Bucket lists and trivia nights

      

Last Friday night I arrived home almost victorious from my first ever trivia night. My apologies to my table for my mistaken belief that a barrow was the term used for a neutered male donkey…… if only we’d had a hog farmer on our table…. or if only I’d listened to the greater knowledge of local butcher Rohan who was sitting next to me… What an excellently funny night organised by the Barham Primary School as a fundraiser. To the amazement of some of my friends, I had never before attended a trivia night and had in fact announced it was “on my bucket list”.

 

How many of us have a list either written down or stored in our minds, of things we want to do, achieve or experience one day? The phase “bucket list” became widely known following a 2007 film of the same name starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The two central characters are both very ill and compile a list of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket” and then set about accomplishing each thing.

 

Around the first week in January I like to compile a “List of Goals” for the coming year and it never fails to give me satisfaction to review the previous year’s list and tick a few things off. I am a bit of a fan of lists in general; shopping lists, things I must do before the day is out lists, household chores lists, bookwork lists, things to plant in my veggie garden lists, how to spend thirty million dollars when I win first division lotto lists.….

 

Having a bucket list is a way of reminding us of what we want to achieve in this life. Reviewing it on a regular basis keeps us on the path to achieving our goals and having some excellent life experiences along the way. So often we put things off, using excuses like; it’s not the right time, I’m not old enough, I have to finish school first, I can’t afford to take time off work, I don’t have the money, the children are too small, I’m not fit enough yet, I’ll do that when I retire. Bucket list ideas need not be all “big ticket” items like climbing Mt Kosciuszko, travelling the Trans-Siberian railway from Vladivostok to Moscow or jumping out of a plane at 14,000 feet (although it’s great to have a few of those on there too), include some easily achieved, simple fun things that you’ve never done before like attending a trivia night, playing a game of lawn bowls before you turn 20, 50 or 100, climb to the top of Pyramid Hill, hire a kayak and go for a paddle on the river, walk around the Barham Lake with a friend.

 

If you haven’t already done so, I highly recommend an outing to the Golden Rivers Theatre Group’s “Pride & Prejudice” for an evening or afternoon matinee of beautiful singing, fine acting and laugh out loud humour. Our talented local thespians and their equally talented production team are at it again with their annual performance. Just watching the hilarious array of facial expressions produced by Catherine Dawson aka Mrs Bennett is a treat in itself.