5 things we have done (admirable, illegal, amazing, unusual etc)

Learned to drive in a car I could only stop by getting off the seat and standing on the brake.

Falling top to bottom down the stairs - three times - without coming to harm.

Talked a suicidal person down from a bridge

Broke my wrist landing on it high jumping for the school

Was expelled with the dog from training classes.

I have:-

1) Chatted (alone) to the late, much missed, David Bowie for about half an hour when he was at the height of his fame
2) Stood in the very centre of the Channel Tunnel, before it opened, obviously (the centre is a huge cavern-like place)
3) Been an extra in a Tony Hancock film in 1961
4) Had articles published in Craft magazines
5) Stayed happily married for 57 years, which would have been more had he not died. This is my best achievement of all

Negotiated the purchase of our first home on my own in my earl 20s (DH was at sea).
Taken on all the running of the household, indoors and out, as DH has PD and dementia. (I am still adjusting to this.)
Finished a couple of patchwork quilts, though there is one unfinished in a box in the loft.
Finally, at the age of 70, sung solo, unaccompanied in the pub folk singaround after many years of joining in the choruses.
Been happily mattied for 53 years and produced 2 wonderful sons, who are both great fathers to our grandchildren.

Married, not 'mattied'!

Grown mistletoe on my apple trees
Written 3 published novels.
Been married for sixty years with two happily married children.
Knitted many blankets for charity
Continue to enjoy life

1 Been caught out in a curfew and been taken home in a jeep by armed guard
2 Been on the highest white water rafting course in the world
3 Had coffee in a locked room lined with guns in Russia
4 Challenged single handed in the street (and won) a man who stole from my son
5 Done Christmas Day swim many times (so far up to being 80 years old)

Wandered onto a military firing practise site where the soldiers were using live ammo. Fortunately my friend and I were spotted and taken to safety in a land rover.
(I wonder if Shirley is a Gransnetter and remembers this? We also found a dead horse once.)

In my working days:

I organised a launch event for a children's charity for which my employer was the main funder. The event featured David Attenborough as the star attraction. We had several photographers, over 200 photographs and I did not feautre on any of them in any way. I hate being photographed and consider avoiding the cameras that day to be quite an achievement.

In the same job I made a visit to an offshore gas drilling rig with a BBC R4 team of presenter and recordist. It was for part of a radio series on geology and this one was on the geology of hydrocarbons.

Way back in my university days, I went down a working coal mine in Northumberland. It was in a coastal location and the working faces went out 2 miles under the North Sea.

I was thrown over a wall by a policeman in Trafalgar Square.

I spent the night in an unmarried mothers' home when I was 16 but I did not get pregnant myself until many years later.

I fell and broke my right wrist then a few years later I fell and broke my left wrist.

My DD was born the same day of the same month as Mrs Thatcher and Edwina Currie.

I once saw a man carrying a chimpanzee on his back at Paddington Station.

BlueBelle

1 Been caught out in a curfew and been taken home in a jeep by armed guard
2 Been on the highest white water rafting course in the world
3 Had coffee in a locked room lined with guns in Russia
4 Challenged single handed in the street (and won) a man who stole from my son
5 Done Christmas Day swim many times (so far up to being 80 years old)

Wow BlueBelle, you are brave. I'm particularly impressed by number 4.

Sat on stage behind The Beatles. I have a photograph.
Had a one way conversation with George Harrison - he spoke, I gawped.
Accompanied by lovely husband to The London Clinic where he donated his bone marrow to a stranger in another county.
Went to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
Survived an horrific childhood.

Been hauled down by police from a drainpipe as I was trying to gain access to Paul Jones.

Dated the policeman who hauled me down.

Won a hula hooping contest and a bathing beauty competition.

Had 5 lovely children and 9 equally lovely grandchildren.

Lived in Australia but only for 1 year.

Been happily married for 55 years, today.

Congratulations Kitty

Congratulations Kitty you dark horse and a very naughty girl.
I was also a very naughty girl and got pregnant at 16- my beautiful girl adopted but found me several years ago to present me with 3 grandchildren and now a great grandchild.
Married a patient
Sang in a Choral Society - no more Covid got my voice.
Leading a U3A Writers Group sent in some competition entries awaiting results, not expecting much.

Congratulations kitty

Spent overnight in a motorhome in the car park at the Pentagon, Washington. (1988, it would never happen these days).
Had cup of tea and slice of cake with the guards on the border between Romania and Moldova.
Removed barriers and drove motorhome up a high mountain in Switzerland. Lots of snow. Very foggy at the top, and our gas froze so we couldn't even make a cup of tea. Drove down again very carefully.
Found an unconscious woman in a street in Torquay. Turned out to be drug related.
As a thank you for taking many goods to a village in Romania they insisted on the ritual killing of a sheep and serving it at a huge banquet in our honour. I will never forget the awfulness of this, and the long-drop toilet.

What a fascinating lot you are!

And you, Kate. But, you picked the wrong Beatle again.

Aged 21, I flew for the first time ever, to follow and marry my British fiancé in Michigan, USA, spending a night en route in New York (incredibly surreal) where he was on a 12 month scholarship with GM.

Unusually for the times, on a few occasions we met the natural mother of the two year old DD we eventually adopted. Subsequently, we were blessed with a DD and DS of our own.

Attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace to which we were taken in a chauffeur driven car courtesy of DH's university.

After my divorce, I married my current DH whom I first knew in 1961 when we attended the same grammar school; he found me through Friend Reunited.

In 2015 I attended the Le Mans 24hour race as a spectator for the first of five occasions.

May I add one more.......

I survived driving from Torquay to Portsmouth and encountering the Beast from the East.

rock climbing and took part in sweep search with RAF mountain rescue

climbed Helvellyn in a white out

essential pipe maintenance in my loft to cure a leak that caused a flood over my en suite ceiling. 4`11, I had to do some chimney climbing as in a rock fissure, to reach the high pipe joint

Made a nice workable allotment from a thoroughly neglected allotment. So much so that I did not need to pay any fee for several months

At 70 I prepared my house for sale by myself, negotiated and bought my present house, packed everything myself and hung everything, after learning what special screws and rawlpugs were needed for the inner thermalite blocks. Everything is secure

He was the right Beatle for me kitty. Shame he didn't realise

Had a poem published at the age of 13.

At age 11, presented a bouquet to ballerina Alicia Markova on stage at the Liverpool Empire.

Flew to Australia with two children under 3.

Brought up two boys on my own after my husband died when they were 9 and 6.

Have sung (not solo!) for the late Queen, the Pope, Princess Diana and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

What an amazing lot you all are!