Sarah Ivens - No Regrets: 101 Fabulous Things to Do Before Youre Too Old, Married, or Pregnant

My thirtieth birthday passed in a whirl of best wishes, drunken dancing, and outrageous merriment. I felt just dandy. There were no soul-searching moments of oh, damn it, I'm an old hag now or where has my life gone?

Until a few days had passed.

Turning thirty is cool, but being in your thirties can be a bit of a shock. As soon as your helium balloons deflate and your hangover kicks in, you're left asking yourself three things: Is this it? Have I wasted time? Should I have done anything differently? Your experimental years are behind you and suddenly you begin to regret things you haven't donerather than things you have.

Thankfully I wasn't the only one feeling like this. Friend after friend, cousin after colleague, stared wistfully into their half-empty glasses of pinot grigio at the end of a night out and tortured themselves with men missed and interviews annihilated. Any girl should regret that extra-short dress she wore to a family wedding, the boy she snogged till she was red from stubble rash, or the time she called her best friend a bitch after a few too many tequila slammers in her twenties. Cringe! Yep, maybe we shouldn't have done those things, but we were young and who knew any better?

Regrets for my friends and me are now about opportunities missed and chances not taken. I've been through quite a lot in my life: my parents' divorce, my own divorce, lost friendships, broken hearts, and bad hairdos. But I've managed to learn from all of the above and become a stronger person, with more understanding and kindness toward others and a sense of priority. So those trials aren't what I regret.

What I regret now are the chances not taken. I look back and resent the time I wasted on faux friends, or office gossip, or working for cruel bosses. I regret falling prey to bullies and not making my voice heard.

I don't regret anything I did. I regret what I didn't do. My lack of action. You really need to grab life with both handsthe good times and badand say to yourself, I can handle this.

The worst moment of my life was sleeping through my university crush climbing up my dorm wall to kiss me good night, laments a good friend and hopeless romantic, Hayley. My dorm buddies tried to stir me and tell me the good newsyes, he liked me backbut I was half asleep, and instead of throwing on my sneakers and chasing after him, I slept. The next morning I could have killed myself with regret, and he was so mortified by this failed seductive gesture that we never really got together.

That's nothing, a loudmouth named Jane replied when I told her this story. I dyed my hair blond for my prom, got hot under the dryer, so sat in my pool to cool down. An hour later I had green hair that was falling out in clumps when I tried to brush it. I wish I'd just spent the money as my friends had and gone to a salon. I missed my prom!

When we stayed in and missed the party of a lifetime, were we boring? Should we have told the man on the train that we fancied him, seen our inspirational great-aunt more before she died, fought against the in-crowd to stand up for what we believe in? Should we have listened more closely to the words of Lord Jon of Bon Jovi when he sang, Gonna live while I'm alive/I'll sleep when I'm dead?

The baggage of regrets weighs a lot and can do your back in. Whether you need to explore new styles, learn to appreciate your loved ones more, or gather the courage to travel the world, I want you to find motivation and encouragement in the following pages. We all have it within us to have wonderful lives. As a wise man once said to me, The past is finished, the future is unknown, but the present is a giftopen it.

I've talked to and pestered, stalked, and interrogated hundreds of women to find out what we can do to make our waking hours extraordinary and our sleeping hours peaceful. I've dug deep into my own wealth of bugger thats and grrrr moments to guide you along the path of least regrets. The result is a must-have list of everything wonderful, important, and life affirming that you have to do now before you're too old, married, pregnant, or cynical to be able to change things.

Shoulda, woulda, coulda, schmouda! Don't think about itdo it.

You can't bring the past back for a do-over. So let's try to get it right the first time, and make up your mind to have no regrets.

Yes, it's expensive, and a nonbeliever might claim it's just another type of sparkling white wine. But open your eyes and see the light, because a cool, crisp flute of champers is the most delicious thing that will ever pass your lips. The delicate flutter of the caramel bubbles across your tongue and the fizzy feeling as they dance down your throat are worth a little extra cash.

Champagne is the most ladylike of beverages. From the first time I tried a taste, I knew there was no way I was going back to the pint glasses of cider and tankards of beer of my student days. Those big, burly drinks suited my university clobber of rugby shirts and baggy jeans, but now, as a professional girl living in London, I deserved a touch of class.

Since that first sip, I've earmarked my most amazing memories with a glass of bubbly. New Year's Eves and weddings are the obvious choices, but champagne is also the perfect way to indulge in more private moments of true happiness. Whenever I arrive on a much-needed vacation, I unpack and explore a little. Then I find the perfect spot (normally somewhere with a vista to take my breath away and ideally where I can run my bare feet through sand) and crack open a bottle. I breathe deeply and feel all my worries melt away.