Challenge #7: Sarah vs. Kite Flying

I hadn't even started making plans to tackle the kite flying challenge, but right after I got off my horse (see last post, no really, you should) this one just kind of happened.

My mate Sam and I had just finished the horse riding challenge and headed back to her house to regroup in prep for an evening of burritos and mojitos, and for me to rest my poorly arse. Several coffees later we got onto the topic of The List and the challenges I have left to take on.

When kite flying came up, Sam's boyfriend Mat brought in this huge kite. "There you go, you can take that home with you," he said. Awesome, I thought, but I wasn't sure I'd be able to get it on the train, considering it is as tall as me.

Then Sam hit upon a genius idea, we would go and fly it in the park there and then...

This is Mat setting up the kite. 

I'm behind the camera doing my over-excited dance that only my closest friends get to see.

So here's me playing kite flyer while Mat is chuck-in-the-air-er and Sam is photographer, because she is a photographer.

It was a shakey start, as the kite had two strings and my brain struggled to compute that you need to pull the opposite string to the way it's going. I think in this picture I had just crashed it straight into the ground.

I'm flying!

Ooh, she's taking a dive...

Sam managed to capture this one just as I crashed it into her head. You take someone horse riding and then let them play with your kite and that's the thansk you get. Sorry Sam.

After a bit of expert tuition from Sam, I finally started to get the hang of it.

I know you can't see me in this picture, but it is me flying it...

...See!

Eventually, I managed to keep it in the air for more than a couple of seconds.

Told you the kite was as big as me.

Stoked to have completed another challenge.

Now, can we go celebrate with mojitos please?

I feel I should explain why kite flying made it onto the list, because I'm sure you'll be wondering how I've managed to get through 29 years of life without doing so earlier. Well, I'm not entirely sure I haven't flown a kite before, it's just I have no recollection of doing so. The only memeory of kite flying I have is of a shitty polystyrene one that I made at school and didn't really fly properly.

I've just asked my mum about it and she said we bought some crap kites when we were kids and took them down the park, but they didn't fly very well so it probably doesn't count. Besides, I wasn't a very outdoorsy child, which is why we never tried again, I was always too busy making things out of cardboard boxes and yoghurt pots.

All in all, kite flying is great fun and quite addictive once you get it into the air. It's not a lone hobby though, you do need someone to help chuck it in the air and another one to take photos. I also found it adds a little excitement if you select one person as a target and crash the kite straight at them. I'd like to do it again though and think I might even buy one now.

Verdict: WIN!



Challenge #1: Sarah vs. Sushi

I'm not the biggest fan of fish or eating dead things that aren't cooked, so I wasn't really looking forward to the task ahead. Shoving the thought that I may end up spending the next 24 hours curled in the foetal position on my bathroom floor, following a violent bout of sickness, to the back of my mind, I headed to Leicester's Yo Sushi with my good friend Dina Thanki. I had selected a close friend to accompany me on this challenge safe in the knowledge that if it came down to it she would happily (well, begrudgingly maybe) volunteer for hair holding back and chin wiping duties in the event of a hurl situation.

 I believe this is what's called putting on a brave face

 

 Sushi spaceships go whizzing by...

Being a newcomer to the sushi way of things I was grateful when Dina took charge of the situation. "You wanna make some notes woman" she commanded, before thrusting a menu I couldn't not understand beneath my nose.



While it was a perfect opportunity to trick me into eating something profoundly minging, it is a testament to our friendship that my illustrator pal carefully handpicked every dish so as to minimise my torture discomfort. She could have easily tricked me into eating a squid's testicle (yes, they do, I Googled it) for all I knew, but instead chose a selection that included back-up dishes to take away any nasty taste. Good plan. The only strategy I was bringing to the table was to chew fast and swallow faster. My whole game plan was based around eating as fast as possible and getting out safely.

  

The menu we went with: 

• Vegetable gyoza – deep fried veg – sounds safe, looks appetising
• Spicy pepper squid – looks really good, sounds dangerous
• Hairy prawns – basically battered prawns – sounds bad, but looks good
• Assorted nigiri – raw salmon and tuna – very risky, those lumps of dead fish are actually pretty big
• Assorted fish maki – raw salmon, tuna and prawn medley wrapped in seaweed – not so risky, dead bits are smaller
• Crunchy tofu salad – with mustard, vinegar and miso sauce – very safe, confident about this one
• Tamago – a mix of sweet omelette and rice – cold and therefore possibly weird

  

Assorted fish maki 

Left: Looking for an escape route 

to avoid trying the assorted nigiri

Right: Chomping on the salmon,
disguised with a large dose of soy sauce
Note the use of child chopsticks to ensure

some food made it to my mouth

Not a fan

Please don't make me do this again

Thoughts:

OK, so the experience wasn't as traumatic as I feared - despite the look on my face - and some of it was actually pretty good. Although I'm referring to the cooked stuff when I say that.

We kicked off with the assorted nigiri, aiming to get the worst over and done with, and Dina kindly held my hand throughout by going halves on everything. I'm surprised to admit that the taste wasn't all that bad, thanks to the soy sauce and rice disguise, and it didn't really taste very fishy. It was the texture that was the worst part, coupled with the thought of what I was eating.

The assorted fish maki, on the other hand, was not good. I thought the whole seaweed thing would act as a good distraction from the fish and as there was less fish to it, I thought it would be plain sailing - so wrong. Not only did it taste bad, but it was ridiculously chewy. As if to prolong my discomfort, the sushi gods had created something that just didn't want to go down; as I contemplated spitting or swallowing, I thought it would be failure to bail out, so I swallowed. Luckily it didn't come back up.

On a positive note, the hairy prawns, vegetable gyoza and crunchy tofu were all good and I would definitely have again. As for the squid, although it was very chewy, it wasn't as dangerous as I feared and the batter was really nice.

Some yummy stuff: vegetable gyoza, spicy pepper squid and hairy prawns

Verdict: Win

I'm proud to have ticked my first challenge successfully off my list of things to do before I'm 30 and that I managed to behave so well despite the circumstances. And my reward for completing the sushi challenge? I had a Choc Dip on the way home.