Thankful Friday

On my way into work this morning I was thinking about all the things I need to do before hitting the road tomorrow morning. And I realized there is a wonderful upside of not having kids or even a partner right now. This weekend I’m wrapping up my whirlwind tour which could only have been accomplished by a singleton. Kids and/or mate in tow would just not have been possible with the logistics involved. It would have changed things, which makes me appreciate the flexibility and independence that comes with being on one’s own. In a weak segue, it got me thinking about the other things I want to accomplish in life – with or without mate and/or kids. I’ve created my Bucket List. Things to do before I die. I thought it was silly fluff when I heard of it initially, but realize I have items that should be listed and the only list they fit nicely into is the Bucket List. So here goes (to be added to over the years, theoretically).

Bucket list
1. Own a Jaguar car. This has been a dream of mine since I was a wee little lady. I think I must have seen my first Jaguar in an ad in the New Yorker. It was for a XJ6 (Series III) in jaguar racing green . This is another ad I remember seeing, not the one I’m thinking of though which was nice and clean – car on black background. I still have that ad. I’ve remained unwavering ever since. I think I may have to buy a used car as the form went downhill during the Ford era and now with Tata owning the company. I’d rather sacrifice function (the old jaguars have notoriously faulty wiring and other issues) for form. Weird to write that. But, hey – it’s my dream car, not my errand car. I would also consider the E type/XJS/XK8 evolution of their sports car but am not wild about the current rendition in the 2010s – the XK150.

2. See a kangaroo in person, in their own habitat, not mine. This basically means I want to make it to the other side of the world – Australia or New Zealand, I’m not picky. You’d think I would have made it by now considering my cousin married a New Zealander, the engineering firm I used to work at was bought out by a New Zealand firm, and my current company has an office in Melbourne.

3. Learn how to play at least one song (that I like) decently on the guitar. I’ve set my goal low after my first foray into guitar playing. I'm really not musically blessed.  You’d think this should be easy to achieve based on the wealth of amateur videos on youtube. Everyone and their brother seems to have learned a little ditty to play on the guitar. I have a guitar up in my loft that after the first night has remained abandoned. It’s on loan so I need to bump this up the list.