Monday, August 22, 2016

Two go camping

I've been telling people recently that I only had two things left on my bucket list - go camping with my brother, and go on a US road trip with Wendy, my daughter-in-law. Then someone asked me what else had been on the list and I couldn't remember (!) so I scanned my diaries, found the list I made 6 years ago, and discovered there were several other items that needed attention.

Here's the list:

1/ learn to play Misty on the sax   ✔

2/ learn to walk on my slackline    
I can walk half the length of the line - thirteen steps -  but not to order. I think it still counts.  ✔

3/ go trampolining*

4/ go on a walking holiday, in Yorkshire or on a coastal path

5/ holiday on a Scottish island

6/ go to the Musee d'Orsay  ✔

7/ have a novel published with a sensible cover (i had on an earlier list - write a novel in the third person, and I've done that now, but the publisher gave it a toe-curling pink frilly chick lit cover)  ✔

8/ go on a US road trip with someone fun

9/ see the Grand Canyon  ✔

10/ go camping with Jonty  ✔

*I've been told I probably should not trampoline because I have an artificial knee, so that item is, I suppose, null and void.

That means I still have 4, 5 and 8 to do because this last weekend I went camping with Jonty, with whom I haven't camped since he was a toddler. I haven't camped without him since I was 14. 



Rain was forecast for our three days, and I texted Jonty to ask if he wanted to postpone the trip. He texted back "You can wimp out if you want to, but I'm still going."  So we did, and were rewarded with an hour of sunshine on arrival. As soon as we'd put up the tent and had a cuppa it started to rain, and it was showery all weekend, but it didn't matter. It was good fun. Getting away from everything, and having the time to talk properly when we never usually have the opportunity, was wonderful. And I loved lying in the tent wrapped in two sleeping bags listening to the weather as I fell asleep.

Poor Jonty, though. Out of the five of us I am the least practical, so he got a raw deal. Any of our other siblings would have been better at pitching and dismantling the tent. He was very patient, even when he said on packing up, "Fold it over the roof!" and I could no longer tell which part was the roof.

I haven't asked him if I could put his picture on here, so here he is, face hidden, on our trip to Lyme Park.



Thank you, Jonty. 








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