Bucket list

Many of you will have heard of Stephen Sutton. Many of you won't. Stephen was a courageous teenager from Burntwood, Staffordshire, who lost his life to cancer in May 2014.  In the midst of his illness, he became famous for several feats: his infamous thumbs up pose, often while in hospital undergoing treatment; completing as many items as possible on his bucketlist and linked to this, his inspiring fundraising. Number one on his bucketlist was to raise £10,000 for the teenage cancer trust. To date, he's reached over £4million! He's touched the lives of many through this spectacular fundraising but also inspired many, like me, to create their own bucketlist.

So what is a bucketlist and why are they so important?

Wikipedia explains that The Bucket List is a 2007 film that follows two terminally ill men on a road trip with a wish list to finish before they 'kick the bucket' while oxforddictionaries.com states it is 'a number of experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime'. 

Sometimes you can get so wrapped up in your daily life, jobs you have to do like laundry or grocery shopping, that you forget about the things that make you happy or feel fulfilled, the experiences and accomplishments that give you the proud memories and satisfaction when you look back on them. Writing these down gives you more focus and drive to complete them, much like making a to do list for your chores (only far more exciting)!

Much like the never ending to do list, for every item you tick off a bucketlist, at least one more appears, keeping the excitement of life alive to counter balance the mundane chores list. 

So, drumroll please... Here is my bucketlist!

Travel

Travel from Sydney to Perth on the Indian Pacific

✓ Visit all 8 states/territories of Australia 7/6/15

Ride in a horse drawn carriage round Central Park

✓ Visit Berlin

Visit Ireland

Visit Disneyland Florida

Go to Las Vegas

Visit all 6 inhabited continents

✓ Climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge 3/4/15

See the Northern Lights

Party at Rio carnival

Visit Machu Pichu

Go to Universal Studios

See the Taj Mahal

See Red Square

See the Grand Canyon

See the Pyramids

Canoe through the Amazon rainforest

See the Colosseum

✓ Visit Edinburgh Castle

Complete a driving tour of Scotland 

See Christ the Remeemer

Walk the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Ride in a Cable Car in San Fransisco

See the Golden Gate Bridge

✓ Watch fireworks over Sydney Harbour Bridge 1/1/15

See the NEUSCHWANSTEIN castle

See Mount Rushmore

See the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Education

Pass GCSE sociology

Pass A level sociology 

Learn sign language

Have guitar lessons

Complete a Masters degree

Leisure

Play in an orchestra 

✓ Go to the proms

Go to the last night of the proms 

✓ Complete the MoonWalk

✓ Visit Blenheim Palace

Visit Buckingham Palace

Attend the Bristol Balloon festival

See a match at Wimbledon 

Lifestyle

Have a music area in my house

Have a library area in my house

✓ Run a Brownie/Guide/Cub/Scout pack

Get married

Raise a child

Perform a random act of kindness

Give a knitted blanket to charity

Fit into size 14 jeans

Set up/run a children's choir

Just for fun

✓ Complete the Harry Potter series of books

Read a Lord of the Rings book

Complete the Book Trust's Top 100 children's books (see seperate post)

✓ Complete a Panini sticker book

Get P!nk's autograph/get a selfie with her 

Do a skydive

Swim with dolphins

Fly in a helicopter

Walk with lions

Complete another charity challenge

✓ Watch a Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire film