30 day
30 Day Challenge Blog
30 November 2020
What is the 30 Day Challenge for ALL?
Sam Ridgway, the founder of L&E, was challenged to 10 Adventures, 10 Life Skills and 10 Languages in 30 Days…Simple!
There were 2 main aims of the challenge:
- Raise vital funds and awareness for Save the Children who exist to help every child to reach their full potential.
2. To inspire young people from all backgrounds and cultures to broaden their horizons, step out of their comfort zone and try something new.
30 Day Schedule
10 Adventures
10 Life Skills
Day 1: Yoga
Completed my first life-skill challenge today! YOGA!! The lovely Harriet was my expert instructor and put me through my paces. Made me realise how un-flexible I am! A little stiff now but actually may try to keep it going as I’m not getting any younger!! 😜
Day 2: Wild Swimming
This wasn’t planned at all! Having a lovely dog walk with Rosie on the beach getting myself prepared for my language lesson later in the afternoon when an idea struck me! WILD SWIM! Only problem was…I didn’t have any trunks or a towel!. Oh well…I managed to protect my modesty and went for it! Very invigorating but very, very, very cold!! Literally took my breath away! First adventure completed! Language lesson delayed till another day!
Day 3: Spanish
Today was an incredibly wet & rainy day so the perfect day for an indoor activity. My lovely 82 year old Father used to be a French and Spanish teacher but for some reason I have never learnt any Spanish my whole life. He agreed to give me a Spanish lesson and it was amazing. I am so lucky to have such a great Dad who embraces all challenges including modern technology!! Only a few glitches…😂
Day 4: Ukulele
Enjoyed today’s session. It was very frustrating and I will certainly blame the quality of my my instrument but all in all I definitely learnt some chords and will be able to bring out the ukulele at campfires etc. (if only to pass it very quickly to someone who can actually play!!) Thank you Andy for the tutorial! 👍 (ps. remember to tune your ukulele and to know whether you’re doing it for left handed or right handed! 🤦♂️)
Day 5: GPS Art Run
An interesting challenge today. A friend mentioned the idea of GPS Art and how you can draw shapes with the route you run with your running app. It was fun planning the shape and putting it into action. It was an early start but worth it in the end. Pacific Spirit Park is an incredible temperate Rainforest near where we will live and was the perfect setting!! 🏃🌲 Day 5 done…what’s in store tomorrow!!? 🤔 Ps. I have some quite exciting challenges planned in the coming days/weeks but still need some more ideas to fill my schedule!?🤔
Day 6: Arabic
Today I had the privilege of learning Arabic from my wife, Randa’s mum. She was very patient and very kind. There’s some very difficult pronunciations and I apologise for some of the inaccuracies!😂 Enjoy! PS. Keep the ideas coming…really enjoyed some of the ideas so far! 👍
Day 7: Singing
What an amazing opportunity to have a singing lesson with an amazing professional like Kathy! (However I think I may have blown it!!😂) Thank you so much to Kathy for giving your time to teach me. I will have definitely been one of the harder students to get a note out of but, nonetheless I really enjoyed it and feel that now I have a technique I have no excuse for the sounds coming out of my mouth! 🤦♂️😂
I really recommend everyone to get a voice/singing teacher. It really makes you concentrate on certain things that will help throughout your life.
Day 8: Boating
I had a lot of fun today. My friend Mark treated me to a ride in his boat and even luckier I got to drive it! It’s a very different feeling to driving a car and the waves were certainly causing a few bumps! So much fun!
Day 9: Roller Blading
Oh my Gosh! I am NOT a natural skater/blader! Coupled with my tallness and fear of falling there is an incredible awkwardness when I have wheels or blades on my feet! However, I didn’t do as badly as I thought and really enjoyed the sunshine along the famous Vancouver Sea Wall!
Day 10: Sign Language
Sign Language has been on the list of things to learn for a long time. I was very lucky for Katie to agree to teach my some BSL (British Sign Language). The expressive(ness) of the language is so fantastic. I loved Katie’s passion for it and I have promised myself that I must carry on learning and if nothing else try to remember the alphabet by heart.
Katie mentions the Alphabet cards you can download from the National Children’s Deaf Society website
Day 11: Tree Climbing
Find a tree, climb a tree, have a coffee up a tree – simple huh!?
Who’d have thought it would be so hard to find a tree to climb IN A FOREST!!?? Well it was! Try as I might I could find an appropriate tree to climb for a long time but eventually found one on my next outing with outstanding view. All in all it was a successful challenge but just reminded me that even the best laid plans can come unstuck sometimes! 😂
Day 12: Japanese
Thank you so much to Mitsue for giving me her time to teach me some Japanese. It’s such a beautiful and polite language. I know I didn’t do it quite the justice it deserved but nonetheless I enjoyed learning and certainly will try to remember the basics!
Day 13: Cooking
Very fortunate to have Dan from Nourish Cookery School give me a lesson on how to make Japanese dumplings, gyoza! They were very yummy! 😋🥟
Day 14: Snow Day
Yesterday I heard the exciting news that our local mountain (Cypress) was due open early for the ski season. Every year I get incredibly excited by this news and this year (with everything that has gone on) I was even more excited than normal! Just being in the mountains with snow and trees around me is my special place! I decided not to go up the lifts as it was pretty busy and the season is long but I had a lovely hike and ski down and even made myself a coffee with my little stove! Fantastic day!
Day 15: Malay
Can’t quite believe I’m halfway through! 5 adventures, 5 life skills and 5 languages completed!
Loved learning Malay with Heng. He had gone to some effort to prepare and make it as easy as possible for me to learn and so I’m ever so grateful. Terima kasih, Heng!
Day 16: Turkish
Thank you so much to Eylem for teaching me some Turkish. I visited Istanbul a few years ago and had the most wonderful time. I would even go as far as to say it’s one of my most favourite cities. Where East meets West! So, I’m excited to go back and be able to use my new found skills. It’s a very interesting language and quite phonetic which makes it easier than other languages. I also loved the body language that is unique to Turkey.
Day 17: Card Skills
Who could imagine shuffling cards could be so difficult!? I’ve always loved magic tricks and playing card games but been slightly embarrassed by the fact I can’t even do a basic shuffle never mind anything fancy!
I decided to something about it! 🤦♂️
Day 18: Den Building
A great life-skill preparing for my adventure in a couple of days when I get to sleep out in my construction!
Beware of the coyotes!!
😜
Day 19: Norwegian
This was quite a special language lesson.
Randa and I met a lovely couple (Hans, from Norway and Zoe from Canada) 15 years ago in South Africa on a wine tasting tour. We hit it off straight away and had a really fun day together but haven’t seen them since.
Through the power of social media we’ve stayed in touch and amazingly Hans got in touch to offer to give me a Norwegian lesson. They now actually live in Canada as well so we will definitely see more of them sooner or later. Thank you again to Hans! 🙏
Day 20: Sleep Out
This was a tough one for lots of reasons. As well as to Save the Children please consider donating to Covenant House Vancouver who help young people who experience homelessness. https://www.covenanthousebc.org/ways-to-give/
Day 21: Pig Latin (Kids Secret Language)
Pig Latin (Kids Secret Language). What a brilliant teacher 9 year old Libby is! I learnt so much! She is sooo amazing at Pig Latin! Wow! 😃👏
Day 22: Foraging (for mushrooms)
I was incredibly fortunate today. Chef Robin Kort from Swallow Tail Culinary Adventures gave me a personal guide to foraging mushrooms. Her knowledge and passion is so infectious and I learnt so much! 
Day 23: Kayaking
I took a trip down False Creek, Vancouver. 
Loved seeing things that I hadn’t noticed before. I think waterways are such a great way to travel and see things from a different perspective. Also, it’s so quiet in a kayak so you have a great chance to see cool wildlife…I got lucky with a little friend!🦭
Day 24: Art Class
Day 24: Art Class (with my amazing Mum!).She taught me some cool watercolour techniques and produced an amazing snowy scene in minutes! 
Thanks to Dad for his stellar video work (not wobbly at all!! 
)
Day 25: Skate Skiing
I’m definitely not a natural Skate Skier!! ⛸⛷😩 Thought it would be similar to downhill skiing but it isn’t! Ended up having quite a bit of fun though! 😜😃👍
Day 26: Welsh
Thank you to my very good friend, Aled for teaching me some Welsh.🏴 I even got to hear the proper pronunciation of the longest place name in Europe – Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!!😅
Day 27: Ice Hockey
Thank you so much to Coach Emily and Norbert for taking me to try out ice hockey for the first time. 🏒 It’s the national sport and obsession of Canada so it’s an essential life skill to have and I can tell you I was a little nervous! 😅
Day 28: Mountain Biking
North Shore Mountain Biking is famous worldwide and having lived here now for over 3 years I decided it was time to try it out…I wasn’t dissapointed! Awesome!😃 Thank you, James for being my guide!🏔 🚵♀️ 🏔
Day 29: Luganda
Thank you so much to Phyllis Kisa from Kampala, Uganda. Phyllis is a surgeon who we met during her year in BC Children’s Hospital. It was also lovely to meet little Adrien – what a sweetie! 🤗
Day 30: Sea to Sky Triathlon
THE FINAL ADVENTURE!!! 🙌🙌
From my home to the “Peak of Vancouver” Grouse Mountain by Kayak, Bike and Foot! Thank you to Dave for being expert guide up the BCMC! 🙏
