Starting the Irish adventure

The Irish adventure was born in July 2016 as we sweltered through an Arizona summer and saw gorgeous videos of Ireland. It gelled during our two-week trip to Ireland in August. We decided that IF we could sell our house for the right price (we did) and IF I could get Irish citizenship (I did), we would move to Ireland for at least several months. So the journey has begun and here we are in New York City.
We flew out of Phoenix at 8:00 a.m. via Minneapolis. Something usually goes wrong when we travel to New York and this time was no exception. One of our bags is missing. I left my iPad at LaGuardia (at the Baggage Claim office when I was filing my claim on my lost bag thank goodness.)
But we are here, we have a whole day before we board the Queen Mary so there is plenty of time (I hope!) for my bag to arrive (it's on a plane to LaGuardia as I type) and for me to trek back out to LaGuardia to claim my iPad. Things could have been much worse.
I am feeling tired but not sleepy. We are now well on our way on our adventure. And there are still plenty of tender mercies happening. Just the fact that I am in a comfortable room actually IN New York City is great.
Leaving Scottsdale, packing and unpacking, weighing, unpacking, throwing out or heading over to Goodwill with donations (good-bye extra jacket, good-bye nightgown, my extra pair of boots....), that's all behind us. Ahead of us is a day in New York and on Thursday the ship.
So those are the things I am grateful for tonight--a safe drive to Phoenix Airport in the rental car. No problems checking in, flights on time, enough money to buy food at the airports. A safe (if rather long and hairy) cab ride from LaGuardia. Golly is there a LOT of traffic! It didn't help that we arrived at rush hour and it was pouring rain. I was glad I wasn't the one driving!! The hotel--Hotel Le Bleu--is very comfortable. We are in central Brooklyn, great location.
All in all, a very good day!

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Life on board the Queen Mary

Passenger's log on the Queen Mary 2: Dec 9th - First Day at Sea Didn't sleep well--think it was the soused mackerel at dinner. Anyway, R and I woke up at about 6:00 am and discussed the order of the day. Quite the swell outside and I can feel the roll of the ship. (No seasickness thank goodness!) Despite the mackerel, I was hungry so we went to King's Court at 6:30 a.m. Buffet with loads of choice of course. We sat in an alcove looking out at the ocean. Our server was from Croatia, Slavan. I asked him my burning question of the day--why did we get a free bottle of wine but a regular bottle of Diet Coke cost $3.75? Diet Pepsi is $1.00 less. Fruit juices are free on tap. Coffee, tea, milk, ditto. But you have to pay for soft drinks. Very odd. Slavan says it is because Cunard can't get a good contract with Coke. Hmmm.... our local School District back in Sierra Vista can negotiate .50 a can for the soda machines in the teachers' lounges but Cunard has to cha...

Sunday in Richmond Park & Memories

One of the reasons I came back to London after Ireland was to keep a date with my cousin Elizabeth: a Sunday morning walk in Richmond Park. When I moved to England in May of 1978, I rented a room in a house near Richmond Park. I'd heard of the room through a colleague at McGill University's Human Resources Department, where I was working as a Senior Clerk. Montreal had become a bit difficult for me to be in owing to a twice-broken heart and a feeling I wasn't going anywhere at McGill. It seemed like an omen, then, on the plane returning from South Africa in January of 1978--I keep promising to write about that--that I came across an article in a magazine about young Canadians living in London. I'd always loved the idea of being in London what with growing up on a diet of British movies and then all of the articles about Swinging London in the 1960s/early 1970s. By the time I arrived at Mirabel Airport, I had the perfect antidote to my wounded pride over South...

Duckett's Grove/Castle, Co. Carlow

Golly I am tired tonight! We had a really busy day. We went into Carlow town to return a pair of sweatpants that R. bought and didn't like. I also went to the Bank of Ireland and started up my bank account. They do things very differently here than in Sierra Vista. There are no tellers for simple deposits or withdrawals; the bank branch in Carlow consists of four ATM machines and one international exchange cashier. And three personal bankers who are extremely helpful. I discovered that you don't make a deposit, you make a lodgment. Weird, eh? We went to Tesco's after the bank to get our every-other-day food shopping done. Small refrigerators--have to be careful in buying. We also bought some new "orthopedic" pillows that will hopefully help our neck issues. Bought a couple of pre-made sandwiches and ate them in the car when we parked at Duckett's Grove. Duckett's Grove is a ruined 19th century great house whose owners kept redesigning the original house ...

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