Home Again, Home Again...

Oy, what a trip! But it was GREAT!!! I have to say this was one of my all-time best vacations, ever... The flight home (about 10 hours nonstop from London to San Francisco) felt like a short hop, compared to those flights back and forth to Asia that I've been doing the past year or so. And I'm not even going to whine about the two infants, three rows in front of me, who took turns howling for the ENTIRE flight! I felt so sorry for their parents, I really did... Been there, done that... And, one of the infants was just about a year old -- old enough to get himself righteously worked up to the point where nothing, no nothing, was going to pacify him. I would have bet five bucks that, at some point, either or both of the little ones would have tuckered themselves out from crying, and fell asleep. Well, if they did, it wasn't for very long.

I will post more later, and include some of the photos that both I and the spousal unit took. But, for now, it's back to Load #6 of laundry... All the stuff from the Asia trip, plus all the stuff from this trip. How did we manage to dirty so many pieces of clothing?

Cheers!

Another Gorgeous Day

Well, we're closing in on the last few days here in England. Today, I'm kicking it in Salisbury, one of my favorite towns here in the UK. The spousal unit is off at his car festival, and I spent the morning running errands and doing some shopping. There were two bead stores here in Salisbury that had some really unusual things, so I was FORCED to spend some money. And, the lingerie department of M&S beckoned me... Ooops! I was also cruising along, and saw what looked to be a lingerie store. I went in and, lo and behold, it was a store devoted to erotica! The lingerie was, in fact, there but it was all of a "naughty" genre... Fake leather, chains, fantasy outfits, the whole nine yards. There were also all sorts of sex toys displayed -- I had NO IDEA that vibrators came in such a variety!!! Really, in the US, we are still quite Puritanical... There is no way in heck this kind of store would be found in your general store/mall, although I've seen them throughout the cities we've driven through. (I just never went in one previously...) Must see if the spousal unit wants to check it out! :-)

Anyway, enough of that. Had a nice leisurely coffee this morning, read my latest trash novel, puttered about, and finally met up with a colleague from The Company. Had a nice late lunch, a good catch-up session, and a lovely walk around the Cathedral and the close. Unfortunately, by the time we got there, things were closing up for the evening, so we did not get a chance to visit the Magna Carta exhibit. (One of my favorites...)

Have some nice photos to share, but will need to wait until I get home, as the Internet connectivity is a bit wonky here at the hotel we're staying at. It's an historic building, dating from the 1500s. One the Stuart kings stayed here on his way out of the country during the Civil War (so, that would be Charles I, perhaps)... The room is charming, if small. But the shower is fabulous! And there's no drought here... The bathtub is tiny, but I tried a bath last night anyway... complete with bubbles! Ahhh, I love the degenerate pastimes I get up to on holiday...

Well, that's it for now. I hope each of you are doing well.

Cheers!

Greetings From England!

Well, here I am, in the beautiful rolling countryside of the South of England. I'm near the town of New Milton, at the edge of the New Forest. (I've never been quite sure what happened to the Old Forest, or how one creates a new forest, and for the love of pete I think the new forest was started hundreds and hundreds of years ago, so I don't think it's all that new, but...)

Anyway, I digress. We landed in England on Friday morning, after a not-too-terrible journey. We flew San Francisco to Washington, D.C., had a stop-over of about an hour, and then Washington to London. It was, all total, a long journey, but breaking it into two legs gave me the illusion of not being cooped up in a plane for hours on end. (Since we had flown home the day before from Asia, the psychological aspects were very important, as I would have gone buggy if I thought about it...)

We got into Heathrow, jumped on the Heathrow Connect train into Paddington Station, then hopped on another train out to the town of Swindon. There were lots of young people on the train, with unnaturally-colored dreadlocks, body piercings, outlandish garb, rucksacks and sleeping bags, all of whom also got off at Swindon. Being the perceptive type that I am, I discerned that something was up. Well, apparently there was some sort of gathering of the tribes locally -- the Waveform Festival -- and I'm not sure what that is, but lots of people were congregating outside the train station at Swindon, waiting for transport to said festival. The bus showed up -- the "Festi-Bus" -- a garishly-painted double-decker, and they all hopped on, and took off. It was sort of surreal, as I really hadn't slept on the plane to the UK, and was a bit groggy. I think, as I type this, that perhaps I hallucinated the whole thing.

Anyway, in Swindon, we picked up this Land Rover the spousal unit had bought on eBay (I am not kidding you), and off we went. It's a great vehicle, and we felt so terribly British, we could barely stand it. On our drive to the South, the heavens opened and we were caught in a typical English downpour. But, we drove on. We stayed on the correct side of the road, and found our way to the town of New Milton. (Thanks to a good road atlas and our GPS system, which we brought with us.) Of course, as it's against my spouse's religion to book any accommodation in advance, we were then forced to wander about, seeking a bed at any B&B in the area. Nothing, nada, zip. Great. I was figuring we'd spend our first night in England sleeping in the damn car. But, then we saw a sign for a hotel... the Chewton Glen hotel. We figured we'd go there, see if there were any rooms or if they could refer us to alternate accommodation. I'm thinking it's going to be a nice, but mediocre, place. Oh, no, my friends. This place is GORGEOUS... It's a beautiful old typical English country house and a terribly exclusive hotel. Of course, there was only one room left, so we took it. It is beyond the expectations of even the famous Diva Tour (my former colleagues at The Company know whereof I speak)... I gasped when I saw the room rates, but figured if I got hit by a bus next week, at least I'd die happy.

This place is wonderful. Very quiet, very proper British. The grounds are immaculate, the rooms lovely, the china is by Villeroy & Bosch, the toiletries are Moulton Brown, and the bed is to die for -- at night, they put on this out-of-the-world fluffy duvet, and I'm a happy camper. The bed linens have a discreet embroidered crest on them, and the staff are out of some British novel... Ahhhh...

Yesterday, Saturday, the husband and I did the first day of the Beaulieu International Auto Jumble, and I had a wonderful time. After lunch, he went back to cruise the stalls and look for bargains, and I took a tour of the manor house and the ruins of the Cistercian abbey on the estate. My kind of place... Absolutely, positively lovely. When I get it together, I'll update this post with photos from the hotel and the Beaulieu estate, as well as some more thoughts on the experience.

But, for now, must log off. I'm going back to auto jumble with Himself, to check out YET ANOTHER CAR he wants to buy. Okay, then, twist my arm...

Hope all of you are having a lovely weekend.

Cheers!

So, Where the Heck Am I???

We got back from Viet Nam at about 9:00PM this evening, after an INTERMINABLE flight from Saigon. We flew Singapore Airlines, so at least the service was good, and those flight attendants -- scary! I finally figured out that, gorgeous as they all are (men and women), the ladies all have the very same makeup! Yep, same eye shadow color, same lipstick, same absolutely flawless complexion... I don't think they're air-brushed, but wow... And the beautiful uniforms they wear... Lovely... But, we flew first from Saigon down to Singapore, then Singapore to Hong Kong, and then Hong Kong to San Francisco.

We had about four hours between flights in Singapore, so the spousal unit and I took a cab into town, and belted down a couple of Singapore Slings at the Long Bar at the Raffles Hotel. I am sorry to report that the drinks were not good -- if there was any liquor in them, I'm a Kansas grandma! And they cost about US$16 each! But, the Long Bar is steeped in history, the peanuts were crunchy and fresh, and what the heck, now I can say that I had a Singapore Sling at Raffles.

We only had about an hour between flights in Hong Kong, and that was barely enough to wend our way through security and then back on the plane. We had relatively good seats (two together, and there were only two in our row -- Row 61, almost at the back of the plane, and on a 747 that's quite a ways back!), even though they were in Economy. (And folks who know me know that I do not normally take kindly to flying steerage, but I'm running low on miles in my frequent flyer account, and want to save them for when I really need or want them.) (And, this whole trip was on redeemed miles anyway, so what the heck.) I did watch three movies, which I also don't normally do, and then tried to sleep a bit. Unfortunately, with only two seats to spread out on, I was pretty much contorted in a pretzel-like configuration. Luckily, the plane was not full (particularly in the back of the plane), so the spouse and I agreed that one of us would camp out in an empty row (five seats across) and take the first half of the flight to sleep, and then we'd switch. He is one of those people who can sleep on planes. And, he slept through some pretty spectacular turbulence. I, on the other hand, was attempting to eat dinner without having my wine fly all over the place, and then I actually did sleep, off and on, for a few hours. When I got the stretch-out space, I think I slept a bit, but I am not good about sleeping on planes.

Anyway, we made it home, dumped out all the crapola from this trip, quickly ran two loads of laundry, and we're now re-packing for our trip to the UK. We leave tomorrow morning, and get into London at 10:00AM, local time, on Friday. I'm looking forward to that trip. It's been a while since I was in England, and it should be lovely.

But, for now, I'm fading fast, and am going to try and attempt to sleep. Up early tomorrow, pack, and zip off to the airport. Again, if Internet access is cooperative, I'll post from the UK...

Hope all of you are doing well... I can't believe it's September already! Where did the year go???

Cheers!

Greetings from Saigon

Well, here again in Saigon . . . er, Ho Chi Minh City... sorry... Hot, not as humid as it's been on other days and other trips. But good gracious I keep forgetting how hot and crowded and NOISY this city is. And that's coming from a gal who was born and brought up in New York City! So, that's saying something. (Well, to be totally honest, most of my life in NYC was up in The Bronx, where it isn't quite as crowded and noisy as Manhattan, but still a far cry from the bedroom suburb I live in now...)

I enjoy most of the aspects of visiting Vietnam, the food, the people (all of whom are incredibly gracious and who don't laugh too terribly at my efforts to say "hello" and "thank you"), and the general sense of history. For those of us of a certain generation, it's always interesting to walk around here. You're walking with ghosts...

I am, however, anxious to get out of here and get back home -- ok, for one night, to wash clothes and re-pack for the UK -- the feeling of being alien is quite disconcerting. Most places in Europe, I can "pass" for a local, and can understand most of what is said and the signs, etc. However, in Aisa, I'm hosed pretty much. Very irritating! But, many places have a mix of Vietnamese and English on signs, etc. But, not enough to make me feel comfortable...

OK, that's it for now. More to come...

Last-Minute Swirling...

So, it's the usual night-before-we-leave pre-trip nutsiness...  You would think that, with the number of trips I've taken over my working life, I'd be able to do this in my sleep.  Well, yes, one would think that, wouldn't one...  But, apparently now that I'm no longer a wage slave, all my trip savviness has disappeared (along with my regular paycheck)...  Nah, I'll be able to pull it together, no worries...

As noted in a prior post, we've got two trips, back to back, which means I'm really doing two packing chores: one set of clothes, etc. for Vietnam, where it'll be around 90 degrees and incredibly humid, and another set for the UK, where it'll be around 65 degrees (or below) and probably rainy (or, of course, it could be in the 80s and fine/sunny) (0ne never knows when one goes to England)...  We'll be home just one night between the trips, and much confusion will no doubt ensue as we throw set one on the floor and throw set two into the suitcases...  

I'm taking a sewing project with me to the UK, to occupy myself while DH is busy doing one of his car events.  It's a table runner, in a maile wreath pattern, done in the Hawaiian quilting style; i.e., a needle-turn applique, then channel quilted.  The background is a pale yellow mottled batik-y type fabric, and the applique is a dark green mottled batik-y fabric; looks real nice together, IMHO.  It's an intricate applique, so it ought to keep me busy for quite a while.  I'll post a photo when it's a bit further along; right now, it's just pinned in place, not even basted.  

Other than that, I think all is as ready (short of final packing) as it can be.  We'll see...  I'll try and post on our travels, but Internet access might be intermittent from time to time.

Until then...  

Happy Labor Day!

Really, happy Labor Day to all of you out there -- I hope you are all doing something relaxing and fulfilling.  The spousal unit and I have been running around all day, getting ready for our upcoming holidays.  

First, a quick trip to Vietnam to take care of some personal business (just a week), then home for one night, and then off to the UK for ten days.  The spousal unit has two major car-related events lined up to occupy him in England (I'll be bringing a quilting project to work on while he's off doing car things) (and maybe I'll visit Stonehenge again -- I loved seeing it the first time, many years ago), we'll take in "Spamalot" in London (the second time for me, the first for him), have dinner with one of the folks who used to be on my team when I was with The Company, perhaps have drinks with some of the other folks who are still at The Company, and we're not sure what else.  We'll be picking up a car we've bought (in the UK), so we'll have a bit more flexibility than we might otherwise have.  

In Vietnam, we'll spend some time in Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon), and a couple of days out in the country, visiting family friends.  It's hot there, as usual, with lingering thunderstorms and/or rain (oh, goodie), but we've been there enough that I think it won't be such a shock to our systems as it was the first time!  It will be quite a transition when we get to the UK, where the temps are hovering in the mid-60s, with probably some scattered showers.  So, we've got two piles of stuff growing on the dining room table: one for Asia, one for Europe.  Such global wanderers we are...

We went and smacked the tennis ball around again this morning.  My energy level wasn't what it should have been -- I just could not get myself to scurry around the court to get to the ball.  Well, some days are like that, I guess.  (I didn't totally embarrass myself, but just wasn't firing on all cylinders.)  Ran errands, organized "stuff", blah blah blah...  Just sort of futzing and putzing around.  Not a bad way to spend Labor Day.

I should have roused myself to pay more attention to the Republican Convention, but I just can't get that excited.  Every time I listen in to any Republican Party propaganda -- er, messaging -- I start getting a headache from increased blood pressure.  I try, I really try, to maintain some distance and criticality in my thinking, but I just think the messaging is so very wrong for our country.  OK, there you go -- I've laid it down for y'all to see...  Yep, I'm so not a Republican.  I do have a whole lot of compassion for whats-her-face, the VP candidate, with her family issues.  Can't be fun, between her new baby having Down syndrome (no, there's nothing wrong with it, just added stresses and challenges) and her 17-year-old daughter pregnant (again, just more challenges that perhaps would have been better faced later)...  I send many positive thoughts out to her and to her family, that they'll work their way through these issues.  I'm sure they will -- seem like a pretty strong family.

Well, I really should move myself off the sofa, and start cooking dinner.  I should, and I will, soon.  Really soon.  Going to grill some steaks, cook up some fresh corn on the cob, and maybe throw together a salad.  Typical American fare...  I love my little grill (a 14" one, mini-kettle type, uses charcoal), but I lust after a gas grill.  I used one in Kauai a couple of years ago (there were some at the condo complex we stayed at), and was immediately smitten!  Who knew I'd turn into a grilling gal!  I like the way the food tastes, and it's really not a big deal.  

OK, that's it.  One, two, three... up I get...

More tomorrow!