BUCKET LIST

The Bucket List was a 2007 comedy-drama film directed by Rob Reiner. It starred Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. The story followed two terminally ill men on a road trip with a wish list of things to do before they "kick the bucket."

Someone forwarded me an email the other day with a list of things that was on their bucket list. I found it pretty interesting and it got me thinking about what are some of the things that I have not yet done that I would still like to do before time here on earth comes to end.

So this is obviously not a completely exhaustive list, but just a list of 20 things in no particular order that I would definitely like to do or experience at least once....

* Go to The Holy Land
* Learn how to play the violin
* Run a marathon
* Learn how to drive a stick
* Get married
* Own a pair of Jimmy Choo's/Manolo's:)
* Invent something
* Go to Wimbledon or the US Open
* Meet Oprah
* Sing the National Anthem (Bahamas of course) at an important event
* Cook oxtail (as opposed to just eating it, lol)
* Go to Hawaii
* Make it to World Athletics Final in Greece this year!
* Learn how to apply eye shadow
* Own the new BMW X6 4door or 2door. I saw one today. It is the business!!
* Become a motivational speaker
* Write a book (Does writing my Sport Psychology Master's Thesis count? It was over a 100 pages...)
* Pay off my house
* Flip a house
* Go to a BIG, headline fight in Vegas!

There's a whole lot more I want to do but these are just a few. What are some things you want to do before you "kick the bucket"?



PS. TMM,vraiment:-)

YARDIE

Yeah it's 4 something in the morning and I'm awake, yet again. Anyway....

So even though I was raised in The Bahamas from the age of 7 and I have been a citizen since 1991 and if someone asked me where I was from, I would say The Bahamas, I'm actually Jamaican. At least that is where I was born anyway. Falmouth, Trelawny deep in the country part of Jamaica. All my close ties and friends and allegiance is to The Bahamas but all of my relatives and history is 100 percent Jamaican - parents, uncles, aunties, cousins and everyone before them.

Yesterday, I was watching the Lausanne track meet online with my good friend and training partner, Aubrey Herring, on this remote website that he found the meet on and we had a good time as we watched Dave tear it up over there and beat World record holder and Olympic champion from Cuba, Dayron Robles.

Now on this website, as the video is streaming, you can post running commentary with all the other people that are watching too and this makes it pretty interesting. Clearly some of the other viewers were from Jamaica due to their written vernacular. It was quite funny because if you've ever heard Jamaican "patois" (pronounced pa-twaa), it's not the easiest thing to understand, but reading it presents an even bigger challenge. One time Aub had to ask me what the one guy was saying and I gave him the full breakdown, lol.

Anyway, I can't remember exactly what I "translated" for him but I thought I would give you a couple examples of what written patois looks like and how hard it can be to read. I'll write something first in patois and then translate it below and you can see how or if it makes sense.

1. PATOIS: "Dis eh pickney need fi go dung a road an' nyaam sum'tin. She too mawga!"
ENGLSIH: "This child needs to go down the road and eat something. She's too skinny!"

2. PATOIS: "Hard ears pickney bite rock stone."
ENGLISH: "Hard headed children will pay the consequences."

3. PATOIS: "Look 'ere no massa, no mek mi haffi draw mi han' back an' give you two buffu lick in a you mout! Is who you tink you a talk to?"
ENGLISH: "Look here mister, don't make me have to slap you. (Literally written - draw my hand back and give you two big hits in your mouth.) Who do you think you're talking to?"

4. PATOIS: "You too own way."
ENGLISH: "You're too selfish."

5. PATOIS: "So you tink me a wuk fi you? Cum and pick up you carrouches an' gu wey."
ENGLSIH: "So you think I'm working for you? Come and pick up all of your stuff and go away."

Well that's my Patois lesson for the day. Hope you had fun trying to say the few random sentences I came up with. By the way, yardie is the term used by Jamaicans to refer to people who are from Jamaica. Aub, thanks for the inspiration!

PS. Joice, I figured you'd enjoy this one!

Why wHy whY???

I'm just wondering......

Why do I always pick the wrong line in the grocery store, walmart, the toll booth??

Why don't my friends tell me when I have something stuck in my teeth?

Why do I stay up so late? What exactly am I soooo busy doing at 1am in the morning?

Why are my arms so muscular? Believe it or not, I swear I hardly ever lift arm weights.

Why am I OK wearing my competition uniform which is the same size, give or take, of a bikini, but then petrified to wear a real bikini swimsuit??

Why do my calves sweat when I'm out at the track working out?

Why are my eyes so big??I'm not mad about it, I'm just wondering?

Why is everyone trying to make athletes, countries, officials boycott the Olympic Games? This is my job people! Why don't you boycott your own job??

Why do my fingernails grow so fast?

Why do I have a million different tan lines?? The tan around my ankles from wearing socks every day, the jog bra tan line, half tights tan line...it's not a good look!!

Why do people act as if they don't see me trying to merge onto the freeway?? I know you see me, so quit staring straight ahead and speeding up on purpose! Can't we just all get along?

Why am I afraid to see blood??

What's with that saying, "Bros before hos!" I don't like it very much.

Why do I like reality TV so much?

Why are my feet so small??

Why does Tyra speak so slooowly and drag her words out when she's trying to make a point? It's kinda offputting.

Why do men spend so much time rummaging around with stones, when often they have a diamond right in front of them??

Why am I still so naive/gullible?

What's with rubbernecking?? I mean you can still look at the accident and drive at a decent pace so we don't all have to be late!!

How come some people can do situps all day and have a no-pack and some can no situps and have a whole case of abs??

Why does a whole case of abs look so nice???

Why are people so addicted to their Blackberries?? Maybe it's because I don't have one but I just wish for once they would put them down!!

How can two eyes, one nose, and a set of lips look SOOO different on everyone? I mean really, it's only 4 things - the variation should not be so drastic!

Why is blogging so much fun?? Who knew?