Vast, memey doom

[chess]

I feel I ought to write at least a sentance about each of these. But I only have about fifteen minutes. So I shall see how far I get. Ones what are in bold are ones I have actually done.

01. Bought everyone in the pub a drink
I have, in fact, never bought anyone a drink in a pub. If it's my round, yours is water.

02. Swam with wild dolphins
Dolphins, um, make me think of furries. Furries which have caused some of my less squickable friends to reach for the brain bleach.

03. Climbed a mountain
I'm pretty sure none of the things I have climbed have actually counted as mountains. OTOH I have done my fair share of wandering up rather large hills and occasional waterfalls and rockfaces, so I think I deserve this one as much as most of the people who felt like highlighting it did.

04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
I have never taken any car for a test drive; I have driven the grand total of three cars, my car, my driving instructor's basically identical car and an interim driving instructor's Corsa which I didn't understand at all. (The driving instructor in question really sucked, talking on her mobile phone much of the time and yelling incoherantly when I got stuff wrong that I was 'f***ing up her gearbox'.)

05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
I wonder if it's like being underground.

06. Held a tarantula
I've never actually got my hands on a tarantula, but I do like taking spiders for walks. They provide their own leads, after all.

07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
The concept of a candlelit bath seems very similar to 'being wet and naked when the fire alarm goes off' to me. Or 'being stuck somewhere slippery while the curtains catch fire'.

08. Said 'I love you' and meant it
Although I have been thoroughly put off saying it trivially, because not taking it seriously enough makes trouble.

09. Hugged a tree
Trees deserve hugs. You deserve hugs. Go and hug a tree.

10. Done a striptease
I suspect it doesn't count if the only audience is your mirror.

11. Bungee jumped
Once upon a time I was on a holiday called Red Braces (supposedly a younger-people version of the Greenbelt music festival) and they had an abseiling tower. One of my friends and I sat and watched people abseil for a while, and then went away again.

12. Visited Paris
If you haven't heard the story of our rather unfortunate hotel booking in Paris, you should enquire further.

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
I can't actually remember whether any of the storms I have watched at sea had lightening in them. I have been at sea on catamarans in quite a few reasonably impressive storms. I like boats; they are one place where not having a sense of balance to start with is a distinct advantage, because then you don't get sea-sick and are used to using weight and surroundings cues to keep yourself upright rather than easily overwhelmed balance senses.

14. Stayed up all night long, and watched the sun rise
Although several times I have only noticed that it has got light outside, and I've never managed to watch the sun rise on a nice clear day when you can actually see it doing the rising bit, rather than just staring at the cloudy sky from darkness to daylight.

15. Seen the Northern Lights
My parents are thinking of going to Iceland again, this time in the winter, in order to do that; I don't know if I would be able to tag along with them. Probably, for they still kind of feel guilty about having to rearrange it out from under me last summer.

16. Gone to a huge sports game
I can't remember going to any huge crowd event; a couple of concerts at the Corn Exchange, for which I've always had seats, are about the largest.

17. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
I have climbed innumerable spiral staircases, which I still think are good and nifty, especially when made of stone and worn down in lots of places and with rope for hand-rails, but not that one.

18. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
I managed to grow some cress once, but I'm pretty certain that doesn't cut it. My entire family is quite good at killing plants and not much use at keeping them alive.

19. Touched an iceberg
Mm, lettuce. (Sorry.)

20. Slept under the stars
I've slept on many different kinds of floor and under canvas a couple of times, but not under the stars. I have stayed outside from about 8pm to about 6am, on a LARP weekend, once, but I didn't sleep during it.

21. Changed a baby's diaper
Eww. Babies. They don't like me anyway, so there seems little point trying to deal with them.

22. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
I'm faintly suprised not more people have done this. If I had more time I would dig out the LJ entry I made about the trip. Poke me with a comment or two so that I edit and do so.

And then I had to run off. The rest of the list follows, for doing later:

(gone into next post)