A List of Things I Haven’t Got Round To

A few weeks ago, a friend sent me a postcard of Pablo Picasso’s Guernica. She picked this painting because, back in 2004, I worked a lot in Madrid, but I never extended my business trips to do tourist things. In particular, I wanted to visit the art museum and see Guernica, but I quit the job without having done so. I’ve not been back to Madrid since. I’ve always expected to see Guernica one day, but somehow I never have.

This postcard got me thinking about other things that I’ve not got round to, and I started making a list.

(It’s not a bucket list. I’ve written in the past about how much I loathe reducing life to a checklist of goals. I have another, short list of epic quests I would do if time, money or commitments allowed. But this new list is the simple things that I could easily do, but never have)

My friend Lou often does projects which make her life more interesting. Like, the year she turned 30, she stayed with 30 different people to help choose what she should do with her life. I thought it might be a fun thing for 2022 to pick an item from the list each month and do it. The list includes:

  1. See Guernica
  2. Visit John O’Groats
  3. Go to Stonehenge
  4. Eat at a Michelin starred restaurant
  5. Take a sailing lesson
  6. Try paddleboarding
  7. Do the Lyke Wake Walk
  8. Try scuba diving
  9. Visit this beautiful valley I drove past on the Isle of Mull on the way to Iona
  10. Do my hip rehab and train for another marathon

See? All of them are simple, and all of them would be fun. There’s also a few others relating to catching up with people I’ve not seen in years. I’ve also asked some of my friends what they would put on their own such list. Answers include: visit Ireland; travel in a hot air balloon; watch the Mousetrap. Maybe I can even link up items on their list with some of mine. If you can think of your own list of things you’ve never got round to, then let me know.

It’s not the end of the world if I did none of these things, but I really should get on with them.

This is the 1000th published post on this blog, with entries dating back to 2007. (I have a pile of posts from earlier blogs, but I’ve never got round to loading them into wordpress). I wonder what the next 1000 posts will bring?