Planning outside the box

When Jake was little he and I used to go to London quite often. We'd stay with a friend and spend two or three days seeing the sights and he got quite at home there. We visited museums if they were free, we walked and looked at the outside of amazing buildings and we window shopped. The thing is that last item on the list could have been expensive but we were broke and I couldn't risk either of us being tempted so we went to Harrods, Fortnum & Masons and Liberty's where we knew before we even set foot inside that we wouldn't be able to afford anything and in this way we could browse to our hearts content just gazing in awe at everything around us. Even at the age of four Jake knew that we wouldn't be spending £2,500.00 on a child sized landrover so we oohed and aahed to our hearts content and just enjoyed the experience. So, onto life today. Before dementia made itself known my favourite hobby was planning holidays. I would notice items in magazines and research the places mentioned; I'd remember something from a tv programme and look it up; I'd type 'islands off the coast of Britain' into Google in the early hours of the morning when I couldn't sleep and sometimes we'd get there and sometimes we wouldn't but always, if a place took my interest, I'd store it away at the back of my brain for use in the future. It gave me something to look forward to and something to plan for but gradually holidays, rather than being to a place in the world we wanted to visit, became places to go that I could cope with and the fun went out of it. Eventually of course I gave up any pretense of holidays being any use whatsoever and my box file/head full of ideas were put away never to be used again or so I thought. Then this morning I thought back to the window shopping Jake and I used to do. We were never going to buy but it was rarely anything but fun to look and I had an idea. I'm now going to think of all the places I'd love to visit if only I could afford it. I'm going to research those holidays, work out costs and plan activities. In the past over half the fun was in the planning anyway so why not do it all again but raise my sights a little higher and if at some point in my life I win the lottery I'll be ready with my new list. So you see, if you can think outside the box, life needn't be boring even if you're confined to home.

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