AFTER more than 20 years with his feet on the ground, pensioner Ted Curtis took to the skies in a hot-air balloon once again.

Ted, 82, is a resident at Ridgeway House care home in The Lawns, Royal Wootton Bassett, and it was through the work of staff there his wish to take another trip in a balloon was granted.

The home is run by The Orders of St John Care Trust, which has a Wish Tree Fund, a pot of money used to allow residents to do things they might not otherwise have been able to.

Ridgeway House ran its own Diamond Jubilee celebration in 2012 and invited residents to apply for a diamond wish each as a part of the celebrations.

Ted, still dreaming about his first balloon flight, which he took as a 60-year-old, pitched for another ride and got tickets, only to be left disappointed – and on hard ground – when the organising company went bust before he could take to the skies.

“It was at a surprise birthday party at 60 in Bristol and I said then I would do it again because it was such a lovely experience,” he said.

“Every resident had a diamond wish at the time and that was mine, but it was just so delayed by weather and eventually cancelled.

“It was going to be done in time for my 80th birthday in 2012, so I have been looking forward to it all this time now.

“I did think a couple of times it might never happen, but I just left it in the lap of the gods.”

Ted is the last of Ridgeway’s residents to cash in his diamond wish.

Andrea Wright, activities co-ordinator at the home for seven years, said the purpose of the scheme was to give each resident an experience or special item they could come away with.

She gave one example of a male resident who enjoyed choir music. He was given a Welsh male choir’s CD, which he now plays at the home.

Ted opted for something more uplifting, though calmer in the extreme.

“It’s serene and calm up there,” he said. “Once you lift off you just drift along, it’s so peaceful. You can forget all of your troubles.”

The initial ticket bought by the home for Ted’s diamond wish cost £170, which they feared had been wasted when the balloon operator went bankrupt, according to Andrea.

And the 20-plus-year wait for Ted has been made all the more tantalising by the temperamental weather in Britain.

Andrea said: “He was due to go up in 2012, at the beginning of August, just after his birthday. We had this particular flight booked about six or seven times now.

“If the wind is even slightly unfavourable it gets called off on the day you are due to go up.”

Ted said the one thing he was most looking forward to in the air would be the chance to look down on his fellow residents at Ridgeway House, but he was at the mercy of the weather once again, as the wind would dictate their direction.