For some odd reason, I like flags.

Partly because of the importance a flag holds to the citizens of that country, and partly because I like how a seemingly simple design can mean so much once you learn a bit more about it.

Despite liking flags, and having several favourites, I never actually got round to learning some of the more obscure ones.

Recently, I received a set of flag flashcards from my sister so decided now was the time to start learning the flags of every country by heart.

After a few weeks of practice, going through the deck over and over, I now have them pretty much mastered.

Here is my video running through them as quickly as possible as proof. Did I get any wrong? You’ll have to watch to find out.

After properly going through the flags now, here are my three favourites.

1. ALBANIA: It is more like a coat of arms than a flag. You could imagine it on a shield in battle. The eagle on the flag comes from an old Albanian folk tale, where it watches faithfully over the king.

2. NAMIBIA: Mainly because it is just so colourful and vibrant, and all the pieces hold different meanings. For example, the red represents what Namibia considers its most important resource – its people.

3. BELARUS: The ornamental pattern on the left is so unique and intricate, it seems like a magnificent rug rather than a flag.

If you also have an interest in flags, I would suggest checking out World Flags 101 for more information.

Many years ago, I watched Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

For anyone who has seen it, you will probably remember the scene where Indi and his female companion are served up a meal of monkey brains. This, for me, is about the most extreme food you could eat.

So that is why trying brain was put on the list.

Recently, it was mentioned to me that eating brain might not be such a healthy idea.

Further research on Wikipedia reveals the following:

“Brain consumption can result in contracting fatal transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and other prion diseases in humans.”

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a degenerative brain neurological disorder that leads to rapidly progressive dimentia, speech impairements and a range of other issues. It is incurable, and often fatal.

In other words – not a great outcome of eating brain.

So, I quickly decided that this might not be the best goal to attempt. Until I came up with another way to literally try brain.

Here is the receipt to prove it – see the second item down (click for the bigger version).

While in Cardiff, I sampled one of their local brews, known as Brains, thus achieving the goal of trying brains.

So yes, although you may cringe and say I cheated, I say that I simply found a non-fatal way to technically achieve a goal.

And with quite a few to go, and just 11 months, I need all the help I can get!

If today was your last day on Earth, what would be your biggest regret?

Tough question, isn’t it.

But as each of us reaches closer to our last day, each of us will have regrets. Things that we didn’t do, things that we did do but shouldn’t have, places we didn’t go to, friends we dropped out of contact with, and so on.

Bronnie Ware was a palliative nurse in Australia, and had the rare opportunity to hear the regrets of many of her patients as they lie on their deathbeds.

Over a number of years she collated those regrets and put them into what looks to be a very inspiring book, called The Top Five Regrets of the Dying.

I haven’t yet read the book, but the reviews seem glowing for it. There was a summary published online, which summarised the top five regrets. Here they are (how many do you relate with?):

1. I wish I had lived a life that was truer to myself, rather than living the life expected of me

2. I wish I hadn’t worked so hard

3. I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings

4. I wish I’d stayed in touch with my friends

5. I wish I had let myself be happier

Five very powerful regrets. You will notice one similarity between all five is that they are about things that people didn’t do, rather than things they did do. There is a well-known anonymous quote that I think is very true, and goes something like this:

In 20 years it will be the things you don’t do, rather than the things you do do, that you will regret the most.

A great reminder to make the most of every day you have, doing what makes you happy and lead the fullest life you can.

All of this reminds me one of the very first posts I put on this blog, way back in August 2007. A simple cartoon with a very clear message.

Have a great day.

I am fortunate to work at a company that prides itself on giving back to society, and employees regular give up time to help out at one of a number of different charities.

One of these charities is Ronald McDonald House Charities, which was started in the late 1980s and is established in many countries, including Australia. The basic premise of the charity is that they have big houses set up very close to hospitals (particularly children’s hospitals) to allow family members to stay close to their loved ones during treatment.

To sum up – a very, very worthy charity that makes life a little easier during one of the toughest times in a family’s life.

One thing the charity finds is that most families stop eating properly, because they don’t have the time or energy to cook a meal.

So last week, about ten people from our team spent the afternoon at the Ronald McDonald House near London Bridge, with the job of cooking a three-course meal for the guests of the house.

We were split in three groups (starters, mains and desserts – I was on dessert duty), and told to make two different dishes for each course that could feed an army. We cooked up a delicious chocolate brownie and apple and blackberry crumble, and there were chicken pies, lasagne, and more bruschetta than you could poke a spatula at.

All the ingredients were paid for by our company, and after about five hours of slaving we had a feast fit for a king. We left before everyone started to come and eat, but really hope they enjoyed their meals.

Hearing the stories from the staff about the difficulties faced by families was really heart-breaking, and this charity has a personal meaning to me as it was a charity that my parents used when my little sister was in hospital in Melbourne several years ago.

It felt really good to do something for someone else, and it was also good to work on something outside of work with work colleagues too. All in all, a really nice goal to complete.

Sometimes in order to achieve something, you have to be willing to change the way you planned to achieve it.

This goal is a good example.

As you can tell from the title, the goal was to fly in a jet fighter, but as you will see below that is not exactly what happened.

When I left my previous employment, everyone pitched in and bought me a 30 minute flying lesson in a light aircraft as a leaving gift, and declared that it would count for this goal.

And I thought ‘Why not?’ – I will still experience the thrill of flying in a small plane, and this way I actually get to fly it too.

So last weekend Nat and I went down to Bournemouth, and on a brilliantly sunny England day we went to Bournemouth airfield.

Here I am, shortly before takeoff. I was a little nervous, but excited too.

And now in front of the Cessna 150, ready to get going. Steve, the co-pilot for the flight, was a 20-year-old, which didn’t fill me with too much confidence (he proved to be a natural though). I feel old, thinking about someone of 20 years of age being so young!

This is the view from up above. We were really lucky with the weather, and had the opportunity to fly over water as well, which was brilliant (there was even some slight turbulence at one point too, just to make the flight even more interesting).

Once we were up in the air, I got to take full control of the plane, try out steering, drifting, and generally getting a good feel for how sensitive the plane was. I was surprised at how little you need to shift the main control to make the plane shift direction.

I wasn’t in control of the plane at this point, of course. You can see that behind me, there is pretty much nothing but a bit of room for a suitcase or two.

As one final piece of excitement before we landed, we had to abort our first landing because a bigger plane wanted to land too. Nevertheless, Steve managed to get us down safely (ably supervised by me of course!).

It was a great experience, and one I would love to do again, but at £100-£150 for an hour session, that is just a bit too steep to take up as a hobby.

But feel free to call me Maverick next time you see me anyway.

I thought I would get the last 12 months off to a quick start, and in the spirit of focusing on tasks that have the most importance and meaning, I thought writing a will would be a perfect one to do first.

Here’s what I did:

- Found a reputable online do-it-yourself will maker

- Completed all the relevant steps (only took about half an hour, and was really quite straightforward)

- Paid the £35 legal fees (which made me feel like it was legitimate)

- Received an email with the final will attached

- Got the signatures on the will from two non-family members

Now I have a legal last will and testament, and all I need to do is find a good spot to store it. I guess this is where I need a real lawyer perhaps.

It feels good to have my wishes written down, and it was an interesting process to think about too. Well worth doing.

As much as I am a glass half full kind of person, I am also a realist. Achieving the remaining 90 goals inside of a year would take a miracle (and probably a machine that can stop time).

So, I have a request. Can you please help me choose which of the open goals I should focus on? Pick as many as you like.

Here are the remaining goals:

2. Learn to play the guitar

5. See the Northern Lights

7. Do a property management course

9. Host 10 dinner parties

10. Be an extra in a movie

13. Get a boating licence

15. Play my violin at least twice a month for six consecutive months

16. Go on a follow-up Buddhism course

17. Work at an advertising agency

18. Meet Sir Richard Branson

19. Have a Seinfeld marathon weekend, watching every episode

20. Win a poker tournament

23. Meet Seth Godin

24. Have a child

25. Patent an invention

27. Visit southern Africa

31. Learn the national flag of every country

32. Put my cloth badges (which I have collected from different countries and places for many years) on display

33. Buy a family home

35. Be less pedantic about bad spelling and grammar

36. Complete a basic mechanics course on how a car works

37. Shoot a round of under 100 in golf

39. Get a meaningful tattoo

40. Complete a marathon

42. Start a Masters degree

43. Compete in the Birdman Rally

45. Participate in a scooter rally

50. Call both Mum and Dad ten times in two consecutive months

55. Win a pool tournament

58. Write ten handwritten letters to friends and family

59. Fly in a jet fighter

63. Go sailing

65. Do a short course in lateral thinking

66. Take a road trip to QLD, WA or NT in a combi van

67. Go on a houseboat holiday with friends

68. Drink two litres of water every day for one month

69. Complete the Oxfam Trailwalker

70. Learn to juggle five balls

72. Travel first class on a plane without paying extra for the privilege

74. Go camping at least six times in three years (2/6), including at least one trip to the southern Grampians

75. Visit the Melbourne Immigration Museum

77. Get dirty at La Tomatina

80. Learn to ride a unicycle

83. Successfully land a backflip

86. Buy a new plant every month for six months

87. Send out ten ‘messages in a bottle’

88. Set up an investment portfolio

89. Have a fundraiser event and raise at least $5,000 for a charity

90. Visit a winery in the Yarra Valley

92. Watch every Best Picture Academy Award winning movie

94. Do a cooking course

95. Be a part owner in a greyhound or a racehorse

101. Volunteer for a charity

105. Go away on a trip, just with Dad

107. Make a short film and enter it into a short film contest

108. Fish in the Gulf of Carpenteria

109. Brew, bottle, name and label my own beer

111. Go to the London Olympics

117. Perform in a local theatre production

118. Learn to play a great song on piano, like The Entertainer

122. Go to Antarctica

124. Learn to use Photoshop proficiently

125. Try brain

130. Devise the perfect crime but never perform it

131. Get a birdie in golf

133. Kick a goal from 50 metres out on either the Telstra Dome or MCG

134. Go to Darwin

136. Busk as a human statue

138. Renovate my unit with air-conditioning, new oven and new paint job

147. Build something useful with wood

149. Write a will

150. Swim with dolphins

151. Do a short course in French

152. Play in a tennis tournament

153. Go to Las Vegas and win one hand at a poker table

156. Complete the Kokoda Track

158. Do a big clean out and have a garage sale

160. Learn five really good magic tricks and perform them to an audience of at least ten people

161. Go to Gallipoli

165. Visit the doctor at least three times for a check-up, and the dentist at least once (1/1)

169. See the Crusty Demons perform live

170. Catch a fish that is over 5kg

172. Form and play in a basketball team

174. See the Red Bull Air Race live

175. Do aid work in Asia

177. Perform a stand-up routine

179. Go back to Nepal and trek with Mani, who was my guide last time I went

So I have tried pretty much everyone online to-do list manager out there, from Remember the Milk to Tadaist to Evernote to keep my work and play tasks managed.

But none of them do things exactly how I want them to be done.

So me and two mates, Ant and Steve, are doing our own.

The main difference between our tool and all the others is that ours will help you decide what to do next, and keep you focused on just that task.

Kind of like when you are in a tunnel, and your focus is just on the light at the end. Thus the name Tunnl.

At the moment, we are inviting people to sign up for an invite to our beta release, which is coming soon. If you are interested in signing up, head to our sign-up page and leave your details.

It’s official. Somehow I have found three people as crazy as me, and we have signed up to do the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km challenge in July.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the Oxfam Trailwalker is a 100km trek in southern England, which must be completed within 30 hours.

David, James, Simon and I had our first official team meeting this week (at Pizza Hut, which is probably not a good omen) and are now preparing ourselves for the physical and mental challenge ahead (Trailwalker is known as the world’s toughest charity event).

We are also aiming to raise £1,500 for Oxfam. One pound in a third world country can go a long way, so why not donate a few at our donation page.

Thanks,
Team 183