Last year, when Rose won Strictly, I was one of those people who had been completely intrigued by sign language and curious about learning some myself. I didn’t do anything about it at the time, and somehow an entire year has passed, but my thoughts returned to the subject when Rose popped up on this year’s launch show, and then a small amount of research later highlighted that it was International Sign Languages day on September 23rd.

All the signs were pointing in the right direction that, whilst a little late to celebrate the sign language day, my October challenge should be geared towards this particular topic. I have a small headstart in that, for a reason I don’t remember know, my mother and I learned the alphabet in sign language when I was younger. If I had to, I could spell out words to try and communicate. But there’s so much more to it than that, and this is the time to learn.

I headed straight to the British sign language website, where an online course was available for a pay-it-forward price. You pay what you can and if you can pay more than the asking price, you’re actually helping fund other people to learn who maybe can’t pay that much. A great system.

So I’ve signed up and that’s what October is all about. I’ve not defined a certain number of lessons or time a day, because if I’ve learnt anything from nine of these challenges it’s that the fewer rules in place at the start, the better. These things tend to evolve as the thirty days tick by and that’s part of the fun of the journey.