The list is DONE....... sort of

Morning all!

It's very early on Day 5 (it's actually very late on Day 4... I'm a bit of a night-owl), and things are progressing slowly. I remember reading through the MSE forums thread about this project and people were saying things like "Don't underestimate how long it will take you to compose your list" and "I struggled once I got to 35 items". When reading it, I thought to myself that they just weren't very imaginative and I was sure I'd whizz through my 101. I was wrong! Constructing my list has been REALLY difficult! And just like they said, I got to about 35 items and hit.... errr.... "101-ers block" we'll call it! You won't actually realise how hard it is to come up with 101 goals, dreams and ambitions until you sit down and try to write them out. I've found it so hard that I'm only up to about 70. But I'm gonna slow down a bit now. My list is undoubtedly going to change over the course of my 1001 days as my life moves forward and my situation changes... or even just because I change my mind on certain things. So I'm not going to bust a gut trying to get 101 things written down. I'll only be putting pointless things down... which is what I said I didn't want to do, in my first blog. I reckon that in a couple of months, I'll have filled it up, but I'm happy with what I have now.

So.... here's my list so far. I'll analyse it below...

1. See the Northern Lights
2. Take self-defence classes
3. Drink 1 tonne of water
4. Trace my family history
5. Invent something that goes on sale to the general public
6. Get a job as a pilot
7. Go on a gameshow
8. Improve my rollerskating skills
9. Achieve and maintain a healthy BMI
10. Save a deposit for a house
11. Learn to play the saxophone
12. Run a 5k
13. Run a 10k
14. Run a 15k
15. Run a half-marathon
16. Run a marathon
17. Learn to play poker
18. Declutter my possessions properly
19. Travel the world
20. Learn how to draw cartoons
21. Skydive again
22. Learn how to cook
23. Visit London as a tourist
24. Become a crack shot with a rifle
25. Own my own home
26. Copy all important VHS videos to DVD (and upload relevant ones)
27. Send 50 postcards through PostCrossing
28. See Eddie Izzard live
29. Continue to fundraise for London's Air Ambulance up to a total of £18,000 (?)
30. Be an extra on Eastenders (or just TV)
31. Get a small tattoo
32. Read through all my ATPL books again
33. Try out canoeing again
34. Learn sign language
35. Visit an active volcano
36. Get horrendously drunk with my best mate
37. Learn basic massage
38. Build a target board for my slingshot
39. Create a YouTube video that is featured or gets over a million hits
40. Write a book
41. Write and publish an e-book
42. Cycle to Brighton
43. Cycle London to Scotland, or vice-versa, staying in youth hostels
44. Cycle Lands End to John O'Groats (“End to End) for charity
45. *Another cycling challenge - tbc*
46. Learn to play some chillout tunes on my acoustic guitar
47. Get some nice professional photos done of me
48. Create a good interactive website
49. Upload my flight training video blogs
50. Go on holiday (anywhere) with a bunch of mates
51. Compose a song (?)
52. Complete a course in a subject that interests me, completely non-work-related
53. Turn £10 into £1000 by buying from charity shops and selling on eBay
54. Volunteer with an lgbt charity – Albert Kennedy?
55. Visit an Air Traffic Control centre
56. Try new youth hostels (30?)
57. Learn to tap-dance
58. Be a film extra
59. Take Dad flying
60. Go scuba-diving
61. Hold a World Record!
62. Get a photo (old or new) blown up and printed onto canvas
63. Get my paragliding licence
64. Complete the Three Peaks UK challenge, or climb a mountain in Scotland
65. Kiss someone in the rain
66. Learn how to fly aerobatics
67. Record one thing a day which has made me happy
68. Do a bungee jump
69. Create a photography portfolio of some of my best pictures
70. Fly (uninjured) in London's Air Ambulance
71. Take part in an “It's a Knockout” competition
72. Camp in the Cairngorms again
73. Watch a list of 100 movies I want/am yet to see
74. Create something amazing with materials from somewhere like Hobbycraft – perhaps something Wallace and Gromit-like

So there it is. A work in progress admittedly, but I like what's there so far. Nothing is set in stone, and I realise that I may not be able to complete some of them. It's a fairly adventurous list, and when I broke it down into categories (which I later randomised as I didn't like the look of it categorised), the largest group was that of Sports & Fitness. Surprising really, as I'm not a sporty person at all. The difference with these is that they're not football and rubgy and golf and cricket... instead they're canoeing and rollerskating and skydiving and cycling, which I think are much more interesting, fun and adventurous.

There are a few cycling challenges on there, as I recently splashed out on a new bike (my brother borrowed mine about 8 years ago, didn't chain it up and it was nicked), and I've enjoyed the cycling I've done recently, so want to up my game a little. I've been getting excited just reading about the Lands End to John O'Groats cycle. I think I may turn it into a sponsored charity ride, although I'd just as happily do it for the sake of doing it.

I'm interested in getting involved in things like PostCrossing and other projects where you interact with strangers from around the World, but I'm not sure what else there is, as I've never really taken part in anything similar before. Do feel free to comment with suggestions. As for postcrossing, I have my first 'postcard' - I cut the front off a nice christmas card - it's just a tree made out of silver glitter. Looks wicked, and isn't necessarily Christmassy, so gonna use that for my first postcard.

One unusual one you may notice is to drink a tonne of water. A tonne of water is 1000kg, which is 1000 litres, or 1 a day. This is actually half the recommended daily amount, but any time I've tried to maintain drinking 2L of water a day, I've failed miserably, so if I can manage a minimum of 1L a day for 3 years, I'm sure I'll experience at least some health benefit!

The only other thing I'll point out is that the order that the list is written in, is not the order I came up with the ideas in. I wrote them out, then put them into categories, but didn't like the categories, so put them in a random order again. Probably totally irrelevant, but thought I'd point it out.

That's all for now... comments, ideas, suggestions, song requests, saucy jokes, confessions and anything else you want to write are all more than welcome :)

Phill