40 by Forty

This challenge is courtesy of... A mystery challenger, who does not wish to be identified. Thanks, stock image people! The challenge Moon the neighbours. While the challenger may be a mystery, the challenge isn't. I've got to go shake my arse at the neighbours. Now, you may recall that one of my criteria for these challenges is that they don't get me fired or, for that matter, arrested then fired. Thus, before this challenge making the list, the mystery challenger and I agreed that the neighbours didn't have to actually see  me moon them, reducing the risk of arrest. But I'm not about to have this just be a simple challenge of no interest, so I'm adding a rule for myself. I've got to be outside. Renae and I have a running joke in our house that the "kitchen window doesn't count". If we were counting the number of times I've scuttled through the kitchen, day and night, junk out, we'd have ticked this challenge off months a

This challenge is courtesy of... Alana and Gregor McKay. The challenge House sit. Given Alana and Gregor suggested this challenge, then led with this message... I'm going to say that this counts as whatever is involved in house sitting. Now, you might say that I'm just saying that to get an easy challenge completion and that Alana and Gregor are just saying that to get an easy agreement to a pet sitting favour, but you , while a lovely, intelligent and sexy person, are not doing forty stupid things before you turn forty, so I'm going tosay that you, fictional reader, can fuck off. Anyway, challenge accepted! The first thing you need to know is that absolutely no pets died in the making of this blog. The second thing you need to know is that chickens are remarkably hard to spot when they're hiding in a bush, but we're getting ahead of ourselves... Cats Cats are easy to look after, even Braille, who is not allowed out on account of being blind.

This challenge is courtesy of... Shra Sen and Neil Fitzpatrick, who are much too healthy for their own good. The challenge Before we get into this week's challenge please welcome our very special guest host... Baaaaaaarney Stinson! So, what do I have to do this time? Well, it's super simple, just run a mile. I'm not adding any special rules here (although, in fairness, that's because I can't think of any). Because I appear to be the last person on Earth not to own a Fitbit, I'm going to plan out my route on Google in advance, then run it while timing myself.   So, I'd been planning on doing this challenge after a good long period of regular exercise. You know, the sort that I'm supposed to be doing 30 minutes of each day, yeah? Because that's been going so well. Fortunately, Barney has some advice on distance running... Right. Let's Stinson this mother... 0.5 miles there, 0.5 miles back. I dug out my finest

This challenge is courtesy of... Andy "Challenge Master" Law. The challenge Hold a creepy-crawly type beastie. There's no specifics as to what counts as a creepy-crawly, so it's dealer's choice. I'm going more exotic than a common or garden house spider, but beyond that, I'm easy on what counts. First, catch your creepy-crawly... Now, technically, I'm sure I know some people who own exotic pets of the sort that would qualify for this challenge, but the point of these activities is to get me doing stuff I wouldn't otherwise do. So it's a trip to the Five Sisters Zoo in West Lothian for us, along with Jen and her two kids, Alan and Sam. From left to right: Jen, Alan, Sephie, Xavi, Nae and Fury The Wonder Horse. (Sam was asleep in the buggy.) Armed with our crowd of blonde moppets, we descended upon the various animal residents of the Five Sisters like an easily distractable noise-tornado. There was shouting. There was screaming.

So, what's this challenge all about? Being a massive geek, I've spent a lot of time hitting imaginary people with imaginary swords. Be they electronic or be they pen and paper creations of the the GM's fevered mind, I've slaughtered them all. However, living in the modern age, real-life swordplay is not something I've ever had to learn. While I've fenced for about a year at university, it's not the same thing. To paraphrase Scott Lynch, I have learnt the noble art of fencing already, what I am learning now is how to kill people with swords. ( The Lies of Locke Lamorra by Scott Lynch is well worth a read, by the way, as are the rest of the books in the Gentlemen Bastards sequence.) This challenge is courtesy of Andrew Leask, sword buddy extraordinaire ! Challenge accepted. Bish bash bosh! How's it going to work? This is not exactly the sort of challenge one can undertake without professional (or at least, committed amateur) help. Fortunatel