Don't get me wrong, I fantasise over an expensive, daring and adventurous beyond (who says yacht sailing isn't adventurous- it's certainly expensive). It's just that, between the chaos of London life- pondered over while cramped (un)elegantly on the tube- I've started to piece together my lifelong yearnings. My bucket list, if you will. When some entries are wildly ambitious, there are also others which are more mundane than the morning commute: but this is, in essence, an illustration of my life. Of the sun soaked Tuesday mornings with bran flakes and Loreal shampoo, juxtaposed with the night markets I haggled my way through in Vietnam.
Each day I find myself turning more and more into my mother: the gardener who gets lost in books, plans days around yoga and coffee breaks, and is furiously optimistic in the wake of disaster. Not that this is a bad thing, but it's become apparent that this is where I'm heading. All the things I took for granted and shunned throughout my childhood (national trusts, cleaning and reading) have squelched onto me like some sort of leech. The harder I find it to put my book down, I get a vague passing notion of my mother before bedtime.
In some respects, however, my character differs hugely from the person I'm worrying of turning into. Never before has my passion for something more- something better- been so opaque. With determination, research and ambition, I'm planning another life across the other side of the world. Hand in hand with the boy of my dreams, wherever it takes us. And cliche so it may be, I still have plenty of adventures planned before me.
So (cue drumroll) my bucket list of life ambitions may commence...
- grow strawberries
- keep chickens
- practice yoga
- have a job I love
- see Asia in full! (Cambodia, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore)
- grow a vegetable patch
- write meaningful letters to my children on their birthdays
- own dogs
- have dinner parties
- make my own wine (at least once!)
- take family holidays to India/Brazil)
- take a dip in Iceland's Blue Lagoon
- bake fresh cookies and bread
- go on camping trips
- donate to a charity
- ride a bike across San Fransisco's golden gate bridge
- sail a yacht
- build my dream home
- live right on the sea
- learn to make cocktails
- see Las Vegas (even if for just one night!)
- go hiking
- teach my children about the dangers of life....
- but more importantly how wonderful everything is if you look hard enough
- learn to waterski
- cook Christmas dinner (with help from my dad)
- camp on a deserted island in Mozambique
- eat cleaner
- drink more water
