The Adventure of the Bucket List II
A few weeks ago I discussed the bucket list I created back when I was sixteen and recounted some of the items I have already ticked off. Today it's time to tell the story of the remaining things that I've managed to do in my life so far.
In at number 24 is "sing to an audience", something which I long since ticked off though it stretches some definitions. 'Sing' can apparently be defined as 'make musical sounds with the voice' which is not exactly my forte. I've not got a musical bone in my body and it's not helped by the fact I've got quite a deep voice, meaning your average song is at least an octave higher than I can actually reach. 'Audience' is defined as "the assembled spectators" and a school assembly neatly fits that. I can't remember a great amount of the details of this one but somewhere around 2010 or 2011 I found myself stood in front of a school of primary children singing. I honestly can't recall what the occasion was and I think it was a pop song- I fear it may have been something by One Direction.
I suppose you could also include my time as a student when I regularly unleashed Drunk Dan who apparently loves nothing more than singing. From belting out the likes of "Ridin' Solo" by Jason Derulo and various Michael Jackson songs at the student union to a rendition of "That Don't Impress Me Much" as made famous by Shania Twain to my housemates and Bruno Mars' "Marry Me" to a girl I snogged at a nightclub, I seemed more than happy to find my singing voice once I was inebriated. I suspect though that calling this singing "musical" may be stretching it and I'm sure an audience is supposed to want to witness your performance.
Moving on, we reach "be vegetarian for a month". I did this around a similar time when I was at uni, sometime in 2011 if I recall. This was before vegetarianism was as mainstream as it is today but I wanted to give it a go, knowing that the meat industry has huge implications for climate change and generally feeling uncomfortable that my diet requires things to be murdered. I didn't find it particularly tricky from a self-control point of view but being a fussy eater made it tricky. I could find Quorn substitutes for many things but many vegetarian options are entirely vegetable based. There are very few vegetables I eat which feels very childish but I can't help it. I can manage things like lettuce or celery that don't taste of much and can be hidden within a dish but I will be very close to throwing up if I attempt to eat tomatoes or cucumber or various other veg.
Part of me would quite like to be vegetarian but I think it would be really difficult for me to actually obtain the nutrients I need within a vegetarian diet. I also feel quite conflicted about climate change things. Obviously climate change is happening but I question whether even large percentages of the Western world cut out meet would make much difference when you have the pollution spewing from India, China and other places. It's also extremely difficult to actually say that one thing has less of a carbon footprint than another. It's advertising that often makes us think things are more environmentally friendly but often the research says there is little difference or even sometimes that the eco-alternative is actually worse.
At number 32 is "dress up in fancy dress". I'm really not one for dressing up and on most occasions when it's required I have gone for the easiest option possible. I remember one world book day at junior school where I dressed up as Trevor from "The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog" which basically involved wearing my normal clothes that happened to be fairly similar to the illustration on the cover. At themed nights at the student union I would maybe wear a hat or a t-shirt which vaguely fit with the theme, like a superman t-shirt on superheroes night. Before I could really argue about such things I was forced into fancy dress for special days at school including being an evacuee for a World War II day and there's a photo of a tiny me looking like junior Ebeneezer Scrooge in Victorian pajamas and nightcap.
At Sixth Form there was one dress-up day, in aid of Children in Need, where we were supposed to come as the job we wanted to have when we were five. Now there has been very few moments in my life when I actually had a career in mind so I just went to a fancy dress shop and purchased a costume. I turned up to Sixth Form as a sailor complete with white gloves and was just about visible in the background of a news report on the local news wearing said outfit.
In at number 24 is "sing to an audience", something which I long since ticked off though it stretches some definitions. 'Sing' can apparently be defined as 'make musical sounds with the voice' which is not exactly my forte. I've not got a musical bone in my body and it's not helped by the fact I've got quite a deep voice, meaning your average song is at least an octave higher than I can actually reach. 'Audience' is defined as "the assembled spectators" and a school assembly neatly fits that. I can't remember a great amount of the details of this one but somewhere around 2010 or 2011 I found myself stood in front of a school of primary children singing. I honestly can't recall what the occasion was and I think it was a pop song- I fear it may have been something by One Direction.
I suppose you could also include my time as a student when I regularly unleashed Drunk Dan who apparently loves nothing more than singing. From belting out the likes of "Ridin' Solo" by Jason Derulo and various Michael Jackson songs at the student union to a rendition of "That Don't Impress Me Much" as made famous by Shania Twain to my housemates and Bruno Mars' "Marry Me" to a girl I snogged at a nightclub, I seemed more than happy to find my singing voice once I was inebriated. I suspect though that calling this singing "musical" may be stretching it and I'm sure an audience is supposed to want to witness your performance.
Moving on, we reach "be vegetarian for a month". I did this around a similar time when I was at uni, sometime in 2011 if I recall. This was before vegetarianism was as mainstream as it is today but I wanted to give it a go, knowing that the meat industry has huge implications for climate change and generally feeling uncomfortable that my diet requires things to be murdered. I didn't find it particularly tricky from a self-control point of view but being a fussy eater made it tricky. I could find Quorn substitutes for many things but many vegetarian options are entirely vegetable based. There are very few vegetables I eat which feels very childish but I can't help it. I can manage things like lettuce or celery that don't taste of much and can be hidden within a dish but I will be very close to throwing up if I attempt to eat tomatoes or cucumber or various other veg.
Part of me would quite like to be vegetarian but I think it would be really difficult for me to actually obtain the nutrients I need within a vegetarian diet. I also feel quite conflicted about climate change things. Obviously climate change is happening but I question whether even large percentages of the Western world cut out meet would make much difference when you have the pollution spewing from India, China and other places. It's also extremely difficult to actually say that one thing has less of a carbon footprint than another. It's advertising that often makes us think things are more environmentally friendly but often the research says there is little difference or even sometimes that the eco-alternative is actually worse.
At number 32 is "dress up in fancy dress". I'm really not one for dressing up and on most occasions when it's required I have gone for the easiest option possible. I remember one world book day at junior school where I dressed up as Trevor from "The Hundred-Mile-An-Hour Dog" which basically involved wearing my normal clothes that happened to be fairly similar to the illustration on the cover. At themed nights at the student union I would maybe wear a hat or a t-shirt which vaguely fit with the theme, like a superman t-shirt on superheroes night. Before I could really argue about such things I was forced into fancy dress for special days at school including being an evacuee for a World War II day and there's a photo of a tiny me looking like junior Ebeneezer Scrooge in Victorian pajamas and nightcap.
At Sixth Form there was one dress-up day, in aid of Children in Need, where we were supposed to come as the job we wanted to have when we were five. Now there has been very few moments in my life when I actually had a career in mind so I just went to a fancy dress shop and purchased a costume. I turned up to Sixth Form as a sailor complete with white gloves and was just about visible in the background of a news report on the local news wearing said outfit.
I'm not sure which of those photos I find the most embarrassing.
Next up is "make a prank call" which is something which was the height of comedy when I was a teenager. Are prank calls even a thing anymore? In my friend group we used to have session where we'd go through our contacts and select friends that didn't know the friends we were with. We'd then call up these people and pretend we were chatting them up, regardless of gender and often using a silly voice. I think most of the recipients just found it a bit odd whilst we were in stitches.
Something more worthwhile on the list is "give blood". I'm proud to say I do this every few months and since first donating aged eighteen I've donated twenty-four times and would have probably done it more often had it been possible. The process is far less uncomfortable than you might imagine and after a couple of donations I found I can just get up and carry on as normal. It's such a good feeling to do something that you know will genuinely make a difference and will potentially save people's lives. There's also the added bonus of getting 'free' biscuits and other snacks afterwards which is enough to persuade me to do most things.
We now reach a couple of actually quite notable achievements. At number 41 on the list is "complete a degree". I still feel like an awkward sixteen-year old and now over five years on it's hard to believe that I actually have a degree. I wrote loads of academic essays, gave presentations and even wrote a 10,000 dissertation. Given the limited use my degree has been it doesn't really feel like anything special but I suppose whatever else I might achieve in my life I'll always have done that (and always have the debt that goes along with it).
Finally, we have number 43 which is "write a book". Yes, I wrote a novel a few years back and you can actually still buy it for Kindle (see here). It's never actually sold enough to bring me any money at all but I'm still proud of it. It's called "The Apocalypse in My Head" and has a dual story-line. The premise is that main character imagines his life is much more exciting that it is and he's surviving a zombie apocalypse but in reality is essentially going through a gradual mental break-through. It's extremely difficult to describe which is why I've never sent it to publishers. I usually have various ideas going around my head at a time- I've got most of a novella written that I will hopefully finish this year and another novel which I've had in my head for years that needs writing so that probably won't be my last.
At the time I've writing I've now covered all the items on the bucket list that I've completed so far. But as I said last time, I'm hoping to tick off more this year and I'll record my experiences here- I have the next one lined up so watch this space...
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