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Showing posts from February, 2021

#38 Buy a Lottery Ticket

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You've gotta be in it to win it apparently! So I bought five tickets for last night's Lotto draw, something I haven't done for more than twenty years. You couldn't buy them online last time I did it, that's how long ago it was, you filled in your paper slip with a teeny tiny pen and gave it to the shop assistant in the corner shop. Now it's far easier, which I suppose is a good and a bad thing.  Anyway, I chose my numbers with no special dates or formula in mind and awaited the draw. Do you remember when there used to be a whole Saturday night lottery show? Now it's just a two minute slot in the adverts halfway through The Voice. Disappointingly, I only got two numbers or this would have been a very different blog post. I thought that was the end of it but this morning I had an email telling me that I won a Lucky Dip entry to the draw on Wednesday. Who knows....it could be me!

#12 Nominate someone for an honour or award

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  Have you ever seen a report on the news about the New Year's Honour List and thought to yourself, I know a few people far more deserving of recognition than these people? I have and I didn't realise until recently that anyone can nominate someone for an honour or award. Not only that but we all should!  The process is very easy, you download a form from a government website, fill it in and email it back. I just nominated someone and it took less than half an hour. Currently there is a category especially for those who are doing coronavirus related work; so if you know a nurse, doctor, care worker, teacher, teaching assistant, retail worker or any other essential worker who is going above and beyond their duty right now nominate them! 

#46 Attend a Gin Tasting

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While lock-down 3 continues, visiting gin distilleries cannot really be considered an essential journey, so a couple of Saturdays ago I joined a gin tasting hosted by The Virtual Tasting Company. The featured distillery was The Isle of Skye Distillers and for about £30 I was sent three 5 centilitre bottles of gin, three bottles of tonic water and a Zoom link. On the night of the tasting I set myself up with my three glasses of ice, well chilled tonics and the recommended garnishes, laptop and nibbles. As you can see from the "before" photo here, it was all very civilised at this point. A good number of us joined the virtual tasting along with two facilitators from The Virtual Tasting Company and one of the distillery owners from The Isle of Skye Distillers. We tasted their most popular gin, Misty Isle Cill Targhlain first, which is distilled using wild foraged botanicals from the island. We then progressed to their amazing EnGineering gin, which is usually exported to mainlan...

#20 Get a Mention on the Radio.

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As a teenager I was a volunteer presenter on Hospital Radio Plymouth and ever since I have had a fascination with the radio. These days it is limited to listening to Radio 2 in the car and sometimes fantasizing about how my jingle would sound... ...88 to 91 FM....Abi Prokop....B B Ceeeeeeeeeeeee Radio Twooooooooooooooooooo... Anyway, I listened to the Rylan Clark-Neal show last weekend and emailed in a request for a shout out. I didn't get one but a few days later a call from an unknown number turned out to be Simon, the show's producer, inviting me onto their trivia quiz Couch Potatoes! So yesterday, at 4.20pm, I was sat in my car outside to avoid being interrupted by the dog, listening to Radio 2 through my phone and waiting to be introduced by Vernon Kay. Sadly I lost on the tie breaker so I won't get to go back next week, however I did manage to give my school a mention on air, which was my main aim anyway.