fulfilling the challenge, so we are smiles all around.

No need to detail the brunch itself. It was great, naturally.

The questions that remain are as follows:

1. Might we stretch ourselves  more with a last minute, spontaneous invite (it's meant to be my challenge, but this one implicates the whole family by nature) by inviting guests who haven't been to our place before?
2. What if it wasn't brunch?
3. How comfortable would I be with people taking us as they find us, ie if we restricted ourselves to just basic clean up before the guests arrive?

First challenge completed: Take a train ride to somewhere new

27th March 2019 and I found myself on a train from Geneve aeroport to Freiburg, for work.
Having never been there before, it presented an easy opportunity to tick off a challenge. As I departed the station it didn't feel like I was really embarking upon an adventure to achieve something different, something new. It was work after all.

One of the best things about taking the train from Geneva is that it affords you the most stunning views of the lake, given the tracks are perched just high enough to allow sight above the lakeside homes, but still close enough that the blue of the water really fills the vista. Then, to Freiburg, you turn left and start to travel North and upwards, with hills, and Green rolling pastures. It truly is a relaxing way to travel.

Punctual arrival, naturally, and proceeded to call my colleague who would be collecting me from the station.
"Meet me at the McDonalds, I'm parked outside" he barked.
Looking around, all I could see was a Burger King. Hmmm
"Excusez-moi monsieur, savez-vous où se trouve le McDonalds?" I asked the station guard. He proceeded to tell me that yes, there was a McDo, but quite some way away.
"Drop me a pin" suggested my colleague - which I proceeded to do.

"Err, you are in Freiburg Switzerland Andrew?!"
"Yes, as agreed" I replied
"The meeting is in Freiburg Germany"

So, red cheeked, even though I had shared my travel details well in advance, and they were (clearly hurriedly) approved, I was at liberty.

Checking the return train times carefully gave me just over an hour to explore the small city. It was just enough to make me want to return with the girls. Steep cobbled streets, large outdoor food market, quaint shops. I just forgot to take any photos, except the attached - the coffee shop I sat in - a South American owned place serving churros in Summer, I was promised. Another reason to return.

Curious to see how the next challenges shape up. Maybe I will be shaken out of my complacency this year, after all.

This is really just the beginning

So, I guess this is really just the beginning of a number of things. The second half of my life, if we divide a century into two parts. A year of personal challenges. Blogging & this blog in itself.

I wanted to mark my fiftieth year in some way, personally, that would be out of the ordinary, to me at least. So I asked myself, and friends & family, to suggest challenges that would push me out of my comfort zone, open my eyes, rediscover forgotten pastimes or spark new dreams.

I'm not looking for hits, shares, likes, praise, kudos, comments. I am looking to create a record, some self accountability and an outlet by which to order my thoughts, reflect upon achievements & possibly failures (let's say valiant attempts). I think I will also record progress, as well as completes - given that some of the more ambitious challenges may well require a full year of preparation.

And so it begins!