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Bucket List: Revisited.


The year 2016 is at an end. It has undoubtedly been a turbulent 12 months of highs and lows, and has thrown at us many, many (mainly political) surprises. On a personal level, 2016 featured the best seven weeks of my life over summer as well as possibly the lowest few weeks too across the year- but let’s not dwell on them right now.

In July 2015, I wrote a Bucket List and, last year, I feel I was preeeetty successful in completing some of them.  Okay, so I may not have completed no.1 on the list (I am indeed studying French but perfecting it maaaay take some time) but I certainly did eat a stack of at least four pancakes- at an iHop in Orlando, Florida. Raspberry and white chocolate- I remember it well. Did it live up to my Bucket List expectations? Oh, yes.
I also managed to tick off the slightly more extreme third thing on my Bucket List- a trip to New York. What a city. I definitely intend to return one day in the future.
One day I was in New York City, the next I was at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios, Orlando.
I don't think I've ever felt so at home somewhere in my life. Surrounded by fellow Harry Potter adorers (or 'Potterheads', as they tend to go by the name of), walking around a brick wall into Diagon Alley, I was in my element. Both 'worlds' (Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade) were so beautiful presented  and exceeded my extremely high expectations. I didn't think it was possible to take over 100 pictures of a theme park but apparently it is...
In August, my family and I had a Shakespeare intensive 48 hours. On one day, we visited Shakespeare’s Birthplace in Stratford-upon-Avon and the other day I finally saw a production at the Globe Theatre in London. I had seen Macbeth before (with James McAvoy as the titular man, no less) but had never seen anything at the ultimate Shakespeare haven.  Five pounds for three hours of Shakespearean loveliness? A good investment, I think.
Over summer, I also travelled across Europe solely by train; in other word, I went Interailling. Whilst it was an exhausting 18 days, I visited places I probably would never have otherwise gone to that turned out to be sublime and also managed to tick off to sites that I have always wanted to go to (the Reichstag, anyone?!).  I would recommend it to anybody that ever gets the opportunity to go Interraling.

 Other Bucket List successes include finally conquering the Lord of the Rings films (and falling in love with it) and getting an article (or three!) published in a newspaper.

 In the 18 months since I wrote my Bucket List, I have completed 12 of the 39 things on the list, which I'm pretty pleased with. Some are certainly  going to take a good while to complete (perfecting my French for starters)  so I've still got many things to aim for.

 I wish you all a brilliant 2017.
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