The alternative 40th bucket list

Warning: impending 40th-ness

Here at Daddacool I’m blessed with a healthy degree of realism, some would say a fatal degree of realism in fact. So when it comes to making a bucket list for my 40th, which is now only three and a half months away, I’ve applied that same degree of pragmatism.

Yes, of course I’d like to do a HALO jump from the edge of space, go swimming with great white sharks, stand atop a mountain and take an amusing selfie, dine out at a one, two or three starred Michelin restaurant and do a load of other equally awesome things but, barring a miracle, that’s not really going to happen, so I’ve got to be a little more realistic.

So here it is, my realists bucket list…

There are a number of classic movies I’ve never managed to get round to watching. And by classic, I mean something entirely different to the classic definition of, um, classic. For example, I only saw Rambo First Blood Part II for the first time last weekend and that is unforgivable. So my list of must see classic films would have to include:

  • Fast Times at Ridgemont High
  • Weekend at Bernies
  • Full Metal Jacket
  • Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
  • Raging Bull
  • Rocky
  • Marathon Man
  • The French Connection
  • 12 Angry Men
  • Cool Hand Luke (I’ve seen half of it!)
I appreciate that’s a pretty arbitrary list by anybody’s stretch of the imagination but there you go. I saw Willow for the first time the week before last, so I’m getting there slowly.
I’d also like to complete another video game. The last one I completed was Tomb Raider on the PC, the 2013 reboot, not the 1996 Playstation  original, although I did complete that too in fairness back in 1996. In fact, excluding beat’em ups, it’s been the best part of 16 or 17 years since I completed a proper computer game- if it wasn’t Tomb Raider, it would have been Rage Racer or Resident Evil 2 in all probability, so I had better seriously consider scrubbing this one from the list because the more I think about it, the more unlikely it is to happen. Part of me would also like a next gen console, either an Xbox One or a PS4. I’ve had all the previous iterations of both platforms, and there is some seriously tasty stuff to play but financially I don’t think either are a goer for me at present, nor is the time to get the proper value out of them.
Moving on to books then, it’s time I nailed my colours to the mast and avowed to catch up with my Pratchett backlog by the time I’m 40. I have every one of his Discworld books (and the terrible Music from the Discworld music CD too), and I’ve bought everything from Guards!Guards! onwards in hardback. That means I’ve got every Discworld book since 1989 in hardback, which should mean I can quote more humorous gags than most.The problem is 2004’s Going Postal was the last one I actually read. Whether I’ve grown out of them or Terry’s writing style has evolved out of my sphere of interest, I don’t know. I still love the earlier stuff in the same way a Pink Floyd fan will love Dark Side of the Moon but frown at Momentary Lapse of Reason. (Un)fortunately, Pratchett’s incurable illness has meant his two novels a year rate has slowed somewhat, so I don’t have 20 novels to catch up on, “just” 7 but given my perchance for doorstop sci fi and fantasy, I’ve still got to go some to fit them into my schedule.
I’d like to make a short film– only two or three minutes long, but with a script, some effects and proper (time consuming) editing. I have all the kit, it’s just finding the time and the wherewithal to do it really. It won’t set the world alight but I think it would be fun to do.

There is (almost a separate lists worth of) stuff I’d like to do with wifey. Now before you start sniggering and making eyebrow raising gestures at me, what I actually mean is stuff that married couples like to do but can’t with three children hanging off them. Actually, that’s no clearer is it? Stop it. What I mean, to make it even more smut-free (although where wifey is concerned I’m not adverse to a bit of smut) is things like going out for a kid free meal, going for a nice walk in the autumnal woods without 3 kids or even spending a nice romantic night away…without three kids. Whilst this might seem fairly normal to most, the only nights we’ve spent away together since the boy was born 7 and a half years ago have been: i) hospital the night Fifi was born, ii) hospital the night Ned was born, and iii) a night away in February this year at the Grove courtesy of Brita (who paid for the stay) and the sister in law, who had the three kids. This is largely due to the boy breath holding when he was little- he used to hold his breath until he turned first purple, then white and would only start breathing again when he passed out. Understandably that’s not something we wanted to have happen to a babysitter. At the moment in our house if any two adults try to start a conversation with each other, a child appears to hang off one of them and shout various interruptions. It’s maddening. 

Finally, I’d like to finish some of my creative writing that’s on my writing blog. It appears I’ve not updated it in about 4 years but offline some meagre progress has been made with various projects. It would be nice to see one of them finished and (self)published- after all I have the better part of half a million words on this blog, putting the equivalent to a tenth of those into a book should be child’s play.
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