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| Photo: David Holifield/Unsplash |
Yep, I've fallen down the trap of making a list of 30 things I want to do before I'm 30. The big 3-0 doesn't particularly bother me, and isn't why I'm making the list, but I'm the sort of person who best gets things done when there's a list to follow, things to satisfyingly tick off, so I'm using it as a way to finally do things and go places that I've always wanted to do. A kick up the bum, if you will.
Given that my birthday is in early May, and I turn 29 this year, good old coronavirus has thrown something of a spanner in the works of my final year of my twenties. Will we be released from lockdown in July? September? December? Either way, ticking this whole list off by May 2021 might be tricky, depending when things reopen, hence the '30-and-a-bit' caveat. Here's a rough plan of my next year, in no particular order:
1) Visit the flower fields in Amsterdam
The city of Amsterdam has already been graced with a visit from me, back in April 2017, but we stayed in the city itself, and didn't manage to venture out to the famous flower fields. I'd love to see the tulips - my favourite flowers - and other blooms being grown in their thousands.
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| Photo: MyTripFlops/Unsplash |
2) Go up the i360 Brighton
I love a view, and I'm rather fond of Brighton, so I was keen to go up the i360 - vertical sibling to the rotund London Eye - when it opened on the seafront in 2016. The first few months saw regular headlines about the attraction breaking down and leaving visitors stranded mid-air, so I thought it best to give it a swerve until teething problems were sorted. Is 4-5 years long enough, do you reckon?
3) Visit Hampton Court Palace
Mazes, turrets and beautiful gardens of flowers are some of my favourite things (not to mention a chocolate kitchen...) but somehow, I've never made it to Hampton Court - probably due to the way it's in London, but also really, really not in London. It's so far. We even looked up getting the boat there once, to make it a bit more fun, but do you know how long the boat takes from Westminster? Four hours. National Rail it is, then.4) Bake a rainbow cake
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| Photo: The Hummingbird Bakery |
Shamelessly hopping on a trend like nobody's business, but honestly, if I had to choose one cake to eat for the rest of my life, it'd be Hummingbird Bakery's rainbow cake. Back in 2012, a friend and I tried to make our own version of rainbow cake, but while the structural integrity was spot on, the colours just weren't all that vivid. Lockdown would be the ideal time to get a head start on this one, and if flour supplies become more readily available in the next few weeks, I might just do that.
5) See &Juliet in the West End
I'm not a regular theatregoer, but I do love a musical, and &Juliet really caught my eye when it came to London's West End in 2019. Cheesy pop music and an alternative ending to the Shakespeare play has me crossing my fingers that it doesn't become another permanent victim of coronavirus in Theatreland.
See also: Hever Castle (which I visited on a school trip, but would love to go back) and Chiddingstone Castle, both also extremely close to home.
6) Tour the Harry Potter Studios in Hertfordshire
Those of you who know me know that I'm - whisper it - not that much of a Harry Potter fan. I dabbled in some of the books, watched a couple of the films, but I certainly don't know my hinkypunk from my hippogriff. And yet, I've always fancied a visit to the Warner Bros Studio Tour, from a filmmaking point of view, to learn about the techniques and skills used to create Hogwarts on screen.
7) Explore Leeds Castle
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| Photo: Leeds Castle |
Leeds Castle is so close to my home, it's embarrassing that I've never been. It's dubbed 'the loveliest castle in the world', and has plenty of other attractions including medieval gardens, a falconry centre and a Dog Collar Museum.
See also: Hever Castle (which I visited on a school trip, but would love to go back) and Chiddingstone Castle, both also extremely close to home.
8) Spend a weekend in Liverpool
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| Photo: Conor Samuel/Unsplash |
For a few years now, I've been on a mission to visit more of the UK - it makes no sense to me that so many of us jet off all over the world when we've barely seen any of our own country. Next on my list is Liverpool, followed closely by Bristol - all recommendations for things to see, do and, most importantly, eat in either are gratefully received.
9) Make an item of clothing
Here's the thing. I'm pretty great at embellishing clothes and other textiles, using embroidery, beads and the like (a habit I picked up when I was a teenager), but actually making the items from scratch is another matter. I'm in awe of the needle-wielding wizards on the Great British Sewing Bee, as well as my friend who seems to be whipping herself up a whole new wardrobe while we're in lockdown, and while I don't pretend to aspire to that level, I'd be pretty pleased if I can create a basic dress or top over the next 12 months.
10) Visit New York (or at least, plan a trip)
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| Photo: Fezbot2000/Unsplash |
Right, so, before coronavirus took hold, a friend and I had vague plans to visit New York in November or December 2020, in the sweet spot between Thanksgiving and Christmas, and experience the Big Apple in all its festive glory. Thankfully, we hadn't got round to booking anything, and I don't think it'll happen this year now, as it depends on two countries and international travel being back up and running. So something to add to the list for late 2021, and maybe have booked by my 30th.
11) Swim in Pells Pools
The day my furlough period began should have been the start of the outdoor swimming season at my local pool. Instead, the pool had been closed a week before, and it's not looking likely that it'll be open again before the end of the season, which has pulled my thoughts back to a concept I've been mulling over for a while - swim tourism. There are a few pools on my swimming bucket list, including the Moonlight Dips at Hampton Pool in west London, and Saltdean Lido near Brighton, but the one I'm most likely to achieve in the next year or so is Pells Pool in Lewes, the oldest outdoor freshwater pool in the UK.
12) Visit Disneyland Paris
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| Photo: Lovie Tey/Unsplash |
Mickey. Minnie. A castle. Giant cookies. What's not to like? One day I hope to return to Disneyworld in Florida, but until then, I'll make do with a long weekend on the other side of the channel.
13) Visit the House of Dreams
Words like 'secret' or 'hidden gem' are thrown around way too often, but I think they can still be reasonably replied to Dulwich's House of Dreams, a spot which I'm amazed the capital's Instagramming masses haven't fully discovered yet. A residential property in a suburban street, you'd know nothing from the outside, but inside, well... take a look. London's own answer to El Callejon de Hamel, perhaps?14) Witness a new light festival
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| Christmas at Kew 2019. Photo: Laura Reynolds |
I LOVE light festivals, the trippier the better. Christmas at Kew is my favourite annual event in London, and I'm desperate for Lumiere to return to the capital one of these years. Last winter, I was scrolling through Instagram ogling photos from light festivals as far afield as Edinburgh, Ireland and Amsterdam - and yes, a skate-through light maze in the USA - and I'd love to combine a bit of travel with my love for the lights. Some venues are understandably already cancelling Christmas 2020 events due to the amount of planning that goes into them, so it might be another one that gets bumped to 2021.
15) See a play at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre
In a concession to sprinkling a light dose of culture through this list, I've always wanted to see something at the open air theatre in Regent's Park. The season runs May-September every year (2020 excluded, obviously), with about four different productions throughout that time, usually a mixture of classics, family shows, and a bit of Shakespeare thrown in. I regret missing Peter Pan a few years ago, but this year's family offering was due to be 101 Dalmatians, which has now been bumped to 2021, and which I hope to see then.
16) Spend a night in a hostel
A rite of passage that I've somehow swerved until now, staying in a hostel is something I feel I should do, rather that something I'm chomping at the bit to experience (see also: music festivals, which I did once in 2014, and won't be repeating). Still, I'm sure I can manage a night in one, ideally somewhere in this country, just for the experience.
17) Try a new hobby
There's a whole list of things that I'd love to try, or spend a bit more time on - ice skating, floristry, rock climbing. I'm guilty of making the usual excuses of a lack of time and money, but hopefully hitting 'publish' on this post and putting it out there in the world will give me the motivation to pick something and stick with it.
18) Eat in The Parlour at Fortnum & Mason
Depending on when everything's up and running again, this one could go either way. In the summer, the slightly kitsch Fortnum & Mason restaurant does a banging design your own sundae menu, while in the winter, its hot chocolates are rather legendary. Maybe two visits is the way to go...?
19) Go stargazing at the Royal Observatory
Confession time: despite having a very London-centric job for the last 6 years, I've never been to the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. Strolled past it a couple of times, but never been inside. So I'd love to spend a day doing the tourist thing, geeking up on space and stars.
20) Clear my bookshelf
The above is one of my two rather full bookshelves. Specifically, it's my waiting-to-be-read bookshelf, which at last count, was home to 96 tomes, all awaiting attention (both shelves are 'double-parked' so each row of books has a whole other row behind it). Some I've bought myself, others were kindly given to me as gifts, and even more are on loan from my book-loving circle of friends. What I'd really like to do in the next year is read them all, and make way on these shelves for my craft supplies.
21) Wear more colour
I love colour, but you wouldn't know it if you looked in my wardrobe. The best thing I ever bought was a ludicrously bright rainbow striped jumper, which cost me £5 from Tammy Girl (remember that?) when I was 13. I still have the matching earrings. These days, I lean more towards the blue-jeans-and-a-jumper way of living, with the occasional pastel dress thrown in for fancy times, though my love for colour is still very much there. I'm not saying I'm going to buy a whole new technicolour wardrobe once lockdown finishes, but I might occasionally switch out my black jumper for a yellow one, or buy the stripy jumpsuit instead of thinking 'not for me' and putting it back on the rail.
22) See Cirque du Soleil
Always wanted to. Hopefully this'll give me the push to actually do it.
23) Visit the Kent coast
In another case of things being so close, that you never actually get around to visiting them, both Whitstable and Rye have been on my day trip radar for a while. I spent a few holidays in Rye as a child, but don't remember much of it, and as far as I'm aware, I've never been to Whitstable. Bring on the seagulls!24) Restart this blog
You may have noticed that other than this, and one other post this month, I haven't been blogging for a year and a half. There's a reason for that, which I'll come to in a blog post soon, but now that I'm back into this blogging malarkey, I'm rather enjoying it. Weekly posts are unlikely, but I hope to be posting again semi-regularly soon.
25) Book a Trek America trip
In complete honesty, this is the item on this list I'm least likely to tick off, more of a pipe dream than a realistic aim. I've been ogling a couple of Trek America trips for a few years ago, but limits on time and money mean it's never happened. That said, 2020's been one giant curveball so far, so who knows what 2021 will bring?
26) Splurge on a special treat
If you can't make a wild purchase in the last year of your twenties, when can you? Owning an 'investment piece' seems the sort of grown up thing that befits a 30 year old, and Kate Spade and Mulberry are top of my list right now. And not to come over all Carrie Bradshaw or anything, but I still think of the Kate Spade Taxi Bag as The One That Got Away.
27) Plan a 30th birthday party
I LOVE birthdays, and while I'm not one for huge parties, I would like to mark the 30th milestone in some way, particularly as my 29th birthday is going to be a lockdown special. Watch this space...
28-30) Come up with three more things for this list
It's harder than it seems, especially when you've been staring at the same four walls for a month. Once I'm out and about, I'll remember all the things I've always meant to do, and places I've always intended to visit, add them to this list, and hopefully have them all ticked off in the next 12-or-so months. Suggestions very welcome!
