Sunday 7 December 2014

The list

Wow, so nearly 3 weeks ago I decided to write this blog and update it in a week. looks like I missed my deadline by a few weeks. When I was younger my life goal for 30 was probably to be married with my own house, a good career and two children. Still time yet right? I realised pretty quickly that doing close to 30 things to help others in some way was going to be pretty difficult. Therefore I have composed the list in a way that has some of those types of things on there and the rest are mostly my life goals which I would love to get done before I hit the ripe old age of 30 :).

 Anyway I have managed to compose my list of 30 things to do before I am 30. Wrote in the order in which the words spilled out onto my notepad yesterday evening. Let me know what you think. What would you put on your list?



  1. Eat healthier
  2. Take my Nephew Harrison to watch Burnley play football
  3. Bungee jump
  4. Run a marathon and raise money for charity  
  5. Write a novel
  6. Visit Auschwitz
  7. Learn to play  the guitar (At least one song)
  8. Start an investment account
  9. Do a stand up gig (2 weddings coming up to practice)
  10. Volunteer for a worthy cause
  11. Visit the Louvre in Paris
  12. Find out more about the history of my family (Especially my father’s side)
  13. Learn another language
  14. Visit the Sydney Opera house
  15. Take a hot air balloon ride
  16. Visit the Egyptian Pyramids (Something I cancelled once already)
  17. Watch the sunset on a beach
  18. Take a road trip
  19. Buy a homeless person a meal
  20. Teach someone a new skill
  21. Visit Bangkok (Play one night in Bangkok loud in my hotel room while there)
  22. Visit a Buddhist temple
  23. Pay off credit cards (ambitious)
  24. Take Yoga or Thai Chi lessons
  25. Swim with Dolphins
  26. Visit a Volcano
  27. Eat something completely new
  28. Ride an elephant
  29. Go on a safari
  30. Write a business plan 
 

Monday 17 November 2014

An Epiphany

It has been almost a year since I actually wrote anything in the shape of a blog at all. Wow! I am sure I promised myself I would write more often in my blog I am nothing but a mere man. If you haven't read any of my entries, head over and check it out. You might find it utter garbage, then again you might not.

So why am I back after almost 12 months away clogging up my social media pages asking you to read my blog again? Well, while I was out running today I had an epiphany. It was to do 30 things before I am 30. I got home and realised it is not a new concept, loads of people out there have attempted to do stuff like this before and blogged about it. Some have succeeded and others have left some goals still to achieve.

I turned 27 in May and as my friends reminded me then, I am now in my late 20's so now is a good as time as any to start something like this. Also I could kind of deal with my best friend announcing his engagement and not feel that old, but when my little sister decided to get in on the act as well, well that made me feel old. In my head she is still about 8 doing gymnastics every night ant the Thompson Centre (demolished in 2006). Seriously where do the years go? Is there a correlation between time appearing faster as we age? I could swear that there is (science friends help me out).  Because of the amount of things I have already done in my life already I wanted to make my list of things to do before I am 30 a little different, otherwise I would be tempted to cheat a little in my list. Don't get me wrong there are many more things I want to do! I try to remind myself everyday that life is for living and I want the 30 things I end up doing to epitomise that philosophy. Also I want a lot of the list to be things that will help others either directly, or indirectly.

A big part of the reason of why I get by in life is because I believe that I will change the world someday. Maybe not something really significant like world peace (not that is likely ever to be achieved). Ironically I went to war for peace or was it oil? But that really is an argument for a different day. Prime Minister? Who knows. But as one person politely put it "With an accent like yours you are more likely to be a Union leader than a Prime Minister". I concede that a northern bloke from Burnley with a broad Lancashire accent, wouldn't give the best image of this country. Then again, anything is better than what we have now right?. Anyway, I digress from my point. I am leaving the list open to suggestions from my friends, family and everyone else for 30 things I can do that will help others either by me fund-raising for a certain cause/group of causes or something which I can do directly myself to help someone else. 

I will update this blog in a week or so after the ideas come in :). 

Looking forward to reading some of your thoughts.