Exprience days and my bucket list ideas
Last week I hit a big birthday. I am not sure if it was because it was a milestone or if I am just a bit more aware of the passing of time, but I am getting the feeling that there are a tonne of life experiences that I’m still yet to, experience! Then there is that phrase ‘bucket list’ that has all those negative vibes attached to it. I don’t feel like a bucket and so the list is alien but I do feel as if there are several slices of life that I need to get my teeth into.
Don’t get me wrong, I have certainly not been idle in my years. I have dived on shipwrecks and reefs, swam with turtles and witnessed the ancient cities of Thebes, Troy and Knossos. I have been flown around the Manhattan skyline in one of the smallest aircraft imaginable and seen the Oceans of the world from all sides. Then there are the modern structures I have seen. The Twin Towers, Sydney Opera House, The Golden Gate Bridge. If I died tomorrow then this would not have been a life wasted or held in isolation. There are however things missing from the collection and I am starting to think I need to get cracking on ticking off a series of experiences.
Experience days
I recently went up to Surrey and saw about 20 people paragliding. It was beautiful. The air was still - and the gliders looked so majestic, like red kite’s drifting overhead. I cast my mind back a year when a hot air balloon flew incredibly close to me as I was working on my allotment.
This got me thinking about the different flying and airborne experiences available, like gliding. So I fired up a browser to look and found Into The Blue’s Experience Days page.
Experience gifts
Obviously a lot of these activity days are expensive. Which is why I keep a list of the ones that appeal to me the most, then when birthdays or other special occasions come, I can ask for specific experience days, or experience vouchers.
We also looked at Go Ape vouchers, because I am basically still a massive kid that never grew up.
Fear of flying
Maybe it isn’t flying so much as the hurtling to the ground at speed that gives me the collywobbles. I am no good with heights, which is odd for someone who lived hundreds of feet up in the air in Manhattan. There is also that idea that if you ever get so trashed you think you can fly that you should start from the ground and fly up, not begin on a great height and head down. Paragliding actually ticks that box. You take off from the ground, so I’m presuming I won’t have the same reaction to leaping off a great height. That feeling that I couldn’t do it is strong within me so parachuting isn’t on my personal list. I always remember Clint Eastwood saying “Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at altitude is not a natural act”. Too bloody right chum!
I also reckon that trees are not that high, so hopefully the Go Ape experience will help me build confidence gradually. I’ll let you know if I end up screaming like a pussy.
The first time Libby flew she was really nervous and so she might need a fear of flying course if she is coming with me. As long as I am in an enclosed cabin or cockpit I think I’ll be fine for flying experience days in the future.
Bucket list ‘how to…?’
What I have found is that there is a bit of a knack to creating a ‘bucket list’ - or whatever you want to personally call it. ‘Experience wish list’, maybe? Does that work?
A friend told me about Trello. It is free to set up an account. It works with a series of boards that you pin experiences to. One might be for things that are achievable in the distant future. Another could be for easier and cheaper things that lead less planning and less saving up for. Then you just tick them off as you have done them and link them to your photographs and any write ups or blogs you have written. Its pretty organised.
Pinterest is another good one. I already use it for my gardening and allotment tasks but the different pin boards can be used in a lot of ways for this kind of thing too. There are already lots of people with ‘Experience Days’ board, or ‘Experiences Wish List’ so its really easy to find new things you hadn’t thought of as well.
Has anyone else thought of this, or is doing it?
Have you tried an experience day?
I’d love to know what it was and what you thought of it - let me know in the comments :)
Don’t get me wrong, I have certainly not been idle in my years. I have dived on shipwrecks and reefs, swam with turtles and witnessed the ancient cities of Thebes, Troy and Knossos. I have been flown around the Manhattan skyline in one of the smallest aircraft imaginable and seen the Oceans of the world from all sides. Then there are the modern structures I have seen. The Twin Towers, Sydney Opera House, The Golden Gate Bridge. If I died tomorrow then this would not have been a life wasted or held in isolation. There are however things missing from the collection and I am starting to think I need to get cracking on ticking off a series of experiences.
Experience days
I recently went up to Surrey and saw about 20 people paragliding. It was beautiful. The air was still - and the gliders looked so majestic, like red kite’s drifting overhead. I cast my mind back a year when a hot air balloon flew incredibly close to me as I was working on my allotment.
This got me thinking about the different flying and airborne experiences available, like gliding. So I fired up a browser to look and found Into The Blue’s Experience Days page.
Experience gifts
Obviously a lot of these activity days are expensive. Which is why I keep a list of the ones that appeal to me the most, then when birthdays or other special occasions come, I can ask for specific experience days, or experience vouchers.
We also looked at Go Ape vouchers, because I am basically still a massive kid that never grew up.
Fear of flying
Maybe it isn’t flying so much as the hurtling to the ground at speed that gives me the collywobbles. I am no good with heights, which is odd for someone who lived hundreds of feet up in the air in Manhattan. There is also that idea that if you ever get so trashed you think you can fly that you should start from the ground and fly up, not begin on a great height and head down. Paragliding actually ticks that box. You take off from the ground, so I’m presuming I won’t have the same reaction to leaping off a great height. That feeling that I couldn’t do it is strong within me so parachuting isn’t on my personal list. I always remember Clint Eastwood saying “Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at altitude is not a natural act”. Too bloody right chum!
I also reckon that trees are not that high, so hopefully the Go Ape experience will help me build confidence gradually. I’ll let you know if I end up screaming like a pussy.
The first time Libby flew she was really nervous and so she might need a fear of flying course if she is coming with me. As long as I am in an enclosed cabin or cockpit I think I’ll be fine for flying experience days in the future.
Bucket list ‘how to…?’
What I have found is that there is a bit of a knack to creating a ‘bucket list’ - or whatever you want to personally call it. ‘Experience wish list’, maybe? Does that work?
A friend told me about Trello. It is free to set up an account. It works with a series of boards that you pin experiences to. One might be for things that are achievable in the distant future. Another could be for easier and cheaper things that lead less planning and less saving up for. Then you just tick them off as you have done them and link them to your photographs and any write ups or blogs you have written. Its pretty organised.
Pinterest is another good one. I already use it for my gardening and allotment tasks but the different pin boards can be used in a lot of ways for this kind of thing too. There are already lots of people with ‘Experience Days’ board, or ‘Experiences Wish List’ so its really easy to find new things you hadn’t thought of as well.
Has anyone else thought of this, or is doing it?
Have you tried an experience day?
I’d love to know what it was and what you thought of it - let me know in the comments :)