How fast can I type this?

So today I thought I'd make a start on learning to touch type. My mam can do it and it always amazes me the way her fingers just whizz over the keys while shes having a chat and not even looking but it still manages to say what it should say. I'd love to be able to do that!

I'm not a TERRRIBLE typist. I get by with a rough idea of where most of the letters are and mainly two fingers although I sometimes really adventurous and use my middle fingers aswell. Decided to see just how bad I was before I got on with the lessons. Found an online test to do and this was my result;

Your speed was: 24wpm.

You made 3 mistakes, your mistakes are shown in bold text:

I Tiberius Claudius Drusus Nero Germanicus. This-that-and-the-other, for I shall not trouble you yet with all my titles, who was once, and not so long ago either, known to my friends and relatives and associates as 'Cladius the Idiot', or 'That Claudius, or 'Claudius the Stammerer', or 'Clau-Clau-Claudius' or at best as 'Poor Uncle Claudius', am now about to write this strange history of my life; starting from my earliest childhood and continuing year by year until I reach the fateful point of change where, some eight years ago, I suddenly found myself caught in the 'golden predicament'

Apparently an average typing speed is 40 wpm and good is anything above that. It looks like I've got a lot of work to do then especially as that test wasn't touch typed - it was just me plodding away at the keys in my own unique way.

I decided to start simple so I worked through some exercises on the bbc schools website. Alright so I'm 32 years old, not 8 but it started at the very beginning and worked up in tiny little steps. I didn't even know that those tiny ridges on the f and j keys were there to help you position your hands for typing but I do now. The bbc exercises were a good introduction if you can get past all the singing animals and I worked through all twelve exercises this morning.

I've now moved onto another website where I'm trying to improve my speed and my accuracy. I've not done much on there yet. I'm currently up to level 3 with a speed of 25 wpm and 99% accuracy. Not a great improvement in speed but I've managed to improve my speed in a day and I'm more accurate. Plus that is now a proper touch typing speed rather than me scanning the keyboard all the time. Hopefully if I keep working through the brown bear exercises I'll improve my speed and get to the stage where I can do a proper typing course - after that these updates will be a doddle :-)

Curry Night :-)

Me and Dan love eating out. We try to go out for something to eat whenever one of us gets paid. We like all different kinds of food but we do tend to stick to the same few restaurants that we keep going back to. That's why I decided to add try 10 new restaurants in my city as one of my challenges.

I got started tonight with a nice easy one - Desi Lounge. It's an indian restaurant and I can't believe we haven't been before. We love a good curry and it's so close - we managed to walk there in about five minutes even with me still on crutches.

I'd thought that it would be quiet with it being a wet Wednesday night but it was pretty busy, always a good sign. It seemed like a lot of the customers were regulars too, another good sign - after all you're not going to keep going back to somewhere thats no good.

It was really hard to decide what to have because everything looked gorgeous. In the end I decided on the tandoori mix starter. It had chicken tikka, shish kebab, lamb chops and king prawns. It all came on a sizzler with onions and peppers and it was really gorgeous. Dan's starter was lovely too, some kind of chick pea and potato thing.

For mains we shared lamb haandi, meat thali, pilau rice and nan bread and again it was all lovely. Trying somewhere new was definitely a success, we've got a gorgeous place right on our doorstep. We'll be going back, seems silly to travel for a curry when this place is so close. But even though I'm looking forward to going back I'm excited about finding new places to try. Any recommendations in Manchester, give me a shout

Dotty's not daft!!

One of the challenges on my list is to do an IQ test. I'm convinced I'm actually a lot cleverer than a lot of people give me credit for. Just because I'm a little bit (ok a lot!) dizzy doesn't mean I'm thick!

To tick it off on my list I want to do a proper timed test organised by Mensa or something like that but as I was bored today I decided to have a mess about on some of the free IQ tests you can do online.

I scored an IQ of 127! Not quite a genius but pretty impressive I thought.  I decided to do a bit of research into what a 'good' IQ is and this is what I found



Lewis Terman (1916) developed the original notion of IQ and proposed this scale for classifying IQ scores:
Over 140 - Genius or near genius
120 - 140 - Very superior intelligence
110 - 119 - Superior intelligence
90 - 109 - Normal or average intelligence

So there you have it - Dotty's not daft!!! In fact I have very superior intelligence. Bit of brain training before I do my real test and I'll be up there with the Mensa crowd :-)
And next time you're thinking I'm a dizzy one, just remember it's my superior intelligence shining through!!!



Long lazy Sunday and helping the hungry

Chilling day at home today. Not been on any great adventures, I guess that will come later in the challenge. It's been a lovely day though. Lots of coffee, my books and my stitching. Both of which will help me with challenges although today it was more about them just being relaxing and fun.

I've also become slightly addicted to the free rice game. I didn't know about this website until I signed up for the 101 things challenge but its good fun and helping people at the same time. Basically its a multiple choice quiz game and for every answer you get right 10 grains of rice are donated to hungry people around the world. I wasn't too sure about it at first but it's run by the united nations world food programme. It's competely free to play and it does seem that by playing you are genuinally helping.

"Freerice is not sitting on a pile of rice. You and other Freerice players earn it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works: when you play the game, sponsor banners appear on the bottom of your screen for every correct answer that you choose. The money generated by these banners is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people."

My aim is to have donated 1,000,000 grains of rice by the end of the 1001 days. Two days in and I've already donated 7280.

I've been able to tick off another challenge today as Kerry has started her own 101 in 1001 list. Also I've got my very first follower on here (thanks Dan!) so thats another one underway. I think I've worked out how to add a follow button now to make it easier for you all. So if you're reading - please click!!

And we're off!!

Well after spending ages compiling my list, today was finally day one of my challenge. I've not got off to a bad start. According to the day zero website I've completed 1% so far. I've completed two tasks but I've got quite a few marked down as in progress. I'm really excited to get started on the rest.

I started off by writing my letter to myself to open at the end of the 1001 days. That was always going to be my first task.It just seemed to make sense to start by writing the letter and end the whole thing by reading it. It was a bit srange writing to myself nearly three years in the future, especially as I have no idea how I'll have gone on with all the challenges. Kept it positive though - by the time I'm reading that letter I WILL have completed all the challenges!

The other task I've completed is one that matters a bit more. I've signed up to become an organ donor. It's one of those things I've always meant to do but just never got around to. Stupid really once I realised how quick and easy it was, there really is no excuse for not having done it sooner. It only took about two minutes (if that).

According to their website you're more likely to need a transplant than to be a donor. You can sign up to by going to https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/ukt/how_to_become_a_donor/registration/registration_form.asp

Finally Finished!!!

Yay!!!! I've finally finished my list of challenges. I really didn't think it would be so hard to think of 101 things I wanted to do but it's taken me ages. Luckily Dan, Kerry and Dan's friend Simon helped out with some good suggestions. I had lots of suggestions from other people too but only sensible ones made it onto the list!!!

So now my list is complete I can't wait to get started. Day one of my challenge is tomorrow which means I finish on 9th May 2015. It sounds like so far away at the moment but I bet it will fly by. I wonder how many of my challenges I'll manage to complete by then. I'm going to do my very best to make sure I do them all. I've got some nice days out in there as well as doing a lot for other people. And if I complete all those fitness tasks I'm going to be looking GOOD!!!

I'll write more about the challenges and why I wanted to do them as I complete them but before I get started, here's a few highlights from the list


The BIG challenge - Walk the Pennine Way
Dan has no faith in me with this one. I don't think it's my ability to do the walk thats bothering him. It's more he knows how bad my organisational skills are, and a trip like that takes lots of organising. It's something I really want to do though so I'm determined to prove him wrong.

The SILLY challenge - Have my photo taken with 100 people named Dave
Everybody knows a Dave right? How difficult can it be?

The YUMMY challenge - Eat every flavour of Haagan Dazs
Ice cream is my number one comfort food. Time to try out some new flavours.

The READING challenge - Read my height in books
I love to read but I think this might be one of the few times I'm glad to be a midget!

The SOPPY challenge - Write my husband a love letter
I don't do soppy. I am probably the least soppy person I know. But Dan's great, maybe I should let him know.

In need of inspiration

I really want to get started with my mission 101 but I decided I wasn't going to start anything until my list was complete. That way I get the whole 1001 days to complete every challenge.

I didn't think it would be so difficult to come up with my list of things to do. I really thought there would be LOADS of things I wanted to do. And there is - but unfortunately there isn't an endless pot of money to pay for them all. I'm trying to keep it realistic, affordable and achievable.

So I'm up to almost 70 and I'm stuck. Yeah, I'd love to go to Disney but its probably not gonna happen in the next 2.7 (something like that anyway) years. A lottery win would be nice, but its not something I can control so its not going on the list. I could really do with some suggestions. Have a look at what I've got already - it's up there at the top of the page! - to get an idea of the kind of thing I'm looking for. Really want to get my list done so I can get on with my challenges.