Bucket List

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

Sail away from the safe harbor. Explore. Dream. Discover.

Mark Twain

This list was inspired by the lockdown of 2020-2021, a time when society tried to, rightly, protect its most vulnerable. However, it was also a time of re-evaluating how we spend our leisure time. So I wrote my list.

Experience

  • La Rioja Wine Festival
  • Il Palio Horse Race
  • Arrive at the airport and pick a flight at random
  • Lewes Bonfire Night
  • Attend a sports World Cup booked tickets to Rugby World Cup 2023 Paris
  • The open air amphitheatre of Cornwall
  • Play in the World Series of Poker at least once
  • Learn to Thai Box in Thailand
  • Attend the Hay on Wye Book Fair
  • See Paris in the spring
  • Visit the Alhambra
  • Win a poker tournament with a prize of over $1000 done
  • Stay on Mont St. Michel overnight
  • Visit Kew Gardens
  • Watch a live Formula 1 race in person booked tickets to Spa 2021 but had to cancel…boo!
  • Get a tattoo
  • Go drinking in Dublin
  • Win a shooting /marksman medal done
  • Learn some Capoeira

Climb

  • Cinque Terre in Peru
  • Everest Base Camp
  • Climb Triglav – done, read about it here HERE
  • Salcantay Route in Peru
  • Cape Wrath Trail
  • Winter Crossing of the Cairngorms
  • Aconcagua in Argentina
  • Mt Kenya in Kenya
  • Mount Kilimanjaro
  • Snowdon done (three times)
  • Snowdon via Crib Goch
  • Ben Nevis done (twice)
  • Ben Nevis via the Horseshoe
  • Scramble Aonach Eagach
  • Toubkal in Morocco
  • Mount Olympus in Greece

Explore / Expedition

  • Island Hop Around Greece
  • Go around the world in a single trip
  • Machu Picchu at Sunrise
  • Look for a really lost shipwreck
  • See the Northern Lights
  • Visit Pripyat and Chernobyl
  • The temples and spa’s of Japan
  • Stay in 5 Scottish Bothies in a row
  • Hunt for a missing treasure
  • Walk the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea

Drive or Train

  • North 500 Scotland done
  • Norwegian Coastal Road
  • Ride the Glacier Express
  • Across Switzerland from Stelvio to Furka done
  • Mont Blanc tunnel done
  • Convert a van into a camper adventure-mobile
  • The Iceland Circular Route
  • Trans-Siberian Railway
  • From San Francisco to Los Angeles
  • Amalfi Coast done

Cycle / Ski / Snowboard / Run

  • Bolivian Death Road
  • Run an adventure race
  • Successfully make big air on a snowboard
  • Use an electric skateboard across London
  • Snowboard in Whistler
  • Go heli-skiing or heli-boarding

Learn

  • Qualify as a Scuba Divemaster
  • To off-road on a dirt bike
  • Artwork on a Louvre evening tour
  • To dive from the 3m board under control

Kids

  • Take the kids on a Big 5 Safari
  • Take the kids on their first skiing holiday done
  • Take the kids to the Alps skiing
  • Take the kids to Everest Base Camp
  • Take the kids to see the Stone Age houses of Skara Brae
  • Go Monster Hunting in Transylvania
  • Ride the Harry Potter West Highland Railway
  • Volunteer at an Archeology Dig
  • Volunteer for animal conservation abroad
  • Let them try to solve the Rosslyn Chapel done
  • Visit Tintagel and the Eden Project in Cornwall done
  • See a real life fairytale castle (Neuschwanstein) and explore the B500
  • Take kids to experience real southern food in Alabama
  • Stay in the cloud forests of Costa Rica
  • Travel Via Interrail across Europe (Paris to Genoa to Venice to Paris over the Alps) done

Accomplish

  • Act in a play at an established theatre done Cast as Lucky Eric in Bouncers Leicester Little Theatre
  • Launch a YouTube Channel and get 1000 subscribers
  • Host a Podcast
  • Earn enough passive income I do not have to work full time
  • Publish a fiction book
  • Publish a non-fiction book
  • Win an award at an independent movie festival
  • Act in a TV series or a film
  • Act in a commercial done Cast as Paparazzi #2 for Kai Collective
  • Be completely debt-free
  • Buy a house in Italy
  • Buy a ski-chalet
  • Buy a holiday property on the beach near diving
  • A controlled backflip into water done
  • A controlled backflip on land or a trampoline

Health (Over 40)

  • >11% body fat
  • Run a 5K under 24 minutes
  • Run a 10K under 50 minutes
  • Run a half marathon
  • Run a marathon
  • Bench Press 100KG
  • Bench Press 120KG
  • Do either box or front splits
  • Compete in a kickboxing or MMA tournament