Ice Ice Baby

I went away on holiday with minimal internet access for 10 days and when I return home, I discover that people are throwing ice over themselves, telling me that I have to throw ice over myself and criticising others for throwing ice over themselves.

Most importantly, I have discovered that Tweak and Antmonkey are the people who hate me the most.

These are some of the criticisms I have heard:

It is bandwagon jumping/just a fad

Bandwagon jumping has happened since the dawn of time. People want to do stuff that other people have done and looks like fun. Life, in my opinion, is about experiences. If someone else has an experience that looks enjoyable, why shouldn't someone else want to do the same? Although admittedly, pouring a bucket of ice water over your head doesn't look enjoyable. But I guess being a part of something does.

And the fact that it's a fad? So what. So were pogs, speak and spells, bell bottoms, shell suits and the #nomakeupselfie. The world goes through fads as people try out new things. And that's just fine.

It is silly

Lots of things are silly. Silliness is what makes life fun. And that's just fine.

Not everyone is donating to charity

This strikes me as slightly holier than thou. Sure, some people are doing it just for the hell of it, because it's a challenge. And so what? They've not obliged to donate to charity just for doing something they want to do. I always find it difficult asking other people for donations to charity for something I'm going to do anyway. People shouldn't feel they have to donate just because they want to join in with a trend/have been nominated to do so. And that's just fine.

You shouldn't need a gimmick to make you donate to charity

This I can agree with. You shouldn't. The fact that you are one of the 40% of the world population on the internet, able to read this means that you are likely to have above average wealth. As such, perhaps you should be donating a small part of your income to those less fortunate than you. Being holier than thou for a second, I donate a small sum out of my salary regularly because I can. Not everyone is perhaps as fortunate enough as me to be able to spare that regular donation. And that's just fine.

You are donating to the "wrong" charity

There are two strands to this. The first is that Macmillan have hijacked the fad to try to raise funds for their own cause, rather than for ALS/MND. If this has been something that they have done on purpose, then it strikes me as a very bad move as it will lose them a lot of goodwill, and them issuing a statement on it may not actually have helped as intended. Having said that, people are able to donate to whatever charities they wish to, and if some people have chosen to donate to Macmillan, Cancer Research or anything else then that is fine. They are still helping people in some way, which is a good thing.

The second strand is that other charities deserve the support more. This is something that is pretty hard to compare, really. I think it just comes down to what personal opinions you have and what charities are close to your heart. Personally, I prefer to donate to charities that attempt to combat social injustice, such as Amnesty, Shelter or Wateraid. Other people chose other charities. And that's just fine.

They will just waste the money you donate

The argument is that it will be spent on PR, staff salaries and they will just be wasting the money. So what? So will I. I will just spend it on beer. At least a portion of it might do good this way. And that's just fine.

Bucket list item #16 : Win a gold medal at the Lukelympics

Once every two years, the world's elite athletes descend on Folkestone's East Cliff to compete in some of the most dangerous and extreme sporting events known to man.

The event is so top secret, even Sky Sports don't know about it and what video footage and photographs are available after the event are usually taken on camera phones by competitors or the few fans lucky enough to gain access to this exclusive event.

For my friend Luke (known henceforth as The Committee)'s birthday, we form ourselves into loose collectives based on some vague theme and argue amongst ourselves about who is the best horse or who is the best at running blindfolded and then send forth our gladiators into the arena.

This year was the fourth edition of the games and only the second which I had been able to attend in full. I formed a team of the best athletes I know and Bass who then argued for about three days as to what our team name would be. Eventually settling on "It's my birthday" so Bass could make endless jokes when Luke read out our team name, we made our way to the arena complete with party hats and blowers.

After Bass's blindfold fencing style - which largely resembled attempting to play cricket and then rolling on the floor - earned us a silver medal in the first event, it looked like we were on for a good day.

I didn't compete until the Four Legged Hurdles event when me, Lisa and Natalie felt confident after literally minutes of training. Despite even giving hints to our opponents in the heat (two thirds of whom hadn't yet reached their eleventh birthday) we mercilessly beat them with our athletic prowess.

In the final, we went up against Team Gin B who had a couple of McNeices as ringers on their side. We were less confident but after going neck and neck down the first straight we took them at the turn before getting over excited and almost losing our rhythm as we stormed home to victory to set the world record of 38.03 seconds.

We managed to hold back the tears during the medal ceremony but our joy was evident. We also learnt a valuable lesson: don't let Bass play. This was reinforced when during the Piggyback Equestrianism event he did 5 of the set moves rather than the three which he was supposed to do. He's a loose cannon.

I had considered not entering any more events to maintain a 100% winning record but I felt I owed it to the team to try to win more for us. Unfortunately it was not to be. In the Blindfold Biathalon underhanded instructions shouted from a rival team member (don't worry, Katie, I won't tell anyone it was you) lost us valuable seconds and in the Water Balloon Shot Put, it turns out that I don't know my own strength and I crushed a balloon in my bare hands before launching it down the course.

Despite the fact that our team finished last overall, we were the smallest nation entering and I feel we can be proud of our performance. We now have two years to get in training for the next one to build on what we have accomplished.