I have had a Bucket List in my head for many years, but never actually written it down or analysed how many items on my list I have in fact ticked off. Now is the time to put that right and put together some sort of organised list. I give you below my more or less definitive list, with an indication of whether or not I have managed to achieve any of my ambitions. I shall then include a selection of items on friends’ bucket lists, once again using my Archers’ Appreciation facebook group as the sample of people surveyed. The picture above represents the nearest I have ever got to going on a cruise; the ferries we take from Portsmouth to Bilbao or Santander and from Barcelona to Sardinia, are like little cruise ships with not quite as many facilities, and you cannot stay at sea for longer than one or two nights.
- To travel beyond Europe before the age of 40 – I managed this at the age of 39 and a half. I married Paul (second marriage for us both) and booked a honeymoon in Cuba! Yes, this holiday did live up to my dreams, and I do intend to return to the Caribbean one day!
- To go to America before the age of 60 – I keep moving the goal post for this one, as I am 52 now and did not manage it before I was 50! We did have a holiday planned to Florida to see a dear old school-friend of mine next year, but this may not happen as I carelessly lost my job this year!
- To go to America by boat – yes, this one is separate from the general one about seeing the USA. I love travelling on ships, and think that sailing into New York by ship would be so romantic. Paul and I also have a strong aversion to flying and airports in general!
- To go on a world cruise including seeing Australia – yes, I am a bit obsessed by ship travel!
- To go on a shorter cruise, maybe around the Caribbean.
- To go on a long rail journey, maybe across India. I am forever drooling over the Jules Verne holiday brochures when they come through the letterbox. A trip on the Orient Express would be perfect.
- To travel first class on a train, preferably to somewhere interesting with good scenery. Paul had the really helpful suggestion that we could go first class on the Marlow Donkey from Maidenhead to Marlow, but I am not sure that this would really hit the spot!
- To run out into the middle of the road and shout ‘taxi!’ – I did this when with some friends in Cardiff. Of course you have to make sure that you only try this with licensed Hackney Carriages, not private hire taxis, as doing it with the latter is not legal!
- To jump into a taxi and shout ‘follow that car!’ – this one is a bit of a flight of fantasy, as I am not planning on a life of crime or a new career as a private detective.
- To jump off a moving vehicle film-star style and land gracefully on the pavement! In my early 20s as a student in London, I did jump off a routemaster bus, as the bus conductor told me to (we were not stopping at my requested stop). Unfortunately my landing was anything but graceful, and the bus stopped so that the conductor could check if I was okay!
- To own a house and be able to design a new, huge kitchen of my own – not sure if this one is achievable or not really!
- To use a talking telescope on a cliff-top tourist destination – Paul adamantly objects to my spending a pound or a euro to have this experience, so this one is a bit of a standing joke between us now!
- To travel on a tourist open-topped bus or a tourist train – this is another one that Paul is not keen on, so I’ll have to find a way of doing this one (we do most of our travelling and sightseeing together).
- To go the Edinburgh Festival – I have never quite managed this, and we have been in the habit of going on holiday in August to sunnier climes in the past few years. It would be a shame to never go though!
- To meet Nicholas Parsons – I adore Nicholas and Just a Minute is one of my all-time favourite radio programmes. I have been to a recording, but have not actually spoken to him. Now I really had better hurry up and organise this one, as he is in his 90s…… maybe a book signing session would be best for the chance to actually speak to him!
- To speak on Radio 4 – for this to happen I shall have to make more of an effort with phone-in programmes I suppose, as I am not going to do this any other way! Related to this, I have been interviewed for local radio and I have had letters/e-mails read out on Radio 4!
- To take part in a film or television programme – this one I have achieved by appearing in a Heston Blumenthal cookery programme on Channel 4! Okay, I did not speak live, but you can definitely see me, and we did all get to chat to Heston during the recording. I should like to make more appearances though, and to this end I have registered with an Extras agency – watch this space!
- To learn Spanish and Italian enough to be able to converse with local people – I speak French, but am finding learning languages so much more difficult now that I am older….
- To improve my piano-playing skills. I can read music and play to a very basic level, but it is one of my huge regrets that I did not start learning younger. I think that this one should be possible if I work at it.
- To play another principal singing and acting role in the theatre – preferably one of each. I have appeared live on stage in principal roles and numerous times in the chorus, but I’d like to have another chance at playing some principal roles before I shuffle off this mortal coil…..
How does my list compare with that of my Archers’ Appreciation friends? Such a diverse range of ambitions that people have on their lists. Some people have questioned the point of having a bucket list at all, and some responses were to suggest I might like to buy some brightly-coloured buckets.
Many bucket lists include far-flung places to visit or dangerous sports to try out. Places people would like to visit include: New York, Canada Rockies, Australia, New Zealand (Andrew Gosling), Nambia (Jane Baker), the Giraffe Manor in Nairobi, where apparently you have the chance to eat breakfast with giraffes! (Jane Kirkham). Rachel Blanchard has a long list of places she has been planning to visit for a number of years and has so far only managed Japan from the list! The complete list is: Tibet, Taiwan, Japan, Chile, Terra del Feuago, Buenos Aires, South Pacific Islands, Myanmar, Sumatra, North Vietnam, Moscow, the Trans Siberian railway, Las Vegas, Alaska, Canada, Peru, Hawai and New Orleans! Good luck with that Rachel! The Northern Lights is popular (maybe I should add that to my list!) and is mentioned by Gary Cavie, Jon Mitchell, Joan Shoesmith and Berni Anderson.
Jane Walker has a list of pieces of music she would like to play in the orchestra pit, including most Mahler symphonies, Shostakovitch 5, Sibelius 7 and any opera. I might consider something like this for my list had I progressed a bit further with learning musical instruments.
I do like some of the more mundane items such as Cecilia Potten’s which is to ‘live to a ripe old age and become a rich widow.’ June Coles would like to visit all the piers in the UK. That is something that I think would definitely be worth achieving! Annette Harris would like to retire – okay not right now, but she rightly points out that many people are not lucky enough to have a long and happy retirement and do all the things that they don’t have time to do whilst working full-time. In the same vein Pam Pummell would like ‘to live at least 10 more years (to the age of 78) and not be doolally.’ I love the word ‘doolally!
There are a few people who have dangerous or possibly exciting things on their lists such as Penny McElhinney wanting to kayak up the Amazon, Sally Owen wanting to learn to surf, Melissa Seymour wanting to skydive and Jemima Green wanting to handle snakes and Ian Williams wanting to walk with mountain gorillas (he has ticked this one off his list already!)
Finally I love the honesty of Jude Platts who says, ‘I’d quite like to see my house tidy. Just once.’
Thanks for all the contributions. If you read this all the way through, it would lovely to have some more feedback or comments on what you think about my Bucket List!