Goals for the New School Year

It's a new school year, and my goodness it's started with a vengeance! The new academic year always bring new challenges and it can seem tough to get back into the swing of a hectic school day after the summer.  But it's also nice to get to know new classes, talk about maths all day again and share cake with colleagues, in amongst getting UCAS forms ready and preparing students for their university applications.

I  enjoy looking forward to new things in the coming year, and so I thought it was a good time to review my list of ambitions.  As always, it's little bit longer than it was before, now up to 120 life goals. But I'm also working on them gradually, and thoroughly enjoying doing so.  For instance, there's always a ready-made excuse to go and have afternoon tea, and just this last week, I have booked to go and learn to scuba dive, which will help me fulfil another longstanding wish. I'm looking at you, number #58.

Looking at this list now, it's also lovely to reflect on how many brilliant experiences I have had over the past few years, and I think the list has helped by making those goals seem tangible. Seeing them written down helps to give each goal a focus. And there are plenty that I have repeated, having found the experience worthwhile. I've played Dungeons and Dragons a couple of times, dined at Hakkasan twice, done escape rooms plural, become a devotee of knitting from charts, and even been skinny dipping more than once! While some experiences are harder to repeat - much as I would like to, it's quite a commitment to pop to New Zealand - there are plenty I plan to duplicate. A European Christmas market is a winner every time.

Anyway, so far I have completed 94 goals on the list leaving me with 26 still to do. Here's the current list, linked up where I can, highlighted items completed.

#1 Make cake pops
#2 Make a multicoloured layer cake
#3 Go on a canal boat
#4 Play Dungeons and Dragons
#5 Play hooky for a day
#6 Have an all-night film marathon
#7 Go on a sleeper train
#8 Have tea at the Ritz
#9 And Claridges
#10 See 2 London Shows in a day
#11 Make a photo wall display
#12 Build a den.  A really cool one.
#13 Road trip in the USA
#14 New York, New York
#15 Go glamping in a fancy tent with fairy lights
#16 Buy an expensive set of lingerie
#17 Sew something to wear
#18 Get married
#19 Make a set of jam-jar cocktail glasses
#20 Make blueberry gin
#21 Do the take-away double
#22 Redesign this blog
#23 Go skinny dipping
#24 Milk a cow
#25 Learn to make pasta
#26 Get up early to photograph the sunrise 
#27 Ride a motorbike
#28 Have dim sum at Hakkasan
#29 Do an Escape Room
#30 Learn Calligraphy
#31 Have dinner at Dans le Noir
#32 Re-purpose something second-hand
#33 Go to a cult Rocky Horror screening
#34 Go to a burlesque show
#35 Go ape
#36 Go to a Secret Cinema screening
#37 See a play at Cornwall's Minack Theatre
#38 Go on a helicopter
#39 Make my own ice cream#40 Have dinner at Dishoom
#41 Take part in a Murder Mystery Treasure Hunt
#42 Buy a bikini
#43 Have afternoon tea at Cutter and Squidge
#44 Get my eyebrows shaped
#45 Inhale helium
#46 See the Northern Lights
#47 Go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival
#48 See New Zealand
#49 Stay in a tree house
#50 Have a bash at karaoke
#51 Run a Ranger unit
#52 Travel to South America
#53 Start a family
#54 See a film at a drive-in cinema
#55 Go to a sh*t-faced Shakespeare production
#56 Make a new giant floor cushion
#57 Try making papercuts with a craft knife
#58 Learn to Scuba Dive
#59 Have a go at spinning
#60 Go for Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea

#61 Go to the circus

#62 Learn to knit from a chart

#63 Knit a lace pattern

#64 Start a teacup collection

#65 Go on a Segway
#66 Visit Japan

#67 See a midnight matinee at the Globe

#68 Go on a safari

#69 Visit the Cutty Sark
#70 Go to a Casino
#71 Go stargazing
#72 Eat a deep-fried Mars bar
#73 Have dinner at Veeraswamy
#74 Dance on a table in a bar
#75 Ride a camel
#76 Have cocktails at BYOC
#77 Play Dinosaur Safari Adventure Golf
#78 See a baseball match
#79 Go to Bounce Below
#80 Visit the Rough Trade Photobooth
#81 Swim in an infinity pool
#82 Ride a tandem
#83 Cook a roast
#84 Make something out of leather

#85 Get my International License with Girlguiding

#86 Bake a Christmas cake

#87 Dine in a Michelin star restaurant

#88 Do the Lyke Wake Walk

#89 Design a Lace Shawl

#90 Visit a Guiding World Centre outside the UK

#91 Sit in a box at the theatre

#92 Go to Africa

#93 Spend a day at Lyme Park

#94 Try white water rafting

#95 Make Danish pastries

#96 Fly first class on a plane in lying-down beds

#97 Learn Brush Script

#98 Visit Beachy Head

#99 Have a Christmassy afternoon tea
#100 Visit Las Vegas
#101 Skydive
#102 Make choux pastry
#103 Have afternoon tea at the Landmark
#104 Sleep in a 4-Poster bed
#105 Go to a European Christmas Market
#106 Bake a Kanellengd
#107 Visit Scandinavia
#108 Go to Versailles
#109 Have a fire pit
#110 Visit Pompeii
#111 Go to a trampoline park
#112 Have afternoon tea at the Dorchester
#113 Sleep under the stars
#114 Go Interrailing
#115 Visit the Hampton Court Palace Maze
#116 Do the Lost City Hike
#117 See the Galapagos Islands
#118 Find dragons on Komodo
#119 Walk an alpaca
#120 Go for Bottomless Brunch

Kisses xxx

P.S. Actually, there are so many countries I would like to travel to that I feel like I could add another 50 dreams to the list without even thinking about it. Let's just say I love to travel.