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Monday, December 19, 2016

Golly, where did I leave off? I think when we were still on the Queen Mary? So let me catch up from when we docked last Thursday. Everything went well, we got off the boat, our friends met us and we went to Sheila’s house in Burnham-on-Sea which is located in Somerset, in England’s West Country. Not far from Bristol. Sheila is a wonderful friend (I have been blessed and continue to be blessed by having wonderful friends) that I met when I first lived in England in 1977; we worked for the same company. We have visited quite a bit over the years and now we are living across the Celtic Sea from each other, a mere one hour plane ride.

We stayed with Sheila until Saturday, celebrated “Christmas” last Friday night with a turkey dinner and presents. Then we flew to Dublin on Saturday afternoon. Flight went well, all seemed to be going well until we tried to pick up the rental car I had reserved at Alamo/Enterprise. At first there seemed to be no problem. Expedia had made the reservation, the cost was a lot higher than we expected but we thought, oh well. Then she tried to run our Visa card through. The message came up “transaction approved” on the scanner but she said that it wasn’t going through on her screen. So she tried it again. And again. It kept saying “transaction approved” but she said it wasn’t. So I called Wells Fargo Visa. They said, yep, I had now been charged over $700 US for the THREE transactions. I handed my phone to her. They gave her an approval code. It still didn’t work. By this time Mitzi had arrived at the car rental place and I was trying to have a joyous reunion with her while I wrestled with the car rental.

Finally Richard got fed up and walked across to the Avis/Budget counter and what was taking two hours—renting a car—took 15. So we crammed all our luggage and dog into the tiny (think Nissan Micra) car and attempted to leave the airport. We went around the circular road three times before we found the right route per Google Maps but off we went. We arrived in the dark at our accommodation.

It was SO cold in the house! It is a 200 year old semi-converted gatehouse/stable. Looks beautiful from the outside but inside it is REALLY basic. The owners had rented it to a couple who did a lot of “conversions” to it heatwise that the owners really don’t understand. Two days later, the house is warmer and I find it actually liveable, having lived in England before. But Richard doesn’t like it. More on that later. Our first night of sleep was uncomfortable. It was cold, Mitzi was running around the house because she couldn’t figure out what was happening.

Anyway, yesterday (Sunday) we went to a wonderful carol service in the morning at the local Church of Ireland church. Very small congregation but they were all so welcoming. We had to go out to breakfast because I couldn’t get the cooker (stove) to work and the owners weren’t home. Not much problem, there is a breakfast place about a five minute drive away. Still, Richard was feeling quite down about things. At least the sun shone and he had to admit that Ireland is SO beautiful. We spent the afternoon watching Christmas stuff via amazon.com (thank goodness I was able to hotspot my phone and I had sufficient GBs on my US plan; there is no TV, no radio, not even a clock. Still, I knew I would have to change over my US plan because it was costing me $10/day on top of my regular outrageous monthly fee. We all slept better last night, the bedrooms were warm, Mitzi has settled in.

This morning we drove back to Dublin Airport to return the rental car. Richard is getting used to driving in Ireland, I hadn’t tried yet and I didn’t want to try in the rental car, especially as Richard is a better driver than navigator. Returned the car just fine and then we took a bus into Dublin and a train out to Carlow, where we met up with probably THE nicest person in the world, David, who had been recommended to me for buying a car. He picked us up at the train station in the car. Now don’t go “oh my gosh” when I tell you it is a Mercedes. It is a 2004 and we paid 3,500 Euros for it. Drives like a dream; I drove it and didn’t have any problems. The rural roads are a bit dicey but there really aren’t many of those where we go. David has let us have it tonight and we are meeting up at the bank tomorrow so I can get the cash and pay him. And pay the car insurance too as I still am having issues with our Wells Fargo Visa at certain places. Mainly it seems to be to do with cars. Oh and David took me to a phone store and I got my phone converted to an Irish plan that is less than half what I was paying in the US. I have unlimited email and Internet and phoning in Ireland but have a small budget for phoning overseas. So if you contact me, please do it by email or Facebook Messenger :) My US phone number is now gone.

Anyway, we finally figured out the stove so had spaghetti bolognese for dinner tonight. We will be starting our jaunting this week, looking for an alternate rental because Richard really would like something a bit more comfortable and I can’t argue with him. Looking at other rentals on daft.ie, I don’t think we are getting the most for our money. Luckily, we are renting month to month.

So how am I feeling at the end of all this? I feel great. The past few days have been difficult, worrying about a car mainly. But David sorted all that out for us today and we now have a friend we can turn to. He was SO kind!!!!!

That’s it from me, will update in a week or so. Please do feel free to email me anytime! I am now in a position where I can answer folks on the computer instead of having to squint at my iPhone!


Valerie

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