One off the bucket list

[TheBurningRed]

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with small remote islands with small populations that I want to visit. Tristan Da Cunha being the main one. But also Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Svalbard, Palmerston Island and Santa Cruz del Islote. Probably a few more but they’re the main ones.

I also want to do the Antarctica cruise where you can go on land and even sleep in the snow overnight. These would all be very expensive bucket list things to do but they’re all things I’m very determined to do in the future. 

[Jazzy G]

On 9/29/2023 at 2:42 PM, garynysmon said:

Going to the World Cup last November.

Yes we were shite and stank up the tournament, but Wales qualifying for anything was a mere pipe dream when I was a kid in the 90's and naughties. So to get there at all and experience a true global event was a bucket list item for sure.

Qatar wouldn't have been my choice to host the WC clearly, but it was what it was and there was more than enough to enjoy.

A couple of friends and I went to the 2006 World Cup in Germany. It was a good time. We hired a car and took a road trip. 

My bucket list is probably to go to EVO one year (I don't think I'd ever be good enough to enter a tourney, but I'd love to be there and watch the matches live), see Billy Joel at Madison Square Garden, and visit Hungary. Trip to Japan for Wrestle Kingdom or the G1 would be nice as well. Oh, make an album as well. 

[Keith Houchen]

42 minutes ago, TheBurningRed said:

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with small remote islands with small populations that I want to visit. Tristan Da Cunha being the main one. But also Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Svalbard, Palmerston Island and Santa Cruz del Islote. Probably a few more but they’re the main ones.

I also want to do the Antarctica cruise where you can go on land and even sleep in the snow overnight. These would all be very expensive bucket list things to do but they’re all things I’m very determined to do in the future. 

I’m a map nonce (not MAP nonce) and I always get the daily Worldle, but small single islands ruin my streak, so a combination of Wiki, Apple Maps, and Flight Simulator are helping my knowledge gaps on that front! Fuck you, Pitcairn Islands, you’ll not get the better of me again!!

[Jazzy G]

1 hour ago, Keith Houchen said:

I’m a map nonce (not MAP nonce) and I always get the daily Worldle, but small single islands ruin my streak, so a combination of Wiki, Apple Maps, and Flight Simulator are helping my knowledge gaps on that front! Fuck you, Pitcairn Islands, you’ll not get the better of me again!!

I picked up a little game in Morrison's the other day, it's got 100 cards in it, and windows on the casging. You look at the map, and the anagram of the country, then try to figure out what country it is. It can be quite fun.

[Tamura]

4 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with small remote islands with small populations that I want to visit

Mine is more small remote islands without any population, not permanent residents anyway. The last 36 permanent residents of St Kilda were evacuated in 1930, and last September I finally got there, after several years of trying.

I originally booked a trip for mid-2020 all the way back in October 2019, obviously I don't need to explain why that didn't happen. Due to the extreme difficulty of landing on St Kilda in bad weather the tour company only run trips between April and September, so rebooked for July 2021. Everything seemed to be going perfectly, the weather was fine so we were good to go. Assembled at the jetty super early, had the safety demonstration and got life jackets fitted and onto the boat fine, only for the skipper to accidentally damage the propeller on the concrete jetty while setting off. So rebooked for September 2021, only for both sailing days to be cancelled because of the weather. Not to be deterred, rebooked for June 2022, only for both days to be cancelled again because of weather. I'm thinking I'm cursed at this point, but rebook for September 2022, and finally, on the fourth attempt, I managed to get there.

[King Coconut]

Was there fuck all there?

[Tommy!]

5 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Was there fuck all there?

According to Wikipedia there's an old storage shed as the main attraction (below), but it's super if you like birds.

Edited October 1, 2023 by Tommy!

[Keith Houchen]

7 minutes ago, King Coconut said:

Was there fuck all there?

There’s a Greggs and a Wetherspoons. 

[BomberPat]

23 hours ago, TheBurningRed said:

I’ve got a bit of an obsession with small remote islands with small populations that I want to visit. Tristan Da Cunha being the main one. But also Saint Helena, Ascension Island, Svalbard, Palmerston Island and Santa Cruz del Islote. Probably a few more but they’re the main ones.

I also want to do the Antarctica cruise where you can go on land and even sleep in the snow overnight. These would all be very expensive bucket list things to do but they’re all things I’m very determined to do in the future. 

My Dad used to be team leader for Jersey's Island Games team, and one of my biggest regrets is that I never leveraged that to blag free trips with him to go to places like Gotland and Åland. I think he might have been t o Svalbard, too. 

I've been racking my brain about this thread, and I'm honestly not sure I really have any bucket list stuff. I don't know whether to chalk that up to a lack of imagination, or just being a creature of habit. 

I'm not a big traveller, but I would like to go to Japan and to Finland at least once. If I do Japan, I'd want to catch some wrestling while I'm there. Similarly, I would love to see an actual Lucha Libre show in Mexico, but I'm not otherwise all that bothered about going to Mexico, so it would be an expensive trip just to see some flippy lads.

My big one since I was a kid was to write a book, that's the one thing I've pretty much always wanted, and that should be done by the end of this year, all going well. 

[tiger_rick]

19 hours ago, Tamura said:

I originally booked a trip for mid-2020 all the way back in October 2019, obviously I don't need to explain why that didn't happen. 

Perfect social distancing, surely?

[Statto]

Couple of my real biggies (just) within my last 12 months.

Having been a proper sedentary fat bastard after leaving uni (where to be fair I was a fairly sedentary fat bastard but made the most of my fatness by playing prop for the 2nd XV) I started going to the gym in the summer of 2018 then started running ourdoors at the end of the year. During 2019 I got fairly into it (to the point of doing 10k anyhow) and started saying stuff like "I'll do a full marathon before I'm 40". Well a year ago today, days before my 40th birthday, I did:

The other one was just about a fortnight ago when I played guitar and sang a song (a fairly sparse acoustic version of Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones) in front of an audience for the first time.

I've sung in bands off and on since my early teens but have always been a bit frustrated that I'm always reliant on someone else to facilitate the music side. Had tried to learn guitar a couple of times previously but given up very quickly, but decided to start taking lessons in March on the back of the "I can do anything I put my mind to" marathon high and although I didn't really feel ready to both play & sing in front of others, the opportunity presented itself and thought "fuck it". It was a long way from flawless but it hung together, and that was good enough for me on the day.

[Browser Brady]

5 hours ago, Statto said:

Couple of my real biggies (just) within my last 12 months.

Having been a proper sedentary fat bastard after leaving uni (where to be fair I was a fairly sedentary fat bastard but made the most of my fatness by playing prop for the 2nd XV) I started going to the gym in the summer of 2018 then started running ourdoors at the end of the year. During 2019 I got fairly into it (to the point of doing 10k anyhow) and started saying stuff like "I'll do a full marathon before I'm 40". Well a year ago today, days before my 40th birthday, I did:

The other one was just about a fortnight ago when I played guitar and sang a song (a fairly sparse acoustic version of Wild Horses by the Rolling Stones) in front of an audience for the first time.

I've sung in bands off and on since my early teens but have always been a bit frustrated that I'm always reliant on someone else to facilitate the music side. Had tried to learn guitar a couple of times previously but given up very quickly, but decided to start taking lessons in March on the back of the "I can do anything I put my mind to" marathon high and although I didn't really feel ready to both play & sing in front of others, the opportunity presented itself and thought "fuck it". It was a long way from flawless but it hung together, and that was good enough for me on the day.

Thats genuinely very inspiring, thanks for sharing . I have actually tried a few times to learn guitar and given up also.

Its amazing that the marathon lead you to finally succeeding , belief is an important thing i guess . 

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Ticked off 3 big ones already, go to New York (did this with my family in 2007), see WWE live (done in 2009) and go to Wembley (done in 2012)

My future ones are

Wrestlemania

Going to an NFL game, mostly a Giants game

Return to the US, either back to New York or to Chicago, Philadelphia or New Orleans

Go to Japan

[DavidB6937]

21 hours ago, BomberPat said:

My big one since I was a kid was to write a book, that's the one thing I've pretty much always wanted, and that should be done by the end of this year, all going well. 

That's always been a big one for me too but would involve my brain being far more organised than it is. Any recommendations for notes/writing apps? I'm always curious how people bring it all together. I'm sure I've got something in my brain somewhere. I just need to put the pieces together.

[Tamura]

On 10/1/2023 at 5:37 PM, King Coconut said:

Was there fuck all there?

I guess it depends what you go places for. There's the highest sea cliffs in the UK, plus Stac an Armin which is the highest sea stack in the UK. I'm interested in abandoned civilizations, and it's fascinating to see how fast nature takes back over once humans have been mostly removed (The World Without Us by Alan Weisman is an excellent book on the subject). There is a little museum in one of the houses run by the National Trust, who have also renovated a couple of the other houses and the church, although they have no plans to restore the rest of the main street or the older black houses. It's also one of ~30 places in the world that has double UNESCO World Heritage Status, for culture and nature.

On 10/1/2023 at 5:45 PM, Keith Houchen said:

There’s a Greggs and a Wetherspoons. 

There was a pub there! Sadly it stopped serving vistors in 2005 due to apparent security concerns, so was only open to the semi-resident National Trust volunteers, visiting scientists and military personnel.

On 10/2/2023 at 10:14 AM, tiger_rick said:

Perfect social distancing, surely?

Yes and no. You generally get to St Kilda on a boat trip from one of the Western Isles such as Skye, Harris or Lewis, and they were actively discouraging people from visiting at the start of the pandemic, and St Kilda itself was closed to visitors. On my first proper attempted trip in 2021 the boat's skipper was checking everyone with a foreheard therometer before letting them on board. He went down the line going "you're ok", "you're ok", "you're ok", then said to me "you're a fucking zombie" when it gave no reading at all for me (my optician had the same happen, after trying twice to get a reading she even tested it on herself to make sure it was actually working).

Edited October 3, 2023 by Tamura