I have been fortunate, I seem to have achieved several once in a lifetime events,
When, as a child in the 1950s, I lived in Hong Kong, DF bought an American magazine called The Saturday Evening Post. At the time there were lots of articles in it about the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and always pictures with the Hollywood sign lit up against a dark hillside. It never entered my mind that I might ever do anything as unimaginable as visit the USA, let alone Los Angeles. But in 1984 DH spent six months working in LA and we visited during the school holidays and DH got tickets for the Independence Day concert at the Hollywood Bowl. We got to the location, found our places and I turned round and suddenly saw the Hollywood sign and I felt so strange, not quite deja vu, more as if I was, quite literally, living a dream, very strange.
We are opera enthusiasts and I always dreamed about going to Glynebourne. This was 30 years ago, but when the desire came upon me, you had to join a waiting list just to get on the mailing list and if you weren't on the mailing list you stood no chance at all of getting tickets - and anyway the cost was way beyond our budget.
Then about 10 years ago a friend offered us tickets to go with her. By then, ticket prices remained high but were now affordable and we went. Long evening dress, picnic in the gardens and a wonderful opera performance. We have gone more or less annually ever since, though now we usually go to see the Touring company's performances at Glynebourne, before the tour starts. They are in October, no glamming up as in the summer, no picnics in the gardens; too dark and too cold but a lot cheaper. However I will never forget that first visit.
will record it so I don't miss it.