(Today’s column)
“The Bucket List” is a film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. I saw it several months ago and it just seems like the most relevant idea to me today.
Edward Cole (Nicholson) and Carter Chambers (Freeman) are terminal cancer patients with six months to live. They meet when they become roommates in the cancer ward. Cole is a multi-millionaire; Chambers is an auto mechanic with an amazing mind for trivia.
The bucket list is a writing exercise from Chamber’s college days. It contains a list of things that one wants to do before one dies. In a fit of depression after being told that the experimental treatments failed, he throws it on the floor and falls asleep. Cole picks it up and the adventure begins. They agree to draw up a common list and do all sorts of things. After checking out of the hospital, with Cole footing all the bills, they go sky-diving, car racing, they travel the world, gaze at the Egyptian pyramids, live in an Italian villa and go on to visit the Himalayas.
I’m not dying. I’m not even ill. But it was my birthday yesterday. I have lived more than half my life and I think about all the things I still want to do before the second half is over. So, I made my own bucket list.
Places I want to see:
1. China. With my love for Chinese food, visiting China would be like a journey to the source. I want to savor the smell of the Chinese markets, the street food… I want to see how the cooking is done on the grassroots level rather than through the eyes of cooking host shows and cookbook authors.
2. Egypt. No doubt that the pyramids are a tourist attraction. What I want to know is what it feels like to stand at the foot or inside one of those structures. Will I feel like an insignificant speck in human history? Will I feel proud to belong to the specie that built all that? Will I shudder at how man celebrates their grandeur when they were built with back-breaking slave labor?
3. The Italian countryside. Again, this has more to do with food than anything else. The cities don’t interest me much. Shopping in Milan or dining in Rome might sound like the perfect holiday for some but what I want to experience is real Italian peasant cooking. The kind that seems to emanate from the very earth from which the cooks pluck the vegetables and fruits and where the goats and cows graze so they can produce the milk from which all those wonderful cheeses will be lovingly made.
4. Melanesia and Polynesia. When one of your earliest musical experiences is Rogers’ and Hammerstein’s “South Pacific” and then you go on to read James A. Michener’s “Tales of the South Pacific” when you’re a little older, something in you is permanently captivated. I still can’t shake the romance, the feistiness and the mysticism out of my system after all these years.
Things I want to do:
1. Publish a book or two. Or three or four. One or two on food. And another with a collection of what I consider to be my most unorthodox essays. And, finally, a book of stories for children.
2. Drive a Formula One car. Speed can be described and written about from a literary context or from a scientific and mathematical context. I want to feel it. When I was in college, I used to drive with the car windows open because I found the wind on my face and blowing through my hair exhilarating. I wonder how the wind would feel like while driving a Formula One car.
3. Fly a plane. Just to feel what it’s like to operate a vehicle without bumper to bumper traffic. The view from up there would be 10 times better too.
4. Learn how to ride a bike.
5. Conquer my fear of small enclosed spaces.
6. Find out the truth about mind control, telekinesis and pyrokinesis. If they can be done, I want to learn. What for is my business and mine alone.
Things I’d like to photograph:
1. Sunrise in Bora Bora.
2. A butterfly coming out of its cocoon.
3. A hatchling breaking out of its shell.
4. Lightning against a pitch black sky.
5. A policeman accepting tong.
6. A politician accepting a bribe.
People I’d like to have a long lunch with:
1. F. Sionil Jose. He will forever be my favorite Filipino author. Discussing the Rosales Saga with the author would be a swell way to spend an entire afternoon.
2. Oprah Winfrey. I want to know what makes her tick. And I want to know if she is as articulate without the benefit of research done by her staff.
3. The Pope. There are a lot of things I want to ask him and I want to be able to look into his eyes when he answers. Like what? Oh, like whether he doesn’t find it ironic that he lives in a palace while the world starves.
4. A serial killer. It would be interesting to delve into a cold calculating mind that can plan and execute killings without qualms and remorse.
List too long? I’m not that old. In fact, there’s this feeling that the best is yet to happen during the second half of my life. I have time.
I have time.
ako naman simple lang- learn how to swim hahahaha… para ma-enjoy ko naman ang mga beaches na mapupuntahan ko. Nice entry miss connie. I’m a fan of yours for a long time. I love your blogs.
Ay isa pa pala, learn how to ride a bike din para di na lang ako lagi nakaangkas. Parang mas masarap ang feeling kapag ikaw ang may control ng bike.
LOL so I’m not the only adult who can’t ride a bike. hehehe
Now everyone is talking about the American economy and eclections, nice to read something different. Eugene
Ms Connie,
I myself keeps on trying to capture photos of policeman or mmda guys on motorcycle withour their helmets on. kaya lang, I am using my camphone pa lang and the photos (yes, photos) I am getting are not as good as I want them to be. Im sure yours will capture them on the act, na walang kalusot-lusot!
I will wait for your photos of the policeman and politician. Im sure you will be able to get them
As for the other items on your not-too long list, I am sure the best is yet to come!
Tatlo na tayo; learning to ride a bike is also in my bucket list.
We definitely have time. Question is, where do we go where we won’t be embarassed to fall and make fools of ourselves? 
As for places to go, ako Swiss alps ang gusto kong marating; reading “Heidi” back in grade school ang dahilan naman nito. Eating fresh goat cheese and playing and running barefoot in the mountains…
Eugene, you said it! LOL Just about every blogger is getting into the elections bandwagon (even if its just recycling the news) for the traffic hehehe
Dinah, camphones are getting more and more high tech ha. Especially Sony Ericsson phones. So, go girl! hehehe
Nikita, di ka rin pala maruning mag-bike? LOL Di bale na matumba basta di mabalian. When I learn how to bike, I’ll wear knee pads, elbow pads, jogging pants and long-sleeved shirt para less chance na magka-peklat.
And speaking of the Alps, now there’s something I should add to my bucket list — learn how to ski. Now that would be a blast.
i agree with ella on wanting to learn to swim. i hope there’ll be a time when if asked if i could swim, i could immediately say yes (or the more confident, OF COURSE) instead of my current situation where i would have to deal with the follow-ups like, “but philippines is sorrounded with water”
i learned how to ride a bike when i was a junior high school which i’m so thankful that i still pursue learning because it’s the most useful of my skills i needed to survive in china.
about the chinese cuisine, some questions you would rather leave un-answered. lols, but if you really want to, perhaps the dishes you have in mind where those from southern china. someone mentioned (and i’m inclined to agree) that 90% of chinese food outside china came from the southern chinese regions. though i think you’re also interested with sizhuan’s and the peking duck(?)
regarding books naman. why not publish book series similar to jessica zafras twisted series. maganda yung mga ‘cat on the window sill’ entries mo. yabangan mo si batjay sa kwentong tambay at batang kaning-lamig nya
You mean food outside of the Southern regions are too “exotic”?
Re the books, naku, I can’t even try and compete with Jay. He’s one of a kind. A series would be nice except that my areas of interest are so unrelated. Basta, the best part is I have started writing (can you imagine that I do write apart from blogging, the column, the magazine…LOL) and… the photography will be an integral part of the books.
it’s not that southern food are too exotic. it’s just the way they prepare food in the restaurants – nakakawalang-gana kumain. lols, so i was thinking if you want to eat in chinese restaurants, stay out of the kitchen!!!
pero pwede rin, just look at the important details and forget about the bad ones like where they store the ingredients, the utensils, how they clean (or not clean) the kaldero at kawali
hi connie, my hubby and i had our honeymoon in china (shanghai and beijing). well, one would expect that food would be best from where it originates, right? was i sooo mistaken. i tell you, we have better chinese food here!! i don’t know, maybe HK would be a better choice.
maybe it’s because we had a poor choice of package tour provider. but you know, some of these hotels where we stayed in for instance were not bad looking (could be 3-4 star) but the food– they could only be described as too oily, too alat, or downright weird. even when we ate at restaurants outside of the hotel, the food still fell short of our expectations.
between the 2 cities, i had better experience food-wise in shanghai.
well, this was in 2005. things might have changed for the better since then.
hi miss connie! apat na po tayong adult na di marunong mag-bike. hehe. akala ko ako lang ang handicapped sa aspect na yun. pero goal ko rin po yun para masamahan ko naman hubby ko magbiking kahit tandem. hehe
Wow, I guess for myself I satisfied 25% of those places you want to see – I was in China last month and got to see:
My wife, who is white, tried the skewered scorpion-cue! Well, she was quite adventurous with the local street fare ( if you have all your travel shots like she has and tons of CIPRO & Imodium in her purse one can be daring I guess which I am NOT!) We both love the Beijing(Peking) Duck served at the Made in China Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt.Hotel – - you can’t afford to miss eating in this place – it’s simply one of the best!)
Took 3000 frames of photos with my Canon EOS 5D/ 28-135 zoom ( 200 came out acceptable – not bad, I projected 50.) BTW, if have to do it all over – I’ll pack my good ole Powershot – it’s lighter when you’re climbing a 2000 foot high(?) mountain in Simitai!
1) The Forbidden City in Beijing (amazing!)
2) The Great Wall in Simitai – walked all 3.5 Km of the wall (what is allowed for tourists to walk) – if I have to kick the bucket tomorrow, I am happy I saw it.
3) The Empress Dowager Summer Palace in Beijing (awesome!)
4) The Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi-an (fantastic!)
5) The Ming Emperors Tombs in Xi-an (wow!)
6) Returned to Beijing to shop & bargain like crazy in a flea market and the Tianye mall. (cheap, cheap, cheap!)
7) Got to see the Bird Nest and saw one day of the 2008 Paralympics. Witnessed 2 world records broken (exciting!)
Except for the occasional hacking & spitting by the locals, Beijing is a clean and safe place to visit. We really had a fantastic time.
Already got an early booking for Egypt & Jordan (to see the Petra) and will tour for 10 days during fall of 2009. I guess it’s time to invest on a Lonely Planet’s Egypt book and a renewal of our Travel magazines.
I find it odd that we both wish to see the same places in the same order. I guess great fun lovers think alike. LOL.
You gotta do it, you’ll love it!
Kotsengkuba, eh sanay ako sa estero nun sa Chinatown.
Robin, thanks for the feedback. And you’re probably right about the wrong tour package. I think it’s best to stay away from commercial tours (I hate the time constraints imposed anyway). It’s nicer to go on your own pace, stay in one place as long as you like and skip another that doesn’t interest you. Thank kind of thing.
Cheann, appear!!! hehehe
Jake, wow that is quite a China itinerary. And I think I know the common denominator. It’s the photography thing. We think of places in terms of the wonderful photos we can take.
My younger daughter will soooo love to see the Terra Cotta warriors. Ah, the time she spends reading about China. Unbelievable. Thanks for the tips. Will save them, for sure. The summer before my younger girl goes to college, it’s China for us! LOL
ang sarap naman ms connie, kami daw kapag retire nya sa military saka kami magtrip para di magaya sa “euro generals”! haha
One of the recent films I watched. I cried near the ending. And I found myself revising my short old bucket list (I already have one before watching this). I laughed out in your numbers 5 & 6 of to be photographed.
I wanted to see China as well. Well, to start I’m doing a stop over in Macau this December. My officemates and I planning to go to Egypt next year. It’s reasonably near UAE.
The Pyramids are awe-inspiring. One of those blocks were taller than I was. Amazing how they did that way back then. Even in Roman times the pyramids were already ancient.
The Italian countryside in the middle and nothern parts of the country is unbelievable beautiful. Too bad they drive worse than here. Stoplights/signs are just a suggestion hehehehe
And trust me — snow skiing is overrated (although water skiing is a lot of fun)
cheann, it’s just a plan for now hehehe depende sa budget.
Alex’s first choice is Japan but, shucks, that’s a lot more expensive than China.
Miguk, re “Too bad they drive worse than here.”
Huwatttt?? I thought that was true for Egypt and India. In Italy too?
Yes — if you want a race car experience (or more like Death Race hahaha) try rush hour in Naples
Belated happy birthday Connie! Madami palang hindi marunong mag-bike? I don’t bike too though it’s not on my list of to do’s before I go. Thanks for sharing your list with us.
Miguk, there’s no speed in that. LOL
Thanks, Angel. I don’t feel insecure anymore about not being able to ride a bike hahahaha
What I’d like to do is set foot on all 7,100 islands of the Philippines and do a documentary of the experience.
Connie: Oh but you are wrong — rush really is the operative word.
Really? You know, your comment… there’s a part of me that says Filipinos overact when they complain about the traffic situation here. LOL
No, it’s not overreaction — driving here is horrible.