fromUKtoUSwithlove

HAPPY HALLOWEEN (or Guy Fawkes night) October 28, 2011

2011-10-28T14:52:00.000-07:00

I have been doing quite a bit of traveling lately. It started with the cruise to Norway and Iceland in September. We had a fantastic time and got beautiful pictures which I will write about and post at a later date. I went straight from the cruise out to Washington state to visit my mother and sisters. My daughter also met us out there (she lives in Oklahoma right now). One of my sisters (my oldest, Sharon) returned back to England with me to visit here. We ran around England and Wales trying to see as much as possible in the time she was here. She has been gone a week now. What fun we had! So you see I have been busy the past couple of months.

Since it's Halloween I wanted to write a little about the tradition, and some additional traditions in England. Halloween actually came from this part of the world. Around two thousand years ago the Celts, Irish and Welsh celebrated their New Year on November 1. So they celebrated the end of their year (and the end of summer) with a festival called Samhain on the night before. The people lit bonfires and wore costumes to ward off ghosts. (The upcoming long winter would cause many deaths to livestock and the people so warding off the spirits had real meaning for these Pagan Celtics.) Over the next several hundred years Christianity spread through the country. The Christian church did not like a festival with Pagan roots practiced by Christians. In 835 AD Pope Gregory IV declared November 1 All Saints Day to honor dead church saints and martyrs. All Saints Day was also known as All Hallows or All Hallowmas (Hallowmas is Old English for All Saints Day). The church did not succeed in overshadowing Samhain. Many Pagan traditions of dressing up, bonfires and parades were still practiced. Since Samhain was practiced on the night before November 1, the celebration was known as All Hallows Eve, and later called Halloween.

The carving of jack-o-lanters derived from England, Scotland and Ireland's custom of carving turnips into lanterns as a way of remembering the souls held in purgatory. But immigrants to North America used the pumpkin as it was readily available and much bigger making it easier to carve then a turnip.

The Halloween as we know it pretty much happened in America. It was there where children dressing up and trick-or-treating became huge. Stores quickly picked up on it and now it is a major source of retail dollars. So while the tradition of bonfires and parades continued here in England, it didn't grow like it did in America. By the 20th century even though it originated as a UK holiday it became largely American.

In 1605 something happened in England that gave them their number one celebration for the fall season. Guy Fawkes was among a group of Catholics who plotted to kill King James I and all of parliament on November 5, 1605. They felt the king was not sympathetic to their cause. Their plan was to set off a huge load of explosives that were being hidden in a cellar beneath the House of Lords. Guy Fawkes was in hiding there keeping watch over the gunpowder stash. An anonymous letter was received and Westminster Palace was searched by the authorities early in the morning of November 5. Fawkes was discovered and over the next few days was tortured until he broke and then hanged. Torture back in those days was atrocious. There is proof of his horrible torture in the contrast of the elegant, confident calligraphy of his signature before the torture and the feeble scrawl which was all he could manage after his body had been broken on the rack.

The discovery of the plot saved England from severe consequences. First of all the country could well have become Catholic, something the members of the Church of England would have despised. The other even more serious catastrophe was that on the day of the state opening of parliament, almost the entire elite of the nation would have been there: kings, lords and commons, and all the senior officers of the church, military and the state. With the explosion of the gunpowder, virtually the whole of the nation's establishment would have been taken out. And since most of the neighboring buildings were made of wood, a large part of the capital would also have been destroyed.

So the night of November 5 is called Guy Fawkes night or Bonfire night. It has been an annual celebration since then as a day when a terrifying plot against the country and government was foiled. Effigies of the villain Guy Fawkes are burned at many bonfires. Fireworks are big on that night also. Let me tell you the fireworks we heard on November 5 last year were HUGE compared to what we heard on Halloween

There are also songs and poems written about that time. Here is a popular one:

Remember remember, the fifth of November

Gunpowder, treason and plot.

I see no reason, why gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three score barrels were laid below
To prove old England's overthrow.

By God's mercy he was catch'd
With a darkened lantern a burning match.
So, holler boys, holler boys, let the bells ring.
Holler boys, holler boys, God save the King.
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!

A penny loaf to feed ol' Pope
A farthing cheese to choke him
A pint of beer to rinse it down
A faggot of sticks to burn him
Burn him in a tub of tar
Burn him like a blazing star
Burn his body from his head
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!

Whether we like it or not America is very much a trend setter to other countries. I have heard so many people tell me that their dream is to go to America or live in America. It comes from young people a lot. I've heard people who maybe had an opportunity (through family for example) to go there and for one reason or another didn't. They view it as the mistake of their life. People that can afford it holiday there and come back raving about it. I can understand it though. Compared to here America is bigger and brighter. Buildings, streets, shopping malls, hotels, houses, parking lots, restaurants on every corner and on and on. Of course it is, it's newer and we have so much more space. But one of the things I love about England is the quaint small villages and the unspoiled old castles and manor houses. Just down our main street of our village is the ruins of an old castle from the 1400's!! You can't get that in America. The people here are used to it though, just as we're used to the United States.

But I digress. What I meant to say is that America's exuberance for Halloween is catching on here and it seems to be growing each year. More and more children are starting to trick-or-treat and retail outlets are finding there is a profit in selling Halloween goods. This is only our second Halloween but this is what we hear. This does not go over well with all the Brits though. I was reading an article about Halloween in the paper and a reader from Kent, England wrote in with his opinion on the trend:

"Sorry, but it's eroding our own history and customs. Every year bonfire night gets less and less publicity, and the Hallmark fest that is Halloween gets further and further rammed down our commercialized throats. Bring back the bonfire and Guy Fawkes, and ditch this American rubbish."

That needs no explanation!

Happy Halloween and Happy Guy Fawkes night to all!

Update on Baby Blue...etc. September 13, 2011

2011-09-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

I am SO happy to report that Baby Blue has found her forever home!! Last month the shelter I foster for got a new kennel maid. She is a young woman who lives in a BIG household full of family and pets! Her parents, her siblings and some of her siblings children all live under one roof not to mention various friends in and out. She fell in love with Baby and just had to have her. So Baby Blue was adopted and now lives happily in the big house with all these people to love her. And she has THREE K-9 brothers!! Linda contacted me recently and said that Baby had finally barked in her new home! I was so happy. I just knew she had it in her. It only took her five months! Yesterday Linda brought pictures and videos for me of Baby in her new home. It actually brought tears to my eyes to see her running and playing with the other dogs. She was having so much fun! I was like a proud Mama. She ran just a little here, but not much and never really understood playing. I am so happy that she is learning from these other pets. The three dogs are a small terrier, an older German Shepherd and a big white Staffie who is also fairly young. Linda said that Baby absolutely loves the Staffie and they love playing together. This story couldn't have ended better.

Joe and I are leaving on a cruise tomorrow. We got a great deal on a last minute cruise to Norway and Iceland. It is a two week cruise and we will be stopping in five cities in Norway and three in Iceland. We will be two days in Reykjavik (Iceland's capitol). I have heard nothing but raves about the beautiful scenery through the Norwegian Fjords and can't wait! Hopefully real pretty pictures coming on my next blog. I even have a new camera to try out!

Meanwhile we have been keeping busy puttering around England. We went to Bradgate Park (a large park (840 acres) in our area) on a sunny day and enjoyed watching the Brits play. Lots of children and pets. There is a river (looked more like a creek to me) running through the park that was really drawing the folks. There are no outdoor pools here. (At least I haven't seen any or heard of any). The weather is not warm enough and even if it is, the summer temperatures go down into the 50's at night during the summer months so the water would never stay warm. The kids sure loved to play in the water.

Fun for the doggies too!

It came as no surprise to us that on the grounds of this park stood the ruins of an old manor house. You cannot go very far in this country without running into one, (or a castle). Bradgate House was built in 1520. It was built by the grandson of Sir John Grey of Groby who was married to Elizabeth Woodville in 1464. (After John Grey died Elizabeth married King Edward IV, the first commoner to ever marry an English sovereign.) {In a previous blog I told how Elizabeth's two young sons (after their father the King died) were murdered at The Tower of London and buried under the steps by their uncle, who then became King Richard III}.

Bradgate House was lived in by the Grey family for the next 220 years. It was the birthplace of Lady Jane Grey, later Queen for 9 days before being overthrown by Mary I and executed in 1553. Her father was executed a year later and the house passed to the crown. After many years of different owners the house went into decline. Eventually it did end up going back to the Grey family. In 1928 the Grey's sold the whole estate to a local businessman who gave it in perpetuity to the people of Leicestershire. The ruins remain on the property.

We still have things we want to do here and aren't sure how long our stay will be. The end of Joe's second year in a two to three year contract is up this March. That is one reason why we are doing this cruise now. I also want to see Wales, which is not far away at all. But that is big on my list. I am anticipating nice scenery similar to Scotland. Hopefully we'll get over there.

Work wise things have been going well for Joe. He doesn't like to toot his own horn but a lot of the changes he has implemented have resulted in more sales/profits for the company. They actually had a record year last year and are beating that record this year. The employees really like him (I haven't met anyone who doesn't yet) and will hate to see him go when his time is up.

I have been happy to hold down the fort on the home front. I don't like not having a dog but it isn't possible with my upcoming travel. As soon as we get back from the cruise I am flying out to Washington state to visit my sisters and my mom. So no fostering until I'm going to be here for an extended period of time.

Sorry for the extremely short blog, but I have a million things to do!

Kathy

A very special visit from the US of A! July 26, 2011

2011-07-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

We happily welcomed our 22 year old niece Elise and her friend Laura to our humble abode on Saturday, June 11. After many excited emails back and forth they arrived looking a little disheveled but with bright smiles. Their mission: To see as much as possible in their eight days here. We tried to warn them that after that long flight they would be exhausted. They assured us they would sleep on the plane and be ready for their first sight after a quick shower and change at our house. Their travel day was even longer than most because they chose to take a bus from Baltimore, MD to New Jersey, then switch over to a train to get to the Newark, NJ airport for their flight here. So not only did they fly all night to get here, but they also had a full day of travel the day of their flight! Ah, to be young again.

Their flight was made up of mostly Brits. This is usually the case on the flights into the UK. So many of the British people love to visit America. It is their most favorite destination. Elise had her first "British term" experience when she got up to go to the bathroom on the plane. As she came back to her seat a man handed her her sweater and said, "this was on the floor and getting trod on." A funny term, and yes, very British. In their young mindsets, they booked seats together one aisle and one middle so as not to bother anyone else when they had to get up. Their conscientiousness backfired because their window seat companion had them up and down the whole flight using the bathroom! So suffice it to say, they didn't get much sleep.

That's Elise in front and Laura behind her on the right. I don't have a photo shop
on my computer to pull the shot in more.

This did not hamper their excitement at being here. They were still raring to go so I packed us a picnic lunch while they showered and by Saturday late morning we were headed to see Stonehenge in Wiltshire. We have not seen this yet either and had been wanting to. It did not disappoint.

Elise (left) and Laura

There are still a lot of unanswered questions about Stonehenge that left us wanting more. But what they do know is that it was built in three phases, the first being in 3100 BC. It is estimated that the construction required more than thirty million hours of labor! They still aren't positive how those huge stones were moved with no machinery. But there is a popular theory. During the second phase (2150 BC) the bluestones were brought from the Preseli mountains in Wales, by way of rivers and across land on rollers and sledges. This journey was 240 miles long! The third stage around 2000 BC saw the arrival of the Sarsen stones brought from a much closer location (North Wiltshire, about 25 miles away). The largest of these weighed 50 tons, so transportation by water was impossible. They could have only been moved by sledges and ropes. Modern calculations show that it would have taken 500 men pulling leather ropes to move one stone, with another 100 men needed to lay the huge rollers in front of the sledge.

There are many legends and folklore as to why the stones were placed there. Way too many (and some just plain crazy) to name here. Although it is clear that it was used as a burial site. Cremated remains have been found on the site dating as far back as 3000 BC. More remains were discovered from years after that which proves its continued use as a burial site for some time. Interestingly, remains from far away were found there too. Remains were found of a teenage boy buried approximately 1550 BC and was raised near the Mediterranean Sea; a metal worker from 2300 BC grew up near the alpine foothills in Germany; and the Boscombe Bowmen (a name given to a group of early Bronze Age individuals) likely arrived from Wales or Brittany, France.

Other theories about the purpose of Stonehenge range from human sacrifices to celestial observatory function which might have allowed the prediction of eclipse, solstice and equinox. There is what is called the Heelstone, a stone that lies just outside the main entrance and outside of the circle of Stonehenge. It leans towards the circle. Lacking a suitable mountain the builders had to provide an outlier to mark the rising of the sun at midsummer as seen from the center of the circle. When one stands within Stonehenge, facing north-east through the entrance towards the Heelstone, one sees the sun rise above the stone.

The Heelstone

Lots of folklore and stories abound at the site. It was all very interesting. But like I said, the four of us came away from there with more questions than answers. We wanted to know FACTS, something you aren't going to ever get from a site like that.

I had arranged for us to stay in the area that night in a local hotel. The Salisbury Cathedral was nearby and our plan was to visit it the next day. The girls were real troopers that first day and actually stayed up until 7:00 or 8:00 that evening. I couldn't have done it, but they did.

We woke up to rain the following day. We had a long streak of what the Brits called drought before the girls arrived but it seemed that their visit also brought the rain. We decided that it was a good thing that it was a day we were seeing an indoor site so we didn't care. After eating our "full English breakfast", (sausage, bacon, eggs, cooked tomato, fried bread, baked beans, toast, sometimes mushrooms) we were off to Salisbury Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral is unique in being built almost entirely in one architectural style - Early English Gothic. The first foundation stones were laid on April 28, 1220. It has the largest cloister and cathedral close in Britain. The cloister is a rectangular courtyard surrounded by covered walks that lies in the center of the cathedral buildings. Back in the day this would separate the monks from the serfs (peasants) and workmen whose lives and work went on outside and around the cloister. The close is an architectural term referring to the buildings that surround the cathedral. For instance the diocesan offices, schools, free-standing chapels and houses of the bishops and other clergy associated with the cathedral. The close at Salisbury Cathedral is 80 acres. The church spire on the cathedral is the tallest in Britain.

Salisbury Cloisture

There are a lot of cathedrals in England as you can imagine, but one of the big draws to Salisbury is that it houses the best of the four surviving original copies left of the Magna Carta. The Magna Carta is a charter (grant of authority) written for the relationship of the King and his subjects. In 1214 King John had ruled for 15 years. This cruel monarch had been getting progressively worse demanding more and more through the feudal system that bound the lords and subjects in the middle ages in Europe. Finally King John had incurred the wrath of the barons. His demands for war funds, taxation was excessive and the collection brutal. Lands were seized and plundered. Civil war was close to breaking out. The Magna Carta was written by the barons. The King, with his back up against the wall had no choice but to sign. It was written in Latin on calfskin and signed in 1215. I bought a translation of it in the gift shop. It is very interesting reading. It covered so many things! Here are a few of the many items discussed:

1) First, that we have granted to God, and by this present charter have confirmed for
us and our heirs in perpetuity, that the English Church shall be free, and shall have
its rights undiminished, and its liberties unimpaired...

...To all free men of our kingdom we have also granted, for us and our heirs for ever,
all the liberties written below, to have and to keep for them and their heirs of us
and our heirs:

6) Heirs may be given in marriage, but not to someone lower in social standing. Before a
marriage takes place, it shall be made known to the heir's next-of-kin.

8) No widow shall be compelled to marry, so long as she wishes to remain without a
husband. But she must give security that she will not marry without royal consent,
if she holds her lands of the Crown, or without the consent of whatever other lord
she may hold them of.

15) In future we will allow no one to levy an 'aid' from his free men, except to ransom his
person, to make his eldest son a knight, and (once) to marry his eldest daughter. For
these purposes only a reasonable 'aid' may be levied.

30) No sheriff, royal official, or other person shall take horses or carts for transport from
any free man, without his consent.

54) No one shall be arrested or imprisoned on the appeal of a woman for the death of
any person except her husband.

63) [The last section] It is accordingly our wish and command that the English Church
shall be free, and that men in our kingdom shall have and keep all these liberties,
rights, and concessions, well and peaceably in their fulness and entirety for them
and their heirs, of us and our heirs, in all things and all places for ever.

Both we and the barons have sworn that all this shall be observed in good faith
and without deceit. Witness the abovementioned people and many others.

Given by our hand in the meadow that is called Runnymede, between Windsor and
and Staines, on the fifteenth day of June in the seventeenth year of our reign.

Most of the sections were too long to include here, but that is just a smattering to give you an idea. They claim that the Magna Carta has been used to help other countries write their laws and there is even mention in the tourist information that some of it was used as a guide in writing The Declaration of Independence! Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any pictures of the Magna Carta. However, here is a few of the interior of the cathedral.

Huge pipe organ

The cathedral was so beautiful. So many paintings, stained glass windows, sculptures, memorials, shrines, tombs, beautiful carvings on ceilings and walls (many that tell a story). One interesting item was the clock they had. It certainly didn't look like a clock. When it was pointed out to me, I couldn't find it even though I was standing right in front of it. It was a medieval clock dating back to at least 1386. It is the oldest working clock in Europe. It has no face, being designed to strike the hours. Look at the picture below.

For you readers out there, who have read Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (and if you haven't read it I highly recommend it), it has stirred much interest in people who have been inspired to visit Salisbury Cathedral. Follett tells the story of the building of a beautiful medieval cathedral similar to Salisbury. The fictitious city Kingsbridge is not far from the real Salisbury. There are many great characters and the historical details are researched meticulously. For those of you who remember Ken Follett as a spy and espionage writer, in recent years he has put out many historical fiction novels, Pillars probably being the most popular. It has taken number one or two on many "best books ever written" lists. He usually writes a series of two to three books, (which he did for Pillars too). FYI ~ Fall of Giants is the first book of a new series that I just finished. The fates of five interrelated families, American, Russian, German, English and Welsh during the First World War.

We drove home that evening. We had to get home so the girls and I could finalize our plans because early the next morning we were heading to Paris! They knew it would be a quick trip, but hated to miss out on Paris while they were over on this side of the world. So we booked a cheap flight that got us there in an hour and a half arriving at Charles de Gaulle airport around 9:00 am Monday morning. That gave us two full days in Paris as we were leaving the next evening around 7:00 pm to fly back.

There are basically three different ways to get to Paris from here. Ferry, train or fly. We chose flying because it was cheaper and faster. The negative is that Charles De Gaulle airport is pretty far outside the city. So we had to figure out a way to get into the city from the airport. Taxis would have been costly. I found a fantastic website that some wonderful person put up that gave step by step instructions (accompanied by clear photos) of where to go in the airport to get to the train, how to buy the tickets...everything. It was like "Paris for Dummies". Once we got off the train in the middle of the city we'd have to find our way to our hotel. I had organized all of our excursions here in the UK with tickets, hotels, directions, closing times, pretty much everything you could think of to need for this site seeing trip. And after finding that wonderful website about the train into Paris I was feeling quite pleased with myself. That quickly turned to aggravation when I realized that I had completely forgot to get directions from the train station to our hotel! We had the address but no idea WHERE in Paris it was.

The hotel advertised that it was walking distance to the Louvre Museum, but of course we didn't know where that was either. We tried going to the information booth after getting off the train but they were most UNhelpful. (The French aren't the friendliest people in the world, at least to Americans). We had a map of Paris of course but we couldn't find our street on the map at all. Outside the train station we saw a tourist information place. THANK GOODNESS this woman was much more helpful. She got out her big map and found the street. Turns out it's just a tiny tiny street (more like an alley), no wonder it wasn't on the map! She pointed us in the right direction telling us to pass this and that landmark and when we got to such and such circle our street would be right off of it.

We are still carrying our overnight bags and by then were a little frazzled. We thought about a taxi, but the way the woman talked, we thought it wouldn't be that far. I suppose if you're out walking and you know where you are going it wouldn't be far. But in a strange crowded city with large traffic circles everywhere it was a bit overwhelming. We walked and walked watching for landmarks. We also had her map. I can't emphasize enough how confusing their circles are. To begin with they are HUGE! Traffic going every direction (it seemed) with maybe 6 or more streets off of each circle. Some little tiny streets and some big thoroughfares. They were so big that just to walk around the circle to see the names of the streets running off of it was a big walk! Not to mention taking your life in your hands each time you cross! There were a couple times we weren't sure we were in the right circle either. So a lot of time was wasted just trying to find the right circle, and all of this walking and walking and carrying our bags. Finally Elise saw the street! Oh, we were so happy. We were so sick of lugging our stuff around and walking at that point. It was a tiny cobblestone street, very short, but there it was, and in the middle of it was our hotel.

We were able to leave our bags at the hotel (we were too early for check-in) and off we went to hail a cab. We wanted to spend the day in the Louvre as that was the main tourist place we wanted to see. After getting there by taxi, we realized that our hotel stretched the truth a little bit when it advertised that it was walking distance from the Louvre. Which is why I picked it, because the Louvre is near a lot of things and we were trying to avoid a bunch of taxis. Oh well, you live and learn.

When you see the Louvre for the first time you are astounded by the sheer size of it. It looks like blocks and blocks of buildings. I cannot explain how huge that place is. A look back in history tells how it came to be.

One side of The Louvre

Another side of The Louvre and the line to get in!

King Phillippe Auguste built a rampart around Paris in 1190. To protect the capital from Anglo-Norman threat he built a fortress around the city on the banks of the Seine. This came to be known the Louvre. Gradually the city grew up around the fortress so it no longer surrounded all of Paris. In the mid 1300's Charles V began transforming the old fortress into a royal residence. A majestic spiral staircase was added, along with elaborately carved windows and the interiors were decorated with sculptures, tapestries and paneling. After the death of Charles VI the Louvre sat for a century until 1527 when Francois I decided to take up residence in Paris. Francois I began the work but it was completed by Henry II. The medieval Louvre gave way to a Renaissance Palace. This was added onto by almost every subsequent French monarch. During all these years there was always demolition, construction and remodeling done to the buildings by various different monarchs. Finally King Louis XIV moved to the Palace of Versailles leaving the Louvre as a place to store the royal collection of art. While work did continue under various monarchs orders, the Louvre plunged into a new period of dormancy. During the French Revolution the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to house the nation's masterpieces.

The museum opened August 10, 1793. Most of the first pieces were royal and confiscated church properties. The size of the collection increased under Napoleon and further increased under the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X. Now that it was officially a museum, its size continued to grow along with its collection. By 1874 the Louvre Palace had achieved its present form.

The Louvre today contains more than 380,000 of objects and displays 35,000 works of art in eight departments in more than 652,000 square feet. It is the world's most visited museum with an average of 15,000 visitors per day. We were sure there were that many the day we were there. It was SO crowded. We later found out that it was some kind of holiday in France. After being so careful to NOT go on a weekend because of crowds I was disappointed to find that out.

Getting through the crowds was a feat in itself. For instance, the Mona Lisa. There is a rail around the picture so you can only get so close. But around that rail was a huge crowd! A semi-circle was formed around the rail that was probably 12 people deep all the way around. The only way to get up close was to step up to the back of the crowd and wait (and wait and wait) as the people up front finished looking which would allow you to move up a few inches. There were some RUDE people who would just bulldoze their way to the front. This was infuriating me. But since I was with the girls, I had to bite my tongue. I just about lost it when two very large bald men pushed their way to the front. Apparently they were brothers. Without even looking at the painting, they proceeded to stand in front of it taking turns taking each other's pictures in front of the Mona Lisa. I'm not talking about a little snapshot. It was like a photo shoot! They posed, whoever was holding the camera would say look this way, move that way and on and on. I was seriously about to lose it. Finally I did say, "oh, come on!". To which the bigger one said, "we had to wait our turn like everyone else, so you have to wait" and then took even longer. I felt like screaming that they hadn't waited at all!! They forced their way to the front just to take pictures of each other. But I kept quiet. The crowds were really insane. Of course everyone wants to see the most famous pieces of art. At every popular piece I was amazed at all the people that only wanted a picture of themselves next to the art! It would have been fine if there weren't people waiting and waiting to get their own glimpse of it. Ridiculous!

Making our way around the Louvre and finding things was about as confusing as the Paris streets! But with Miss Elise and her maps, we made it just fine. Every once in a while I would question, "are you sure this is the right way?" to which she would patiently answer, "yes, I think so" and she would be right! That place is so big, you could spend a week in there and just scratch the surface. Really, really amazing.

Anyway, when we finally got our turn at the artwork here are the pictures we managed to take.

Aphrodite - Venus de Milo

Ramesses II

The Wedding Feast at Cana

That afternoon/evening we bought tickets on one of the Hop-on Hop-off buses that tour the city. They have a great deal where you buy a ticket and it is good for 24 hours. The buses are big double deckers and take you all over Paris to see different tourist sites. They give you headphones to listen to a description of what you are seeing. You can get off whenever you want and then catch another bus when you are ready to continue. We knew that buying this ticket would allow us to see some of the things that evening and then we could use it the next day to tour around until we had to make our way back to the airport. It worked out perfectly. The weather was not cooperating (we got used to this) so that the next day we were continually putting our umbrellas up and then down (we sat on the top). In fact we really had a bad downpour for a while there that almost drove us to the lower level. Thank goodness I have learned from living here to never go anywhere without my umbrella. Here are some scenes from Paris:

Eiffel Tower

Academy of Music

Caged in basketball courts in the city?

Typical outdoor cafe, they're everywhere.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Close up of cathedral

We made our way back to the airport MUCH easier than when we had arrived. So easy in fact that we had to sit and wait a long time for our flight. But after our issue with the streets of Paris upon our arrival we were too afraid to take any chances. I have to say that I had thought in the back of my mind that I needed to go to Paris with the girls to make sure they got around okay and see that nothing happened to them. Well that's a laugh. Elise is SO capable and experienced and not afraid to ask questions that she just leads the way. Laura and I were both glad to hand the reins to her! Elise's main complaint was that she couldn't speak French. She speaks Spanish fluently, but no French. She said the next time she gets to France she is going to know their language. I don't doubt her for a minute. On the other hand we did have some young French waiters at one of the cafes we ate at who were so busy showing off for the girls that they could barely get our food delivered to our table. I guess it was a good thing that the middle aged aunt was there to watch over them then!

While Elise is out front leading, Laura is the quiet one who never makes a fuss. However, poor Laura had a string of bad luck on this trip that she certainly didn't deserve. It was nothing extremely bad, but if an elevator door was going to shut on someone it was her (twice) or the subway door. When the ticket taking machine at the tube stations malfunctioned and spit back a ticket, it was always Laura. If a mud puddle suddenly appeared and splattered mud all over it was little Laura who got it! She was always quietly going about her business but somehow got the brunt of the mishaps. She took it all in stride though, very good naturedly, even though we had to laugh at her!

Our chauffeur picked us up at the airport Tuesday night and brought us to our door. Just kidding, our chauffeur of course was Joe. I made a quick breakfast/dinner of scrambled eggs and crumpets because the girls and I were leaving the next morning to go to Liverpool, home of the Beatles! This is a place that has been on our lists of places to go and we hadn't gotten around to doing it. I sure hope that I can go back and take Joe because I loved it.

This was just a day trip so after taking Joe to work we headed up to Liverpool. It is a two hour drive NW from our house. Liverpool is a major port in England. It is located on the River Mersey, (made famous by the song Ferry Cross the Mersey sung by Jerry and the Pacemakers, 1964) and then flows into the Irish Sea. It is famous for the Beatles of course but has built up into a large metropolis with tons of shopping, restaurants, museums and theatres. Our main objective was to go on a Beatles tour and see an art museum that the girls were interested in.

We ended up on The Magical Mystery Tour. I loved this tour! It was SO interesting to me. I was a little young when the Beatles made their debut on the American scene. However, I have three older sisters so I was definitely aware of their music. And of course over the years who hasn't heard their music and become a fan? The same went for the girls. The Beatles story is so amazing and interesting. The tour was so much fun and lively with Beatles music playing. Sometimes I just wanted to belt out and sing with the songs. I'm sure the girls were glad I restrained myself. Many of the places we went were mentioned in the songs that the Beatles wrote. The easiest way for me to explain it is to use the pictures that I took and write captions for you.

Ringo Starr lived in terrace house behind van for the first few years of his life.

The fifth rowhouse down is where Ringo Starr's family
moved when he was young. Ringo lived in
this house for 20 years.

Penny Lane was SO much FUN to drive down! They played the song on the speakers and we were literally driving by things that were mentioned in the song!! See below:

On Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to have known
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello

On the corner is a banker with a motor car
The little children laugh at him behind his back
And the banker never wears a mac
In the pouring rain...
Very strange

The song continues, the firehouse is no longer there.

In Penny Lane there is a fireman with an hourglass
And in his pocket is a portrait of the Queen
He likes to keep his fire engine clean
It's a clean machine

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies
I sit, and meanwhile back

Below behind Elise and Laura is a white building that sits
in the middle of the roundabout on Penny Lane.

Behind the shelter in the middle of the roundabout
A pretty nurse is selling poppies from a tray
And though she feels as if she's in a play
She is anyway

In Penny Lane the barber shaves another customer
We see the banker sitting waiting for a trim
Then the fireman rushes in
From the pouring rain...
Very strange

George Harrison's childhood home
12 Arnold Grove

The graveyard in St. Peter's Church in Liverpool where
Paul McCartney and John Lennon first met.
There is a gravestone with the name Eleanore Rigby there.
Paul said he doesn't recall naming the song Eleanore Rigby
after the gravestone, but he may have been unconsciously
influenced by the name on the grave.

Strawberry Fields was the name of a Salvation Army Children's Home that was right around the corner from where John Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi. He and his friends used to play in the garden behind the home. Every year there was a garden party at Calderstones Park near the home. The Salvation Army band would play. This was a special treat for young John to go to this party. There was very good memories in Strawberry Field for John and he wrote the song with the same name. Below is a picture of the house behind the gates (no longer in use).

John Lennon's childhood home where he lived happily
with his Aunt Mimi an Uncle George for 17 years.
The house is now owned by the National Trust.

Paul McCartney's childhood home. Paul's mother died when
he was 14 of breast cancer. His dad allowed the boys to practice
here so many of their song writing and jam sessions were done in this house.
Paul's house is also owned by the National Trust.

After we finished the tour we went to the harbor and had lunch at a cafe there. Then we walked down to a modern art museum that Laura wanted to see. She studied Art History in college so she was really getting to see some neat stuff (at the Louvre) and other places we toured. Suffice it to say I DON'T GET MODERN ART! Never have and never will.

Thursday was a quieter day. We went and toured the Cadbury Chocolate factory. It was only an hour away. Cadbury is who makes most of the chocolate bars in the UK. They call them sweets. The smell when you went in was enough to make me swoon! We had a good time and got free chocolate! Just in case the free stuff wasn't enough we bought some in the BIG discount room in the gift shop. Suffice it to say that we had our chocolate fix taken care of for weeks!

For the girls last weekend here we (Joe included) spent the weekend in London. We left early Friday morning to go to Hampton Court Palace. The Palace sits along the Thames River about 20 miles upstream from central London. It was just an old barn when Cardinal Mosely (a favorite of King Henry VIII) took over the site in 1514. Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest Palace in England. He was a bit of a showman and wanted desperately to prove that the plain English churchman knew how to live as graciously as any cardinal in Rome. It is really a beautiful place. Sadly, (well, not really if you know anything about Wosley), Wosley was not able to enjoy his palace for long. While his enemies and the king were plotting his downfall he gave the palace as a gift to King Henry VIII in 1528.

HAMPTON COURT PALACE

Henry VIII's court consisted of over a thousand people, while he owned over 60 houses and palaces few were big enough to house his whole court. So he immediately began rebuilding and expanding the palace. The King was impatient for work to be done. So impatient that when they were building the Great Hall, he made the masons work during the night too by candlelight. That room alone took five years to build! But it was the most important room in the palace, where the King would dine in state on a raised platform. Anyway, the building went on for years and years and the palace was used in the meantime, as seen by the following important occurrences at Hampton Palace:

1537 Queen Jane Seymore, Henry VIII's third wife gives birth to
Prince Edward. She dies shortly thereafter from complications
from the birth.

1540 King Henry VIII's divorce from Anne of Cleves is signed. It is
also where Henry VIII marries his fifth wife, Catherine Howard.

1541 Catherine Howard's earlier sexual liaisons are revealed to King
Henry VIII at Hampton Court. She is interrogated and kept under
house arrest there. [The Queen was dragged away from the gallery
of the chapel screaming. Her ghost is said to haunt it.]

1543 King Henry VIII marries his sixth and final wife at the
chapel there.

When King Henry VIII died in 1547 he was succeeded by his son and then his two daughters, Mary and Elizabeth. The palace was still used by them. On Elizabeth I's death in 1601, the Tudor period ended. During the Stuart period that followed, the palace was used some, but never to the extend of the Tudors. On Queen Anne's death in 1714 the Stuart dynasty came to and end. In 1760 George III abandons Hampton Court as a royal residence. In 1838 Queen Victoria opens the gardens and state apartments to the public free of charge.

The palace today is all about King Henry VIII and the Tudor world. We saw the Tudor kitchens, the Tudor women's dresses, the King and Queen's state apartments and the awesome Great Hall, known as England's last and greatest medieval hall. Below are some of the pictures we took while visiting.

THE KITCHENS

A GOOD EXAMPLE OF THE WALL TAPESTRIES

Queen's bedchamber

Cloisters at Hampton Court Palace

King Henry VIII

Katherine of Aragon, first wife
divorced

Ann Boleyn, second wife
beheaded

Jane Seymour, third wife
Died after childbirth

Anne of Cleves, fourth wife
Divorced

Catherine Howard, fifth wife
beheaded

Kathryn Parr, sixth wife
outlives Henry VIII

School children getting to meet King Henry VIII!!

Kids fascinated by the period actors. (All school children
wear uniforms in England.)

Kids having fun listening to a knight.

We drove from Hampton Court Palace to our hotel, dropped off our luggage and rode the tube into downtown London. Our next stop was The Tower of London. Joe and I have been there several times as it is our favorite place to take visitors. It has just about everything you could want from a castle.

William the Conqueror began the construction of The White Tower (the first building built on the site) in 1078, so it is old, old, old. The Tower fortifications were updated and expanded and a series of separate building campaigns by medieval kings ensured that by 1350 the Tower was pretty much the formidable fortress that is there today.

The Tower of London sounds as if it is a name for one single tower. It was named that because of The White Tower which was built first. But really The Tower of London includes the castle, a chapel, Yeoman's Warders (ceremonial guards of The Tower of London) quarters and other buildings and towers that are all enclosed by two sets of circular defensive walls and a moat.

Our Beefeater that day.

A day at The Tower includes free tours several times a day by Beefeaters (Yeoman Warders) who live on the castle grounds. These guys are both knowledgeable and entertaining. The various buildings house weapons and the actual armory worn by Kings, the crown jewels (one of my favorites), prison towers with actual graffiti written by prisoners in medieval times, items of torture used (my very favorite), the chapel and of course the castle with the interior as it would have been in medieval times, financial records, (e.g. King Edwards financial accounts record a payment of 11 shillings and a penny for timber, boards and sawn panels for a bed for the lord King and for transporting it through England! And don't forget the Tower Green, an area in the courtyard where executions took place. Execution inside the tower grounds was a privilege only for those with high rank, to be executed away from the gaping crowds. The best known for being executed on the site were Anne Boleyn (second wife of Henry VIII, who was in her early thirties), Catherine Howard (fifth wife of Henry VIII, who was barely in her twenties) and Lady Jane Grey who was only sixteen. There is a monument where the executions took place.

Old Roman wall described below

I have written about The Tower of London in past blogs so I won't go into too much detail
here (believe me there is a lot more I could say!). Nor will I put up more pictures. I just think it should be on everyone's must see list if they are traveling to London.

We left The Tower of London and were back out on the streets of London. I can't believe how crowded a city can be ALL the time. We were at a tube stop trying to read the maps. We wanted to go to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. A passerby overheard us and pointed to a bus stop down the road. Since we had tube tickets they are also good for buses. He told us what stop to get off for the Globe so off we went. A public bus in London is an experience alone! The people crowding in, the honking, changing lanes and constant stopping! Not to mention tons of people on bicycles who ride RIGHT NEXT to the buses! I can't tell you how many times it looked like the bus mirrors were going to knock them off their bikes. Thank goodness I don't have to ride one of those buses to get around. It took a while but we eventually made it.

All four of us must have had "lost" written on her foreheads because as soon as we got off someone else started telling us the way to the theater. We hadn't even asked! So we went off the direction he said. A few minutes later there he was again directing us as we were about to go the wrong way! I was starting to get a little wary of him. Why was he following us AND we couldn't see the theater at all from where we were. I was wondering if he was taking us somewhere off the beaten path and up to no good. But as we continued on we came to it eventually. Another good samaritan in the big city.

The Globe Theatre was a three story, open air amphitheatre approximately 100 feet in diameter that could house up to 3,000 spectators. It was built in 1599 by William Shakespeare and his company of actors. These companies were made up of shareholders who performed in the plays but were also responsible for the management. The theatre was destroyed by fire in 1613 during a performance of Henry VIII when a theatrical cannon misfired igniting the wooden beams and thatching. It was rebuilt on the same site in 1614. Like all the other theatres in London it was closed down in 1642 by the Puritans. Two years later it was pulled down to make room for tenements.

It was not until 1989 that the old foundation of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre was discovered.
This led to a huge fundraising and and researching project that eventually led to the reconstruction of the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. By using historical information and traditional building techniques a replica of the old Elizabethan theatre, thatched roof and all was built. Although the new theatre only has a 1,500 seating capacity, the theatre is still open air, exposing spectators to the English weather.

Here are a few fun trivial facts about the Globe Theatre and other theatres back in time:

~ Besides plays, Elizabethan Theatres were also used for bear baiting, gambling and for immoral purposes.

~ At the start of the play after collecting money from the audience the admission collectors put the boxes in a room backstage - the box office.

~ Color coding was used to advertise the type of play to be performed - a black play meant a tragedy, a white a comedy and a red history.

~ A trumpet was sounded to announce to people that the play was about to begin in order for people to take their final places.

~ During the height of the summer the groundlings (commoners who could not afford to pay for a seat, were allowed to pay a penny to stand in The Pit just below the stage, which could get very crowded) were also referred to as 'stinkards' for obvious reasons.

~ In Shakespeare's time copyright did not exist. Rival theatres would send their members to attend plays to produce unauthorized copies of plays - notes were made and copied as quickly as possible.

~ In just two weeks Elizabethan Theatres could often present eleven different performances of ten different plays.

~ There were no actresses. Female characters had to be played by young boys. The acting profession was not a credible one and it was unthinkable that any woman would appear in a play.

~ Many of the boys died of poisoning due to the vast quantities of
lead in their make-up.

Shakespeare coined over 135 phrases, more than any other individual in the English language. Many of them are still in use today. Here is just a few:

It's Greek to me Bag and Baggage Seen better days
Vanished into thin air Foul Play The game is up
Knitted your brow Slept not a wink Good riddance
Without rhyme or reason Truth were known In a fool's paradise Fair play
At one fell swoop In a pickle Star crossed lovers

I realize now that I didn't take any pictures of the theatre from the outside. Here is a small model of the theatre along with some of the costumes that were used in Shakespeare's time:

From the theatre we headed over to the west side of London. We went to dinner and then had tickets to see Wicked that night. Wicked is a musical based on the novel by Gregory Maguire that tells the untold story of a friendship between two girls who first meet as sorcery students. Their extraordinary adventures in Oz will ultimately see them fulfil their destinies as Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West. The play was fantastic! We all just loved it. The music was brilliant, the costumes stunning, the whole play was spectacular. It was such a treat for us to go with the girls to see it.

After the play we had a 45 minute tube ride back to our hotel. Hotels in the city are very expensive so Joe and I have found one outside the city that is reasonable. We always stay there and then tube into London. It had been a long busy day and we only had one day left.

The next morning we headed back in on the tube. The only thing scheduled was souvenir shopping and a walking tour called "The Royal Wedding Walk". The girls were sold on this one as soon as they saw the name. They were fascinated by William and Kate's wedding and excited to see some of the places they's seen on TV from the wedding. (Although they both insisted that HARRY was the Prince that they fancied. A sighting of him would have made their whole trip!)

We were lucky to get into London and be at Buckingham Palace in time to see the changing of the guard. Wow! The crowds were amazing. I cannot imagine living in an area where there are tourists all the time. You could not even get up to the fence that surrounds the palace yard (and believe me this was a long, long fence) to get a good view of it. That's the only bad thing about touring...the dang tourists!!

THESE PICS WEREN'T THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD
THEY WERE JUST PART OF THE PARADE TO AND FROM

It took some time but we finally found the place to meet for the walking tour. I had the map that day and I think Elise was about to go crazy!! I had full confidence because Joe was with me and he is good about remembering landmarks and such. However, in the area of Piccadilly Circus, which is where we were, there is so much construction going on that some buildings are blocked off and covered. Nothing looked like it had before. And I am always one for trying to find a short cut. Well my shortcuts weren't panning out and we were getting dangerously close to the tour time. I know the girls were starting to get a little panicked! But they kept their cool and we finally managed to get where we were going.

The walking tour was fun and informative. We had a great tour guide. He took us all around to different places. We walked by Westminster Abbey, through St. James Park, past 10 Downing Street (Prime Minister's home), Parliament and Big Ben and the Horse Guard Parade, a large area where tournaments (including jousting) were held in the time of Henry VIII. It is still used for various ceremonies and parades.

Big Ben

Westminster Cathedral

Horse Guard Parade

One of the stops I enjoyed the most was the statues of King Goerge VI (the one depicted in the movie The King's Speech) and his wife, known fondly as the Queen Mother. The statues are located near Buckingham Palace. I loved hearing about their devotion to each other and some of the things they did to endear themselves to the British people. For example, they famously stayed in Britain during the Blitz in WWII when they could have taken safety abroad. The Queen often took walks to parts of London that were targeted by the Germans, in particular East End, where she met with families made homeless by the bombing and walked amongst the rubble. When Buckingham Palace took several hits itself, Elizabeth was able to say, "I'm glad we've been bombed. It makes me feel I can look the East End in the face".

Statues of King George VI (1895-1952)
Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother (1900-2002)

Pelicans in St. James park. Pelicans were first introduced in
1664 as a gift from the Russian Ambassador.

Gardens at one gate to Buckingham Palace.

We had to deal with rain every single day that the girls were here, and this day had to be the worst. We had torrential downpours during our walking tour. The rain was so bad that we all had to huddle in doorways and wait out the worst of it. And typical of England, a few minutes later the sun would come out and you'd almost forget that you are soaking wet from a previous downpour. It doesn't usually rain that hard, but I suppose it was a kind of a sending off to the girls. I felt bad for them as our spring had been relatively dry and the rain seemed to come in right at their arrival.

One more stop before we left London. The girls wanted to go to King's Cross tube station to see platform 9 3/4. (Think Harry Potter.) Here they are, silly girls.

Finally we headed back one more time on the tube to get our luggage from the hotel and drive home. Here is a picture of the girls checking out their photos but looking tired on the tube that night.

The girls had to get ready for their long journey home the next morning. We so enjoyed having them here and hope their trip was memorable. Joe kept up a steady banter with Laura, playing matchmaker and trying to get her fixed up with our single son, Gary. I tried to tell him that you can't pick your daughter-in-law, but he refused to stop trying. One night when Joe and I were in bed, I was listening to their voices in the next room as they were getting their things together and said, "isn't it nice to hear young voices in the house"? It was just cute to hear their little chirpy voices. Our house is always so quiet and if we do have guests they aren't young people. It was so enjoyable to have them here that week. They were easy house guests to have. We told our niece that she was invited back anytime and of course Laura too. Such wonderful delightful girls.

Fostering Baby Blue July 5, 2011

2011-07-05T03:45:00.000-07:00

Extra special appeal for a very special home. This is Baby Blue, a 2 year old female Staffordshire Bull Terrier. She arrived at LAA on 13 April having been found in Earl Shilton by a lady who had adopted a dog from our Centre. This poor girl was in the most appalling state; starved and covered in scars and urine scolds. Every bone in her body was clearly visible and she was terrified. She appeared to not be able to walk properly but it soon became apparent she was crawling out of fear. It is likely that she did live in Earl Shilton and a feature on her was published in the Leicester Mercury on 6th May. We have, sadly, seen many animals that have been deliberately neglected and abused and Baby Blue is certainly one of the worst. The trauma she had endured has left permanent psychological scars. Her physical condition is now excellent and you can see more pictures of her on our group facebook. After weeks of careful, gentle and patient rehabilitation she went to her temporary foster home where she still currently resides. Her foster Mum, Kathy, has been invaluable in the continued care of this little girl and also been able to provide essential information about her behaviour and temperament and, of course, her ability or inability to be able to cope with 'normal' domestic life. We are now looking for a permanent adult only home (as an only pet) in a quiet environment with a regular routine. Her new owner(s) will need to have experience of caring for an abused dog and the patience and understanding to accept she will probably never fully trust people or be confident in new situations. She has made progress, however, she often reverts to a very fearful and nervous dog if she feels insecure. She would like her new owner to accept her as she is and not expect her to necessarily change. She is gentle and loving and very loyal but easily spooked. She is very quiet and submissive and likes to take her self away to a safe and secure retreat until she feels confident to venture out again. She has progressed with her house-training but if not able to get outdoors may have accidents in the home. She is, naturally, very sensitive and would be distraught if she felt her owner was upset with her. If you would like to know more about Baby Blue, please contact the Centre

This was Baby Blue at the shelter shortly after she arrived. She is a two year old Staffordshire Bull Terrier that is the rare color they call "blue", hence the name the shelter gave her. I thought the write up of her was the best way to introduce her here. She was a shaking, terrified mess when she was brought to the shelter that day in April. They kept her there for several weeks. She was given to me to foster on May 5th. What a sad little girl this dog was.

When I met her she was being kept in the isolation area of the shelter as it is quiet there and the staff frequently go in and out throughout the day. She was laying on a pile of blankets. When Linda (manager who I deal with and whom she was very acquainted with) and I approached her, she sat up but immediately scrunched down in her fearful state and urinated slightly on her blanket. Linda told me that this is what she does when people approach her. She was however very friendly, crawling to Linda and I right away for some affection. I sat with her a while as Linda got her things together for my house. A new foster dog means blankets, toys, medicines, food and with Baby Blue it included a huge stuffed pink Hippo that she was using as a bed, all get taken to my house. As we walked out to my car I was amazed, I have never seen a dog walk in a crouched position quite like that. I have seen them crouch down for a minute or so, but this was Baby's permanent walk! But she came along willingly.

They told me at the shelter that Baby would seem to get better but then something would happen (many times they didn't even know what it was) and then she would revert back. Like taking a few steps forward, but a giant leap back. So I had to be extremely careful with her fragile personality.

When we arrived at my house I put her Hippo bed in the living room, and a blanket on the end of the loveseat where I sit most of the time. Baby jumped up on that blanket and from then on that was her seat. I also put a pile of blankets in the bedroom for night time. I took her outside for a walk around the back yard and watched her pee. OK, that done, we came back in the house to get acquainted. But no sooner did I turn my back and she had pooped all over my carpet! This was my first indication that she was probably not house trained. Naturally I didn't make any big deal of it, just cleaned it up and carried on.

BABY BLUE PICKED HER SPOT ON LOVESEAT

BABY'S HIPPO BED

The first few days were pretty stressful. Baby knew nothing about being a dog. She continued to go to the bathroom in the house (#1 and #2) and was very insecure and needy. I remained calm and affectionate when dealing with her. Gradually I was able to teach her to go outside. This was a huge relief as Baby drank tons of water! They told me at the shelter that she did that and we wondered if she'd been deprived of adequate water. I would not be a bit surprised. I am lucky to have a secure back yard and a slider door that goes out to it, so I can leave that open all day for her to go in and out. I close the bedroom door at night so she doesn't have the run of the house and she is clean until we get up in the morning.

Poor Baby Blue. I really don't know if she will ever be quite normal. We are pretty certain that she was used for a breeding dog. She is the rare color of blue (really gray) so the puppies are valuable. Her entire stomach was stained yellow from urine, her pads on her paws were smooth, as if she has never been out. Her toenails were completely white (rather than opaque color) meaning she did not have sufficient nutrition. She was severely emaciated. The picture above doesn't show it good, but all her bones were protruding, including her spine. She had patches of missing fur, her ears were notched and rough on the edges because of missing hair. Her tail was broken and she had a couple rotten teeth (she is only 2 years old). We figure that she has probably been kept in a cage her whole life. It would explain a lot of things about her condition and behavior.

Her lack of dog knowledge showed itself in different ways. She didn't know how to play. I would try to play with her with toys and all I'd get was a blank look from her. No interest in chasing anything or playing in any way. She would sit in the kitchen watching me cook and food could be dropped right in front of her, she wouldn't even know it. Joe would toss her treats and they'd hit her in the head! That first few weeks if we approached her she would submissive pee. No matter where she was. We had to learn to approach her in a VERY casual way, like not walk straight up to her but kind of walk by her and then put a hand out to pat her head. If I called her to come to me she would most of the time cower where she was and not come, or if she did come at all it was in a slow fearful way, many times peeing as she came. We never raised our voices (either to her or otherwise). We made sure the house was a calm and friendly place at all times. Luckily we live in a very quiet neighborhood and our house sits way back off the street so it works out perfectly. My heart just broke for this little damaged girl.

After having her for a few weeks Linda wanted to get her in to have her spayed, her tail amputated because of the break in it and her bad teeth pulled. Linda brought her back to my house after the surgery. She was such a pathetic looking little thing. She was still under anaesthesia and asleep. (The vet agreed to let her go since she was coming to me and I'd be with her for the night.) That little thing didn't come out of it until 11:00 that night! Even the vet (I took her the next morning) couldn't believe that she had not woken up until so late. The saddest thing was that they found Baby was pregnant when they went to do the spay. How horrible. Whoever owned her must have had her pregnant constantly all her life! It's obvious she's had several litters. The vet of course couldn't let her keep the pups as she was in no condition to go through another pregnancy. Thankfully she will never be able to be used to breed again. But her surgeries went fine and with medicines and TLC she recovered after a week or so.

Slowly, slowly she progressed. Linda brought a animal behavoirist over to meet Baby and give me some advice. She gave me a lot of information and ideas on ways I could work with her. I was told not to take her for a walk on a leash or anything like that yet. Too much of a chance she'd get spooked. With a dog like this one, if she were to get frightened by something, it could set her way back from where she had already come. I was to find this out for myself eventually. I worked with Baby and finally got her to play with a couple of toys. She likes one particular stuffed ball that she keeps at close hand. She also goes outside with her rope toy and kind of throws it around the yard with her mouth. I have tried to show her to tug-of-war but as soon as I grab a hold of it she drops her side! She will half heartedly chase a ball once in a blue moon, but even with all my cheer leading she will only run TO it, not pick it up. I guess she thinks that just going to it when I throw it is the object of the game. I should mention that it took Baby over a month to even run in the yard. I really feel she has never been allowed to run and play. One day she just took off running and it was so surprising to me! I laughed and laughed. She looked like a gangly filly who was just new to her feet! She ran around and around. It was the cutest thing.

Baby has no clue about the doorbell or visitors. She can see the front door from her perch on the loveseat but when the doorbell rings she just sits and stares. After I open it she will get down and walk slowly to the door to greet the person. Still in her unsure way. She does love people and is very friendly once she meets them. Her favorite thing to do is to jump up on people. I have been working on her about this. I have stopped her doing it to Joe and I. But the people at the shelter allow it and also people who come to the house. She sure has a long stretch! She is kind of dainty when she does it so you don't feel like you are being pushed or anything like with some dogs. But she'll stretch up and put he paws around your waist and give the BEST hugs. She'll stay like that as long as someone will bend over and hug her and rub her back. She is extremely affectionate that way. Also loves to give those kind of hugs while we are sitting down. Hard to refuse her loving ways. She will even rest her head against your head or shoulder.

BABY STRETCHING UP TO GIVE JOE ONE OF HER SPECIAL HUGS

NOW I'M THE LUCKY RECIPIENT! LOOK HOW SHE HUGS WITH HER PAW AROUND MY WAIST!

I mentioned above about her reverting back when she gets scared. I saw this first hand. I was laying on the couch one day and she wanted to get up with me. I reached down to grab her bottom to give her a boost and must have bumped her sore tail (from the surgery). She yelped and RAN into the bedroom. I felt really bad, but it was an accident. She ended up staying in her room all day! It had scared her and she was too afraid to come out. Nothing I did would make her venture off of her bed. You will not believe this but it took three weeks to get her back to behaving normally! She would come out to go outside for potty but then would go immediately back to the bedroom. I tried to coax her out, but found it was probably better for her if she came out when she was comfortable. She eventually did come out to her Hippo bed in the living room but would absolutely NOT get back up on the loveseat. I am not kidding when I say it took weeks for her to do that. And then it was a slow process, at first only when no one was sitting there, and eventually back to normal. All because I accidentally hurt her tail!

When I have a foster dog I usually sleep in the guest room with the dog. Joe goes to bed early and is up very early so he doesn't need his sleep interrupted by the dog and I coming and going. Plus if the dogs want to sleep with me I let them. I have a special "dog" duvet cover that I use for that. However, after a cuddle before bed, Baby prefers to jump down and sleep in her blankets. We usually get up early for a trip to the bathroom and then go back to bed. She again hops up for some lovin' and then jumps back down for a little more shut eye before our morning begins.

I have had Baby for two months already! She has changed immensely since she first came. She trusts Joe and I and showers us with love and thanks all the time. She no longer does her "crab walk" as Joe called it. She stands up tall at least here at home. She no longer drinks water obsessively. I trained her to walk on a leash. It wasn't hard as she does not have the personality to pull or do anything that I wouldn't want her to do. I just had to train her to walk to on one side of me as she was all over the road, in front of, behind, left and right the first few times! I started taking her for short walks and have graduated to taking her around our quiet neighborhood for one mile walks a day. She really loves it. Each day is a new adventure. There is a bench that sits on the busy corner of our main street (which happens to be right outside our neighborhood). I have taken her there and just sat with her to let her get used to the sounds of the cars and people walking by. I will venture out to walk the more busier streets gradually. So far she has shown a slight interest in dogs she meets. Maybe a little sniff and then she's done. She is far more curious in people. Even if she crawls to meet them, she still goes. Everyone who meets her loves her.

Last week I saw her wag her tail for the first time. It took me by surprise because I hadn't even realize that I HADN'T seen it wag! It is just a short little stub now, but always tucked down tight. We were walking and came upon another woman walking her dog. There happened to be a stray dog with her too. We stopped to talk for a few minutes as the dogs were sniffing each other. All of a sudden Baby got kind of excited and jumped around a little with her tail wagging! It looked so out of character, I was very surprised but happy for her. Poor little thing, never is happy enough to wag her tail!

Have I mentioned that she has not barked yet? No one at the shelter or us here have ever heard her bark. We assume she can. She sure yelped when I touched her tail that day and she snores a little bit. But never a bark. Very unusual. Such a quiet dog. And when dogs bark at her (like from behind a fence) she pays no attention to them at all.

Baby's favorite thing to do in the world is lay down on the patio in our backyard in the sun. She stretches herself out and basks in the sunshine. Mind you she will only stay out there a few minutes. She has to come check on me every ten minutes or so. If she hears me sneeze or cough she runs inside immediately to check and make sure everything is alright.

BABY'S FAVORITE SUN SPOT

AND IF IT'S TOO HOT IN THE SUN, THERE'S PLENTY OF SHADE !

As you can see by the pictures she really looks good. People who meet her always describe her as "lovely". That is a popular word here and used instead of good, great, etc. She has gained weight, her fur is shiny and healthy. No more bald spots or ragged ears. Her toenails have grown out their normal opaque color. Only the tips of them are still white, which makes her look as if she is sporting a French manicure, how fancy!

BABY'S FRENCH MANICURE

One thing that Baby likes to do is watch TV with me. I personally have never had a dog that actually paid attention to the TV. But when I have Animal Planet on, every once in a while a certain dog will catch her attention and she will immediately perk up, her ears raised and tilting her head from side to side. Sometimes even getting off the couch to get a closer look. Check out the pics below!

BABY WATCHING ANIMAL PLANET

I look at Baby as she lays stretched out in the backyard in the sun. She loves the yard so much and is so comfortable here. I hope that she will be able to adjust in a new home when she gets one and pray that it works out for her. The worst thing would be for someone to adopt her and then not be able to deal with her insecurities and have to take her back to the shelter. For this reason Linda and her co-workers are working very hard to find her the right home. They all have such a special place in their heart for Baby Blue, as do I. Look into those sweet loving eyes and tell me you wouldn't too.

Crete, Greece May 29, 2011

2011-05-29T11:01:00.000-07:00

"Hence we shall not say that Greeks fight like heroes,

but that heroes fight like Greeks"

"Quotation at graveyard celebrating the military heroes from

different countries who died defending Crete's independence.)

When we chose Crete as our vacation this year we had two things in mind. Warm dry weather and a place where we could relax with not too many tourists. Actually Joe was the one who wanted the relaxing part. He has been working so many hours with very little down time. If we go away for a weekend it is usually to visit some place famous and involves sight seeing. It is hard to relax with all these places that we want to see before our stint here is over. So his one request as we planned this trip was to have a lot of down time. I admit that can be a little hard for me as I am always wanting to see more and, as you know, I am not working so I'm not worn out like he is. But we managed to compromise and have a real nice time.

About Crete:

Crete is the largest of the Greek islands. The island is 160 miles long and 35 miles wide at its widest part, with 650 miles of coastline. Running down the center of the island is a large mountain range. In certain areas the mountains run right down into the sea. From the beach at our hotel we could see the snow topped mountains in the distance. Crete is situated between Europe, Asia and Africa and is the most southern area in Europe, approximately 99 miles south of the Greek mainland.

A little history: (If you don't like history, skip to where I wrote "end of history")

It is believed the first inhabitants in Crete lived there around 6,000 BC and came from little Asia or North Africa. Crete is known to have had the first European civilization. These were the Minoans, a people who flourished between 3000 to 1100 BC. During the years they were in power they built several palaces which were the first palaces ever built in Europe. Unfortunately because of earthquakes and/or revolutions the palaces were destroyed and rebuilt over the years. The ruins of these can be seen today.

When the Minoan civilization declined Crete was invaded by its neighbors, all of which wanted to claim the island for their own. In about 1100 BC the Dorians (a Greek tribe) captured the Minoan strongholds and took over the island's occupation. After the Dorian invasion most of the old cities became deserted and the majority of the population moved into inaccessible mountain shelters, cutting off communication with the outside world. Following this takeover Crete fell into obscurity. During the latter years of this time (500 BC) the Phoenecians (an ancient civilization located along the coasts of Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel) had great influence over the island. Crete was becoming a part of the then known world, but without a culture of its own.

By 300 BC different Cretan cities were forming alliances with different powers. Endless skirmishes, raids and wars brought the island into disrepute and Crete became known as a haven for pirates, beggars and liars. Although the population of island is increasing, the fall of Crete was inevitable.

In 67 BC the Romans arrived as mediators but settled as conquerors. After three years of fighting Crete became a Roman province. Crete enjoyed a period of prosperity under the Roman rule. In 330 AD Crete was liberated from the Romans during the first Byzantine period which brought Christianity to the island. This brings us through to 824 AD.

The Arabs invaded and occupied Crete from 828 until 961 AD. Apart from coins no remains have been found from this period. It remained a Muslim state throughout many attempts of a takeover until Nikiforos Fokas finally succeeded in freeing Crete from the Arabs and it went back into the second Byzantine Period which lasted from 961 to 1204 AD.

Noble families from Byzantium Greece, merchants from Europe and Christians from eastern countries settled in Crete. They were determined to destroy all traces of the Arabs and bring back Christianity to all who had become moslems. When Byzantium became the victim of the 4th Crusade, Crete was sold to the Venetians.

The Venetian occupation lasted for 450 years. They tried hard to convert the Cretan population from Orthodox Christianity to Roman Catholicism. The land was taken from the people and given to Venetian knights with former owners becoming slaves. There were many uprisings against the Venetians and their alien way of life. But despite their influence, the Cretan's independent character assured that their traditions continued. Venetian architecture can be seen in cities throughout the island on houses and buildings. They fortified old castles and built new ones, many that have survived to this day.

In 1645 the Turks came along and attacked Chania and Rethymnon, two cities along the northern coast of Crete (we stayed in Rethymnon). It took them a year but they ended up capturing the two cities. Then came the fight for another city, Heraklion (the largest city and capital of Crete). This was a long siege with a heroic defense, (22 years!) the longest defense in history with all of Europe watching intently.

During the mid 1800's Egypt and Turkey began fighting for Crete, while at the same time the Cretans were still revolting and fighting for themselves. Turkey managed to maintain control but one of the most tragic revolts for the Cretans was in 1866. During this revolt 943 Greeks (mostly women and children) took refuge in the Arkadi Monastery, a monastery situated on a plateau and surrounded by thick walls like a fortress. After three days of battling with the Turks the abbot of the monastery came up with a plan for the Cretans to hide in the gunpowder storage room. They then blew up barrels of gunpowder while the Turks climbed on the roof and walls, choosing to sacrifice themselves rather than surrender. This explosion did not end the insurrection, but it did attract attention of the rest of the world.

During these battles the Cretans were hoping that the Great Powers (Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia) would help them conquer the Turks. The Greek mainland could see that was not happening so they sent warships and personnel to help the Cretans. The Great Powers were not willing to hand over Crete to the Greeks so they battled against the Greeks and the Cretans. On April 1, 1897 the commander of the joint naval forces was given the orders to bombard the Greek headquarters located at Akrotiri Chania. A terrible fight began. The Greek flag that was flying was hit several times and became shredded. Then a shell hit the flagpole destroying it. A man named Spyros Kayales, rose, with shells exploding around him and hoisted the flag in the air using his body as a pole. The vice admiral sent a signal to all his ships, "Cease firing. I shall not kill a man who uses his body as a shield to protect his flag."

I wrote this particular battle down because we went to the sight of the fight and saw the statue that was erected in honor of Spyros Kayales. See pictures below:

The Great Powers finally decided to withdraw and Crete became independent under their guarantee in 1908. In 1913 the island became an integral part of Greece.

The island began to prosper just as WWII began. For four years (1941-45) the island was occupied by the Germans. But the Cretans, men and women fought hard and inflicted heavy casualties on the Germans. Still there was forced labor, starvation, inhuman cruelty, the burning of entire villages and the execution of thousands of Cretans. But finally the last of the Germans left Crete in July of 1945. In recent years, agriculture, trade, industry, tourism and archaeological research has brought the island to great recovery.

END OF HISTORY!

We were so excited to get started on our trip. Joe goes into what I call his airport mode as soon as the day arrives. He starts out fairly calm but by the time we are in the car and headed for the airport his whole demeanor changes. He starts driving fast, then faster. When we get to the airport we have to rush through checking bags and through security to the gate. It doesn't matter if we are way early, he is never relaxed until we are sitting at the gate. He doesn't care if we sit at the gate for two hours. He is not happy until we are there. We left way early for the airport that day. Our flight was in the afternoon so thankfully we didn't have to get up real early.

Have I ever mentioned how the Brits handle accidents on the motorways? Not well. Whenever there is an accident, and it doesn't matter if it is minor, the authorities shut down the motorway. The don't allow even one lane through. The whole motorway is shut down! Then they go through their accident investigation. This can take hours, and I am not exaggerating. I have to say that there aren't many accidents here. By and large the British are very cautious and polite drivers. They signal when changing lanes. They will pass other cars, but always go back to the slow lane rather than driving in the two right lanes (our fast lanes). Semis are governed and will not go over 56 MPH. That is one thing I will surely miss when we move back to the DC area.

Back to our story. We are sailing along to the airport on a bright sunny day when up ahead we see traffic stopped. This is NOT something you want to see in this country when you are trying to make a flight. It only takes Joe a few minutes to get into a full blown meltdown. For him anyway. He never yells, rarely cusses so if you would have heard him you wouldn't have believed it was him. He started ranting about the stupid British and how they handle accidents. They don't know what they are doing. This is the stupidest thing they do. We are going to miss our flight. That's it we are going to have to go tomorrow and miss one day of our vacation. Then he starts in on the British again. And around and around he goes with his rants. There were quite a few choice words thrown in for effect. I just sit quietly which is about the only time that I am quiet. I was worried too. People were parking their cars and walking around the highway like it was some kind of picnic! Taking kids to the bathroom, taking pets for a walk, rearranging their belongings in their cars, walking around on their cell phones, etc. They were all so calm. No one seemed like they were in a hurry. These Brits are so accommodating. Here the two Americans are sitting in their car with their arms folded and mad looks on our faces.

The good news is that after 45 minutes they opened up the road and we were able to continue on. Since we had left extra early we were just fine in getting to the airport in plenty of time. Joe forgave the British authorities immediately, we got to the airport with no more drama and soon were happily on our way to Crete!

Even though we saw pictures of our hotel when we booked the trip, there is always a little apprehension upon arrival that everything will be as expected. We couldn't have been happier. The outside entrance was very nice with a cobbled circular drive surrounded by landscaping and a beautiful fountain. The entrance to the hotel itself was large and inviting. We both sighed with relief, this was going to be fantastic.

Rithymna Beach sign in English...

and Greek.

I had learned in my reading up on Greece that Easter is a HUGE deal there. I didn't think much about it because of course Easter is a big deal around the world. So we were quite surprised by the great Greek Easter celebration that was going on when we arrived. As soon as we entered the hotel lobby we were greeted by the largest Easter egg I've ever seen. It was a life size egg made of bright red fabric that a bunch of little kids were getting their pictures taken in front of. It was around 10:00 PM Saturday night but the place was swarmed with Greek families all celebrating their holiday. Just one big warm happy group of people. We checked in and went to our room with a warning that there would be fireworks setting off at midnight to celebrate the arrival of

Easter.

We heard the fireworks and were able to watch from the balcony of our room. It sure was a celebration with people out in the courtyard. Greeks everywhere! The next day (Easter) was the same. Everyone happy, whole families, children dancing. Monday was a holiday in Greece and they sure were making full use of their long weekend. Someone told us later that the Greeks celebration of Easter is bigger than their celebration of Christmas. This put things in perspective for us. I have to admire them for putting a holiday that didn't include gift giving on a higher level.

Goats, lambs and pigs formed a huge rotisserie line outside for the Easter feast.

We had requested a room with a sea view and were delighted with it. I absolutely LOVE the ocean, the sound, the smell, everything about it. We were able to sleep with our balcony door open and listen to the waves crashing in every night. Such a luxury!

Our room included a breakfast buffet and dinner buffet every day. I have never been treated so well in a dining room in my life! The dining room captain and his crew greeted everyone with huge smiles and kind words for every meal. They were wonderful hosts that made us feel so welcome. The food was delicious! So many kinds of Greek salads and other Greek foods. The food was very fresh and displayed in such an appetizing way. We never got bored as they had all different kinds of dishes at each meal. As we have found in the UK, there was a lot of lamb dishes. I am not a big fan of lamb, but did try some of them. I also had rabbit one night. They had some delicious fish items too. Joe is not adventurous when it comes to food. He is happy for me to try things and tell him how they are. He loves his beef and potatoes.

We heard only a handful of American accents while there. The tourists were mostly British, French and German. I guess it's a little far for the Americans to venture. I was also surprised that most of the guests of the hotel were Greek. So I guess it is a big tourist area for Greeks from the mainland. One thing that we weren't used to was the lack of English spoken and written. I suppose we are big headed Americans who think that all the other countries in the world should know OUR language and have signs and such written in Greek AND English. But seriously, that is what we are used to. It was like that in France and Germany anyway! But not in Greece. I have to say most of the workers in the hotel spoke at least a little English. But once you got away from the tourist type places "Grease is the word" to quote a song lyric!

As I mentioned before this trip was mostly for relaxation so we didn't do a whole lot of touring. Although as you saw above Crete definitely has some OLD history. I have lots of pictures and will be able to explain some interesting things we saw. Our first couple of days there we relaxed on the beach, reading and soaking up the sun (with sunscreen of course). The weather was spring like, the temperatures comfortable. Sometimes we'd switch over and go to one of the pools that was at the hotel. Joe is not a napper but he took some good naps the first couple of days and felt wonderful!

On our second day there we decided to brave the public bus and go into the closest town, Rethymnon. We wanted to see "Greek life" up close and of course shopping is never out of the question. There is also a huge fortress on the sea there that we wanted to see. Boy was it confusing in the city! We had a map, but we might as well have left it at the hotel. We couldn't make heads or tails of where we were when the bus dropped us off. Finally I just asked someone I heard speaking English where the fortress was.

Good thing it had a picture on it!!

The fortress in Rethymnon is called The Fortezza. It is said to be one of the largest Venetian castles ever built. It certainly dominates the city. The fortresses walls are over 3/4 of a mile long (and over 6 feet thick in places) running along the sea. The building of the castle was done during the late 1500's by the Venetians to protect them from the Turkish threat. Initially built to house the whole town, although that never was accomplished.

View of Fortress from street level.

Views from top of Fortress wall.

Spaces in wall for shooting enemies.

Only below the floor levels is all that's left from the many fine buildings that were once erected there.

Formerly a cathedral, but rebuilt under Turkish occupations as
a mosque for Sultan Ibriham.

View from inside of dome ceiling in mosque.

A small church inside the fortress.

After the fortress we walked through the streets of the city. Tons of little shops, cafes and people milling about. We stopped and had a drink at an outdoor cafe. The owner was so nice and friendly. All the Cretans were extremely friendly. It was a very nice day all in all. Greek buses have schedules, except they never run on them. The hotel told us not to expect the bus when it is supposed to come. They are extremely laid back down there. So after waiting for what we felt was a long time, we gave up and caught a taxi back to the hotel. I was told it would cost us 10 euros so I made sure that I checked that out with the driver before we got in. Hey, I wasn't born yesterday!

Pizza deliver, Crete style.

We spent the next couple of days lounging by the beach and the pool. The weather was perfect, not too hot. The only thing I wished was that the water was a little warmer. I wanted to swim in that beautiful blue sea!

Look closely and you can see the snow topped mountains in the distance.

We decided to book one tour during our stay. We signed up for a tour to the city of Chania (pronounced Hania), that included some stops along the way. Chania is steeped with history and is a beautiful city on the water. We had to cross some mountains to get over to Chania. This meant fairly narrow curvy roads. The bus seemed to be awfully big for those roads and there were many times that I didn't think we'd get through tight spots. I spent most of the time looking out the window and not the road ahead. This worked fine for me until Joe pointed out cars that had gone off the road and were resting on the hillsides and at the bottom of the mountain. There were four of them at one particular nasty bend in the road! We don't know if they were left there intentionally to warn other drivers or they just weren't able to haul them up out of their early graves. It was definitely an unsettling sight for me!

One of our stops along the way was Souda Bay. It is home to a U.S. Naval Base but what we went to see was the Souda Bay War Cemetery. It holds the remains of 1527 soldiers (mostly from Britain) but some from other countries too who fought against the Germans that were trying to win the island in WWII. One of the facts that sticks out in my mind was how the Cretan civilians fought the Germans. Men, women, children, priests, monks and even nuns fought. It threw the Germans completely off guard when they landed to see the civilians fighting too. The Germans eventually conquered the island. Although it took them several years and many casualties. They finally left the island in July of 1945 and the Cretans were free at last. Sorry, I'm wandering back into history again. Anyway, we weren't thinking that much about it until we got there and saw how beautiful it was! The grounds were located on the water and immaculate. It is clear that the Greeks treat this graveyard with the utmost respect. We just couldn't get over it, so serene and peaceful. Here are the pictures that I took:

We were able to get great views of Chania from the sight of the battle at Akrotiri (mentioned above where Spyros Kayales held the flag).

The next stop was the city of Chania. Chania is built on the site of an ancient Minoan city and has a mishmash of Greek, Turkish and Venetian cultures. There is a beautiful old harbor there with houses, restaurants, fishing boats and a crescent of tavernas overlooking the water. There was a lot of history of course, but on that day I had shopping on the brain. I did get some interesting pictures though.

Turkish Mosque on the harbor.

You can see some of the Venetian architecture in the buildings in the back.

Lighthouse in the harbor built by the Venetians.

Sights and sounds of shopping!!

Concentrating on holding the camera instead of smiling.
(We're new to this self portrait thing.)

YES, this old man (on left) is making the shoes by hand!
While chatting with his mates.

Joe talked me into going into this jewelry store, yes I swear he did! I'm not saying that I went kicking and screaming, but it was his idea. We started looking at all kinds of stuff and I turned to leave. Just as I was walking out the door Joe said, "hey, look at this ring". Once I saw it I fell in love. It was nothing real fancy, but it just appealed to me. It was white gold with rubies (my birthstone) around the band. The rubies form the "Greek Key" a symbol that you see everywhere, on signs, in designes on floor tiles, all over the place. The meaning is eternal love, life and friendship. So the owner came up with a price and Joe told me to get it. I was very excited. Once we agreed to buy it the owner was so happy. I thought he was going to kiss Joe. He started bringing us out drinks and everything! They wrapped it up all special and I was one happy woman leaving that store. That is until we were half way down the street and I realized that I got so distracted that I forgot my favorite part of shopping in foreign countries. Haggling on the price!!! I love doing it and I know they expect it. Now for Joe it is another matter. He HATES it and always walks away when I start. But I was so distressed to know that I could have probably got a much better deal on the ring had I had my wits about me. No wonder they were so happy! Joe said he was glad and that it was worth paying too much not to haggle. Can you imagine?? Anyway, the picture below doesn't really do it justice It is a bit blurry but here it is.

Graffiti is a real problem in Crete. It is everywhere. The tour guide was telling us how devastating it is because the people who do it do not care even if it is precious historical buildings. Below a Turkish mosque is defaced, and then a new one for me, graffiti on a plant!

The indoor market:

So Gross.

WHY DO THEY LEAVE THE FEET ON
THE RABBITS?

AND THE TAIL ON THE... WHATEVER IT IS???

I could have gotten a lot more pictures in the market but Joe made
me leave because he was afraid we were going to miss our bus!

After we left Chania we had a couple more stops. One of them was at "the biggest lake in Crete". It had been talked about by the person who sold us the tour, and also by our tour guide that day. I was looking forward to a beautiful Kodak moment. Once our bus parked we had to walk down a long steep road to the lake. The way it was situated, you couldn't really see the lake until you got right up on it. We had to laugh. The lake looked more like a large pond to us! And this was their biggest lake? Obviously these people haven't ever seen a REAL lake. Imagine if they stood on the shores of Lake Superior!! I'm sure they'd swear it was an ocean. But we stood and dutifully took pictures like the rest of the tourists.

Lake Agia

The rest of the trip was spent relaxing at our resort. I am continually amazed at the difference in the Europeans and Americans. They are so much more relaxed than we uptight Americans. On the beach every once in a while you'd see a topless sunbather. I don't mean young women either. The ones we saw were middle aged! It was really weird. Or someone would just stand up on the beach and change from their bathing suit to their street clothes. Like they were standing in the privacy of their bedroom! Sometimes they'd use a little modesty and put a towel around their waste to do their bottom half, but man, the carefree attitude is always a shocker. We have been to topless beaches before, but these were regular resort beaches where there were families and stuff. I looked around and no one seemed to be noticing. I decided to go back to my book! Your wondering about Joe? I would always whisper to him what was going on, but he's too afraid he'll get caught looking!" Haha.

Joe spent some time on our holiday trying different adult beverages served up with Greek smiles. Here are two of his faves:

All in all it was a great trip. We enjoyed all the time together which we seem to get so little of while Joe is working. As far as hospitality and friendliness we can't recommend Crete enough.

I will apologize for the tardiness of this blog. But it actually wasn't my fault this time. The blogger site went down for maintenance for a few days. After having it back it went down again except this time there was no warning so for several agonizing days I thought I was frozen out of my own blog! I could go online and read my old ones but as far as writing or creating, it would not let me in. I was really worrying and writing for help when one day it just mysteriously came back on! What a relief. I am not real happy with blogger but have invested so much of this work on their site that I hate to leave them and lose my followers too.

I now have a new foster dog which I will write about next time!

Happy Spring April 7, 2011

2011-04-07T07:37:00.000-07:00

We have been enjoying some nice early spring weather the last couple of weeks. No rain and many sunny days. Such a great relief from the cloudy, dreary days of winter. I know I am going to jinx myself just writing that! I have gotten out in the yard and started the spring clean-up. So much to do! But it is nice to be outdoors.

Joe's American boss (Nick) came to visit last month and brought his 15 year old daughter and her friend with him. The guys went straight to work the first day while I took Mary (daughter) and her friend Maria to see Warwick Castle, not too far from here. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068. We have been there before so one of my earlier blogs tells all about it and has pictures. It is a fun castle to see with lots of entertainment going on showing how things were done in the olden days. The girls were tired but their excitement of being here gave them the energy to want to see it all. I dropped them off at their hotel in the afternoon so they could rest up. They were going to the Taylor Swift concert in Birmingham that night!

Joe and I then took a couple of days and went down to London with the girls and Nick to show them around. I was a little nervous about this as we are by far NOT the experts. As it turned out we made some very rookie mistakes (one of them being getting on the wrong train!) but Nick was very easy going about it and kept saying "it's part of the adventure" so we weren't too bothered by it.

The weather was GREAT, couldn't have been better. Perfect for walking around London and taking in the sites. We went on the London Eye, something Joe and I haven't done yet. It is one of the most popular things to do in London. It's like a big Ferris wheel except each swing is an enclosed glass bubble (they call it a capsule) that holds about 20 people. At the tallest point it is 135 meters (148 yards) with a vision of 25 miles across London on a clear day. It was fun but not something I feel the need to do again.

We also took them to my favorite tourist site, The London Tower. We've been there four times now and I always enjoy it. This is on a previous blog too.

We are eagerly awaiting our friends upcoming visit on April 16. Joe and my friend Janet from high school and her husband Willie. Actually he goes by Bill now days but we met him as Willie during his college years. He will always be Willie to me. Their daughter is a student at Notre Dame University, but she is studying in Dublin, Ireland this year. Lucky girl! Anyway, they are going to visit her during her spring break and then pop over to see us too. They will only be here for four days but it will be nice to see them and have some American conversation for a change.

The last week of April Joe and I have planned a vacation for ourselves. We are very excited to be going to the Greek island of Crete. We chose Crete because we of course wanted to go somewhere in Europe to take advantage of our proximity here and the weather will be nice and warm down there. I can't wait to experience the Greek culture. Some of you may remember that before the Aireco acquisition, the company Joe worked for was owned by a Greek couple, Gus and Sophia Romanias. They were the most wonderful people, it was a true Mom and Pop business. We loved them like family and visa versa. If the Greeks are anything like those two, the hospitality will be extraordinary!

Last year we didn't plan any vacation other than trips home and long weekends or short trips here and there. Our trips home are very important to us. But they aren't very relaxing as we are always running around trying to see everyone. We have yet to take a trip where we can do nothing but relax here.

Joe needs a break after all the hours and frustrations he puts in working. The Brits have definite ideas about their work ethics and they are much different than Americans! The workers in this country are very spoiled. They are given a minimum of four weeks vacation every year and most companies give five! They work their set hours and go home, not giving much extra to the company. At the same time they only do their job that is in their contract and do not like being asked to help out by doing other things. OK, in all fairness I can't say that ALL of the Brits are like this. Also I suppose there is something to be said for NOT being workaholics as we Americans tend to be. The Brits do tend to complain a lot. Those of you who know Joe, know that he always gives his employees his ear. These guys/gals make good use of that ear! He gets so tired of the constant complaining that goes on. So suffice it to say, he is ready for some down time.

I mentioned in a previous blog about coming across the old church and graveyard that surrounded it on one of my walks. It was raining that day but I took my camera back another time and took some snapshots. The church is St. Bartholomew Church of England. It has a seating capacity of 120. The oldest part of the small medieval church was built around 1300. The church was added onto over the years and by 1622 had eight coats of arms of local families (none of which survive). The coats of arms included the Hastings family, Lords of the Manor from 1455-1630. If you remember I've written about the ruins of Kirby Castle which sits a few hundred yards away from the church. The church was begun by Lord Hastings and left unfinished upon his execution in 1483.

I loved meandering through the graveyard and reading the old tombstones. The oldest one I found was 1725, so obviously the graveyard wasn't there when the church began. Some of the tombstones were so sad. So many children and babies lost in those days. Instead of reading "died" this such and such date many said, "went to sleep".

Joanna & Anne, Children of Tho. ??? Bennet, Joanna died Feb 6th 1769 Anne the
24th Apr 1770. In their Infancy.

Husband and wife: On left, "Here lyeth ey body of Samiel Forman who departed this life November 14th, 1735, aged 72 years. ????? thou dost hope to go to Heaven. Give and forgive and look to be forgiven"?? On right: "Here lyeth ey body of Elizabeth Forman, the wife of Sam Foreman who departed this life the 12th day of May 1741. Aged 75 years. I was with pain so sore Opprest it wore my strength away. But hope for that Eternal rest, which never will decay."

The oldest grave marker: "Here lyeth the body of Thomas Hood who departed this life
March 31, 1725, Aged 61 years.

There is a guy who Joe works closely with in the office here. His name is Greg. He is a young guy and such a nut. Joe is always coming home telling me things he does during the day that make me laugh. He has observed some of Joe's little idiosyncrasies and can imitate Joe perfectly. The first time in the office that he imitated Joe's telephone greeting Joe said, "I don't do that"! To which ALL the people in the office replied, "YES YOU DO"! The next time I saw Greg he did his imitations for me and they were just perfect. So funny to hear a Brit imitating an American! They tease Joe all the time about stuff.

I just want to acknowledge the comments that I receive throughout my blogs. I really appreciate the insight of you all and thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and comment!

To Emily: - I have read Water for Elephants and also loved it. - The chocolate I use for baking is chocolate chips melted in the microwave. Also I had a friend who sent me a care package with some baking chocolate. - Thanks for reading and good luck with your studies.

To Steve: - Thanks for the kind words on our marriage. We are very happy. - Philippa Gregory is one of my favorite authors. - Never heard of Tana French, I will look her up. - I had a hard time with Wolf Hall a while back. Will try again. - Such a nice compliment for Joe! I will pass it on.

To Sarah: - I am doing the elliptical. I would not call it fun though! - I called it a "dumb elliptical" to Joe the other day and he said that I should not call it dumb because it helps me and that I should stick with it. I told him that I would stick with it but I didn't have to LIKE it!!

Happy Birthday to my sweetheart March 11, 2011

2011-03-11T10:46:00.000-08:00

Today my hubby Joe is 52. We have been married almost 31 years and I know I am lucky to have him. I sent him off to work with a bunch of homemade cookies. Here when you are the birthday person at work YOU bring in the dessert, not the other way around. I made cookies because it is something different for these folks. They call cookies biscuits here. But they are more like crackers than cookies. The most popular kind are called "Digestives". What an appetizing name. They were named that because when they were invented they were thought to help antacid problems. There are all different brands and a few kinds of Digestives, milk or dark chocolate, chocolate caramel, chocolate chip or plain. The closest thing I can compare it to is a thick graham cracker. The chocolate ones are chocolate on one side. I buy them to snack on. They aren't sweet enough to tempt me to eat a lot of them, but nice once in a while. They do sell Oreos and a few other cookies that we have in the US but not many. Certainly nothing like our shelves and shelves of cookies in the grocery stores at home. I don't think many people bake cookies here so I thought it would be different. I made big sugar cookies with frosting, peanut butter chocolate bars and oatmeal raisin (Joe's favorite).

I do my grocery shopping online here since I don't have a car. I could take Joe's car on the weekend but I'd rather spend my weekend with him and the stores are so crowded then. It only costs £3.00 ($5.00) for delivery and in my book it is worth every penny (oops, pence!). The only problem is when trying to locate a particular food. It would be easier to look up and down the grocery aisles for an item than trying to come up with their name that I have no clue of. I finally found oatmeal under "porridge oats", raisins were listed under "sultanas", powdered sugar was called "icing sugar" and saran wrap was "cling film".

Tonight I will make Joe a special dinner. I am going to try a new recipe, Kung Pao Chicken, his favorite Chinese dish. I really hope it turns out good. I have had good luck and some really bad luck in cooking over here. You never know when something is going to turn out or not. At least to our taste.

I don't know if I mentioned in my last blog that Joe was going to a large business function in Atlantic City, NJ for a week. He was gone the same time I was in Ohio. Anyway, the company he works for, United Refrigeration, brings their managers from ALL the companies they own together for a week every year. They have a whole week of classes, training, dinners and fun lined up. So the managers from the UK, France, Canada and the US all congregate in a large hotel. Not just United managers, but all the managers from all of their sister companies, and there are quite a few companies under the United banner. The company that Joe worked for in the states, Aireco, is included. So Joe got to see a bunch of people that he used to work with, including our son Brian and Joe's brother who also was there. It was a lot of fun for him to introduce his UK mates to his former US co-workers. He told me he was very proud of his Aireco family that they were so nice and welcoming to the U.K. group. There were probably well over 400 people there. My point to all this was that Joe laughed and told me that several of the UK guys had upset stomachs while there because the food was so rich and they weren't used to it! I told you the food is VERY different here!

Since Joe was still in NJ when I got home from Ohio I had t hire a cab to bring me home. I prearranged this (thank goodness). It is a 45 minute ride which cost me £35 ($56) but would have cost £80 ($128) had I just walked out and hailed a cab. The young man who picked me up was very friendly and chatty.
He had his radio on though so I had to keep asking him to repeat what he said. It wasn't his radio as much as his accent. Some of the brits really have strong accents and I struggle to understand them, especially if I can't see their faces. We kept up a fairly constant conversation though. He loved our neighborhood and after he drove down our long lane to the house he was exclaiming on the nice, quiet area "with no kids messing about". I love the way they say that.

When I got home I soon realized that I had NO book to read. I had finished both mine (one in Ohio and one on the plane). You don't know what kind of catastrophe this is for me. If I were in my real home I would have books. But my large stack of books here have all been recently read. Thank goodness I had a few history magazines that I brought from the US for emergencies like this. I used to read 3 or 4 books at a time. Now days it is only one or two.
But ALWAYS one. I read 2 - 3 hours after I go to bed every single night. No matter what time I go to bed. I got myself to the library as soon as possible and came home with a nice stack of books. The little library in the village is very small and not a whole lot of American authors. But I can go online and have books transferred to the little library for a cost of £1.20 a book. (Nothing here is free.) So I do have access to the other libraries in the county. To me there is nothing that feels as good as leaving the library with a big armful of books. I can remember feeling that way as a little kid too.

This week has been a good week weather wise. Temperatures in the 40's and 50's but mostly sunny days. You don't know how rare it is to get a whole week without rain. Makes you feel like dancing in the street! Haha. I've walked down to the village twice and both days left with it bright and sunny. I go out in short sleeves and a light vest. Both times on my way back the sun has gone in and it is suddenly much colder. I had two older men stop me to ask if I was warm blooded. One had a winter jacket on and his hood up! The other one was cutting grass and actually stopped and turned his motor down to ask me that! I love people, they are funny.

As far as the foster dog situation, I don't have one at this time. When I got home from Ohio I informed Linda that I was home and ready. I also told her that I would be gone a couple of days in the middle of March because Joe's U.S. boss is coming to visit with his teenage daughter. We are going to London to sightsee with them for few days. So Linda decided to wait until after I get back. She doesn't like to place a dog and then have to interrupt his stay with going back and forth from me to the kennels. I don't like waiting, and was really looking forward to another dog! We are going on vacation the end of April. I sure hope she isn't going to make me wait until after that. I am going to have to talk to her about it. I'm so lonely for a dog, I feel like adopting one of my own. If only we didn't travel so much I would!

Last weekend we went out and bought an Elliptical Trainer. It was delivered today. Joe is a person who loves to exercise and has missed it very much. He joined a gym when we first moved here but they don't open until 6:30 am. and it was just getting him to work too late. We needed to get a good one as in the past Joe has worn out three treadmills (and this was before he joined a gym in the US, which he used for many years). The store had many different models and price ranges. We went on the sales person's advice and bought a Vision Fitness model that he said was pretty durable. It was £600.00 ($963.00) so we intend to use it here and also bring it back to the states. We will have to get a plug adapter for that though. I know there are tons of people who exercise regularly for their fitness and health. But Joe and my one girlfriend (Sarah) are the only two people that I have ever met that truly LOVE to work out. Joe isn't gaining weight (he's had a whole year off working out now), he just misses exercise. And also the stress relief. Why after all these years can't this wear off on me? Oh well, I suppose since this machine is going to be here staring me in the face now I will have to try it out...

I'll let you know how THAT is going in the next blog.

Good Days and Bad Days February 22, 2011

2011-02-22T07:06:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow will be a good day. I am leaving in the morning for Ohio for my nephew's wedding. I am looking so forward to the wedding and the addition of another niece to our family. My sisters are coming from Washington state and some aunts and uncles from various midwestern areas. Also my daughter Melanie will be coming from Oklahoma. Really excited to see everyone.

We have almost made it through our first winter here. It did snow a little (very little) and some cold temperatures. But for all intents and purposes it was very mild compared to what we are used to at home in the Washington, DC area.

I am continually surprised by the many elderly people that I see out and about on the street. I don't think our village is any different than any other. I just think that it's different here in the UK for several reasons. There aren't the multitude of retirement homes like there are in the states. My mother happens to live in a very nice one in Olympia, WA. She gets three meals a day, plenty of residents to visit with, lots of activities, nurse on the premises, rides to doctor's appointments and on and on. She has been in three of these facilities over the years. When we started looking for them we were amazed at how many of these places there really are.

My assumption is that there are probably not many of those type of places in the UK. The people here tend to live very frugally, whether it be by need or not. It definitely costs more to live here. The VAT tax, which is like our state tax, is 20%! Also, there are taxes you have to pay to drive the highways (called MOT) , TV (yes, we have to pay a TV tax every year, and it's not part of our cable bill), at businesses there are radio taxes if you want to play a radio, congestion charge (a charge of 10£ ($16) per day to drive in central London), just to name a few that I can think of off the top of my head. Groceries, clothes, gas, etc. all cost more here than in the U.S.

I've mentioned before how the people use public transportation a lot. When a senior citizen reaches the age of 65 they are allowed to ride all the public buses free of charge. Many of these people take advantage of that. I see little old ladies standing at the bus stops with their handbags and umbrellas. If you walk by them they greet you happily as if they don't have a care in the world. The fact that the Brits walk everywhere I think keeps them healthy. They certainly aren't bothered by things like we spoiled Americans are.

The other day while out walking I saw a little old lady walking up our lane. She had a basket with a handle over her arm. In the basket was a small potted flower and a dish of food of some kind. She walked up to a house, probably delivering some cheer to a sick friend. It was just so cute. Not that this wouldn't happen in the states. But I have to say that probably in the states the woman and her basket would have been arriving in a car.

Joe got a new I phone for work. He has been playing with it getting it all set up and he loves it. One of the things he did was set up ring tones so that people who call him often can all have their own ring. That way he can recognize who is calling by the ring the phone makes. In his innocence he thought it would be a good idea to make my ring tone a barking dog (unbeknownst to me) since I love dogs. So the first few times I called Joe on his cell I could tell there were people laughing in the background when he picked up. I then asked why they were laughing and he said, "they're laughing at the ringtone I set up for you". When he told me it was a barking dog I of course wanted to know why. He said, "I just picked it because you love dogs". I said, "So now your whole office thinks that you are calling me a dog!" "No they don't think that!" he said. I told him to change it immediately! Which he did not do because the next couple of times I called I could still hear a couple of his co-workers snickering. I then DEMANDED that it be changed and now I am happy to be an old fashioned phone ringing.

I have a lot of time to cook here so I have been trying all kinds of recipes that I get off the internet. Gosh, there are millions of recipes to choose from. I got a chuckle out of one from an Irishman for roast pork shoulder. As I was reading over the recipe, his first directions were to heat up the pan. Instead of using a temperature he said, "heat up your pan until it is bloody hot". Cracked me up.

One thing I love for dessert is home made pie. I notice that the dessert menus here never list pie as an option. Imagine my delight when I saw an article in the paper on "How to Bake the Perfect Pie". I happily read on as the first paragraph described that they were going to explain how to make mouth watering pies, with the secret to come in the following paragraphs. Imagine my surprise when the next thing I read was, "You can use chicken, ham, steak, mushroom, feta cheese, red onion, chili con carne...the sky is the limit, some people even put spaghetti in pies". Oh, I was so disappointed.

That's right. The only pies sold here are meat pies and I must say they are very popular. Any food stand at a fair or a market or bakery has meat pies for sale. They use a lot of sausage in them too. I haven't had one yet but you see people eating them all the time. The closest thing you can get to a dessert pie is a tart. But I haven't seen a lot of them either.

There are other things that I wanted to talk about in this blog but my computer is on the fritz so I can't download any pictures on it. I am working on Joe's laptop right now. Hopefully I can get mine working after I get back from Ohio.

I have saved my sad news for last. It was decided by the shelter to have Bubba put down yesterday. It was a very sad day for me and the shelter people. I had him for five months and there just wasn't any interest in him. His dog aggressiveness never did subside. It is very hard to home a dog who has that problem. Otherwise he was a great dog and I miss him so much. The shelter needs me to foster dogs whom they CAN home. There are so many in the shelter that have a hard time adjusting to kennel life. It just didn't make sense to keep Bubba when his future was so bleak.

It was so hard to say good-bye. I shed quite a few tears over it. Thankfully it wasn't a decision that I had to make. I just try to remember that he had five really happy months with us (and gave us a lot of joy too) and he didn't know what happened when he was put down, just went to sleep. When Joe said good-bye to him the night before he was going to be taken he kissed the top of his head and said, "you are a good boy, thank you for coming to stay with us". I tear up just thinking about it. I miss you Bubba.

After the holidays 1-26-11

2011-01-26T06:16:00.000-08:00

Wow, I have been away from my blog for way too long! The last time I wrote was between Thanksgiving and Christmas and here it is the end of January! We had a very busy Christmas visiting home. We were there for two weeks. Between Dr's annual visits that had to be taken care of, dinners with friends that we weren't able to see when we were home last summer and many many wonderful hours with our extended family, kids and grand kids, our time was filled to the brim. We got home right before the new year and had a quiet New Year's Eve at home. We were supposed to go to a friend's house in Scotland for a New Year's Eve party but their house lost all water and heat for a week or so during that time. Up in Scotland they get VERY severe weather compared to us down here. It was just as well as it would have entailed a flight and we were really tired of traveling.

Being back in the USA is always a little unnerving at first. Especially the driving. It just feels so wrong when Joe would turn into a street or parking lot and stay to the right. Sometimes I would suck my breath in thinking he was on the wrong side of the road. And then sometimes he would go on the wrong side himself, forgetting. Between the two of us we managed to get out alive.

We couldn't believe how much we got turned around and lost though. Places that before we just knew. Is it because our brains are now pushing 52 years old?? I can't even blame it on Joe because it happened to me too and visa versa. A couple of times our daughter was following us in her car. She'd call the cell phone, "uh, do you know you just missed the turn"? Sometimes we did and sometimes we didn't. We decided next time we go home we are going to have to bring our GPS! It was especially scary when Joe missed the turn off for BWI airport for our return flight. We weren't sure WHAT to do. But we kept driving and crossing our fingers and managed to find another way there. I even tried to walk into the apartment that is a floor above our daughter's one day! Just went up the stairs instead of down! Thank goodness their door was locked. They had the same welcome mat as she does. I tried to blame it on that but then of course I had to walk up the stairs to even get to the door. Maybe we were just tired and over stressed...yeah, that's it.

There were so many things about the US that we missed. Lots of ice in drinks, stores that sell single sodas and water in refrigerators that are actually COLD, garbage disposals, diet Mt. Dew!, free parking lots, grocery baskets that drive straight, good water pressure in showers, yummy food that contains salt and sugar. When we got to Newark, NJ airport I bought a bottle of water from an airport store. It was ice cold and tasted SO good. The refrigerators like that in stores here are just slightly cool, so your drink is never cold.

It's little things like that we miss. I also bought a REAL set of ice cube trays! The ones here are tiny (almost like a size for a doll house). They are so flimsy that you can't even carry them to the freezer with one hand because they bend in the middle. The cubes are so small you need a whole tray for one drink! But I brought home some good ones from Bed, Bath and Beyond and I have REAL AMERICAN ICE CUBES NOW!

Some of the things we didn't miss from home were, terrible traffic, rude drivers who honk all the time, dirty cars (from the snow), rude people in general, cold weather, crappy cars that don't even look safe to be on the road, cold bathrooms that don't have a warm radiator to warm the towels, and the lack of British accents. I have to admit when we got on our flight from Newark to the UK the sound of all the Brits' accents were very welcoming and familiar. We have grown accustomed to them and like them very much. The other day while I was walking Bubba and thinking, all of a sudden I realized that I was thinking with a British accent! Does that sound crazy? I don't speak with any accent at all. But in my head I was. Scary!

I was saddened to hear that during my time away Bubba still had no one interested in adopting him. His temporary fosters were ready to give him back so he's here with me again. He looks great and I was very happy to see him. Linda, the foster coordinator for the shelter told me that she didn't want me to walk him anymore without a muzzle. Apparently there was a person walking an aggressive dog who got a hold of a dog off the leash and attacked it. That person is now being sued. The shelter can't take the chance on anything like that happening.

Just like the champ he is, Bubba has worn the muzzle without any bother. Even the first time I put it on him, he didn't fuss about it. I feel sorry for him but I have to agree with Linda. He is just too dangerous and no matter what I do it hasn't gotten any better. I know the temporary foster carers wouldn't allow him on beds or furniture. I have to think that he was very happy to be home with us. This was his first day home. I posted this picture on Facebook and Linda wrote, "I bet Bubba is glad to be back on the bed". Can't you tell?

I don't know if we'll ever get poor Bubba homed. Linda has been trying so hard. She even had a journalist friend come over and interview me, also taking pictures of Bubba and I. The article will go in the paper soon. It is actually an article trying to recruit foster homes for dogs, but she is also hoping it might generate some interest in Bubba. I have to leave again the end of February for my nephew's wedding and I think that is all the time she is going to give him. He was laying his head on the pillow next to me last night when I was reading in bed and staring at me with those eyes and it brought tears to my eyes that he is probably going to be euthanised. Poor little lad.

2011 is gearing up to be a busy year for us. We are expecting visitors (friends and relatives) in March, April, June, August and September so far. We love to have people come and visit. We will be making as many weekend trips ourselves as we can. Also Joe and I are taking 11 days and going somewhere the end of April and beginning of May. There are several holidays in there for us through Easter and also Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding (April 29) has now been declared a holiday. Then there is an early May holiday on May 2. So we will have 11 days off with Joe only having to use 3 days leave. We haven't decided where we are going to go yet. Somewhere here in Europe. It will be fun to plan!

Speaking of the royal wedding. People are really getting excited here. There are all kinds of headlines in the papers...

The brides mother and sister shopping...what stores, where they ate lunch etc.
Which designer will make the bride's dress?
Who is in the wedding party?
Who is invited to the wedding?
Will Prince William's ex-girlfriend be invited to the wedding?
The no gift policy for the wedding-only donations to charities.
Barack and Michelle Obama-NOT invited to the wedding.
Towns and villages across the country are planning street parties to mark the wedding.
They will be married in Westminster Abbey, which has hosted the weddings of the Queen and
Queen Mother and was the venue for Princess Diana's funeral.

Every time Kate Middleton wears something in public, copies of the outfits are made and sell out immediately. This is much bigger than Prince Charles and Princess Diana. Mainly because this time the Prince has been allowed to choose his bride. The fact that they dated so long and actually love each other has made this a very special event for the "commoners". Really Kate Middleton is considered a commoner, but that doesn't seem to bother anyone, except maybe the monarchy, I don't know. She is so pretty and classy and everyone seems to love her. I was talking to a friend's young daughter and asked her if she likes Kate Middleton and in a breathless voice she said, "oh yes, she's brilliant!" (A favorite word here.)

From the Royal Wedding to my little problems. This weather is wreaking havoc with my hair! Every morning I shower, blow dry my hair and then take Bubba for a 45 minute walk. It's usually wet out, but not raining. Somehow there always seems to be a wetness in the air because when I get home my hair has turned into a curly/frizzy mess. I hate it. I can't wait for spring and summer.

Yesterday on our walk Bubba found an old tennis ball that was next to the curb. He kept nuzzling it and rolling it back and forth. I was wondering why he hadn't picked it up immediately. I watched him for a minute and then leaned over to pick it up myself. Then I remembered the poor thing had his muzzle on and he couldn't grab it! (His muzzle is black like he is so it doesn't show up that much). When we got home I gave it to him and he loved it. He had destroyed it in about 15 minutes though. His jaws are something else!

On our walk the other day I came across an old church graveyard. I started to walk through it but it began to rain so I will have to save that for a better day. I did see some graves dated back to the 1800's but I'm sure there are older ones than that in there. 1800's isn't that old for this country. I can't wait to explore it. I love reading old tombstones.

I've got a big pot of split pea soup in the crockpot for dinner tonight. Bubba is my shadow all day long but especially in the kitchen. He remains right AT my feet the whole time, strategically placing himself in the exact spot for anything I may drop during my meal preparations. Joe and I will be eating it with chunks of wheat bread tonight just like the British. No crackers allowed!

Sorry for the delay of this blog. I won't let it go so long next time, I promise!

Fostering Bubba 12/14/2010

2010-12-14T13:06:00.000-08:00

I have talked about missing a dog and may have already mentioned the fact that I was trying to be a foster mom. I have been in touch with a dog shelter here in our area and was cleared to do some fostering for them. They call references and do home visits before they deem you reliable and responsible to care for their dogs. This was all fine with me. I was very excited to get started.

As soon as my girlfriends went back to the states in October, I told the foster coordinator for Leicester Animal Aid (Linda) that I was now available as I didn't have any traveling lined up for a month or so. The next day Linda showed up at my door. With her was 50 pounds of an excited, wiggly, muscle bound, Staffordshire Bull Terrier named Bubba. He ran to me immediately sniffing me and wanting to be petted. Then he took off to explore the house. I knew right away that this was no shy, shrinking violet.

Linda told me Bubba's story. He was given up by a man and wife who split up. Apparently they had him for four years (they had adopted him from the shelter when he was one). The man drove a truck for a living and Bubba went with him in his truck everyday. However when the man moved out he couldn't take Bubba to his new home. So Bubba stayed with the woman. She worked and was gone nine hours a day. She couldn't seem to understand why Bubba (who had hardly been left alone) suddenly was messing in the house, barking and tearing things up! She dropped him off at the shelter telling Linda that they probably couldn't home him because of the above issues and oh, by he way, he hates other dogs and chases cats.

So Bubba ended up with me because he was at the moment a basket case. Besides these other issues he was overweight. Our home would be perfect as there are no other pets or young children, we have a fenced in yard and I am home all the time. The shelter provides all the food for the foster animals along with vet care if needed. They also make arrangements to take the animals back when I travel. That was a must for us.

I should say that Joe was not real excited about this new venture for me. He likes dogs (his favorite phrase is "I like OP dogs", meaning other people's), but would rather not have one in his house. He doesn't like messes, dog hair, us being tied down, all the things that go with having pets. But he knows how I feel about dogs and more importantly that I needed some companionship while he is working long hours and traveling. Without a car, things can get pretty mundane around here. We didn't want to adopt because then we'd have to get it back to the states when our gig here is over. Also, we do travel a lot. Reluctantly he agreed that fostering was probably a good thing for me. Also, there is a real need for foster mums, as they call us here.

As it happened Joe was out of town when Bubba arrived. After Linda left, Bubba jumped right up on the couch next to me. I made him get down as my first idea was to not allow shedding dogs on the furniture. He promptly jumped down when I said, "no". However about 15 minutes later while I was using my laptop he suddenly appeared next to me on the couch and put his head on my knee. Well, that was the end of that rule! That afternoon Bubba and I became quite acquainted. He nuzzled me, tried to lay ON me, and licked me all day! I could not believe the affection that this dog craved. Naturally I responded to his every need. Later we took a walk and I saw the negative side of this love bug. There is no love in him for other dogs!

Bubba is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier. All bull terriers, the Pit Bull, American Staffordshire Bull Terrier and the Staffordshire Bull Terrier originated in Great Britain. During migration to America they were gradually introduced there. They were bred along different lines for different purposes changing their looks slightly and eventually becoming three different breeds. However, they all look so similar they are many times confused for one another.

Consequently the Bull Terriers as a whole have a bad reputation in the media, especially the Pit Bulls. Staffies don't actually have as bad a rep here in the UK. They are the most popular dog breed here, so of course they are the most prevalent in the shelters. I have heard so many different reasons for their aggression to other dogs I really don't know what to believe. I've never dealt with this breed before. Bubba was raised by one family (after one year old) and as far as I know has not had much contact with other dogs. But when I took him for that first walk that day, he was extremely aggressive to any dog that we walked past. To the point that I almost lost control of him. So is it in the breed? Sure seems like it to me. It is a common personality trait in the Staffies, equally as much as their affection to humans.

I noticed that Linda had brought a nose guard with his leash. It was just a strap that went around his nose that reminded me of some kind of muzzle. But she had said it wasn't a muzzle. I sat down on the computer to see what the nose guard was all about. Turns out it is a very popular tool for walking dogs who pull at their leash. It goes around their nose and hooks to the leash. It doesn't hurt them or keep them from barking, eating or drinking. Its purpose is to pull their head to the side when they start to pull away and not allow them to get their body behind a charge. I have used it ever since that first day. Bubba still gets crazy when he sees another dog but I can at least control him. It is not fun to walk him and have him make such a spectacle of himself. But he needs walking (losing weight and using up energy) so I go. We walk an hour a day.

I talked Joe into walking with us one Sunday. He had never seen Bubba turn into the growling screeching monster that he does when faced with another dog. It was so funny because we passed about three dogs on our walk and each time Joe would walk towards the other people explaining that "this isn't our dog, it's a dog we are fostering". Of course he was so embarrassed by Bubba's behavior and didn't want to take any responsibility for it. That also happened to be the last time that he went for a walk with us.

Bubba and I settled down to a nice routine. He would wake me up around 8:00 in the morning, sniffing my ear and licking my face. Then he'd go to the bathroom and eat and we'd go out for our walk around 9:00. He just loved his walks, but I always could tell his ears were perked for other dogs. He'd look up any street we crossed and up into driveways on his search for canines. I was looking too for the opposite reason! He soon learned that if I abruptly changed directions or crossed a street he'd look back knowing that there was something interesting there that I didn't want him to see.

The rest of the day he would keep me company no matter what I did. He followed me from room to room. He was the perfect companion. He barked just a little when someone came to the door but as soon as I answered it he was right there waiting to be petted by whoever it was. In his mind everyone should love him! I told one delivery guy, "don't worry, he's friendly". The guy replied, " 'course he is, he's a Staffie". Another man was telling me that he had a Staffie that died that he loved so much. He went on to say that his wife now wanted to get a smaller dog since they had a small child. He was kind of thinking out loud about it, making reasons to go with the smaller dog when he looked at Bubba and said, "But Staffie's a proper dog they are".

Bubba would go right up to people with the littlest bit of encouragement. While walking if a person spoke to Bubba he'd run right up for a pet or jump on their leg for a real big pet! I always tried to warn them. Workmen, the mail carrier, it didn't matter. Most didn't care at all if he jumped. I would see this old couple walking regularly on our street. The man was a big tall guy and the woman a tiny little short thing. They are always friendly and stop to say hello. One day it was wet out and she had a nice light blue raincoat on. As we walked closer she started talking to Bubba. I held on tight so he couldn't get too close and told her that I didn't want him to jump up on her nice coat. She just shrugged, "oh, that's OK, I can just throw it in the wash". That's pretty much the Brits attitude about everything. They don't get bothered by life's little problems. I told her that Bubba had been a bad boy that day and had gone after two dogs. She replied while petting him, "Oh, he's a cheeky boy is he?" Gotta love the Brit talk!

Bubba would spend his afternoon relaxing on the couch. About 5:00 he'd start looking for Joe. He had a place on the couch he could sit and watch the front door. He couldn't really see out of it, but could see the headlights as they panned towards the door when Joe was parking. Joe doesn't usually get home before 6:00 but Bubba would start the watch at 5. When Joe did come home he'd tear over to the door to meet him. Once in a while I would open the door and let him run outside after Joe turned the car off. When Joe opened the car door to get out, Bubba would jump right in! He loved the car! Once they came into the house the game was on. Bubba would grab a toy and Joe would chase him all over the house for about 10 minutes or so. Bubba would cross under the dining room table, go circles through the kitchen, dining room, living room and entry way, run back into the bedrooms and then leap past Joe who was blocking the hall. It was a huge game that was hilarious to watch. He was just like a kid. Finally he'd have to stop, Bubba, not Joe! He'd get winded and settle down with the toy. I think that was his favorite time of day.

After having him for almost six weeks I had to take him back to the shelter as I was going to Washington state for Thanksgiving to visit with my mom, sisters and their families. I was supposed to get him back on my return, but I had to extend my stay in Washington as my mother needed to be moved. We are leaving Friday to go to Maryland for Christmas so I have not had him back yet. Linda was able to find another foster for him during my absence. Of course all this time he is up for adoption. The trouble is there are so many Staffies to choose from and of course the ones at the shelter get picked first as they are there to see. I'm not sure how long they will keep a dog like Bubba, who is dog aggressive. Not only that but he can't be left for long periods of time or he will destroy things. About two hours is the max. So he has proved hard to home. I know there are a lot of other dogs that could use a foster home too. Thank goodness that decision is not in my hands.

I told Linda that I would be glad to have Bubba back or another dog, if that is what she needed. She is coming by to talk to me before I leave Friday, so I guess she's got something in mind.

A visit from the USA: Part II LONDON ENGLAND 11/18/20

2010-11-18T08:20:00.000-08:00

I probably should have done this last blog. I want to give you some idea of the four personalities that we have with Sarah, Cathy, Joe and myself. Cathy is an aggressive, brave, doesn't back down, knows wants she wants and usually gets it in a hurry, good to have on your side, friend. I follow close behind. Not quite as aggressive, not quite as brave, or in a hurry, but definitely know what I want and more often than not I get it. Joe and Sarah follow the pack with their easy going, laid back style. They were happy to bring up the rear as Cathy stormed through the crowded streets of London with me trying my best to keep up with her. They let Cathy and I figure maps and directions, argue with people when need be, and generally run things. The two of them are also workout fanatics so they have a lot in common there too. They were happy in their shoes and of course we wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

When we got home from Ireland on Wednesday afternoon it was a beautiful day outside. Sarah, Cathy and I decided we'd walk down to our little village. There is a ruins of a castle at the end of our main street. It is called Kirby Muxloe Castle, I have written about it before in this blog.

A very quick description of the castle. The land was given to William Lord Hastings in 1474 to build a castle on by King Edward IV. Hastings father had been loyal to the Duke of York and continued to the Duke of York's heir, King Edward IV. William followed the loyalty of his father. During those times, it was common for Kings to shower their loyal nobles with land and riches. Hence, the castle land.

Lord Hastings started work on the castle in 1480. As happens in those times, the ruling families last only as long as their lives or as long as they can keep their thrones from being taken. In 1483 King Edward IV was executed because he was an obstacle to the Duke of Gloucester's (the future King Richard III) ambitions. Shortly thereafter, King Richard III had Lord Hastings executed for treason. Therefore the castle was never finished and still stands partially completed to this day.

Kirby Muxloe Castle

On our way home through the village we bought fresh produce and stopped at the local bakery for wonderful meat pies. Meat pies are very very popular here. Almost any restaurant serves them and you can get them in street markets, all different kinds. The sausage ones are the most popular. They are basically a pie dough with meat and vegetables inside. A little like a pot pie, except they come in turnover type sizes, rolls, squares, etc.

Anyway, those with the salad from the produce and fresh bread from the bakery was our dinner for the night.

We had plans to go to London Friday for the weekend so we had just the next day, Thursday, to figure out a day trip. Joe had to work so I was going to drop him off at work and then we had the car for the day. We discussed possible day trips. Liverpool, Windsor Castle, Shakespeare's hometown, the Cotswolds, various other castles in the area etc. Cathy asked where the most scenic areas were and both Joe and I responded, "the Cotswolds".

The Cotswolds is an area of 790 square miles in the upper part of the southwest part of england, called the Heart of England. It is the country's largest officially designated 'Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'. This is where Joe and I did our country walks back in the early summer. The scenery was so beautiful walking through the countryside.

I explained to Cathy and Sarah that there are walking trails all over England that cut through the countryside, farms etc. and are open to the public. We have them in our own village. No one can deny passage on a trail even though it may go right through their property. The trails are marked with arrows on fence posts. It's the way it has always been in England. It took a little getting used to when Joe and I first walked them. You literally walk through someone's farm, right through their herds of animals and sometimes right down their driveway following a trail. But no one even blinks an eye at it. As long as you close gates and keep control of your dog if you have one, there is no problem.

Cathy is a horsewoman and is very comfortable in the farmland, Sarah the workout champion is game for anything that has to do with exercise. The weather was supposed to be nice, I had a walking map of the area so the Cotswolds seemed like the natural place to go. I even knew of a particular walk that I wanted to try. The last time Joe and I went we tried to find this medieval village and ended up going on the wrong trail, so never found it.

Thursday morning we three women head out with our backpacks, cameras, umbrellas (always), water bottles, jeans and comfortable shoes. It only took us a little over an hour to get to the village of Todenham, and I recognized the little car park that Joe and I had used previously. This was the description of the walk on the map I had:

   A loop to the north of Todenham crossing pastoral countryside. There are
   medieval relics such as Lower Ditchford and Ditchford Frairy villages as well
   as the visible furrows in the fields.

   It can be quite boggy in wet weather, particularly on the bridleway from High
   Furze to Todenham. There is also a ford on this stretch but don't fear, there is
   a bridge over to the west.

   Parking is just down the hill a couple of hundred yards southwest of the village hall.

The map stated that this was a two mile walk. Joe and I had tried it in the past, but inadvertently had gone on the trail going south (because we didn't even see the other trail across the street until later after we got back!) So I was very excited to finally do the trail right and get to see the medieval relics, whatever they may be.

The beginning of the trail had us go straight into a field of sheep. We started walking through the field and suddenly Sarah says, "is this sheep poop?" That should have been my warning that this walk wasn't what Sarah was expecting. Cathy and I both answered "yes" as we were dodging the piles here and there. It felt neat to be walking through a field of sheep on this beautiful day. Sarah wanted to know why we had to walk through grass that was so tall, but shortly she became distracted with taking pictures of the sheep.

The arrows on the fence posts that you follow are gold and about three inches tall and wide. So when you enter a field, there is no pathway that you might expect to follow. You are going in the direction that the arrow said, but the fields are very wide, so you don't know if you should walk in a straight line or diagonal. Joe and I learned the first time that walking straight can be a big mistake as the next marker could be way off to the right or left. You basically have to keep walking until you can find another arrow.

We probably spent 15 minutes in that darn sheep field. Everywhere we walked there was a fence with no gate! We walked up and back and even laughed at how we hadn't even gotten out of the first field yet! Then Cathy walked up alongside a barn and found the arrow. So, we were officially on our way.

We continued through several fields. Every time we thought we weren't going to find an arrow, we would manage to find it. This was becoming quite a challenge. Sarah then admits that she thought the walk would be a paved sidewalk through open fields! I couldn't believe it. I guess she might think that, no one had told her differently. I had written a pretty long blog about it back in the beginning of June but I guess she hadn't paid attention. I told her I was sorry. She had worn comfortable shoes, but they weren't shoes for walking through fields of grass and stickers and such. She of all people I thought was going to love this. Turns out she loves to exercise, but only in controlled environment. We were kind of laughing about it though.

We then walked through another farm where a horse was standing in a field. Cathy loves horses so she had to spend some time petting it and talking to it. We were sorry we didn't have any treats for it. We left the farm by way of their driveway which was going to put us out on a main road. We were still looking at the map, but those things are so hard to follow. I've never had good luck with them yet. Every walk that Joe and I have gone on we have never reached the correct destination. Just end up coming back around some other way after miles and miles of walking!

We cross the road and into another field. Throughout this walk we have to decide which way in a lot of these places. Do we walk along the line where they've planted crops, or go along the fence line? At one point we thought we should go to the left but that would mean entering a field where there was a bull. Cathy remarked that maybe we shouldn't go in the field with the bull. I agreed, especially because he was looking right at us! So we walked along the bushes that separated one field from another. By now we are getting sick of walking through all this and wondering if we are ever going to get to where we think we are going.

But we were buoyed by the fact that every time we thought it was hopeless we would see another arrow and it got to be a challenge. We wanted to find the medieval village!! We were walking along and came to a sharp corner in a field. Suddenly Cathy sucks in her breath. She has just put her foot down and it has sunk to her ankle in water! She's standing in water and trying to hold onto hanging branches to keep upright. I'm right behind her and Sarah is behind me. We stand and discuss whether we should go on. (Sarah and I are still dry.) We know that this has got to be the only way we can go. Somehow we decide to go on so Cathy has to wade through this flooded area to get to the other side. (Yes, I read that it could be quite boggy in the description, but we hadn't had any rain lately). I'm next and I have a walking stick so I start feeling around with my stick to see if there are any shallow places. Finally I just GO and immediately scream. Cathy hadn't told me it was ice cold! I think I scared poor Sarah to death, she had to come next. She's got these brand new little shoes that are so cute and comfortable yet they are not made to stand up to this abuse. She decides that she is going to run through the bog and maybe she'll just fly on top of the water! She ends up almost as wet as we are though. OK, now this is not fun anymore.

We did find some wild blackberries along the way. At first I didn't want to eat any just in case. I told them that I'd wait and see if they started having fits, then I'd try them. But they were oohing and aahing so much I had to jump in. They were so delicious. We ate so many of them too. Cathy liked hers hard and sour. Sarah and I loved the real ripe ones. At least we were getting a nice snack for our troubles. Oh, and getting to see some pretty scenery too.

The next thing we came to was a creek that had a little bridge over it. There was absolutely NO yellow sticker anywhere in sight. So Sarah took off to the left and Cathy took off to the right and walked and walked to try and find a marker. I stayed right there and waited. It got to be quite a while and neither of them had come back. I hollered both their names and neither one answered. I started feeling all alone and a little spooked so I decided to walk one direction. As soon as I moved I scared a bunch of pheasants out of a tree. They made such a huge racket flying out of the trees, I didn't know what it was! It felt like my heart stopped, and then I got a hot flash. I hate to be startled like that!

Finally they both came back, neither had seen any sign of any marker. We were so frustrated. That meant we had to go ALL THE WAY BACK THE WAY WE CAME! This is NOT what we wanted. According to the worthless map our hike would take us to the medieval village and circled around to bring us back to where we parked. This was much farther away and we had to turn and go back! I had worn hiking boots because I knew what to expect, but they were soaked. Cathy had on tennis shoes so hers were absolutely filthy and wet. Well, we were all wet.

I don't remember why but we decided to go to this farm close by and ended up coming out of their driveway out to the street that we had crossed earlier. Except way down from where we had originally crossed. There was a little side road that we walked on that ran parallel to the main road. The main road had no sidewalks and was very busy with fast moving vehicles. Finally a car came down the side road and without even discussing it we flagged it down. It was a woman and we asked her where was Ditchford Friary Village. She pointed in the direction that we were walking and said, "it's a good ways down this road". I don't remember if we asked her for a ride, or if she offered, but the next thing we know we are in her car and heading to the village. She also pointed out a road on the way and said that that road would take us back to Todenham where we had begun this escapade. We thanked her profusely as she stopped along the busy road and pointed to a little tiny road and said, "that's Ditchford Frary".

So we set off down this narrow lane. We walked and we walked and never came to anything! Finally Sarah got a brilliant idea. She said, "since we know where the car is now, why don't we just go get it and ride back over here". Ah, smack to the head, why didn't I think of that! So we turned abruptly and headed back to the main road. We managed to get back on the road to Todenham. We walked and walked and walked. Sarah was happy now because she had pavement to walk on, but we were all tired. We walked up and down hills. We got to the bottom of one hill and looked up to another one ahead and I said, "I just don't want to walk anymore! I don't want to walk up anymore dang hills!" Sarah offered to run the rest of the way to the car while Cathy and I sat down and waited. She didn't mind, (like I said, she loves to exercise). I gave her the keys to Joe's car and we sat and waited. It took what felt like a LONG time for her to get back to us. When she did get back she said, "Kathy you would have died if you saw the hill after this one that I had to go on". Apparently there was an even worse one. Yes, I would have just layed down and died!

We drove down the narrow lane that the woman had shown us, all the way to the end. We NEVER saw that darn village. I don't know how we could have missed it. It was just a narrow road. I hated to give up but we were starving by now. I'm not sure but I think we were on that darn walk for at least 3 hours. So we headed to a larger village close by. Of course as is common in this country, all the restaurants were closed after lunch so we had to be satisfied with tea in the only open place we could find. It was good though and we did get some sandwiches too.

We didn't get back to pick up Joe until 7:00 that night. He said he didn't care as he was just going to work until we got there. I think we just had leftovers that night and hit the sack. We were headed to London the next day for their last few days here.

The next morning Joe was going to drop us off at the train station so that we could catch a train into London. He had to work Thursday and Friday so we decided to go on down ahead of him. He would drive down Friday night. He was very clear in his instructions about the train. He told us to be sure that we caught the Virgin train as all others were commuter trains and would be stopping along the way. So we got online to look up ticket prices. A ticket would cost about £65 ($97) each and take less than 2 hours to get there. We didn't bother to buy tickets, deciding we could do that at the station.

At the station we waved good-bye to Joe and ran into the station, wanting to get the first train available for London. No wasting time for us! When we got to the window we said we wanted to get a train to London. The lady said there was a train leaving in two minutes and the price would be only £52 ($78) each. Hey that sounded like a deal! Plus we could leave right away so she hollered at some man to hold the train and sold us the tickets. We ran and jumped on the train so happy to get one right away.

After about five minutes into the ride, here comes the conductor. He wants to see our tickets and being friendly, starts asking us about our plans. We excitedly tell him we are going to London to sight see for a few days blah blah blah. He then said, "well, make sure you get off at Coventry station and switch trains". We were like, "what?" He then proceeds to tell us we are on a commuter train and we need to switch trains part way and also it is going to stop all the way to London. WE HAD DONE EXACTLY WHAT JOE TOLD US NOT TO! We consoled ourselves that it wasn't that bad and besides we'd saved money on the tickets. When we told him that we were going to be using the bus and the tube in London he happily sold us those tickets too. We thought, man now we are prepared.

We were laughing and joking about our mess up and admiring the two little twin girls who were riding next to us with their grandma and grandpa. They told us they were just riding the train because the girls wanted to, they didn't have any place to go. The girls were adorable and of course their little British accents were precious. They were probably about four years old. We asked them to take a picture of us so we were busy posing for the picture when the train slowed down. One little girl asked her grandpa (who was taking our picture) if this is where they were getting off. He said, "No, this is where these ladies are getting off". You should have seen the feathers fly. We went from smiling to the camera to jumping up, grabbing our things (which were laid out all over the table, we had four seats facing each other with a table in between), grabbing the camera out of the old man's hands and racing off the train. I don't know what we thought. We hadn't even asked when the stop we were getting off was, and weren't prepared in the least when it came. Thank goodness that man paid attention to what the conductor said!

So now we are at Coventry train station and had to wait about a half hour or so for our next train. There we sat on the bench, tapping our feet trying to wait patiently.

We got to London without any other mishaps. But when we got there we looked at the time and realized it had taken us 3 hours to get there! The conductor who had sold us our tube and bus passes assured us that when we walked out of the train station there would be a bunch of personnel hanging around to help people get on the correct bus to where they wanted to go. He said there is a big presence now because of the upcoming 2012 Olympics, they are really working hard on public transportation. Did we see ONE person when we came out of that station? NO! Not one! There were tons of buses lined up along the curb but who knew where they were all going? Cathy immediately started going up to the drivers and asking if they were going in the direction of Mayfair. It was obvious they didn't want to be bothered by tourists and were of no help at all. We felt like they were muttering "dumb Americans" under their breath at us. We were starting to get a little panicky because we had a reservation for Afternoon Tea at 3:00 at The Connaught Hotel all the way across town. Finally at last we found a woman who directed us away from the station and across several busy streets to the correct bus stop. We would have never figured out the correct bus stop was way over there!

Getting to the bus stop and waiting for the correct bus took a little while too. There are SO many people in London. It really gets crazy at times just trying to walk on the sidewalk. I thought it was supposed to be less crowded now that it is not summertime anymore. But I didn't notice any change, possibly it was MORE crowded. Once we got on the bus we then had to get out our map and figure out where to get off the bus. There was a little old lady sitting nearby that had an old old map book, black and white, with tiny tiny streets and a magnifying glass. Sarah sat by her and she helped us as Cathy and I poured over our own bright colored tourist map. We got off at the stop we felt was closest to the hotel and were so grateful to see that it was 2:30. The Tea reservations at a good hotel are hard to come by and we didn't want to miss ours. We still had to consult our map and get over to the right street, but we managed and arrived at the restaurant just in time to go to the bathroom and make our reservation on time.

Let me just say that The Connaught Hotel is probably the fanciest hotel I've ever been in. And we have been in some really nice hotels due to Joe's working for Aireco for so many years and going on their annual trips. The hotel was just beautiful, very very posh. www.the-connaught.co.uk They had maids in the bathrooms (which I've seen many times), however I've never seen them fold the toilet paper after each person, turn the water on for you to wash your hands and wipe the sink down after each use. I know I know, they work for tips, but there certainly wasn't any tip jar evident.

We were ushered into a bright restaurant with floor to ceiling windows circling the room. I don't remember if I asked Sarah or Cathy this but I felt a little out of place. We were dressed fairly casual and were surrounded by expensively dressed business people and ladies dressed to the nines to shop and have tea. I just can't hardly believe that people do these type of things on a regular basis. Our waiter was a French guy, trained superbly in the art of waiting tables at a ritzy place. He was a little hard to understand and it was hard to not chuckle at his flamboyant ways.

There are two kinds of tea occasions in England. Afternoon Tea is usually between 3 - 5:00 in the afternoon and includes sandwiches, pastries and tea of course. High tea is later, between 5 - 6:00 pm and includes sandwiches, meats, eggs etc. It is usually followed by a late meal in the evening. We have noticed that the English eat dinner much later than we did in the states. You can go to a restaurant here around 6:00 and it won't be crowded at all, but give it a couple of hours and it will be packed. But don't wait too late in the small villages or it will be closed!

Back to our Afternoon Tea adventure. There is not a menu for food because the same is served for each table. But the tea menu was several pages long! Even though we had a menu with lengthy descriptions for every kind of tea you could imagine, the waiter still went through the whole thing describing each one as if it were a rare delicacy. His strong French accent took on an excited tone while his hands waved around in delight. It was truly a show to watch. The trouble for me is I don't care for tea (or coffee) so I was in a bit of a dilemma for me on what to drink. The choices were tea, coffee or champagne! (I really wanted a diet coke, but no way was I going to say that!) I decided to go with tea, since that was the main attraction. I asked for the blandest tea they had and he went off at a trot to fulfill our tea orders.

Once our tea came and he served us with his own personal flair and impeccable manners, he brought us our three tiers of finger sandwiches. There were several different fancy types of sandwiches. Smoked salmon and wasabi cream, egg salad with watercress, cucumber and dill cream, and chicken with Greek yogurt and chives. When we were finished with the sandwiches he brought ANOTHER three tier service full of desserts and pastries. Such as, raspberry and pistachio tart, hazlenut dacquoise (layers of nut flavored meringue with a cream filling), chocolate ganache and salty caramel mousse and chocolate cake to name a few. While we were eating the desserts he brought us a basket of fresh scones with clotted cream and jams. The scones here are wonderful, so are the jams. But if you have never tried clotted cream you are surely missing a treat. Clotted cream (also called Devonshire cream) is a thick cream made from scalded milk. You put it on top of a scone with jam and it just melts in your mouth. It is scrumptious!

I don't have to tell you that we left that tea room so full! It was delicious and definitely an eye opening experience. It was costly though. We paid £40 per person ($60) so it wasn't cheap. But it was fun and I'm glad we did it.

We had tickets to see the play Billy Elliot that night all the way over on the west side of London in the theater district. The show was at 7:30 so we decided to walk that direction and we'd stop along the way if we saw anything that we must have in a store window. We had a couple of hours so we didn't have to rush at all. But wanted to find the theater ahead of time to make sure we knew where it was. We made our way through London (and again the crowds) but got over to the west end in plenty of time to have a couple of drinks and get to the show on time.

The play was fantastic. It has won 10 Tony Awards including best musical.  It is the story of a young boy who grew up in North East London where coal mining was the lifeblood of the community. With the encouragement of a couple of teachers he discovers he has a talent for dance and going behind his family's back he learns ballet. Eventually he is discovered by his coal mining father and brother and they make things very hard for him. But he is so talented that he manages to get an audition at the Royal Ballet School and of course, the rest is history.

When they were looking for a boy to play Billy Elliot, they not only needed one, but three boys to do the part. It is a grueling schedule for the kids in the play. So ironically while they were looking at ballet schools all over the country they were looking at real Billy Elliots. Kids who had fantastic talent but were basically unknowns. Naturally there were a lot of kids in this play who all sang and danced beautifully. I was surprised when we walked out of the theater after the play and there was a van pulled up to the sidewalk. The side door was open and inside were a bunch of the little kids who were in the play that night. They just looked like a van load of tired little kids and I felt sympathy for them at that moment. It was like 11:00 at night and they were obviously exhausted.

It had been a long day of walking and riding but we still had to walk over to the tube station and ride 45 minutes back to our hotel. Joe was to already be there after driving from work to London that night. When we got to our tube stop and tried to leave the tube terminal, the personnel there informed us that we didn't have the correct tube ticket to get off at that particular station. Apparently our train conductor in the morning didn't sell us the correct tube ticket that would also allow us to travel on the outskirts of London. They let us through though, after reminding us that we could have been charged £50 each for the error. That would have just topped off the day wouldn't it? We probably would have run sobbing into the hotel!

The next day we had planned to go on a bike tour of London. The same company that Joe and I used in Paris has them in London too. Even though I had the bad crash in Paris, I was game to go again. Especially since the weather was supposed to be so nice. We had to be in London at 11:00 AM for the ride. So we thought if we left our hotel, caught the tube by 9:45 that we'd get there in time.

Cathy and Sarah had come down early for breakfast. Joe and I were just going to meet them for a quick cup of coffee. While we were getting ready that morning Cathy called our room and said that they were down having breakfast and that it was free with the room. I had booked the rooms and knew that I had specifically said no to the breakfasts because I didn't know exactly what we'd be doing every day. We get down there and the host at the restaurant tells us that "no, our breakfast did not come with our rooms". I told him that I had booked two rooms and my friends had been told that their breakfast was free, so I wanted to make sure they weren't going to be charged for it. About this time Cathy comes by and I tell her that her room wasn't supposed to include breakfast. She said, "well, you told us it was free and we ate it so we aren't going to be paying". She started to walk away and then turned and I saw her face change to the go getter that we all know and love. She said, "And you owe these people a free breakfast because you told me that mine was free and I told them too". Joe (who was about to go into his flee mode) and I just kind of laughed and so did the guy. We didn't even care because we weren't planning on eating anyway. But when the guy chuckled she didn't like it. She said, "I'm not kidding. You owe them a breakfast just like ours". About this time a manager walks up and says, "go ahead, eat". So we walked away. We were laughing and saying, "thanks for the free breakfast Cathy".

Naturally we went and got a plate of food. The four of us were eating and had already forgotten the time. When we realized it, it was 10:00 and we only had an hour to get down to the tube station (a couple of blocks walk) and all the way to London! We hurried and hurried onto the tube, rode while nervously watching the clocks. We had to change trains one time. That entails walking what seems like forever in the undergrounds stations, up steps, down steps following signs to the right train. We ended up getting to where we were supposed to be at 11:20 or so. We even ran up and down the streets in the area hoping to catch up with the tour before they actually rode. We knew that in Paris they stayed at the meeting place for like 15 minutes after the hour and then walked with all the tour people to their shop to fit everyone with a bike. But we couldn't find them anywhere. We were really disappointed. That would have been so much fun with Cathy and Sarah.

We finally gave up and walked BACK down to the tube station to catch another tube. We decided to go to The Tower of London. Joe and I toured it back on our first trip to England before he had even accepted this job. Funny, that it is the first historic place that I saw in this country and still remains my favorite.

The Tower of London is a historic castle that sits on the River Thames in London. It was built in 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. In the early days it served as a royal residence but since at least 1100 the castle served as a prison among other things.

With Sarah and Cathy we took the one hour Yeoman's Warder tour. These are ceremonial guardians of the palace whose knowledge of it is excellent. They wear the historic dark blue uniform with red trim and tall black hats. It is not easy to become a Yeoman Warder. They must all be retired military with at least 22 years of service. They also must hold a long service and good conduct medal.  They live on the castle grounds with their families. Among other things, these men learn all the history of the castle and must pass a difficult test giving presentations as their main job will be giving tours. They are also called Beefeaters, a nickname going back to their position in the Royal Bodyguard where they were permitted to eat as much meat as they wanted from the king's table.

Housing for the Yeoman Warders

When Joe and I went a year ago last October we toured the whole castle. Some of the interesting parts were:

The White Tower: Built to strike fear and submission into the unruly citizens of London. It houses 500 years of royal armour. Each armour was different and decorated according to
the King's power and personality. They also served to show the actual size of the king wearing the armour.

The White Tower

The Crown Jewels:  The crown jewels are under armed guard in the Jewel House. They are the greatest collection of Crown Jewels in the world and priceless symbols of British Monarchy. There were rows and rows of crowns, sceptres, swords, rings, spurs and royal robes. It was a sight to behold. I don't know how they supported those huge heavy crowns on their heads! There was a moving floor that ran along the showcases of jewels, otherwise they'd never get people to stop gawking at the beautiful diamonds and jewels. To give you an example:

The Imperial State Crown:  The crown that is generally worn at the end of a coronation when the new monarch departs from Westminster Abbey, although it is not normally the actual crown used at coronation. It is worn annually by the Queen at the state opening of parliament. This crown alone has 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and five rubies! That's what I want for Christmas!!

Sarah and Cathy did go and see The Crown Jewels. What woman wouldn't?

The Ravens:  Legend has it that the kingdom and Tower will fall if the six resident ravens ever leave the fortress. It was Charles II who first insisted that the ravens be protected. There are seven ravens at the Tower today (the six required plus one spare). There is a Yeoman Warder who is the Raven Master. That is his sole job. The ravens eat 170g of raw meat a day plus bird biscuits soaked in blood.

The Raven Master Yeoman Warder

The Tower Green:  This is a large grassy area in the courtyard amidst all the surrounding castle walls. It is where some of the great names in history were executed. It was a privilege reserved for those of high rank to be executed here instead of outside the castle walls where the public could watch. There is a memorial where the executions took place. Some of the most famous ones were:
   - Anne Boleyn, second wife of King Henry VIII (age early 30's)
   - Catherine Howard, fifth wife of King Henry VIII (age early 20's)
   - Lady Jane Grey (age 16)
   - Margaret Pole, 8th Countess of Salisbury and relative of King Henry VIII.
   Ordered executed by King Henry VIII for treason at age 67 she was brought to the
   executioners block. She fought and struggled and an inexperienced executioner chopped   a huge gash in her shoulder. Then proceeded to take 10 more blows before she was dead.

The memorial where the executions took place.

The Salt Tower: The tower where many prisoners were held hundreds of years ago. We climbed all the way to the top where there is actual graffiti written by the prisoners all those years ago. It was really a neat thing to see. Truly amazing.

Close-ups of graffiti on tower walls. Unfortunately
you can't read them in the picture.

There were more towers and of course the medieval palace with all the decorations and the kings' beds and such. Very interesting and fun. It would take hours and hours to see it all. Joe and I did see a lot of it though. I still remember it fondly.

The Bloody Tower

Examples of Medieval Torture

YIKES!

We found a restaurant and had a leisurely late lunch. After that we walked the streets of London and shopped for the rest of the afternoon. We had tickets to see Warhorse at the theater district that night. When it got to be evening time we found an Irish pub that was near the theater to relax in until time to go to the show. The Irish pub was playing a Rugby game on their big screen TV. It was a match between an English team and a team from Limerick. Of course the Irish servers and customers were all roused up for the Limerick team. I kept hearing the men holler "c'mon Monster" "go Monster" etc. Joe had already been chatting with an Irishman sitting next to us. I leaned over and asked Joe which player was Monster. He said the Irish team was called Munster. Ohhhh, now I get it!

The trip would not be told accurately if I did not show a
picture of Sarah sleeping. She tended to take cat naps if
we weren't moving or talking! This snapshot was
taken at the Irish Pub.

War Horse had come highly recommended to me by several people. A woman I sat next to at Les Miserable who was very well traveled and cultured told me, "If there is nothing else you do in London, you have got to see War Horse". The people who sat in front of us at Billy Elliot hard heard raves about it and told us we'd need boxes of tissues. Even the men they knew had sobbed through it. So we were very excited about seeing the play. As sometimes happens when a movie is built up so much in your mind that you are actually disappointed when you see it, this is what happened with War Horse.

I have to say it was a great story. The story takes place in World War I when the beloved pet of a young boy, a horse named Joey, is sold to the cavalry for the war. The young boy, who is still not old enough to enlist, sets out on a treacherous mission to find his horse and bring him home.

The incredible part of the show is that all the horses are life size puppets. It is just amazing to see how they move. Their movements replicate the exact same movements of real horses, down to the way they pull grass while grazing in a field. Of course you knew they were puppets, and you could see they were puppets, but when they ran, bucked, died, they moved like real horses. Even the sounds were real. Hard to explain, but fascinating to see. So all in all the show was very good, and yes it was a tear jerker in the end, but I suppose we were all expecting SO much that we were a little disappointed.

When the show was over we had another 45 tube ride back to our hotel. You may wonder why the heck we got a hotel that was so far from the city. Well, hotels in London are pretty expensive and the hotel we were at was right at Heathrow Airport, where Cathy and Sarah's flight was taking off. They were going to have one whole day to themselves in London as Joe and I had to go home. He was leaving for Germany the same day that Cathy and Sarah were flying home so we had to get him ready to go.

We had a nice breakfast with the girls the next morning and then we had to say good-bye. They were going to go to Harrods and take a tour of London on the double decker bus. We had such a good visit and so much fun with our friends. It was kind of a whirlwind visit, trying to fit so much in. I learned a lot from our first visitors as far as planning and making mistakes. They said they didn't mind being the guinea pigs for us! What else are friends for?

This is us, saying good-bye at the hotel.
Kathy, Joe, Cathy and Sarah