All ya need is love da dada da daaa!

It’s 23.51 on a Friday night and I’m currently sitting on my bed blaring Abbey Road (that’s The Beatles for some of you younger kids too hip to the groove to know) wondering how the hell I’m meant to start this blog. For the last few days I have been drawing a blank as to what I will even write about. The first one was pretty straight forward, I only had to explain what I was going to blog about, but now the pressure is kicking in cos I actually have to go and do it! Anyways, I figure the best thing is to just start writing and if I ramble on or bore ya, just send me a mail telling me to shut up, deal? 

In July/Aug ’06, myself, my mam and my sis went on a summer holiday to Canada to visit my aunt Loli and cousin Cian. We have been over a good few times but this one for me stands out because for some years leading up to this I had been in a very negative part of my life and though I was working through it all, this holiday really was the turning point where I was starting to see the light at the end of a tunnel so to speak. It was such a fun few weeks, we pretty much laughed the entire time we were there but the highlight for me was the night on the hammock. It was towards the end of our holiday on a really warm night when after we had finished a bbq out the back on the decking, myself, mam, Emma and Loli decided it would be a lovely ending to sit on the hammock listening to the Beatles (see where this memory was triggered from? Ha). Loli lit the fire pit, we took out some candles and of course more wine! The girls took turns swinging on the hammock and putting the world to rights.

There was at one point I clearly remember sitting on the steps writing and looking around me taking it all in; the warm breeze, the full moon, the flickering candles,  and then my mam bursting out into song “one, two, three, four, five, six, seven… hmmm dmmm nmmm hmmm HEAVEN”. What a hero! 

It was on this night I told Emma that I felt really happy for the first time in a long time and could see life getting better. It was also on this night that myself and Em wrote out our list; the list of everything we wanted to do or achieve before we died (this was way before the bucket list – we were so ahead of the crowd haha).  I thought it would be fitting to share it with you seen as we are all friends right? best of friends now I expect. Over time the list has been added too or things marked off but the guts of it is still the same:

The List

(Those in bold are complete)

·          Go to Finland 

·         Learn to Drive

·         Fall in Love               

·         Drive on Highway 66

·         See the Louvre                       

·         Go skiing with real snow

·         Write a book                          

·         Go skinny dipping in the sea at night

·         Travel around Europe

·         Visit a movie set

·         Own my own company or be my own boss

·         Go on Safari in Africa

·         Have a child

·         Build my own house

·         Give mam and dad a gift they have always wanted but would never buy for themselves

·         Spend a night in a penthouse suite

·         Drive in an open top car with the sun blazing down and the wind in my hair

·         Bungee Jump

·         Spend a night under the stars

·         Stand in the middle of time square and have someone take a picture of me with my arms open

·         Make a time capsule

·         Go to a rock festival in Finland or Germany

·         Get an "Im with stupid t-shirt" and then just walk up to total strangers at random and stand next to them

·         Go dancing in the rain like Gene Kelly      

·         Go to the house they used as the Pemberly estate in Pride and Prejudice

·         Have singing lessons

·         Go to Broadway/West End to see a musical (preferably phantom of the opera)

·         Get a tattoo   

·         Nose piercing            

·         Go in a proper horse and carriage

·         Grow my hair so it reaches my ass

·         Own a full bustier/corset and skirt

·         Write a screenplay or script

·         Research my family history

·         See Statue of Liberty

·         Learn Irish

·         Run (or jog..!) a marathon

·         Sky Dive

·         See the countdown ball in New York at midnight

·         Go to a Marti Gras

·         See 'The Globe' and hopefully one of Shakespeare’s plays there

·         Get a 'I heart NY' t-shirt in New York

·         Learn Japaneese (even a small bit)

·         Go a WHOLE day without electricity

·         Go to Madame Tousauds Wax Museum

·         Dance with someone on an empty street in the middle of the night

·         Perform in the National Concert Hall        

·         See a Kangaroo in the Wild

·         Buy a grand piano

·         Go on a full day spa with all my closest friends

·         Go to college             

·         Get up in the middle of the night and go to somewhere random

·         Have a professional photo taken

·         Swim with dolphins

·         Go to Abbey Road

·         Snorkel

·         Pass my driving test

·         Take a poo in every continent... hahaha...

        

My favourite is the last one :) It’s cheesy, it’s probably very generic and I know I can think of way more stuff that should be on it but when it was written it was a start of the positive road ahead and that was a huge thing for me at the time. I aim is to knock a few off and add a few new ones each year too. Do you guys have one? I’d really love some suggestions as to what goes on the list. 

Ok I really have rambled on enough… I will leave you with this quote that I found:

 

“May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself” Neil Gaiman, 2001

xx