30 things to do before I'm 30

I've achieved some amazing things over the last 10 years or so that really mean a lot to me personally, but I am always striving for something more. After all, isn’t Life there to be embraced? And I certainly don’t want to waste a second! Quitting the day job for the time being may be considered foolish in the current economic climate, but I have been saving like crazy to be able to take a year out – and it just so happens to coincide with the last year of my twenties. With all the things I want to do, it makes sense to have a list and that's where “30 things to do before I’m 30” comes in. This list will give me focus and a plan of action rather than stumbling through my time off and perhaps wasting... well... time.

So, in no particular order, this is how I want to spend the last year of my twenties:

1. Fly First Class from anywhere to anywhere
2. Take a photography course
3. Climb something on our island like Snowdon or Ben Nevis
4. Have a canal barge holiday
5. Sort out proper storage for my favourite belongings
6. Try 3 new foods
7. Walk the beautiful Jurassic Coastline
8. Complete a family tree with at least 50 people on it
9. Fun family photo shoot
10. Fly in a Tiger Moth
11. Tandem sky dive
12. Bake a marble cake just like my mum’s - and then eat it with no remorse!
13. Make a decent curry
14. Finish writing the Dalton Trilogy
15. Exhibit Little Child at a mental health exhibition
16. Publish a paid article
17. Feature photos on shutterstock.com
18. Catalogue my last 10 years of travels
19. Lose 14 lbs
20. Host a dinner party from scratch (3 courses)
21. Build a new desk area for the office
22. Do 1 presentation to an audience
23. Experience a murder mystery party weekend
24. Interview 3 Indie authors from Twitter
25. (Market and) sell 100 copies of Little Child
26. Take a weekend TEFL course
27. Achieve 500 hits on my website (1 day only)
28. Make some serious progress on my Writers Bureau course
29. Local book signing
30. Do the London night hike 2012 and / or walk part or all of the Thames trail