#54 Be a Daredevil

I shuddered at the sight of this one. A daredevil is most distinctly something I am not. It's not so much that I'm scared of trying new things, I am just very aware of my limitations and am not imbued with a strong desire to push them. Ok, I suppose I'm a wuss.

However, as I'm determined to complete my 101 things to do I asked people to dare me and these are the suggestions I got:

- shave off the husband's eyebrows while he sleeps (rejected - he wouldn't be that bothered)
- eat 2 litre tub of Ben & Jerry's ice cream (tempting but rejected as it's something I already do without thinking twice)
- wear my underwear over my clothes for a day (rejected - what? you're surprised?!)
- wear my clothes back to front for a day (rejected - although I did consider it..)
- put on an accent on the phone at work for a day (rejected - I run a telephone helpline for God's sake!)
- eat only raw food for a week (rejected - kind of thing I might try for health reasons so not really daring enough)
- dress like Lady Gaga on a night out (rejected - too easy, people wouldn't realise I was even doing a dare)
- stand in a busy place with a sign saying 'Hug Me' (rejected - too much potential for creepy people to take advantage, although if other people got on board I might be interested in group work)
- eat as many donuts as you can, without licking your lips - ACCEPTED!!!!

Now this is my kind of dare! I bought a bag of 12 mini donuts today, covered in cinnamon sugar they were, mmmmmmm. After I'd had my lunch I sat down with the donuts and Joanie as an independent adjudicator and got to work. I knew the urge to lick would be overwhelming and that it would take real concentration to succeed. I could have cheated slightly as they were only small and technically I could have squashed them into my gob without the sugar even touching my lips. However, I didn't feel this would be in the spirit of the thing so I bit through them like a good 'un.



It's amazing how compelled I felt to lick my lips, but I resisted as Joanie will confirm, should she be asked. In total I managed 9 donuts, stopping only because I felt fairly queasy, rather than because I was overwhelmed by the lick reflex. I gave the remaining donuts to Joanie and Shirley who both licked their lips before, during and after eating. Neil had the last one and proudly boasted of how he managed not to lick his lips either. Yeah - try it with 9 of the monkeys buster! See how you get on then...

The book also asks me to dare someone, but cautions that you shouldn't dare someone to do something you wouldn't be prepared to do yourself. Since that only leaves boring things that most people would scoff at I'll omit to bother with this part of the challenge. But I'm giving myself a pink star for the rest of it!