There’s a saying, common amongst “older” people that youth is wasted on the young. I think this is not quite an accurate reflection of reality, myself.

I think wealth is wasted on the wealthy. In truth, if there was any justice in the world, I would have been born to a life of untold wealth instead of Paris Hilton. Clearly a bunch of celebrity magazines would be worse off as I wouldn’t actually do the being famous for being rich act at all. Oh no, I’m sure it’s much, much better fun to be rich and not famous.

If I happened to have a couple of million dollars sitting in a bank account, instead of going to A.N. Other Designer store with half a dozen rich friends, I’d call up my personal assistant and say “get me a first class ticket to Brisbane, Australia, find me an apartment near a surfing beach for three months, find me a surfing instructor”. And I’d spend three months in Queensland learning to surf.

The world is huge. Not only is the world huge, it is also wildly varied. There are so many places I would like to go, and already, I wonder if I’ll be able to do even the half of them during my life. Why spend your time putting on a show for gossip columnists when you could have so much more fun?

Unfortunately, there isn’t any justice in the world, so instead of wandering around on a trust fund, I have to work for a living, and keep an eye on the funds. However – this doesn’t stop you having dreams and aspirations.

I’m fully aware that for the time being, Brad Pitt is off limits. Additionally, the odds of my ever winning an Olympic figure skating medal at this stage of my life amount to nil. However, there’s a whole lot of the world out there, with a whole lot of places to go and a whole lot of things to try. Some places to go back to, some places which are new to me. For the rest of my life, I’ll still be able to dream about travelling, and not feel that it’s gone beyond me.

I could make a list. I want to go to Pompeii. I’d like to see a glacier and I’d like to see a volcano. I want to see the pyramids in Egypt and the pyramids in South America. When I start to list out the places I want to go, I come to realise that the careers advice I got when I was 17 was far wide of the mark. They should have packed me off to BBC to be Craig Doyle in his Holiday guise (not his rugby sideline reporting). I realise that Craig Doyle could write a two thousand word essay on how presenting a travel show isn’t glamorous at all, but frankly I’m not looking for glamour. Otherwise I’d aim for modelling. Glamour is in the perception, not the reality. I want to go places.

When my mother was my age, if you went to America or to Australia, it wasn’t on your holidays you were going. Nobody went to China or Russia (you prayed for their conversion at Mass though). In fact, you barely knew what life was like in France and that was like, less than half a world away.

Somebody made the point at some stage that the scope for being a famous explorer is getting ever more limited. There won’t be another Doctor Livingstone (I presume). Admittedly there are large parts of South America, the Australian Outback and Africa which are fundamentally unknown, but at this stage, there are few unknown lands and islands to be discovered. I have to admit that part of me would love to be a famous explorer, feted at the Royal Geographic Society, or, well, in these modern days, The Irish Geographic Society (if we had one) describing my six month trek through the unknown jungle of SomewhereNewLand, and getting a gold medal or something. The other part of me reminds me that I like my creature comforts, and frankly, if fate had smiled and all that, first class in a Cathay Pacific jet to Australia would do fine/better.

They say Travel Broadens The Mind. I’ve never actually worked out who “they” are. I suspect they’re the people who have shares in the airlines and travel agents. I’m happy for them. I’ve worked out that it’s much better fun to go somewhere, and take pictures of it, than it is to try and imagine what it’s like to go somewhere by looking at it in the pages of National Geographic, or on A Place in the Sun. Travel is almost common or garden now, so the problem is that it’s harder to find places to win the one-upmanship game on. Thailand is so unoriginal dear.

I think this is a pity. I think that everywhere can be different if you approach it with a different mindset. I love France, for example. I’ve been to several parts of it at various points in my life. Stuck near the top of Things I will Do When I have Time – I really should have been a teacher except I can’t teach – is a trip down along the coast of France to visit as many lighthouses as possible, and surf as many waves as possible. And that’s nowhere near as exciting as going backpacking in Nepal, even if everyone does it.

I like to think that everyone has a place that deep down in their heart they would like to visit, even if they don’t admit it. Even if it is very bog standard or old-fashioned like Blackpool Pier. When I was a bit younger than I am now, all I wanted to do in my whole life was go to a Formula 1 race. It took me six years to create the opportunity (because you have to create the opportunity yourself – it doesn’t usually ride in on a motorbike to you). I’d love to visit the Skelligs, even if to do so means going out in a boat – I’m not great at boats for various reasons – and that’s by no means as exciting as going to see a stunning azure blue sea such as you’ll find in French Polynesia, for example. And although everything I have read suggests that it’s not the kind of holiday that would suit me, I would love to go to the Maldives.

The great thing about today’s world is that because it is simultaneously so big and so small…all these dreams are attainable. My objective, for when I reach the age of eighty and am totally decrepit, I will be able to remember living those dreams, knowing that I lived through the world getting smaller.

More of winds’ writing can be found at winds’ site: www.windsandbreezes.org.