28. Plant a tree

On Wednesday 1st October my family lost the most wonderful man in our lives - my Grandpa Monty.  I had so much respect for him and his opinions, his stories and just anything he had to say and I, for one, loved him very much.  From the age of 4 he was the only Grandpa I had.  He was funny, he was a "magician" and his "Grandpaisms" still stay strong to this day.

November 15th would have been his 92nd birthday and the family were going to get together to remember him over dinner.  I decided that I would like to commemorate Grandpa somehow and then I thought about planting a tree in his memory.  I didn't want to do this just to complete something else on my list but to have something lasting for years to come.  I decided on a fruit tree because I wanted the tree to have a purpose.  I took my Grandma to Aylett Nurseries in St. Albans to have a look at some trees.  I decided on a Czar plum tree as my Grandma makes the best plum jam and Grandpa always liked her jam (especially on bread/toast on top of cream cheese - don't knock it until you've tried it!).

My folks got a gardener to dig the hole in their garden ready to put the tree in.  On the afternoon of the 15th I took the tree, separated the roots, put it in the hole, filled the hole in, put the topsoil on and gave it a little watering.

I hope the plum tree will bear fruit for many years keeping Grandpa's legacy living on for the next generation of our family.

As recommended by Aylett Nurseries in St. Albans

The tree; my handiwork

2. Find 40 Geocaches (Part 3)

Nashville Cache (see what I did there?...like the song by Lovin' Spoonful "Nashville Cats"!)

As they say, "when in Rome...".  OK, so I wasn't in Rome, I was in Nashville but I wanted to find some geocaches outside of the UK and what better place to try than while I was there.

My geocaching exploration started on the Saturday I was in Nashville.  I went for breakfast quite early at The Edgehill Cafe.  It was a lovely sunny and fresh morning.  I then left to find my 10th geocache (without the aid of data or wi-fi).  I'd looked it up before I left the cafe so had a rough idea where I was going.

I headed down 21st Avenue South to the Pizza Perfect.  The geocache was behind the building and it was a clever magnetic one.

Behind Pizza Perfect

Yes, it's hidden here.

Once I'd found this and entered it on my app, I got a "souvenir" from Geocaching.com which gets recorded on my account.

My "souvenir"

I then decided to go and do some sight-seeing around Music Row and find my next geocache.  I wandered down 17th Avenue South and passed loads of studios; finally made it to RCA Studio B.  I managed to connect to some cheeky wi-fi and found my second geocache.

RCA Studio B

The hiding place

I then realised that back at Exit/In there was another geocache.  Annoyingly I had been there the previous day but decided to head back anyway.  It was getting warmer as well.  I spent so long trying to figure out the hint.  I eventually figured it out though.

The hiding place

The culprit (so tiny)

 So, 12 geocaches found in total and only 28 to go in 5 years.  I reckon I can do that!

My geocaches in Nashville

26. Go To Nashville (Part 2)

On 20th October, the time finally arrived after months of waiting and planning.  I could practically hear Nashville calling me.  I had to get to New York first though.  I got to Heathrow quite a lot earlier than I had anticipated so that calmed me a lot.  Boarding was straight forward.  The girl next to me was quite nice so that made for a good flight.  I flicked through the movies and thought "The Fault In Our Stars" (trailer below) looked good...word of advice...don't watch a weepy film on a plane.

Once in New York I quite impressed myself with being able to navigate my way to the city on the trains.  I caught up with my friend, Marty, who looked after my luggage while I went for a wander around the city.  I checked out Grand Central Station and I trekked up and down Broadway and then, after collecting my luggage, met up with my distant cousin, Barrie, as I was staying with her in New City.  She took me out to a lovely Italian restaurant before heading to her place.

Barrie's husband, Warren, is OBSESSED with The Beatles - more than I am (and that's saying something).  Warren had set up the futon for me in his Beatles room.  Heaven!  I also got to meet their son, Dylan - sports fanatic.

The Beatles room

On Tuesday I went back into the city early in the morning with Barrie and, again, dumped my stuff with Marty (what a saint)!

I headed down to Ground Zero which was a lot different from the last time I was in New York.  When I went with my mum, sister and grandma there were cranes and it was all fenced off with memorial boards attached to the metal fencing.  It's incredible what they've done in that time.  There's a new tower and there are two memorial water features like pools (see photo below) which are in the places and the exact size of the base of each tower - North and South.  The names of all of the lives lost were inscribed around the outside of the pools.

The South Tower memorial

I got back to JFK for the next part of my adventure.  I was on an American Eagle flight.  The plane was so tiny compared to the BA plane.

We took off an hour late but still managed to arrive in Nashville only 10 minutes after the flight was due!   Once in Nashville I used Uber for the first time during my stay.   I thoroughly recommend it.  I turned up at my digs through Air BNB and eventually worked out how to get inside.  I dumped my stuff and Googled eateries in the local area and found one down the road - Edley's Bar BQ.  It was a very friendly place, there was a pub quiz going on and I met a lovely couple (Ann and Derek - the Factwackers)!   We had a laugh during the quiz and dared me to find out the quiz host's name.  I told them I would tell them on Friday night if they came to see me perform.  They bought me a Bushwacker (which explains their quiz team name) and it was actually really good. It was the only alcohol I had the whole time I was in Nashville.  Dan the barman "lost" my check (the bill) mysteriously, so I had a free meal!  I climbed into bed feeling very exhausted and all I could hear was the sound of trains in the distance (like horns).  Didn't have a particularly good night's sleep.

On Wednesday I figured out which bus to take downtown in the morning. I took loads of photos - Printers Alley, the AT&T "Batman" Building, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge (it was purple) and Bridgestone Arena. By this point I was beginning to feel hungry as I hadn't yet had breakfast. I stopped a "cop" who told me I should try Puckett's. I carried on being a tourist by walking down Broadway. I found the Ryman Auditorium which was the site of the original Opry. I walked down to the Country Music Hall of Fame and spent a couple of hours there. I didn't realise Elvis Presley had been inducted. I went back up Broadway. Everywhere you walk up that road you could hear live music - any time of day. Saw Ernest Tubb's Record Shop and the Willie Nelson Fortune Teller machine (got my fortune) in Dixieland Delights. I had lunch at Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville and was served by a lovely chap called Tommy. I visited Savannah's Candy Kitchen and used all of my willpower to restrain myself from buying something. I navigated my way back to my digs by bus. Went over to an early gig night, recommended by my friend and fab songwriter, Alex Berger (who's place I would be staying in the latter part of the week). It was a night hosted by Aaron Lee Tasjan.  The list of performers, aside from Aaron, were Sadler Vaden, Amber Rubarth, Chris Porter and Kent Goolsby.  I went for dinner at The Pharmacy and had great service from Drew - everyone in Nashville is so friendly.  I then went back to try to write a song but nothing was really coming to me so went to bed.

On Thursday I went back to Broadway and had breakfast at 417 Union which was like a WW2 themed restaurant.  I finally bought some boots which made me late to meet up with another fab singer/songwriter - Rachel Button and her friend (also a singer/songwriter) Ashley for a drink.  I then wandered down to The Bluebird Cafe to have a snapshot that I was there as it wasn't open that early and had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory.  I went back to my digs and wrote a song, had a nap, did my Spanish lesson and then I went to sleep without supper - too stuffed from my late lunch.

Friday I headed over to Alex's via Uber and was picked up by Barry from Australia.  He waited while I dumped my stuff and he drove me to Pancake Pantry.  The queue was fairly long but moved quickly.  I had AMAZING blueberry pancakes but asked for half a portion (which was a wise decision).

I made the long walk to the Parthenon at Centennial Park and it was a lovely hot and sunny day. I called the family to check in as I was missing them!

The Parthenon

To further walk off the pancakes I walked around the Vanderbilt University campus site, which was massive.  I went to the Exit/In venue for a photo of the outside.   The next stop was Elliston Place Soda Shop which was like a 50's diner and cooled down with an Orange Freeze drink.  Yum!   I went to see the site of the Music City Tippler venue.  I carried on walking and came across a mechanic, the name of which means something completely different to us Brits and I knew it would make my brother laugh so I sent him a photo (see below).

I went to see where the Soulshine Pizza Factory was because I know people who have performed there.  On the same strip there are two bars next to each other - one is called Winners and one is called Losers.  I went for lunch at a New York deli type place called Noshville (see what they did there).  I had a matzo ball soup (not sure why I chose soup on a hot day).  I then walked all the way back to Alex's place.  I finished the song I'd written the previous day and wrote another, quite country sounding, song.  There was still no sign of Alex's housemate Zach (he'd left me the key in the mailbox).  I got ready for the writer's night and got another Uber car. The driver cranked up Kenny Chesney's new song and started singing along.  It made for an entertaining journey.   The writer's night was at Jed's Sports Bar & Grille and was hosted by Justin Hammel who presents a show on Lightning 100 - Nashville's Independent Radio.  There were nearly 30 people waiting to sign up to play. I put myself down as number 12 which was almost half way.  Justin said that as they hadn't hit 30 there may be time at the end for one or two artists to come back on.

Before going on stage I got a call from Zach asking if I'd been back to the house since I left as he'd heard the door of my room open and swore it was closed when he went upstairs.  That freaked me out a little because I wondered if someone had got in while he was upstairs but he thought it might be a spirit!  He was genuinely freaked out by that! 

When I got on stage I said that as I'd come all the way from London, if there was time at the end to do another, I'd love to do my song about alcohol - they laughed at my chutzpah.  I performed The Same Sky which went down well.  There were some really great acts who also performed - Mary Jennings, Havilland (also Londoners), John Latham, James T (can't remember his surname) and there were a couple of others I didn't catch the names of.   What was really nice was that Ann and Derek (the Factwackers) came to see me play after seeing the movie Dear White People (which is supposed to be good by the way).  They didn't get to see my first song but I did manage to get the second song so they saw me do The Drink Talking.  They also gave me a lift back to Alex's. Derek said "I'm not sure where you're staying but it's on the way"!

Saturday morning was a lovely sunny day. I had breakfast at the Edgehill Cafe and then off to attempt to find my 10th geocache without data or wifi.  I had a rough idea where it was and found it.  I wandered down Music Row - 17th Avenue South and passed so many studios out of converted houses.  I finally made it to RCA Studio B - walk ups are not allowed in the studio as it has to be done as part of the Country Music Hall of Fame tour.  I managed to get some cheeky wifi and found my 2nd geocache.  I proceeded to wander around and found my last geocache of the day - more about these in my next blog.

I did some more walking around Music Square and Music Circle. It was very quiet, as you'd expect for a Saturday. I walked up to Buddy Killen Circle which had weird statues in the middle (see photo) and I also saw the Owen Bradley memorial. He'd produced so many country hits for so many of the country stars back in the day e.g. Patsy Cline's Crazy, Brenda Lee's Rockin' Around The Christmas Tree, Loretta Lynn's Coalminer's Daughter.  I passed BMI, Warner, BMG, CMA and other studios.

Buddy Killen Circle (and a crane)

The Owen Bradley memorial

It wasn't until I got back to Alex's that I noticed how his neighbour opposite had taken Halloween to a whole other level (see below).

In the evening I headed over to The Commodore Grille and saw some great music before I went on stage.  Nancy Faber had some good songs and especially liked the line "you must be from Tennessee 'cause you're the only ten I see".

Kelsey K was next up for the beginning of the rounds part of the evening where the main act (Kelsey) chooses two other acts to join them and they take it in turns to do a song each (about four times around).  Kelsey was joined by Pam Belford who co-wrote If I Know Me, made famous by George Strait.  I saw another lot of rounds and then it was the open mic rounds.  There were four of us on stage.  I was fourth and we got to do two songs each.  Before my first song I made everyone laugh in my introduction: "I'm Lauren Rich and I'm sure you can tell from my accent I'm not from around here - I'm originally from Brooklyn".  The songs went down well with the crowd and I got some great compliments.

Sunday I had an early breakfast as I was flying back to New York. I went to get a photo of one more studio a couple of blocks away that I'd missed.  I got an Uber car to the airport with Jim who used to play keys for Marty Robbins before he died and then played with Marty's son for a few years.  I got to the airport quicker than I thought I would and sat in Tootsie's Orchid Lounge and listened to some live country covers.  I, of course, requested an original.  I sat by the gate and two guys started chatting to me.  They're going to Kathmandu as they're thinking of moving there with their wives and children to do mission work.  One of the guys is a writer - Jordan Ervin.  He said he'd download my EP if I bought his book.  It's a thriller called The Crimson Fall.  I'll tweet/Facebook if it's good once I've read it.

My 2.5 hour flight lasted two hours and I sailed through the terminal.  My other distant cousin Jill (Barrie's sister), her husband Marc and son Harrison collected me.  We had a Fleetwood Mac sing-along in the car.  It was so good to see Barrie and Jill's mum Leona (her grandmother was the sister of my Grandpa's mum).   I was requested to do a little show so I played my two new Nashville songs and The Same Sky and The Drink Talking.  I also showed them my brother's video "It's About Time" on YouTube.  They're a great bunch of people and I had a good laugh with them.  It was great to see Harrison and Dylan grown up.  Harrison is a bit of a rocker, has long hair and plays guitar.  Dylan is a sports nut.  They're similar in age but poles apart - I guess like me and my cousins but, if they're anything like us then they'll be incredibly close when they're older.

The day of return - I took a lift with Barrie into the city again.  I took my suitcase to The Gramercy Park Hotel ready for later on and headed to Union Square.  I stopped by The Strand bookstore which has 18 miles of books (my sister would have loved it).  However, they didn't have the Jordan Ervin book.  My friend Aaron couldn't make our midday catch-up but he suggested I check out the Guitar Center down the road.  I walked around and went into the acoustic section.  They only had three Luna guitars and one of them was my Flora Passionflower.  It was $369 which currently works out as £229 (cheaper than what I bought it for - d'oh!).

Went back to Union Square and watched people play chess for a bit and then popped over to Barnes & Noble who also didn't have Jordan's book.   I did find out that it's print on demand.  I then headed back to the Gramercy to meet another friend before heading to the airport to come home from an amazing experience.

Stuff wot I learnt:

1. Not one person in Nashville is from Nashville - I did not meet one true Nashvillian.

2. Doesn't matter what country you're in: stand on the right, walk down on the left.

3. Not everyone in Nashville likes country music.

4. Grits are similar to porridge but finer.

5. You're always 15 minutes from anywhere you need to be in Nashville.

6. Uber is brilliant!

7. Never take London's public transport for granted.

8. There is free wi-fi in almost every place you go in Nashville (catch up UK).

9. The quiz host's name was Tabitha.

10. Not everywhere does southern fried chicken.  I really fancied it and nowhere I went did it.  There were "hot" chicken places though but I don't do spicy!

14. Donate £40 a year to charities (Year 2)

It hasn't even been a whole year yet and I've given over double the amount of money to charity this year than I set out to.

My first donation since my 34th birthday was to Children in Need.  I do give a donation to them every year as I truly believe in the work they do for children in this country.  I sit and watch all the entertainment (winding it forward when they start to repeat them) but I also sit through the videos about the children who are helped by the donations that are made every year.  Some of them I do actually sit there and cry - so heart-warming.  I donated £10.

My next donation was to my friend, Paul.  He decided to take on Movember.  He probably shouldn't have done because a moustache really doesn't suit him but good on him for doing it for charity.  Movember promotes men's health.  I sometimes think men think they are invincible.  This charity aims to get the message out there that even men can get sick and they should look after themselves.  One of their key areas is prostate and testicular cancer. I sponsored him £5.

My friend Rachel (who is probably the biggest consumer of alcohol that I know) decided to raise money by having a Dry January.  She chose to raise money for The Alzheimer's Society as it was a charity close to her heart.  I sponsored her £5 at the beginning of the challenge and told her she'd get another £5 if she did it.  She found it incredibly hard to do it. It was like giving up an addiction almost.  But, being the person she is, she managed to get through the challenge.  At midnight on 1st February we celebrated by consuming a fairly large quantity of alcohol and ended up with hangovers when we woke up in the morning.  I don't know why she got me involved!  To be fair, we didn't drink as much as Rachel would have liked as her body couldn't actually take it.  Proud of her though.

In March there was a craze that swept the nation - the "no make-up selfie".  Women all over the country took photos of themselves with no make-up on and then donated £3 to Cancer Research UK.  Here's the photo I took for the no make-up selfie: 

I then sponsored my mum's cousin, Natalie, in her challenge - THE London Marathon (you'd never catch me running, let alone a marathon).  She was raising money for Children with Cancer - not a very well known charity but a very worthy cause.  I sponsored £10.

My friend Ben ran the BUPA London 10K for Diabetes UK.  He's a good friend of mine so obviously I was obligated to donate to support him as he promised to support me in my crowd-funding campaign for my EP (tit for tat as they say).  I sponsored him £10.

My friend Marion and her friend Emma decided to walk the length of a marathon around Maidenhead.  An incredible achievement.  I'd like to think I could potentially walk a marathon but I don't think I'd have the stamina or the willpower.  I sponsored £10 which went to Berkshire SANDS - Stillbirth and Neonatal Death charity) and Family Friends in Windsor and Maidenhead.

Crohn's & Colitis UK - last year it was just another charity, now it's a charity that is incredibly close to my heart as I was recently diagnosed with Crohn's Disease.  When I found out my friend Stuart was raising money for CCUK again by cycling from London to Brighton I actually went searching for his fundraising page so I could donate.  I sponsored £10 in July and Stuart did the challenge in September.  

Another craze that swept the nation was raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support and it was Shave or Style.  One of the people who really takes care of his hair and doesn't like one hair out of place is Antonio Lulic (a fantastic singer/songwriter by the way).  He decided to get involved and get his head shaved - so brave.  I sponsored him £10.

It started off with celebrities nominating each other and then before we knew it, it was us regular common folk who were getting nominated.  It was the Ice Bucket Challenge!  In America it was for ALSA (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Association) but the UK equivalent was MND (Motor Neurone Disease Association).  The more my friends were getting nominated, the closer it was getting to me.  I was getting incredibly busy leading up to my holiday and then a couple of days before I was due to go abroad, my friend Darren nominated me (I honestly thought a member of my family was going to get in there.  I made my donation of £5 within the 24 hour time-frame but seriously had no time to do the challenge until I went away.  The pool bar in the hotel looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for an ice bucket.  They didn't have any buckets at that bar so I filled up a couple of cups with iced water and gave a third cup to my mum for added effect.  Out of all of the people I nominated, only one person did the challenge - well done to my little brother, Paul. Check out the video below.

My last donation was actually made this evening but an error on JustGiving's site means it's not showing on the fundraising page although I got the PayPal receipt come through.  My friend Laura is running the London Marathon for Joint Action - the charity I work for.  What a trooper!!  I wanted to be the first donation on her page.  I hope they'll fix it tomorrow.  I sponsored her £10.

So, as you've read, I've donated more than double what I intended to donate - £93 in total. It resets again in October.

25. Finish the Cinderella cross-stitch I started in 1992

Back in the early nineties, cross-stitch was all the rage...well I'm not sure it was exactly but I enjoyed it and it was something to pass the time while my family watched football on TV at the weekend. 

Cross-stitch was something I could do whilst listening to music.  I used to do small patterns like bookmarks and little pictures (I did a really lovely one for my grandma about "grandma's house") but, when I went to Disneyworld in Florida I saw this pattern and HAD to have it.  I can't remember if I bought it in 1991 or 1992 but I'm sure it was on one of our America trips. 

Cinderella with her fairy godmother, mouse friends, pumpkin coach and horses and footmen - definitely a big challenge.  I made a really good start on it after I had figured out what all of the coloured threads were and separated them into different envelopes.  I used to sit on my bed or on my bedroom floor when I did it or I would take it with me when I went to do babysitting.

It got to 1995/1996, GCSE years, and homework + revision = no time for doing anymore (I note the 3 year length of time since I bought it but I had started high school in 1992 and homework always took precedence).

The more time passed, the more times I forgot about it.  It ended up in the back of my wardrobe behind my shoes.

This is why it made it onto my 40 list.  I need to make time for it and try to remember how to do it and remember the thread colour system I had in place. 

As you can see below I made a pretty good start at it.  It's always in the back of my mind.  It's also sitting at the back of my sofa which is a constant reminder that I need to do something about it when I have free time.

For want of a better phrase: I need to finish off that horse! 

6. Try Beef Steak Rare

Ever since I was a wee whippersnapper, my Mum always cooked steak "well done" because that's how Dad liked it.  I think Dad gets freaked out at the sight of blood.

Over the last few years I've worked my way down to "medium".  I did this because a few people said that you get more taste from a medium cooked steak and it's not as tough to cut.  I tried it once and thought "yeah, I think I'm going to have it like this from now on".

Working in restaurants when I was younger, I often wondered how people could eat steak rare.  It didn't make sense to me.  I thought that the taste of the rawness of it would overpower the flavour of the steak.

I didn't think I would ever order a rare steak in a restaurant so I added "Try Beek Steak Rare" to my list in the hope that someone I ate out with would let me have a mouthful!

That day came on 22nd July 2014 (last week) on a lovely summer's evening at The Battle Axes pub in Elstree.  I was joined by three lovely friends (Daniel, Rachel and Adam).  Rachel kept saying she was hungry so, after some gentle persuasion from the rest of us, she finally decided to get food.  She came back from ordering and said she'd ordered steak.  I just happened to ask "how do you have your steak cooked?", to which she replied "rare".  RESULT!  Obviously, I asked if she would mind if I had a little bit to try because it's on my 40 List.  She probably still thinks I'm insane!

The video below (thanks Dan) is evidence that this event did actually occur!

Apologies for speaking with my mouth full of steak but I didn't want Dan to just film me chewing - I needed to get across, in that moment, how it felt to try steak rare.  I have to say it's not as bad as I thought it would be but I still think I will stick to "medium".   However, if a steak ever arrives on a table in front of me slightly under, I probably won't make a big deal about it.

9. Learn To Ride A Bike

This is probably more embarrassing for me than anyone else featured in this video.

Why did I decide after all of this time that I wanted to learn to ride a bike?  I have zero balance.  I can just about stand on one leg.  Because...this might be the hardest challenge of all (yes, harder than trying on a corset - number 16 on the list)!  They say you can't teach an old dog new tricks.  I'm not saying I'm an old dog but it's easier for children to learn new things.  I'm also probably not the easiest student when it comes to exercise.

One cold day last year I thought it would be a good idea to talk about my 40 list with my work colleagues.  They were shocked to learn that I couldn't ride a bike...in fact, everyone is shocked to learn that piece of news when it comes up in conversation.  The last bike I had was fitted with stabilisers and then it went rusty.  My folks never got me another bike but I never drove them mad for one either.  Definitely wasn't my thing!

My colleague, Miranda, offered her services as a teacher, as she rode into work on a bike.  Below is the video evidence - filming and commentary is from my colleague, Sherrine.  You will see I was helped by Miranda and my former colleague, Craig and, being no help at all were Claire and Hayley (who manages to stay out of the video altogether).

Just for a laugh I thought it would be funny to put some music over the top of this video.

Before you view this footage I need to warn you, I clearly have very bad posture, the seat was too high, there are many views of my backside and these "teachers" are not professionals!

After viewing this, is anyone else up for teaching me?