Happy birthday to me! This 1990 baby has a busy year ahead, especially if I want to achieve a set number of things before I turn 30.

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ASOS dress | Public Desire heels | Vintage bag | Zara earrings

The race is on.

Today is my birthday. Today I turn 29.

As of today, I have just 365 days to put a tick next to a few things that I want to get done before I turn 30.

I’m not panicking about being a year from my 30th birthday. It’s just that I want to make sure can say I have achieved a few things before I hit that milestone age.

I could probably rattle off more than 5 things I want to achieve, but these are the things that currently have my focus. Here’s to hoping I can come back to you on my 30th birthday, and tell you I have put a tick next to all of these goals!

Get back to Europe

I’ll be honest with you, this has been a goal for a very long time. Probably ever since I embarked on my homeward journey the last time I was there, in 2012/2013.

I’ve talked about it for a long time, now I have a year to make it happen. There are plenty of reasons I want to get back, making the yearn to be there very real. The airfare is already sorted, now I just need to save the money and commit!

Have my work published in print

I’ve found myself in print a number of times. All of it was either related to photography, or me as a blogger. The next time I see myself in print, I want it to be my work.

To date, all of my freelance travel writing has been published online. I love writing in the online space, but I am still old school in that I love picking up a hard copy magazine, and flicking through the pages. By the time my 30th birthday rolls around, I want to have been able to purchase one of my favourite magazines, and flick it open to a feature I have written.

To be honest, I am nervous about this goal. But you would never do great things if you stayed within your comfort zone all your life, right?

Learn a new skill

I am never not up for learning a new skill, but I really want to nail one before my 30th birthday. Maybe it means I will head out surfing more often with my cousin, or perhaps I will try pottery like I have always wanted to do. If either of those don’t get off the ground, learning to sew properly is something else I have been meaning to do.

Apparently you can teach an old dog new tricks, so I am going to try!

Host a dinner party

It doesn’t have to be a traditional, stuffy dinner party, just a big, Mon-made dinner with a group of friends.

For a very long time, I was incredibly nervous about cooking for other people. I was so worried that I would screw it up, or that people wouldn’t like it, that I avoided cooking for others wherever possible (my exes are an exception). Now that I am older and more skilled in the kitchen, I actually want to cook and have people over for a feast.

I love spending time in the kitchen, toiling away, and it would be much more gratifying to share whatever it is I am cooking with other people. Maybe I might even attempt some of those recipes I have bookmarked in my millions of cook books!

Finish 5 books

I am embarrassed to say that I let book reading fall to the wayside. In fact, with the exception of the book I just finished, I can’t remember the last time I finished anything longer than 2000 words. It feels almost criminal of me, given the direction I am taking my work.

Thankfully, I seem to be back in the groove of book reading. All it took was rediscovering my love for crime based non-fiction books. It sounds sombre, but the only books that seem to really grip me, are books about criminal activity. The one I just finished was about Ivan Milat, and I have just picked up a biography on Josef Fritzl.

Hopefully, in the next year, I can complete at least another 5 books. Now that I have rediscovered my book reading mojo, I don’t think this should be too hard to achieve!