Home Again, Home Again
Oct. 1st, 2019 09:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
teddy_radiatorWell, we've been back home for two weeks now from our trip abroad, but I got a terrible bout of cold/sinus infection/bronchitus on the last leg of the trip, and today is really the first day I've felt like anything approaching human. Of course, still had to work, so that didn't help, slogging through coughing and spluttering. I did a round of antibiotics last week, and I'm still dosing with the Mucinex, but I think I'm finally beating it.
We had a great time, though. TheHubs™ got a brand new bass from Anderton's, which I sort of insisted he buy (well, the thing was so sexy I wanted to have an affair with it and anyone could see it was a great deal and they shipped it to us free),
and a gorgeous suit in Ireland, sold to us by a young, handsome, silver-tongued Irishman who charmed all four of us. Seriously, though, TheHubs™ do look lovely in it. He also got an Irish linen grandad shirt which is more than just a little droolworthy on him:
The couple we were with took literally thousands of photos, to the point where we often had to sit for 30 minutes at a time while they snapped away at each and every detail of everything. It took us 2.5 hours to walk from London Bridge across Tower Bridge. Actually, they were totally indifferent to London, so we didn't get to spent but a half a day there, so I was really sad we didn't get to spend more time there.
We stayed in a gorgeous airBnB in Leith Hill in Surrey, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I took us thirty minutes to get to any town. It was an absolute jewel of a place, with gorgeous views in every direction. Some of the highlights for me were getting to visit with the kids for awhile and see their new homes. C has a new boyfriend, whom I fell absolutely in love with. I think this may just be the one, and everything I've seen says it's a good match. The more I was around him, the more I liked him. He is sharp, funny, easy going, totally grounded, and he seems totally devoted to Cat. J and H are doing well. We were a bit worried about J - for so long he just seemed adrift. But he found his tribe, and is now happily doing what he's always wanted to do - design video games, and he's in hog heaven.
We also got to spend an evening with friends, who met us in a nearby pub. Some traveled over 2 hours to be with us, which was very gratifying. We had an absolute ball, reminiscing and just getting to be British again. Everyone told us how well we looked, and gave TheHubs™ extra hugs, because they were so grateful that he was there. From there we spent an afternoon with his sister, and together they went to see his mum, who is in the later stages of dimentia. I didn't go, because she gets very flustered if there's more than a couple of people around at a time, but she sort of recognised TheHubs™ (we took her a photo book of pics of us and the kids and the cats, and she remembered them). She did okay, but he said the more he was there the more confused she got. Shortly after we returned she had to be admitted to hospital because she is just getting to the point that she really can't live on her own, even with all the in-house help she gets 3 times a day. It's really sad, seeing this bright, intelligent, sharp woman slowing disappearing. She would be appalled at herself if she were in her right mind.
We spent most of the next week in Ireland, which, I am sad to say, sort of underwhelmed me at first. I think I had this romanticised vision in my head of what it would be like, but we stayed in another air BnB which was pretty drab and shoddy. It was okay, but after the perfection of the first one, it seemed subpar. We were also in a rather boring part of Ireland. The best part was that Cat and her boyfriend (rather conveniently named Pat) came over and stayed in a nearby hotel for a few days, so we got to spent more time with them. We visited family in Trallee, who made us welcome and feasted us at their table, even though TheHubs and Cat were the only two people they knew. We also went to Bunratty Folk Park, which was lovely. Pat and Cat joined us there and we had fun palling around with them (we let our friends wonder off to take photos - we were finished two hours before them). We had a great time there as well, but Ireland still felt, well, lacking to me.
One of the main reasons was that NO ONE would sell us Euros once we got there. There was a moratorium on selling Euros, and our dollars were worthless there. We had decided to buy some pounds sterling, and then buy some euros, but we missed our chance on the ferry over. The next day, no bank, no post office, no travel agent would sell us any Euros. They said because of counterfeiting issues, they wouldn't do it. The banks would if you had an account, but they would still hold them for several days. I was so grateful for our credit card - otherwise we would have been royally screwed.
Finally, we decided to go on the Ring of Kerry. I have to say that it was as close to a spiritual experience as this old heathen is ever going to get. We didn't get all the way around, only about 1/4 of the way (again, our travelling companions stopped every quarter mile for another 30 minutes of pics - you think I'm making this up), but what we did see affected me so profoundly I can't even talk about it right now. Anything I say about it will come across as naff and airy-fairy and it's too precious for me right now to spoil it by describing it badly.
Suffice to say it moved me greatly. While our friends snapped away at everything and took nothing in really, TheHubs™ and I just stood there, tears running down our eyes, and I said to him, "I don't need a photo of this. My heart will never let me forget it." He agreed.
The last full day of our trip was spent in Tintagel, where we feasted on the best Cream Tea I've ever had (and that's saying something) and a fairly decent pasty, as well as roamed around the high street while our friends trooped all over the castle - you guessed it - taking photos. They actually took some pretty good ones of us as well, but it's going to take them months to go through them. I'm not kidding when I say they took thousands and thousands of photos. They did little else, to be honest. But they said they had the time of their lives and that's important to me.
I had a list of things I wanted to get while we were there ('cause you know ya girl do love her some swag), and we just about got it all. I got a couple of gorgeous Arun sweaters - when I'll get to wear them is anyone's guess; it's 90 fucking degrees here), some Harry Potter goodies from Primark (Why oh WHY don't we have Primark here? I'd live there), and also from a cool little shop called The Shop Under The Stairs in MeadowHall shopping center in Sheffield. In Tintagel and Ireland I found some cool horse brasses, which I wanted to find, having sold all ours before we moved here - don't ask me why. I'm an idiot. I got some of my favourite Jo Malone perfume, some lovely silver jewelry, and we got something we planned to find on our last day in Ireland - matching wedding bands. We haven't had a matching set in about 17 years:
We had a smooth flight over, and the best flight I've ever had on the way back home - smooth as glass, the plane wasn't over booked so the attendants doted on all of us, and fed us like pedigreed cattle.
All in all, it was a great trip. Of course, when you are with other people, you do compromise sometimes, and while they were very indulgent with us seeing our family, I wish we could have done some other things - my bucket list included the HP studio tour, and (I know this is the most narcissistic, self-indulgent thing in the world) I would have loved having a photo taken of me with the street signs of the places my characters live in London.
We will be back; if this taught us anything, it showed us that we can save money when we need to, and can find ways of making it as well. We put more on the card than we wanted to because of the Ireland/Euro situation, but we really never went beyond our budget and brought a lot of money home, even with all our lovely swag - t-shirts and gifts for friends and family and clothes, oh the clothes!. Yes, we will go again, and this time, we will go all around the Ring of Kerry, we will spend more time with friends and family, we will go to London again, and take the Harry Potter studio tour, and most of all, we will be home again.
PS - If you haven't seen Ken Burns' Country Music documentary, please do.
We had a great time, though. TheHubs™ got a brand new bass from Anderton's, which I sort of insisted he buy (well, the thing was so sexy I wanted to have an affair with it and anyone could see it was a great deal and they shipped it to us free),
and a gorgeous suit in Ireland, sold to us by a young, handsome, silver-tongued Irishman who charmed all four of us. Seriously, though, TheHubs™ do look lovely in it. He also got an Irish linen grandad shirt which is more than just a little droolworthy on him:
The couple we were with took literally thousands of photos, to the point where we often had to sit for 30 minutes at a time while they snapped away at each and every detail of everything. It took us 2.5 hours to walk from London Bridge across Tower Bridge. Actually, they were totally indifferent to London, so we didn't get to spent but a half a day there, so I was really sad we didn't get to spend more time there.
We stayed in a gorgeous airBnB in Leith Hill in Surrey, in the middle of absolutely nowhere. I took us thirty minutes to get to any town. It was an absolute jewel of a place, with gorgeous views in every direction. Some of the highlights for me were getting to visit with the kids for awhile and see their new homes. C has a new boyfriend, whom I fell absolutely in love with. I think this may just be the one, and everything I've seen says it's a good match. The more I was around him, the more I liked him. He is sharp, funny, easy going, totally grounded, and he seems totally devoted to Cat. J and H are doing well. We were a bit worried about J - for so long he just seemed adrift. But he found his tribe, and is now happily doing what he's always wanted to do - design video games, and he's in hog heaven.
We also got to spend an evening with friends, who met us in a nearby pub. Some traveled over 2 hours to be with us, which was very gratifying. We had an absolute ball, reminiscing and just getting to be British again. Everyone told us how well we looked, and gave TheHubs™ extra hugs, because they were so grateful that he was there. From there we spent an afternoon with his sister, and together they went to see his mum, who is in the later stages of dimentia. I didn't go, because she gets very flustered if there's more than a couple of people around at a time, but she sort of recognised TheHubs™ (we took her a photo book of pics of us and the kids and the cats, and she remembered them). She did okay, but he said the more he was there the more confused she got. Shortly after we returned she had to be admitted to hospital because she is just getting to the point that she really can't live on her own, even with all the in-house help she gets 3 times a day. It's really sad, seeing this bright, intelligent, sharp woman slowing disappearing. She would be appalled at herself if she were in her right mind.
We spent most of the next week in Ireland, which, I am sad to say, sort of underwhelmed me at first. I think I had this romanticised vision in my head of what it would be like, but we stayed in another air BnB which was pretty drab and shoddy. It was okay, but after the perfection of the first one, it seemed subpar. We were also in a rather boring part of Ireland. The best part was that Cat and her boyfriend (rather conveniently named Pat) came over and stayed in a nearby hotel for a few days, so we got to spent more time with them. We visited family in Trallee, who made us welcome and feasted us at their table, even though TheHubs and Cat were the only two people they knew. We also went to Bunratty Folk Park, which was lovely. Pat and Cat joined us there and we had fun palling around with them (we let our friends wonder off to take photos - we were finished two hours before them). We had a great time there as well, but Ireland still felt, well, lacking to me.
One of the main reasons was that NO ONE would sell us Euros once we got there. There was a moratorium on selling Euros, and our dollars were worthless there. We had decided to buy some pounds sterling, and then buy some euros, but we missed our chance on the ferry over. The next day, no bank, no post office, no travel agent would sell us any Euros. They said because of counterfeiting issues, they wouldn't do it. The banks would if you had an account, but they would still hold them for several days. I was so grateful for our credit card - otherwise we would have been royally screwed.
Finally, we decided to go on the Ring of Kerry. I have to say that it was as close to a spiritual experience as this old heathen is ever going to get. We didn't get all the way around, only about 1/4 of the way (again, our travelling companions stopped every quarter mile for another 30 minutes of pics - you think I'm making this up), but what we did see affected me so profoundly I can't even talk about it right now. Anything I say about it will come across as naff and airy-fairy and it's too precious for me right now to spoil it by describing it badly.
Suffice to say it moved me greatly. While our friends snapped away at everything and took nothing in really, TheHubs™ and I just stood there, tears running down our eyes, and I said to him, "I don't need a photo of this. My heart will never let me forget it." He agreed.
The last full day of our trip was spent in Tintagel, where we feasted on the best Cream Tea I've ever had (and that's saying something) and a fairly decent pasty, as well as roamed around the high street while our friends trooped all over the castle - you guessed it - taking photos. They actually took some pretty good ones of us as well, but it's going to take them months to go through them. I'm not kidding when I say they took thousands and thousands of photos. They did little else, to be honest. But they said they had the time of their lives and that's important to me.
I had a list of things I wanted to get while we were there ('cause you know ya girl do love her some swag), and we just about got it all. I got a couple of gorgeous Arun sweaters - when I'll get to wear them is anyone's guess; it's 90 fucking degrees here), some Harry Potter goodies from Primark (Why oh WHY don't we have Primark here? I'd live there), and also from a cool little shop called The Shop Under The Stairs in MeadowHall shopping center in Sheffield. In Tintagel and Ireland I found some cool horse brasses, which I wanted to find, having sold all ours before we moved here - don't ask me why. I'm an idiot. I got some of my favourite Jo Malone perfume, some lovely silver jewelry, and we got something we planned to find on our last day in Ireland - matching wedding bands. We haven't had a matching set in about 17 years:
We had a smooth flight over, and the best flight I've ever had on the way back home - smooth as glass, the plane wasn't over booked so the attendants doted on all of us, and fed us like pedigreed cattle.
All in all, it was a great trip. Of course, when you are with other people, you do compromise sometimes, and while they were very indulgent with us seeing our family, I wish we could have done some other things - my bucket list included the HP studio tour, and (I know this is the most narcissistic, self-indulgent thing in the world) I would have loved having a photo taken of me with the street signs of the places my characters live in London.
We will be back; if this taught us anything, it showed us that we can save money when we need to, and can find ways of making it as well. We put more on the card than we wanted to because of the Ireland/Euro situation, but we really never went beyond our budget and brought a lot of money home, even with all our lovely swag - t-shirts and gifts for friends and family and clothes, oh the clothes!. Yes, we will go again, and this time, we will go all around the Ring of Kerry, we will spend more time with friends and family, we will go to London again, and take the Harry Potter studio tour, and most of all, we will be home again.
PS - If you haven't seen Ken Burns' Country Music documentary, please do.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 02:43 am (UTC)Continue getting better :) I'm glad it was such a good time.
I am guilty of taking a ton of pics and such. But I don't feel I've lost out. These days I often pull things up and enjoy them again, ans it's something of a balm to me.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 02:58 am (UTC)(Also yay! for Marty Robbins and that west Texas town lol -- I love him)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 07:52 am (UTC)"I don't need a photo of this. My heart will never let me forget it."
I completely understand and agree with the sentiment. I think it is the way to approach life.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:14 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 02:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-02 07:52 pm (UTC)Out of curiosity, which is your Jo Malone? (asks a grapefruit girl who occasionally goes in for sage and sea salt)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-03 02:10 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-15 11:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-07 09:50 am (UTC)You still collecting keys and needing corks.
no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 12:12 am (UTC)I'm still collecting keys. I've done all I can do with corks, but I can never have enough keys! ;)
no subject
Date: 2019-10-08 08:03 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-10-13 12:42 am (UTC)I'm so glad to hear you got to go on this trip, Teddy. I've always figured Ireland might be a mixed bag. Sounds like it was well worth the hassles in the end, though.
And you know I gotta comment on... THOSE CLOTHES, WOW!!!! Impeccable tailoring. Maybe you'll be able to wear those sweaters before too long. At least I'm HOPING the 90 degree days are finally behind us!
♥
no subject
Date: 2019-10-13 09:31 pm (UTC)Today is cooler, but the humidity still makes it feel warm out there. Damn, I am READY for some decent fall weather. Those sweaters are THICK!!
no subject
Date: 2019-10-14 11:29 pm (UTC)Sounds like except for a few bumps in the road, you had a great time. I will confess that I am a big time picture taker, and even I felt overwhelmed by you description of your friends’ photo habits.