A Bucket List...

There is nothing like hearing the diagnosis from your doctor, terminal! I am sure there are plenty of things that run through one's mind in the immediate aftermath of knowing that the time frame remaining on your life is definitely much shorter than you had been figuring on. So, what to do with the time one has left?

Dave Ismay was diagnosed with terminal cirrhosis of the liver. The terminal part was three months to live.

Ismay is well-known around Britain as a comedian and because of his work at the Aston Villa Football Club. But, at 64 Ismay realised there were a stack of things that he had not done that he really would like to take a stab at before pulling up stumps and going to the big football club in the sky.

Remembering the movie with Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, Ismay decided to make a "bucket list" and list all the things he needed to get done. These included buying a Mercedes and taking a trip to Australia.

Nevertheless, in between planning his demise and passage to the eternal life of the ever-after, Ismay began to wonder about how a non-drinker manages to get cirrhosis of the liver, particularly the terminal kind. Ismay's research began to suggest that even he, a one-time 60-cigarette per day smoker, was not a likely candidate for cirrhosis.

Probably the most interesting part of this story is that Ismay kicked his smoking habit with the aid of hypnosis. According to Ismay he made a trip to Florida from his home in the UK and sort an intervention of the hypnotic kind to rid him of his smoking habit. He did that when he was 40-years-old. He is now a sprightly 64-years-old.

Despite his concerns about the diagnosis, it was eight weeks before the doctors called to say "good news, you are not terminal with cirrhosis of the liver!" Ismay had a much more manageable condition known as haemochromatosis. Haemochromatosis is essentially iron overload. The body absorbs too much iron out of your dietary intake and overloads your system.

Haemochromatosis is generally not fatal. But, it does involve one parting with lots of blood in order to strip the body of the excess iron.

Well, now that Ismay knows that his death is not imminent, is he going to continue with his bucket list?

"Bucket List"

Space travel! This one is for my bucket list! It will only become a reality if I get a better paying job or the lottery gods shine on me and I then win the big one!

Nevertheless, the idea is one worth pursuing. I hope that I live long enough to see the price tag come down from USD 200,000 per ticket to something a little more respectable. To say you have been in space and by definition a space traveller would be a lot of fun. How much would I be prepared to pay? Depends on how much my better half would let me pay, I guess!

But space travel for the average traveller is a reality. Average traveller in this sense being a traveller not trained to be an astronaut! With the launch of Sir Richard Branson's new Virgin Galactic Line of "space" craft the possibility of a 2010 launch date seems to be ever so more real.

The ride in space might only be a couple of minutes in the initial stages of this kind of travel but you still spend time in space, so that should count for something.

Anyways, my bucket list seems to be growing more quickly than I can tick things off. The clock is ticking so it is time I pulled the proverbial finger out and got cracking!

Mt. Merapi

Following on from the previous post I also had the chance to get up to the foothills surrounding Mt. Merapi whilst in that part of the world. I also had not been to Mt. Merapi for an even longer time than the amount of time since I was last in Yogya. So, long in fact that there has been an eruption or two since I was last there.

Climbing Mt. Merapi is on my bucket list and as I am now moving into the "you're an old bastard" list as well, it is high time I organized this otherwise the bucket will get up the mountain before I do.

The last eruption took a few lives and destroyed a good deal of property. But as I was standing there on the now hard and dry lava bed I wondered why it is that people think they can go up against mother earth and win. It really is a case of when Mother earth gets going, the tough might stay, but the smart get going!