One month before my 29th birthday, after a year of disasters and disappointments, I embarked on an adventure. I threw open the next 365 days of my life to the whims and fancies of my friends and family and asked them to create a list. A list of 30 things before 30!
Imaginations ran wild; suggestions were bizarre, extreme and a few obscene. Needless to say, not all made the final 30. And so, on the 4th September 2010 I set off on my quest to conquer my list and to reclaim my life, and what a year it was!
I was quite selective about my list, everything had to be achievable. I was never going to settle down, get married and have children, not in the next year. No! This list was purely selfish…a ‘me’ list. Yes, some were challenging (and not the ones you’d think): it took me several months to read a hard-backed book which wasn’t even very thick and had print designed for a 5 year old. Some were downright scary: I’d take holding tarantulas and freefalling from a plane over singing karaoke any day! Others were physically demanding and I’ve concluded that my body was not made for trekking for 4 hours 20 minutes up a Munro just to be blasted by 50mph horizontal hailstones before walking the 3 hours back down. Others had logistical implications, try rescheduling hot air balloon trip over 15 times. And some, like the return ticket to Panama, were just plane (see what I did there?) expensive. All of them however were an experience not to be forgotten!
What was the best thing about my list? Well that one’s easy…the hitch-hiker I picked up on my journey and took along for the ride. Without him it wouldn’t have been half as much fun and I decided to keep him as a lasting souvenir!
30 things before 30
#1. fly in a hot air balloon
#2. scuba dive or snorkel
#3. skydive or bungee jump
#4. enter Floyd in a show
#5. have a photo displayed in a gallery
#6. sing karaoke
#7. visit my childhood penpal and her new family
#8. go skiing
#9. bag a Munro
#10. get the ‘Family’ together
#11. hold a tarantula
#12. ride a horse on the beach
#13. play a round of golf
#14. finish the year lighter
#15. pull a pint in a pub
#16. try kayaking
#17. ride a rollercoaster
#18. eat lobster or go to the original Loch Fyne restaurant
#19. swim in open water
#20. go to the bingo
#21. get back on my bike
#22. see sunrise and sunset at sea
#23. throw a themed dinner party
#24. make some homebrew
#25. have a free weekend but don’t stay in
#26. read a hardback book
#27. watch the superbikes
#28. go on a non-European holiday
#29. get a new tattoo
#30. birthday booze cruise
And so what now? It’s been almost five years since I completed my list and a lot has changed. Turned out I did want to get married and have children (I just didn’t do it in that order!) And so the list of adventures goes on! Maybe I’ll do another 10 in the 5 years before I turn 40!
Where does the time go?
The Little Patch 