The Adventures of Dysfunctional Dan

Last week I had the pleasure of seeing Sandi Toksvig live. Her show was lovely, funny and uplifting in a way I've not seen anyone do before. Part of what she did was talk to members of the audience about their moment as a National Trevor, named when one of her friends misunderstood the phrase "National Treasure". The idea was that everyone has moments of fame to one extent or another in their life and she talked to people who had appeared in the press at one time or another. I thought it might be fun to share my National Trevor moment... I grew up as a member of various animal charity's kids clubs from the RSPCA to the RSPB and the Wildlife Trusts. When I was about eleven or twelve the local wildlife trust ran a writing competition. They asked for short stories which had a theme of sustainability and I immediately had what I knew was an excellent idea featuring some loggers in a rainforest. All I needed was a suitable animal to star in my story so I endured the...

Back when I was sixteen I created a bucket list. I'm sure you know that a bucket list is a list of things you want to do before you die or 'kick the bucket'. The list is not something I've given a lot of thought for some years but over the festive period I stumbled upon it again. At the start of a new decade I thought now would be a good time to start ticking some more things off. The list itself is quite eclectic. In re-launching it, I've edited it a little, removing some things that twelve years on I consider less a life goal and more things I'm really not that keen on doing. Why, for example, was sixteen year old Dan keen to go on the world's biggest roller-coasters? Grown-up Dan has been on plenty of roller-coasters in his lifetime and hasn't really enjoyed any of them. The full list can be viewed here if you want to take a look. Whilst the whole point of a bucket list is to complete it across a whole lifetime, I'm going to attempt to make 2...

Happy New Year one and all! For my first blog post of 2020 I thought I'd take a look back at 2019, specifically my 2019. I began the year with a challenge, to walk one thousand miles over the course of 2019. These had to be 'boots on' miles, i.e. miles I walked when specifically going out walking rather than counting up the distance I walk. I always knew it would be a challenge but one I had the potential to achieve. Unfortunately I only managed 946 miles over 2019. I say 'only' but it's still a hell of a lot and probably more than I'd have managed had I not attempted the challenge. It became clear towards the end of November that I was going to fall a little way short of the total and I did worry I'd see it as a failure and be hard on myself at the end of the year. I'm certainly disappointed but actually walking that far is still a good achievement. I also get so much joy from being outside, partly because I get clean air and vitamin D and al...