Monday 15 October 2012

Machette moustache and pipe bombs but no smoking!


So, right now I am in the process of crossing three things off the Life List in the next three weeks! 

Firstly I am growing my first ever moustache in preparation for “Movember” (the question is: do I go for the Guido the pimp look OR Pablo the pool guy look?) I hate facial hair and I hate shaving so it’s a no win situation except soon it will be another thing I can cross off the list. I am currently sporting a horrible scratchy beard and surprised to find a lot of black in it being naturally brown/reddish……..and the few odd greys! So in a couple of weeks I will carve away and come out with a bitching handle bar Mo.


The more serious goal I am currently undertaking is to quit cigarettes. For those of you that know me, yes, again! From twenty years of a pack a day I have not had one now for five days! I have been taking the Champix pill as an aid to quitting for three weeks now and what a ride that is!! Apart from hyper activity, severe mood swings, shaking, anxiety and hallucinations the side effects include crazy dreams that are extremely vivid. 

Last night in a dream I was hanging out with Danny Trejo (Was it the moustache!?!) He shoved a pipe through the back wall of a store as I looked on then he hit the end of it and it exploded. I looked through a gap in the wall and there were nails raining down on everyone inside the store. He ripped open a larger hole in the wall and winked at me with that menacing tough guy grin and fired off another pipe bomb of nails into the store. Apparently I was the lookout because I saw some security guards rushing towards us and I yelled, "Danny, time to go”, he looked at me still grinning and turned back grabbing a grinder off the shelf and started strangling security guards with the power cord. I remember being transfixed on the spot horrified and justifying it by thinking “it’s just a movie, he won’t really kill them……..will he?” just before they swarmed us we ran through the backstreets to his place. When we got there exhausted and excited from the adventure………he offered me a cigarette - that’s when I woke up!


Anyhoo, helping me quit the cigarettes is the training I’m doing for next month’s main goal, running a 10km. It’s not much further than the 9km I did last month but the weather is warming up which will make a big difference and running around Homebush Olympic Park won’t be anywhere near as inspiring as running over Sydney Harbour Bridge was for the last run but, I made my list and by the time I finish that run in three weeks I will be able to cross the above three things off the life list!

So that’s what’s happening at the “mo”. Tune in for the next update where I will be smoke free and revealing the plans underway to cross up to TEN travel goals off the list in one swoop early next year as well as making inroads on the movie goals. Please feel free to add a comment at the bottom of the blog, I would love to hear any suggestions or general thoughts. You can also submit your email for updates to be sent to you. 

Writing this down is the power so reading it is the fuel, thank you!

Simon.

Saturday 13 October 2012

Welcome, thanks and the mission statement



Welcome!

For the last six months following my previous adventure I have been assessing, re-energizing and realigning motivation with focus resulting in “My Life List”. With some inspiration from Joel at The Impossible List and with John from the Life List in mind (who quite frankly makes me look like I’ve been standing still in a coma for the last forty years!) I formulated my own take on the list. Yes it is a bucket list as such but that is not exactly the spirit of what I was aiming for when I decided to publish this so as well as things I want to do - goals and dreams - it has things I have already done - memories and milestones - hence the word “life” in the title. 

The idea of a list like this is to have everything from immediate simple goals to the seemingly impossible so there is always something that can be achieved “now” and always something for “later”. The beauty lies in the areas for expansion, as time goes on and I learn more about myself and the world the list will be added to as well as having things crossed off. I can think of ten more things to add right now off the top of my head but, you have to start somewhere right? So be it whimsical or near impossible, stupid or noble there will always be something to add and always something to cross off.

I’ve had a few “I’d rather just do it than write about it man” remarks which is fine I wish you only the best, each to their own. I can only tell you that for me this has pin pointed my otherwise erratic focus and been hugely cathartic and motivational at the same time. I encourage anyone to at least think about it and if you do, I dare you…………………..go on, take the red pill!

So for now I just wanted to get this intro down and get back into some writing. I’ll be updating as things transpire or if I just feel the need to throw some thoughts out into the ethos. I welcome any feedback or suggestions and in particular any help in getting me through the list whether you are a drunken millionaire who wants to buy me plane tickets or someone who wants to tag along for an adventure. In the next Blog I will let you know what I'm working on right now and what's on the horizon,

Cheers,
Simon.

Monday 8 October 2012

THE LIST


TRAVEL

Set foot on all seven continents

-         Australia
-         N America
-         S America
-         Europe
-         Asia
-         Antarctica
-         Africa

Travel to all Australian states/territories

Drive the Great Ocean Road

Road trip across America in a classic muscle car

Go to Mardi gras in New Orleans

See Machu Picchu

Travel the Channel Tunnel

Ride the London Eye

See Mona Lisa at the Louvre

Eat pizza in Italy

See a sunset in Santorini

See Red Square

Get drunk on vodka in Russia

Visit Auschwitz

Visit Jerusalem

See Petra

See the Sphinx and Pyramids

See Taj Mahal

See Citadel of Salah Ed-Din

See Hagia Sophia

See Potala Palace Tibet

Walk on the great wall

See sunrise over Angkor Wat

See the Cambodian Killing Fields

Smoke opium in the Thai mountains

Full moon party in Thailand

See the Plain of Jars

See Halong Bay

Ride the Ho Chi Minh trail

Go to cherry blossom festival in Japan


NATURE 

Swim the five oceans:

-         Pacific
-         Atlantic
-         Indian
-         Southern
-         Arctic

See the Northern Lights

See a Three Toed Sloth in its natural habitat

Fish for Piranha

See Iguassu Falls

See a full solar eclipse

Go whale watching

Swim with dolphins

Chase a tornado

Go Tubing under a mountain

See snow

See Victoria Falls

Bathe in the Ganges

See Perito Moreno Glacier

Walk on a glacier

Safari in Africa

Photograph lightning

Climb Ayers Rock


PERSONAL

Quit cigarettes

Donate blood

Run a 9km

Run a 10km

Run a half marathon

Run a marathon

Be famous for doing something good

Grow a moustache

Date a girl half my age

Date someone met on the internet

Meditate with monks

Have a letter published in a newspaper

Never grow up

Have a conversation with Richard Dawkins

Have a veteran tell me intimate war stories

Get a Mohawk

Grow hair down to my butt

Eat vegetarian for a week

Save a life

Work overseas

Live without a permanent address for six months

Win lotto to cross more off this list!


THAT’S ENTERTAINMENT

Finish writing a book

Write a script

Make a movie

Be an extra in a movie

Be on a TV game show

Appear in a video clip on TV

Tour with a band

Have a song of mine played on radio

Write and record my own album

Play a solo gig

Attend the Letterman show

Play a song in Greenwich Village

Stay in the Chelsea Hotel in NY

Stand outside Dakota building where Lennon was shot

Meet someone who knew John Lennon

Get a photo crossing Abbey Rd

See Pink Floyd (with Waters and Gilmour)

Get a million hits on YouTube

Be a subject for an art project


TRANSPORT

Leave the atmosphere – space flight

Travel at the speed of sound – fighter jet

Drive at 200kmph

Attend a formula one Grand Prix

Attend the Bathurst 1000

Road trip on a bike

Submarine ride

Fan boat ride

Jet ski ride

Hot air balloon ride

Helicopter ride

Mountain bike ride

Elephant ride

Horse ride

Camel ride

Skydive

Parasail

Scuba dive
 
Bungy jump


ODDITIES part 1

Make a bucket list

Stay in an Ice hotel

Live in a Hotel for a month

Stay in an over water bungalow

Spend a week in a silent retreat

Protest march for something I believe in

Release a bird from its cage on a mountain at sunrise

Take a random flight

Go without internet for a month

Own less than 200 things

Have a job that is not work

Sponsor a child

Change a stranger’s life significantly for the better

Volunteer in a third world country

Donate to Kiva.org

Marry two people as a celebrant

Qualify for a Guinness world record

Dine in a revolving restaurant

Send a message in a bottle


ODDITIES part 2

Shoplift

Buy a round for the whole bar

Bet $100 on red in Vegas

Start my own cult

Attend a tourette syndrome meeting

Go to Burning Man

Be the only white guy in a crowd

Ménage a trios

Censored

Censored

Trash a hotel room

See a ping pong show

Walk on water in a hamster ball

Eat something weird (rat)

Eat something I killed with my bare hands

Sleep on a park bench

Try peyote

Ayahuasca ritual with shaman

Get shot

Fire a:
-Handgun
-Rifle
-Shotgun
-M16
-M60
-M80
-Uzi
- AK47