My original bucket list

Tonight during the big tidy up I found my original bucket list. I wrote it coming home on the bus from Derry during my undergrad. I can remember doing it quite clearly. Well I say that, I can't actually remember when I wrote it during those three years. Some of the things make me think I wrote it after working in summer camp in 2001, or maybe after TOM in 2002, but by then I had done some of the things on the list, so I'm not sure. Unless I did it in an add-it-to-my-to-do-list-and-tick-it-off-because-I've-already-done-it kind of way. Oh come on, I'm not the only person does that, right?!

But I do remember coming into Belfast along the M2, you the bit that swoops down (I think it might be called Greencastle) and finishing it off. So 'clearly' is defined as 'sketchy on some details' for the purposes of this post.

Of course, I didn't know it was called a bucket list back when I wrote it. I went with the much duller but, I like to think, adequately descriptive 'things I want to do'. I don't know when I last had it, but I had ticked some things off and it was nice tonight to see what else I had done.

So let's review, shall we?

- Live and work in another country. Check. (I might have mentioned it on here.)
- Travel around the world. Check. (See above.)
- Ride on an elephant. Check. (I don't know why this was an ambition. Nice to say I've done it now though.)
- Go to Disney World. (I'm pretty sure I mean the FL one. Not that I've been to the Paris one for that matter.)
- Walk on Sydney Harbour Bridge. Check. (That was a long held ambition of mine.)
- Paint a picture. (I know I mean a nice one, that you could put up in the house - other than the fridge door.)
- Paddle in Lake Ontario. (This puts it after camp, for it is my missing Great Lake.)
- See a giraffe. (Pretty sure I mean in the wild as opposed to the zoo.)
- Visit the Taj Mahal. (Not sure why, just 'cause.)
- Go to the Great Wall of China. (Probably because you can 'see' it from space.)
- St. Petersberg. (Always liked a bit of Russian history, me.)
- Hong Kong. Check. (The handover in 1997 fascinated me.)
- Robbin Island. (I once did a project on Nelson Mandela in school.)
- Mount Everest. (It's like I'd seen the film. Fairly sure I had no plans on climbing it, just wanted to say I'd seen it.)
- Rio de Janeiro. Check. (It was the big Jesus I wanted to see.)
- See the White House. Check. (Did this in 2001 and thus immediately checked off?)
- See Niagara Falls. Check. (Went in 2002. Still have the Maid of Mist poncho. Naturally.)
- Make a pot on a wheel. (I think this one got added in because most of the things were travel-based.)

I'm sure there's things I'd like to add to it. A few years ago Karen Marathon wrote a really great list of 57 things she'd like to do and I'd definitely nick a few of hers. Like climbing Kilimanjaro, not looking at the time for an entire day or cooking a Sunday roast (my cooking is definitely improving although not at a roast stage yet).

That said, (circa) ten years later I'm 8/18 my original list. Not too bad, not too bad at all. Shame most of the other things require a serious amount of money or I'd be right on to them.

Might get out my watercolours tomorrow though. Chalk another one off.