Merry Christmas from Paradise

Sometime in the past we became obsessed with lists; top ten this, top fifty that and the now ubiquitous '100 things you must do before you die' kind of list. These, above all of the others, are the worst of the worst. The top of the pile, if you allow me to continue the list theme.

But why? Well I find them to be smug, self serving and usually totally wrong. I know I'm probably over-reacting to this, but they really raise my hackles. I don't actually know what hackles are but when I see one of these lists, usually in the cheap section of a bookstore, they get raised and are pointed right at them baby. You know the sort '100 movies you must see before you die', '100 places you must see before you die' or '100 albums you must listen to before you cark it'. It's getting ridiculous. How about '100 lists of 100 things you just do before you die before you die'. Or something like that. Who are the authors to judge what things should be in the list? My list is different to your list which will be different to your friend's list. It's a personal thgn and so it should be. I know for a fact that their movie list won't include 'Midnight Run', 'The Party' or the quite frankly fantastic 'State and Main'. What? Exactly. And don't get me started on albums. I could bore for Britain on that one. And did for a year in a previous blog. But that was then and this is now.

Phew. Where was I? Oh yes lists. Well the latest craze in the categorisation of everything are Bucket Lists. Recognising that published lists are by their very nature impersonal the 'designers' of Bucket Lists spotted an ingenious way to correct the flaw. Get the end user to create their list. Magic. Horrendous. So now we are all expected to have a Bucket List of things we want to do, see, hear, taste or smell before we shuffle off. We are all doomed to failure before we start. We'll either never get through the list - seriously how are you supposed to arrange a snorkelling trip with Sigourney Weaver? - or even worse run out of things to do. Then what? Is your life over? I say stop beating yourself up and enjoy life. Do things or don't do things. It's up to you.

....but as we are on the subject I completed one of the the things that would of been on my list had I had one. Which I don't. But if I did, sitting on a beach on Christmas Day would've been on there. And before some smart Alec notes that I could've done this in the UK, I'll qualify it by adding 'without catching hypothermia or getting tangled up in discarded chip wrappers'.

And it was great. Christmas Day on a beach in the glorious sun. Shorts, flip-flops, sunburn the lot! As far as Christmas Days go it's been different; waking to bright sunshine, wearing shorts all day, wandering on the beach, lying in the sun and having salad for lunch. There were even people sunbathing in Santa hats. But I missed the 'traditional' Northern Hemisphere Christmas trimmings; tinsel, lights, roaring fires and of course family and friends. But for a one-off it's been great. Now could someone please pass me the hummus dip for my celery whilst I update my bucket list......