101 Things To Do before I die

Staying at a cottage on holiday recently I picked up a paperback called 101 Things To Do Before You Die by Richard Horne. Clearly I am the wrong demographic. This book is for 17 year old lads. It has 99 totally self centred target activities and perhaps two altruistic ones. You know the kind of thing ...bungee jumping, get a tattoo, get arrested, master poker and win big in casino. Want to know about the exception? Save someone's life...
Not saying that a bit of adventure isn't called for...had always wanted to go up in a balloon and managed to do that this year...But how's this - the only entry under "nature" was to see a volcano erupting...

tamed rain forest

But what would be appropriate for a woman in the last ten years of working life? I started to think. I am not interested in the boys own things though I would keep saving someone's life of course. I haven't got even the tiniest adrenalin gene. My list would contain:

Take part in a river clean up
Donate blood 50 times...12 more to go...had so many interruptions
Stay in a yurt ...but there would have to be a mattress!
Stay in an ice hotel
Snorkel on a coral reef...
Explore a rain forest
Sign up 5 more people to give blood
Sign up 5 bone marrow donors ...it means chatting
up under 40 year old men who are really in short supply....
Get involved in a woodland preservation project
Help create a community garden
Train to be a recycling volunteer
Inspire people to get on the internet and change their lives
Sing a solo and feel good about it
Find a new craft and really explore it...how many things have
I picked up and discarded over the years
Acquire a regular drawing habit

Could I really come up with many more?? Go on tell me yours....

Five books that have made an impression

I’ve just had a blogging Booker Award presented to me by Rosalind from Rosalind Adam is writing in the rain . My task is to list out my top five favourite books of all time and then pass the award on to five more bloggers. Ho hum...so many to choose...and what comes to mind are the ones that have left a real imprint on my memory.

Let's start with Annie Proulx's Shipping News - fantastic gritty descriptions. Forget the film which was a very poor rendition. read the book!

Got to have Rose Tremain's - well would love to choose one of her really intricate and deep books but I loved "The Road Home" for its perspective of east european migrant workers.

Not all men - next is William Trevor's "Felicia's Journey" - a rare full length novel as opposed to short stories - also brilliant. The film version of this with Bob Hoskins is surprisingly good too. 

Oh another man - Jim Crace and "Being Dead" - gruesome in some ways and poignant in another - this traces the life of a couple back from their dead bodies on the beach as they putrify. Is better than it sounds..

Finally - and again not a laugh a minute but it has to be Manil Suri's "The Death of Vishnu" - what an insight into status and servitude. A must read book.

I'm going to pass this award on to the following bloggers:

[Apologies if you've already received one.]

Ron Easton Dads Unlimited

Susan Gorley

Debra Harris Johnson

D G Hudson

and Dee