Coffee Klatch Friday: candy bucket list

Vicki, who hosts Coffee Klatch Friday at her blog The Tapestry of Life, has asked us this week what is on our "bucket list" (things we want to do before we die or "kick the bucket") and following hard on the heels of Hallowe'en, asks us what candy we like best! Yes, I left the comma out of the title on purpose—more fun that way. (Ten candies I would like to try before I die.)

Well, I'll start with candy first. Always a good place to start, especially if it involves chocolate. I love chocolate, dark, milk, light, white, hot, cold—chocolate! But my favorite individual kind of candy would have to be Peanut Butter Cups, for my own peculiar reason. I like the taste of peanut butter but I don't like the texture or even the smell of unadulterated peanut butter. Coated in chocolate and dressed in cute little ruffled paper pantaloons, it is magnifique!

Bucket List

Well, now, let me see...we've done a lot of traveling this century, and I did quite a bit of it on my own in the last century, but there are always places...

1. I was going to list Scotland first, but I'd better start with England because my best friend and her British-born husband have just moved from the west coast of Canada to the middle of England where they now live in a narrowboat on a canal.
2. Scotland, because I've spent a week in Edinburgh, but haven't been to the Highlands or the Islands. Looming large on my bucket list is the tiny island of Eriskay, followed closely by the larger island of Skye, both in the Hebrides.
3. Sydney, Australia. I spent a few days there in 1982 after touring Queensland with my little brother and a friend. Now I'd like to go back to visit new friends, if I can find a ship to take me there. I'm willing to fly home (which will be awful enough, and will likely involve several weeks of bed-rest) but I refuse to arrive there with jet-lag.
4. Africa. Ditto. Travel by ship. Or by leaps and bounds by plane, overnighting every time a change of plane is required.
5. Singapore, if my friend Robin and his wife are still there. If not by ship, at least the same overnighting requirements as in #4.
6. Antarctica, or close to it. Somewhere with penguins, such as the Falklands. I loved the Galapagos penguins and now I want more. Animated movies are entirely too cute, and visiting the penguins behind the scenes at Sea World Orlando was wonderful, but I want to see the real thing, in the wild, once more, or more than once more.

7. Trains. I love trains. The Orient Express would be fabulous. There are some elegant trains in Africa, too. (See #4.) The Rocky Mountaineer in BC and Alberta would be lovely, also. Really, however, what I like best about trains is sleeping. I sleep like a baby in a lower berth on a train.
8. I was in New Orleans in 1980. I think I'd like to return. After both of my parents had died, my siblings and I said we had no regrets about the life Mom and Dad had lived, and it's true, although I would have liked to take them to New Orleans.
9. Ireland, and Wales. I spent an afternoon in Wales when traveling with my parents, brothers, and sisters-in-law in England after our week in Edinburgh. I'd like to see more of Wales, and I'd love to visit Ireland, where I also have a friend I'd like to visit.
10. I'd like to meet Tony Bennett. He's the only one left from the 50s. And, if not Tony Bennett, I'd like to meet John Fogerty. Creedence Clearwater Revival played all my favorite dancing songs in the 70s, and I love Fogerty's voice.

So, there we have ten, or maybe ten and a half. I'm looking forward to seeing what others at Coffee Klatch have on their bucket lists. See you there!

PS — I know the list is long, but my friend Sherry just reminded me of Haida Gwaii, formerly the Queen Charlotte Islands, in British Columbia. A must-see!