Week with Sophia Challenges 1,31,75,91,93

After getting back from Cyprus I was incredibly lucky to spend the next week with my gorgeous Daughter Sophia :) This presented a perfect opportunity to complete a few challenges at the same time as having some really fun days out and experiences with Soph.

Challenge 1 "Find a Geocache"

Luckily there proved to be a number of new Geocaches recently placed quite close to my house. Sophia, with map in hand, was very excited to go find treasure and we ended up finding 2 different Geocaches, one in a nearby woodland and one near a very nice Duck pond. We both had a great time adventuring together, was lots of fun!

Challenge 31 "Send A Message"

This one was a lot of fun :) Sophia and I wrote a message and added my email address for someone to contact me if they found the bottle. We sealed it and carried down to the river. Soph was very excited and insisted that it would be washed out into the Sea and would be "going to Beth in Japan"

Challenge 75 "Fight A Monster"

If I'm honest I was struggling with this one before I had a lightning bolt of an idea. Nobody said I had to fight the monster in real life, so who better to fight a monster with than badass Witcher Geralt of Rivia!

Challenge 91 "Build a Fort"

I think I got a bit carried away with this one lol Previously Sophia and I built a blanket fort and set up the ipad to make an ad-hoc cinema, which she loved! So for this challenge I went one further and got a pair of curtains and curtain rail from Wilkinsons - attached them to the frame of her bed, set up some fairy lights and brought the TV over to make a pretty kick ass under-bunk cinema. Sophia was suitably impressed and insisted on sitting/eating/sleeping in her cinema pretty much the whole time she was here!

Challenge 93 "Get Caught In The Rain"

This one seemed like it would be pretty simple as it rains ALL THE TIME here, however while on holiday I had a pretty cool idea (if i do say so myself) to make this pretty fun :) "This Umbrella....IT DOES NOTHING!"

Challenge 4: Best Street Art/Graffiti

This challenge seemed quite difficult at first as I couldn't decided what criteria I'd use to determined what I liked the best.

Obviously there's graffiti everywhere - mostly rubbish, or abstract murals and I didn't want to settle for anything like that.
Preston is pretty devoid of any culture so I knew I'd have to look further afield and so my search took me to Hipster-Heaven aka the Northern Quarter in Manchester.
I was reading about Bansky and looking into the possibility of visiting a site on a trip to London when I noticed this news article, discussing a Banksy inspired art piece.
As soon as I read it I knew I wanted to go see it and that would be my challenge.
So I set off to Manchester after work and headed to the Tib Street Substation. On the way I noticed several awesome art pieces as the northern quarter is full of them! so I took a few extra pics and finally got the snap I set off for!

Challenge 4 "Best Street Art/Graffiti" Complete!

Manchester Christmas Markets Challenges: 2,3,16,44,50,72

Getting into the Christmas spirit, and taking advantage of the opportunity to get out of the house and do something different I decided I'd check out the Manchester Christmas Markets. They proved a very fruitful place for finding cool things and completing challenges, as well as a really fun day out :)

Challenge 2 "Eat Something Weird"

For this challenge I ate a cake. Now that doesn't actually sound too weird until you realise it was from Stuart Thornley Cake Design (a crfater I used to go to events with) and he specialises in making cakes that don't look like cakes. And so I proudly present - the Cake Pork Pie!!

Challenge 3 "Buy The Coolest Badge"

As soon as I saw this badge I knew I had the challenge in the bag. I thought my robot badge from the science museum was pretty cool but this hand made Crystal Maze badge featuring the legendary Richard O'Brien is just amazeballs!

Challenge 16 "Coolest Freebie"

You have no idea how hard I tried to get something cool for free, but it turns out it's pretty hard! I kind of cheated with this one, in that I did pay for it but it's also kind of free at the same time. Feeling the chill in the  air I decided to indulge in a lovely warming mulled wine - and got to keep the "free" promotional mug :) I know some will say I paid for the mug, but that probably makes the mulled wine free - so either way I'm claiming it as a cool freebie!

Challenge 44 "Best Street Food"

This one was actually recommended to me by Beth - and she was very jealous i got to try it! Only in the North of England can you turn a side street and be confronted by the wonderful sight of a Yorkshire Pudding Burrito stand!

Challenge 50 "Grow Something"

As soon as a saw the awesome stall selling Cacti planted in really funky real ale cans I knew this was the plant I was going to grow for this challenge!

Challenge 72 "Coolest Socks"

At Christmas time novelty socks are everywhere! I saw some really cool socks with puns, cool characters, adventurer time , Rick n Morty etc. but all of them seemed a bit basic. And then I came across this stall and knew i'd found the socks for me! For each pair sold the company uses the money to help the homeless in Manchester - so not only do they look pretty snazzy, they also help the most vulnerable at a very hard time of the year :)

Challenge 12 "Best Hat" & Challenge 47 "Find a weird Inflatable"

Thank God for the over commercialisation of Christmas! I was thinking this would prove pretty difficult - but a random trip to the pound shop turned up these beauties - an inflatable Santa beard and inflatable antlers and a Turkey Hat - Genius!

Challenge 42 "Best Bridge"

On the way home from dropping Steve and Stu in Hull, after the craziness that was Nottingham and Arse Full of Chips, I decided to stop for a bite to eat and a break from driving. As I parked up I noticed the moon in the sky on a clear winters day, and it was framed perfectly by the twin support towers of the Humber Bridge. Perfect for Challenge 42 and also, I think a really good picture!

Liverpool World Museum Challenges 14,29,48,67,94

After a great morning at the pirate festival, Sophia and I decided to explore some more of Liverpool and I noticed a poster for the dinosaur exhibit at Liverpool World Museum - with challenge 48 firmly in mind we set off to see what delights the museum had on offer.

It was AWESOME! Sophia loved the exhibits, and there were so many varied displays - we saw insects and animals, time and space, ancient Egypt and dinosaurs! I'd thoroughly recommend it - especially because it was free!
The museum was a literal treasure trove for completing challenges and I managed to finish another 5 - bringing my total to 9 in one day!

Challenge 14 "Picture of an Insect"

Although they have been collected for display - I still think these butterflies are beautiful and this is probably better than me taking a picture of a woodlouse in the garden!

Challenge 29 "Find the Oldest Thing"

I think I'd struggle to find anything older than ancient Egypt! - There were so many fascinating items on display but as I've always loved the Egyptian gods since visiting as a child, these amulets of Horus from 332BC are ideal









Challenge 48 "Find a Dinosaur"

Thanks to the awesome display taking up a full floor of the museum I was spoilt for choice with this one. I loved the skeletons rather than the recreations though as they felt more "dinosaury" lol







Challenge 67 "Best Dog/Cat Pic"

Although this is quite a weird one, I just found this mummified cat fascinating.















Challenge 94 "Find the Shiniest Rock / Fossil"

This is a massive ammonite fossil - and I thought it was great as Beth often spoke about collecting these. I even bought my own little fossil from the gift shop as a memento

Liverpool Pirate Festival Challenge 15,88,97 & 99

Just as Beth left for Tokyo, I heard about the Liverpool Pirate Festival at Albert Docks and thought not only would this be a great day out for Sophia, but also a chance to complete a couple of challenges - and boy was I not wrong! The festival itself was lots of fun, Sophia got dressed up as a pirate, we saw mermaids, pirates, jugglers and all sorts of displays. Sophia was very excited when she got to go aboard a real pirate ship and have a sword fight with the Captain. There was a fair and Sophia had a ride on the carousel, we had ice cream and chocolate and all this was only the first half of the day! However in this brief visit I managed to complete 4 challenges!

Challenge 15 "Best Mascot Picture!"

I love this photo as its not just a cool mascot, it's a bright yellow kangaroo pirate! Can't get much better than that :)

Challenge 88 "Go to a Fair/Theme Park"

Now I know this is only a really small fair but it counts! I'm hoping I can get to a "proper" theme park at some point but for now this challenge is done!

Challenge 97 "Get on a Boat"

Once again this feels like a bit of a cheat as the boat didn't actually move, but I was definitely on a boat so it counts















Challenge 99 "Go to a Festival"

This one is kind of a given as it was the Liverpool Pirate Festival :)