28 in 28 birthday list [update 3]

It’s been a couple of months since my last update on my 28 in 28 birthday list, so it’s high time for a new update. These lasts months have been so incredibly busy. Thinking back on how much free time I had as a student, I definitely didn’t imagine working on personal projects and goals in my free time would get so hard. That being said, I’m making progress with some things that haven been on my to do list for years!

Read ten classics (either in English or Dutch) (2/10)

So far I’ve read The Stranger by Albert Camus and Crow by  Ted Hughes. I’m itching to start reading Peter Pan, but I find it very hard to make time for reading. It seems like there are so much things I’d rather do before falling asleep. At the moment I try to let it slide and to not stress about it, because I value getting relaxed at the end of the evening too much.

Go on five citytrips in 2016 (4/5)

I went on my fourth city trip in August. This time I went to Rotterdam with the Boy. We only went for two days, but it was enough to explore the city a bit and to get some hard earned relaxation. Rotterdam was really different from the normal city trip cities we explored before. It has no medieval historical centre and lots of modern and experimental architecture, which made walking around the city very interesting.

Reach my 2016 blog goals

Another goal on the 28 in 28 birthday list I’m not trying to fret about, although things clearly haven’t gone well these past months. I rarely manage to get a blogpost published, although I write them and I take pictures. Just bringing the two together into a finished post is something I don’t get to. I should figure out an after work schedule so I can get to all the different things I want to do, but that’s not something I see myself do in the next weeks. Again, no stress, we’ll see where this goes.

Becoming an official inhabitant of Ghent (a Ghentian)

It took a while, but after patiently waiting for two months I finally got to change the address on my ID to Ghent, which, after living here for eight years, maybe wasn’t that long of a wait.

Navigate the waterways in Ghent

In June I got a mail from the lovely people of Walkie Talkie asking me if I was interested in a concert by Zimmerman on a boat during the Gentse Feesten. I immediately replied I was interested, because who doesn’t love an acoustical session of a band while navigating on the water? It was as perfect as I imagined, with the sun shining, champagne and both good music and good company. I never imagined I’d be able to cross this point off my 28 in 28 birthday list this way (I thought I would need to hire myself a boat and steer it and pay for it). Sometimes life throws you a nice juicy bone and all you can do is be grateful for it and enjoy it completely. Which I did.

See 28 new (to me) movies

I haven’t been watching a lot of new movies. We went to see Finding Dory and also saw Zootopia. The only other film I watched in the past months is Elysium, bringing the total number of new movies to 10. Which is a bit disappointing. This doesn’t mean I haven’t watched anything new recently. We’ve watched to a couple of seasons of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and recently I started watching Freaks and Geeks and got back into Penny Dreadful. With so much new series I need to discover and so much awesome content out there (I discovered Netflix), I think I’ll just binge watch series for the rest of the year.

Get my driver’s license

GUYS! I did it! I’m so happy I could cross this one of my 28 in 28 birthday list! After what feels like a century (but in reality is a decade), I finally got my driver’s license. I did my exam the last week before my theoretical exam would invalid and I past from the first time. Boom! I still don’t like driving, I’m not sure I ever will like it. I distrust every other driver on the road and I still feel anxious when I think about it (although less so when I’m actually driving a car). On the plus side: there’s a whole bunch of shops I can drive to now, without needing the Boy to chaperone me.

Get a tattoo

Getting a tattoo has been on a couple of these lists in the past years. I wanted one since for-ever, but finding a design that really fits me and the right artist (and not to mention the money) to actually get one wasn’t easy. I still don’t have a tattoo and I’ll probably wont get on this year, but I did find my artist and I am getting an appointment. The inking part will probably follow in april 2017. Still a long time away, but I guess I can wait a few months more.

So, that’s it for this update. After seven months of working on my 28 in 28 birthday list I managed to cross off only four points. Which isn’t good. But if I look at my list and at how little spare time I have, I have to conclude my past self was slightly delusional. That being said, I still have five more months to get things going, so I’m not giving up yet (although I am thinking of changing up things next year).