Longlist: Forming An Orderly Queue

Over the last couple of weeks I've been writing down potential goals. I started out with half a sheet of scrap paper. I filled one side. Then I turned it over and filled the other side. Then I filled three more sides of scrap with potential goals. Then I bought a notebook, and copied them into that. Then I wrote some more goals straight into the notebook.

I haven't actually counted them. I'm a bit scared to, to tell the truth. Also, I can't be bothered. I can tell without counting that there are more than 101. Even allowing for the fact that I managed to write some of them down twice, there are way, way more than 101. It's because I wrote down everything that I could think of that I wanted to do, regardless of practicality, and everything that I liked the look of that I hadn't thought of myself, but had found on other people's lists.

I'm going to have to do some serious trimming. It's a good thing. There is serious competition for space on my list, so that means that the only goals that will make it on to the final version will be the ones that I really want to do, and, more than that, the ones that I really want to do and that I have a reasonable prospect of accomplishing.

Over the next few days I'll be posting the longlist, a couple of notebook pages at a time, and ask for your comments, your advice, your experience. Have you, for example, cooked crumpets from scratch? Could you tell me about it? Would you advise me to try it? What about trying 30 different beers? Reading a book in the place it's set? Most of the things I've written down are things I've not tried before, so the advice of people who have will be very useful in helping me decide whether they're feasible.

Some of my goals I like better than others, some I think I'll be able to do within the space of 1001 days, some I think I won't. I won't tell you which are which - this spoils the fun, and possibly biases the results. I don't know. Watch this space.