DO you love a good list? Before I started writing this column, I began mine for the day. It's a combination of tasks to do today as well as a reminder to cancel a sports massage and book tickets for a concert.

When I don't have a piece of paper around, I revert to scribbling notes on my hand. Unsightly, I know, but if it helps me remember to pick up a pint of milk on the way home or to post my friend's birthday card, I think it's worth it.

These lists rarely span more than 24 hours. Although I have been known to make New Year's Resolutions, they stay firmly in my head (which may well be why I have forgotten them come February).

Many people have written their own "bucket list" – things they want to do before they literally kick the bucket.

It's not something I've ever subscribed to, but to anyone who has produced one, I have this message: don't hang around to do the things you really want to do.

When one of my friends was diagnosed with terminal cancer in her early 50s, I remember the hopelessness when she turned to me and said: "I've never even been to New York." She would have loved New York – and she knew she would have – but she was never going to get a chance to go.

Increasingly, it appears, people are writing lists of things to achieve for a special anniversary. One woman I interviewed recently was turning 50 and had a notepad in which she was compiling 50 things to do that year. Some were big things, some small – but she felt it would give this landmark a special focus and make for a memorable 12 months.

One of my best friends is celebrating 23 years of marriage and decided not to wait for her silver anniversary to make a fuss, but do it here and now. So she is now thinking up 23 things to do with her other half over the next 12 months. He has been invited to take part too, but knowing my friend, the bulk of the ideas will come from her!

All this got me thinking. Next year is my 50th birthday and also marks 25 years with my fella. Put them together and I could potentially have one helluva year – 75 fun things to look forward to.

That's a lot of planning. I better make a list.

CONEY Street is looking rather unloved at the moment. It's disheartening to walk down the street – once our flagship shopping precinct – and see so many shops closed. Hopefully, this is just a blip, and new names will come in and the street will be revived.

But it's not just empty shops that are blighting York city centre. Loud and lairy stag and hen parties are at large in the town centre, particularly Coney Street, from Saturday afternoons onwards.

This lends an unpleasant and slightly menacing tone to the city centre and cannot be what locals and tourists expect or want to see when they come into York for a shopping trip.

As more restaurants and bars open at the expense of shops, the risk is that York becomes more attractive as a party destination. Is this what we really want?