17Nov 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#54 Lesson] Do Things for Your Own Reasons

[#54 Lesson] Do Things for Your Own Reasons

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #54 Run with the Bulls in Spain. The San Fermin Festival in Pamplona is known around the world by millions. Just as a flipped coin has two equally weighted outcomes, it would appear that 50% of people think that the festival is an incredible experience, while the other 50% think it is despicable. Unfortunately, my ex-girlfriend Sarah, her mother and the loud-mouthed English holidaymaker on the airplane were part of the latter 50%. I never tried to impose my beliefs on any of them, but they did their best to bring shame to those very beliefs. I wasn’t doing it for them, and I didn’t need their approval, but their disapproval made it tough on me. It took a lot of resolve…
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06Oct 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#63 Lesson] Passion Among Sports Fans

[#63 Lesson] Passion Among Sports Fans

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #63 Attend a European Soccer Match. This adventure, to watch Newcastle play, was eye-opening. Nothing serious happened with the fans during the game, but Craig and Jon’s stories about previous games had shocked me. In Canada, hockey is everything, and we are a very passionate nation. If we don’t win the gold medal at the Olympics, the whole country goes into depression for the next month. Fighting is also commonplace in the sport, though it is confined to the ice surface. Players fight all the time in hockey, but it is incredibly rare for the passion among fans to cause them to fight. This is what sets hockey fans and European football fans apart in my opinion. This led me to think…
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08Sep 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#69 Lesson] Marvel at Engineering Capabilities

[#69 Lesson] Marvel at Engineering Capabilities

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #69 Go to Stonehenge. As an engineer, I practice this almost daily. I constantly find myself stopping and looking at things to figure out how they were built or how they work. This is common with all of my engineering friends; we can’t help ourselves. I commonly refer to us as an engiNERD because our habits appear nerdy to the rest of our friends. I found the history behind Stonehenge fascinating. For centuries, modern humans could not explain how the site was built. Eventually, we managed to figure it out with our advanced technology. Today, we know when it was built, where the stones came from, how they erected the stones and many more facts about the site. It still remains a…
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11Aug 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#77 Lesson] Sometimes Life Isn’t Like the Movies

[#77 Lesson] Sometimes Life Isn’t Like the Movies

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #77 Get a Picture with a Buckingham Palace Guard. I am embarrassed to admit that I honestly thought that I was going to be able to make faces at a Buckingham Palace guard. I am abundantly aware that Hollywood dramatises almost everything, but I thought this one was different. I had seen it in so many movies that I thought it was actually possible to achieve. While you can get close to the guards, you cannot get close enough to make faces at them. And if you do make faces at them, chances are it will end up with you in the hospital. I was glad that I had Jackie to tell me that this was unrealistic. At least that prepared me…
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14Jul 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#78 Lesson] Stay in Touch

[#78 Lesson] Stay in Touch

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #78 Make a Call form a London Phone Booth. This was a pretty simple bucket list item to achieve, it was just a phone call to my parents. As I have said before though, there is a life lesson in all of these. No matter whether they are easy or hard. This one taught me how easy it is to stay in touch. And also, the importance of staying in touch. My dad was excited to receive the call and it was good to update him on the next leg of my journey. As I grew up, and began to start travelling on my own, my parents and I developed a rule – No News is Good News. Back then, the only…
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16Jun 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#23 Lesson] Keep Your Wits about Yourself When Travelling

[#23 Lesson] Keep Your Wits about Yourself When Travelling

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog post #23 Ride in a Gondola Boat in Venice. In my travels throughout the years I have experienced, and have been told about, many schemes where locals will try to hustle unsuspecting tourists. The sad truth is that you never know when it is going to happen until it is already in the process, or worse, it has already happen and you have been deceived. It doesn’t matter whether you have been travelling your whole life or whether you are on your first overseas adventure, everyone is susceptible to being hustled while travelling. One time when I was travelling in Cuba with my family we were on a tour and walked past a beggar. The beggar first asked where we were from…
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19May 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#90 Lesson] Explored History

[#90 Lesson] Explored History

BUCKET LIST, LESSON, TRAVEL
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #90 Go to Pompeii. What class did I hate the most when I was a kid? History. What is one of my favourite aspects of travel, today? History. Did I just grow up and begin to like history? Definitely not! I don’t think there is any risk of me growing up any time soon. What changed was the way I learned the material. Instead of being told about it by my teacher or reading about it from a book, I was experiencing it firsthand. I call this explored history. I find explored history more interesting as you can form a connection with the material that you are learning. Explored history excites more of our senses, which helps to make more of an…
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07Apr 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#36 Lesson] Accomplishing Life Goals Takes Commitment

[#36 Lesson] Accomplishing Life Goals Takes Commitment

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #36 Run a Half Marathon. As I said previously, this wasn’t the first time that I was stopped from achieving something from my bucket list and it certainly was not the last. This is only one of at least six times that I have nearly achieved a goal, only for it to be taken away from me. Sometimes it has been because of personal injury, while other times it has been the weather or circumstances beyond my control that have not worked out in my favour. Regardless of the obstacles that have stopped me previously, I am still passionate about these goals and they remain on my list. When I decided that I was going to run a half marathon, I found…
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10Feb 2021 by Dave Macleod 1 Comment
[#11 Lesson] The Grass is Greener Effect

[#11 Lesson] The Grass is Greener Effect

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #11 Go Surfing in Australia. Those who know me know that surfing is one of the activities that I am most passionate about. I learned how to surf in Nova Scotia, while I was going through university. I met a classmate, Jesse, who learned how to surf on the Great Lakes of Canada and moved to Nova Scotia to study and surf. Jesse didn’t have a car in university and I didn’t have surfing ability. We hashed out a mutually beneficial deal where I would drive Jesse to the surf, and in return, he would teach me how to surf. The deal formed a friendship that has gone on ever since. Jesse and I now both live in the same small town…
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13Jan 2021 by Dave Macleod No Comments
[#66 Lesson] Relaaaax

[#66 Lesson] Relaaaax

BUCKET LIST, LESSON
This life lesson relates to my previous blog #66 Hug a Koala Bear. Of all the facts that the zoo keeper told me during the koala encounter, the one that astonished me the most was that they can sleep for up to 18 hours a day. Also, she said that they are so relaxed that they can survive massive impacts. She told us one story about a koala that was hit by a transport truck and survived. The koala had several broken bones, but they managed to nurse it back to health. She said that this was also probably due to the fact that the eucalyptus leaves get the koalas a bit high. I guess their sleepy nature works in their favour and it got me thinking about how much…
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