'30 before 30' No 23. join the watch-wearing members of the world in their time-keeping abilities

No. 23 can be crossed off the list! Meet Marina, my new watch...

...isn't she a beauty?!

Big thanks go to Sally for giving Marina to me for my birthday. She's very pretty and dainty and I already feel like a slightly more grown up person (haha!)...No seriously, at the law ball on Friday I wore a long, dove grey dress and this felt like the perfect accessory, tres chic. I can feel the start of an accessorizing habit! Marina is classy and I think she needs a slightly more rough and ready little brother of a watch for the occasions when it might get hurt (this is clearly for my alter ego who goes rock-climbing and other such active things...but any excuse to accessorise, eh).

I still have the habit of checking my phone for the time, cue half an hour of rooting through a handbag full of crap, find the phone then think 'doh! I have a watch'...and then check my watch even though I already know the time. But today when I did my gardening (I really am only 29,  I promise!) I remembered to take my watch off first so that it wouldn't get scratched - maybe wearing a watch is making me wise and sensible?! This could be the making of me.

On another note, I heard an ace song today. I had never heard of Brenda Holloway before but she has an amazing voice, truly beautiful:

Brenda Holloway - Think it over

So this is the theme song for my day of celebrating my birthday with my dad (who bought my the plants for today's gardening) and being a watch-wearer.

The list...

Today I am 29 so here is my list, with one year to complete it. Apart from the first one they are in no particular order, just the order they popped into my head...

1. Become a doctor (not a proper medical doctor, just get my doctorate).

2. Fly in a hot air balloon - because I have a plan to surprise someone else with this, so it can go on my list too.

3. Get a mani-pedi-facial - I can't believe I've reached 29 and never had a manicure!

4. Have tea at the Ritz - I'm a huge fan of tea and cake, so we're going to glam it up - in the words of Irving Berlin "If you're blue and you don't know where to go, why don't you go where fashion sits? Puttin' on the ritz"

5. See the Blackpool Illuminations - I have never been to Blackpool but feel some strange nostalgia for the place so I want to see the Illuminations, see the Tower Ballroom and Winter Gardens, very British!

6. Ride a horse - and I've been warned to wear sensible underwear :)

7. Knit a sweater - I have knitted scarves and other straight things but nothing as ambitious as a sweater, the whole idea of making something the right size scares me a little, I'm going to have to pay attention to 'tension' etc...

8. Make pottery - I did this as a child but it collapsed, so I'm going to make a pot.

At this point in telling someone my list they said 'why not just travel back to 1950?'...funnily enough, the next thing on my list was almost that:

9. Buy a vintage 1950s dress - I like the style but want proper vintage not just vintage-looking.

10. Buy a pair of Christian Louboutin heels - it's going to take some penny saving, but they're iconic!

11. Read 'To kill a mockingbird' - how have I never read this?

12. Enter a photography competition - I have no aspirations to win, but after taking photos for so many years I feel I should enter one of them into a competition.

13. Go to a rugby match - it looks like fun, muscley men in shorts.
14. Test drive a sports car - I love the idea of turning up and getting to drive a fancy car for a short time, and for free!

15. Eat lobster - just because I've never tasted it. 

16. Learn to ice skate backwards - it really frustrates me that I can only go round in circles going forwards, I don't even skate that often but it would be nice to be able to turn and go backwards...many bruises are anticipated.

17. Get a pair of knee high boots - I can't turn 30 without having owned knee high boots! 

18. Go to a 'Sing Along a Sound of Music' - dress up as Julie Andrews, sing along with a whole cinema full of people meaning there must be someone else there as musically challenged in the singing department as I am, audience participation...sounds ace!

19. Watch 'Casablanca' - again, how I have not already done this?!

20. Visit the Supreme Court - I teach law so I feel I should have seen it. But I'm planning to do the tourist visit, you get to visit the library and everything :)

21. Get leopard print pumps - I've never had anything leopard print, it seems a little tacky, but in a small quantity it looks nice so pumps will be perfect.

22. Ride the paternoster lift all the way round - this lift terrifies me. I went once and took forever to pluck up the courage to get in, felt sick and realised the fear of going over the top outweighed the fear of jumping out, so I've never been over the top and under the bottom.

23. Start wearing a watch - so that I don't always have to search for my phone to know the time, it seems like a 'proper grownup' sort of thing to do.

24. Make and play a pinata - combines the joy of sweeties with the arts and craftsyness of papier mache, plus an excuse to have a party :)

25. Make cinder toffee - just because it looks fun.

26. Go to a strip club - tacky but it kind of has to be done!

27. Go wine tasting - why not?!

28. Visit the Barber Institute - because I spent 6 years on campus at Birmingham Uni and never once visited the Barber Institute which is slightly shameful.

29. Do a tango performance - this one made it on the list because our teacher asked us, otherwise I'd never have had the courage or the gumption to do it

30. Go speed dating - it has to be done once!

Sounds like a plan, Stan...

So, a couple of weeks ago I realised I was soon going to turn 29 and it seemed somehow dull to let my 30th year fade into insignificance. I'm not having dramas about turning 30...well, not yet anyway (although this morning I did have a slight wobble about whether I can face 35 more years of tort tutorials, but save that for another day) so as I was saying, this is not an 'I'm turning 30 crisis', it's a 'turning 30 should be fun' sort of a plan. Plus, I've been ill for the past 6 months, nothing serious, at least I think not although the doctor hasn't actually diagnosed it yet, and that made me think that life is for living - very Hollywood sentimental, I know, but hey, why shouldn't life have a bit of cheesy sentimentality to it?! (that sounds v Kate Winslet in The Holiday, "I'm looking for corny in my life" :)
I'm still finalising the list for now, fine tuning and waiting for inspiration - I've got 29 things so far so just one more to go. Some are exciting, some are random things that I have just never done before and that it seems somehow wrong to turn 30 without doing. Anyway, the big reveal will be Saturday, my 29th...