The list done so far

I thought the best way to start all of this was to list the things that I've done so far from the "101 things to do before you die" lists. (I've left out the overtly sexual ones to avoid jealousy and recriminations from my peers, and because I'm worried my mummy will read this at some point.)

2) swim with...

I've lived in both the Maldives and Egypt and swum/ dived with some amazing fish - Oceanic white tips, Stingrays, Black tipped reef sharks, Fuzzy ghost pipefish, giant morays and even the odd bikini fish. All ace!



41) Be friends with my ex

I've been lucky enough to have been out with some beautiful, amazing women and am still friends with a good bunch of them too. nuff said...

46) Scuba Dive

I am a PADI Divemaster and have over 400 dives under my (weight) belt. The deepest I ever dived was 55.6m, below PADI recommended levels but done in a safe way with lots of redundancy and backup. I have a couple of friends who teach the REALLY deep stuff if you fancy it:Here



51) Learn another language: Not sure how I can really demonstrate this here but I learned Spanish and German at school, to GCSE level, French to A level, then had to learn Arabic when I worked in an Egyptian kitchen. I like to think I can get my point across in French still, but the others are a bit rusty! Here is me looking like an Eastern European rock god to illustrate...



58) Live in the place you love: I went to Dahab in the Sinai Desert in Egypt on holiday for 3 weeks, then came back, dumped my job and moved back there in a month. It's easy if you find the place you like that much!



59) Leave the job you hate: You should have no tolerance for idiots in charge of your life. My favourite example of this was leaving a pub that I was the Head Chef for in Stratford. The owners were two totally lunatic life partners who revelled in mind games and I was very satisfied to hand in a piece of toilet roll with "My notice" on it after they pulled their last crazy head play on me and my sister.



60) Take part in a lineup: I was unlucky enough to match the description of a felon and had to do this! These days they take a video of you turning your head from side to side though. All very exciting and even better when I was totally exonerated!! Here is me with a 70's Mexican bandido mustache to demonstrate...



68) Save someones life: I'm leaving this blank, you know who you are.

69) In various languages, learn to:



order a beer - Mumkin biera, eine bier bitte, mas cerveza
curse - viedislicker, enta mabroom ala mabroom ma lefish, dibla, putain
various - le singe et dans le arbre, inshallah bokra mumkin, je pense que cette question est un peau stupid...



75) Get a tattoo or piercing: I have both shoulders/ sleeves done with tribal. I go to Sacred Heart in Leamington Spa at the moment, but Tattooz by Steve in Birmingham is also very good.



78) Drink a vintage wine: I was lucky enough to be given a bottle of 1994 Gaya Sori Tildin as a present when I left a job in the Maldives. I drank it with a very good friend on my 30th birthday, it retailed of $1200 and was totally amazing.




81) Get barred from a Pub or Bar. After I left the pub I was talking about above I was barred for the rest of my life! Shame!

83) Skinny Dip at midnight: There was a very definite chance of me getting caught and put in jail for getting my ass out in the main bay in Dahab one night. Luckily the local tourist police were more bothered with the local drunks in Tota bar! temp: 22 degrees, 15m out to sea.

89) Throw away the instant noodles: I kind of think this is a bit unfair as I've been a chef for ages and have cooked more hot dinners than you've er, had hot dinners...


92) Own an original piece of art: I have 4 proper bits:
2 by Alisdair MacDonnell, a ceramicist.
1 by Bruce Onabrakpeya, Nigerian art supremo.
1 by Edward Miller, fantasy art guy.


95) Get Revenge: I spent a large part of my school years being bullied by a total prick. Much to my surprise he turned up in a bar I ran once, acting like my best friend and asking me for help pulling the barmaids. I took great pleasure in getting him thrown out by the bouncers for being a douche and trying to follow one of them into the toilets. *Karmaslap - kappow

96) Be an extra in a film: I produced a film called "Within the Woods" and was called upon for various bits of extra work: surprised car driver, investigative doctor, zombie hand and stunt back. I kid you not... Here is me having my arm eaten by the director on a day when the caterers hadn't shown up.





So that about that from the actual book so far. I will be letting you know what is coming up, what training I'm doing for the bigger events and how I generally getting on.

The plan

I was given a book about 2 years ago for my birthday, called "101 things to do before you die" which is great and funny, but after reading it and ticking off the things I'd already done I realised that there were a few that I wouldn't be able to do in the next year or two. SO I decided recently, after some personal circumstance changes, that I would draw up my own list, including some of the things from the book, some that I'd come up with and a few that some random mates suggested for me to get on with. The list includes some BIG events and some a little more realistic on a modest, CREDIT CRUNCH sized budget to escape the immediate tedium of this economic spat that we're currently languishing in.

The list is at the side here ------------------------------------------------------------------->
...and I'll be going through them with picture or video evidence to allow everyone to appreciate/ laugh their tits at. This may happen a bit sporadically so why not add it to an RSS feed.


For the next 7 days the list is to include my entry to the "Best Job in the World" so please feel free to help me out there by adding your vote to my profile here: (now replaced with the vid app as I didn't get it!)