Que Sera Sara?

I am about to be thirty.

So for lots of reasons that seem different from the clichés (but probably aren’t), I want to stamp my mark on this moment – because now is as good a time as any to start the rest of my life.

I am going to do and be lots of things in my time, but in the next eighteen months it will include the following Thirty Things:

One

Visit one city I have never been to before

A week in Sharjah, UAE check.

A weekend in Belfast, double check.

A day in Valetta, Malta, triple check.

A few days in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, quadruple check, Soviet style!

Two

Be by the sea. A lot.

Yes, but there is always room for more.

Three

Take one, two, three friends out to lunch

Four

Join a group I’m passionate about

Five

Walk five miles of country road

Six

Make six beautiful things

1. Edgar
2. Halloween decorations
3. Paper Snowflakes
4. Velvet Ribbon Bookmarks
5. Mom’s Pillow
6. Christmas Fudge

Seven

Go seven days completely unplugged and off the grid (in your own house)

Eight

Compliment eight strangers (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8… harder than it looks)

Nine

Hold a baby at least once

Ten

Do ten cartwheels

Eleven

Read eleven books I’ve always been curious about

1. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Muriel Spark. Quintessentially Edinburgh. A sense of humour (and acidity) I doubt I would have appreciated in my own youth. Perhaps it wasn’t too long on the ‘to read’ list after all, but waiting for the right time to find me. Practically perfect in every way.
2. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Truman Capote. I’ve never seen the film. Yes, I too have the song in my head now. It is much slimmer and sharper than I imagined from the saccharine mooney-eyed college girls who hung posters of Holly like wishes – but so much the better for it. I hope I get the chance to read the other novellas.
3. The Arrival, Shaun Tan. Shaun is without a doubt one of my favourite people. He is lovely and kind and extremely talented. His work makes my heart sing and more often than not, I find myself crying. I had the honour of chairing him at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which was a delight. If you don’t know his work, honestly, you are missing something beautiful. This book lived up to all my expectations and is the sort of work I long to linger over with tender fingers and soft eyes.
4. The Enchanted April, Elizabeth von Arnim A rather fitting holiday read I imagine, and look! in the pretty vintage fabric bound hardback, just released by Virago. Stylish and suitable and utterly charming.
5. I Capture the Castle, Dodie Smith. I talk about it over here. A lot.
6. Mansfield Park, Jane Austen. The last Austen I’ve read (well, of the finished novels). My collection is now complete. I’m glad I saved this one for last, intentionally or no. It has none of the hot blooded romance I looked for in my girlhood and plenty of the careful, considered study of country life which my older mind finds soothing.
7. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen. Again. This time it was far more acidic that my dreamy teenage reading had been.
8. The Art of Choosing, Sheena Iyengar.The first piece of non-fiction on this list. Interesting. I mused on her theories and research one time. I still do occasionally.

Twelve

Send postcards to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve people

Thirteen

Grow a wildflower garden

Fourteen

Eat off of pretty things as often as possible

Beautiful dishes make me happy

Fifteen

Write a really good short story

 

 Sixteen

Barbecue and picnic sixteen times this summer

Seventeen

Paint the house a color you love

Getting closer…

Eighteen

Bite the bullet, and do that super secret project you are embarrassed to admit

I started it people, but more on that later…

Nineteen

Build a bonfire

And remember love…

Twenty

Learn to make twenty new recipes

1. Chicken Friend Rice
2. Homemade Pop-Tarts
3. Courgette Muffins
4. Navajo Flatbreads
5. Peanut Brittle
6. Pumpkin Cookies
7. Pumpkin Soup
8. Homemade Brownies (& Brownies with Mint!)
9. Apple Pie
10. Red Velvet Cake
11. Bagels
12. Chicken and Dumplings
13. Homemade Cinammon Rolls
14. Beer Butt Chicken!
15. Fudge
16. Granola Bars
17. Beef Casserole
18. Honey Roast Parsnips
19. Haggis & Clapshot
20. Barley risotto

Twenty One

Learn to sail

Twenty Two

Play on a swingset and remember how awesome it is

Twenty Three

Sing in public, just once, and see how it goes

Twenty Four

Create twenty four sweets and send them to someone you love

Twenty Five

Wave at twenty five people riding by on the bus

Twenty Six

Get rid of twenty six articles of clothing

Twenty Seven

Go on a road trip

• Oxford, you’re suprising.
• Perthshire, I  love you.

Twenty Eight

Go twenty eight days without sugar or bread of any sort

Twenty Nine

Learn twenty nine words in another language

I never specified if it needed to be 29 words in one language, or across multiple. I have a handful of words in Kyrgyz, a few in Dutch, one or two in Arabic and, if I squeeze my brain hard enough, please and thank you in Maltese. Perhaps if I learn hello in 16 more it will count?

Thirty

Have a midnight carpe diem, just for you.