Anyone else imagine random unlikely things you could do in the future and feel disappointed knowing they're never going to happen?

[ThisStateOfIndependenceShallBe]

I've got this idea in my head that I really want to live in the Netherlands for a month, staying in a small, pretty town and going on trips to Amsterdam, Rotterdam and anywhere else worth seeing.

I was facing the possibility of redundancy at work and I kind of started daydreaming about what I would do if I did lose my job. I'm lucky, I suppose, not to be one of the ones being made redundant, but disappointed that I'm not going to be able to just go off somewhere and just take time out to breathe and sort of reset my life.

I've never been to the Netherlands and my vision of fresh air, windmills and tulips is probably completely inaccurate, and also I'd be going on my own and a month is probably too long to spend all alone, but too short to make new friends while I was there. Also the sensible thing to do if I was made redundant would be to immediately start job hunting, not run off to another country.

So I know it was something that was probably never going to happen anyway, but still feeling kind of sad that it definitely won't.

Does anyone else have random whims or daydreams that you know you shouldn't or can't do, and you're not even sure why you want to, but now you've had the idea you really, really want to do it?

That sounds so good, I'm glad you're able to make a start on following your dream.

I would just like to be happy, healthy and content (and rich).

That sounds lovely, if only you could take the dogs with you!

Shocking they haven't recruited you yet.

They just don't know what they're missing.

I want a tiny cottage on the coast. Pink front door, deep snug sofas, book shelves and comfy garden chairs. ALONE.
It will never happen unless dh pisses off and dc meet someone and go their own way.

You could go for a long weekend and see if you like it first.

I would quite like to live in a villa on Lake Como with George Clooney but I'll settle for a week in Italy with DH 😅For now, anyway.

Would a month off really mean taking a sabbatical where you work? I took a month off last year to go to Canada. I just used annual leave. OK it was pretty much all my leave for the year but it was worth it.

I would like to go to the Nordic countries and even move to one of them maybe Finland. I will probably never get to even visit. Who knows though, right?...miracles do happen lol

Sorry, a slightly sad one...

My DH has a life shortening cancer. We had retirement plans but now know he almost certainly won't be alive long enough to make it. And yet still I can't seem to shake my belief in what our future retirement looks like :(

Inside, I’m a hardy, Nordic feminist loner, deeply rooted to the earth and very good at enjoying her own company for weeks at a time. In reality I have a husband and children who I love more than anything/one and live in a dense urban jungle that’s too hot and muggy 6 months of the year 😂

I'd like to have lived in Germany for a bit. Also Denmark and The Netherlands.
I did live in France for a bit.

I fantasise about DH and I being able to retire and moving somewhere beautiful instead of between two scuzzy towns because of work. The perfect house, smallish garden with views and the children and grandchildren nearby. Aah well, one can but dream.

Why can't you just take 4 weeks annual leave? Maybe split it across 2 holiday years, depending on what time of year your leave resets.

I’ve always from a child wanted to be a trapeze artist, in my head I’d be amazing, plus I like the sparkly costumes. I’m terrified of heights.

I’ve always wanted to visit Tokyo. Now I have Stage 4 cancer and travel insurance would cost a fortune so it’s never going to happen.

I would like to go into space but I’m a fee £million short of the fare.

There is a beautiful historic building near me which has been converted into flats. Every time I walk past it, I wish I could live there. I've seen some of the flats on Rightmove and the prices are way, way, way out of our budget and I don't think it's a suitable place to bring up children.

It would be a lovely place to live when the DC are grown up so I suppose I've got quite a few years of hoping our Premium Bonds will come up with a million pounds!

I often daydream, always have, probably wasted too much time on it. I definitely often imagine buying a plot of land and having a house built on it. I know full well I couldn’t cope with the stress and decision making involved.

I can only take two weeks annual leave at a time. I know people I work with have occasionally got permission to take longer, but at the moment with the redundancies, and everyone trying to work harder to prove their worth in the hope of avoiding another wave of redundancies I wouldn't feel right breezing in and asking for a month off.

I'm sorry to hear that. I hope you're able to do at least some of the things you had planned together.

I'm sure you'd have been brilliant, and the terror in your eyes would have given you an je ne sais quoi that would have made you stand out from the rest.

I'm sorry you won't be able to visit Tokyo.

I’m with you on redundancy @ThisStateOfIndependenceShallBe - it’s my dream for me and my husband to get it at about 55. Payout would be perfect, and both mortgages would already be paid off so we could just enjoy our lives and get tiny little part time jobs. We’d have been with the same company for 35 years at that point so could be the dream.

The other one is wearing my old clothes from when I was thin. I have some 90s/00s low rise (when low rise really was low rise like it should be) combats, and they’re mega, but I need to lose another 7 stone to fit in them…I still have this thought in my mind that one day I’ll be thin and have surgery and it’ll all be better. But realistically it won’t end up happening 🤷‍♀️ I can hope though.

That was how I started! There is a super sprint distance, 200m swim, 5/10k cycle, 2.5k run. Usually very much aimed at people who want to have a go :) I'm part of a Tri club and we often run social events just for fun and to encourage people to have a go. So it's not completely impossible ;)

Every single time I drive on a perfectly designed motorway junction and seamlessly end up on another motorway I long to be a civil engineer. Am 63 and it is never going to happen but I always wish I had done engineering at university and not English!