I used to be pretty good at ticking things off my Bucket List. Doing the Inca Trail -check, travelling solo through continents - check, hurtling unharnessed off the top of a building on a death slide - check, write a novel and get it published -check. In fact, I even met my husband whilst trekking to Everest Base Camp.
Anna Bell
It didn't matter whether I was heartbroken, or building a career. I adapted my list to suit my needs. When I was a carefree graduate, getting over the one that got away, I globe-trotted on all sorts of adventures. I saw amazing things, and learnt above all that I'm not a fan of adrenaline junkie escapades. As I got older, and my life more focused on my career my bucket list had to be squeezed into my annual leave quota and weekends. I did the odd once-in-a-lifetime trip like trekking in Nepal. But normal, were things like weekend trips to Florence to learn about art, and writing that all important first novel, that had been at the bottom of my bucket list since I was a pre-teen.
It wasn't long after I quit my job and moved to France, another thing on the old Bucket list, that it all came to a grinding halt. The cause? I had a baby. I'm now the very proud mother to a toddler and a four month old baby. I spend most of my time trying to keep them alive, ensuring the toddler eats a more varied diet than Marmite on toast and the baby does her required amount of tummy time. Our holidays are spent not going to see wonders of the world but at destinations with the most brightly coloured distractions that might allow myself and my husband five minutes to enjoy a beer in the sun. Bucket list adventures seem so very far away, a fact that my husband and I talked about with regret at Christmas. Whilst we'd enjoyed a great year with the kids we realised we'd been lacking in experiences, mainly due to me being pregnant and waddling like a duck and our toddler planning the great escape at breakneck speed whenever we were out and about.
So this year it's going to be different. Ok, so there'll be no visits to the Taj Mahal or bungee jumping in New Zealand, and I can't imagine keeping the kids quiet or still long enough to visit the Louvre, but I've decided there will be experiences. We will conquer some of the mountains we live amongst in the Pyrenees. We will use those teach yourself French books that have been gathering dust. I will make more than my usual brown loaf in my bread maker, as I try and learn how to make artisanal bread. They might not be the most exciting bucket list additions, but they will be for us. And I bet if we take the kids to Disneyland Paris, the kids' faces will light up and show us that it doesn't have to be just our bucket list we need to work through now.
You see that's the true beauty of a bucket list, they're adaptable to your mindset and situation. For me they've always been about taking time to live and experience life. I'm looking forward to this year as I try and remember to break the monotony, tackling the new list with the whole family.
Anna Bell is the author of The Bucket List to Mend a Broken Heart, published by Zaffre, 10th February 2016, £7.99.