Number 17: Do something nice for someone who genuinly deserves it

One of my favourite challenges so far simply because of the big smile wrapped around Dais chops,  when he walked in to the restaurant and realised what was going on. For those of you who don't know, Dai is my father and also one of the best lads I know. I owe the man millions of pounds in actual money and a lot more for the help, support and pints of beers he's given me over the years. Last Saturday I organised a surprise 59th birthday for him at a local restaurant and managed to get 36 people there waiting for when I wandered in with the birthday boy. Couple of pictures below of one of the three tables and the man of the hour himself:

A quality night was had by all and I hope that the intended result of this challenge was more than achieved. If this wasn't enough to make the man glow with paternal pride then later on he must have been bursting as I joined local legend Kate Evans in a helium soaked renditions of "Happy Birthday" and "Delilah".
Thanks to My brother, his girlfriend Leah and my Aunt Jude for all their help and the fatman again for his generosity with the wine. Happy Birthday Big Man!

Number 23: Get a good Tattoo

On paper this was always going to be one of the challenges that could go horrifically wrong.The fact that the title of this challenge is to get a "good" tattoo, gives away the fact that I do have previous experience of going under the ink needle. It gives me little pride to admit that during my misspent youth I managed to acquire a Chinese symbol on my thigh after five cans of super strongbow. The said symbol is supposed to mean" To Win" which I did actually manage to verify in Japan. While that put paid to all the lame, possibly racist quips like "I bet it says Sweet and sour chicken", it still did little to change the fact that I was lumped for life with a pretty rubbish tattoo. To be fair, after a while even my parents saw the funny side and I've grown to accept if not love it. Still, when I drew up the list for this challenge I saw it as perhaps a chance to redeem myself for what had gone before.Another bonus was the fact that a mate of mine who I went to primary school with now has his own tattoo parlour in Cardiff. I got in touch with Chris and in true Naylor fashion had booked myself in and sent a deposit without really considering what I was getting myself into. A month and a half later I was trundling down the M4 with Georgina actually feeling quite excited.
All that changed in a matter of minutes when I arrived at Physical Graffiti. It was great to see Chris, who despite being a lot more heavily tattooed didn't look all that different to when I had last seen him about fifteen years ago. Everything was going to plan and a photographer was on his way from "The Wales on Sunday" to record the event for an article they have agreed to write about my blog.I was ready to get inked up!
Then Chris brought the design over and I realised with a sudden horror that it would take up half of my back. As my Dad and girlfriend looked on I began to mentally breakdown as my brain refused to compute the fact that I didn't have to have the tattoo if I didn't want to. All I saw was the fact that I had to finish what I'd started, the photographer was on his way, I couldn't go back now. Sweat started to drip down my forehead and burn my eyes. Its ok I thought to myself. How often do I look at my back?How often does anyone look at any ones back?
If it wasn't for Georgina, I would still be in Cardiff getting tattooed now. Taking the situation by the horns she suggested that perhaps I should ask for Chris to sketch the tattoo a little bit smaller. It seems obvious looking back but at the time I actually forgot that was possible.I have managed to get through the report so far without actually mentioning what the tat was going to be. I always find it a little bit wank when people talk about tattoos. Its hard to make it sound as good as it does in your head. They are pretty subjective as well aren't they?One mans Sistine chapel being another mans love and hate!In a nutshell though my idea was two get the two faces of drama on my back, with a little quote underneath. If for no other reason that:
A) tragedy and comedy pretty much sums up my life so far
B) Its on my back anyway so I figured I wouldn't have to look at it much if I hated it.
Anyway after a lot of deliberation and an embarrassing chat with Chris I eventually clambered into the tattoo chair. My dignity was now completely gone,amongst the other painted warriors in the shop I felt like one of the boys from Hanson trying to mix with Motley Crue. Still Chris had the needle in hand and the photographer was ready. Thirty minutes later I was proudly checking out my new tat in the mirror. Challenge completed and the photos to show for it!

Big Big thanks have to go to the talented Chris Hatton at physical graffiti for the artwork, anyone Wales based looking to get a tattoo should definitely give Chris a shout. Also I must thank Georgina Barnard and Dai for holding it all together when lesser people were losing their heads. Last but not least here's a pic of my formal tattoo so that even if you think this one is crap...........it cant hold a candle to this:

Thankyou and goodnight!

Number 3/31 Go Vegetarian for a month

OK. The reason there are two numbers on this is because it may very well have to go down as my first replacement challenge. As you all know I fully intended to replicate a full marathon distance run and record the suffering in this blog. Alas tragedy struck a month and a half ago as due to me over training in ridiculously worn and rubbish trainers I seem to have battered my knee to oblivion. Having hit the heights of completing a ten mile and then an eight mile run on consecutive days I have struggled since to top four or five without my knee complaining. I must admit this has got me a bit down as it does feel like giving up but I suppose it comes down to pushing on and trying to do it and putting myself out of action for the considerable or leaving this challenge to be something completed as a 30 year old.I myself am trying to look for consolation in the fact that its my top heavy stocky/muscular build weighing down on the knee joints that has done for me and not the fact that...........I'M REALLY OLD NOW!
However to replace this challenge I knew I had to push myself and do something that would normally be unimaginable. To know me is to know that I love chicken and to know me for a long time is to know that my diet used to consist of said poultry and potatoes. The odd vegetable did find its way in but only on insistence and the fact  I knew they were good for me. With age has come a bit of maturity and with my girlfriend Georgina being of the vegetarian persuasion I could have quoted Jules from pulp fiction in saying
"That pretty much makes me a vegetarian!"
Except it hadn't. No, despite reluctantly admitting that certain dishes were adequate without meat and perfecting a quorn lasagne there were still quite a few times I would make Georgina wait as I happily roasted my choice of animal carcass before we could eat together. If I actually thought about it, before this month the longest I'd been without eating meat was probably about a day.
Enter replacement challenge number 3: Go Veggie for a month.

The challenge started off badly as I combined it with a week of intense physical activity and also hung around with Lee Gant. Whilst watching "The Godfather" and attempting to eat a Spinach Tortilla( an experience I will never, ever repeat) Gantie tucked into half a chicken. On a trip to Snowdon as I oozed blood out of a head wound my comedy chum consoled me by saying" Oh well, at least you cant eat any meat either!", whilst steaming into a cheeseburger.
Gant aside, as the month progressed I did actually quite enjoy it. Having to be a bit more varied meant instead of waking up with five minutes to go and slapping together a ham sandwich, I was preparing Mediterranean Vegetable wraps to take to work. Instead of nipping out for a beer and a burger and feeling like I needed to lie down for a week,I was veggie burgering it up and finding that they weren't actually so bad after all.
Georgina and I even got to share a few meals( meaning she could nick some of mine if she wanted!). Ok there were a few night after a jar too many that I would have stabbed my grandmother for a bit of fried chicken and saturday mornings aren't the same without bacon. Twenty nine days into the challenge though I was smugly sailing through and looking forward to my first taste of meat since April. Disaster obviously followed with my abortive trip to attempt skydiving. On top of a two day hangover, the news that the skydive probably wouldn't happen must have scrambled my brain. My brother enquired as to whether I wanted a cheeseburger from a nearby fast food van and without even thinking I said yes. It didn't even occur to me that I had done anything wrong until I was wiping cow crumbs from my upper lip.Nightmare!
I had dreamt about breaking my meat fast for twenty nine days. In my subconscious I saw myself at an all you can eat Brazillian BBQ, Tucking into the most expensive steak at a quality restaurant or waiting, mouth watering and stomach gurgling as some speciality sausages from the farmers market turned on the grill.
As tends to happen in life though the reality was rather more ordinary. I ate a cheese burger from a fast food van in a field just outside Oxford. Technically I didn't make it a month but I'm going with this principle.
February has 28 days.
February is a month.
I didn't eat meat for 29 days.
I didn't eat meat for a month.
It was just unfortunate I chose May.
Did the cheeseburger taste good? It was like eating heaven in a bap.

Number 9: Do 5000 push ups in a week.

A challenge that I actually completed a few weeks ago but negated to write up. Some of these challenges haven't been as hard as I thought they would be, some have been a lot harder. This was every bit as horrible as I thought it would be. I probably didn't help myself by attempting this task in the first week of May, a month in which i had also decided to give up eating meat. Doing over 1000 push ups a day on chicken breasts would have been difficult, doing it on bananas, humus and quorn mince was torture.
I had set myself a bit of a schedule of doing about a 1000 a day on most days but having two days with 500 thus stretching them out over a seven day week. This all went to shit when on the Wednesday thanks to a bad case of the sniffles I didn't do any at all, preferring to sip lemsip and watch My Name Is Earl when I got in from work.This left me in the ridiculous situation of having to churn out 3250 pushups on the last day.Picture below of a broken man near the end of this challenge.

I don't mind pushups. They are a cheap alternative to grunting in a fitness first and shelling out about a fiver per grunt. They are an exercise I can just about always manage to do whether I am at home, in the park or waiting for a bus when bored. However after doing 3,250 in one day it has been three weeks since my last push up and I honestly don't know when my next one will happen!The form of said pushups dipped dramatically during the week and if I was being marked on them by a marine I probably wouldn't have passed the challenge.I wasn't being marked though so you will have to trust in the fact that after six hours on the Monday night I crept to bed exhausted and with veins screaming out of my big bald forehead. Oh well at least I celebrated with a boiled egg and an apple. Just like Arnie!

Number 27: Make a fifty quid bet

A challenge that possibly doesn't jump off the List as being that much of a milestone to be achieved. In short if you don't like gambling or betting then this is possibly quite a stupid task to attempt. However if you've ever stood in William hill twiddling a blue pen and thinking maybe, just maybe this one is going to come off and planning what you're going to do with the money before you've even won it-then you know what its all about.
I came quite late into the betting game. Just two years ago up in Edinburgh I recall watching a WestHam Tottenham game with Gantie and being mildly amused by his agitated state,  as he agonisingly missed out on £150 quid due to West Ham being incapable of summoning a goal. With the beginning of the next season I took up the blue pen myself and found that the landscape of my Saturdays had changed. No longer was I casually scanning final score, now I was sat on my laptop, in a pub or even with my face pressed up against the glass window of Currys. Have Brighton equalised? Are Bolton still winning?Is that security guard about to ask me to leave?
Before people start thinking, where does Naylor get the money for this caper?I will level with you, I'm not talking about high stakes here. In fact before I completed the bet for my blog the most money I'd ever bet in my life was five pounds.It was that sum which gave me my first ever win which happened earlier this season. I had correctly predicted that Man utd would beat liverpool 3-2 and then forgotten all about it. Which saw me in the bizarre situation of walking round a photography exhibition of Chernobyl victims with my girlfriend and her mum, all the time getting frantic text updates on my phone from Gantie. Minutes later I'm expressing my horror at the harrowing images in front of me while also realising that I'm now £175 quid richer thanks to Dimitar Berbatov, Liverpools defence and an absent minded sunday afternoon flutter.
The rules on this challenge were simple, to get the stake for the bet I needed to make it from a bet. I didn't want to use any of my meagre salary on such a high risk gamble. I haven't got big enough balls for that. So it came to find me sat in the sunshine of highbury park with my beautiful lady friend on the last but one weekend of the season. As we enjoyed the surroundings of the park and witnessed Sonia Jackson from eastenders eating a twister(or five) I leapt into the air as thanks to Frank Lampard scoring a consolation for chelsea, Gantie was £700 quid richer, I was £120 quid richer and the challenge was on!
Now I didn't want to put the bet on online, If i was going to go out then I wanted the buzz of doing it to be greater. So it was I called in the third part of my gambling axis of evil-my father and good friend Dai Naylor. With dangerous Dai on board there was only going to be one place we were heading. So it came to pass that on Saturday 28th May I stepped into the Leicester Square Casino with the express intention of dropping fifty pounds on either red or black on roulette. picture below of me looking nervous and incredibly hungover pre bet thanks to ganties bday celebrations the previous night.

I was flusher than I thought I was going to be due to triumphing with a £2 bet on the champions league final which handed me another forty quid to play with. Despite this I still admit to cowering behind dai with my hands over my eyes as about half hour into our casino session we decided it was time to drop the bigun. The wheel had gone to black the last six spins and I decided to go for it. The spin seemed to take forever but soon the little white ball was dropping into place on....RED! I kissed the top of Dais head and scooped up my winnings. I'd like to say that I rode the bet and banged another fifty straight on. I didn't though, we stayed for another hour and a bit but my heart or bank balance couldn't stand another high roll. As it was I left the casino thirty quid up and treated Dai and me to a taxi home.Challenge completed!
I will leave you with three quotes:

"If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;"

Rudyard Kipling


Gambling: The sure way of getting nothing from something.  ~Wilson Mizner
" If Afc Wimbledon beat Crawley then I'll win a tenner. Gambling is life"

Lee Gant

Number 7: Climb a British Mountain

The British mountain part of this challenge wasn't just a nod to the fact that economically I will probably never manage to leave these shores again. I mean it was mainly that but also because I do have previous mountaineering experience.Five years ago while a bright eyed young English teacher in Japan I scaled the mighty mount Fuji on the eve of my 25th birthday. Fittingly years later and now more of a bitter/journeyman English teacher I set off to Snowdon with one of the same people I had scaled Japans highest peak with, my good friend and one of Hulls finest John Ullyet. Making up the trio was of course the other half of London's most unpolished sketch act Mr Lee Gant.
The mood of the trip was captured instantly as having told the lads to be at Euston for half eight to catch the eight fifty train, I swanned up at about 8.47 myself having had to return home for my wallet. With Gantie nowhere to be seen, Mr Ullyet and myself boarded the train cursing the fact that the bumbling Leicester bred idiot had the tent with him. Visions of Gant sprawled under a pub table in crouch end wearing only hiking boots and crying flooded my mind as I turned the air blue.Then a familiar voice from behind me confirmed that he was on the train and the trip was back on. Edmund Hillary and the boys we weren't.
After an uneventful journey to Bangor we boarded the bus to Snowdon increasingly aware that we were leaving it a bit late to get up and down one of the highest mountains in Britain. The ominous blackening skies seemed to be frowning down at us as we arrived at the campsite and began what can only be described as a shambolic attempt to put up the tent. I cant really say anything as I didn't really do anything apart from hand pegs to Ullyets strong northern hands. A troop of experienced campers watched us and sneered as we eventually managed to get the tent looking a bit like the picture on the bag. Time was running out and it was 4.15 before we were on the right path to snowdon after two abortive attempts. With the climb estimated to take five hours up and down we were going to have to work hard to beat the dark.Picture below of me and John before the climb:

So it was then that our expedition began. The hundreds of normal people gaped at us in disbelief as we swaggered in the opposite direction to them and headed up the hill. The beautiful scenery was accompanied by some pretty tasty weather and we were soon all soaked to the bone and becoming increasingly dismayed by the fact that the peak seemed to be getting further and further away. There was also a bit of a dense mist settling in and by the time we settled down for a cup of tea in the halfway hut visibility was getting poor. This fact didn't stop Gantie and I from buying a postcard each and engaging in our usual abusive banter that we probably could have left till later. I'm not going to lie, the final stretch was hard, it was misty, it was freezing and  the going was getting hard. Digging in we kept the image of a well deserved pint in our heads and powered for the summit. At just after 6.40 we did it.I'd like to treat you to a picture of a beautiful shot of rural wales but to be honest it was so misty this photo could have been taken anywhere. It wasn't though, it was up the top of Snowdon, you can ask John and Gantie!

Shortly after this second photo, Mr ullyet succumbed to a bit of vertigo and in his words " Had to get out of there pal!" . The mercurial Northener was soon just a speck in the distance as he arrowed in on the pint and started descending the mountain double quick. Gantie and I eventually caught him up and we all basked in the glory of a job well done. Then with his customary awfulness Gantie exclaimed that
"No ones stacked it yet. It would be well funny if someone stacked it!"
Cometh the hour, cometh the man I stepped up and embarked on a spectacular fall that saw me fall head first into a gnarly mountain rock and bounce up with what I initially thought was a fractured skull. The boys had the good grace to not laugh for five minutes although I could tell gantie was biting his cheek. Here in all its glory was my injury:

Once my worst fear had subsided( I would have to get stitches and wouldn't be able to drink) we completed the descent and wandered into a friendly looking mountain hostelry. If we'd made a few misjudged moves earlier in the day then heading into the Pen-Y-Ceunant tea house certainly made up for that. As soon as we stumbled in our new friend Steven was pouring us three beers, popping TCP on my war wound and then putting our soaked clothes in his tumble dryer as we chilled out in front of the fire.I can fully recommend visiting Steven if you are in the Snowdon area, check out his website on www.snowdoncafe.com.

He's da man!

Here's Gantie and I with our aforementioned host.That's about that then for this challenge, big thanks to my fellow climbers and to Alan Cusack for the kind loan of his tent!Challenge Seven completed!

Number 15: Memorize 50 randomly selected capital cities

From first glance probably a bit of a weird one. The reason for this challenge was a bit of nostalgia and to prove a little point to myself. When I was younger I loved geography. Not geography that you end up getting taught in school that seemed to consist of different types of farming and words like fallow. I used to like learning about different countries and all the different capital cities. When I was eight I must have known every capital in the world and on my ninth birthday I even had a birthday cake that was specially made with a map of the world on it.You are probably thinking:
A) I bet you were beaten up regularly as a child
B) Not much of a challenge if you know them all already is it.
Alas, it came to pass that knowing all the capital cities in the world didn't really impress girls or all the cool kids in school. It became more about who could roll a spliff or look the surliest whilst drinking a bottle of white lightening. It breaks my heart when I look back now and see myself sat in my room looking at my big book of countries, as happy as larry.
Anyway you get the picture so for this challenge to mean anything I knew I had to go further and learn more than just the run of the mill capitals. Which is why most of April saw me wandering around repeating unpronounceable places in my head. Countries such as Madagascar, Liberia, Uzbekistan and Tajikstan and cities such as Antanarivo, Villnius, Abuja and Gaborne became as familiar to my addled brain as the names of the Thundercats. So it was then that I came to be tested by my good friend Laura Hill and filmed on my cousins IPhone, managing to name all fifty with a little help on the last one!If you want to see this challenge in full then check out the link below and remember.....we've all forgotten the capital of Gabon, once in our lives!
Challenge fifteen completed. This one belongs to a cleverer lad than me so I'll give him the glory in the photo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hfSpnchhxI