Latest news with #bucketlist
Bloomberg
6 days ago
- Bloomberg
Where to Stay Near the Best Golf Courses in Scotland and Ireland
If you're the kind of golfer who has a bucket list, then experiencing the sport's first—and probably still most thrilling—courses in Scotland and Ireland, where the game was born, is somewhere near the top. But until recently, a trip like that meant staying in accommodations that didn't always match their spectacular settings. The typical 'cozy' inns you'd find had few, if any, memorable features and little approaching luxury amenities. Most rooms were small and either too drafty or too stuffy. Water vacillated between scalding and suitable for a cold plunge and required an engineer's precision to dial in to the right temperature—that was if you were able to navigate the dual faucet setup. Televisions the size of a cinder block (and offering about as many channels) were tucked high into the corner of the rooms and the en suite bathroom lacked a shower. Food was an afterthought at best.
Washington Post
19-07-2025
- Washington Post
Annual lotus and water lily festival offers a window of peace in D.C.
As the sun peeked out after a brief rainfall, Annette Kwok stopped to take a photo of a dragonfly perched atop an unopened lotus flower at the Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens. Kwok, 49, is set to move out of D.C. in September, so she came to the gardens as part of an unofficial bucket list.
Geek Girl Authority
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Girl Authority
THE LIBRARIANS: THE NEXT CHAPTER Recap: (S01E09) And the Feast of the Vampir
With their six months winding down, the Belgrade team on The Librarians: The Next Chapter has very little time to hit some bucket list items before returning to their mundane lives. In 'And the Feast of the Vampir,' Connor (Bluey grabs Charlie (Jessica Green) for a fun little day trip to the original vampire story town, Kisiljevo. Seriously, look it up. RELATED: Catch up with our recap of the previous The Librarians: The Next Chapter episode, 'And the Hangover From Hell' Things get complicated when he finds an actual vampire, even more so when he gets bitten. And there's also the matter of some vampire hunters in town, and Lysa (Olivia Morris) putting the castle up for sale in Belgrade. Charlie feels bad when she loses track of him. Guardians gotta guard, y'know. Meanwhile, Vikram (Callum McGowan) acts a bit giddy when he cracks open his vampire-fighting arsenal. We're always learning new things about the team on The Librarians: The Next Chapter . Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic The Librarians: The Next Chapter, 'And the Feast of the Vampir' A man walks through a foggy, medieval-looking town at dusk. Spooky music plays as he climbs some stone stairs and enters a dark tunnel. A couple approaches him, fangs gleaming in the moonlight. They caution him that it's dangerous to be out after dark in this town. The man runs away and stumbles, falling to the ground. A man holding an axe stands in front of him. Axe guy warns the couple that they probably shouldn't be out either. The couple tries to run, but the axe guy isn't alone, and his team catches them. Facing the sharp end of the axe, the fanged man sputters that it's all a joke and spits out his fake fangs. The team is disgusted and lets the couple run home. The leader reminds them that the festival has just begun. They know there's a real vampire around. They plan to find him. At the Annex, Charlie and Vikram are cataloging artifacts. Vikram finds it boring, insisting they should be out fighting evildoers. Lysa and Connor carry more artifacts in. Some of them need to be stored in the Restricted Section, where the most dangerous ones are kept, secured with failsafes. Vikram insists on personally delivering an item to the Main Library, leaving the others to wonder at the fact that their six months are almost over. RELATED: TV Review: The Librarians: The Next Chapter Season 1 Lysa's expecting a broker to come see her about selling the castle. Connor and Charlie promise to stay out of the way during the walk-through. Lysa offers Charlie a position as her head of security when her IPO launches. A little later, Connor creeps into the Annex when it's empty. He's about to activate the magic door when Charlie catches him. He invites her to come with him. Kisiljevo Vampir Festival They arrive in Kisiljevo, Serbia, for their Vampire Festival. Connor explains that this is the birthplace of vampire mythology. They had the first recorded sighting of a vampire in the 1700s. Before Dracula became famous as a fictionalized character in the 1800s, newspapers reported that a farmer named Petar Blagojević died, was buried, then walked into his house, demanding a new pair of shoes from his wife. Allegedly, the town dug up his body the next day and dealt with it, putting the vampire's existence to an end. Connor reveals that he wrote a paper hypothesizing that Petar survived. He based it on a series of deaths that fit a pattern. His Petar paper resulted in his dismissal from Stuttgart. Getting into the spirit of the festival, he and Charlie shop around and pose for photos. As they start towards home, Charlie points out that finding Petar would be mud in the eye of the academics who laughed him out of teaching, forcing them to admit he was right and let him back in. Connor admits the thought had occurred to him. RELATED: Olivia Morris Shares How The Librarians: The Next Chapter Hooked Her From Page One Someone watches them from a distance as Charlie gets a text from Mrs. Astolat (Caroline Loncq). Before they go, Charlie decides she needs another bloody (cherry-flavored) snowcone. Connor continues on his own. He catches sight of the watcher and follows. At the base of a castle wall, he sees a cloaked figure transform into smoke and flash to the top of the embankment. He immediately drops his bag and starts climbing the embankment — how many things has he climbed this season? — but when he gets to the top, the cloaked figure startles him and he falls backwards, landing hard on the ground far below, not moving. Needs Sharpening Charlie arrives at the Annex looking for Connor and finds Vikram. She tells him about losing Connor in Kisiljevo at the Vampir Festival. Vikram's shocked that they went to Visiljevo without proper vampire-fighting tools. He opens up a chest of weaponry and talismans. He and Charlie gear up and head back to Kisiljevo. Upstairs in the castle, Lysa meets with the broker. The broker is determined to spin the castle's issues as benefits. Lysa looks uncertain. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic In Kisiljevo, Connor drinks a red drink from a glass held to his mouth as he wakes from unconsciousness. The man helping him is the man from the first scene who ran from the fake vampires. Connor jumps to his feet. The man tries to calm him, explaining the drink is just to restore his electrolytes. He introduces himself as Petar (Pavle Jerinic). Connor's phone is broken, so he can't call anyone. RELATED: Read our Foundation recaps Petar Blagojević Connor realizes Petar is the Petar, Petar Blagojević. He gets very excited. Petar sits him down and explains that after Connor fell, the only way to save him was to bite him and turn him. Connor panics, feeling his neck. He finds the bite site, but there's only one puncture wound. Petar points out that he only has one fang. In the Victorian era, some people believed taking out a vampire's tooth would cure them. Petar assures him it didn't work. He says, 'It cured the cure.' Charlie and Vikram arrive in Kisiljevo via magic door. They walk through the keep, discussing the situation for a while, until two large men put bags over their heads and carry them away. In his apartment, Petar explains that when they took his one tooth, it prevented him from recirculating his blood. With both teeth, he could feed without changing the victim. With only one tooth, everyone he bites gets turned. However, Connor's change isn't complete until the first nightfall. Connor jumps at the chance to get back to the Library and find a way to reverse the process. Petar reminds him that it's still day outside. They'll both burn up if they're exposed to sunlight. He says that without his other tooth, there's nothing to be done. Connor asks him what happened to his tooth. Tested Charlie and Vikram are debagged, tied to chairs back-to-back, in a large-pillared crypt of sorts. The vampire-hunting team surrounds them. They think Vikram is a vampire and Charlie is his familiar. Charlie and Vikram offer to take a test, like standing in sunlight, to prove that he isn't a vampire. The hunters scoff, referencing Blade , The Vampire Diaries, and Twilight as examples of daywalkers. RELATED: Dean Devlin Dishes on The Librarians: The Next Chapter 's Magical Homecoming In a car completely covered with newspaper sheets to block the sun except for a peephole on the windshield, Petar and Connor drive to retrieve Petar's tooth. Petar warns Connor that he shouldn't share his situation with his friends. When Petar changed, he hurt the people he cared about because he couldn't control himself. Petar tells Connor that he traded his tooth for safe passage across a bridge. Connor wonders who would take that trade, then realizes they're going to meet a troll. While the vampire hunters confer, Charlie wonders why Vikram isn't bothered by Lysa selling the castle and didn't react when she told him Lysa offered her a job. She asks him if he knows something about the team's future that she doesn't. He doesn't answer. The hunters return. Charlie demands to use the washroom. While she's gone, the lead hunter stuffs a bulb of garlic into Vikram's mouth. At the washroom, Charlie knocks out her guard. Trolled The troll interrupts Connor and Petar's conversation about life as a vampire. His heart isn't into his threatening posturing, though. He complains that no one uses his bridge anymore, so he's out of practice. Also, he lost his phone, so he can't even transition to online trolling. Connor offers his broken phone in exchange for information on the vampire's fang. The troll says someone building a vampire memorabilia collection stole it from him. Connor gives him the phone and jumps in the car. He tells Petar the tooth is in Kisiljevo and to drive before the troll realizes the phone doesn't work. In the keep, Connor jumps in with a tour and asks about the tooth. The guide says the collection doesn't have one anymore. Connor looks closely at the case and finds a card reading, 'Item removed for research by F. Carsen of the Metropolitan Library.' He realizes the tooth is in the Library. As he leaves, Charlie grabs him. RELATED: 5 Great Books About Libraries and Librarians She's focused on saving Vikram and doesn't give him a chance to explain. When she crosses a sunlit room, he hesitates and goes in the other direction. Charlie tries to stop him from leaving. Connor sees a couple of the vampire-hunters and gets their attention. He apologizes and runs as the hunters approach Charlie, and she prepares to fight. She quickly dispatches them. Connor finds the magic door and ducks through. When Charlie catches up, he's deactivated it. The Main Library Connor finds the entry for the vampire fang. As he's memorizing the location, Lysa happens to pass by with her broker. She sees him set off for the Main Library access. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic In the crypt, Vikram engages the lead hunter in conversation, noticing Charlie sneak in a door and take out one of the guards. Charlie knocks out the leader, too, then frees Vikram. She tells Vikram about Connor shutting the magic door. They head for the magic door that's not magic at the moment. Without the magic door, they need another way to escape the hunters. Petar jumps out and offers to drive them somewhere. Connor finds the Main Library. Excalibur catches him. Although suspicious at first, Connor's obvious awe wins him over, and he directs him to the fang's location. RELATED: On Location: The Belgrade Fortress on The Librarians: The Next Chapter In Kisiljevo, Petar, Vikram, and Charlie get turned around and lost. When they stop to orient themselves, the vampire hunters surround them. Connor enters the restricted section to retrieve Petar's tooth. That sets off an alarm, and a suit of armor comes to life. It tests Connor with three riddles. Connor gets the first two right, but Lysa's timely arrival helps with the third. They head back to the Annex to use the magic door. Connor forgets to grab his cloak. In the Neck of Time They arrive in Kisiljevo just in time to hear the tour guide announce an unscheduled vampire beheading ceremony that's about to happen in the courtyard. Connor realizes he's got no cloak, so the sunlight in the courtyard will burn him. He and Lysa split up. She distracts the vampire hunters until Charlie's able to get free. Connor creeps around the side, sticking to the shadows, and gives Petar his tooth. RELATED: Read our Leverage: Redemption recaps He asks Petar to bite him to reverse the change. Petar draws his attention to the lead hunter who is about to behead Vikram. Connor rushes to save Vikram, whose pillory is in direct sunlight. When the sunlight has no effect on him, he turns to Petar for an explanation. Petar laughs maniacally, now transformed into a fully evil vampire. Image Credit: Aleksandar Letic Petar Blagojević, Again, But Not for Long Darkness falls over the keep. Petar's eyes flash red as he removes his hood. He rises into the air and thanks Connor for helping restore his powers. He grabs the lead vampire hunter to feed on. Connor offers himself, asking Petar to turn him into a vampire. When Petar goes to bite, he begins to foam at the mouth. The team realizes it's a failsafe. The Library placed a capsule of something poisonous to vampires inside the tooth in case it was ever used again to hurt someone. RELATED: Read our recaps of The Librarians: The Next Chapter Petar flashes into ashes. Vikram retrieves the tooth. The tour guide gets his group back on schedule. Back at the Annex, Charlie patches Connor up while Lysa calls the broker and cancels the sale. Charlie confronts Vikram about their conversation earlier. She tells him that he's stuck with her as his Guardian for a long time. Vikram shoots a quick look at Anya's portrait. He begins to say something to Charlie about going somewhere, then changes his mind and changes the topic to food. New episodes of The Librarians: The Next Chapter air on TNT on Mondays at 9 pm ET. New TV Shows This Week (July 13 – 19) Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Riverdale woman, 85, gets to achieve 'golden dream' of dancing after loss of her leg
Shirley Johnson, 85, with a new prosthetic leg, never imagined she'd dance again. She hadn't danced since the 1980s, yet her love of dance never faded. Her home had always been filled with music and movement. She recalled dancing with her husband of 54 years in their kitchen, and nights out on the town, twirling under the lights. Her passion extended to her family. Her three daughters grew up immersed in dance, taking ballet and jazz classes through childhood. '[Dance] means everything to me,' Johnson said. 'I always kept it part of my life. My husband and I just dance around the house, going out to events and dancing. We were always there. There was a dance going on — we were there.' On Wednesday, July 2, RiverSpring Living in Riverdale, where Johnson has lived since 2019, gave her another shot at the dance floor in White Plains. Johnson has faced a lot in recent years. For nearly a decade, while living on Manhattan's Upper West Side, she endured surgeries, medications and countless medical appointments in an effort to manage blood dyscrasia, a condition that causes abnormal blood clotting. In June 2019, after exhausting all other options, she underwent a life-altering surgery that led to the amputation of her left leg below the knee. Though devastating, it was her only option. Dancing looked to be a memory. But RiverSpring Living has a new program called "Golden Dreams," the goal of which is to help residents achieve long-delayed dreams — 'bucket list' experiences. One resident recently got to attend college at the age of 97, while another got to meet New York Rangers goaltending legend Mike Richter. Johnson's dream was to regain her strength and return to the dance floor. Johnson was only recently fitted with a prosthetic leg. Thanks to the dedication of her physical therapist, Trini Pateno, Johnson spent two weeks practicing balance, rhythm, and movement, all aimed at the moment she could dance again. That moment arrived on Wednesday at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio in White Plains. Wearing a floral top and flowing white pants, Johnson beamed with joy. Studio owner Michael Powers-Innocenzi, dressed in a sharp suit, took her hand and led her in a ballroom slow dance to the classics 'Unforgettable' by Nat King Cole and 'Chances Are' by Johnny Mathis. 'They showed me I can dance again," Johnson said. "The physical therapy there helped me tremendously. "So now, I'm gonna start dancing all over the place." Johnson's husband, William Jackson, died in April 2021, but she said she felt his presence as she danced. Wendy Steinberg, chief communication officer of RiverSpring Living, which offers several forms of senior living, described the Golden Dreams program as an opportunity for residents to prioritize themselves in pursuit of a dream. 'We've created this program to grant their bucket list wish items, because there's so many things that they never had the chance to do,' she said. 'We found that each golden dream is as unique as the person.' David Pomeranz, the CEO of RiverSpring Living, said many of their residents spent their lives providing for their families and not focusing on their own desires and goals. He said that Golden Dreams opens a door for them to put themselves first. 'Sometimes people have sacrificed a lot of their life to raise their children, and they haven't always taken care of their own needs,' he said. 'This gives them a chance at the end of their life to be able to fulfill wishes that they always had that they sacrificed to raise their children.' Powers-Innocenzi expressed deep gratitude for the chance to help fulfill Johnson's dream. He admitted he felt emotional during their dance. Johnson told him, 'I'll never forget you ever in my life.' When he asked if she was tired from dancing, she simply smiled and said, 'I'm dreaming.' 'Our mission is to help people find their joy through dance, one step at a time,' Powers-Innocenzi said. 'They come to the studio and use dance as a vehicle to get something they want, whether it's to find community, to get over the loss of a loved one or to build confidence.' Following their performance, Johnson had one more request: a dance with Pomeranz. Powers-Innocenzi offered him a quick lesson. Then Johnson danced again but this time with the leader of the place she calls home. She grinned ear to ear, grateful for the community that made her dream come true. Pomeranz said his dance with Johnson reaffirmed his purpose in elder care. "To see that there is so much that they can still do and fulfill so many of their dreams, it's a blessing,' he said. This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Riverdale NY woman, 85, gets to dance again after loss of her leg
BBC News
29-06-2025
- BBC News
Somerset couple chase bucket list dreams amid health scares
A married couple say two major health scares gave them the push they needed to "live life to the fullest" and tick off every bucket list bloggers Hannah Bird and Charlie Camper, from Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, have explored more than 50 countries together over the past six years. Mr Camper wears an implanted defibrillator after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of 15, while Ms Bird was diagnosed with stage 4 blood cancer in 25-year-olds have amassed an online following of more than 450,000 people, and use their platform to share travel tips and raise awareness of symptoms. For six months, doctors told Ms Bird her persistent cough, night sweats, constant exhaustion and unexplained bruising were nothing to worry about. But a week after the couple's engagement, she was officially diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma diagnosis - an aggressive cancer that affects white blood cells. Throughout 18 gruelling rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the couple sat together in hospital and planned their adventures. "Every appointment we'd sit there and think 'where do we want to go? What do we want to see?' It was the one thing really pushing us through," said Ms Bird. With doctors so "unsure about what the future was going to hold", the couple took a chance and booked a last-minute flight to Cappadocia in day after they returned from their spontaneous trip, a PET scan revealed there were no more cancer cells left in Ms Bird's body. "We gained quite a good following off the back of that trip," the couple said."People were asking us how we do it, saying we were quite inspirational, which made us blush a lot. "We started blogging more and it kind of escalated from there." Their passports are now adorned with stamps from across the world - including Tokyo, Australia, Singapore, Greece, Switzerland, Budapest, Egypt, Kenya, Dubai, Iceland, and Norway. "We've got a big bucket list on a bit of paper in our bedroom, but it seems to constantly get longer and longer," Ms Bird laughed."I don't think its ever going to stop if I'm honest, we see new inspiration pretty much every day."The couple have now been shortlisted for the ITV Travel Creator of the Year award in recognition of their engaging content and inspiring stories.
