The cost of living drops significantly, but the availability of take-away food drastically decreases as well.

I wish I could always find what I'm looking for at a book sale or bookstore.

Hooray! Now you always find the exact books you're looking for at every book sale or bookstore you visit... and they're always priced WAY out of your range. (Four figures minimum, even the modern paperbacks.)

I wish I could have a new car.

Shazam! In a blaze of lightning, your new car appears spectacularly. But there is a hitch when the new environmental solar technology of running the car with solar panels on its hood & bonnet, doesn't work the engine when the sun doesn't shine.  

I wish I could wave a wand and say something like Accio Newspaper article! like Harry Potter, when trying to relocate items of interest. 

Ta da, you now have that ability but, unfortunately, every newspaper article or other item of interest within 50 kilometers shows up instead of just the item you want.

I wish for a good night's sleep.

🐏🐑🐑🐑 The good-night fairy sings a lullaby and so you are indeed lulled to a good night's sleep. I hope it was on a weekend, because you wouldn't want to sleep the whole week through and miss all the things you need to do. 

I wish for a magic wand that would do all the heavy lifting for me, when furniture has to be shifted. 

Ta da, you now have that ability but, unfortunately, every newspaper article or other item of interest within 50 kilometers shows up instead of just the item you want.

Well, the magic wand happens to exist, but it tends to drop the furniture a lot. Better watch your toes!

I wish I could spend more time reading.

Presto! You now spend so much time reading that you get nothing else done at all.

On that note, as I have things I need to do myself and keep putting them off by hanging out on NarniaWeb... I wish I could stop procrastinating!  

Bang! Puff! Now you don't spend anytime on Narniaweb and everyone wonders where you are.

I wish to catch a fish (so juicy-sweet).

You do — but while eating it, you are transformed into Gollum. And now you are bent on nothing else but getting back your Preciousssss.

On that note, I wish I could visit Middle-earth! 

And continuing on that note, so do I. How gorgeous it would be to revisit Middle Earth, even if I have to visit New Zealand to do so, when for the films, New Zealand Airways could boast that New Zealand, of all countries, won the Oscars for the best supporting country.

Unfortunately, to do so, is a whole bunch of bureaucratic demands such as renewing one's Aussie or UK passport and much more of day-to-day goings on. However dreamingly magnificent the mere idea of visiting Middle Earth, let alone New Zealand, might be, the reality is often too complicated to contemplate, when the "Return of an admittedly romantic King" won't solve anything in world affairs. 

I wish that I could win a holiday to Spain & Portugal, when there is so much to see there.  

Poof! You're transported to Spain or Portugal when there is a lot to see, but it happens to be the middle ages and the Franks are busy waging war on the Caliphate of Cordoba.

I wish I could participate in the Society of Creative Anachronism (without getting hurt).

Voilà! You do get to participate in the Society of Creative Anachronism, but though you don't get hurt, you get stuck in a time warp from which you might not be lucky enough to easily return to the present.

I wish that I could roll back time to undo the damage done in a car accident. 

You travel back in time and succeed in convincing your legislature to outlaw cars. Better fix your bike!

I wish I could my Latin was better.

Yes, indeed, your Latin does get better, especially when, for fun, you compare English words to similar ones in Latin, one of the languages, along with Greek, that has helped form much of English legal & medical terminology. Unfortunately, being better at Latin doesn't really get you anywhere, when there is nobody to speak the language with you, & when it is considered a dead language. Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes, as Virgil, the Roman poet said.

I wish I could have learned to speak an Australian Aboriginal language instead of Latin. 

(Timeo Danaos et dona ferentes = I fear the Greeks bearing gifts - famous saying from Virgil's Aeneid)

Congratulations, you now know how to speak an Australian Aboriginal language! Unfortunately it's one of the extinct ones... and you've simultaneously forgotten how to speak English, so now nobody can understand you (or vice versa) at all.

I wish I could go to sleep faster at night.