40 Things for 40 Years - What’s on List?

40 years is a long time to be legally tied to someone and deserves a celebration of some kind. Most people would have a party but we aren’t keen on big gatherings, our wedding August 1980 was a quick trip to the registrars office with just close family and a few friends present

We started out discussing how we should mark our 40th wedding anniversary by reminiscing about the places we had visited, the things we had done over the years and slowly an idea was born.  We would try to visit/do/see 40 different things during 2020. We developed a list of places to go, we scoured the listings of concerts for 2020, an opportunity to see bands and singers that we hadn’t got round to seeing.  Neither of us is particularly adventurous In terms of high adrenaline activities but we both had a couple of special things we wanted to do.  We bought tickets, researched suitable campsites and booked pitches. We got ourselves a year planner and plotted out our year. We weren’t going to be at home much. 

 

Our list meant that we would need to complete on average just over three things every month.

In January we went to Tyntesfield a National Trust property near Bristol for two special behind the scenes tours.  The house and its contents are the same as when the family lived there, some of the tours are conducted by people who were employed by the family so you get a real feel for life in the house back in time.

While talking to the housekeeper I discovered that ta very old clay pot which belonged to my grandmother would once have been used for preserving eggs. I now use the pot in my garden as a planter, sadly it is missing its lid but it has survived for around 90 years.

In February we took a five day coach tour to Scotland something we had never done before and were surprised by how much we enjoyed it.  We stopped at Gretna Green en route to Fort William and had a look around.  I had been here many years ago, apart from a new car park, some modern looking shops and a piece of padlock “art”, it still looked the same.

Our journey onward took us through Callendar and out towards Rannoch Moor, it was dark as we drove up through Glencoe and on into Fort William to our hotel.  

We had been to Fort William a few times before, so knew where our hotel would be, we had good views from our room overlooking Loch Linnhe.  As part of our holiday package we got to visit Inverness, somewhere we have driven past but never stopped.  

From Fort William we achieved another of the items on our list, the train journey from Fort William to Mallaig over the Glenfinnan Viaduct. We had stayed at Arisaig many years ago and watched the train come over the hill on its journey to the port we agreed then that one day we would make that journey by train.

 

Although the weather was not at its best, the journey across the Glenfinnan viaduct, alongside Loch Eilt past the white sands of Arisaig and on to Mallaig was a thoroughly enjoyable day out.

We retuned on the train back to our hotel in Fort William to prepare for our journey home early the following morning.

Our journey back home to Wiltshire by coach was a very long, tiring day but we both decided that a coach holiday was something that we would happily do again.

We had just settled into normality back at home planning for our next trip away when Corona Virus happened.

Our plans fell to pieces as one after the other our bookings were cancelled and events postponed.

Our list is still in existence and I am sure we will get things ticked off slowly, it just won’t all happen this year but then after 40 years together a slight delay won’t matter that much and it has helped us plan our trips for the future

Here’s our list of 40 things for 40 years - all muddled up, keeping the mystery alive!