To ask what you dreamed would be fabulous but is actually maybe a bit shit

[hitsvilleuk]

I think this about lots of things to do with celebrity lives, when I was younger I thought it all would amazing now not so sure.

A particular one I have is that I always longed for a villa on the Italian lakes. We went to a hotel there one year for 5 days ( in the same village as George Clooney ) It pissed down for 3 days. Everything was dark and damp and that combined with the endless queuing for flights and the thought of maintaining a property in another country sort of did for the dream. Not achievable without a lottery win anyway but now I don't even want it.

Anyone else got stuff like this or that they actually got and then thought 'meh'. I seem to have it about more and more things as I get on - I just don't want stuff anymore. Is it just to do with age?

This is possibly the best thread ever.

I don’t think I’ll ever leave the house again.

NCT classes - overpriced and got someone telling me that labour pains were like bad period pains. They weren't. Should've gone to the NHS classes.
Living abroad - it has some positives but really it's just the same shit of childcare, cleaning, work, paying bills but you are really far from your family and oldest friends.
Weddings - expensive and stressful trying to please everyone
Starbucks - the worst, luke warm coffee in the most annoying huge mugs
Being thin - I am thin and I used to be fatter. It hasn't really been the magic bullet to a happy life.

Oh gosh I second the NCT classes. Where I live the people that ran them were just not on the same page as me and I simply couldn't compute why anyone would suffer avoidable pain.

Paris. Full of dog shit and miserable people.

YY to Mr Frosty. Plastic grinder broke on the first outing I still want a SodaStream though. Clearly, I never learn.

I think so-called luxury things are quite crap irl. I had a swimming pool in my garden when I lived in Johannesburg and it was a total pita. Always going green and freezing bloody cold. I needed a degree in chemistry to keep it useable (this is even with a pool service) and I think I ended up swimming in it once.

From there we moved to Germany and ended up with a house with a sauna in the basement. Better than the swimming pool, but took ages to heat up, was nice for about 10 minutes then got too hot and absolutely ate up electricity. Probably used it 10 times in two years. Not worth the faff.

Got to say that I really enjoy Paris and Venice, but agree that Bali is a bit crap. Also don’t get Florence.

I don’t enjoy massages, hot tubs and most cocktails which all seem to be things most other people like.

Center Parcs
Starbucks
London
Dublin
SeaLife Centres
Cornwall
Clinique skin products
Convertible cars

I feel a bit sad at people saying soda stream. I've wanted one since I was a kid and was thinking about treating myself next month! Might not bother now.

@TheTurn0fTheScrew

it kills me saying this, and on the whole I love Italy, but Florence. Insane levels of queuing despite having booked stuff from back in the UK a month earlier (without doing that you'd not even be eligible to stand in a queue). Plus we got scammed into overpaying in a gelateria, which apparently is pretty standard for Florence and didn't endear me to the place further.

Florence is lovely right now without the tourists! Not a person to be seen (sadly they are also in the red zone and everything is closed!). Go look at the live cam of piazza della signoria. It's tristissimo.

I have to agree with family holidays too. I've got used to them now, but the first few years I just wanted to cry and then go home early. Holidays pre-children were real holidays - fun, relaxing, lots of sleep, lots of sex, drinking cocktails by the pool, doing what we wanted when we wanted, visiting wonderful museums, splashing out on nice restaurants, just stopping at a bar because it looked nice and sitting there in the sun chatting, getting pissed and people watching for ages - bliss! Holidays with DC? Not even worthy of the name 'holiday'.

Being an adult - it's not nearly as fun as advertised

Being a parent - especially to a SN child, it's exhausting and whilst I wouldn't change him for the world, it does make life so much more complicated.

Working from home - the novelty of wearing pyjamas during a teams call wears off REALLY fast. Plus the home/work boundary gets blurred and you end up checking emails/working on a spreadsheet at 8pm cos there is nothing on the telly - or maybe that's just me??

Chichen Itza. Loooong, hot bus journey then tour through the incredibly crowded area with far too much detail involved and in the midday Mexican sun. Then got bitten by a mosquito resulting in dengue fever. So not my favourite trip really, although would have been amazing without detail, heat, crowds and mosquito. Basically I should have gone alone, at about 6am and work better repellent.

Not to be mean if you come from there but was not happy that I spent part of a trip to Australia visiting Perth. Expensive and dull. It is probably very nice if you live there.

@cricketmum84

I feel a bit sad at people saying soda stream. I've wanted one since I was a kid and was thinking about treating myself next month! Might not bother now.

Just buy a bottle of fizzy water and a bottle of squash. Mix together. Cost? Less than £2. Sodastream? About £100 when I looked

Best quite from modern family:

Claire Dunphy: "I'm a mom travelling with her kids. It's not a vacation, it's a business trip."

Turning 50, I thought I would be mature and wise by now with life all sorted. Turns out I'm still about 18 inside

France and the French
Weddings (inc our own)
Losing virginity
Cats the musical
London
Kenya (safari was wonderful but towns, hotel, and people were awful)
High paid job as Finance director

I had always wanted to go to the Maldives. We combined it with a week touring Sri Lanka. I loved that bit.

Got to the Maldives after a palaver of a journey involving small planes and boats and I had walked the whole way round the island in 15 minutes and was bored by lunchtime. It is stunningly beautiful but unless you are into diving or want to sit on your arse for a week, there is nothing else to do. No culture, walks, bars or shops. I'm veggie so ate the same overpriced food for a week. God help you if it rains.

@cricketmum84

I feel a bit sad at people saying soda stream. I've wanted one since I was a kid and was thinking about treating myself next month! Might not bother now.

I love ours, as a type one diabetic its the easiest way to have nice drinks that aren’t just plain water.

I also thought being in my 50s would confer new levels of wisdom, calm, maturity, self-control etc. It hasn't. Just varied health issues, clicking joints and insomnia.

I second soda stream love.

@Deathraystare

Similiarly when I went on holiday to Albania, someone told me that it was bound to be shit and poor. It was gorgeous. A really beautiful country, Really nice

It has really opened up now from what I was reading. When I went they still had government stooges in the tourist hotels listening in on conversations (wow must have been stimulating) and bored soldiers walking round parks especially if they saw locals go anywhere near the tourists! One elderly Irish tourist likened it to Southern Ireland in places.

Wow that is interesting, when was that?

I was in Albania very recently actually, this year. No soldiers around. I really liked the world heritage towns.

The only problem was again , the men. In the very touristy areas, like Durres , the beach town, some of the men would hassle me. I literally threw a shoe at one man to get him to leave me alone

Love this thread.

Mine would be:

Bathing in hot springs in NZ. The stench of sulphur just made me feel sick. Shame as without that it would have been amazing.

Watching a premiere league game from a box. You feel disconnected from the action, may as well watch it on TV.

Sydney. Just felt a bit blah and faceless. All shiny shit and no substance.

Really amazing looking fancy cakes. 90% of the time they're a let down when you eat them.

Also agree with Christmas markets.

I love my Dyson though, and the Taj Mahal IS actually incredible.

I am glad people have spilled the beans on whale watching, it is something I have thought of doing one day, now I won't (well I have actually done it from the shore, in Hermanus in South Africa, was pretty good but I figured somehow from a boat would be even better. I would definitely be the person who got seasick...and now I remember being underwhelmed by a dolphin watching boat trip in Gibraltar, the dolphins were so far away I essentially had to pretend I could see them...)

@theDudesmummy

I also thought being in my 50s would confer new levels of wisdom, calm, maturity, self-control etc. It hasn't. Just varied health issues, clicking joints and insomnia.

Same here too! 😂