There was a story in the news a few weeks ago about a bloke who abandoned his 4x4 half way up Snowdonia after attempting to drive up it. Apparently it was on his 'bucket' list of things to do before he died.
I have no such list, but I have a list of things that I don't want to do before I pop my clogs. Here's a few with the reasons why they are on the list.
1- Skiing. When I was in my teens, we used to go dry slope skiing at Woolwich Barracks. In fact my friend Keith and I got quite good at it. The last time we went the squaddie who run the facility said he would let us join the club. At this point we both thought he meant 'Join the Army' as was our naivety, so we never went back. Since then I have never wanted to go snow skiing. Strapping two planks to my feet and hurtling down a snow covered mountain has never appealed.
2 - Parachuting. The person who said 'Why jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft' had a point. The nearest I got was paragliding on holiday. That was only because my friend's daughter wouldn't go on her own, so we had a tandem paraglide. Then as we were about to land her legs buckled underneath her and I was dragged on my knees across the beach. Never again.....
3 - Scuba diving. We were never meant to breathe underwater. I get panicky if I go underwater in a swimming pool, let alone the sea. I'll leave that to the Jacques Cousteaus of this world thanks.
4 - Glastonbury. I like my live music in a indoor concert venue, with access to clean toilets and a comfy bed after. I went to a gig in Findsbury park a few years ago. There was plenty of mud, violence, drugs, rain and bottles of dubious liquids being thrown about. That's the nearest I got and although the gig was good (it was Oasis) I wouldn't want to do it all weekend!
Saturday we went into town and found they had a food and drink festival in the shopping centre. Apart from the usual array of cakes, cheeses, olives, liquorice, fudge, real cider and exotic sausages there were a few weird things. Toffee Vodka, the last thing you would drink at a party when all the beer was consumed. Way too sweet! Russian cakes, including a strange 'Starter' cake which was like a puff pastry pizza with way too many toppings. Gnocchi was a bit strange, can't say I liked it too much. We did buy some cheeses though and cheese straws from the bakery. The humungous doughnuts were tempting but I must cut down on the cake! In the bank the lady who served me turned out to be a previous owner of our house. She had it from new and lived there for years. I recognised her surname as we still get the odd junk mail addressed to her. She said she had photos of the house being built so I may contact her for copies.
We had a late lunch (or early dinner) at the local Beefeater as we were going over to Woodchurch tonight for 'International Observe the Moon Night' . OK we didn't actually see the moon, which according to sources was 'waxing gibbous' as the clouds that came in today and stubbornly stayed put all evening. Anyhow we had a good time, a few talks and a cuppa. I always like to get together with my friends from the astro society, and we met a few prospective new members as well.
