Update

7) Dye my hair -  DONE (25/07/11)

Hadn't done so in a while so I thought 'why not?' The typical Asian colour to go for is red (which I've had a few times) so I decided to go for something a bit different...purple! TBH I wasn't expecting it to show well since I didn't bleach my hair beforehand but I held hope regardless. Well you can tell when my hair's wet...or it's in direct sunlight. Otherwise...it's jet black. My fingernails were died purple due to the stupidity of not wearing gloves when washing the dye off. Fail.

9) Go to a festival - DONE properly (23/07/11)

I kind of cheated myself by claiming that throwing paint at people for Holi counted as 'going to a festival'. I fixed it though by going to the Ben & Jerry's Sundae Festival (which was ironically on Saturday). Bit of a last minute plan but definitely glad we went. £17 for many live bands (Gary Numan, Maximo Park etc.) and the best bit? ...Unlimited free Ben & Jerry's ice cream with every possible flavour. Only managed about 10 in the end but all in all, a nice chilled day with good music and ice cream. What more could you want? 


32) Get a 1st in my degree -  In Progress
As always, Maths results were not out on the day that they were meant to be - which happened to be the day before I jetted away to Malta. Eventually they were released as I was on the train down to Leeds. These exams were the worst I've taken, especially one in which I failed to even put a coherent answer down for 2/3 of the paper. The saving grace though was scaling. Massive scaling, all across the board (by an average of 20 marks it seems). So...averaged 77 this semester coupled with 82 last semester gives me a healthy total to take into my final year. I need somewhere in the 60s to overall average a First. Let's not screw this up now. 


33) Do a proper all nighter -  DONE (09/06/11)
Summer Pangaea 2011. Theme: Go Wild. An epic night dressed as a zebra. Walking out and down Oxford Road at 6am with the sun out, passing giant portable speakers blasting drum and bass with students still raving away on the SU steps, was a surreal experience. 


41) Win Premier League with Hartlepool... - DONE (28/07/11)
Eventually done. Fifa 11. World Class. Successive promotions from League 1 to the Prem then winning the league comfortably after 1 season. The lads should be proud of themselves. Star man? Aaron Chow of course. What a player. 

58) Watch 100 films I haven't seen before -  In Progress [65/100]

• The Hangover Part II - Glad to see Mr. Chow having a bigger part in this. Comic genius. Like the first part, good fun but it was the photos during the credits which produced the most laughs.
• The Damned United - Brilliant. Even someone with no interest in football would enjoy this. Maybe.
• Taken - I was so looking forward to seeing this after many rave reviews but was left a bit disappointed. Pretty standard action and nowhere near as 'thrilled' as I thought I would be.
• The Informant! - Part of a pile of copied DVDs I had bought from Marmaris. Quirky little comedy. Left me slightly confused with what was going on though.
• The Last King Of Scotland - By recommendation. Such a great performance by Whitaker and I was stunned by the realism, story and the relationships developed between the characters. Fantastic film.
• Green Lantern - I wasn't expecting a blockbuster and because of that, I thought it was actually alright. Nothing clever; a glorified fairytale about having the will to fight fear.
• The Adjustment Bureau -  Had comparisons to Inception which I could see why, not that I necessarily agree with them. Still, great to watch but it would always be difficult being compared to (in my opinion) one of the greatest films of recent years.
• Detective Dee And The Mystery Of The Phantom Flame - Mixes my Mum's love of detective stories and...well, being Chinese. A bit far fetched at times and CGI wasn't great but it was quite original and watch-able.
• Porco Rosso - see below
• Hobo With A Shotgun - Very Grindhouse-esque (infact, it is based on a winning trailer of the Grindhouse trailer contest). Lots of gore, violence and great lines make this a memorable film. Although mentally blocking out some of the scenes is probably for the best. 
• The Good, The Bad And The Weird - Possibly the first Korean film I've ever seen. Good fun though although a tad slow at times. 
• Transformers: Dark Of The Moon - Had to wait a while to see this although others who had seen it didn't really think much of it. Giant robots beating the sh*t out of each other on the big screen. What's not to like? 
• Black Dynamite - Brilliant. He really is one "super-n*gger". (Not nagger).

67) Buy 10 scratchcards - In Progress [6/10]
Another £2 down the drain.


88) Get into the habit of rewriting/looking at notes after the lecture - DONE...kinda
Started...but after a week or so I just didn't find it useful at all. More time consuming than anything. Not worth it.

90) Read the 7 books I got from Borders 90% off sale - In Progress [6/7]

• Who Is Charlie Conti? by Claus von Bohlen
• Rain Dogs And Love Cats by Andrew Holmes

92) Watch the entire Studio Ghibli collection - In Progress [7/19]

• Porco Rosso - A pilot pig. Strange enough as it is but throw in pirates and fully grown men asking to marry little girls then you have a Japanese film. Not one of Miyazaki's finest in my opinion.

100) Go on nights out in Liverpool and Leeds - DONE (16/07/11)

• Leeds - for MJs birthday at a farm/outdoor centre style place in Leeds. [This counts, right? If not then Leeds Fest surely does. Either way, I'm giving this a big tick]. Almost didn't make it there due to car trouble - the car I had bought only a few days earlier. Not the best start to a party having to sort things out with an RAC guy but thankfully the car managed to make it to Manchester the day after. Shame it broke down there a week later...

Update

3) Donate blood 3 times - In Progress [2/3]
The University recently had a big blood donation drive and opened up a building specifically to get new people giving blood. I went between lectures but didn't expect it to be so rammed! Had to wait quite a while but it was worth it for the free muffin/biscuits...and it was for a good cause of course.


11) Go skiing/snowboarding - DONE (02/04/11)
On mine and Harry's mind for a while when an offer of a whole day lesson for 2 people for £200 came up (pricey but a bargain compared to the standard prices) at the Chill Factor next to The Trafford Centre. We were in a group of around 7-8 and we picked it up pretty quickly. Only a few tumbles to recall, including a major 'snowball effect' style tumble at high speed. Exhausting though but definitely a great experience and would recommend it to anyone - they always have new offers, check them out below:

21) Use Twitter/Buzz - DONE (30/01/11)
I thought 'why not?'. I'm not a 'tweeter' though, mainly use it to stalk celebrities. That is the main use, right?


30) Go hiking 5 times - In Progress [4/5]
For someone's birthday, she decided to arrange a hike/BBQ at Edale. Nice to be in the great outdoors again. This time, someone had a map so, in theory, we knew where we were going. Ended up, sheltered from the wind, behind giant rocks setting up the disposable BBQ. I'm afraid that veggie sausages were a failure. Chocolate in bananas, however, were a great success. 


54) Be vegetarian for three days - DONE (08/03/11 - 10/03/11)
Not just 3 days...but for a whole week! Housemates didn't believe I could do it so they bet me a steak dinner on them if I complete it. This set off a '1 week challenge' throughout the friendship group with people giving up tea, wearing black, cooking ready meals etc. I cooked 1 meal the whole week. Every other time, I ate out (I didn't plan it like that, it just happened). It was a straightforward week but I don't think I'll be doing it again. It severely limited what I could make/choose which made me realise what a dependence I have on meat! Anyway, the steak dinner was well deserved.

The steak is there...somewhere

58) Watch 100 films I haven't seen before -  In Progress [52/100]

• Memento - Confusing but what I could make out, it seemed a very clever film and one which I'll need to watch again.
• Black Swan - Caught a late night showing because we didn't have anything better to do. Dark and psychological - not what one would expect from a ballerina film. Very well done.
• Get Smart - I seem to be quite pessimistic about comedies nowadays but this was a good laugh and better than what I expected.
• 3:10 to Yuma - Couldn't understand anything that Bale was saying and turning the volume right up made the gunfight shots reverberate around the whole house. Never really watched a western before and this confirms that they don't really appeal to me. 

62) Spend over £100 on a shopping trip - DONE (23/02/11)
KFC, jeans, football trainers and socks, Focus mag, lots of DVDs and Blurays, headband for my sister and a few snacks conclude a productive shopping trip. 


67) Buy 10 scratchcards - In Progress [5/10]
Won £1 back again. Double woop!


92) Watch the entire Studio Ghibli collection - In Progress [6/19]

• My Neighbour Totoro - the classic. The most memorable film of my childhood and watching it again brought back the memories. I remember someone writing how it is one of very few children's films in the world which doesn't have a 'bad' character in which is difficult to do in itself, never mind creating such a rich and sweet storyline based on a simple premise - family move house, little girl gets lost. My housemates were impressed although they found it stranger than Spirited Away. Really? 

96) Get a double chicken burger with cheese from Geminis - DONE (19/03/11)

Everyone else ordered Chinese, I jogged down to Geminis. This one had cheese in, thank God. 

100) Go on nights out in Liverpool and Leeds - In Progress

• Liverpool - Surprisingly nice city. I would even say it was beautiful. I guess I had the stereotypical image of council houses and scouse version of charves running riot (it's not just me who thinks this, right?) which I feel bad for now. Anyway, went to see Russell Howard at Liverpool Echo Arena (he was hilarious) then went for a drink in a pub after.