40 by Forty

This challenge is courtesy of… Lindsay Law The challenge Now, you'd think this, as my final challenge - and a fairly straightforward one at that - would not involve any weaselling around the challenge.  However, the challenge was, strictly speaking, to hold a karaoke night and, due to licensing restrictions and my desire to have this as my final challenge-come-party, my karaoke experience actually started at 2pm to allow the kids to come along.  But that's nighttime somewhere, right?  Screw it, it'll do. As mentioned, this was my final challenge and, coming in the weekend before my birthday, I also doubled it up with my party.  (Renae and I are going away on my actual birthday.)  My venue of choice was Supercube on George Street. We booked a couple of rooms, one for the adults and one for the kids (allowing us to both drink and sing songs with lots of swearing without worry).  As the host and challenger, I figured I'd better go first and set the tone. (In

This challenge is courtesy of… Douglas Strachan The challenge A nice, straightforward one this one. Technically  I guess I could have claimed it when I drove a Nissan X-trail hire car for work but  contrary to appearances, I do actually prefer trying to do these challenges in the spirit in which they're intended. For this challenge  clearly we're talking something substantively different to a regular car, not just a random car I haven't driven before. Something big or something with an unusual number of wheels.  Or something fast.  Yes, let's go with fast (not least because Donna and Dougie gave me a very kind, very early birthday present of a supercar experience day). Don't worry, this will be the last appearance by Clarkson on this blog. Don and Doug actually got me a voucher for a supercar day waaaay back in autumn but it turned out that the first available session wasn't until the 16th of March, just squeaking in under the 40th wire.

Dairy! Totally non-dairy! Because this drawing is as close as I got to a cow all year. This challenge is courtesy of… Magnus Lyon The challenge For a long time, I didn't think this challenge was going to happen. Despite living in the countryside (or at least being countryside adjacent), I don't actually know any dairy farmers - they're a dying breed, these days. Also, while I know a few people who keep animals, they're all the non-milking sort (poultry, mostly - see house sitting i if you want to hear about my adventures with our feathered friends).  Then, in a moment of blinding brilliance and awareness, I realised something.  Something important. Something vital. Something... beautiful. I am a weasely bastard. Because it's not milk an animal, is it?  It's milk a thing . And that, my friends, is a loophole big enough to drive a whole herd of cattle through. Let's begin. First, grab your nuts. I'm going with almonds, because I

This challenge is courtesy of… Andy Law The challenge Get a family photo taken. As with some other challenges, this one is pretty loosely worded. Technically, I guess I could have called it complete when I got a random to take a photo of all of us on a bike ride last April. However, I feel this one needs some degree of formality. Not just a random snap, but an intentional, posed family group photo taken by someone who does this sort of thing professionally. Challenge not complete! Enter Nat, Renae's sister and professional visual artist, who is also conveniently currently staying at our house. She's the one on the left. As it's March, and I really need to tick off the last four one-off challenges, I tapped our current house guest to act as our official photographer. Then it was just a case of gathering the children, getting them dressed, re-gathering the children, getting them re-dressed, gathering Nat and Nae, gathering Cooper, gathering the chil

So, you're a day late and you seem to be doing the talking to yourself shtick again. I presume this means that you've got some quality excuses lined up? I have no idea what you mean! Uh-huh... Look, it's been a hard week. Renae was away in Turkey for a week, leaving me with a number of children that varied from 2 to 6 in a confusing and complex pattern designed to drive men mad with arcane, forbidden angles. Sure... Plus, we've got visitors! And...? And... *mumbles* Sorry, I didn't quite hear you. Fine.  I said "And I've just got Red Dead Redemption 2".  Happy now? Delirious. So what challenge are we looking back on? Well, given I've been gaming this week, it seems a good time to look back on how designing a board game for grown-ups is going. And how is it going? Not great, to be honest. This one has proven to be unexpectedly difficult and unenjoyable. That's not to say I expected it to be easy . I've made a game for the

Bonjour! Salut. Comment ca va? Bien, merci. Est-ce que vous parler Francias? Je parler un peu Francais. OK, I'm out. Oh thank god.  (Dieu merci!) I'm out, too. I'l be honest, I reckon even some of those few lines are wrong. So, not so much with the French then? Well, I'm still plugging away at it but I'm not sure how much is sinking in.  You see, this is my issue with learning French.  There's a LOT of work before you get to any level of competence.  I was kind of hoping that, as an adult with a genuine desire to lean, I'd make better progress than I did as a teenager with a genuine desire to be anywhere other than French class. This has not been the case. I do wonder how much this comes down to my mode of learning (an app).  Looking back, I can now appreciate the sheer power and generosity of face to face lessons, provided free at the point of use that I used to get at school.  I'm pretty tempted to look into taking a French class once I