50 things I'd like to do before I'm 50

Well for my 50^th hub I thought I’d take a break from the norm and actually produce a hub that was irrelevant, and irreversibly irreverent. Well I plan to do the Hub on Gigantic Bosoms for my 51^st hub so I had to come up with something completely different (as Kenny Everett would say).

So I figured, why not create a ’50 things I’d like to do before I’m 50s hub, and then as I actually do these things, I can update the hub with my experiences.

I’ve got 8 years to do all of these things, so wish me luck. The list starts with the achievable items and then gets more difficult as it goes along  - with number 50 being nearly impossible!

My daughter is pregnant and is due to have her child on May 1, 2010. All I want is for her to have an easy childbirth and a healthy child. (I hope it’s a boy as there are too many girls in my household, but as long as he/she is healthy then it doesn’t really matter.

My other daughter is attending College next year, and I hope to help her pay for the fees as much as I can so she isn’t burdened with debt when she Graduates.

For the last two years I’ve been told I am being promoted, only for the economy to get worse and worse and for promotions and hires to be frozen! Hopefully, with the economy recovering I will finally get my promotion!

The daughter who is having the baby in May has a dream of becoming a tattoo artist – she is pretty talented at drawing and if I can help her achieve her dream I will.

It's hard to believe that my wife and I have been married for 12 years already – one of our dreams is to go on the Orient Express and visit some of the amazing and historical cities of Europe (Vienna, Budapest, Paris, London).

Our family has read every one of the Harry Potter books, seen every movie (so far) and find that the movie still connects us as a family even though our children are grown up – it is our wish that as a family we will visit the new Harry Potter theme park and especially enjoy the experience of seeing Hogwarts Castle being brought to life.

We fly back to the UK often and due to the price can only normally afford the cheap seats – if First Class is still around, we’d like to fly to the UK first class once!

I’m a Geek and proud of it. One of the lasting memories I have of my mother is the time we spent watching the entire Star Trek Next Generation series – it took us several years, but it was quality time. I want to relive those days so I can capture a little of the essence of my mother.

I’ve always watched the Olympics; there’s something amazing watching World Class athletes compete for their country, showing the pride and honor while competing – having been born in England and lived in Wales for 30 years, I’d love to attend the Olympics.

While I don’t dislike the house I live in or the area I live in, New Jersey is simply becoming too expensive to live in – as soon as my company allows people to fully telecommute, I will be moving, probably to North Carolina – hopefully this will happen within the next five years.

There hasn’t been a day in my adult life when I’ve been fully out of debt – it’s either been credit cards or mortgages. For once, maybe only for one day, I’d just like to pay off all my mortgages, credit cards and loans and finally be free.

I love gardening and when I put my mind to it can do some decent work – however as work has got busier, and my commute longer I simply cannot find the time to relax in the garden – it is my hope that over time I will find more time to spend in the garden, and finally do those large projects I’ve been thinking about for years.

When I first moved to the USA 13 years ago I was amazingly fit – more fit than at any point in my life! As I move towards my 50^th year, I need to get fit – for one thing, I need to for my health – but just for my overall state of mind I need to do this – for me!

With a family I’ve always put off getting what I wanted and ended up with a sensible car – a Honda, a Ford or a Nissan – for once, as my children begin to leave the nest, I’d like to get a car entirely for me – that BMW Z4 is looking pretty nice these days.

From the day we moved into our house in early 2001 we’ve always had someone living with us: my children, my mother-in-law, my father-in-law, my wife’s children and her kids – one day I’d just like it to be my wife and I (and the 2 dogs and three cats) – we’re even considering buying a one bedroom house so no one else can ever movie in!

Over the past six months I’ve found and contacted about 10 of the people I went to school with – this list seems to grow (sadly so does the list of the people no longer with us!) – before it’s too late, I’d like to meet up with all the people I have met up on Facebook and share a few beers.

Life has a way of getting in the way and messing up my plans – my house requires so much work that it could take twenty years to fix up! However, I want to achieve everything by the time I’m fifty, so I can enjoy the finished product.

I probably make about $30 a month already on hubpages, so assuming I stay here and continue to write hubs I don’t see why  I can’t get to $500 a month – well I can wish anyways.

According to many prophecies, the world ends on this date – I for one don’t believe, but I guess I won’t by my Christmas presents until December 22^nd that year!

I cannot remember a year where I bought all my presents using cash – I always ended up balancing the books to pay for them in January and February  - this too will stop.

I’m the man of the house, or am I? With three women and one father-in-law I barely get to choose what is on TV (despite the fact that we have more TVs than people) – even if it is only for one day, I will control the remote.

Did I mention I am a geek? I’ve always compromised on the PC I buy, realizing that the extra money to get the perfect PC could be spent on other more urgent things – I still buy a PC that last for 4 years, but once, just once I want to buy the PC that has ALL the bells and whistles.

I’ve been playing video games for 30 years and am a pretty accomplished game player – however, what I find is that I don’t have the patience or time that I had 20 years ago – I don’t want to spend three weeks trying to solve a particularly hard part of a game, and hence I resort to cheating – again, just once I want to complete a game without cheating.

My wife and I love art and history, and there is so much art and history in Europe that I estimate you need at least a month to be able to see the best of it – the hard part is getting a whole month off from work.

There’s something so majestic about the Great Wall of China that it would be a profound experience to walk on it.

I am not overly religious, it’s just the Vatican City is one of the most amazing places in the world – it has amazing architecture, amazing art and a lot of incredible history.

This mountain has always intrigued me – recently a motivational speaker told me of his experiences filming on Everest, and the tragedy that occurred during the few weeks he was there – his experiences were profound, and I really want to simply stand and stare at this daunting mountain.

So far I have four half finished novels; some of them are good, some not so good! I’d like to actually finish one of them – not to sell or publish, but simply to say ‘I did it’.

While I realize I’ll probably never get a book published, I feel I do have a moderate chance of getting a poem published. I would call myself a journeyman poet, still learning how to write poetry, but I’d like to master the process just once.

This stunning natural reef is an amazing testament to the beauty that Mother Earth can create – this dream is a little difficult as Australia is a 19 hour flight away, and my wife is claustrophobic – but I’ll get there somehow!

Call me egotistical, but I’d love to hear a TV presenter say “SimeyC's webpage on his bucket list has made the news today as Rush have responded by offering a free concert in his honor” – or something like that – it would be nice if I wrote a hub that became an important part of a debate or something – I’ve heard of other bloggers being mentioned on local TV so why not me!

I've seen England win the Rugby World Cup on TV - I'd really like to be there the next time they win it so I could taste the atmosphere, and enjoy the partying.

For some reasons the England cricket team fails to perform when it really matters (aside from in the Ashes it seems) - it would be nice to see them win the Cricket World cup just once.

I wasn't born when England won the Soccer World Cup in 1966 so it would be wonderful to see them achieve this and win the World Cup for me - I hope they'll do it for me next year.

At the rate I'm going, I should do it - but I just wonder if I'll run out of ideas for new hubs by then!

When I look at my life, aside from my immediate family I don't really touch many people - I'd like to do something that had a profound effect on the world. Write an article, start a charity, just something selfless that helps a lot of people.

I've dabbled with music all my life and can play the piano a little bit - over time I've created a few tunes, but I'd like to transform one of these into a full song, even if only for my own listening pleasure.

I love the Beatles; they are one of the most amazing an influential bands of all time. I'd therefore love to meet one of their main contributors and one of the best song writers of all time.

I don't like work - it pays the bills, but it is a huge waste of my life. I'd love to retire on my 50th birthday and live the easy life.

We're all vain in some way; I'd love to see myself on the big screen next to Al Pacino - I don't care if it was only a walk on part, it would be so much fun!

Pink Floyd are one of the bands that I grew up with but never had the pleasure of seeing live; I'd love them to reform for a concert series and be able to get tickets!

Led Zeppelin are one of the greatest bands ever and are very influential. I grew up to their heavy songs and would love for them to re-unite just for one year so I can get to see one of my dream bands live.

This is probably an impossible dream, but to put myself through such and arduous and difficult task and then to sit on top of the world would be incredible.

Well this is everyone's dream - I would be happy with a couple of million - I guess I ought to start buying lottery tickets!

Rush are my all time favorite band - I've seen them four times now and will continue to see them until they can no longer play - it would be a dream to have them play an accoustic set on my 50th birthday - if anyone knows them, give them a ring for me?

Already there are talks of commercials trips into space; I have a slightly bigger ambition – being the first Hubber to walk on the moon – I sincerely hope that Buzz Aldrin isn’t a Hubber!

OK so this isn’t a beauty pageant, but I sincerely believe that one day there will be world peace – is it likely to happen before I’m fifty? No way – but I can live and dream.

The probability of there being aliens in the universe are very high (according to me anyways) – with billions of galaxies, and gazillions of stars there simply has to be at least one planet somewhere out there with alien life on it – I just hope that one day I get to shake the tentacle of an alien!

I don’t care if God appears to me or to the whole world, I just want to find out that God really does exist. It would be funny if ‘she’ turned up and pointed at all the religious leaders and say ‘The whole lotta you were wrong, just call me Q’ – OK so I had to be irreverent at some point on this hub – Gene Rodenberry would understand.

They say that love knows no bounds, but I truly believe that my love for my wife is already infinite and therefore feel that it is impossible to love her more.