I can't believe that it was July when I last wrote something here. I know I am not the most consistent writer but I have tried to do better. Oh well, guess I have not tried hard enough recently.
That being said there has been some spectacular ups and (unfortunately) downs in the past few months. I won't bore you with the downs but suffice to say that it is something to be gotten thru in its own time and survived. And it will. But as for the ups, the biggest has to have been our trip to England the beginning of September. Grab a cuppa and I will fill you in.
Backtrack about 28 years... I just got done reading James Herriott's books starting with "All Creatures Great and Small" about the life of a country vet in Yorkshire, England. I was entranced and loved the 4 books in the series and decided I wanted a penpal from that area. Remember, this was in the ancient days when there was not internet and email and to communicate you had to--GASP!!--sit down and write an old fashioned letter with pen and paper. But where to find a penpal where I wanted to write? Enter my second obsession of the day--Barry Manilow. I loved him and all the music he made. Planned trips to go to concerts, joined with other fans that lived locally to talk about him and his music and stood in line for hours to meet him for 30 seconds. I also joined the BMIFC-the Barry Manilow International fan Club. See, international being a part of the name along with Barry made it very interesting. And through channels in the fan club I was given a name of a lady that lived in South Yorkshire. And a friend for live was found.
Denise was just as obsessed with Barry as I was and it was a match made in heaven. We started writing and spent weeks waiting for the letters to cross over the pond to the UK and weeks for the answer to return to the US. We found we both had children about the same age, liked lots of things the same, besides Barry, and generally was very much alike. We talked about ourselves, our children, our husbands and our interests. And 2 years after we started writing, with a few very long spaced phone calls at $1/minute, my then husband and our 2 children went to England to visit for 10 days. It was the first time I had ever gone that far away from the US and it would not be repeated until this year, an interval of 26 years.
Through the years Denise--Dee to her friends--and I kept in touch and as technology changed and improved, so did the frequency of our communication. And 2 years ago we both ended up on Facebook and found Skype. Heaven--we could talk to each other almost every day and see each other when we Skype'd a few times a month. It was, and continues to be, one of the greatest pleasures of my life. And in all the conversations, a new plan was devised, that we would come again to visit, me and my husband who hates to fly but would for his insistent wife. Planning and saving and more planning and saving all began and then an unexpected gift fell into our laps. It came in the form of my niece starting work at one of the major airlines and companion tickets offered and gratefully accepted. So yes it was really going to happen..
And on September 9th of this year we flew to Heathrow to be joyfully picked up by Dee and her husband Phillip. Tears of happiness flowed and hugs that would not stop started. A day or 2 of relaxing and getting used to the time difference and off we went. The plan was to be there for 15 days. The first week the 4 of us would sightsee and travel together. Then we would come home, relax, and do 2 day trips in the 2nd week.
That first week we started off heading to Wales. In the 1960's there was a TV show called The Prisoner. It was one of my husband Sam's favorite show. And it was filmed in a town called Port Merion in Wales. And that was the first stop on the tour. Sam is a photographer and suffice to see we saw glimpses of him in his red cap as he rushed around taking picture after picture of this place that had a special memory in his childhood. This is not to say that the rest of us did not take pictures, as of course, we did. But Sam outdid us all. Our first pub meal, learning that fringe means bangs, lots of laughter and we were off to another place the next day. Caernarfon Castle in Wales was our next stop. This is the castle where all the Princes of Wales' are invested. The day was bright and sunny with blue skies and the perfect day for great architecture and photos there of. We had a busy day that ended with ice cream cones and chocolate flake. Back to sleep and off to the Lake District in England the next day. A boat trip on Lake Windermere and staying in a gorgeous bed and breakfast were the highlights of that day. But next we were heading to Scotland!! Next time, more adventures...
