top five experiences

Last year, Tania and I and our friends Chad and Adele spent the day walking the beach in Malibu. At the end of a beautiful day of sun, surf and conversation with great friends, we started rooting around for a place to eat. We went to a wine store first to stock up on spirits (spiritual growth is very important to me) and I found a vintage bottle of Krug Grand Cru. This champagne is very expensive and is almost impossible to find in Canada, so it's a great treat on a special occasion. Due to the US recession it was on sale for 50% off. A no-brainer. We asked the vendor to recommend a restaurant and he told us to try "Nobu" across the street, but warned us that it can take two weeks to get a reservation. We troddled off across the street, Krug in-hand to negotiate a reservation. Perhaps it was the fact we are Canadian, or it was the champagne we asked them to chill for us, or it was Chad's Black Amex. I don't know. But they let us in for an hour later. (I think it was the Canadian Factor.)

We asked the waiter to simply "bring us your best best stuff". I like going to a restaurant this way. The staff bring their signature items and we never know what's coming. We ate wave after wave of the most interesting sushi creations, drinking the bottle which the wine vendor said would be a "spiritual experience" (it was), watching celebrities eat all around us, and then finished with a chocolate spring roll. We all agreed it was a top five restaurant experience. For me it was the top one. Hands down.

My favourite concert was watching the Barenaked Ladies do an a cappella version of their most complex song "one week". My favourite musical moment was having the Canadian Tenors sing happy birthday to me (surreal but nice.)

My favourite sports moment was when Canada won the hockey gold medal in this recent olympics.

My favourite relationship moment was the first six hours of my romance with Tania and more specifically the first time I looked her in the eye.

My favourite business moment was finding out a client had rescued his marriage from the brink of a nasty divorce.

Children being born. Travel. Professional achievements. These are the highlights of our lives, what makes life worth living and what the stretching and striving is all about. The list is a dynamic thing and cultivating the presence of mind to actively seek out these experiences is the logic behind a bucket list.

It's possible to have a top five list that changes every day, if not every week, month or year.

For help with your bucket list go to http://www.stepup.net/