Things to do before I die

My birthday is coming (hint, hint) and a couple of years ago, could it have been when I turned 30?!?, I got a book from my dear cousin Håkan called "101 things you should do before you die", a perfect present for someone who is starting to become slightly paranoid over his age. So this is a good time to start checking how it is going. Looking at the list and what I have done, I am not too bad off I would say.

Taking a bite out of life

These are the ones I have done from the list (I have not added the stuff referring to sex as my parents read this blog...);

• Make a childhood dream come true: I will say that I have done that, as I have always wanted to live abroad, and after ten years in three countries (Spain, UK and USA), I would say that I nailed this one!
  
• Meet someone with the exact name as you: not only is there another guy called Markus Renström, he lives, or at least lived, in Umeå in Sweden as well. Small world. I am cuter.
  
• Sign up as a guinea pig: I did a study for some eye drops at the hospital where my dad works. Still have my sight and got 50 euros for it!
  
• See the northern light: Come on, I am from the north of Sweden, you consider this difficult to achieve?!?
  
• Get upgraded to first class on an airplane: Happened on a business trip, we were standing close to the gate and a guy from the airline comes over and asks, "we are overbooked, you mind going to first class?" Did we mind? No. Did I have a gin tonic? Yes.
  
• Score the winning goal: I was playing midfield in my soccer team Sandåkerns SK, I was probably around eight or nine, score was 0-0 and in the last minute I managed to score the winning goal. I remember perfectly, ball came in from the right and I was alone at the far post and only needed to tap it in. It was an awesome feeling and I saw no point trying to become a professional soccer player as I had already experienced that amazing feeling.
  
• Resign from a job you hate: I did not really like my job at Don Quijote so when I resigned it felt great, and even better that the boss got mad over it.
  
• Bath in the ocean naked: It is supposed to be in the moonlight, but I did it in broad day light on a nude beach in south of Spain. Very much recommended.
  
• Get married in an unusual matter: I got married in Las Vegas in 2008. It was very romantic actually. Just Silvia and me, drinking gin tonics from the Bellagio terrace thinking: this night is impossible to repeat.
  
• Learn a foreign language: English and Spanish so far, probably speak better Spanish than Swedish... ups!
  
• Get a tattoo: I have three - a tree, a fish and some runes.
  
• Have something named after you: Not that flattering, but I had a tendency to walk into stuff, and I was sober so no excuse really, so some friends now refer to bumping into things as having the "Renström syndrome". Not yet accepted internationally but give it time.
  
• Have children: best thing I have done so far!
• Be present when your country wins the world cup: Technically I was not at the stadium, and technically it is not my country, but being in Spain when Spain won the World Cup was an insane experience. Even Silvia wanted to watch the games! The party afterwords was so loud that we had to go back home as Leah got scared.
  
• Write a bestseller: Ok, so it will probably not be a bestseller, but it is difficult to get stuff published nowadays, so having a short story of mine included in an anthology in Spain is to me amazing news! It should be out in mid-2011, so you got a couple of months to learn Spanish.
  

Next year, I can hopefully add some stuff to the list.