Its been a while since I've mentioned my list so I thought I'd better update everyone on my progress. Some of you have been asking if I've packed it in as its been so long since I got off my lazy ass and updated you all of the situation! You'll all be glad to hear that the list is going strong, and can you believe that last weekend I crossed my first thing off it. You'll remember 2 months ago I reported that I'd signed up to do a sponsored abseil - number 19 on the list. Well those 2 months soon came around and bright and early on Saturday morning I found myself stood looking up at the YMCA building in Hanley. For those of you who have never been to the YMCA building then let me paint a picture for you. After standing there for 5 minutes I thought I'd accidentely walked on to the set of Shameless!! I was surrounded by a group of lads aged between say 16-25, kitted out with shaven heads, tracky bottoms and bling. I might have been convinced I'd taken a wrong turning and accidently ended up at a young offenders institute if not for fact that the building said YMCA in massive letters across the top, and there were people climbing down the walls on ropes. Although I suppose these could have just been kids attempting a daring morning escape from their juvenial prison to go off for a quick pint down the local, and a shag around the back of the fence. The first person I watched abseil down didn't help convince me otherwise either. From the moment she climbed over the roof and started her descent the peaceful morning calm was suddently interupted by the extremely loud screams of "Oh fuck!!!! Fuck me, Shit!!!! You lot are fuckin twats for makin me do this". I looked round to see who she was shouting to and there stood a few feet away from me were 2 five year old boys, jumping up and down shouting "Go-on mum, u're almost there!!!". She didn't seem to care she was only a few feet from the bottom and continued to dangle and fill the air with obscenities that I wouldn't feel comfortable sharing with you the reader, let alone the two five year old boys stood there cheering for there mum only to be called "Little fuckers" in return. She eventually made it down, and hugged her "little fuckers", proud of what she'd achieved. The trouble was, that meant one only thing - it was my turn to get kitted up and give it a go. Shit!!

In my letter I received from the charity, I was told to arrive 30 minutes early for my expert instruction on abseiling. I was taken to be kitted up, I climbed into my harness, and fastened the straps, and then put my helmet on. I looked the biz, and was ready to get up there and risk my life for the sheer thrill (and the ill kiddies)!!! One thing that puzzled me tho was the helmet. Obviously they have to take all the necessary health and safety precautions so I can understand why I was given one, it just seemed a little pointless. I mean, there I am dangling 100ft in the air and my rope snaps. Whether I'm wearing a helmet or not I think I'm pretty much fucked & someones gonna have a lot of mess to mop up on the pavement below!! I suppose it looks good though for the photo's. So anyway, back to the story.. I'm all kitted out and get introduced to Matt my instructor. He feeds a rope through the loop on my harness and then tells me to hold it in my right hand. He then explains that to lower myself all I have to do is move my arm out to the side and then to stop myself dropping just put my hand behind my back!! And thats it, thats my expert instruction!! I'm about to hang off the side of a 8 storey building by nothing more than a thin rope, and my expert instruction lasts 30 seconds and consists of being told to wave my arm back and forth like some deranged flapping pigeon to control how quickly I fall. Its at this point that I started to shit myself!!

I then get introduced to another lad whose name I can't remember but was probably something like Tyler or Kev or some other chav name. He was about 25, with a shaven head, gold chain round his neck, and a roll-up constantly in his hand. I found it hard to look him in the eye while talking to him as I found myself too busy trying to count the number of love bites that covered his neck (I think it was about 11, but either way it looked like he'd had a good Friday night - & I'm sure they formed a pattern that looked very similar to the Mona Lisa). So it Tylers job to take me up to the roof, which means getting in lift. As we're getting in he says to me, not to worry about the abseil as thats the easy part. Surviving the lift is the thing I have to worry about. At first I wasn't sure what he meant by this, and for all I knew he was planning on bum-raping me and murdering me on the way up. Luckily though what he actually meant was that lift seemed to have been borrowed from some 1800's coal mine and was a little rickety to say the least!! Still at that point I didn't mind rickety as I was too busy worrying about the impending 100ft drop I was about to face, plus I'd take a rickety lift over bum-rape & death anyday!

So we arrive at the top, and I walk to the side and look over. Shit!! It was high. For those of you that don't know me that well, there is one little thing I should probably let you in on about me. I hate heights. In fact, I'm absolutely petrified by them. And so I suddenly realised what the hell was I doing 100ft up on the top of some Tower block in Chav Central about to attempt climbing down the wall. I mean for fucks sake, I'm not spiderman, I'm not designed for climbing down walls. Plus it was a Saturday morning! What sane person wants to jump off the top of an 8 storey building on a Saturday morning. I should have been in bed with a cup of PG Tip's and a copy of Razzle, not stood on a roof in the freezing cold. Of course by this time it was too late, I'd already made it on to the roof, I'd watched a girl do it before me, and the charity organiser who's voice I could hear down below shouting "Go on Chris!!!" was pretty fit, and how could I look her in the eyes again if I backed out now . There was only one thing for it - As the wise men at Nike once said.... Just do it!!!

I climbed up the make shift steps on to the ledge, and the pro at the top explained to me how to get myself into position. It seemed pretty simple. Sit on the wall with my back to the edge, swing one of my legs behind me until I can place it on to the inch think piece of wood they have suspened about 1.5 metres down the wall. Then swing the other one round and put both feet on to the wood. Then all i had to do was lean back and let go. Sounds easy, but in reality it was scary as fuck. Its against everyone of your instincts to let go of the wall and just lean back knowing the only thing between you and the floor is 100ft of nothingness! So I just hung on to the wall for dear life. The pro kept saying to me "Ok, just let go and lean back", and I kept saying "No chance mate, there's gotta be an easier way!!!". This went on for what seemed like about 10 minutes but I'm told in reality was about 30 seconds. Finally I just thought fuck it, if I'm gonna die then so be it, and I let go. Instantly I regretted this but after a few seconds of panic and flapping around I found myself stood horizontally with my feet on the wall. This was cool! I was actually abseiling. Well at this point I wasn't actually abseiling but I was stood still dangling from a rope but that was cool enough for me. Slowly I started to walk down the wall, carefully letting my rope out. I felt like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible. I kept walking down, and down, and down a bit more. I must almost be at the bottom I thought, so I stopped and looked down. What a mistake! I was still about 4 stories up, and it was still a long way down. I found myself starting to panic and just froze. I didn't know what to do. I probably would still be up there now had it not been for the fact that I started worrying one of the resident scallies might lean out of one of the windows and steal my shoes while I was stationary. I decided that the best course of action was to get down as quick as possible so it was time to attempt to do it like they do on the films. I pushed off from the wall and swung out, and as I did I released my rope so I dropped. When I swung back into the wall I locked the rope and pushed off again. Within 30 seconds I'd managed to get myself to the bottom and finally I found myself on solid ground. I'd done it, I conquered my fear and abseiled 100ft down the side of the building. I was Spiderman!!! Ok I didn't have the cool costume or the ability to shoot webs out of my wrists, but I'd mastered the art of wall climbing and that was good enough for me!!! Its at this pointg that I realised my whole body was shaking from nerves, but I'd made it so I didn't care.

I now realise what my list is about. Had I not started it there's no way I would have done an abseil, I wouldn't have had the motivation to, and even though I shit myself, I'm so glad I did it. The best part of all is that I also managed to raise £100 towards kids cancer charities in the process! Thanks to everyone who sponsored me to do this, i really appreciated it.

So there you go, I can official cross number 19 off my list. 1 down and 49 to go. Actually theres currently only 28 things on the list, so its 27 to go. I still need to think of the other 23 things I want to do before I turn 30. Roll on Borgue!!!

More to come very soon, but check out the attached pictures...