Status so far....

1. Ok - so this is where I am so far.... I have reported on a few of these below, more to follow... promise. 
   
   
   
   
   1.     Buy and drink very expensive (>£80 per bottle) wine (with my sister, Noelle)
   2.     Cook something I've never cooked before
   3.     Eat something I've never eaten before
   4.     Eat something I've never eaten before - and won't eat again
   5.     Go to the top of the Shard
   6.     Meet Nigella Lawson
   7.     Meet someone (else) famous
   8.     Meet an International Sports star
   9.     Do some kind of cooking course
   10. Go somewhere in the UK I've never been before
   11. Go somewhere abroad I've never been before
   12. Get my teeth whitened
   13. Have a mani-pedi
   14. Go (back) to Chez Bruce
   15. Apply for my driving license
   16. Learn to drive
   17. Read a modern classic
   18. Read a classic
   19. Take a photography course
   20. Run a race - minimum 10k
   21. Complete my series of Dynasty
   22. Play tennis again
   23. Lose a stone (in weight, not out of my pocket)
   24. Blog?
   25. Go back to Poros
   26. Plan my 40th birthday
   27. Take swimming lessons
   28. Don't change my job
   29. Bake more bread
   30. Meet a relative I haven't met before
   31. Go to Wimbledon for tennis
   32. Do something for charity
   33. Decide what's my 'Pine Cone' - and tell everyone.
   34. Have a 'Gone with the wind' viewing
   35. Go to the National Portrait Gallery every weekend out of three.
   36. Put 'more' of my photos online
   37. Learn to knit
   38. Go to Walsh Island again
   39. Visit Josephine Baker (the cat)
   40. TBD by suggestions by people here

Numbers 15, 18 and a sad update on Number 39

NUMBER 15 – DONE

Yes, it’s true. Almost 40 years old and I can’t drive. Ridiculous, isn’t it? I can make all the excuses I want, but I suppose behind it all is a certain amount of laziness and stubbornness. I’m not a very good pupil as many of you will know and patience certainly not being one of my virtues and as a result, I have never learned to drive. I also think I am scarred by a childhood incident where, while sitting on my mothers lap, I turned off the lights of our car, plunging us into darkness on a fairly rural road and nearly plunging most of my family into the ditch. I was reminded about that on a regular basis as a child. Anyway, having it put on this list has meant that my stubbornness is working to my advantage this time and forced me to actually apply for my license. I am very pleased to say that I have it in my possession and so now just need to actually take some lessons and learn to drive so I can tick off number 16! No one minds if you drive while on Valium, do they? I mean its not as if I would be drunk….

NUMBER 18 – DONE

I deliberated long and hard about what classic I should read and eventually settled for The Picture of Dorian Gray by the great Irish author Oscar Wilde. I suppose it could verge on a modern classic, having been published in 1890, my initial thoughts being with some Jane Austen, having been (un)fortunate enough to skip those in school. I was also helped in my choice by the fact that it was the only classic that I had on my bookshelf and came to being there courtesy of Belinda and Chris Adams (and indeed Sophie Cotton…ahem). Belinda and Chris had a book for everyone on the table at their wedding and clearly not happy with my choice of much ado about nothing, I decided I would procure Sophie’s version of Dorian Gray as well. Read it I did, expecting it to be a little tedious if truth be told, but in fact it tripped along nicely with the flowery language I would expect of such a dandy of the time. In particular I found the last section immensely riveting – one of those times where you don’t actually want the tube to stop so you can keep on reading. The parts where you can almost feel the chaos going around in Dorian’s head when he is at the absolute end of his tether with how he has been living his life were dark, gripping and yet prompted a certain amount of sympathy for this man who had lived such a hideously decadent and irresponsible existence until that point. A fine read indeed and am very glad to have chosen this as my classic book to read. Snaps for Mr. Wilde. 

NUMBER 39 – a sad note to report

Some of you may remember my gorgeous cat Josephine Baker whom I fostered for a couple of years (about 2005 – 2007). She was a real character, nervous around people (which she showed through stress incontinence), she didn’t like to be alone (again, stress incontinence) but at the same time was so much fun. I had to give her away as I was traveling too much at the time and so I gave her back to her daddy Rickey-Dean. I missed her quite a lot and have been saying that I should go see her again and so stuck it on the list. Unfortunately, she had to go to the big litter tray in the sky on the 11^th of April this year, so I didn’t get to see her again.  She was in her glamorous middle age when I had her and bless her, she lived to the ripe old age of 17 years, 1 month and 11 days old. In place of seeing her, I am going to make a donation to a cat shelter in her memory and hopefully will see lots of cats do well. She wouldn’t have been pleased about that of course  - she didn’t really like other cats…