I love sending mail, I really do. Big packages covered in brown paper with exciting things hidden inside. Generally there are always doodles on the outside of my packages, little pictures of random cute things. And really, who doesn’t get excited by a letter from some far off place? Some exciting envelope thats not asking you for money?

Well, it turns out I’m about as far as far off can get. New Zealand is tiny, and a million miles from the rest of the world. So I’m in a prime position to be sending things from a far off place.

And it just so happens, that Number 97 on the list is “Mail 100 hand written letters”

Hand written letters. One hundred of them.

Long story short, I need people to send letters to. People who live in places I’ve never been, or seen. Who live wonderfuly different lives, and have brilliant adventures. You, really. I’d like to write you.

If you’d like a letter, email your address to me (elly@rarg.co.nz) and I’ll send you a letter. A brilliant letter. With a stamp from New Zealand, or perhaps somewhere else, if I happen to not be in New Zealand at the time. Imagine the possibilities!

I promise not to do anything untoward with your address (cross my heart). Promise you’ll get something pretty in the mail, too. Something brilliant. Maybe a chocolate fish, even. Or some pineapple lumps. Maybe even a tiny tiki. You know, you’re missing out if you haven’t got a tiny tiki.

So please, please do email me your address (elly@rarg.co.nz)

It will be brilliant. I promise.

PS: Oh <3 for all the responses already! Just a note for the Kiwis, I won't send you letters from home. I'll wait till I'm in some far off place before you get yours. <3, though!

I did it. I made pumpkin soup from scratch. I thought it was going to be alot harder than it was, just quietly. I’m impressed it came out okay with only a vague idea of how you make soup, and I’m even more impressed that people other than me ate it and thought it was good.

(View it on Vimeo if you can’t see it here)

Number 12, done! Woo!

This is one of those things I never thought I’d have to do. I’ve never been in a situation where I’ve had car trouble and a) I haven’t had someone strong and masculine in the car, b) I’ve been wearing a short enough skirt so that someone will stop and help me or c) failing the other two, my trusty AA card. I have to say, this is the first time I’ve ever had a flat tyre. And stupidly, I spent the entire drive home trying to figure out what that weird noise is. So, lesson one: if you hear something weird, pull over and get out and check your tyres.

I didn’t do that. I drove pretty much across the city and waited till I got home before I checked my tyres. Yeah, stupid me. I’m one of those people who don’t know anything about cars. Absolutely nothing about cars. You put the key in, and go, is pretty much the extent of my knowledge. Still, I was pretty determined to do this myself (it’s on The List, see!), which was lucky, because I was the only one there to do it anyway. And because I was at home it meant that I could change the tyre in the safety of my driveway, instead of on the road.

So, first things first. Pull out all the shit in your boot. I had a spare space saver, one of those raise-the-car things, and two tools. I pulled everything out, and set up the raise-the-car thing. It took forever, but eventually I got the car off the ground. Yay! I was actually feeling pretty accomplished at this point.

Then pull of the cap thing that covers the bolts (if you have one) and using one of your tools, undo the bolts. This took me for-fucking-ever, because whoever had bolted on the tyre last had muscles like superman (or a handy mechanics tool). I, however, do not have superman-esque muscles or a handy mechanics tool and spent a rather inordinate amount of time jumping up and down on the spanner thing trying to loosen the stupid bolts. It was alot of hard work, and by far was the worst bit about changing the stupid tyre.

Once you’ve got the bolts off, slide off the punctured tyre, and put the new one in place. Super easy, though don’t do what I did and be surprised about the weight of the tyre. I dropped it on my foot and was unimpressed at myself.

Once you’ve got the space saver in place put the bolts back on. I decided that if I wasn’t strong enough to take them off with my arms, then standing and jumping on the tool to tighten the bolts was perfectly acceptable. I had minor fears about the wheel coming off when I drove, so I spent a long long time making sure the bolts were as tight as they could be.

Once the wheel is sweet, undo the raise-the-car thing (that’s totally it’s technical name) and tada! All done! I have to say I was pretty stoked with myself. I’ve never had to change a tyre before, and actually, it was pretty easy.

The next day I went to Firestone, in Albany to get the tyre fixed. Turns out I needed a new one anyway, but the guys were super nice. They let me clamber around the warehouse to get my 365 shot. They showed me the fancy equipment they used to check everything out with (I was bit unimpressed, actually, because what took me 45 minutes to do took them about 10 seconds). They changed my tyre, checked the condition of my other tyres, did some checking under the bonnet and then they gave me a super sweet discount! $79 down from $125! I was pretty stoked with that. They were pretty good guys, seriously. If you’re in Auckland, and you need tyres, then look them up. They’ll take good care of you.

Anyway. Number 33 on The List: Change a flat tyre. Done. Woo, yeah!

My best friends husband learnt how to KiteSurf over the summer. And even though he was in a different country, with an ocean between us, he somehow managed to instil an interest in me. It could have been the few youtube videos he suggested I watch (which turned into me watching a few hundred). Or the enthusiasm he had when talking about, or that he said it was like wakeboarding, but better because there was no boat. Or, it could have been when he suggested that it could be transitioned from water to snow.SNOW.

And oh! Oh, how much DO I WANT TO TRY IT! And I would have, already. I honestly would have, if I could have afforded to. But I’m saving, so I can adventure overseas. I’m putting a ridiculous amount of money away a month, and honestly, I was close to splurging this months allocation on a few lessons and a kit. I almost did, and it was a difficult decision to hold back and remind myself that London was the endgame.

And then he came over, and brought his kite with him. We spent a weekend anxiously checking metservice, waiting for the wind to rise enough to have a go. And then hurrah! On a Tuesday afternoon, it finally did! We drove down to the beach, and I helped the boys set up their kites, and get out in the water.

Sadly, we decided that the wind was too swift for me to try the big kites with the harness. There was also the small possibility of me taking out some of the punters with the big kite, and I was quite keen to NOT kill someone. So I didn’t get a go with the big kite, but I did play around with the practice kite for a bit. I swam and sunbathed and cheered the boys on as they did their thing.

Me, playing around with the practice kite

The boys on the water

It was a brilliant afternoon, and it did nothing but make me want to get out there on a board, with a kite. It’s even at number two on The List. And I’ll do it, I will. Probably in Europe, or something. On a beach in Greece, or Spain. Fingers crossed, anyway

What have you found to be newly excited about?

So, lots of people have one of those lists. The list where you write out everything you wish to do in your lifetime. It’s not an uncommon thing, these lists. I know Maggie from Mighty Girl has her Mighty List, as do many of her readers.

My list was one that I’ve been adding to in my journal since I was old enough to have one when I was 13. Each new journal started a new list, and only the really important things made it all the way to here. When your 13 ‘kiss a cute boy’ seems like a nice thing to put on your list. But when you’re 25 you’ve kissed many a cute boy, and it doesn’t need to be on The List anymore.

In the last week or so I’ve been seriously thinking about what I want to do with myself. I’m all fired up to DO the things I want to do. And as I’m all fired up with enthusiasm, it seems appropriate to share my list. So I can be held accountable, and actually DO these things:

The List.

1 – Feed Stingrays by hand

2 – Learn to Kitesurf

3 – Learn and play a song with bar chords on my guitar

4 – Get Singing Lessons

5 – Move to London

6 – Learn sign language and volunteer somewhere that requires me to use it

7 – Make a successful chicken roast

8 – Get a tattoo

9 – Ride the snow in Europe. Specifically: France, Italy, Switzerland, and Austria.

10 – See the Auroras in person, with my own eyes

11 – Own a house

12 – Make (a GOOD) Pumpkin Soup from scratch Done!

13 – Ride/Swim with an Elephant

14 – Have children

15 – Go to a Music Festival in Europe with Bunny. One of those ones where you have to wear gumboots.

16 – Visit the Greek Islands

17 – Learn how to ride a horse (and actually have it do as I ask)

18 – Shoot + Make a brilliant snow video with sound and clever effects

19 – Meet five of my blog friends, in real life, in their city

20 – Complete the 365 Project

21 – Build/Design my own House from the ground up

22 – See the snow monkeys

23 – Volunteer to help in a 3rd World Country

24 – Learn to ride a motorbike

25 – Swim with whales/dolphins

26 – Hug a koala bear

27 – Volunteer with Habitat for Humanity

28 – Ride at every one of Transworld Snowboardings Top 10 Snowboarding Resorts of North America (2009) [Whistler/Blackcomb, Mammoth Mountain/California, Northstar-At-Tahoe/California, Buttermilk/Colorado, Bear Mountain/California, Snowmass/Colorado, Breckenridge/Colorado, Park City/Utah, Keystone/Colorado Vail/Colorado]

29 – Make Pierogi from scratch

30 – Ride a bike around the base of the Eiffel Tower.

31 – Rock an African Safari

32 – Walk on a frozen body of water

33 – Change a flat tire. Done!

34 – See the Grand Canyon.

35 – Fly first class.

36 – Complete a Guitar-Hero song on Expert

37 – Get my Full License

38 – See the Pyramids (Egyptian and Aztec)

39 – Visit all seven continents of the world (North America, South America, Antarctica, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia)

40 – Be happily married at some point

41 – Get naked on a nude beach

42 – Make a quilt. All by myself.

43 – Go hunting, and cleanly kill a pest (ie, a Possum or rabbits)

44 – Cut off all my hair and be brave, and get a pixie cut

45 – Ride in a helicopter

46 – Figure out how to use my DSLR without the Auto-Focus function

47 – Take recreational culinary classes

48 – Walk along the Great Wall of China

49 – Finish Crocheting my red scarf

50 – Join the Mile High Club

51 – Ride in a hot air balloon

52 – Drive a convertible with the top down

53 – Visit the Amazon

54 – See the giant turtles at The Galapagos Islands

55 – Climb Ayers Rock (Australia)

56 – See the statues at Easter Island

57 – Dive in a submarine

58 – See the Leaning Tower of Pisa

59 – Visit the Vatican City

60 – Visit the Taj Mahal

61 – Pay off my student loan

62 – Attend a Movie Premier

63 – (Graffiti) Bomb a wall

64 – Walk on a glacier

65 – Wander the halls of the Louvre

66 – Plant a tree.

67 – Milk a cow

68 – Visit Stonehenge

69 – Learn how to surf

70 – Participate in La Tomatina

71 – Create a meal from vegetables I’ve grown in a veggie garden

72 – Pat a Tiger

73 – Go on a cruise

74 – Take a trapeze class

75 – Attempt to make cheese

76 – Try a deep-dish pizza in Chicago

77 – Do a road trip from Auckland to Dunedin

78 – See Polar Bears in the wild (Churchill, Manitoba?)

79 – Win and yell ‘Bingo!’ in a Bingo Hall

80 – Experience Zero Gravity

81 – Sand board in the Desert

82 – Ride in a Zorb down a hill

83 – Volunteer at a soup kitchen

84 – Help a stranger

85 – Ride in a gondola down the canals in Venice

86 – Visit the Serengeti

87 – Sail a yacht

88 – Have $10k in my savings account

89 – See a Shakespeare Play at the Globe Theatre

90 – Visit the coffee houses in Amsterdam

91 – Kayak around the Lagoons in the Bahamas

92 – Learn from a Silversmith and make something lovely

93 – Prepare and host a 5-course dinner

94 – Grow strawberries in my garden

95 – See the Nutcracker

96 – Go dog sledding

97 – Mail 100 hand written letters

98 – Ride the Orient Express through Asia

99 – Witness a solar eclipse

100 – Ride the snow in Japan

If I complete something on my list, it will no doubt get a post. :) Do any of you have lists?