SYW: What Happens in Disney

Can you recall your very first Disney experience? Was it a cartoon? A film? Or was it a place?

Did you enjoy it or think it was stupid? Did it influence you?

My very first Disney experience happened when I was about 3 years old. My parents took me to Disney World, but I was too young and too small to go on most of the rides.

I don’t remember much about that day.

I’ve seen photos of little me dressed like Janis Joplin – it wasn’t a costume party, those were just the clothes people wore in those days.

My mother also told me about it a few times, she was always telling stories about little me to older me. Later on I learned not to trust her as a source of information about what had actually happened in the past especially when she was talking to older me about little me.

  

  

The Disney visit was because everyone who was anyone to my parents kept telling them they couldn’t visit Florida without going to Disney World, especially since they had a child.

What I do recall is going around and around on the Magic Kingdom’s carousel while waiting for my parents who were going on all the other rides.

I loved merry-go-rounds as a child, wherever we went in the world, if there was one of those rides I had to get on it…

   

  

This post is my RSVP to Melanie of Sparks From A Combustible Mind’s invitation to Share Your World 12-3-18

Thank you, Melanie, for inviting me to visit your Magic Kingdom! (that sounds a bit naughty but nice 😉 )

What are the most important lesson(s) you’ve learned in life?

  

     

 When I was in my early 30’s, I still loved going on rides which spun me around and around.

Then. One day, while my partner and I were going for a walk on Hampstead Heath, we came upon one of those pop-up funfairs.

They had one of those Gravity Wheels – people get in, stand against the sides of the circular cylinder, hold onto metal bars, with a tiny strap to keep you safe, and then it spins around, faster and faster, rising up and tilting. It’s the force which is supposed to stop you from falling out and getting thrown about.

It was great fun, and what made it even more fun was that the funfair guy manning the ride asked us all if we wanted it to go on for longer than the usual time…

   

   

… and like a bunch of funfair ride junkies we all shouted YES!!! And so he kept it going and going and going…

That was the best worst ride I’ve ever been on. I was finally cured of my addiction to merry-go-rounds forever.

Shortly after that experience, I finally let go of another addiction to another type of merry-go-round which had been making me dizzy, nauseous, sick for decades, but I could never figure out how to get off and get out of that Magical Thinking Kingdom.

We let go of things when we’re ready to let those things go and those things are ready to let us go… until that time, around and around we go.

How did you meet your husband/wife or significant other? How did you know he/she was “the one”?

  

     

The short version:

We were both on holiday (vacation) in Florida. We were staying at the same hotel. We were both swimming in the hotel’s small pool. He asked me a question. I answered.

Later he invited me to go to Disney World. We went to Disney… we came back from Disney.

He returned to his home. I returned to my temporary home.

I realised something was wrong with me which was different than usual…

  

  

I was strangely euphoric about being alive.

I packed up my stuff, got on a plane and turned up on his doorstep. Moved in. Got married. Still married 20+ years later.

The long version:

Is in this post – I Remember: Falling in Love… – I reread it last night and it’s delightfully funny.

If you could take a year-long paid sabbatical, what would you do?

   

   

I would do what I’m doing now, because I’m very lazy… particularly when things are good as they are. Why fix it if it ain’t broke.

What is your favorite thing to buy at a movie theater concession stand? (credit to The Haunted Wordsmith for this one)

  

   

I haven’t been to a movie theatre in over ten years. I prefer watching films on the TV, lounging around in comfy clothes on the sofa stroking my pussycat, and stuffing my face with whatever… usually whatever comes close to being similar to what they’re eating in the film.

When I was a child, the movie theatres in the UK used to have an intermission in the middle of a film, and an usher would walk down the aisle with a tray full of snacks which often included ice cream. That was fun!

When I used to visit the USA as a kid, I loved Cracker Jack.

  

  

What are some Holiday Traditions you and/or your family observe in December?

If it was left up to me, nothing would happen at all. My partner likes having a tree and so does our cat, so they do that and I get to enjoy it without having to lift a finger to help.

My partner’s family used to be more Holiday traditional, but they’ve all lazied up a lot in recent years, partly because they’ve all moved, everyone lives in different parts of the country, so things are more random, spontaneous. It’s more fun this way!