The List

I am a consummate list maker. I make lists every day for shopping, to-do lists of tasks for myself and honey-do lists of little jobs for my husband. These lists are usually made to be completed and discarded or in the case of the honey-do lists to be noticed and ignored, turn yellow with age and discarded.

I also keep lists of recommendations for travel. I have a list for things-to-do-and-places-to-go-and-places-to-eat in Paris, London and New York, three cities I frequent and plan to frequent forever. I even have a Smythson of Bond Street leather address book labeled "New York London Milan Paris" with sections for each city. These lists I do not make to discard. At most, I will cross something off the list or erase in the address book if the business closes or the recommendation proves unsatisfactory.

faire du leche-vitrines @ Bell'occhio

I have one list I treasure which I did not start myself. It was given to me about seven years ago by my friend Nancy who runs a lovely shop in Montclair, NJ called Parcel. If you are ever in Montclair, NJ you should visit Parcel on Bloomfield Avenue. I highly recommend it so put it on your list.

Bell'occhio in SF

The list Nancy gave me is for the greater San Francisco Bay area and it is a list of shops Nancy likes to visit when she goes on buying trips there. At the time she offered me a copy of the list, my husband had just taken an apartment in San Francisco to split the distance between New York and Asia where he was traveling for business. Coincidentally my oldest son had just transferred from Rochester Institute of Technology to an art college in the East Bay as well. So now half of my family was living on the west coast and half was living on the east coast. (Sort of. My younger son was living in Pittsburgh, PA attending Carnegie Mellon University but it was east of the Mississippi anyway.)

the turtle doves @ The Tail of the Yak, Berkeley

I was visiting the San Francisco Bay Area regularly, almost monthly in fact, and usually had a lot of free time during the day. Nancy's list was long but I managed to visit all the shops on it within the first year. My husband gave up the apartment after about three years but my son is still there and is now working in game animation. So in the last few years and before I moved to South Africa I still visited the Bay area fairly regularly, at least once a season, in order to see him. I always brought the list with me. I had three or four  shops which I visited every time I went west. I added to the list over time. Places to eat, things to do, places to visit and a few shops I discovered on my own. The list became a living thing and I passed it on to different friends if they were moving to San Francisco or visiting for an extended time and asked for recommendations. They usually came back with recommendations of their own which I added to the list for my next visit.

In the same spirit I just received another list from a South African expat living in New Jersey named Helena. I was introduced to Helena by my friend Deb in the months preceding my move to Joburg. It is a list for things-to-do-and-places-to-go-and-places-to-eat in South Africa. Helena sent the list to me saying, "This has been put together by various locals over about 10 years, and keeps circulating - enjoy!" I love it! Once again this list is a living thing which is passed around, added to and amended as it goes from person to person.

It makes me happy to know I am not alone. I am part of a nation of list makers and as it turns out, it is an international one at that!