I know quite a few of my friends think I'm having a midlife crisis and some are even concerned I may take it as far as buying leather trousers and a motorbike (come on, me in leather trousers, get serious)! Maybe I am! I know I shouldn't need a list to help fulfill my life, and I know my life isn't that bad, in fact I'm really lucky. I have a really good job, good friends, decent money, and my own bachelor pad – aren't these the things that everyone strives for. Maybe I should just be satisfied with what I have. Even though all of those things are great, something just doesn't feel right. I don't want to be the kind of person anymore who always plays it safe, and I don't want to get to the age of 50 and look back and regret the chances I didn't take. If I hadn't created the list, would I really be going abseiling in a month's time, or ever known that one of the most exciting places that there is to visit, is a small town in the remotest part of Scotland. Plus, due to the list, Borgue's tourist trade is due to quadruple during November. They won't know what has hit them when around 10 people come to visit. I bet they don't normally get that many in a year. If somebody had said to me a few months ago that I'd be directly responsible for increasing the Scottish tourist trade, I never would have believed them in a million years. It's amazing what a little bit of positive thinking can achieve!
And that's what the list is giving me, positive thinking! I've now got goals. All those things that I've wanted to do but always put off or never got round to, I now have to do! Let's face it, after going on and on about it in all of these emails and blog posts, then I'll look pretty stupid if I don't actually fulfill any of these goals.
Eager to start ticking things of the list, I decided tonight that I would attempt to tackle number 7 – Learn how to cook. Now anybody that knows me well, knows that I don't cook. Its not that I don't know how to or aren't capable, it's just that I don't. Since Sarah moved out 3 years ago I could count the number of meals I've actually prepared on one hand. For 3 years I've either eaten at my parents, eaten at the Meg, and maybe once a week treated myself to a takeaway. I would actually class myself at as a gourmet chef at certain specialist foods though. Some people just don't appreciate the skill that goes in to preparing the perfect Waffles and Spaghetti hoops, and they think that its easy to cook a Birdseye chicken burger, but little do they how many years of endless practice it takes to get the breadcrumbs cooked to point of perfect crispiness without actually burning the burger. Its not just main courses that I'm good at either, you'll be hard to find anybody that can make better Strawberry Angel Delight. As you can see, I'm already fully equipped to host the perfect dinner party; I mean who could ask for anything better than the choices I've just listed. I feel though its time that maybe I branched out a little and learnt one or two more recipes. It'd be nice to be able to serve something extra special when people come round to eat. If I met a girl and invited her round for dinner, sure I could impress her with the best microchips and chicken burgers she's ever had in her life, and then woo her over even more with an angel delight 99 (that's my own creation by the way, Angel delight with a flake in), but wouldn't it surely impress her more if I went that extra mile and prepared something fancy like sausage and mash, and then really hit it home with the dessert and brought out some "Scooby Doo" Fairy cakes. She wouldn't be able to resist me!! She'd be straight on the phone inviting her friends round for that foursome, or maybe even fivesome if I got the icing on the fairy cakes spot on.
So as I was saying, tonight I decided to cook. After a trip to Somerfield, I set about starting to make Fajitas. The job was made even easier by the fact that Somerfield sells pre-chopped chicken. How bloody fantastic is that!! It saved at least 10 minutes in the preparation time. Forget sliced bread, soon people will be saying "Well that's the best thing since pre-chopped chicken". So anyway, I'm sure you're all expecting me to say what a disaster it turned out to be but I'm pleased to tell you that it went great. I had a slight issue with chopping the onions and crying like a baby, but apart from that the meal was a huge success. Next time I'll ease up on the portions a little as not wanting to leave any of my first meal I probably ate enough to happily serve 3 people. Many more meals like this and I'll be seriously struggling to cross number 6 off my list (Lose the beer gut).
Check out me with my first meal….
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