10 Things I Wish I Would Have Done By The Time I'm 35

1. Own a house. Hopefully in a colder country where summers are a time to celebrate and not dread.
2. Be living with A in the house as we imagine it now - He got to decide the color scheme of the interiors – beige, olive green & cream/off-white (to set it off). I got the open kitchen with a granite bar along with bar stools where we can have our morning tea/coffee while flipping through the newspaper, French windows in the rooms, a glass sliding door that opens on to a balcony with a view, and separate bathrooms for us (I want to do up my bathroom in powder pink, which I'm assuming will not go down very well with A. I also need a separate shower area so the rest of the bathroom is dry at all times). Oh, and I also get a room done up in bright colors...yellow, orange, red, purple, fuschia etc. Sigh...I don’t know where we’ll find such a place but find it we will :)
3. Learn to drive – This is the only thing that's stopping me from being fully & completely independent right now, and is extremely high on my agenda (I've been lucky enough to live in cities with excellent public transport but I don't want this to determine my choice of city to live in). The only roadblock to learning how to drive is the memory of my last attempt, also my first. I was about 16 years old and my dad wasn't the most patient teacher. I was also a little scared of controlling the steering wheel at that time. Haven't yet been able to shake off those memories of me being jittery at the wheel (the one thing you should NOT be when you're driving) and my dad losing his cool by my side.
4. Get rid of my hydrophobia – Can you believe it, people? I leant to swim, and even dive, but it’s almost no good now because I can’t get myself to step in the goddamn water!!! Grrrrr...
5. Get out of the 9-5 rut and become an entrepreneur – I don’t know which will happen first – the fast food restaurant, the bookstore-cum-coffee shop, or the fitness center (a no-machine zone focused on holistic health & nutrition). The second one is what came to my mind first & what I’d lurrrrrve to see materialize the most, but I think the fast food restaurant is a more viable option financially, and will give me the freedom to have exactly the kind of coffee shop that I want - a "quaint little shop at the corner" serving American-style coffee, where Christmas will be celebrated with Christmas decorations, carols and customized Christmas coffees! And yes, a place where the music won't keep people from having a conversation and where people won't be hustled out the moment they finish their coffee. (I DO think Indian coffee chains such as Barista & Cafe Coffee Day are a joke, not to mention they serve horrible coffee - mild, under-brewed & lukewarm. Anyone who's been to coffee shops in America/Europe knows what real coffee is & what a coffee shop should be like. Yet, we're forced to patronize lame cafes such as Barista & Cafe Coffee Day due to the absence of a real coffee shop in India. I would like to change that.)
6. Travel to at least 2 countries in Europe with A – And I mean travel extensively, like around 2 weeks to a country. I'd like to visit the countryside and the villages just as much as the cities, and soak in their incredible history. The wish list includes: France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, Denmark, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Austria & the United Kingdom. I’m counting the spare change in my bank account right now!!
7. Learn a Latin American dance form – I would love love love to learn the Samba but I think it’s best left to the Brazilians who are born with the grace & the body for it. So I'll settle for Salsa, Rumba or Bachata.
8. Learn Spanish – I can speak basic French already, and would love to learn Espanol. It's such a pretty language.
9. Publish a book – ‘Nough said.
10. Take a sabbatical for 3-4 months, maybe 6, and spend a month in Chapel Hill where I got my Bachelor's degree. It's one of the prettiest places on this planet and holds lots of beautiful memories for me. It's the place where I came of age, discovered myself, and met the coolest people from around the world who I am still friends with & spent some of the most fun times with. I would walk around the campus, stroll down Franklin Street, soak in the sun in the Lower Quad, and hang around at The Daily Grind, Caribou Coffee & Starbucks for hours as I used to while I was in college. Only this time around I would be chilling over endless cups of coffee, watching the college kids scurry to class with their daily fix of caffeine in their hands, or kill time between classes over coffee.

I tag Moonshine, The Knife, Mumbai Diva & Random Words (hoping this tag will mark your return to blogging :) Here's the deal - It's a very simple tag. 1) Just take the next landmark age in your life. For instance, I'm 29 right now so I took 35 years as the landmark. If you're in your early 30s, take 40. If you're approaching 40, take 45. If you're in your early 20s, take 30. 2)Leave me a note when you do this tag, and 3) inform the people you're tagging (you can tag as many people as you want).

Do it, it's fun :)