Done: Keeping culinary traditions

I love food, my friends love food and most people I know list food as their favorite thing along with sex and long walks on the beach . Food is also a very important part of culture; when you think about holidays and traditions you usually think about what your grandma used to bake or what your mother or father used to burn. 

Most religions celebrate their holly days with feasts. You don't know how bad I want to be invited to a Muslim home at the end of Ramadam, I can't wait to cry honey tears from all that baklava. In Australia, they celebrate Christmas with Legs of lamb and BBQ's, I know, here in Quebec, some people cook a turkey and in Costa Rica it is the time for the much awaited Tamales.

Done : Face my greatest fear

If the tittle sounds epic it is because it was an epic experience, for me anyway, and I'm quite sure that for Nik as well, and my instructor possibly.

Well, I imagine it was pretty good for his ego. How often is that you can convince someone crying that the best they can do is jump of a 10 story building into their death bead and have a clear conscience about it. Well, it wasn't a 10 story building but it was a 4 meeter deep pool and yeah, I was wearing my scuba gear but if you have been living in real life and not reading my previous posts you would know that for me, it was just as dramatic as if he had asked me to jump out of a burning Zeppelin's into a pack of hungry hyenas.

Image © Bettmann/CORBIS

Done: Learn to drive a standard shift car

Ugh, this one was a hard one. I live in Montreal so I don't have to use a Car. I sincerly dislike driving.

I enjoy the sense of "freedom", aka "roadtrips" but aside from that, I think people everywhere drive like idiots, including me.

I don't know people clumsier than I and there are things you are not supposed to do when you are clumsy. Like drive, work in IT, scuba dive, basically lots of fun stuff with the potential to kill people, machines and/or yourself.

Done: Traveling like a "true" backpacker

Oh harsh reality. Sometimes those things you wanted tho try the most, end up being gilded doors to a path of suicidal thoughts.
Like the one who dreamed to bungee jump then heard his cord snap, or the one who wanted to go salsa dancing then realized, had no sense of rhythm and felt uncomfortable with all the grinding.

This has pretty much been my experience traveling as a “true backpacker”.
Nik and I had been traveling by ourselves for a while, that means sleeping when we want, eating what we want and going to places we like. A pretty good life, if you ask me. It isn't too complicated to do either, all you need is a car, a good travel mate and off course money.

Done: Surfing

Surfing is one of those things that were truly out of my to do list in this life. I hate the water, I can't swim and I'm not a beach person either. Still, I also understand the importance of doing something new, changing one's routines and habits, specially while traveling.
Coffs Harbour seemed like the right place at the right time. Nik is an avid surfer, but his technique was more improvised than anything else, he wanted to take a class and sure, I wasn't about to sit and watch.
It was fun to see Nik so surprised, we booked 3 lessons for the two of us and we started that same afternoon.