Badge Progress - Event Planner and World Traveller

 Life has been a little crazy and my mental health is taking a bit of a knock just now so although I have been writing my blog posts I haven't felt up to posting them.... So instead of posting several little blog updates I figured I would pop everything in to just one post as I have been doing some badge work and want to keep track of it and share with you all my progress

It has been my son's 5th birthday this week and I used this as a way to start the 'Event Planner' badge by planning and putting on his birthday party last weekend.  We had 6 of his friends join him for a bowling and soft play party at a local venue, I think they all really enjoyed it and I know the party gift bags went down well at the end.  I arranged to have a cake made, space themed as my son is obsessed with space, and seeing what was created has spurred me on to try to do a cake for his birthday myself next year which I will do as my baker badge 😉  All in all the party went smoothly, which recent birthday parties we have attended has not been the case, so I think that my planning and organising in the lead up to it, liaising with the venue regularly and trying to put contingencies in place for any eventuality, really helped to make it a fun event for all.

 Next step on this badge is planning the next family holiday which is going to be Disneyland Paris 💜 I am wondering what other clause I am going to be able to do to earn this badge though as I only have a small family and not many friends so the required numbers for the clauses are difficult but sure I'll be able to figure something out 🤔

I have also embarked on the 'World Traveller' badge which was much harder than I figured it would be!  With clause one of listing 10 places abroad I would like to visit in the next 5 years I struggles as to be honest I don't really want to go anywhere, I am not a huge fan of travelling, well not any more.  When I was younger it was different, I loved going on holiday, going to new places and seeing new things, but as I have gotten older, and since becoming a mum, this has changed.  I want to go to the obvious places you go as a family, such as Disneyland and Disney World, but beyond that my wishes to travel are limited.  I wonder if this may change again as I get older and my son gets older... perhaps this will be something I revisit in a few years to see if I find the clause easier and if my wishes have changed.  

For now here is my list of 10 places:

• Paris, France (Disneyland)
• Venice and Roma, Italy
• Reykjavik, Iceland (Northern Lights)
• Florida, USA (Disney World etc...)
• Cyprus
• New York, USA
• Greece
• Canada
• Dublin, Ireland
• Amsterdam, Netherlands

Next step for this badge is researching the current visa and health requirements for these locations.  I think I will also be able to work on the other four clauses for this badge within the next couple of weeks.  We are going on holiday to Scotland, which although not abroad, is technically another country and a part of Scotland that I personally have never been, and certainly not somewhere I have been on a family holiday which is very different to a trip away as a young couple.

Finally I will be starting the 'Diarist' badge, I have purchased a nice notebook and hoping it will help me work through some personal stuff I am struggling with lately and will give me some much needed me time as will need to shut myself away from everyone to write.  It has been years since I kept anything close to a personal journal/diary so looking forward to this badge. 

I am really enjoying my rebel badge journey so far and cant wait to do more and update you on how things are going 😊 

Code Breaker Badge - Ciphers and Code Wheel

 I am making quick progress with my code breaker badge and am really enjoying it!

I made a code wheel as one of the clauses, which was actually trickier than I first thought but only because I had to split my circles in to 26 segments and my logical maths brain was just not working today but once I figured out how to split the circles up evenly I think it went really well, oh apart from forgetting W in the alphabet but minor thing...  I wanted to make it all colourful so dug the colouring pencils out and voila:

Simple code breaking tool right there - might teach my son how to use it over the summer and code from simple words for him to decipher (he is only 5!)

Another clause that I have completed for the badge is researching ciphers.  I was already familiar with simple classic substitution ciphers and book ciphers but the others were all new to me and I really enjoyed learning about all the different types of ciphering and how they are used.  Some I definitely found hard to get my head around, especially homophonic ciphers and ADFGVX ciphers, they were really hard to understand at first but I watched some videos about them that talked through the methods in more simple terms that a lot of the text I found and these really helped me to understand how they work.  They are not ciphers I would use in a hurry though as even though I can understand how they work they still seem way too complicated!  

Vigenere and PlayFair cipher methods were interesting and relatively straight forward to understand despite them being something I'd never heard of before and think these would be fun ciphers to work with, if ever the need arose, which in my line of work and every day life I don't think they will but handy knowledge to have as you do never know!  

I think as a bookworm the cipher I most like is the book cipher and I love Sherlock Holmes stories where he has had to figure out the book for the key to the ciphered text, I love a good mystery and books so the two combined and I'm hooked.

I am really looking forward to doing the final two clauses for this badge, the escape rooms (I have completed one already) and the treasure hunt which I am doing with my son over the summer holidays. I will soon have this badge under my belt and it has been really enjoyable to do.

I am so glad I have found this club as it is giving me things to focus on, learn and get me back to being me after a tough start to the year and I cannot wait to work on and achieve more badges 😀 Thanks Rebels!

Code Breaker Badge Progress

 

I have always loved puzzles, quizzes, codes... I just love using logic to solve things so I was excited to start this badge and thought would be one of the ones I could most easily attain.  I have figured that if I start off with a couple of badges that are straightforward for me before moving on to more challenging ones it will make journey fun and rewarding from the start and will build my confidence and motivation to move on to the more difficult badges.

One of the clauses I chose on the 'codebreaker' badge was #10 'read a choose your own adventure book'.   I had seen another rebel had done this clause using the Being Elizabeth Bennet Jane Austen Adventure and I really wanted to try it out as a huge Pride and Prejudice fan!  So off to Amazon I went and ordered myself a copy and as soon as it arrived I dived in hoping to make my way to being Mrs Darcy!

Well my hopes were soon dashed within a few pages as the choice I made led me down a path where I was set upon by gypsies and disfigured to the point that I would never attract any suitor... so that was the end of my first adventure!  My second adventure ended with me slipping on ice and breaking my neck and the third attempt I was imprisoned by Fanny Price who later went on to smother me to death... not quite how I imagined these adventures to go.

At this point I am really starting to question whether I will ever get to the end of an adventure in one piece.  So diligently I went on to a fourth try and I took my time thinking through the options, trying to be as true to myself as I could, given some of the options I wouldn't have chosen any, and after a few hours and my hopes being raised as I worked through the stages I did end up becoming Mrs Darcy!

I have to say the book was really quite fun and although with some of the decisions it was clear what option should be chosen in order to get you that one step closer to the ending you are hoping for, it was still intriguing to work through the book to see what would happen next, especially at one point where you have received the proposal from Darcy but then it could all change depending on points collected throughout the adventure 🤯

I did find the point scoring a bit tedious as you are adding and subtracting points all over the place so you are having to put the book down frequently to make notes etc but it does say at the beginning of the book it can be done without this and you can just make decisions at random where there are points values in question but I figured if you are going to do it you may as well throw yourself in to it 100%.

I will be passing this book along to my mum for some light entertainment and am putting the activity towards my codebreaker badge efforts 😀 was a fun day spent and has motivated me to move on to the other clauses of the badge.

First Badge Completed!

So I have completed my first badge which feels pretty good 😁 

I chose to take part in the July badge of 'Rebel Health Check 2022' as my first one as thought was a good starting point for some self reflection and set me up for how I want to go about embarking on these badge journeys.

I worked through all 12 of the clauses and have highlighted some areas that definitely need some improvement or some intervention!

• Coppa feel - Not something I regularly do, although I am definitely a strong believer that you should be aware of your body and any changes that occur.  I have therefore put a calendar event in my phone to carry out monthly checks.  Will take a while to get in the habit of doing these checks but hoping that over time it will just be something I do without having to be reminded

• Addictions, Five a Day and Diet - all lumped in to one really as my diet and weight is something I definitely need to tackle.  I don't have addictions such as caffeine or nicotine but I do have a sweet tooth and is my go to when I am feeling down, stressed, bored... I do eat fruit and veg everyday but I can definitely eat more therefore I need to incorporate lowering my sugar and increasing my fruit and veg intake in to my diet. 
  My diet as a whole needs a bit of an overhaul and so this is something I want to focus on as part of my 'Self Care' and 'My Goals' badges and as part of a weight loss journey that I so desperately need to start as my weight has gotten out of control since the first lock down and it impacts my mental health hugely.

• Water - I definitely do not drink enough in a day so I am going to challenge myself to drink 2 litres of water a day for a whole month.  I have ordered myself a new water bottle and am going to track my intake on my phone.  I am hoping if I can do this every day for a month it will become second nature to me to just drink this amount of fluid each day and I wont have to keep reminding myself to get a drink.

• Exercise - I don't exercise, at all, I don't enjoy it and with a full time job and a 5 year old at school I don't get much free time and what little I get I don't really want to be forcing myself to do things I don't enjoy.  That being said I know that I need to start building some form of exercise in to my day as it will help me feel better, help with weight loss and all over health and well being.  So I will use the 'Fitness' badge to kick start this.  I am going to look in to any classes that I may be able to attend or fitness you tube/tv channels that I could use and just basically try find something I think I might enjoy, I have considered hula hooping as I have heard this is a good work out... I would welcome any suggestions for fun exercises (please note I am recovering from major shoulder surgery so I am a little limited on what I can do, no lifting, pushing, pulling etc...)  I would like to become fitter so that playing with my son is not so much of a task as it feels like these days.

So there it is... my health check completed, a plan of action of what I need to focus on in the next 6 months and my first badge achieved 😀 Feels good to have that first one done and it doesn't feel so daunting now to start working on some others.

Welcome to my blog

So after having a rough start to 2022 with fracturing my shoulder, well breaking off the humeral head along with 3 further fractures along the bone, I decided that I needed something to try focus me and get me living a little rather than moping around feeling sorry for myself whilst I am on the long road to recovery... And what did I find to help me in bringing more fun and challenge to my life... The Rebel Badge Club!

So what is the Rebel Badge Club I hear you say?! It is a club for adults to earn merit badges... just think of guides and scouts where as children you would learn new skills to earn badges, well it is basically that but for adults! There are currently 52 badges in the Rebel Badge Club book that you can work towards including things such as artist, world traveller, baker and many many more and then Charly, who is the founder of the club, also sets monthly challenges and even quarterly maverick challenges, so there is always something for everyone to be able to get involved and have fun.

Check it out here: https://www.rebelbadgestore.com/about

I have started this blog as part of my 'Writer' rebel badge that challenges you, over a period of six months, to work regularly on a writing project. The projects you can choose from include things such as a novel, a film screenplay, a poetry anthology and the one I chose, a blog, which given my writing talents is the best option as I don't have the ideas or discipline to sit and write a novel or the likes. A blog I am hoping will be something I can develop my writing skills, along with learning the techniques of blogging and documenting my Rebel Badges attempts amongst other things.

So here is to the first entry in my blog and the first step on the way towards my 'Writer' rebel badge..... Wish me luck!