My memories, my dreams, my bucket list.
These stories are all just general memories of things I have done, people I have met, and places I have been to. Many of these memories just come back to me at different times, and I like to record them for when I can no longer remember them.
I have also added things I hope to add from my bucket list to this section of the website, as some of them have become memories, while others I hope will become good memories.
I hope some of them make you chuckle or maybe remember things from your past that you have enjoyed.
I have been a Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fan since I first played the game on my cousin's ZX81 computer and then read the book The Hobbit way back in 1981. A few years later, I read the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. I think that the films of the books have been my most-watched films as well. I have now added visiting Hobbiton to my bucket list of things to do before I die.
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Since I was very young and used to watch Magnum PI, starring Tom Selleck, on television, I have wanted to see the Hawaiian islands. Some of my friends have been and they have all said what a great place it was to visit.
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I have always been fascinated by the vast Whales I have seen on TV nature programs and the Orca I have seen at SeaWorld in Florida. I had always wanted to see them in their natural habitat and have now been able to cross it off my bucket list.
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I saw an advert for this Miniature wonderland on Facebook, decided it looked interesting, and added it to my bucket list. It's much better than the old miniature villages I remember being bored by as a kid.
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Like so many people, I have always been fascinated by pictures of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and have wanted to visit Rio de Janeiro and Brazil for a long time.
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I saw a photo of St Govans Chapel in Bosherton, Pembrokeshire, Wales, on Facebook and immediately decided to visit it.
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I think I once went to Carcassonne as a young boy. I think I was there with my mum, dad and sister on a visit on the way back from a family holiday in Spain.
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I have always been fascinated by the Leaning Tower of Piza and have always wanted to go there. Recently, more of my friends have visited it, and after seeing their photos, I have put it on my bucket.
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I had always wanted to go to Japan and have now been on an escorted tour of Japan, trying to visit as much as possible.
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While browsing Facebook in November 2022 I saw an advert from the Los Alcazares town hall advertising a lunchtime swim that they were organising on Boxing Day 2022. I thought it looked like fun and decided to give it a go.
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From a young age, I had always loved Humphrey Bogart films and have been somewhat of a romantic; I know I hide it well. I had always wanted to visit Casablanca in Morocco but have now been able to cross it off my bucket list.
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I went on The Maid of the Mist when I went to America in the 1990s with my friend Alistar Parry. We flew to New York, hired a car and drove through the state of New York to the Canadian and American border, where we stayed on the American side of Niagara Falls.
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One of the places I have always wanted to visit is the Augusta National Golf Club. I love golf, but I do not want to play golf there. Just walk around the course to soak up the beautiful location.
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I saw a photo of the Langkawi Sky Bridge on my computer when Microsoft chose it as a screen saver, and I decided to add it to my bucket list.
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I had my computer set up to change images daily using Microsoft Bing images. One morning, the picture showed this marvellous castle. As it is in Spain, there is an excellent chance that I will be able to visit it and take it off of my bucket list.
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I think the first time I saw a Segway was on television. It was a policeman riding one somewhere, and I thought straight away that I had to have a go on one. I have now crossed riding a Segway off my bucket list.
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My parents went to Jasper National Park, and once I saw the photos of them there, I immediately put it on my bucket list.
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The Elephant Jungle Sanctuary is a unique project set in Thailand. My mum would have loved to have gone there, and I would love to have shared this bucket list experience with her.
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My mum would have told you I have already been to the Eiffel Tower. She was pregnant with me when she visited it in 1966.
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Petra is a historical and archaeological city in the southern Jordanian governorate of Ma'an, and it is on my bucket list.
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Angkor Wat is a temple complex in Cambodia and the largest religious monument in the world.
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Chichen Itza in Mexico is a place that I have only ever seen on television but is a place that, as soon as I saw it, I thought I had to visit.
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It has been an ambition to go scuba diving on The Great Barrier Reef for as long as I can remember. Because of my health, I think I will probably have to snorkel at the reef rather than dive, but it is still on my bucket list.
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I saw the Sanctuary of the Virgin of Hope online and thought it looked like a great place to add to my bucket list. I have now visited it and crossed it off my bucket list.
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I saw a picture of the Kaleto Fortress on a computer screen saver and decided it was a place I would add to my bucket list as a place to visit.
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In 2019, I sold one of my apartments in Florida and looked at the cheapest way to send money back to invest in my pension fund. Flying to America turned out to be cheaper than wiring the money.
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SPICES was a group of friends that once a month went out for a meal at an Indian or Chinese restaurant. Sampling food from many of the area's best restaurants, the idea of the night was for lots of male bonding, laughing and storytelling. Tonight was the first night I had managed to join up with the group.
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At the end of August, I was feeling in pain and worried about my leg. I had a clot many years ago and wondered if that was what was causing the pain this time.
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Jacqueline Carpenter is the author of the novels Louisa, Joan and Nancy. I met her at a quiz in a local bar in Los Alcazares in Murcia, Spain.
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I had spoken to my friends and family that live in Los Alcázares about the Tapas routes that they have been on, but I had never been on one.
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Not being very clever myself, I have managed to join a few very clever ladies and do a weekly quiz. They don't mind me sitting with them and throwing in the odd correct answer to make it look like I know something. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that four of the ladies with whom I entered the quiz were part of a barbershop harmony group known as the Pilarmonics.
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I used to go to the 'Who Do You Think You Are Show' every year when it was held at Earls Court in London. I used to travel to London and stay with my Uncle Dave for the weekend whilst going to the show. He has now moved to Birmingham, and strangely, the 'WDYTYAS' has also moved from London to Birmingham at the NEC.
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My good friend Derek Almond took me to the Emirates Stadium to do a celebrity-guided tour in 2014. Our tour guide was Charlie George, an Arsenal legend.
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As a small boy, I was fascinated by China and had always wanted to visit it. One of the things I wanted to do if I visited China was to walk a section of the Great Wall of China.
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In 2014, I took a two-city break in Spain, staying in Madrid for a few days before travelling to Barcelona for a few days. My mum had been ill for a while, and I was taking a week's respite from being her carer.
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I got up this morning to discover I can't remember where the Christmas cards I had for my family had been secreted away. I bought them earlier in the year and put them away where prying eyes and little hands couldn't find them. The trouble is my normally perfect memory can't remember where I hid them.
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Machu Picchu was one of the places my dad had always wanted to go to and never went to because of ill health. Because of my dad, I started looking into Machu Picchu to see what it was, where it was and why he wanted to go there.
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The year my dad passed away, I took my mum out to Florida for five weeks. A day or so after his funeral, I took her out to my home in Orlando. The idea was for me to put my home up for sale and get my mum away from the thousands of telephone calls she would expect from well-meaning relatives checking up on her.
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My dad, Brian Llewelyn Morris, died in Queen Alexandra Hospital in Cosham, Hampshire, England, in February 2005. He had been admitted to the hospital on my birthday in January of the same year.
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The first time I met Dave Courtney was in a pub in Barkingside called The Chequers. At that time I had never heard of him but I have since read his books and been told who he is.
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I guess swimming with dolphins would be on most people's bucket lists. I managed to swim with dolphins at Discovery Cove, Sea World in Orlando, Florida, in 2004.
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I had wanted a hot air balloon flight for a long time and received a flight from my mum as a Christmas present in 2003. It was my first time flying in a hot air balloon, but not the last, and I have now crossed it off my bucket list.
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I met Chris Eubank in Brighton when I was there for a friend's stag party.
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As a young child, like many others, I always wanted to be an astronaut. As this seemed out of my reach, I decided to go to Kennedy Space Centre in Florida and see a live rocket launch. I have done this many times and have crossed it off my bucket list.
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While living in Florida, I met Mickey Spillane in a downtown restaurant in Orlando.
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In 1997, Les Wallace became the first left-handed dart player to win the World Dart Championship. I have met Les a couple of times since then.
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When I lived in Orlando, I went to see Rod Stewart at the Orlando Arena, and I spent the evening with his wife, Rachel Hunter.
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When I lived in Orlando, I went to watch Duran Duran live at The House of Blues in Walt Disney World, and I met the group's drummer, Roger Taylor.
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In 1996, I left the UK and lived in Orlando, Florida. I had left the employment of British Gas, taking a redundancy package that would help me live in America. This story is about what happened on my flight to Florida.
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In the early nineteen nineties, I stayed at my home in Orlando and decided to go to Clearwater Beach for a weekend. I met Hulk Hogan in his bar there.
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I met Shaquille O'Neal when I was living in Orlando, Florida, and he had just signed up for the Orlando Magic basketball team.
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I met Jim Quillen on a tour of Alcatraz in San Francisco in about 1992. I had gone on one of the self-guided tours where you are given a headset with a narrated talk of the island and can do the tour at your speed.
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I have met Tom Jones several times in America and the UK and have also seen him perform in Spain.
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While on holiday in Jamaica, I took a trip to Kingston for an overnight stay. When I was there, I went around Bob Marley's house and met his wife, Rita Marley and many of their children.
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In 1991, I went on a two-week holiday to Jamaica. I stayed in Negril in a tiny family-run hotel. It wasn't very well run. Apart from the barman at the poolside bar, most of the staff were mainly noticeable because of their absence.
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Why would anyone want to go cliff diving? I remember seeing Elvis Presley diving off a cliff in one of his films and thinking how cool it would be to have a go.
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I have always been an Arsenal fan and I used to go to a lot of Arsenal games, as did Tom Watt.
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This ghost story is a short story but has stuck in my mind and I remember what happened vividly. It happened during a hospital stay when I lived in Fareham, Hampshire, England.
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I remember everything about the time leading up to this event, during this event and after with absolute clarity. I do not doubt that this happened as I describe it here.
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I was talking to a friend this week about jobs we have done previously, and I was reminded of this story when I fitted a gas meter in the wrong house in the 1980s.
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While I was at home watching the movie Karate Kid, I remembered meeting Pat Morita in Los Angeles, California.
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I have a lot of family living in South Wales and I go to Porthcawl, Glamorgan, to see them when I can. Whilst there, one time I was introduced to Howard Marks in a pub in Kenfig Hill.
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Noel Blake, a Jamaican-born football player, played for Aston Villa, Shrewsbury Town, Birmingham City, Portsmouth, Leeds United, Stoke City, Bradford City, Exeter City and Dundee at one time or another.
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In the mid-1980s, I stayed in Los Angeles and went to Universal Studios for the day. When I got there, I met Renate Blauel and spent a morning with her on a backlot tour.
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I must have been about 16 or 17 years old when I met Barbara Windsor very briefly outside a bank in Portsmouth, England.
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Unless you were an Elvis Presley fan, you probably wouldn't know who Vester Presley was, but he was the Uncle of Elvis Presley.
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I am in the lucky position to say that I have flown the Grand Canyon on three occasions.
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I have always been an Arsenal fan, and when I was a kid I did go to Highbury with my dad to see a lot of matches. I met David O´Leary, however, at Heathrow airport.
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I have no memory of these stories other than what has been told to me by my parents, but I did have a significant role in them. They involved me as a baby and my grandmother, Doris Daniels, who had passed away sixteen days before I was born.
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