EXPERIENCE #6: GOING TO SUNDAY CHURCH

Yes, today I attended the morning service at my local church.

I've always considered going to church to be such an old and orthodox tradition, so much so that it doesn't really have a place in my life at all.

I know it’s not really an 'out there' sort of experience to have, but in a way that's the whole point with this one.

Funnily enough the vicar actually lives two doors down from me and I didn't even realise it, in fact the church had bought the house a few years back to act as the towns permanent vicarage.

Everyone one kindly welcomed me and the whole service was very pleasant just as i had expected. Even though I was terribly off key through all the hymns no one seemed to care which was nice.

I found the drone of everyone saying the prayers aloud a little unsettling but apart from that it went well.

I think the great thing about the morning was the fact that religion wasn't being shoved down my throat and I guess that’s what had worried me the most.

People were curious as to why I had come along but most were more interested in the direction I was headed in with my journalism and whether I was having any trouble finding a job.

I am feeling a little bad for the fact that although I may go again at some point I'm not going to be attending religiously at all. This worry probably isn't helped by the fact that the church now knows exactly where I live...

EXPERIENCE #5: FINDING OUT MY CARBON FOOTPRINT

Last summer I spent a lot of time with my local Greenpeace group petitioning against large corporate carbon emitters such as the Kingsnorth Power Station and Heathrow Airport.

All the time I would have people challenging me on what my own carbon footprint was and although I assured them I cycled everywhere, flew nowhere and shopped as locally as my pennies would allow, I'd never actually been 100% sure how much carbon guff I'm pumping out into the atmosphere myself.

So when this afternoon I scoffed at the suggestion of getting a flight to Bristol for my birthday weekend I was inspired to find out what my own personal offset was.

By using some sort of fancy online carbon calculator gizmo I was able to get a rough idea of how much I contribute annually to the choking of our planet.

Here's the damage:

* Your footprint is 0.36 tonnes, which equates to 4.47 tonnes per year
* The average footprint for people in United Kingdom is 9.80 tonnes
* The average for the industrial nations is about 11 tonnes
* The average worldwide carbon footprint is about 4 tonnes
* The worldwide target to combat climate change is 2 tonnes

EXPERIENCE #4: BEING TAUGHT HOW TO WOLF WHISTLE

So today I was stumped as to what new thing I should experience, that was until I heard my younger brother wolf whistling. A few of my friends can do it and it’s been something that no matter how many times I have been shown how to do I just never got the hang of.

Anyway, I don't get to see my brother Bill an awful lot and never even realised he could do it so well. He showed me a different way of doing it and on my very first attempt I managed a faint spluttered whistle!

Although I'm sure my tied tongued and overactive salivary gland are a definite disadvantage in the art of fine wolf whistling, I'm improving and my whistle is getting louder and shriller with each go.

So EXPERIENCE #4 is dedicated to my brother Bill who by teaching me this new skill has most definitely changed my life for the better.

EXPERIENCE #3: JOINING A COMMUNITY ALLOTMENT PROJECT

So today I did something I have been trying to do for a long, long time, I became a member of a communal allotment. It's on great little site just outside of town and is run by a whole load of people from the surrounding area.

When I was living in the city I put my name down for lots of different allotment sites all over the place, annoyingly a city being a city there were two-year waiting lists for whatever plot I tried. However as the countryside is much more green than grey there are a lot more allotment plots up for grabs and a lot less people trying to get their mitts on them.

So the way it works is that in return for helping to maintain the gardens and polytunnels through this year I should get a nice amount of local, organic veggies for free!

My name is down and membership fee has been paid all I have to do is wait for the weather to warm up a little and I should be on my way.

EXPERIENCE #2: WAKING UP FOR THE DAWN CHORUS

I remember once when I was younger being told how spectacular the birds dawn chorus is. I was also told that it commences at roughly 4a.m., reaches its climax at 5:30 a.m. and then slowly descends into your casual run-of-the-mill chirps and twitters from about 6:30 straight through until dusk.

Although I have tried, the getting up at 4a.m. bit has always been too hard for me and so I have never managed to experience the delights of early morning bird song.

This morning however that all changed as I lugged myself out of bed at 4a.m and headed down to the woods. I kept thinking of the classic idiom, "the early bird catches the worm" which was funny considering when I got to my destintation I seemed to be the bloody one there!

Some birds did turn up and put on a good show, but by 5:30 the whole chorus was still a little thin on the ground. I think perhaps the frost kept them away and to be honest I dont really blame them.

Although I might retry this experience a little later into my 98 remaining days I still think it counts considering the time that I got up and the drippy nose that I still have now.

EXPERIENCE #1: GIVING BLOOD

So it just so happened that the blood wagon had rolled into town this morning and was on the search for fresh meat.

Because of various piercings, tattoos and naughty going-ons over the years, I have never ever been caught out by these guys. This time however I had no real excuse and I thought it would be a nice way to start off my 100 days pledge.

And so I did it and I must say that minus a little hand holding from mother dearest I did pretty well. There was the whole drama of nearly passing out towards the end which caused some mild hysteria amoungst the nurses, "GET HIM A WEDGE, GET HIM A WEDGE" they were all shouting!

Anyway, I had some juice and a "1st Time Donor" sticker for being brave and then was on my way.

SO A HUNDRED DAYS OF TRYING NEW THINGS EH?

Yeh, I'm about to set off on a hundred days of exploration into the strange and mysterious world of the unknown.

I'm getting fat and bored and so to keep me occupied whilst this job drought passes over I have decided to embark on a quest. For the next one hundred days (lord lets pray I'm still not unemployed by then!) I will be trying something new every single day.

"Why?"you may ask, well its all part of Josie Longs project "One Hundred Days To Make Me A Better Person". It started on the 1st December 2009 (and yes I know I'm a little late) and its a nice way of getting people to better themselves.

You take a pledge, stick to it and hopefully in the end feel a bit better about everything.

So I am going to do it and with any luck I'll come out the other end feeling experienced to the max and totally and utterly splendid!