Bucket List

Right everyone; time to wake up and get out there! It's time to feel inspired, breathless, astounded, to see amazing kaleidoscopes of colour, to experience the impossible, to feel that frightened thrill of doing something completely insane, to close your eyes and jump, to do something life changing. It's time for you to make a Bucket List!

I was sorting through some old papers yesterday and I came across a Bucket List I had written around five or six years ago. Many of the things I'd written down made me chuckle as they seem either so simple or so irrelevant to me now, however reading over it gave me a strong sense of purpose and determination. Life is so fleeting and we spend so much of it in a hurry that we often don't even notice the beautiful things or people that surround us every day. We all have obligations and responsibilities, but I think it is imperative that we remember to let go every now and again; to take a leap of faith and do something spontaneous or unexpected. I know that I am someone who has trouble with this. My diary is my weapon of choice and I often assess the importance of work, hobbies or even relationships by the quantity and size of slots they occupy. Everything is tidy, neatly labelled and categorised. I dislike unexpected changes to my schedule and cancellations often leave me in a tizz. I like to know what I'm doing next as I want to be able to prepare myself for what is to come. It sounds ridiculous, but trying to throw an outfit together that I haven't pre-planned is one of the most stressful things for me. It isn't a bad thing to want to be in control of a situation, but equally we need to accept that we can't always command everything around us - indeed nor should we want to. I think a Bucket List is a great way of giving us a nudge to do the things we've always wanted and to take a step back from monotonous, everyday life to try something new and exciting. It's also great because it can include small, easily achievable things as well as those which require more planning and being able to slowly tick things off is psychologically motivating and rewarding. In my Bucket List below I have therefore included some of the things that were on my old list that I've since been able to experience or do.

~~- Learn to sew on a sewing machine~~
~~- Learn to drive~~
~~- Dance naked in the rain~~
~~- Try absinthe~~
- Wish on a shooting star
- Compose a song to play on the piano
~~- Host a dinner party~~
- Go to or host a masquerade ball
- Own a pair of black patent Louboutins
- Own a Burberry trench coat
- Learn to figure skate
- Go on a road trip
- Sleep in a field under the stars
- Scuba dive
- Sky dive
~~- Release a Chinese lantern into the sky~~
- Horse ride along a beach
~~- Ride a camel~~
~~- Swim with dolphins~~
~~- Go to New York~~
~~- Go to San Francisco~~
- Do Route 66 and actually drive it!
~~- See Niagra Falls~~
- See the Northern Lights
~~- Go to a vineyard~~
~~- Climb Mount Vesuvius & see Pompeii~~
~~- Go to Ireland for St Patrick's~~
~~- Go to Venice and go on a gondola~~
- Go to Venice for the Carnival
~~- Go to Rome~~
- Go to Verona
- Go to Florence
~~- Go to Tokyo, Japan (see Harajuku)~~
- Go to New Zealand (and see the set of Lord of the Rings)
- Go to China
- Visit key cities in Eastern Europe by train (Orient Express??)
- Go on a cruise (Nordic Fjord's?)
- Go on a hot air balloon ride in Cappadocia, Turkey or Bagan, Burma
- Do the pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela
- See the Catherine Palace in St Petersburg, Russia
- See Versailles again
~~- See Flanders Fields~~
- Put a padlock on a bridge in Paris
~~- Go to Disneyland~~
- Publish a book
- Spend some time in a monastery in Tibet in silent, contemplative solitude
- Get married
- Have children
- Have a career I'm really passionate about
- Learn a martial art
- Learn how to throw knives
~~- Learn Irish Dancing~~
- Learn to play another musical instrument (violin)
- Learn Italian (become semi-fluent)
- Properly learn morse code
~~- Watch the sunrise on the beach~~
- Try marmite
- Go to a cinema drive in
- Go rollerblading again
~~- High tea in Bath~~
- See the Mona Lisa at the Louvre
- Go to the New Year Concert in Vienna
- See 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' in open air
- See Borodin's 'Prince Igor'
- See 'La Fille Mal Gardee' at least once again
- See 'The Nutcracker' at Christmas Time
- See a production on ice
- Go to a tarot reader
- Send a message in a bottle