Moomin Challenge

In the midst of my month of misery, I was happy to receive a boost from an article featured in BuzzFeed, “50 Lessons That Moomins Can Teach You About Life“.  Pay close attention to lesson #35 (anyone who loves pancakes or Moomins is probably a-ok) — do those Moomin pancakes look familiar? Ufufu! Thanks for the mention Summer Anne Burton — we’re well chuffed!

Now that May is behind me I can focus on what the hubs has dubbed, the ‘Moomin Challenge’, inspired by two Icelandic adventurers.  And no, we’re not talking about abstaining from new Moomin purchases like we did for Lent. The idea of the Moomin Challenge is to get me moving and to stay moving. We’ve only just started with Week 1, and so far I feel confident about staying on course (it’s amazing how Moomins can transform one’s attitude about exercise)!

Moomin Challenge

The entire challenge involves 20 weeks of running and walking with the aim of increasing my mileage and endurance. Generally novice runners begin with 15 minutes per session but we decided to go for 20 minutes minimum. By the end of September, I’ll have run close to 3000 minutes and goodness knows how many miles. This is a huge challenge for a non-athlete such as myself so the hubs came up with the brilliant idea of rewarding me with a Moomin prize, in addition to a fine dining experience of my choice! Now how could I not be motivated?!

Running and tumbling Moomin fun tape from Artbox.co.uk

Of course the true ‘prize’ is improved health but I think having an extra incentive is a great motivator for those who have trouble keeping their eye on the prize.

Icelanders On The Climb

Congratulations to Leifur Örn Svavarsson and Ingólfur Geir Gissurarsonreach for making Icelanders (and Icelandophiles) proud, each making new records at the top of Mount Everest! According to 66°NORTH, Leifur Örn Svavarsson completed his climb to the top on the evening of 22 May and  by doing so became the first Icelander to reach the top of Everest by climbing the north side. Leifur, pictured below, was sponsored by 66°NORTH and sporting his custom made clothing when he reached his goal.

Leifur Örn Svavarsson at the top of Mt. Everest!

Earlier this week, The Reykjavík Grapevine also reported that at age 50,  Ingólfur Geir Gissurarsonreach became the oldest Icelander to climb Everest. Ingólfur began his ascent over a month ago and had been climbing with a team organised by Adventure Consultants, which included 10 climbing enthusiasts from Iceland, Sweden, USA and Australia, a support crew of medical and climbing professionals, as well as 23 local sherpas.

Well done Ingólfur Geir Gissurarson!

It seems to be a busy and exciting time for climbing enthusiasts as it was also reported this week that an 80-year-old Japanese extreme skier, Yuichiro Miura, who climbed Everest five years ago, but just missed becoming the oldest man to reach the summit, has finally claimed the title. Massive congrats to Miura-san, as well! It remains to be seen if his rival, 81-year-old Nepalese man Min Bahadur Sherchan, who has recently set off on his ascent will break that record.

After hearing about all of these extreme adventurers, I feel like it’s time for me to set a challenging goal for myself. If people well older than me can climb a massive mountain, surely I can climb one, too! Or not… haha. But I must say that I’m inspired to do something to push my limits!

London In Colour

I rarely divulge much about my personal life here, but thought I’d write a wee post to let you all know that I’m alive and trying to get through the month of May without having a nervous breakdown.  Work has taken up the majority of my time, including having to work on weekends for the past 6 weeks since April.  I’m trying not to moan too much about it as I know there are worse things in life than having to work…but you know, one can only pretend to be calm for so long! More importantly, I wanted to share some stunning colour footage from 1927 London that a friend shared with me today. Enjoy!

The World’s Friendliest Countries: Iceland Ranks No. 1

Although we’ve got an exciting tropical island adventure planned for September, the hubs and I have been longing to return to Iceland (not the supermarket) and explore more of the country. But before we do that we have quite a few more countries to cross off our bucket list.

Map from: Daily Mail

Last month, the World Economic Forum published The Travel & Tourism Competitiveness Report 2013, which assesses 140 economies worldwide based on the strength of their travel and tourism sector. Not surprisingly, Iceland ranked number one as the world’s friendliest countries toward foreigner visitors.  Also not surprising, New Zealand came in second.  We loved our time down under and would love to visit Oz and New Zealand again, but if we had to choose between Iceland and New Zealand for a return trip, it would definitely be Iceland.   I’ve always thought Iceland was an underrated travel destination, and now I’m a bit worried that flocks of tourists will ruin the very reason why we fell in love with country to begin with (selfish, I know).

The top ten friendliest countries for tourists are:

1. Iceland 
2. New Zealand 
3. Morocco 
4. Macedonia 
5. Austria
6. Senegal
7. Portugal
8. Bosnia and Herzegovina 
9. Ireland 
10. Burkina Faso

And the winners for not so friendly:

1. Mongolia (shame, though I’d still love to visit someday)
2. Bulgaria 
3. Slovak Republic 
4. Pakistan 
5. Iran
6. Latvia 
7. Kuwait 
8. Russian Federation 
9. Venezuela 
10. Bolivia 

China ranked 130 on the list and the U.S. came in at 102.  The U.K. ranked 55, below Cyrpus at 48, which was surprising to me, and Finland ranked 31. Do you disagree with the WEF’s rankings? What is the friendliest country you’ve visited and what do you think is the least ideal place to go on holiday?

Farewell, Margaret Thatcher

As you probably have heard by now, Margaret Thatcher, the first and only woman prime minister Britain has ever had died of a stroke on 8 April 2013.

Whether you loved or loathed her, there is no question that Baroness Thatcher shaped Britain as few others did. Even with nicknames like Iron Lady, the Milk Snatcher, and Attilla the Hen, Lady Thatcher served three consecutive terms in office. It’s obvious that most Britons did quite well during Thatcher’s years. But not all would agree, even if history has proved Thatcher to be right time and time again.

I let out a groan when I learned of Thatcher’s death, as I knew it would mean another excuse for people to riot. We’re not stupid. You may call it ‘celebrating’ but what kind of celebration involves trashing people’s shops and causing mayhem? I’m so fed up with yobs and rioters and senseless violence and general lack of respect that people have for each other and the place they live. I know we won’t find reason where there is none, but I can’t help but wonder what the point of all of this is. The poor lady is dead. What more could you want? Her legacy will live on, no matter how many riots you stage or how many bottles of booze you smash. So can we please just let her rest in peace?

I am willing to bet that half the young people that are out there on the streets ‘celebrating’ and plotting to sabotage Thatcher’s funeral next Wednesday know very little about Thatcher’s work and how she really helped save Britain.  As John Phelan rightly pointed out, there may be celebrations when Thatcher dies, “but the next day the revelers will wake up with headaches and Margaret Thatcher will still have crushed Arthur Scargill, will still have helped win the Cold War, and will still have shown the supposed inevitability of socialism to be the dimwitted sham it was. And those achievements will last longer than the hangovers.”

The Liebster Award

Well here’s another lovely surprise! I’m still in a weird slump but am temporarily coming out of it to write this post as one cannot ignore such a kind gesture.  Thanks again for another award nomination shikoomkoom!

Like me, you may be wondering what the Liebster Award is and after doing a quick search on the Google, it seems that it has evolved over time and since I’m still in a funk, I’ll follow the rules below (but if we’re going by my nominator’s rules, please refer to 101 Amazing Facts if you would like to find our more about me). Regardless of which rules you end up following, I think the important thing to remember is to nominate new blogs and spread the love!

The rules of the Liebster Award are:

1. Thank your Liebster Blog Award presenter on your blog.

2. Link back to the blogger who presented the award to you.

3. Copy and paste the blog award on your blog.

4. Present the Liebster Blog Award to 5 blogs of 200 followers or less who you feel deserve to be noticed (see below).

5. Let them know they have been chosen by leaving a comment at their blog.

My nominees:

1. Fabulous and other f* words
2. Sockymon Master Blog
3. Multifarious Meanderings
4. Where Next Japan
5. F. Scribbles

Moomins in Hawaii

Although most of America is yet to discover the Moomins they were quite popular at one point in Hawaii, where the Moomins aired in the 90′s.  They even had a Hawaiian version of both the opening and ending theme songs (sung by Robi Kahakalau), which I think are super cute! There was also a Moomin shop in Honolulu on Ala Moana Boulevard but it closed long ago. I even rang the business number listed but it was not in service.  I doubt I’ll find a dedicated Moomin shop in Hawaii, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for Moomins in Maui. In the meantime, enjoy these songs–and Happy Easter! I’m off to prepare for a Moomin tea party!