50. Alum Bay and the Glass Vase

Well, I spent my 51st birthday on the Isle of  Wight and finished off my 50/50  experiences with a a trip to Alum  Bay and a ride on the rickety old chairlift down to the beach.

Steven then treated me to this beautiful iridescent vase from the glass studios there. It is a tall blue glass vase with green/yellow/purple overlay and looks stunning in the light.

I have really enjoyed the last year and ended up doing some fun things - highlights include not 1, but 2 trips to New York, eating at the restaurant at the top of the BT Tower and amazing  WW1 battlefield tour of Flanders.

I was treated to some great experiences by others such as the Harry Potter Studio tour from Jared, the ride round Central Park in a horse drawn buggy by Mum and an Aqua Massage from Angie!

I also enjoyed learning to crochet from Laura, making my own Christmas wreath, having my DNA tested and even cooking my first home made curry!

I tried to do some good along the way and raised £100 for the Blue Cross, bought a Poppy from the Tower of London and Crowdfunded a charity and a book launch

Although the year is over now, I hope to carry on saying YES to things I might not have done - and have started by being involved in a publicity photo shoot for St Elizabeth Hospice and impulse buying a new car! There is still a long list of ideas that I never got round to doing which I will keep and hopefully cross off  as time goes on.

Thanks to everyone involved along the way and my advice to you all is Give It A Go and Have Some Fun!

26. DNA Testing!

No - not for paternity reasons, I won' be appearing on the Jeremy Kyle show!

my Great-great Grandad's grave

I took the Ancestry DNA test because I was curious about my ethnic roots. Through my genealogy searching, I have discovered that I am mainly good old Suffolk Stock with my 13x grandparents coming from Wingfield near Eye (only about 20 miles from where I sit now). There are a few ancestors coming from London and Kent but nothing much further afield! 

So I was quite surprised when the results came back as

•  57% Great Britain
•  27% Europe West
•  5% Italy/Greece
•  5 Other regions

The other regions were Ireland 5% Scandinavia 2% East European 1% - so it looks like I am a bit more cosmopolitan than I thought. I certainly need to investigate some of the dead-ends of the family tree to discover where the link with France, Germany or the Netherlands comes in.

My great aunts and uncles from the Jolley Family

It also came up with 10 other people in the database who are likely to be my 4th Cousins  ie  we share the same great, great, great grandparents!