The Church Inn

What a great find! The Church Inn, (so named because it's located right next to St. Mary's Church) is a great place to stay. In spite of the fact that our room was up two flights of stairs and there was no one available to help, the staircases were wide enough to maneuver the bags and the room was quite large. We were less than a thirty minute walk from both of Mark's kids, even though much of the walking was in the rain. (The Manchester area is not known for it's idyllic weather and we did have the umbrellas that we bought in Clacton.)

The room was very spacious and had a large double closet, plenty of drawer and shelf space and a good-sized bathroom. We were served a full English breakfast (well half, in my case) each morning and they went out of their way to prepare food for us on Sunday evening, even though they typically don't serve food that late on Sunday.

The owners and the staff went out of their way to accommodate us and even though there are some other inns within walking distance that look promising, these people are so nice that we've already booked our February stay with them. (We'll only have one flight of stairs next time!)

No Spares

I always pack more than I need - of everything. I count out the number of days I'll be gone and pack underwear for each day plus three. (You never know when someone will dump a pitcher of water in your lap.) An extra pair of jeans (for the same reason). Clothes for a visit to a "nice" restaurant. Shoes for every occasion and of course jewelry to go with the clothes.This often means a special ring or necklace to wear with a particular outfit and one or more spare pairs of earrings.

But this trip was a bit different. I still packed the extra underwear, the extra jeans, the completely unnecessary clothes for the "nice" restaurant and a few sweaters that didn't get worn. I wore one pair of shoes and packed another - in addition to The Cruel Boots. But I didn't take any spare jewelry.

My reasoning was that we were visiting family and doing a short canal boat trip. A canal boat trip is a bit like camping. How much jewelry do you need? When I left the house for the airport, I was wearing my wedding rings, my gold and silver heart ring, my Chinese "long life" pendant, and my ancient Brighton earrings. It was really all I needed.

But then, on the second day of the canal boat trip, one of the earrings kept catching on the scarf I was wearing and it was starting to get a bit aggravating. The third time I attempted to free it, it broke in my hand. Eeeeek! No way to fix it and no spares. We still had a full week to go and my ears would have to be naked. I can go out without lipstick easier than I can go out with naked ears.

I believe I've had those earrings for something like 20 years. Mark said we would shop for new ones when we got to Llangollen. It's not as easy as it sounds. I am one of the few people in the world who actually wear clip earrings. There is no Brighton store and no Sam Moon store and no SteinMart in Llangollen. Therefore, a shopping trip for earrings was completely out of the question.

Like everyone else, I had my ears pierced in high school, but by the time I was 22, wearing earrings had caused my ears to tear. I had them stitched back up and then re-pierced a year later. I was admonished not to wear anything that dangled - studs only. It didn't matter. The holes in my ears just expanded until the entire stud could pass through the hole. I was afraid of losing earrings, so I started wearing clips. This happened long before I ever met Mark. However, being an engineer, Mark sees this is an engineering problem. He has offered to "re-engineer" my ears so that I'll be able to wear pierced earrings. But seriously, we're talking about my ears. These are body parts, not a shelving system for the garage. I'm okay with clips. Really.

This was one of the few pairs of earrings I own that I could wear for hours on end without any pinching or discomfort. I sure hope they can be fixed or that the Brighton store will have something similar.

The Cruel Boots

I love shoes. My ex-husband believed that I bought them just to keep other women from having them. (Totally not true!) If you knew me back in my 20s, you know that I could dance in 5-inch platform heels. I could hike for blocks wearing Candies.

I still love those types of shoes. I have them in my closet. I just don't wear them all that often. I struggle to find the balance between style and comfort, but I try my best to err on the side of comfort.

Remember the Steve Martin bit about "The Cruel Shoes"? It's here if you want a refresher. (The Cruel Shoes). I always seem to be buying those shoes. I can't remember the last pair of shoes I bought that didn't blister, bruise, cramp, or in some way damage my feet.

My Baretrap sandals rubbed a blister on my toe. I had to get a cart after walking nine holes in that new pair of Foot Joys. Even the Clark's Privos rubbed a blister on the top of my foot.The only exception to this trend has been athletic walking shoes.

I really thought I was going to be safe with rubber rain boots. I ended up with a rather plain pair. They had some really cute floral ones, but they laced up. (Way too much effort!)

The really high wellie-type boot kept catching on the leg of my jeans. We were about to spend a couple of weeks in the rain and I didn't want to be fiddling and fussing with boots. I only wanted to be able to slip them on and keep my feet dry. These boots were really my only option.

Who would have thought that rubber boots had sharp edges? I could not believe my injury when I took them off after the first day of wearing them. But there it was - a bloody leg with a small patch of skin missing. (You would have thought I'd have noticed it before I took the boots off, too.) So the next time I wore them, I tucked my pants legs inside the boots. And thank God we had two days of sunshine so I could go back to wearing my Privos rather than The Cruel Boots.

The Llangollen Canal - Suspended in Air

The Llangollen Canal was our second canal boat holiday. I especially wanted to cruise this canal because of the unique aqueduct feature. We drove through the area a few years ago and I saw the aqueduct and then I found this picture of it on the web. Imagine taking a canal boat along here! I couldn't wait to take my own pictures!

It was a short trip. Canal cruising (or ditch crawling) is slow. You know you're puttering along at the right speed when pedestrians on the adjacent path are overtaking you. We took our time leaving Maestermyn Marina in the late afternoon and stopped for the night at Chirk. This route has two locks, two aqueducts and two tunnels - and at this time of year, not much traffic. Not much traffic is important because there is no room for two way traffic in the aqueducts and tunnels. There are also a number of places on the canal where there is no room to pass, so waiting on boat traffic could take a considerable amount of time. We were there at the perfect time. We got to Llangollen late the next afternoon and spent two nights moored in the basin, exploring the town before heading back to toward Maestermyn the next day.

There was no shortage of beautiful scenery along the canal.

The aqueducts almost make you feel like you're suspended in air.

 In and around Llangollen.

Leaving in the morning mists.

Shifting Responsibility

Sometimes it's difficult to keep your mouth shut when you know someone doesn't have their facts straight. I listened to Mark's dad talk about how the British National Health Service (NHS) has abandoned him. No one even bothers to see if he can walk. (If you haven't walked in a year and a half, the odds are not in your favor.) No one bothers to give him physical therapy to improve his chances of walking. It sounds really pitiful. But he leaves out the part where after six weeks of physical therapy, he told them in no uncertain (and somewhat rude) terms that he wasn't going to do it any more and that they needn't bother coming back. So they didn't. I don't blame them. They're not obligated to withstand verbal abuse. 

Plus, there are a number of events where his recollection and Mark's differ significantly. I won't go there. And since I wasn't there, I believe my husband's account. I know that it sometimes takes a good deal of constraint for him not to be confrontational about it. Although we're both at that stage in life where we realize that being confrontational is not typically beneficial. But after thinking about it, I've concluded that there are people who are unable or unwilling to accept responsibility for their circumstances. It was the other guy's fault. You were clumsy and fell, but I was pushed. It's not quite the same as recognizing and accepting that while some events were out of your control, many of the circumstances and situations you find yourself in are the result (direct or indirect) of decisions you made. And if you tell yourself the same lie often enough, it starts to sound like the truth. (We can't fool anyone quite as easily as we fool ourselves.)

But then I suppose we're all guilty of putting our own spin on our own story. To some degree or another, we rewrite our histories so that any negative outcomes are attributable to someone else, assuming the negatives can't be completely eliminated. We paint the picture so that any reasonable person would do what we did - there was no viable alternative so there could have been no other outcome and we can feel good, (or vindicated, or victimized, or whatever it is we want to feel).

Walking in the Rain

I always check weather.com before we go on a trip. I was a bit disappointed that the 10-day forecast showed nothing but rain, but since there really isn't anything you can do about the weather except dress appropriately,  I packed my anorak and bought some rain boots.

So when we arrived in London and the sun was shining, I was very pleasantly surprised. We drove from Heathrow to Holland-on-Sea with patchy sun and intermittent showers. It wasn't especially cold. My denim jacket seemed to be warm enough.

We sat around and visited with Mark's folks until the care workers came. They typically need about an hour so we decided to go for a walk while they were there. And since walking along the seafront is always nicer than just walking around a neighborhood, we drove the five minutes it takes to get to the seafront. (We could have walked there in 15 minutes! But we drove.)

Just a quick digression about the seafront in this particular part of the world for those who aren't familiar with it. In most places, there is only a beach when the tides are out. And from what I've seen, there isn't that much of a beach then. But you can walk along the sea wall. There are steps that lead down to the beach, but most times I've been there, the steps lead into the North Sea. But if the wind is particularly brisk that day, you can also walk along the sidewalk by the street and still have a view of the sea. On a clear day you can see the Gunfleet Sands Wind Farm.

Here are some of the pictures we took on our walk:

We were about a 30 minute walk away from the car when the rain started. By the time we got back to the car, it was torrential and we were drenched and needed to change clothes. Even my socks were wet. We went back to the hotel to change. Then we went by Marks and Spencer's to buy collapsible travel umbrellas. They got quite a bit of use on this trip.

Who is Matt?

I've been eligible for a phone upgrade since last November. Anyone who knows me, knows that I don't have to be the first person to have the latest technology. I'd rather wait until I can be sure it actually works. And I don't like standing in line. (I refused to line up at Best Buy to get a Wii and I refuse to line up at the Apple Store (or anywhere else) to get the new iPhone.

My iPhone 4S was pretty well ragged out. The battery would only hold a charge for about a half a day. Seems that I had to plug it in for a charge several times throughout the day. And the touch screen didn't respond to "touching" anymore. Beating it didn't seem to help. And then there was Siri. I'd gone to the doctor's office and on my way home, I wanted to phone a friend who'd been ill. I asked Siri to find the number for his place of business. She found it, told me it was a long way from where I was and just flat out refused to dial the number. After several attempts to get her to dial the number for me, I asked her if she'd like to be thrown out the window.  She flashed me the "f-bomb" and said "Well, I never!"

Perhaps she should have. I don't know how that word came to be in her vocabulary. Perhaps she didn't think I'd see it since I was driving and really shouldn't have been looking at the screen. But that was it, she had to go. I took my iPhone 4S back to the Verizon store and told them about my inability to keep the battery charged, my unresponsive touch screen, and the misbehaving Siri. I suspect they thought I was making that bit up. But it happened.

A "new" (another word for reconditioned) phone arrived by the end of the week. (Keep in mind this all happened the week before the iPhone 5 was released. I was given the option to get in line for an upgrade, but I seriously don't do lines very well.

So now I have a "new" 4S phone. The battery isn't appreciably better, nor is the touch screen.  And on my way home today, I wanted to change my doctor's appointment from Tuesday to Monday. I asked Siri to find the number for Taysir Jarrah, MD. I tried to enunciate as clearly as possible.

She was quick to let me know that "tastier Jerai" was not in my contact list but she could search the web. Then she offered to search for "tastier Cherew MD", "Taysee your Jarosz MD", "KC your Jarosz MD" and
"Taser Jerai MD".

I told her to forget it. She said she didn't know what I meant. So I asked her if she'd like to be thrown out of the window. She said "This is about you Matt, not me."

Do you think I can get an iPhone 5S without standing in line?