Things I want to do

when we eventually get to England.  # 1 is always asking questions.  Always.  Mostly pointless questions like "if you were a dog would you run around clockwise or anticlockwise?"  and worse.  But one of his questions is: "what's your favourite country to visit?".  My answer is nearly always England.  I love it there.  I love the people, the eccentricities, the food, the people, the countryside, LONDON!!!, the people.  

It's a place that I feel home in.  Mainly because I no longer have a family home, my childhood home was sold a couple of years back when my dad died, and my favourite-est aunt and cousins live in Birmingham.  England.

Yup, in a couple of days/weeks/minutes/whatever (terrified some blog stalker will come to my empty house and rob the reptiles if I tell you when I'm actually going) I'm going to be squashed into what was my aunt Lily's house but is now her daughter Nats.  And Nat's husband.  And kids.  And I know you're not meant to start a sentence with the word 'and'.

Therefore I have a list of things I'd like to do and see.  In no particular order, stuff I want to do:

• Hang out in the back garden with the cousins and the squirrels.
• Go to Costco (sad but fun).
• Run up to the river.  Stagger back home.
• The Forbidden Corner, Yorkshire.
• Go for a proper, outdoor picnic (years ago, when pregnant with #2, me and Himself went over to Lily's and, as a surprise, Nat had organised a picnic.  To the place that influenced 'The Lord of The Rings'.  It was frickin' freezing and we ended up having a picnic in two cars, parked side by side.  The Hogans in one and the Coopers/Geraghtys in another.  Passing roast chicken and apple tart through the car windows.  I have one photo of that day and I love it.
• Go to Longleat.
• LONDON, LONDON, LONDON, LONDON.  Don't know to do what as we'll have the childer with us but I love London.
• Museum of Childhood.
• Alton Towers.
• A proper, big, hedge maze.
• Yorkshire Sculpture Park.
• Antony Gormley's Another Place.
• Warwick Castle.
• West Midlands Safari Park - where #3 had his first encounter with a raffi (giraffe to you).
• Go Ape.
• The Minack Theatre - wishful thinking, tis too, too far away.  Check it out though.  Wow.
• Salcey Forest.
• Blackpool pleasure beach.
• Science Museum, London.
• Think Tank, Birmingham

That's it, I think.  For now.