My totally imaginative bucket list

At first I thought I might take a more serious line and write about all the things I would genuinely like to do if I had the wherewithal necessary to accomplish them. Then I thought about it all again and decided that I’m quite content with my life, warts and all, and that there really isn’t anything I want to do, even if I was filthy rich and fit enough. So I let fantasy take over and moved into the magical world of the imagination where anything and everything is possible. Therefore my imaginative bucket list is as follows.

I would find, on eBay, a genuine Time Machine that could take me anywhere I want to go.

My first stop would be back in County Durham to where my maternal grandfather worked in the mines with the pit-ponies. I would like to see first-hand how those gallant little animals make the jobs of the miners easier and just what they did for all those hours they spend in the darkness of the mineshafts and tunnels.

Stop number two goes a bit further back in time. I would like to know just exactly how the pyramids and the sphinx were constructed. How, without machinery, did the people manage to get those huge slabs of rock into those shapes so perfectly that they have withstood the ravages and shocks of time – perfectly aligned and sealed as to be practically impenetrable to the outside world for centuries. I would like to go back and see just how they did it.

Stop number three is one that holds a fascination for a lot of people including me and my grandsons and that is the world of dinosaurs. My oldest grandson asked me one day (he was not quite 4) if I had had a pet dinosaur when I was a kid – little sod! – His father thought it was hilarious because my older son had asked a similar thing at the same age – had I ever been chased by a dinosaur???

It could be a little bit dodgy running around back then without being gobbled up by something – so I would need to borrow from Harry Potter and have a cloak of invisibility. I would like to experience the sheer size and power of these gigantic creatures, see them hunting, feeding and moving through the prehistoric wilderness of those times.

Stop number four starts around a similar time – I would like to see how early humanity lived – from stone age through time development to modern day. I would like to see the hordes of Ghenghis Khan and the building of China’s Great Wall.

Another of my wishes is to observe the construction of the Statue of Liberty, but that is of less importance than to see the colossus of Rhodes and the original Hanging Gardens of Babylon.

I would have a prime seat in the stands to watch Ben Hur and his horses run to victory. I doubt he would have had Charlton Heston’s steely eye and American accent.

From there back into mythological times – because anything is possible in the imagination – to the world of the Gods for a ride on Pegasus, the magical winged horse of Olympia, to Crete and the world of Icarus and Daedalus who escaped their prison on wings of their own construction until Icarus flew too close to the sun and melted the wax holding his wings together and perished when he fell into the ocean; to the kingdom of King Minos who imprisoned the Minotaur in the labyrinth until it was slain by Theseus. I would like to borrow the winged slippers used by Perseus when he slew Medusa, the Gorgon. I would sail with Jason on the Argo in his search for the Golden Fleece.

I have long been fascinated by Mythology, both Greek and Roman and would relish the chance to explore and experience it.

Ebay, unfortunately, can only devote itself to more mundane and worldly items, so alas, I will not find my time machine there.

Space travel has been done quite a few times, but nobody has yet been to the sun – so that’s where I would like to go, but I would have to go at night time when it isn’t so bright and quite some degrees cooler.