Fish Net Tights

Mostly I've learned to let go of the past even the bits of it I enjoyed. I have to say I've enjoyed most of my past anyway and I do catch myself dwelling on it and doing the odd bit of analysis now and again. Whenever I do, I give myself a real hard kick up the butt 'cos while I'm analysing the past I'm missing right now. All that counts right now is this posting and that only counts while I'm doing. See, now its done and on to the next thing. Like it says on the T-shirt - LIVE NOW.

my to do list: WRITE a novel ... live in a field ...

Mine is, in no particular order Finish a novel, never mind getting it published. Re-visit Rome. Re-visit Patricia Webb (that one ain't gonna happen but you can't blame a bloke for dreaming) See the Wolves in the Premiership (totally out of my hands) Just one game will do, please. Read Ulysses Inhale cannabis just enough so that I can share the experience with my kids Win the eternal struggle with my own ego. As you can probably tell, I'm a million miles away from this last one. Oh, yeah I was forgetting - World Peace. Well isn't that what you're meant to say. Of course, if I can just do the one with my ego none of the others will matter at all.

...grow carrots...(speaking for the Fish, here)

1. Travel a helluva lot more than I've done already, and I've already travelled a lot. 2. Bring up a happy kid. 3. Successfully put the demons from my past to bed (well on the way here). 4. Cultivate a decent lawn...(!) 5. Avoid answering questions like these.

1.) keep having excellent good times that aid the poorer times to feel temporary 2.) write stories that other people want to read 3.) sing songs to people who aren't talking 4.) see my friend read my stories to others again and love it 5.) visit the Eden Project at least twice a year forever 6.) see Kneehigh Theatre whenever I can 7.) see my kids grow up even more and still be wacky and lovely 8.) cultivate a decent lawn 9.) live near the sea etc etc etc etc .................

I could show you wolves in a field John....

Ah yes, it's the etc etc etc's, isn't it?

Tight Fish Nets

Cornelia - I had a list at 20, which I managed to achieve, just. (though to be fair, I'd put a lot of achievable stuff on there. not quite to the extent of 1. write a list of things to achieve by time you're 20). I heartily recommend learning a martial art (mastering it, unless you are under five is probably not an option), but learning the basics and getting better is probably the most worthwhile thing I ever did. It improved me in all sorts of ways as a person, not least of which was allowing me to get a grip on my evil temper. Dead easy to get started - go and do it. Although I did a lot of competition fighting, it is the patterns which are most enjoyable - performing a ritual of one movement followed by another.

I've never actually drawn up any lists or really planned my life in advance, just reacted to events. I'd just like to keep discovering new ideas, new places, new people - until earlier this year, for instance, I'd never heard of ABC: now, I'm on the site every day and it's difficult to imagine what life was like before. The kids have grown up relatively normal, we've moved to the seaside and retired very early, so that's the usual things done. No, I'm not trying to sound smug; there are loads of things yet to achieve, and the best thing is that I don't even know what they are yet: get to know Paris like a native, maybe, see The States, get one of my novels published (the least likely achievement yet) - the list is endless. Hopefully, this time next year, I'll have several more things to aim at. Oh, yes, I'd also like to see my "native" team, Wolves, up where they were in the glory days of the fifties. Some hope there!

Mine's pretty simple i wanted to make sure i could acheive it. I decided to make it pretty easy as i'm not that succesful at doing what i want. 1)breathe 2)write something that is half decent (it doesn't have to get published just legible will do) 3)die so far of only managed one but i'm pretty certain i can get two out of three. Then again nothings for sure.....

I'm a great believer in the 'you've got to have a dream, if you don't have a dream, how you gonna have a dream come true' school of thought (or is it just a cheesy song?) With this in mind: 1 Make a gazillion pounds (approx) for ABCtales 2 Get a kid's book published 3 Get a trashy novel published 4 (When I'm considerably older and have got something worthwhile to say) Get a serious novel published 5 Become an internet millionaire and prove that everyone's wrong about the bubble bursting 6 Set up my own highly succesful magazine publishing empire 7 Help people - whether through giving them jobs, helping them see their true talents, helping them find their confidence or whatever other way I can 8 Be able to afford an ace wedding 9 Have a couple of kids and bring them up well so that they're happy as kids and as grown ups (I'm guessing *nothing* will make them happy adolescents!) 10 Get a kitten Or failing all that, be happy with my lot anyway! Cheers Em PS: My list's always growing and changing the more I do so who knows what it will be next year (or even next week.)

Well, you don't want much then do you, Em?

:-) I figure dreams are a good thing to have - but I'm happy now so even if I don't achieve anything on the list, life's still good.

Kittens Free to Good Homes

Sadly my landlady won't let me have one, RSPCA. Which makes me want to add to the list 'Buying a house away from London near trees and fields'

Have you thought of keeping fish Emily? Your lamdlady could not possibly object to that. Obviously I have in mind tropical or coldwater varieties, not our own dear Fish, who would be prohibitive in terms of her keep (thinking gin consumption here).

Roy Bateman Can't believe there are two old Wolves supporters in this thread. Never mind the fifties, the seventies/eighties would do for me. Remember, Mike Bailey, John Richards, 'Squeak' Parkin, Waggy et al. Two league cup wins and a European final - lost to tottenham Hotspur. Come on you Wolves. Apologies to everyone for lowering the tone of the thread.

Dave, Nice idea but you can't cuddle a fish :-( Cheers Em

yes have been told i am "high maintenance" whatever THAT means ...

:-)

Hold on tight to your dreams, Emily. If you ask Liana she'll tell you who sang that, assuming you don't know already - which you probably do. Show me this field and these Wolves then, just like ya promised Wolves V6T8J6. What a funny surname.

John Pack it in, else I'll not turn up at your pub quiz to save the day :o)

Liana If I really thought you would actually turn up one day, then I would pack it in. OK, OK - I will anyway, don't want to incur your wrath even from down the other end of a very long electronic communicating-device-thingy. Shame though, I kind of liked thinking up all those cheesey song references. Still, the new quiz league starts this Sunday (9th Sept.) and there's always a music round that goes something like this; they play ten songs (usually a mix from 60's to right now) and you have to identify the artist. My team (The Campanologists - terrible name I know but we inherited it) usually get about 7 out of 10. We're OK on 60's (we're all dead old), so-so at 70's, crap at 80's and not quite so bad on 90's onwards. This last 'cos I at least have got teenage and twenty-something offsprings. Gonna post the questions first thing Monday morning, Liana by way of a kind of trial. Are you up for this? Don't even think of saying 'no'. A bloke can only take so much rejection. As for your latest, more serious posting as far as I'm concerned you can take it that anything I say I really mean - except the 'jokes' of course, which are, rather unsurprisingly, just jokes and by definition not to be taken seriously. Ask me any serious question you like Liana (or anyone else for that matter) and I promise to give you a full-on, unadulterated, big-boy, grown-up answer. My very own version of the truth which hopefully will be not too dissimilar to yours but not exactly the same either. You know that game 'Truth, Dare, Kiss or Promise' or words to that effect - kind of along those lines. I reckon this is what makes these thread so godamn interesting. Of course, there's maybe a chance you won't like me very much afterwards but that's a risk I'm prepared to take, just to be me. Who are all these people who abuse one another and how come I seem to have been lucky enough to avoid them up to now? A long time ago someway gave me some very good advice which I now pass on. Hope this is OK and not too presumptious. If it is, just let me know. Anyway the advice was this; Don't analyse - just enjoy, just live NOW. Oh damn, while I was typing that, NOW has gone already. That's the trouble with NOW - it's so damn quick. Anyway 'Don't tell me later will be better' or has some rich Irish pop-singing bloke in $2000 dollar shades already said that? Sorry, sorry. I forgot to tell you I'm absolutely useless at promises. ;-)

John, the advice is nice. But sometimes you have to analyse the past in order to be content with the present.