the Monday Musings column from that consultant bloke

I did, once, list my buckets; I had about five at the time, and they were scattered around the garage, shed, on the deck, down the sideway etc. If asked which was my favourite destination on my bucket list I would always say; “Whichever is nearest”.

I am being obtuse, of course, but “bucket list” is one of those modern expressions that annoy me. Yes, I have things that I would like to do, and places that I would like to go to, but I don’t have a list of them, even a mental one.

If pushed I could probably reel some of them off; I’d like to do a tour of, some, European capitals, see Switzerland and Italy, take a light aircraft over the general area where one of my uncles was shot down off Stavanger, go somewhere on Eurostar, drive various things, fly other things, I’ll leave it there.

Recently I wrote that to kick the bucket was an acceptable way to refer to my demise, and bucket lists are the things that you want to do before kicking the proverbial container. I get that, but there is something about the way that the term is used that, to me, implies that these things are being rushed at. I can remember a discussion with my American daughter-in-law about her first visit to the UK. She had itineraries for each of the days that they would be spending in London, and some places got 5 minutes. Even St Pauls only got 10.

I had the feeling that there was a “tick the box” element to it all; she would have seen, and possibly entered, these places, and so could claim to have done them, but I have always liked to take my time and to let the feeling of a place soak into me. Talking of doing one’s bucket list, people often say that they have ticked that off, again implying doing it by rote.

Given my age, and all that that brings with it, I had no doubt that I will kick the bucket with many things left undone. I have neither the time nor the money to do them all, but I am not going to rush about trying to tick things off’ if I do any of them, I will take my time and enjoy them.. If I don’t experience things, then so be it. I have done a lot so far, most of which I could not have dreamed of when I was younger, so I can’t complain. For now, my bucket list will be just that: 3 black plastic, one yellow plastic, one orange plastic…