You, Me and a Cup of Tea; Let's Get Caught Up

Today I’m thinking about lists; not the sort of lists that detail tons of jobs to be done – mainly the boring type. No, today I’ve been thinking about Bucket Lists, and the first thing I think is why on earth is it called a “bucket” list? Does anyone know? After that I was thinking about my Bucket List or, to be more precise, my lack of a Bucket List. Now in the spirit of the whole “Bucket List” idea, I thought it was pretty sad that I don’t have any lifelong ambitions – so I thought long and hard about things I would like to do/see/achieve before I no longer have the chance to.

And so far there are only five things on my list, and here they are:

1.       To buy an apartment on Gozo (a teeny, tiny Island in the Med)

2.       To write a novel and have it published

3.       To own a David MacKinnon fountain pen – The Honeycomb collection sort (in blue or white in case anyone out there wants to treat me)

4.       To see the Mona Lisa - I’ve been to Paris a number of times but those visits were before I was interested in art

5.       To own a small collection of antique/rare/first edition books (I say small because, let’s face it, with the price of some items, I’m never going to have a whole library full of such manuscripts am I? So I’ll settle with a small collection and be happy)

How many things should one have on a Bucket List? Is 5 enough? Is it too many? How can we expect to fulfil our life ambitions with the pressures of everyday life bearing down on us?

I suppose it is all about prioritising and being so in control of everything that is going on that you achieve a perfect, or as close to perfect as it is possible to get, work v life balance. A good starting point would be leaving work and the stresses that go with it at the office door at home time and not picking them up until you walk in again the next day. But can we really do that? I don’t know about you but I don’t work for fun. I work because I need to, because although the mortgage and bills would get paid without me working, I doubt we would be able to have the holidays we do have, the weekends away we do have, the meals and dinners we treat ourselves to. And so, because a lot hinges on our jobs, it is important to make sure we perform as best we can so we keep our jobs. And that is why we find, or I certainly find, that work isn’t a 9-5 occupation. It can be all consuming, and it can spill over into home life until it is all you can think and talk about. And maybe that is why the legendary work v life balance is so difficult to find. Does it even exist? Who knows. But one thing I do know is that I will never stop trying to find it..... Maybe that can be number 6 on my Bucket List.

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