EXPERIENCE #39: HARNESSING THE POWER OF OLD EXPERIENCES TO ACQUIRE A NEW ONE

So this experience is a little bit of a strange one but then again it's been a bit of a strange evening.

I woke up in the mopiest of moods not really wanting to do anything but then wanting to do everything at the same time; a new experience was last on my list of things for today.

So I get to work at three still experienceless and whilst "busying" myself on the office computer get this horoscope through.

It tells me to be "receptive to the idea that something doesn't have to be new to be fascinating" which I initially interpreted as perhaps suggesting I should either try and re-experience something or try and rediscover an old experience...something like that.

Anyway, at work recently I have been feeling a little out of my depth and like I'm really not what they had expected me to be like at all. I'm one of those people that if they have a downer on something they turn into one of those total retards who messes everything up even more.

Tonight however for the very first time out of nowhere came this surge of belief from within that I knew what I was doing and that I was quite capable of doing it.

I realized that I had experienced far more stressful shifts than the ones at the hotel and done a far better job and so I pulled my socks up and got to it!

Not one thing went wrong for me and my employers were dead impressed. At the end of the night they told me that I had proven myself and handed me a key to the front door.

So although this technically is a new experience in a way its more to do with harnessing the power of old experiences to achieve new ones if you see what I mean?

I know people will probably say it doesn't count and that its not new blah blah blah guff shut up, I think it does. This whole thing is about bettering myself through experience and that's exactly what I have done here so there.

EXPERIENCE #38: CELEBRATING ST PIRANS DAY

So I am officially 100% Cornish but have never celebrated the annual day of our patron saint, St Piran.

Today being St Pirans day I had a real feeling inside this morning that this should be my new experience and that I should try and celebrate all things Cornish to the best of my ability.

So I woke up, pinned my Cornwall badge to my jumper, posted a cheery 'Lowen Dydh sen Pyran!' (happy St Pirans day!) to everyone on facebook and then headed off to work.

At the nursery I baked Cornish pasties (well actually a Cornish pasty pie, which thinking about it is technically a normal pie just er made with the love of a Cornishman...it counts alright!?!) and wished everyone a happy St Pirans day. They had the Kernow flag up and were wearing gold and black which I thought was a lovely touch.

After work I strolled into town on what could have been one of the most beautiful days ever and actually took in the splendor of my little town. 

I bought a big old cheese and onion pasty and then hopped on the Western Greyhound (totally Cornish) and headed to my next job. My pasty bloody honked out the bus and made everything smell like sweaty cheese and strong greasy onions; it was marvelous!

Ive now finished work and got home to join my mum on the sofa in some quality viewing of Doc Martin (again totally Cornish, or at least Clunes tries to be).

I feel as if my Cornishness as been fully replenished and that I'm good for another year now.

The experience is for you Mr Piran thanks for bringing tin mining, good local ales and clotted cream to our green pastures, love you babes x

EXPERIENCE #37: WRITING A LETTER TO MY ULTIMATE HERO, REX WEYLER

For those of you that are unaware of who Rex Weyler is, he is one of the founding members of Greenpeace and pretty much my biggest idol.

He's also a lovely writer and has written a few books that retell the early adventures of his activist chums and the original Greenpeace group. They're all pretty dated now but they have that great engaging quality that stories grandparents tell you have, like theyre from a time that you can't even comprehend?

Anyway I'm in the middle of reading one of his books 'The Whale Song' which is all about a marine biologist blokey called Paul Spong and his conquests into freeing captive orcas and highlighting the fact that whales are about a million times cooler than humans.

So whilst having a read yesterday I got to thinking about how damn great this Rex Weyler fellow is and how I should most definitely write to him and tell him so.

So I did, it wasn't a brown nosing "oh Rexy your so super cool will you please sign my chest" sort of letter, just a short one to let him know that I think he's a particularly great human being and that I'm glad he was born.

I'm in the process of figuring out where to send this letter do but I will when I find his address and hopefully I will get some sort of response and even if I don't at least he knows I'm a fan

EXPERIENCE #36: PROUDLY PURCHASING SEXUAL PRODUCTS FROM THE CHEMIST

I'm not going to go into any graphic details considering my mother now reads my blog but yes today I went to the chemist and after a having a browse I coolly took what I wanted to counter and bought it.

Don't get me wrong I've had to buy sexy stuff before just I've always added it to an allready full shopping trolley or got it from those dirty (and extremely overpriced I might add) vending machines in club toilets.

But yesterday I really didn't give a flying wotsit, I was a paying customer and didn't think that it really mattered what I was buying.

I must admit I did start to freak a bit when it wouldn't scan through the bleepy machine and the way that the cashier was trying so hard to make it seem like I was buying something really normal made me snigger quite a bit.

All in all this one was quite an empowering new experience, but still Sam if your reading this you're definitely buying it next time pal.

EXPERIENCE #35: EATING A SAUTEED RADISH

Wow, yeh probably the most boring experience ever but nonetheless it's still a new one.

So I ate a cooked radish for the first time and it tasted like ass.

It did teach me something though, that I have become extremely eager to try anything new so much so that I have begun to ask for things that I probably wouldn't have asked for before and do things that I wouldn't have bothered to do before either.

I know it's just a bloody cooked vegetable but it's symbolizes the point that I have reached with all these experiences. I feel fresh and excited that I'm doing things I've never done before which is a really lovely feeling to experience.

I guess I just want to say thanks for the support from everyone and thanks to the radish for making this clear to me.

This one is dedicated to you my little red friend, I'm sorry I had to eat you.

EXPERIENCE #34: BEING THE CAUSE OF A MASS BABY EVACUATION

Whilst cooking pasta bakes for a nice and busy nursery school today I somehow set the fire alarms off.

I had been briefed on what to do in the event of a fire alarm and so followed procedures accordingly; I grabbed two babies tucked one underneath each arm and bolted for the car park.

Secretly I have been waiting for the day that this happened and this is actually on my experience wish  list (yes I have one).

I didn't do it on purpose or anything but I'm glad that I got the see the mayhem that unfurls when a fire alarm goes off in a nursery school.

The two babies that I had wedged under each pit really didn't seem too amused by the whole ordeal and I had to hand them over to someone more familiar once we got outside.

I apologized to everyone once the registers had been checked and we all went back in for some what was by then over cooked pasta bake.

Fuck I love my job!

EXPERIENCE #33: BECOMING A SURROGATE FATHER TO A BIG BUCKET OF FROG SPAWN

I remember in my first year of school my class had a tank of tadpoles that we watched slowly turn into the frogs.

For the past few years at the start of spring I've always tried to find a clutch of frog spawn for myself so that I could recreate this fond childhood memory of mine, I have never had any luck though.

Last Thursday though someone posted a message on my local freecycle site - by the way definitely worth signing up to if you want cool shit for free - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Wadebridge_Freecycle - and explained that they had a pond brimming with spawn and they were looking to offload some.

So Sam and I agreed that together we would father a bucketful of spawn and nurture them until they turned into frogs.

Today the adoption became official when I picked up the kids from the nice lady giving them away. Sam's sorting out the tank and I'm going to collect some algae for the little blighters to nibble on.

My little twin brothers are going to help look after them and I think even start up their own blog page to keep everyone posted on how they are growing.

For that reason I am going to dedicate this experience to them, good luck chaps x

Can you believe it eh in a few days time were going to become cross species parents!