Today I will be celebrating my 34th birthday. I always find birthdays to be a time to reflect, even more so than a new year, I guess because they are your personal new year. So from this year on I have decided to do something new and give myself a list of things that I would like to do in the next twelve months. I thought 34 would be a good number for obvious reasons, though what I will go if I live to 99 I do not know. Anyway here goes…
- Fly a bird of prey and have it land on me and become my new best mate, I am thinking of a massive owl or eagle at the moment.
- Visit a country I have never been to.
- Take part in a 24 hour readathon, and not fall asleep.
- Be able to run on a treadmill for more than 30 minutes, in one go, without dying or thinking/feeling I might.
- Be kinder to idiots.
- Embrace household chores, think of all the podcasts I can listen to.
- Judge another book prize.
- Finally watch Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. No, really I never have. You’re shocked aren’t you, I can tell.
- Have better control of my giveaway facial expressions and eye rolling.
- Hold a duckling.
- Follow my gut instinct, be swayed less.
- Go ‘proper’ walking more, in your head you hate it but after that first mile you’re off.
- Take that first week off in February again in 2017 because after the evil of Christmas it’s a winner. Maybe Croatia.
- Visit more castles, stately homes, art galleries and museums.
- Go to a book festival abroad.
- Learn a second language, properly.
- Read more, I read a lot but I also spend ridiculous amounts of time on various apps on my phone.
- Try something new on a menu whenever in an Italian, Chinese or Indian – you always have the same Savidge, it’s boring.
- Never take a single day for granted, sometimes you get jaded.
- Sit and have a chat with Margaret Atwood.
- Get on Woman’s Hour, somehow.
- Get a new tattoo, something animal, but think about it a bit more first.
- More rock pooling.
- Find a house with guest rooms and a bath tub, oh and more space for books.
- Do something to help authors in the North of England and working class voices from all over.
- Go to a fancy dress party… and enjoy it.
- Manage to sleep in a tent for a whole night, maybe even two.
- Sort out your personal admin/filing system in the house and on your computer, it’s a disgrace unlike your work desk which is filed within an inch of it’s life.
- Head to the wilds of Scotland in a camper van, you have wanted to for about 10 bloody years.
- Carry on refusing to be a proper grown up 45% of the time.
- Not give myself 20 minutes to write a list that takes a whole year of my life into account.
- Give up on books I think are just not for me.
- Use one notebook at a time until it is completed. Well, ok, use at least one large notebook and one small notebook at a time instead of four or five.
- Stop procrastinating. Well maybe stop procrastinating so much, in a bit.
So that is my list of 34 things. I am going to do the best I can without stressing if I fail, but not using ‘not being bothered’ about failing as an excuse to not give it all a good crack. Seems simple enough? Do any of you ever make big to do lists like this and if so what is on them? Any from my list you might like to try yourself?
Savidge Reads 
Happy Birthday and good luck with that list 🙂
Thanks very much Christoph.
Happy birthday! That’s quite a list…
Gives me a good starting point.
I like no. 3. It’s good to be kinder to idiots and to make that a life choice in your 30s. It allows you to become ruthless with idiots in your 40s. I turned 47 last month and celebrated by publicly admonishing a repeat-offending, sweet-paper rustler during a performance at my local theatre. So liberating! Also, no pressure but you might want to crack on with no. 4, as you’ll be needing that when you turn 40. Nowadays, a marathon is the entry level requirement for every self-respecting mid life crisis and you may prefer to play it safe with an ironman. Just saying.
Hahahaha. I am working on them all.
A very fine and balanced list although I’d skip the tattoo and Margaret Attwood personally… what a fabulous year you’d have if you did all that, and you could have such fun trying.
The NHS Couch to 5K podcasts, if you’ve not tried them, are your best friend on the journey to being able to run continuously for 30 minutes and like it (I’d say stuff the treadmill though and get outdoors)
I have some serious lists for each year and then broken down into quarters and I review and plan monthly. I keep a list of things I’d like to do/places I’d like to go, books to borrow… and come up with projects eg virtual swim of the River Derwent (which is taking me years) and visiting each of the Companion Stones in the Peak District.
Happy birthday Simon, looking forward to hearing how you get on with your list.
Oh I like your ones. Partly because they remind me of home. Oh the Peaks, looking forward to visiting them in May.
I made a list of things to do before I turned 40. That was the year I finally read Anna Karenina. I can’t remember what else was on the list.
I’m pondering 40 books for 40. I planned to do it ages ago and then for some reason didn’t. I might just bring that idea back.
Hip hip hooray & happy birthday ! Thanks for giving me a great idea for 50 books for 50 next year 🙂
It’s hard to keep to just one notebook – I understand completely. I justify it with one notebook per book I’m reading, which can be up to 4-6 at once.
Good luck with the 34
🎆!*Happy Birthday*!🎆
Thank you!!!
Happy Birthday.
Come to The Galle Literary Festival in Sri Lanka. It will at once take care of several of your wishes!
Oh my goodness I would love to. That would be amazing.
I have just stumbled across your blog and want to say how much I am enjoying it. Happy Birthday and good luck with your list. It is always a good idea to look back and forward to where you are in life.
Awww thank you very much. Nice to have you visiting!
You do relies with number 5 you are giving us Carte Blanche to write any kind of gibberish on your blog?..
Felicitations on this memorable day
Haven’t I always 😜
Happy Birthday 🙂 (and yes I am shocked lol!)
I knew it would shock people.
I am not sure what would be more terrifying having a massive owl land on me or talking to Margaret Atwood – maybe about the same. Life is too short for tents and there are earwigs who will want to share your sleeping bag. It’s not nice. Whatever you do, do not embrace household chores, just don’t. Read more – are you insane? How many books do you average a week? It must be incredibly high already. Finally – a very happy birthday and many happy returns to you and your lovely blog. P.S. I recently read an article which said that procrastination was surprisingly creative. Phew is what I thought!
Happy birthday! Thank you for being born so we can all enjoy this blog. Good luck with your list! 😊
Ha. I think you have my mother to thank for that one. And my dad, a bit I suppose.
I love it! The yearly list sounds daunting though, but I like that a lot of these are totally doable. I’m giving myself another nine months before I really think about my 40×40 list. I love doing my 30×30 list, but I feel with a decade there have to be some truly big, challenging and inspiring things on there for me. Happiest of Birthdays to you, until the next!
Happy birthday! I love no 5. I might need to work on that one myself. It’s quite an ambitious list, good luck with your goals. It is good to have aspirations (I’ve been working on stopping procrastinating for years, no luck yet!)
Happy Birthday!! I love your list. Number 5 is my favorite and I need to add that to my own list! My list is more of a bucket list with no set time frame. You should go to Croatia! I’ve connected with relatives there in the last few years and they are always sending me gorgeous pictures. My family is from Split and I hope to visit there some day. I hope you’ve had a fabulous day!
Happy Birthday 🙂 I make Already Done lists. Like 65 lessons learned in 65 years of living. So easy. I love long posts but somedays anything longer than 140 characters feels like a homework assignment. #1, I had the urge after reading H is for Hawk.
Happy birthday. And I love No. 9 as that seems to be a “growth point” for me (or so people tell me). I’m glad that others can also find this to be tough. 🙂
Haven’t read all the comments because I’ll be 55 in 2 months and life is too short. I would skip # 9. This has been a problem my whole life and manifests itself in my impatience with idiots. I have many stories but this is not about me, so I will say Happy Birthday!!
I had to laugh when I read “Not give myself 20 minutes to write a list that takes a whole year of my life into account”. I do this year after year — try to come up with a list to accomplish before the next “big” birthday and get halfway through making the list before I start to wonder what’s the point. Life changes so quickly; I can’t account for a whole year from now!
Happy birthday! Hope it was a lovely!
A happy belated birthday, and I wish you luck with your goals. I try to always have a handful of goals I’m working towards, reading related as well as general life related. I’d be keen to learn how one gets involved in judging a book prize!
Happy Belated Birthday! I hope you have a great year. As someone who turned 35 this year I know how scary it can feel. The main thing is for you to do things that make you happy. From your blog and your tweets you seem to be in avery happy place and have a life many would love. So whatever 24 bring you I know you will have a great time and keep being an inspiration to other bloggers, readers and tweeters.