Sixty by Sixty

As I mentioned in a previous post, in between the excitement of the weddings I just happened to have another birthday. It came and it went, I was busy setting up for Open Studios all day and we celebrated in the evening with a fish and chip supper. The only thing of any real significance is that I am now 61 and so according to my own rules I am at the end of my sixty by sixty project.

Except I'm not really as I'm only up to number fifty five! But they have certainly been a lot of fun and introduced me to lots of new things, some I will definitely do again, some I will never do again and some that have opened up new opportunities. It was never meant to be a bucket list, although there is still a list of things I would like to do before it's too late (I've yet to see the Northern Lights for one), it was always more of a project to open my mind to new experiences started because I happened to mention in passing I had never been to a music festival. I've still not been to a music festival!

So it was always a project to try things I'd never tried before, visit places I had never been, achieve some long held ambitions and to do things that I may have never have thought of doing before. The only proviso was it had to be a new experience. It was no longer good enough to say "I would like to do that one day"... I intended to do it because life should be an adventure!

There have been some really exciting things like the indoor sky diving (I still think I might like to try the real thing), climbing over the O2 and maybe best of all, riding VERY fast on the back of a motorbike (Although I'm sure we weren't going THAT fast officer!)

One of my long held ambitions was to do the London Moonwalk, which was an amazing experience and there are already plans afoot to do it again next year with some friends.

Afternoon tea at The Ritz was another highlight that I loved but probably would never do again... unless of course someone feels like taking me.

Handling big birds of prey was another fun day out despite it being on what was probably the coldest day that year.

I also realised a long held ambition to start my own baking business which I did for two years. My first commissioned cake was this Guns'n'Roses cake

The last one was a twenty first birthday cake for a young doctor in training.

Much as I enjoyed it, I decided it was taking too much time away from my textiles and so reluctantly closed up my kitchen to the public last Christmas. However one of the other things I did over the 60 x 60 project was get involved with Free Cakes for Kids, a lovely charity that provides birthday cakes etc for children who would otherwise not have a cake. From my very first cake for Orla, I have gone on to make many more, some for children's centres, some for homeless charities and some for children undergoing cancer treatment... all of them a pleasure to make and something I will continue to do. The best thing is that without my 60 x 60 to spur me on I may never have got involved. The more I think about it, many of my 60 x 60 experiences involved cake!

I still don't know if the friend I nominated for an honour will be considered. It can take up to eighteen months to process and the only way you know is if it is successful... I'll keep an eye on the New Year honours list! There have been so many exciting and interesting experiences all I can say is do look down the list (in my sidebar) and give some a try! I can highly recommend Bletchley Park, Kew Gardens and Peterborough cathedral if you have never been.

And so to my last "experience" which was riding a zip wire... can you believe I have never done that before. We were meant to be taking our grandson to the park to play on the swings but I fear his Nanny-G may be a bad influence!

And as a result of the zip wire experience I was given a voucher to "Go Ape" for my birthday,  so I can't stop my project just because I turned 61 can I? I have been recording each experience in a scrapbook so will continue to fill it until I reach sixty things (my project, my rules!) and after that I will just carry on, trying new things, seeking out new experiences and going to new places, embracing and enjoying life to the full.

I don't think I want to call it 70 x 70... but maybe I should be really ambitious and name it 100 x 100. What do you think? Any ideas?

You can see all my 60 x 60 posts here.