I was thinking after I'd read Queen Vixen's last post was there anything else that I wanted to do before I die. Not that I'm planning on dying for a long time mind, if I have any say in it at any rate!
This thought has obviously got stuck in my brain overnight cause in my semi awake dreams the words of the Marianne Faithful song have been doing overtime in my head. The lyrics from the Ballard of Lucy Jordan that go 'at the age of 37..... she'd never get to Paris in a sports car with the warm breeze in her hair',
I've never been to Paris, or for that matter any capitol city in Europe. It seems that some cities are places you go with a partner, such as Paris, and some you go with a gang of mates, Amsterdam, Madrid, Prague the most obvious ones.
This doesn't mean I haven't travelled. As a teenager I went with my parents to Minorca, Malta, Majorca, Corfu. In my 20s I had the most exotic holiday of my life so far, I went with my sister to Sri Lanka.
That was an amazing place to visit, we were there for three weeks. What we hadn't realised was, that is was as much of a honeymoon destination as it was!!! So there would be no one around late afternoon or much after dinner!
We had some astonishing experiences on this beautiful island, seeing the culture, visiting the Sacred Temple of Buddha's Tooth in the old capitol of Kandy. Going to see ruined temples and palaces. I even got to ride on an elephant.
One of the biggest memories though is how versatile the coconut was to the people of Sri Lanka, so coconut milk is used in tea and coffee.. ugh! and fries were cooked in coconut oil.... utterly disgusting! So sis and I spent quite a lot of time talking about food, and craving Mars bars, whilst we worked on our sun tans!
After getting married I went to sea for three months, my husband was an officer in the Merchant Navy. We slow steamed across the Atlantic, there was an oil crisis going on at the time, as was the Falklands War. And I went on a day trip to Canada when we got there! I had a wonderful day in St John's, Nova Scottia, buying magazines, wool, getting a haircut and having my first experience of buying an American Hamburger with the multitude of choices attached, like pickles, type of bread, mayo or whatever, which completely floored me as those sort of questions never happened in the UK.
During my marriage we only twice went away together that didn't include going to stay with his parents in Spain. Which was more visiting the in laws than beach hols!The first driving across Europe to Venice and all places in between, as we had to stay out of the country for three weeks as he'd been let off the ship early, and couldn't go home till a certain date for tax purposes. And the second spending 6 weeks in San Fransisco when he'd been assigned there for 6 months and me and the boys went for the whole of the summer. The last week of which involved the most amazing motor home on the planet and a drive down to Disneyland on the Pacific Highway. And started my love affair with America
In the last 10 years I've got stuck in enjoying the same places, mainly cause I visit friends. So many summers have been spent in Provence, till my friends moved back to Devon, as if they could escape me there!! And going to America, which means being based in Philly, and over the years going to all places drivable in a day.
So I have been to Boston; Baltimore; Washington DC, this included a visit round the White House, before 9/11 and it was closed to tourists;near Richmond Virginia this summer (what a fantastic visit that was!); and New York 3 times so far, the Empire State is a great place to go up late at night and see NY with all of it's buildings lit up across the city.
Going back to where I started, I don't really think there is anywhere else in the world that I have to see before I die, certainly there are places I will go back to, as often as I can afford, and more importantly am welcome! But no hankering desire.
All I really want is a big bag of gold to be able to continue going to the places where the people are I love, with just a little more money to be able to afford to go to Portmerion in Wales with the family once more, as that is the place of my dreams.
Note for Ron! this pic is the only one not taken by me, but by eldest son when he went sailing off the Greek coast!!
