A to-do list

Inspired by Maggie Mason’s fantastic list, here are 100 things I wouldn’t mind checking off along the way in my lifetime. Strange to think that once this is published it will likely outlive me on the internets!

The first 25 (7th May 2008), in which my obsession with food is fairly apparent:

1. Teach someone how to ride a bike
2. Make a souffle successfully
3. Eat at the Fat Duck
4. Travel to Lapland to see the Northern Lights
5. Plant my own garden
6. Learn how to take great photos
7. Knit something pretty
8. Live abroad again, just for a year (or two)
9. Work for myself
10. Bungee jump off a bridge in New Zealand
11. Pass my driving test
12. Eat a meal entirely composed of ingredients I’ve grown myself
13. Run a 10km race in under an hour
14. Bathe in the Dead Sea
15. Revisit Stirling and climb Dumyat
16. Renovate a house from scratch
17. Own a dog
18. Visit the rest of my US family in Arizona and California
19. Learn Photoshop properly
20. Take a Ballymaloe cookery course
21. See Spoon live
22. Go to Glasto (just once)
23. Get hitched
24. Get tanned
25. See a Broadway show

The next 25 (30th May 2008):

26. Girls’ weekend with my sisters and my mum
27. Look good in a pair of skinny jeans
28. Potter around Dingle on a sunny day eating Murphys ice cream
29. Finish my piano grade exams
30. Come up with a great idea for a costume party
31. See Flight of the Conchords live
32. Learn how to box
33. Drive the California coast
34. Learn how to make sushi
35. Unlock all the levels in Mario Kart Wii
36. Read Dubliners
37. Climb the Jameson distillery chimney
38. See Kings of Convenience live
39. DJ at an indie night, just once
40. Watch The Princess Bride done! loved it!
41. Clear all of my stuff out of my parents’ attic (and into my own)
42. Take the Trans-Siberian Express
43. Visit Alton Towers
44. Ride a tandem
45. Get (and maintain) a killer haircut
46. Revisit my old school
47. Become a semi-decent swimmer
48. Get laser eye surgery
49. Learn to ski
50. Volunteer for a local charity

Another 20, six months on:

51. Go on a nature walk
52. Own an iPhone
53. Hang pretty framed things on my walls
54. Pay off my credit card
55. Spend an entire weekend squirrelled away at home with just the other half for company
56. Take a boat trip on the Shannon
57. Try yoga, just to see if I’d really be crap at it
58. Make a kickass Irish coffee
59. Re-read Roald Dahl’s children’s books
60. Cycle round Copenhagen
61. Make all the dishes earmarked in my cookery book collection
62. Watch The Wire end to end
63. Keep organised files
64. Start my own Christmas traditions
65. Have a Canadian reunion holiday somewhere in Ontario
66. Help my dad work on our family tree
67. Take out a subscription to Wired
68. Work out what I’d like to specialise in, job-wise, and do it
69. Buy Guy Garvey a pint
70. Get super dressed up for a night on the town for no reason whatsoever