I’ve seen this meme in a few places in the last couple of days, and have decided to join in the fun
Things you’ve already done: bold
Things you want to do: italicise
Things you haven’t done and don’t want to: leave in plain font
- Started your own blog
- Slept under the stars
- Played in a band
- Visited Hawaii
- Watched a meteor shower
- Given more than you can afford to charity
- Been to Disneyland
- Climbed a mountain
- Held a praying mantis (only a titchy baby one, though. Big insects make me squeal.)
- Sang a solo
- Bungee jumped (every time I’ve seen someone do it I think, oooh, maybe I could do that. Then I remember how much I hated abseiling, and jumping off the top diving board, and make a mental note not to watch bungee jumping again.)
- Visited Paris (though not as often as I should have done given that I lived only minutes from the Eurostar station in London.)
- Watched a lightning storm at sea (I’ve seen one over the sea, does that count?)
- Taught yourself an art from scratch (crochet, knitting, sewing, calligraphy)
- Adopted a child
- Had food poisoning – see 23
- Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
- Grown your own vegetables (only tomatoes – OK, I know they’re a not a vegetable, but I’m sure they count. We have just built a new veggie patch so watch this space…)
- Seen the Mona Lisa in France (I went to see it, but the queue was too long, and never went back.)
- Slept on an overnight train (though I have slept on many trains during the day – as soon as I get on a train I fall asleep. I once did a presentation in Bristol with this lovely old Irish man, and we caught the train back to London together afterwards. He was such a darling – one of those people whose joie de vivre is infectious. But, as is my wont, I felt myself getting sleepy, and said, “I’m terribly sorry: I always fall asleep on trains.” When I awoke from my nap he turned to me and said, “Ah, that’s such a gift you have to be able to sleep like that. What a blessing.” I wanted to take him home and keep him.)
- Had a pillow fight
- Hitch hiked (but I did flag down a complete stranger when my friend crashed my car, does that count?)
- Taken a sick day when you’re not ill – see 16.
- Built a snow fort
- Held a lamb
- Gone skinny dipping (not since puberty, though)
- Run a Marathon (Blimey O’Reilly, NO!)
- Ridden in a gondola in Venice (I’d love to go to Venice)
- Seen a total eclipse
- Watched a sunrise or sunset (the last sunset and sunrise I saw were on new year’s eve and new year’s day. When I saw the sun rise I realised it really was time to go to bed.)
- Hit a home run (I’ve hit a rounder, though.)
- Been on a cruise (not on a big, posh cruise ship, though: on an ex-racing yacht round the Great Barrier Reef)
- Seen Niagara Falls in person (it was much smaller than I expected. I saw Geri Halliwell from the Spice Girls once – she was also much smaller than I expected. Maybe things just look bigger on TV?)
- Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (they hadn’t travelled very far…)
- Seen an Amish community
- Taught yourself a new language
- Had enough money to be truly satisfied (then I left my job and emigrated – what was I thinking????)
- Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person (I bet it’ll be less leany than I expected… – see 33)
- Gone rock climbing (I was young…)
- See Michelangelo’s David.
- Sung karaoke (though only when we’ve managed to wrench the microphone away from my sister)
- Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt (seen several geysers in NZ, though.)
- Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
- Visited Africa
- Walked on a beach by moonlight (well, I do live by the sea)
- Been transported in an ambulance
- Had your portrait painted (it was rather unflattering.)
- Gone deep sea fishing
- Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
- Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
- Gone scuba diving or snorkelling (the Great Barrier Reef was awesome.)
- Kissed in the rain (can’t really avoid this if you live in the UK!)
- Played in the mud (as above)
- Gone to a drive-in theatre
- Been in a movie
- Visited the Great Wall of China
- Started a business
- Taken a martial arts class
- Visited Russia
- Served at a soup kitchen
- Sold Girl Scout Cookies (is this an American thing?)
- Gone whale watching (apparently we get whales where we live, but I’ve never seen them.)
- Got flowers for no reason(maybe I’m cynical, but isn’t there always a reason? Even if you’re not aware of it…?)
- Donated blood, platelets or plasma (used to do this regularly in the UK. I loved it – you get treated like an angel. But if you’ve lived in Britain you’re not allowed to give blood in New Zealand because of mad cow disease – such a shame.)
- Gone sky diving (see 11)
- Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
- Bounced a check (all the time at university. Everyone did it at the end of term when they ran out of money.)
- Flown in a helicopter
- Saved a favourite childhood toy
- Visited the Lincoln Memorial (I just had to google this to check. I got vertigo on the stairs and had to go down them on my bottom.)
- Eaten Caviar
- Pieced a quilt (I will make a quilt one day, I will.)
- Stood in Times Square
- Toured the Everglades
- Been fired from a job (I’ve fired a couple of people, but never been fired myself.)
- Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
- Broken a bone.
- Been on a speeding motorcycle (before I was born, my father’s cousin was killed while riding a motor bike, and my father had a very bad accident when he was young, too, so I’ve never been tempted to go on a motorbike full stop, let alone a speeding one.)
- Seen the Grand Canyon in person
- Published a book (two, in fact, with a third to be published later this year.)
- Visited the Vatican
- Bought a brand new car (one day….)
- Walked in Jerusalem
- Had your picture in the newspaper (I was 9 months old and my mother was almost arrested for making a fuss in a shop about a broken kettle. I’m glad I was too young to get embarrassed.)
- Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve (aaaah, NYE 1999/2000, on the banks of the River Thames. I kissed a LOT of strangers!)
- Visited the White House
- Killed and prepared an animal for eating (I’m vegetarian precisely because I couldn’t possibly do this.)
- Had chickenpox (when I was four, my father, sister and brother all caught chicken pox at the same time, but I didn’t. My mother spent the rest of my childhood trying to make sure I caught it so I wouldn’t get it as an adult, as it is much worse in adults. She used to send me round to play with children that had it, which I thought was mean. I still haven’t had it, and if I ever see a child with it I run screaming in the opposite direction, so I bear the mental scars of chickenpox, if not the physical ones.)
- Saved someone’s life
- Sat on a jury (Oh God, it was awful. Nine of the other jurors on one particular case thought the accused was probably guilty just because he was black – I kid you not. It was appalling and made me hope I’d never have to be tried by jury.)
- Met someone famous (Oooh, loads! I used to work over the road from a great theatre pub in Islington that was frequented by lots of famous people. But, funnily enough, I meet famous people even more often now I live in New Zealand than I did in the UK, but I usually don’t realise until later that they’re famous as I’m not that knowledgeable about NZ celebrities. I spent a couple of hours on new year’s eve looking after a really, really, drunk girl who was staggering around all over the place, and I had no idea she was famous ; I found out the next day. And no, I’m not going to say who it was.)
- Joined a book club
- Lost a loved one (Too many; far too many. Grief is the price you pay for love.)
- Had a baby
- Seen the Alamo in person
- Swam in the Great Salt Lake
- Been involved in a law suit
- Owned a cell phone
- Been stung by a bee (OUCH! I screamed so much my mother thought I was being murdered.)
