I’m not talking “To Do” lists or shopping lists – though I always use them – but rather Bucket Lists, “10 Best….” lists, those types of lists which are incredibly popular blog posts. I’ve even indulged in a few myself but they’re often surprisingly difficult to write. I think this is largely because you have to whittle stuff down and sometimes it’s hard to make choices.
I have an annual struggle to choose just 12 photographs from the thousands I take each year for my “12 Days of Christmas Post” – coming soon – which are supposed to sum up my year. An even smaller selection make it onto my annual New Year card.
After trips to special places, I’ll often try to sum up some of my favourite things about the place. I try to reduce it to five things – easier said than done. I’m currently trying to do this with my trip to Japan.
Of course, it goes without saying, that I’m a sucker for other bloggers’ posts on the “5 Best Things About……..” If they’re about a place I know well, such as any of the towns on the Cote d’Azur, I’m always keen to see what they enjoyed the most. Always useful for when people ask me for recommendations.
It’s at times like these that I wonder whether less really is more? However, if you only have a limited amount of time to spend in a place you’ve never visited before, insights from others can be most helpful.
I’m currently planning – surely the best bit – another trip to Australia, this time to Queensland. I’ve found it really useful reading all those “10 things to do and 5 things to see in”…posts. These serve two useful purposes: unearthing places I want to see and things I want to do and vice versa. I hope some of my posts fulfill a similar role for other travellers.
While I’m generally not a fan of bucket lists, particularly those entitled “to do before you die” ie kick the bucket. Seems so final. However, I love the ones written by far younger bloggers entitled “x no. things I want to do before I’m 30.” It’s great to have goals in life.
Of course, if it’s hard to distill stuff into 10 or 5 favourites, it’s even worse limiting yourself to just one. People will ask me for my favourite restaurant. To be honest, I don’t have one. I have ones for various occasions: breakfast, brunch, casual lunch, Sunday lunch, celebratory dinner, seafood dinner, pizza and so on……and, of course, these change over time. I recently gave my long list of recommended restaurants in the area a bit of an overhaul. I hadn’t updated it during the last six months and needed to make a surprising number of changes.
