Musings on the M40

I nipped to see Mum and Dad today (there's nothing sadder than a Sunday roast for one and Dad makes ace gravy) and on the way back I saw 4 hot air balloons. That got me thinking about riding in a hot air balloon - someting I'd love to do. I remember a list I wrote when I was a teenager, of all the things I'd like to do in the future. I think I actually stipulated that I had to do them before 30, but then I suspect that as a young teenager, "30" might as well have been "dead".

Ah, the folly of youth. If I'd known then, what I know now, blah blah blah...

Anyway, this list. I'm not sure if I've remembered them all, but these are the ones I can recall:

Fly in a hot air balloon (not yet)

Do a parachute jump (tick: 19 years ago next week)

Get a degree (tick: 1991)

Walk along the Great Wall of China (not yet)

Visit Ayers Rock (ditto)

Visit Hong Kong before it's handed back to China (mmm - left that one too late!)

Fly a plane (this one was a bit of a no-brainer really, since I was counting down the days until I joined the air cadets at school!)

Go gliding (yep, see above, although I gave up my place for getting my glider wings since it was the week before my A levels. What's that smell? Oh yes, the whiff of burning martyr...)

Fly a helicopter (well, does a ride in a Sea King after cleaning it count?)

Rollerskate from Land's End to John O'Groats (that is SO not going to happen. One has to ask why?!)

Own a python (gone off this one now - too much specialist care needed...)

Rather eclectic, really. And it's rather sad to see that I've only knocked a few off the list!

The only consolation is that I have done things I'd never thought of at that time, such as walk from one side of the country to the other, record a song at Abbey Road for the B-side of a number 9 hit, walk across a live volcano and see a solar eclipse (even if it was overcast)

So... where's that number for the hot air ballooon company?