Status Update on The List

1. Bake an edible cake (hey, I didn’t say they were all going to be earth-shattering ambitions, ok). Does a batch of brownies count?

2. Perform a stand-up comedy routine at Time Out’s comedy night at Zouk. Just thinking about this task makes my palms clammy.

3. After years of promising to visit, finally go and see my high school buddies Bhags, Fish and Jols in Oz. Visited Fish and Bhags in Oz last December - managed to see Gold Coast, a bit of Brisbane, a lot of Adelaide, Alice Springs and camped underneath the stars in Ayers Rock.

4. Run a 10km race AND/OR climb Mt. Kinabalu. Signed up to run the 5.5km Energizer Night Race in April - baby steps to doing a 10km at the Standard Chartered KL Marathon.

5. Find my platonic ideal of a hairstyle (and hopefully my platonic ideal of a hairdresser, I know he/she is somewhere out there, waiting for me to walk into his/her salon. Sigh).I think I already had my platonic ideal of a hairstyle the whole time: long and messy. If it ain't broke, why fix it? Currently sporting a messy bob.

6. Write a short story or at least get a draft of a novel going (keeping the Bohemian Dream alive). Okay, at minimum, a really interesting haiku. Am starting to think that in the end, the Bohemian Dream may lose out to the Capitalist dream.

7. Compile all of my mom’s favorite recipes for posterity.

8. Get a promotion at work or alternatively, find a better job. Can't complain about work right now; it seems to be the only thing I don't really have to worry about in my life right now.

9. Go bungee jumping. Holding out for the real thing in New Zealand...

10. Go to a nice restaurant and have fancy dinner by myself, and later, take myself out to the movies.

11. Master mimicking at least 1 foreign accent (not necessarily sober). I think I can pull off a pretty decent non-region specific English accent after a few...

12. Organize my entire iPod library so all songs are accurately named by album with album art (I feel this may be the most impossible feat by far). Confirm, it is impossible.

13. Do a full body detox flush for at least 2 weeks (with no cheating!!!). Did this for about 1 month. Went on a slightly insane diet for about a month late last year, before falling off the wagon with a pint of Baskin Robbins.

14. Take up yoga. Have been rooting around for classes in the Ampang area; as intimidating as yoga seems, would really love to try this. Need to stretch out my muscles properly after all the running.

15. Visit Russia in the summertime, and finally make it to St. Petersberg. Went to St. Petersberg in May, lovely historical but quiet city. Swung by Stockholm on the way back to KL. It was cold, but nice.

16. Fully pay off my credit card.

17. Write a hand written letter to a friend and mail it.

18. Learn to play 1 song on the guitar.

19. Make a new good friend (much harder than you might think). I'm too old for this.

20. Watch all the James Bond films again. Where to find a DVD set?

21. Pick a stock, study and track it, and make a small but significant long term investment (despite being in a line of work that involves making large institutional investments for large sums of money, little old me is still risk averse when it comes to making any personal investments in equities). Well, Prada's been in talks for a HK listing this year...

22. Read an English translation of the Qur'an.

23. Buy a green Le Creuset pot (and not just admire how pretty it is, but actually use it to cook). But it's so gosh darn heavy.

24. Find a worthwhile cause or charity and genuinely contribute towards it, if not money, at least my time. Recently discovered the Reach Out group in KL that helps the urban poor by distributing food, helping them find employment and housing; went on a night food distribution run through Pudu and Petaling Street area with the group a few weeks ago. Eye opening stuff. Will try to get more involved in this.

25. Quit that filthy habit.

26. Master the art of the perfect French braid, a’la Lauren Conrad. Nyeh, LC is kind of yesterday's news...

27. Visit a Zoo.

28. Learn how to make Laksa (Lemak, Assam or Sarawak).

29. Watch Coldplay in concert again (god, I hope they’re still touring in the next two years). To whoever made up that rumour that Coldplay was coming to KL later this year, it's not funny.

30. Celebrate my 30th Birthday in style (style being v. subjective). 11 months to go!