JustPickOneUK

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to sleep on a train? No I don't mean passing out in a carriage surrounded by other passengers when having a panic when you woke up with a dribble of drool coming out of your mouth as you try very quickly to discover if you are still in time for your stop or if you have to get off at the next available one and do a double back ride of shame..... I mean sleep in a small room all to yourself like in the Agatha Christie novel Murder on the Orient Express. Well I have.......minus the murdering.  I thought about it enough to make it my number 33 on my 40Before40 list. I was thinking about doing the London to Edinburgh journey because London is easy to get to from the South Coast of England where I live and I can fly back to a close enough airport to get home again, so it sounded like a win win.  But considering the cost of doing all of that, London and Edinburgh didn't quite seem exotic enough. So when the chance came to have some time to...

From a throw away comment about what I want to do for my birthday, to having the adventure of a lifetime all in the space of 9 months. This is 40Before40. For those who haven't followed my journey this year I am turning 40 on 29th June 2025. My husband asked me last summer what would you like to do for your birthday as it is a milestone one. I said well loads of things not just one. Then I said why don't I get myself 40 things to do before I turn 40? And so,  I have been working my way through a list of 40 challenges that I set for myself (some have changed along the way).  Some were simple, but worthy, like going out for coffee with a friend (which I rarely do), reading a full length novel (which I never do) or eat something I'd never had before. Others were more extravagant. Go on a ship, see a geographical wonder and see a tornado in real life.  I had no idea where this idea was taking me and didn't have a full list when I first started.  I haven't achieved all o...

On 26th March 2025 I achieved Number 12 from my list of #40Before40 items. I gave a talk in public. This was for a Dorset based tech event called Dev.Talk ( https://devdottalk.uk/ ) where I was invited to speak about my first year on YouTube. I was welcomed so warmly by the community and I had a great time. Here is the post in which I based my presentation. There will be a YouTube video featuring me in due course (I haven't edited it yet) but for now here it is!  Introduction I started my YouTube channel on 18th May 2024 so not quite a year ago but close enough and these ar e my current stats .  My first video was actually about unboxing my new camera. The DJI Pocket you see filming all of you.  I filmed it on my phone, with the wrong camera I used the front camera rather than the back one (forehead slap) with no script, no added features on the video, no text, music, proper thumbnail (this one has been added since it was uploaded) and little thought about the title. Sinc...

 In the immortal words of Bilbo Baggins "I am going on an adventure!" I love travel and am actively making a YouTube channel based around the subject. But this time, my #40Before40 challenge has forced my hand a little bit in this one. I am trying to achieve a number of items off the list in one big adventure and this is certainly a mixed bag! For this trip I am going to be going on many different forms of transport. Firstly in a car to Southampton Cruise Port as I am going to be boarding Cunard's Queen Anne cruise ship and taking a 2 night trip over to Hamburg. I haven't been to Germany in many years and I am excited to board a new ship. My previous experiences cruising have not been as formal as this and so I am looking forward to the comparison.  I have paid £230 for the 2 nights in an inside cabin (Grade IC), not the cheapest grade on the ship but it was the cheapest option at the time I booked the cruise. I will not know my cabin number until nearer the time but ...

I am 2 weeks in to 40 Before 40 and I have managed to knock two items off my list, I am making progress with a few more and also no-where with many others. Lets dive in. Lets start with one of the items on this list which is now ticked off. I went to see Ghost The Musical at the Pavilion in Bournemouth. I had no idea what to expect. I have seen the film many times, although not recently. But of course there is only one song associated with Ghost and that is "Who you gonna call Ghostbusters!" ........Um no, that's not right is it? Of course not its Unchained Melody, which I am happy to report does feature in this show a couple of times which is wonderful to see. Before I started 40 Before 40 officially I had been to see Sister Act the musical but there is no music from the film in the show at all which I was very surprised about. Anyway, back to the show. It was amazing. The staging, choreography, singing standard and the original songs themselves were all fabulous. Defini...

Well here is a challenge!  My husband asked me what I'd like to do for my 40th which is coming in 10 months. I said I'm not sure. There's lots of things I'd like to do really. I'd love to travel, eat nice things, see family, be productive at home, be alone, so quite a mixture really. Then it came to me while watching another YouTuber (Paul Messner) talk about the impact of doing something different. I'd like to do 40 things before I turn 40. These could be small and take a day to do. They could be big and take a week to do. Some things will take time, money and planning. They can be huge and take all 10 months. But all of them should be an experience, achieve a goal and / or improve my life in some way.  Doing the adventure of the UK road trip has really inspired me that things like that are possible. It is possible to do things that are different to the norm. I can live in a better way than before. At the moment I have no job to go to. No restriction in those t...