This is what I’ve arrived at so far, obviously they’ll evolve and change over the ten (TEN!) years this will go for. Some items still need to be fleshed out, but I know I want to do something around the general topic.

Fortunately I have a bunch of items carried over from the 50 project to kick me off (last project’s failure is this project’s … whatever). Stating the obvious, these are the ones in blue with (50) appended.

I’m planning to have the 60 settled on by the end of 2017.

1.   Make a patchwork quilt (50)
2.   Learn to complete a cryptic crossword (50)
3.   Eat no meat for a week (50)
4.   Make a piece of jewellery (50)
5.   Cook something ridiculously complex (50)
6.   Go indoor climbing (50)
7.   Make something from clay (50)
8.   Make something from resin (50)
9.   Complete our family craft activity (50)
10.   complete my embroidery | Don’s something special (50)
11.   Complete Joan’s something special (50)
12.   Enter Sydney to Gong bike ride (50)
13.   Read no self-help books for a year
14.   Go on a multi-day cycling holiday (somewhere relatively flat!)
15.   Visit China
16.   Take a selfie every day for a year (not published anywhere – just done)
17.   Retire!
18.   Visit Scotland
19.   [something] movies
20.   [something] new music
21.   [something] meditate
22.   Take a camera class
23.   Re-learn how to draw a cross section of a topographic map
24.   2x local low-key, camping-style weekends away per year
25.   Have my first mammogram
26.   Grow my hair long(ish) one last time
27.   Kill my gmail account(s)
28.   Give one compliment every day for a year (and record who and what)
29.   Delete instagram account
30.   Knit a hat for each member of the family
31.   Give up chocolate for a year
32.   Stay on a houseboat
33.   Go to the symphony
34.   Sew an invisible zip into a garment
35.   Have a skiing lesson
36.   Pay off mortgage
37.   Get back to running – 5km MAX. This also means I should abandon any ridiculous ideas of half-marathons and such.
38.   Keep at the no drinking
39.  

gorgeous birthday flowers from heather

And just like that the 50before50 project is over!

I really, really loved doing this – having *stuff* on a list stretched me to do *stuff* I hadn’t thought possible or that I’d dithered about starting: 3x overseas trips! 100 pushups! Cycling to work! Pilates! Building a radio!

The project also made me embrace this potentially very scary milestone – rather than wailing and gnashing my teeth or weeping for my lost youth.

And sure, I didn’t do everything on the list, but I had a pretty good crack:
+ Completed = 32
+ Part Completed = 3
+ Abandoned = 4
+ Carried forward to some form of future list = 11

I’d definitely recommend this as something worth giving a go – whatever the milestone!

xxx

Because I adored this so much, there will definitely be another similar project, but what form should that future list take?

The general consensus is to try for 60before60. Yes, 10 years is a really long time, but I am pretty confident it will be here before we know it.

I’ve started capturing my ideas – and already have a head-start with those 11 incomplete items from the 50 list!

For completeness!

Back when I set this challenge, I was forever visiting RelentlesslyCheerfulPhysio for one ailment or another.

This was intended to motivate me to do more rehab-style exercise and to build up to things gently and sensibly, rather than my usual throwing myself too hard at everything.

In good news – I haven’t been to the physio for ages!

In bad news – this means that I’ve really eased off on exercise and physical activity. This could be seen as eminently sensible or driven by fear of further injury – most likely the latter.

So we can call this one COMPLETE – but I’m less than satisfied by the method used to get there!

Our off-grid birthday glamping location offered horse-riding – so naturally we included that as part of our package.

I’ve been on a horse maybe 10 times in my life, and I estimated the last time was when I was about 15 – quite the gap! Don had ridden twice before – so we definitely classified ourselves as inexperienced!

The morning was bright and sparkling and promised to be quite hot later in the day. Our group was satisfyingly small and consisted of Don and I and (I guess you would call him) our guide. We rode for about an hour over relatively gentle undulating bush tracks and crossed the river a couple of times, almost getting our feet wet in spots – which was about as exciting as it got. Our ponies were very sedate and even repeated encouragement would not make mine move beyond a leisurely stroll. I probably would have preferred at least a canter in spots, but she was pretty firm in what she wanted and I wasn’t really going to argue with her!

xxx

Last time I’ll write my age with a 4 in front!

xxx

All The Ponies!

xxx

Don and Kahula

xxx

I rode Kahlua (right), Don rode Princess (left).

xxx

View from the horse! Sedate enough for me to wield my camera.

xxx

To my enormous surprise I was not the least bit sore afterward. I suspect all that cycling to work has toughened me up – or more likely all the chocolate I’ve been eating has added padding.

All up it was an extremely pleasant way to spend a morning and a nice way to see the countryside. Am I planning to do it again? Yeah, probably not. While I liked it, I can’t say it really filled me with the I must do this again! enthusiasm that other pursuits (like cycling and hiking) have.

You might recall that I tried a bunch of meditation apps during my short break from work back in August.

What I eventually settled on was the timed mediation in the calm app. It’s not guided, you just set the timer and a bell rings when your time is up. I chose this one because while the guided options were really useful at the start, I found them to be quite distracting after a while. What I find most appealing about this is the background sounds – cracking fire, rainstorm – so soothing and restful.

I’ve been somewhat (very?) sporadic in my practice. I’ll have a streak of a week or more then skip it for a couple of days – because clearly mindlessly scrolling on my tablet before getting up in the morning is preferable *rolls eyes*. I then become aware that I’m quite grumpish and get back to it. As is the way of these things – bad habits can easily sneak back in if you’re not vigilant.

This week had been my longest streak of not meditating – but I sat down on Wednesday morning and the effect was pretty miraculous, I felt amazing all day (and subsequent days).

I’m going to call this one COMPLETE even though it’s obviously a journey (like sobriety). It’s going to appear on the next list – in whatever form that list takes!

And also like sobriety, I won’t say it is not really hard work, it totally is, but absolutely worth it I think!

Tomorrow Don and I head out for my off-grid glamping birthday weekend! I really wanted something fun, quiet and relatively low-key – so to the bush it is!

There will be lots of hiking and swimming and reading and fire-building and snacking and napping and … pony riding! What there won’t be is blog posts. When I say off-grid, I do mean it – there’s not even mobile reception!

No internet doesn’t mean no camera – of course I’m taking along the DSLR, but I’ve also dragged out the 8 year old lightweight point and shoot because I don’t think my power-hog-phone is up to the task of managing quick happy snaps without lots of recharging.

Surprisingly, the old camera appears to still have some life in it:

Now all I need to do is ensure nothing important is left behind!

It can’t be All Success All The Time.

I added this one to the list because I wanted to extend myself a bit, and maybe to use my time at the computer a little more wisely rather than the endless scrolling | skimming | not-taking-anything-in. Almost like a habit retraining exercise – I wasn’t likely to get myself away from the computer, so why not do something productive?

I had no idea what particular course I wanted to do, but I was keen for it NOT to be work-related. Maybe art or architecture or design or literature – I flicked through the offerings periodically, but nothing really appealed.

Then The Science and Practice of Yoga appeared in mid-September and I signed-up straight away – this was something which aligned with my desire to do more yoga and get more into mindfulness. Clearly it was meant to be!

The course didn’t commence until the end of October and I completed the very lengthy pre-course survey with enthusiasm.

And then, work got really busy and well, I made a bunch of excuses not to get started. I mean it is only an hour or so a week and I couldn’t commit to that?

Well, I thought, I’ll wait until my break to start it – we’re 4 days in and still nothing. I’m pretty obviously not going to do this.

I’m clearly not cut out for online courses**. I’ve definitely recognised that I’m a more in-person sort (and hey, I’ve learned that, so not entirely a waste) – so I’m going to call this one ABANDONED.

xxx

** see also, my abandoned Advanced Manageressing course

In the final stretch – and it will be down to the wire with this challenge. I was forced to do something I loathe – watch a film alone**.

I watched The Apartment this afternoon while cooking dinner (slow-cooked lamb rogan josh, for the record).

In 10 words or less:

Very of its time – and that time was fucking terrible.

Can I squeeze the final 2 films into one day? And watch them by myself?

xxx

**I have no idea why I loathe it (particularly as I am quite happy watching movie-length episodes of tv series alone), but I really do.

In June 2014 when I set this project, SML was an extremely toxic place to be. Our new CEO (Dr12) was appointed and was making changes – but it was slow-going and there was a lot to address. There was very obvious infighting amongst the senior leadership team, I was reporting to the very mercurial and often tyrannical MrT^^ and being actively plotted-against** by Hecate and TheProfessor. Worst of all I’d just been seconded to Hecate to fix broken processes in her division – because I’m that kind of person.

It was miserable and awful and little wonder I wanted to leave.

This dysfunction culminated in SML missing one of our major KPIs by roughly $25m for the second year running. Finally there was a Reckoning, the evil Hecate was asked to leave and Knut, Heather and I were all promoted. And the next year we exceeded the target by ~$30m – through collaboration, teamwork and actually having and sticking to a plan. It was pretty glorious – and very professionally satisfying.

Suddenly I was actually enjoying my job!

Then Dr12 unexpectedly returned to the UK, MrT was asked to leave and Bobs joined us.

Bobs is absolutely bonkers, but he is a professional, often listens to my opinions and occasionally takes my advice – well, listens except when it comes to IT – because I’m a girl and what would I know? Suddenly I was enjoying my job even more!

Then about 18 months ago, Bobs asked me to step-up to a dream job – a job which I really really enjoy and I think is well suited to my particular mix of skills. It’s exhausting and stressful, but hey – there’s comparatively very little toxicity and horror, and my days are not filled with whinging (okay – sometimes they are, because … people).

So, I don’t know … I could GTFO, but I’ve just started year 2 of a quite huge 5 year project – which I think I’d like to see through.

What I really need to is work on my boundaries – not say yes to everything going in order to raise my profile, which only results in my over-working myself into unhappiness. I really need to get past the imposter syndrome because, to be honest, my profile is raised quite enough – it’s often counter-productive now to be such a yes-person.

While I’m on this break I want to think about dropping down to 4 days a week – I could do this with my current job IF I do the boundaries thing.

I’m going to call this one ACHIEVED – but it’s very much a WIP.

xxx

^^ who you may recall once refused to allow me to leave a meeting to go to the bathroom.
** it was that kind of place.

Annnnnnnd … we’re done!

#22 – Avery Tare’s Slasher Flicks: Enter The Slasher House
So bright! So poppy! Put this on when I’m grumpish and feel immediately cheered. Go listen to little fang if you need a lift.

#23 – Lina Tullgren: Won
Exactly the opposite of #22 – in no way is this cheerful and poppy, but it’s that brooding, angry, earnest, female indy sound I like so much.
The album cover totally creeps me out (seriously, shudder!), but I’m very glad I looked past it and gave this a chance.

#24 – Hookworms: The Hum
Psych-punk according to Pitchfork, also gonzo garage-rock, scuzzy psych, and free-form hypno-drone. Yeah, okay.
Enjoyable nonetheless!

xxx

This was one of my favourite projects! I’d pretty much lost touch with my love of music and this was definitely successful in resurrecting it. I may be too elderly to go to shows (what do you mean the band comes on at 10pm? I’ll be asleep!), but I’m not too elderly to adore new bands | new music – even if some of the artists are younger than my children.

And all hail bandcamp – because without it, I would have been screwed!

I’ll be adding a similar item to the next project set.