h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was reading this story today, and what struck me is how modest some of the goals are - pour a pint in a pub being the best example - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24477163

Anyway, it struck me that reading other people's "bucket lists" sometimes gets boring, because people always put the same things on them. Skydiving, bungee jumping, etc.

So the question: do you have any really modest ambitions that you'd like to fulfil, but for some reason never have?

I don't know how modest it is but I would like to be able to shear a sheep

sorry

not now though

Make roast spuds like me Mum does

I have plenty of immodest ambitions.

As Spock put it "Live long and prosper"

And also to all who sail on the good ship H2G2.

When I retired, I harbored the ambition of going to see a play or concert at least once a month. That hasn't happened yet, but I still hope. I do see twice as many movies as I used to, though.

I have never had any ambitions at all and have just bumbled my way through life with a positive attitude. I have always worked. I do have one ambition. I don't want to end up in care. I would rather go to prison because I know I will treated better.

To finish the rather complicated cape I am knitting.
If I knew, like the writer of the cited article, that I had only a few months left, I would take up smoking cigars. I love the smell.

I loved that article KB

As for my own ambitions none of them would qualify as being modest. I've also got loads of other things on my To Do life list, but they are born of necessity, not for fun. For example, get my belongings out of storage, where they've been for the last seven years

So, you've really made me think, how to have fun while alive and accomplish modest enjoyment.. That's actually quite hard. For instance I'd really like to find a restaurant where I could take myself, alone, to eat when I didn't fancy cooking. Where they'd welcome you in the same way they do when you arrive with a friend, and then make you feel comfortable through the meal. In the past, I have found a couple of places where they don't give you the 'single woman table' - in a distant corner, probably next to the toilets, but both times the staff changed and you're placed back in the category of suspicious-female-out-alone.

And I am so with purrypants on not wanting to end my days in some ghetto for elderly infirm. I hope it's a long time away, but one of my Immodest ambitions would be to set up a retirement community along with friends, so we could control our destiny, and still have some fun.

Another modest ambition would be to get my sleep patterns back on track, rather than totally haywire like now, so thanks KB for giving me something to think about when I've got insomnia.

I read an article once (in the Australian Gourmet & Traveller) that said if you want good service in a restaurant, complain as soon as you arrive: complain about the table you're given and ask for a better one.

And then if the service isn't good complain about something else minor... until it is good.

I'm glad to have added something for you, Lanzababy. Thanks for thinking about your answer.

I've never thought of myself as especially ambitious or pushed myself too much in life so maybe its time to think about those smaller things

One is to visit some of the places where my ancestors lived. Thanks to the 'net and research I know many of the actual street addresses. Some are still standing too

My grandmother and her brother were adamantly opposed to ending up in nursing homes. My grandmother lived to be 93 and got her wish. Her brother died a week after he was put in a nursing home. My mother diedi n a nursing home. My father is still living independently in his own home. He is willing to move to an assisted-living community. We're helping him choose one he likes.

I would like to be independent as long as I can. That's not really an ambition, though. I want to keep learning until my last day.

A few of the items on my bucket list are on the modest side.

Sleep in a hammock
Sleep outside without tents or shelter (waiting for a warm holiday or similar!)
Participate in a flash mob (the flash mob craze seems to have died down though)
Learn to scuba dive and dive in the sea (I need more money first)

Most of the other modest ones I've been able to do by now. (Attend Wimbledon, sail a boat, get a photograph published...)

Sho, that sounds like a great way to ensure someone on the staff spits in your food.

rolling down on a steep of soft grass, a la Heidi in the Swiss Alps. And making cheese, grow my own food, have an orchard, a garden, .... those are the ambitions I had when I was 10 years old, haven´t found yet better ones.

and play the ukelele to my pupils. I finally bought one and I´ve just started to take youtube lessons...

I've been thinking about bucket lists today and it does seem that most items put on them are those which involve a decent amount of cash.

So far I have 22 things on my list of 60 things to do before I'm 60*, and there are a few of modest ones: see the new Birmingham library (I'm only 20 miles away so that should be pretty easy), visit the Natural History Museum, write a guide entry, decorate my front bedroom. But some of them require holiday sized spending: visit Machu Pichu, play the slots in Las Vegas, even just seeing Water Lilies at the Orangerie in Paris will probably set me back a couple of hundred pounds, as will eating at the Fat Duck.

My main problem is that, really, all I want is a quiet life. I'm so happy beside my own hearth that motivating myself to get out and do is quite a job.

Deb


* this started off as 50 things to do before I'm 50 but I'm certainly never going to be able to afford too much in just 3½ years.

This is my kind of bucket list - I've managed 31 out of 50 - but I'm not saying which ones!

http://mikesowden.org/feveredmutterings/50-amazingly-achievable-things

Deb