#79 - Firewalk

When I added this to the list I thought I'd be doing this somewhere exotic like the islands, or somewhere in Asia. But no, today in Eastbourne, Lower Hutt (NZ) I got to not only firewalk but also help break a Guinness World Record for the "Most People Firewalking Consecutively at a Single Venue". Amazing! I'm now a joint World Record holder too! :-)

I hadn't been nervous about this at all, just super excited. Until this morning when someone posted a link to Adam from Mythbusters burning his feet firewalking. It was a bit freaky, and just started the niggly fear going in the back of my head.


The whole event was amazing - performances from belly dancers, ukelele band, and African dancers kept the group amused while we waited for the fires to burn down to hot embers.

Then all of a sudden we're being asked to line up and start walking. My pulse increased significantly at this point, but once I'd actually seen the first couple of people get through OK I felt calmer again. Eventually it got to my turn and just got told to go. No time to really think about how to get across.

There was 3-4 steps on the coals and it was incredibly hot. Hotter than I ever imagined. I had got in the frame of mind that it was just going to be warm so it was somewhat of a shock but I kept moving and in a second or two it was all over and I was headed to the water pit. Huge adrenaline rush hit straight after!

The rules from the Guinness people stated that you could only go across once, which was a pity cause I would have loved to done it again. I will have to do it again somewhere exotic.

Tiger Leaping Gorge, China

Wow, isn't this amazing? I have to do this walk when I get to China. On the list it goes.

#82 - Walk across a country

Have just read a great article on BootsnAll that has inspired #82. How fabulous would it be to walk across a country, even a small one. Andorra looks pretty cool!

Last year I biked across the South Island of NZ, and I got all excited as I had done this on two wheels already. Then the moment of realisation - technically it was not the whole country as our finish point was a couple of km short of the ocean. :-(

New Year's Day - update

Happy 2012! I have been doing my annual review over the last couple of days, and have seen that while I started out strong working towards my goals (separate from this list), it waned a bit after I got sick in June, and then waned a lot as work went crazy and year end approached. I have going to have to come up with a way to incorporate goals, bucket lists, and other stuff (like maintenance jobs / lists) and ensure things are progressing.

I know when I really focus on it I can achieve real results - I just need to keep that momentum going, and make myself way more accountable. Any suggestions here gratefully received.

When I looked at my bucket list for example I was shocked how many things there I could have easily ticked off, like making sausages or selling something on Etsy. I also realised that I had made headway on some of my list - whew, that made me feel somewhat better, and less slack. So here's the update on stuff that has moved onto a Work In Progress list!

#1 - Raise my daughter into a happy, caring adult who does what she loves, happy to be who she is, and realises her dreams

Happily I realise this one is underway and has been since the day she was born, and will be on the list for around another 15 years, if not longer. She is surrounded with love, and knows every day how special she is and how loved she is. I try to balance a childhood with loads of friends and play with exposing her to different places, challenges, sports, etc. I can only hope I have the middle ground most of the time.

#2 - Learn to parallel park / #3 - Get full driver's licence

These two are really linked. Once I know how to parallel park I will go and get my full driver's licence. So, I've Googled some resources on how to parallel park, will be practicing over the next two weeks, and plan to sit my full licence test by the end of January. 

I've been on a restricted licence for over 20 years, which is a shocker, and there is talk of a law change limiting the time one can be on a restricted licence to two years. So it needs to happen, and I'd rather choose to do it before I'm made to do it.

#7 - Start consulting business

Yep, the metrics on this goal were lame. It's really easy to set up a business with the Inland Revenue department, which I did way back in November. But I have been sidetracked with my day job and haven't progressed passed that point. Part of me is holding back because ideally I'd like a location and time independent business but I haven't come up with the great idea yet.

Still, I am going to push ahead this month and finalise an offering so I can at least get experience doing something. And wait for the big idea to arrive one day ....

#18 - Learn to take better photographs

I attended a fabulous course on taking photos, that was ridiculously cheap ($2). It was better than any book or night school course I had attended and I learnt heaps. I'm not sure whether to cross this goal off or not, and at the moment I'm leaving it here till taking great pics comes more naturally.

#23 - Visit Abel Tasman National Park, and kayak at least partway round

The week before Christmas I went on a kayaking / sea skills course as a start towards achieving this. I realised I had been probably way over-confident on how easy kayaking would be, and found myself slightly freaked out when I was on water deeper than me. I believe this goes back to not being able to swim for most of my life.

A couple of days after this course I also went out kayaking again with a group from work, and we are planning on going out again when we return from the Christmas break. Building my kayaking experience feels like a very safe place to start before taking my daughter out.
 

#24 - Run half marathon

I'm registered for a half marathon at the end of February 2012, and training at the moment. If fitness doesn't get me to the finish, my stubbornness will. That's all I have to say about that!

#30 - Run up Maungaraki hill non stop

As a background, the road up Maungaraki hill is about 3km and quite steep - well at least the first 1/3 and the last 1/3 are. I have biked up it a couple of times, and want to run it at least once.  December saw me make up the last 1/3 non stop, and I think with my half marathon training this should easily (sort of easily) be crossed off the list).

#33 - Ride on a dog sled

Winter was drawing to a close when I added this goal to my list. I found a cool place (Quiet Running) that offer dog sled rides right here in New Zealand. I am on the notification list for when bookings open and plan to go down this winter. Can't wait.
 

#54 - Learn to use chopsticks

There's been a bit of yum cha for lunch over the last couple of months, and knives and forks are not an option. So due to necessity, I've had to use chopsticks and do see I'm getting better. Now Dakota wants to learn as well so from this week one dinner a week will be a chopsticks only dinner.

PS: Also getting added to the goal list is Write at least one blog post every week for a year. I really don't enjoy writing and hopefully practicing will make it more natural and easier.

Do glassblowing, just once

There's nothing like reading other's bucket lists to get inspiration; which is where glass blowing comes from. I'd LOVE to do it in Venice, as one poster suggested, but really deep down it doesn't really matter where I do it. I'd just like to do it. And if I get back to Venice then I can try it there as well.

#78 - Bell ringing

Wellington Cathedral
Pic courtesy www.e-architect.co.uk

Wow! Considering this was only added as a goal at the beginning of the month I can't believe how quickly this one is progressing.

A quick Google search found bell ringers at the Wellington Cathedral, and I got a response to my inquiry the same day. A couple of weeks back Dakota and I went up there to see them ring the bells on Sunday morning, and decided to go back for a lesson tonight. It was that easy to get training, and it's a volunteer role plus you're trained for free. How can one lose? Plus I can start to tick off some of my contributing to society goals.

I almost talked myself out of it without trying, and I can't figure out why I keep doing this to myself. I am pleased I worked through that as it was very cool.

There was another 'Jenny' there, also keen to see what was involved. The tricky bit is learning to "feel" where the bell is through the rope, and keep things in control both as the rope is going up, and when it's coming down. The bell was muffled so we weren't disturbing the neighbours while we learnt. Despite some moments when the rope went out of control, and the bell got "stuck" facing up (oops) we both seemed to pick up the pattern and movement pretty quickly (trainer's opinion, not ours!)

As Dakota is away this week I'm booked in for another lesson tomorrow night. The aim is to get the basic skills under my belt and then I can start practicing, and ringing for real, with the group.

Exciting stuff!

Another goal

After reading a question about where to do firewalking I realise how cool this would be to do. So on the list it goes. We are tentatively planning a visit to Rarotonga next year so this may be easy to learn (fingers crossed)