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Fullers were kind enough to offer free beer for the Ian Ushers Gathering.
Gather 5 Ian Ushers in one place
4 - Almost there
United-Kingdom - No specific date
Legend:
A while ago I searched on FaceBook for Ian Usher, just out of interest, and was pleased to find a few others. I decided to start an "Ian Usher" club, and there are now four of us in it.
I would like to get to double figures for membership, but mainly would like to have a club meeting, in a pub I imagine, with at least 5 Ian Usher's in attendance.
Why? Why not?
Related Blogs
Calling all Ian Ushers... Saturday, July 26, 2008
Does anyone know of any other Ian Ushers out there.
So, my first task is to find as many Ian Ushers as I can. I have sent an email to all the Ian Ushers that I could find on Facebook.
But if anyone out there knows of an Ian Usher, particularly a UK based Ian Usher, I would be grateful if you could point them in the direction of the 100goals website, or to the FaceBook group: The Ian Usher Club
Thanks.
Eiffel Tower on Friday! Come and join in! Wednesday, September 3, 2008
While in France I didn't manage to get up to Paris to see the Eiffel Tower, spending most of my time in the beautiful southern part of the country. However, now that I am in London, with the rail tunnel under the Channel, it is only just over two hours by train to Paris.
So with a couple of spare days before hopefully meeting a few other Ian Ushers in London on Saturday night, I have booked myself a return journey to Paris. I travel tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon, and return on Saturday morning. I plan to be a tourist for the day in Paris on Friday.
I am going to schedule my visit to the Eiffel Tower for 10am on Friday 5th September, and anyone who wants to come along to join in with me as I achieve a goal is welcome to do so. I will be at the point shown in the picture below, right by the base of the north leg of the tower at exactly 10am on Friday. See you there:-
I plan to climb the tower by the staircase as far as I can, I think you can go on foot as far as the second floor, and then take the lift to the top. The exercise should help a bit towards my "Slim back down to 70kg" goal, which is not going too well at the moment! Hopefully I can practice a bit of French too with someone on the way up if I am not too out of breath!
More details on the Eiffel Tower here:- Eiffel Tower Entry cost is 12 Euros.
Next goal - I have run into a small problem! Thursday, September 11, 2008
My next couple of planned goals are proving to be a bit tricky!
Last Saturday was meant to be a gathering of Ian Ushers in London, but unfortunately the Ians are spread all over the UK, and travel is very expensive. There was one Ian definitely confirmed, but on my return from Paris, I found he had had to cancel due to circumstances beyond his control!
So the Ian Usher Gathering was just going to be me, and as I was still feeling slightly ill after the Paris trip, I held the meeting on my own at my brother's house.
Tomorrow I was hoping to dive off the top board at Bishop Auckland swimming baths. My reason for wanting to do this is as follows, as written on the goals page:
As a kid I used to go to the local swimming baths very regularly. My favourite pool was at Bishop Auckland, in the North-East of England. It had three diving boards, 1m, 3m and a high board at 5m. As kids we would quite happily jump off them all, and I worked my way up to diving off the second board, but really hurt my head one day doing that.
Since then I never progressed any further in terms of diving. I am still happy to jump off some pretty big cliffs, and love to do so, but am very limited in the height I will dive from. I know this is a pretty irrational fear, it can't hurt too much, can it?
So, if "Bishop Baths" is still open, I want to go back and dive off that top board, it would be so satisfying. If "Bishop Baths" is gone, any 5m board will do.
Well, as I drove to Darlington to visit friends and family there, I stopped off at Bishop Auckland. The swimming pool was still there, very much as I remembered it, but oh dear, no more diving boards! They used to be at the end of the pool, where it now says "Welcome to Woodhouse Close Leisure Centre"!
So this afternoon I went to the Dolphin Centre in Darlington, and was very pleased to find that they have boards, the same as Bishop Auckland used to have, at heights of 1m, 3m and 5m, and they are open tomorrow afternoon!
It's still on! I plan to be there at around 4pm!
Some new plans coming together. Thursday, March 12, 2009
Along with tackling my Australian-based goals, and taking a bit of a break, my main focus while here in Perth is to plan my upcoming travels for the next few months. It's a complicated process, as there are alot of factors to take into account. The biggest hurdle is that many of the goals have specific dates and locations, so for example, to see the Carnival in Rio I have to be there in February 2010, as I missed it this year.
In November there are three events in different parts of the world: Festival of the Dead in Mexico, the Elephant Round-Up in Thailand, and the March of the Red Crabs on Christmas Island. If there is any chance of getting to all these within the space of a few weeks, it is going to involve alot of travel and alot of expense!
But then when I started this journey, I knew it was not going to be easy, or cheap! When I made the final list of 100 goals I did not edit it in any way, and simply listed the things I really wanted to do, regardless of cost or location. That is already giving me a few challenges, but I suppose that is all part of the fun.
So over the past couple of weeks I have started to get organised, and have maps, calendars and lists covering one whole wall. I try to do a bit of planning and research each day, and feel that I am getting a bit closer to an outline idea of how the next year or so may look.
I am still looking for a well-paid driving job in the mines here, and if I get one I plan to hang around and save up some money for about three months, and set off again in July. However, I don't seem to be looking too hard for a job, and am already starting to get itchy feet, and if a job doesn't fall into my lap over the next month, I think I will be off on my travels again in early May.
This outline is by no means complete or finalised, and will be subject to all sorts of change and modification over the coming weeks and months, but it is certainly starting to take shape.
As always, there is the offer to anyone who would like to join in with any of the goals to do so: as I have always maintanied, "Happiness is not real unless shared." So if anything takes your fancy, have a look at the "Join In" page, and get in touch.
And once again, if there is any way that you think you might be able to help with any of this is any way whatsoever, please take a look at the "Help Out" page, and contact me.
Regular updates on my planning and preparation on "The Plan" page.
Two steps forward, one step back.... Friday, April 24, 2009
Plans are now coming together for the next part of my journey, and I have booked my flights from Perth to Nice in the south of France, where I am going to see the Cannes Film Festival. I was very lucky to find just the flight I needed with Qantas, and was able to use the Frequent Flyer points I have collected over the past couple of years, keeping costs down significantly.
I fly out of Perth on the 11th May, just over two weeks away, and arrive in Nice the next day after 33 hours of travel. From there I head straight to Cannes, where I hope I have some accomodation organised, and try to see and experience as much as I can of the festival. I have had a couple of people contact me via the website saying that they may be able to get me a couple of tickets, which would be excellent.
From Cannes I fly to London on 24th May, and head to Cooper's Hill in Gloucester for the Bank Holiday Monday Cheese Rolling Festival, which will be great fun.
But the MIG flight particularly is horrendously expensive, and several financial factors are conspiring against me!! Firstly, it took alot longer to sell my house than I anticipated, which meant I had to pour more money than I had expected in to maintain the mortgage. Secondly, when the house did finally sell, it did so for significantly less than I had hoped for originally, due to the current economic climate, which leaves me with a much smaller lump sum to play with. And thirdly, again due to the current harsh financial realities, I did not get the three months of well-paid work in a mine that I had hoped for during my time here in Perth, so have not earned a cent here!!
So I have decided to postpone the Russia trip this time round and conserve my capital, hoping that I can secure a book deal, or Walt Disney decides to go ahead with the "ALife4Sale" movie, or some magnanimous sponsor steps forward, or some other financial miracle occurs, which would allow me to schedule these more expensive goals for around the same time next year.
I am running into other challenges too, which is part of the nature of trying to achieve goals, of course, but it really does feel like two steps forward and one step back at times. I suppose there would be alot less fun and satisfaction in achieving these things if everything was easy.
One problem I have run into concerns the Bognor Birdman Festival, where people in all sorts of outrageous costumes hurl themselves off the end of the pier. The pier was damaged by fire in 2008, and "due to the demolition of an 18 metre (60 ft) length of the end of Bognor pier, the 2008 Birdman event was cancelled in Bognor, as it was thought that the new water depth of less than 12 feet (3.7 m) at the new end of the pier posed a safety risk to contestants. The 2008 event was eventually held in Worthing, staying in West Sussex. Worthing look set to keep the International Birdman Rally for the next 5 years." (Ref: Wikipedia)
I contacted Worthing Council, and was directed to their new Birdman website here. I had hoped that the event would take place in early or mid July, as in previous years, but was dismayed to find that it is scheduled for 22nd and 23rd August, when I will be climbing mountains in Colorado.
The only way I could make it this year would be to re-schedule the "7 Peaks in 7 Days" trip, and fly back from the States to the UK for the weekend, an expense I can neither justify nor afford. The event is on a little earlier in August next year, but still falls outside of my 100 week period, so it looks like it might be one of my 100 goals that I don't achieve! Oh dear!
Help needed... yes, again!! Thursday, May 28, 2009
I am currently reading Richard Branson's fascinating autobiography, which is called "Losing My Virginity". I have long admired Richard's approach not only to business, but to life too, and first read this book several years ago. His wonderfully cavalier and innovative approach to many of the challenges he meets is very inspiring. But it is his adventurous spirit that I admire too. I have often written about my desire to fit as much experience into life as possible, and Richard seems to share a similar outlook on life's adventure too.
As meeting Richard is one of my goals, and I am planning to try to achieve that while here in the UK, I thought I better do a bit of a refresher course on his background. So just the other morning I set off for one of the book stores in Ealing town centre, but was also optimistically armed with my brother's library card too! On the way I walked past the Oxfam second-hand bookstore...
"I wonder..." I thought to myself, and went in. There was the exact book I was looking for right in the centre of the first shelf of the biography section, almost as if it was waiting for me! And at a travellers bargain price of £1.99. Sorry Richard, I will buy a new copy one day, but I'm operating on a bit of a budget at the moment!
I am well into the amazing and inspiring story of how Virgin developed initially from an idea for a student magazine, and grew eventually into a global business empire. And it is the unique and remarkable way in which Richard turns problems and obstacles around to his advantage, and comes up with some incredibly innovative solutions that has inspired me again.
So here I am, wide awake at 3 o'clock in the morning, having been woken up by a mis-timed international SMS message. As I tried to get back to sleep, my brain started mulling over one of the problems I have been wrestling with for a few days now, and suddenly the answer just came to me! I am now wide awake, but it is the wrong time of day to put my solution into action, so I have decided to make good use of this time. And in a way, this blog itself is hopefully part making my idea work.
The problematic goal I am currently working on is to gather 5 Ian Ushers together in one place. I have already attempted to achieve that goal once, in September last year, when I was last here in London. I made the mistake of assuming it would be relatively easy! It wasn't, and through various factors conspiring against me, didn't even manage to meet one other Ian Usher.
There are several Ian Ushers spread around the UK, and I have managed to contact about six of them via Facebook, and have a few of them possibly interested in the idea of gathering a group of us.
But I am facing a couple of problems. First of all, I have to accept that some of the Ians will have very little interest in the idea of actually meeting other Ian Ushers. It is a pretty random idea, and of course there is no guarantee that we will have anything at all in common, other than our shared name. And there are a few Ians that have not responded to my suggestion at all.
My second problem is that the Ians are spread far and wide across the country, and have little incentive to travel halfway across the country, find accomodation for the weekend, and pay all other expenses, just in order to help some random travelling guy achieve a somewhat unusual goal.
And so I think that I need to find some sort of sponsor, or possibly multiple sponsors, in order to make this happen. It would be impossible for me to fund all travel, accomodation, beer and food costs that this will incur, but I hope there are some people who might be able to help out.
And this is as far as my thinking has got, with no real idea of how to go about finding these people, until I was woken by my phone this morning, and laid here turning the problem over in my mind.
And the answer just came to me. I need to get onto a London-based radio station, ideally, I would imagine, onto a chatty, fun, breakfast show programme, and ask them to help me find the people out there in this great big city who can make this goal come to life.
I have just over 3 weeks until the date I have set for the gathering of the Ian Ushers. I need to find a sponsor to get the Ians from wherever they to London on the 20th June, and then back home again the next day. I need somewhere for the Ians to sleep that night, and I need a venue for us to gather in, hopefully with some nibbles and beer!
Surely it can't be to hard to do? My next job is to email several of the London-based radio stations. Watch this space....
And so it was with great excitement that I headed into central London this morning with my brother Martin.
While back in Australia I had done some internet searching, and had found email addresses for several people at Virgin Blue, the Australian-based Virgin airline. I sent a couple of emails, and got a reply suggesting that I might be able to meet Richard next time he was in Australia. Unfortunately that wouldn't be until November 2009, and I was not sure that I would be back in the country by then.
However, my email had been forwarded to a Virgin PR person in the UK, and I followed up by emailing her. I got a response from Richard's personal assistant, who said that Richard would be happy to meet me when he was next in Australia.
While in Cannes, I heard rumours that Richard may be heading down to Monaco, which is just along the coast, for the Grand Prix, so sent another email to his PA, explaining where I was, and that I would also be in the UK for the following few weeks. I was amazed to get a response from Richard himself!
He invited me to the unveiling of a plaque to commemorate the life of WWII fighter pilot, Douglas Bader, and suggested that I could then jump in the car with him afterwards as he headed for the airport.
So Martin and I arrived early, and waited in the small city centre mews as the TV crews and the crowd gathered, watching the plaque get polished in preparation.
Eventually Richard arrived, and when he appeared to have a relatively quiet moment I took the opportunity to introduce myself. In terms of my hopes and expectations for this goal, I had already achieved what I set out to do, but Richard confirmed that I could join him after the ceremony for the trip to the airport.
The ceremony was interesting, and if you don't know the story of Douglas Bader, it is well worth reading. Despite the loss of both legs in an aeroplane crash in 1931, he went on to become one of the most successful war-time fighter pilots. There is also a movie about his exploits, called "Reach For The Sky", which I watched again just last week. A very inspiring man!
Richard was there because he wanted to support the "Douglas Bader Foundation", which exists to advance and promote the physical, mental and spiritual welfare of persons who are without one or more limbs, or otherwise physically disabled. But he was also there because he had met Douglas Bader while he was a boy, as Douglas and his aunt Clare had been close friends. He told the amusing tale of how as a mischievious 7-year-old he had stolen Douglas's artificial legs while he was swimming, and had been chased by an irate legless Douglas dragging himself along after him!
After the ceremony was over, Richard made his way back to his waiting car, and I joined him, and after a quick photo we headed towards Heathrow.
We spoke about many things, and I thoroughly enjoyed the half-an-hour I got to share with him. He is very down to earth, and easy to chat to. I asked him about current ventures, and was particularly interested in recent progress with the amazing Virgin Galactic project.
He asked many questions about my goals, and I told him of a couple that I am currently working on, including my current fundraising efforts for Bowel Cancer Research, and my attempt to gather 5 Ian Ushers in one place!
He made a very kind offer, and said that he would donate $500 to the Bowel Cancer Research and Awareness Institute, for every Ian Usher that I managed to gather, but only if I do manage to achieve my goal and gather a minimum of five of us!!
Pressure is on now! Come on, Ians!
Thanks to my brother once again for getting me to another goal on time, and of course, enormous thanks to Richard for fitting me in to his busy schedule, and allowing me to complete another goal in a manner way beyond any of my expectations. Thank you very much!
More slow progress being made. Friday, June 5, 2009
I have had the feeling for a while that I am not really making any significant progress. But I have managed at last to finally make a couple of leaps forward this morning.
But there are still so many things unresolved at the moment, and I am feeling a bit like a plate spinning circus performer, rushing around between the various tasks I am trying to achieve, getting back to each just in the nick of time in order to prevent it all from coming crashing down.
My month in England has got off to a good start, with the fantastic day at the cheese rolling hill, followed by a great meeting with Richard Branson. I have a wingwalk booked on the wings of a biplane on Saturday 20th July, and hope to follow that up on the evening with a gathering of 5 Ian Ushers. But I am still struggling slightly with this one.
Despite several emails and phone calls to several London radio stations, I couldn't even get a reply from one of them, so at the moment, have not managed to find any help in terms of travel or accomodation for the other Ians. I think I have three of them confirmed for the Saturday, and hope they can still make it if I can't manage to organise any sponsorship! That would make a total of four of us, one more to convince to come along!
So for the last few days I pottered around London, and met with a few interesting people. I was very pleased to finally meet Adrian in London. Adrian, originally from Zimbabwe, used to live in Cannes, and put me in touch with Lao there who sorted out my luxurious Cannes accomodation. I met Adrian and Helen in London, and we had a fantastic Thai meal. We had alot in common, and imagine we will share a few more beers together before I leave the UK.
I also had a meeting with a literary agent in the city, which was very positive. He seemed very interested in the idea of a book about my travels, and had many questions. He has given me a bit of "homework" to do, so that he can go and try to sell the project. I will keep you updated of course, on any significant developments there.
I also met with Jay and Rob from SweeMo.com. They contacted me while in France, and have a fantastic idea for a website they are developing. SweeMo is short for Sweet Moments, and the site is an auction site, much like eBay, but for unusual events and activities. I think it is a great idea, and listed the opportunity to join me for a night in an underwater hotel. I am very proud to find that I am now one of their "Featured Moments". Take a look here: www.SweeMo.com
What started out as a business meeting in a pub ended up in a full evening out, more than a few beers, a lovely Vietnamese meal, and a dash to catch the last tube home. Check out how busy London pubs get in the picture below - and that's just on a Monday night.
On Wednesday I decided it was time to head north and visit mum, and friends back in Darlington and Scarborough. On the way up I visited Colin, who I had contacted through YouTube. He has something in his mate's field which may just help me achieve another of my goals. There is a picture below that might give you a little bit of a clue. More to follow later on the blog in about a week or so, quite possibly uploaded from a hospital bed!!
I have also been out into town to buy some items for a goal I have managed to schedule for late August, and which needs some advance preparation. The middle picture shows the items I have bought... can you tell what it is yet?
And finally, I have spent a significant part of the last two days organising the fundraising photographs. I got them all printed while down in London, and have been signing and numbering them. I have already had quite a few orders, and so far have raised $1500 from photo donations, which have now all been posted out. Huge thanks to all who have offered their support so far. More details here: http://www.100goals100weeks.com/getInvolved_Fundraising.php
I had thought I might manage to gather 5 Ian Ushers here near Darlington, as there are a couple of new Ian Ushers that have popped up on Facebook, and I have discovered that there are two in Newcastle, and two more in between Newcastle and Darlington. With me here in Darlington now, that means that there are five of us within a 40 mile radius!! I have only managed to contact one of the other four so far, and he is very busy this next week. This is proving to be one of the toughest goals so far!!
I have also been frustrated by flight prices to Florida from the UK. In mid July, when I have to fly, the price for a one-way ticket is outrageous. I could fly return to Australia for the same price. But today I made a great leap forward, when after much searching I found a one-week fly/drive holiday to Orlando, and it is about half the price of a one-way ticket! So I get to Florida, have a car for the time I am there, and can just abandon the return flight, and I save a heap of money. Fantastic!
Does anyone need a flight from Orlando to Gatwick on 23rd July? There is going to be a vacant seat, as I will already be in Mexico by then!
Two invites for tomorrow - goals 48 and 49 - possibly.... Friday, June 19, 2009
I have had a pretty quiet week this week after the exciting weekend of defying death on the vertical wall.
On the Sunday evening I headed from Stamford across to Nottingham, where I stayed with friends Scott and Janine, who are all set to marry later this year. Sorry I won't be able to be there, but congratulations from me in advance!!
On Monday morning Scott and I went for a quick 9 holes of golf. As I have mentioned before, I am a regular golf player, on average playing 9 holes every two years or so! So this is an early return to the greens (or more accurately, the rough), as I was beaten by my brother just last year in September, while in London. See earlier blog here.
I think Scott was a bit worried, as last time we had played three years before it had been a very close match, and I had been playing with a bag full of ancient clubs. He must have been practicing, as he quickly went three holes up, and despite a few shared holes later in the round, and a win at one, Scott still beat me quite convincingly! I dread to think what the score might have been if we had been counting strokes!
Between us we managed to lose quite a few balls, at one point early in the game wondering if we had enough with us to complete the round.
Next stop was near Uttoxeter to visit my cousin's family there, and a wonderful couple of days playing Guitar Hero on the PlayStation, ten-pin bowling on the Wii, and old board-game favourite, Cluedo.
And then finally back to my brother's in London, where I have been lounging around on the sofa trying to do some more planning ahead.
And so the next two goals are falling into place, and if you wish, you are welcome to come along and watch the first, and join in with the second. If all works out as I hope, I will be achieving, for the first time, two goals in one day, as well as making a decent step towards another.
Tomorrow morning (Saturday 20th June) I am scheduled to do a wingwalk at 11am, and anyone is welcome to come along to watch. This has been organised through WingWalking UK, who can be found just to the east of London, at Damyns Hall, near Upminster, Essex which is close to Junction 30 on the M25. Come along and see me get put through a tough aerial routine!! There is a map on their website here.
The second goal scheduled for tomorrow is the gathering of 5 Ian Ushers in one place. At this late stage, with only 24 hours to go, I am still not 100% certain I can make this happen. I have three other Ian Ushers confirmed coming to London tomorrow afternoon, making a total of 4 of us, and I am waiting to hear from two others, so hopes are still alive.
If I can manage to get the four of us together with a fifth Ian Usher, I will also manage to raise $2,500 towards my charity fundraising total, as promised from Sir Richard Branson when I met him a couple of weeks ago. See here for more on how that happened.
The meeting will be in a central London pub in the late afternoon and evening (Saturday 20th June), and if you wish to come and join us you are more than welcome to do so. If you feel like buying a round of beers for a group of Ian Ushers, you would be more than welcome to do that too, of course, but it's not a condition of attendance!
For more details on time and location, email me via the "Contact Me" page.
Four Ian Ushers! Sunday, June 21, 2009
After the wingwalk I had to dash back around London to drop the car off at my brother's house, and caught the underground into the city to meet some other Ian Ushers.
I have been trying everything I could think of over the past week to try to gather five of us, and by Saturday morning I had three other Ians confirmed, making a total of four of us.
I had been in touch with four or five other Ians from various parts of the country, but all had other engagements, or London was too far for them to come. I had hoped to be able to get the four of us in a car and drive to briefly meet one of the other Ians, but had been unable to get in touch with him to make arrangements.
So eventually I had to accept defeat on this occasion, and be happy with meeting three other Ian Ushers.
Ian (London) Usher had arrived at the pub just before me, and we got a couple of pints and sat down for a chat with the first other Ian Usher we had both ever met.
Sortly afterwards Ian (Portsmouth) Usher arrived, followed minutes later by Ian (Bristol) Usher. We had a couple of rounds in the fantastic old Glasshouse Stores pub, and got to know each other a bit.
We all got on pretty well, and the other Ians had some funny stories about how my eBay antics had impacted upon them. Ian from Portsmouth is about the same age as me, and had had many old friends contact him, asking if he was okay, and why he was selling everything.
And Ian from Bristol is an artist, and when setting up his website, his web designer couldn't understand why they couldn't get him a good ranking in a google search, until he discovered why... "Oh, that's unlucky! You've got the same name as the guy selling his life on eBay! That makes it much trickier."
The fire alarm went off just as we were finishing our second round, and we all ended up out on the pavement until things were sorted out, and decided that it would be a good time to head off to the Roundhouse in Covent Garden, where the new owners, Fuller's Beers, had offered each Ian a socially responsible free two pints of beer. Free beer! Fantastic, thank you Fullers!
As the afternoon turned into evening the beers continued to flow, and we did alot of laughing at unusual and entertaining situations that could occur. I mentioned that I had hoped to drive the four of us to meet a fifth Ian, but if I had borrowed my brothers old car, which overheats in busy traffic, I could picture a scene when we breakdown in central London. When the police turn up to sort it out, imagine them asking who was driving... "Name?" "Ian Usher." "And the others here? What's your name?" "Ian Usher." "Right! And you?" "Ian Usher" "Hmm, you?" "Ian Usher" "Right, you're all under arrest!!"
Eventually Ian (Bristol) had to leave to catch the coach home. Ian (London) was next to head for home, and Ian (Portsmouth) and I headed for the tube, and I dashed headlong onto mine which was just about to leave.
Unfortunately by then I was pretty drunk, we had had a good long afternoon and evening, and I did not check the destination of the train. I also did the late night comedy trick of falling asleep almost immediately.
The Piccadilly line splits into different directions before my brothers house, and when I woke I was at a station I had never heard of before. It took a few drunken minutes of studying the tube map before I figured where I had gone wrong. Fortunately trains were still running back towards the city, and I backtracked, and eventually managed to find my way home. Two hours to do a journey that should have been about 40 minutes!
I woke with a fine hangover this morning... I'm never drinking again, I promised myself, as I have done many times before, and am sure I will do again in the future!
I cannot thank the other three Ians enough for coming along to meet a group of strangers that possibly had nothing in common other than a name! It was great that we all got along so well, and had a great evening. I really do appreciate the efforts you all made to be there.
It is a shame that the goal was not completed, but the other three are still all keen to help me achieve it, and also secure the $2,500 charitable donation from Sir Richard Branson, so hopes are not yet dead.
Okay, so I never expected everything to be easy when I set out to achieve 100 goals, but I also never expected getting five blokes into a pub for a couple of beers to be the hardest thing I have tried to organise so far!! I have now had a couple of tries at gathering 5 Ian Ushers together in one place, and came so close to success on Saturday, when we got four of us together! After all the effort in the week beforehand to try to gather a fifth Ian, I really felt like giving up on this goal.
But when I met the three other Ians, we had such a great afternoon and evening out, and they encouraged me not to give up on the idea. Their support for my rather random goal was very welcome and inspiring.
In the blog I have previously written off one of my other goals as unachievable too. The Worthing Birdman Festival (which used to be the Bognor Birdman Festival until Bognor Pier caught fire!) takes place this year in August, when I was scheduled to be climbing mountains in Colorado. However, with a bit of research, some planning, and the lucky discovery of a reasonably cheap return flight from Denver, the goal is still achievable! Never give up!!
And so on Saturday night the four Ian Ushers came up with another date to try to achieve the goal of gathering five or more of us, as well as securing Richard Branson's very kind charitable donation offer of $500 per Ian gathered together.
We would like to invite any other Ian Usher along to join us in Worthing on the Birdman Festival weekend, which takes place on August 22nd and 23rd, two months from now.
The event looks very entertaining and quite spectacular, and attracts visitors from all over the world. Thousands of people are expected to come and witness this crazy, unique British event this year. The activities take place over two days, with the more serious and competitive flyers stretching their wings on Saturday, and the rest of the competitors plunging gracelessly off the pier on Sunday. I have entered in this second category!
More information at the Worthing Birdman website here. And check out the video highlights from last year's event:
So hopefully, with the help of some more Ian Ushers, I can achieve two goals in one weekend. Come on Ians, it will be a brilliant event! Make a holiday weekend of it!
As with almost all of my other goals, the offer is open to anyone else who wishes to come along and offer support and encouragement. Or just to laugh at me jumping off a tall pier! It really does look quite high in that video, doesn't it?
Oh, by the way, I just realised earlier today that it was exactly one year ago today that the ALife4Sale auction started, and bids reached a crazy $2.2 million, before the bidding idiots were weeded out!! The year seems to have flown by since then, but in another way that all seems so long ago too. Isn't the way we perceive time odd sometimes?
Goals still to be achieved.
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Well, 100 goals in 100 weeks was always going to be a huge challenge, and of course, the perfect ending to the story would be the achievement of the complete list.
When I started writing the list out in 2008, before the ALife4Sale auction had even started, I didn't censor myself in any way, whether the goals were scary, difficult, or expensive. Everything I wanted to do went on the list, regardless of how tricky it may prove to achieve.
I could have been a little more selective, chose some easier goals, and have a much better chance of achieving them all. But that is not what I wanted this to be about. Think big and achieve big. And in a way, the goals were always just a framework around which to build a bigger adventure of a lifetime.
Over the whole two years I only changed two of the original list of 100, one before the start of the journey, as the company that operated the thrill ride I wanted to experience had gone out of business, and another late in the journey, as dates conflicted, and two big events occured on the same day.
But out of the list of 100 goals, I am incredibly proud to have achieved a total of 93 of them. The seven remaining unachieved goals are as follows:-
I have tried to arrange this goal on several occasions, in several locations. In Salt Lake City my buddy Clay has a few TV program pals, and thought he might be able to get something arranged for this goal. The biggest problem that he ran into was finding a suitable body of water to put a car into, due to pretty strict environmental regulations.
When I found myself with a few spare days in Kathmandu, heading next for England, I started putting some postings on UK diver forums, looking for suggestions for locations, and offers of assistance for safety cover. I didn't quite expect the level of controversy that my posting would receive. Check out the most active forum for responses here at Yorkshire Divers - very polarised opinions. After much discussion, I pretty-much wrote off the UK as a venue.
Finally, back in the States again, a friend of a Hollywood stuntman contacted me on Facebook, but unfortunately I never heard from the daredevil himself!
At times I have considerd simply buying a car, and driving it off a pier somewhere, but have always been keen to avoid two potentially undesirable consequences - being arrested and ending up with a hefty fine, or worse, or getting trapped in the car with nobody there to assist! Common sense has prevailed here, and unable to do this safely, I have decided to wait until such a time as I can do this in the way I would like. I am sure I will get around to doing it one day.
I came so close with this one, managing to gather four Ian Ushers in a pub in London. I have tried on several occasions since then to achieve this goal, and just the other day arranged a Skype call, hoping to at least be able to gather five of us together on an internet call. The three other Ians from the original gathering all agreed to be part of the final attampt, but despite many emails to many other Ians, I couldn't get one more involved.
I had thought this might be a reasonably easy goal to achieve - I mean, how hard can it be to get five guys together for a beer? But despite my best efforts, it would seem that most Ian Ushers are not the slightest bit interested in meeting any of their namesakes.
Thanks to the Ians who did take part though, sorry we couldn't make it happen.
As far as I know, and I have done quite a bit of research, there is only one company that offers deep-dive sumbersible tours down to the Titanic, where it lies on the sea-bed, at a depth of over 12,000 feet. That's over two miles down, and is an extremely dangerous trip.
Unfortunately, there is no expedition in 2010, the next one being palnned for 2011. I am on the mailing list for information, but another factor which makes this a particularly difficult goal is that the cost is expected to be around $55,000 per person. Unless my forthcoming book is a runaway bestseller, this one may not happen for a while yet.
This is another goal upon which I have been working on and off over the course of the 100 weeks. Lucid dreaming is when, in a dream, you realise that you are dreaming. Apparently it is then possible to control the direction of the dream, and make it about whatever you want.
I have had this happen only twice, once long ago, and once during the course of the 100 weeks, but want to be able to do this somewhat regularly to count it as an achieved goal.
It is something I intend to keep working on in the future.
I perhaps think I put off beginning my fundraising efforts for too long, concentrating on other goals instead. I have managed to raise over $7,000 for my chosen cause, which I am proud of, but it is still a long way from my original target of $50,000.
I can't make any excuses, but perhaps the world economic climate over the past year or two has made this particular goal a bigger challenge. I received many emails from people who would have liked to help out on this one, but unfortunately were not in a postion to do so.
Many thanks to all of you who did help, or would have liked to. Your support is greatly appreciated, both by myself, by the Australian Bowel Cancer Association, and I am sure by the people whose lives may well be saved by earlier recognition of the onset of symptoms, and more effective treatment that ongoing research facilitates.
I have always imagined that one day I might see my own child being born, and this was a goal on a list from long ago. maybe this will never happen for me, I don't know, but I left this goal on the list regardless. I think this must still be an incredibly moving experience, obviously more so if you have a connection to the parents, rather than it just being a random stranger.
Maybe I will still be lucky enough to experience this one day.
Part of the original overall plan for the 100 goals journey was to write a book about the whole adventure, hoping to fund much of the journey with the proceeds of such a deal. For a while I did have an agent in London, but despite his enthusiasm and optimism he did not come up with any concret offers. he cited economic conditions as one possible factor for the reluctance of publishers to take on new, unproven subjects and writers.
I also had someone in Los Angeles hoping to represent me, but again, nothing has come from that arrangement either.
On my travels I have met a couple of self-published authors, and have been doing alot of reading on self-publishing. I have actually come to believe that in my case this may actually prove to be a better option in the short term. If I manage to write a good book, and manage to market it successfully, it may actually help in picking up a much better publishing contract at a later date.
From what I have read, the publishing world is very much like the movie industry these days, with the six big players only keen to put backing behind sure-fire winners which will make the biggest money. Quality or originality counts for little when the ultimate measure of a book's potential is measured in dollars and cents.
Authors lucky enough to be picked up often get very little in the way of publicity and promotion, having to much of this for themselves, unless they are in the John grisham-type big league. And so self-publishing, much like independent film production, is becoming much more mainstream these days.
I am hoping to have my book completed over the next three months or so, and published sometime in October. There will be regular blog updates, and more details from time to time on my new website:- www.IanUsher.com
United-Kingdom - No specific date
