Firstly: I am not much of a traveller. I get car sick, train sick, sea sick, air sick...I even get sick on Merry Go Rounds! So my wanderlusting is quite limited!
Secondly: I've had children since I was nineteen so I never really had the "young, free and single" opportunity to see the world or the cold hard cash without having nappies to buy with it!
Thirdly: I'm a little phobic of new or unfamiliar places. I like to know exactly which door to go through.
However, I am not to be defeated.
1: France is the only place I can get to. I can just about cope with the Eurotunnel although I do need distracting from the overwhelming fear I harbour whereby I imagine the tunnel cracking and the entire contents of the English Channel being deposited on top of our car. Whilst in France I love to shop. I'm not talking boutiques or quaint markets though. I like the Hypermarches...the bigger the better. There is something so familiar about shelves of long life dairy desserts. It's novocaine for my phobia! Here's a picture of my last French holiday.
2: I always imagined what it must be like to go to Mexico and visit the Cancun pyramids. We were once host family to a Mexican boy called Angel. He spoke about the beauty of Cancun and part of me felt a twinge of desire. Then reality kicked in as I thought about the 13 hour flight, the heat, the language barrier...and I knew that the nearest I'd get was Barburritos at the Trafford Centre.
3: Market Drayton is where I live now and I'd like therefore to include it in this list as I did visit before moving here. It is a Tudor Market Town in rural Shropshire. It's quite a pretty place. I know it's a bit of a cop out...but I'm struggling here!!
4: London...coming from Slough, which is spitting distance from the big smoke, I used to go to London quite a lot. Half an hour on the train and you'd arrive in Paddington. As I've got older, I've found the crowds, the traffic and the noise a bit intimidating, but there was a time when I was a bit of City Girl. This photo shows me in Trafalgar Square...OK I was about 5 at the time, but still it's good enough for my list!!
5: Belgium I never meant to go to Belgium. I was actually in my home from home France on a day trip, shopping in my favourite Hypermarche buying dairy desserts...you know the drill. We went back to Calais for our crossing to discover the French seamen had blocaded the ports and the subsequent backlog was so unmanageable that they were diverting everyone to Zeebrugge. The arduous drive along with thousands of other disgruntled daytrippers took hours. At one point we all fell asleep in a traffic jam. Some time later, we woke up to the sound of a car horn. At some point during our slumber the traffic had cleared and goodness knows how many cars had used the opportunity to get in front of us to secure a coveted place on one of the UK bound ferries. Had someone not alerted us, we could still be there now! Eventually we got ourselves on an overcrowded boat, to suffer an overnight crossing that sailed in to Dover just after sun-up. And you wonder why I hate travelling!
So...sorry Kate for my pitiful entry to this week's listography...but I didn't want to miss out on your fabulous bloghopping opportunity!!
