#60 Get a pen pal

#60 Get a pen pal

I have always wanted a pen pal. I liked the idea of corresponding with something the old fashioned way. Waiting for that much anticipated letter and sending out a new one. When I was younger I always loved receiving letters because it was such a rare treat. Now I get lots of post but I’ll still enjoy getting a letter from a friend in another country. It is also the perfect opportunity to learn about other cultures and countries.

Well I got my first letter from my pen pal today. It was an exciting time. I started emailing her after I found a website devoted to finding pen pals and we decided to start exchanging letters. Now I won’t  say much about her to respect her privacy but she is from the USA and seems really nice. I’m looking forward to sending a letter back.

On my search for a pen pal I also found another girl from the US and we are going to email each other. The US is a huge country so it should be interesting to learn more about it from a viewpoint that is not the television but a real person.

I’ll add pictures later. I need to charge my camera first

Happy Bucketing

#100 Change my hair (quite radically)

#100 Change my hair (quite radically)

I put this one on the bucket list to give me an incentive to actually go to the hairdressers. Now that may sound strange because what girl doesn’t want to go to the hairdressers right? Well… me. After one to many bad hair experiences I try to avoid it for as long as I can. We’re not just talking about little mistakes either. The last time I went they messed up my fringe so bad that when I went to get it fixed I was asked if i had done it myself. A couple of times before that I ended up wearing a hat for three weeks. It had been eight months since my last hair cut so I knew it was time to go back and success! I know the bucket says that I should get my hair cut radically but under the circumstances this was radical to me. I got a fringe cut!

I also bought new sunglasses and completed #88 Buy sunglasses. So in terms of pictures I thought I would kill two birds with one stone. Here’s the difference.

Before                                                        After with a fringe!

#6 Send a message in a bottle out to sea and #7 Go to the beach

#6 Send a message in a bottle out to sea and #7 Go to the beach 

Hey guys

Sorry I haven’t posted recently. I’ve kind of been in hibernation and I’ve doing a lot of reading. Anyway…

Going to the beach is a must for any summer and I am glad to have completed this item.Yesterday i went to not one but two beaches.  Seizing the opportunity on one of the only good days so far this summer me and my family went out on a nice walk. We visited a ruined castle and we even saw some seals. So cute!

Going to the beach also gave me the opportunity to complete a couple of other items. I also did #6 send a bottle out to sea. Though technically I sent the bottle out to a river. However if you look at the photos it looks pretty big and it does lead out to sea eventually so I’m hoping it’ll get there. Though there is a huge chance it won’t even leave the county I live in but I retain hope. Plus I think it got stuck in the rocks. Woops! I’ve put my blog address on my message so im hoping I’ll get a response one of these days. Even though the weather took a turn for the worst towards the end and we got soaked walking back to the car it was still a great day .

Happy Bucketing

Some beach pictures… I’ll post the rest on my pictures page.

A Day of Letters

Today has been a day of letters. I have managed to cross two buckets off my list – #56 Write to a department store asking if I can take one of their mannequins after they’re done using it because it strikingly resembles a recently deceased family member, then see if i get a response and #67 Write a letter to myself to open in one year.

5#6 Write to a department store asking if I can take one of their mannequins after they’re done using it because it strikingly resembles a recently deceased family member, then see if i get a response

The first was a slightly surreal experience that has no real purpose but I thought I should try it anyway. Having read it on another list I found it intriguing and I am excited to get a response back though I feel that it is unlikely. Now I didn’t exactly feel comfortable saying it resembled someone who was deceased because I feel you should honour the dead and I didn’t want to make up someone who had died. Therefore I said it resembled a family member who had gone to live overseas because this is true. Anyway my letter went a little something like this:

 To whom this may concern,

                                                I am writing to enquire if it would be possible for your shopping centre to provide my family with one of your mannequins when you are finished with it. I have found that the mannequins resemble my uncle who has gone to live overseas. We won’t see him for some time so it would be a great comfort to receive a mannequin that reminds us of him.

 The resemblance is striking and having passed some of the mannequins in your shopping centre it always reminds me of my uncle. By helping with this and providing one of your mannequins when you have finished with it you would be doing a great service to my whole family. Please look into your heart and help my family with this. Having something that will always remind us of my uncle would be extremely worthwhile.

 Please consider my request and get back to me.

If I get a mannequin from the shopping centre or even a written response it will make my year. Heres hoping.

 #67 Write a letter to myself to open in one year.

I also wrote a letter to myself to open in a years’ time when I’m leaving home ready to go on a gap year to China. While it sounds easy it was harder than you would imagine. I sat for at least 10 minutes staring at the blank sheet in front of me thinking about what to write. I finally settled on giving myself some advice for y trip in China and talking about what my life is like now to remind me. It was a weird experience.

Happy Bucketing

#54 Make a playlist and title it “The soundtrack of my life”.

#54.Make a playlist and title it “The soundtrack of my life”

Music can be a powerful thing. It can affect your mood and bring back memories of other times. It’s so diverse and so many people are united in their love for it. They may not like the same music but all the same they love music. That’s why I liked this bucket. When making the playlist I stopped to think about all the other people who like the same songs as I do and the memories the songs brought back. For example I am a big Evanescence fan and whenever I listen it always brings back memories. It was the first album I ever bought  when I was younger and more recently the first concert I ever attended. After adding every song that has ever been my favourite I’m going to have fun listening to it and remembering all the good times I had listening to those songs.

Happy Bucketing

#87 Buy cute flip flops

#87 Buy cute flip flops

Flips flops to me are the epitome of summer. I mean when else can you wear shoes that are barely shoes at all. Therefore I felt it was only fitting to purchase a pair for myself so I could really get in the summer mood. In the end I settled on not one but two pairs of cheap but cheerful flip flops. Sounds easy doesn’t it? I mean you can’t get an easier bucket. Wrong. Somehow I managed to mess this one up by getting the wrong size for one of my pairs of flip flops. I’ll have to exchange them tomorrow. Not only that but it seems the weather has a sense of irony. About ten minutes after making my purchase it started to bucket down with rain and it hasn’t stopped yet. I’m starting to wonder if I’ll actually get the chance to wear these fabulous flip flops.

Happy bucketing

#22 Start a blog

#22 Start a blog

Well obviously I have already started this one. This is my blog. Enjoy 🙂

I also have another blog – my year in china. Its my blog depicting how I am going to raise £5400 to fund a gap year in volunteering in China. Though it may not be your cup of tea unless you are actually doing any fundraising (i love blogs like this just now because I can relate to them but if you’re not fundraising you probably won’t read that sort of thing). However in a year when i actually go on the gap year it will change and I’ll start posting about all the great times I have volunteering in China. Hope you enjoy.

I hope you start to blog about your summer experiences because it’s definitely worthwhile. Let me know if any of you have a summer bucket list blogs

Happy bucketing