Part 2 for Today

First of all, the blog this morning was supposed to be titled, "A Night At The Races". How it came to be titled "windsor" is beyond me. I am really looking forward to getting myself a big ass desk top computer when I get home. This mini notebook is great but my big fingers and hands are always hitting something that is deleting or moving or rearranging what I am writing. There is nothing like writing a note to someone for 20 minutes and then all of a sudden it disappears.
Can you tell it was a quiet day today? I am rambling once again because I have nothing important to say.
Today we got up late, (a relative term . . .9 is late for Ger and EARLY for me), had a leisurely breakfast of crumpets and tea and then I caught up on my email and blog. It was quite chilly this morning. Jeans and jacket weather. Sun was out but it was cold. I LOVE IT ! I hear my darlings in Florida and Maryland are roasting. Kristen said it was 97 and HUMID in lovely Florida today. I DO NOT MISS THAT ! Ger and I finally got up off the couches and took a walk to the local pub where we had a nice lunch. No beer or cider for lunch today, just a tuna sandwich and a soda. Great sandwich but it was loaded with big chunks of onions. It tasted fabulous but it is killing me tonight. These English Onions are tough little buggers. Bridget called to find us and she walked down to meet us to sit and chat for a while before we all walked to Abby's school to pick her up at 3:30. I am getting to meet a lot of the moms of kids in Abby's class and they are very friendly. All are offering "play dates" for Abby when K&B are in the Ukraine.
Have I mentioned that K&B leave on Sunday to fly to Kiev where they go to court on Tuesday, June 22? Hopefully the adoption papers will be set in order and this will be the beginning of the end of the whole adoption process. After spending a couple of days in Kiev they will fly to the town where Roman is living. It is 16 hours by train to make this trip so they decided to fly. K&B will then get to see Roman and spend some time with him before they head back to the UK on July 2. (There is a 10 day waiting period before Bridget returns to the Ukraine to FINALLY bring Roman home.) Ger and I will be here in Windsor waiting with Abby who will hopefully be alive and well after being in our care for the 12 days.
A lot going on here and Abby is having some trouble with K&B leaving for the 12 days but I think we will all be fine once things get moving. Ger and I are beginning to feel comfortable with the area and are settling into a routine that makes us feel at home. (that routine does include beer)Tonight Ger. Kyle and I are sitting in front of the TV in the beautiful formal room, complete with massive fireplace that has a mirror over it that has got to be 10 feet high and 5 feet wide. It doesn't come near to touching the ceiling that is at least 30 feet high. Have I mentioned that this house is amazing? Ger is watching the World Cup and Kyle and I are working on our computers. Just a quiet night in the English country side.
Tomorrow's adventure . . . a tour of Windsor Castle ! Can't wait, maybe we'll see the Queen.

windsor

Sorry I'm late writing this but it got to be too late last night so today you will get 2 blogs to make up for it.
This is the week of the Queens Birthday and there is a lot going on in town. One of the BIG events of the week is THE ROYAL ASCOT. This is a horse racing event that starts today, Tuesday, and continues through the weekend. The Queen attends every day because she "loves her races". Ger and I did consider attending the Royal Ascot until we saw the cost of admission and the dress code. Ger did NOT bring his tails and top hat and I did not bring anything nearly fancy enough to attend such a fete. We are actually sitting here at the kitchen table watching a man and woman who are obviously going to the races. He is decked out in a waistcoat and tails and top hat and she has on her basic black dress with an EXTRAORDINARILY LARGE WHITE HAT ! It is probably more entertaining watching them than the races would be. To be honest there are places at the Royal Ascot that the common folk can go for a lesser admission fee but from what we hear the traffic and the crowds are overwhelming. So I think we will take a bye on this race and be satisfied with our own night at the races last night.
Kyle has a young man from his Atlanta office over here working for him for the week and Kyle wanted to take Jonathan to the Windsor races before Jonathan returned to the states. Ger and I were invited to join them last night and we had a great time. We chose to go with the common folk and pay 8 Pounds to stand up by the rail rather than sit in the stands for 17 pounds. (a pound is worth about $1.50) There was a building where we could buy sandwiches, (known as BAPS), sausage and chips, (french fries are chips), fish and chips, or, my personal favorite, Pastys. (Remember those little "stews" in a pastry shell?) The pasty is mostly potato with some gravy and a hint of meat but it is the actual pastry that I adore. I ordered a PAAAAASTY and the young server had no idea what I was saying. He finally said, "Oh, a Paw hsty". It's all in the pronunciation over here. WE are getting better at understanding the English English but it isn't easy.
Back to the races. Once we figured out how to bet and where the horses were actually starting from we tried our luck at the "bookies". There were about 8 different stations set up in the field, each one run by a different "betting company". Most gave the same odds but every so often one would give a different odd on a horse and people would rush over to bet with him. Races were every half hour and we had a great time. We watched about 5 races, bet on three and won on none! Jonathan won on the last race and made 11P from the 1P that he bet. It was great fun, COLD as anything standing out in the field but a fun time for all.
During the day Ger and I had walked into town for lunch at the "Windsor Trooper" and we had a great time just sitting in the pub watching the world go by. We are adventuring outside of our comfort zone in Windsor and getting to see the other parts of town beside the main shopping street. Took the bus home and relaxed for a while before our adventure at the races.
FYI Main streets in England are usually called HIGH STREET.
Another side note for all of you readers out there, I picked up a copy of THE PILLARS OF THE EARTH by Ken Follett when we were in Salisbury. I had read this book years ago and LOVED it and seeing it there in the town where the story takes place I just had to get it to read again. I started it yesterday afternoon and am so glad I bought it. It is a wonderful book that is a great read for summer vacation. It is long but never boring. Check it out if you want something great to pass the summer days.

My Body is in Pain

I am about to spend a few moments groaning and moaning so if you don't want to hear it just go to the next paragraph to see what we did today.

For a relaxing weekend I would like to say that I feel like I have been run over by a truck. (Or in England, a lori.) On the best of days I can be full of aches and pains but honestly, tonight I am hurting. I will not go to a doctor over here to have my shoulder checked out because I have seen the hospitals here and they all look like something left over from Medieval times. My shoulder is sore from the fall 2 weeks ago and just when it starts feeling better I reach for something or jam it and it "pops" into a very painful spot. I then have to smack it on a wall to make it go back to where it should be to get the pain to stop. Sounds like fun doesn't it. But I can and will live with this. The bruise on my thigh is now the size of a dinner plate and slowly turning green and purple, rather than black and blue. And then to top it all off, my back is giving me twinges. Tomorrow I will make a call to a local chiropractor that a friend of Bridget's uses and see if I can get an appointment to get some of this checked out.
I think a chiropractor will be safer than a doctor but I'll let you know.

Today, being Sunday, was church day. Back to St. Edwards and a nice mass.This week Abby went to "Children's Liturgy" where she made a flag that said "LOVE". She did a great job and was very proud of her work. After mass and a light lunch at home we put our bathing suits on and drove over to the Windsor Leisure Center. This indoor complex contains a large gym, a lap pool and a water park complete with 2 huge water slides, a small lazy river, a wave pool, water falls and water spouts plus an area for little kids. Abby is not a little kid so she went right for the water slides. The one slide is "The Shark" and is very fast. That is the one Abby loves. These slides are huge, 5 story drops filled with twists and turns, partly enclosed and really quite fast. Abby talked me into the "slower" slide and I thought I would die. (Plus it really wasn't a good idea for someone with a sore shoulder !) But I had to try it out for myself and I am glad I did.
We only spent about 2 hours there but now I am ready for bed and it is only 7PM. What the hey . . . I'm going to bed and lie there and read for a hour or so. We had a good day and will be finishing up week two in England. We are also looking at tours of Scotland for a few days once K&B return from the Ukraine. I'll keep you posted on that.
Good Night for now.
P.S. No pictures of the water park because Bridget says they will not allow any pictures to be taken inside the complex. These Brits are really up tight and stuffy over the stupidest things. And then on the flip side they drive like idiots on the wrong side of the road. Go figure!

Quiet Saturday

I am too tired to fight the computer tonight to do a long blog. The clock says 22:19 so I have to get some sleep. Is this the most rediculous thing - telling time by the 24 hours? I have to translate 22 into 10PM before I know if I can go to bed or not. What's really freaky is when I wake up in the night and the clock says 00:19. I have NO idea what the hell time it is. Seriously . . . 19 is all the clock says. Weird!
I had a horrible night's sleep last night. Couldn't get comfortble, couldn't fall asleep, thought I was keeping Ger awake with all my tossing. NOt a good night! Ger and I are sharing a DOUBLE bed. It is way to small for 2 people that are old and large. Tonight we have brought in one of the bunk bed mattresses from Abby's room and I will sleep on that on the floor. It has got to be better than the little bed with the mushy mattress. Tonight I am so tired I could probably sleep in the bath tub which is the size of my pool in Florida.
Today was a day of rest and relaxation for Abby and I. Ger and K&B walked into Windsor to go the the "fish monger" who was closed because of "holiday", (he is on vacation).
Abby is not the sort of kid who can entertain herself when Grandma is around so we spent the day playing all sorts of imaginary games. Ger and I came down to the kitchen this morning to find Abby and Kyle on the floor between the stove and the center island with all the drawers pulled out to make a roof over them. Not sure what the game was but we heard that they had been there playing for over an hour.
Tonight Abby, Ger and I had dinner together while K&B went into town to meet a few friends and go to a pub where they could watch and cheer for the American soccer team playing the English in the World Cup. They aren't home yet so I guess they're having a good time.
Church tomorrow and who know what else. K&B will be here for the week and then a week from tomorrow they will fly to the Ukraine to start the final steps in
adopting 10 year old Roman. Abby, Ger and I will be here to hold down the Windsor end of the family so tonight's adventure of an evening with Abby was good practice. Aside from setting the loaf of italian bread on fire we did pretty well. These English appliances are crazy. NO clear on/off buttons so it is a challenge to cook, clean dishes or wash and dry clothes. But we got the fire out and managed to open some windows so hopefully the smoke will clear by the time the kids return home. Hopefully they will be too drunk to notice the smell.

Back in Windsor

We said good bye to Salisbry today and it was actually sad to go. We came to really like this town over the past 2 days and were feeling quite at home there. But Abby was waiting so it was time to go. I've included a few pictures from our time in Salisbury. The first is the river Avon down near the train station. It gives you a good idea of how lovely this town is. The river winds its way through the town and most views of it are as nice as the last. Then there is the Cathedral that dominates the countryside. You can see it from miles away and it is just a magnificant inside as it is from the outside. There is a reflecting pool inside the main part of the cathedral that reflects the stained glass windows in the water. (Ger got some good pictures of it but I can't download his photos onto this little computer.) Next photo should speak for itself. This is one of many shots that we took of Stonehenge. It's one of those places that either facinate you or bore you. I am facinated and so glad I got to see it in person. The last photo shows you the path through the sheep meadow and the gate we had to go thorugh to get up to Old Sarum. There really isn't much to show you of Old Sarum because it is a ruin but the path was fun.
And now we are back and into our second week in England. Our trip back to Windsor was as uneventful as the one going. The rail system is wonderful and we feel we could travel anywhere in the country.
FYI The English are pigs . . . "they litter everywhere and never pick up after themselves". This is a quote from an English couple that we met in Salisbury. The woman thought Americans were wonderful because they always clean up after themselves. And she is right! Every where you go there is litter. It is hard to find a litter basket to throw the trash into because, (according to the English lady), after the LOndon bombings they don't want trash bins on the streets because a bomb could be consealed in them. So I guess the alternative is to just throw your trash on the ground! It makes for a very messy country.
But what they lack in clean streets they make up for in pastry. I always thought France had the best pastry but I am coming to REALLY appreciate the English. I had a "pie" for lunch today. It was a flaky pastry pie shell,(tiny-about 3 inches across), with cheese and sweet potato and spinach in it and it was WONDERFUL. I have yet to try the breakfast pasty with clotted cream and jam but that in on my list. Thank heaven we are walking all over the place because between the pastry and the ale I am a Weight Watcher's nightmare.
A few more FYI'S :
Dogs can ride on the trains with their masters.
The windows here are double paned glass and you cannot hear ANYTHING through them.
You can buy wine anywhere! Drug store, grocery, gas station.
The roses are ENORMOUS and their fragrance is in the air where ever you go.

Day 8 - STONEHENGE !

This was an amazing day. I have ALWAYS had a facination for Stonehenge and today we finally got there in person. The throngs of people and the audio tape tour do take something away from the spiritual/other worldly atmospheer of the place but all in all it is quite an experience.
Ger and I had breakfast at the B&B and walked into town to get our tickets for the off and on bus tour. First stop, Stonehenge. The bus came up over a hill and there it was in the distance, just standing in the center of the open plain. At first you don't even realize what you are looking at and then you see that those are the monilithic stones arranged in that circle that you have seen a hundred times in photos. The bus dropped us off along with the hundred or so other tourists to get our hand held audio tour. At first it felt like just another stupid tour of following the fellow in front of you and pushing the on/off button of the tape player to go from station to station. I had always envisioned standing alone on the plain, walking amoung the huge stones, listening for the ghosts of who ever built this circle. But surprisingly once we got listening to the naration and walking around the circle, ( no one is permitted within the circle of stones. It is considered sacred ground and only on rare occasions are people allowed inside the stones.) we were transported in time and it was a fantastic experience. I can now cross this off my bucket list!
Jumping back on the next tour bus that came along we continued the journey through the country side to OLD SARUM. What a great surprise this turned out to be. Listed in the tour guide as where the original city of Salisbury was located it didn't give us a clue to what we would find. The tour bus dropped us off on the side of the road and the driver pointed over her shoulder with instructions to walk that way and return here for the next bus into town. Get off we did, crossed the road and walked about 100 yards to a dirt path that went off into the trees. There was a small sign pointing to OLD SARUM and a gate that said, "sheep grazing, keep dogs on their lead." We unlatched the gate and in we went along the dirt path, past the horse and sheep dog sleeping in the meadow and on up the hill to another gate leading us out of the pasture. WE were now at the bottom of a hill that turned out to be the old castle battlement on the far side of a HUGE, DEEP (but dry) moat. Long, long ago the area was settled and a castle was built on the top of this hill. There was a cathedral built next to it and the area was all protected by the hill and the moat and the battlements. Today there are some remains of the walls that you can wander through with markers and drawings showing you what they think it looked like all those hundreds of years past. IT WAS WONDERFUL ! We must have spent 2 hours wandering around. It was cold and very windy up on the hill with an over cast sky that just added to the mood. (We took tons of pictures which I promise to share a few of as soon as we get back to Windsor tomorrow.)
When we returned to the present we wandered back through the sheep meadow to catch the tour bus back into Salisbury where, after a stop at a sidewalk cafe for a soda and piece of cake, we continued to our last stop on the tour, THE SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. We caught up with a walking tour of the cathedral and wandered through with our mouthes hanging open looking at the amazing stained glass windows and HUGE beautiful ceilings. In the cathdral they have one of 5 remaining, ORIGINAL copies of the MAGNA CARTA. Now I don't know much about this document other than what our guide told us but considering it was written in the 1200's and is the basis for all the laws of the country, it was a pretty amazing thing to see.
So much for history and culture. Our adventure ended with a pint at one pub then a walk to another pub that served dinner. Lamb and a second pint and a walk home brought us back to the B&B by 6:30PM. We are done for the night and will probably be asleep by 8 tonight. I bet I dream some interesting dreams tonight. My head is spinning and it is't from the pints of ale.

Day 7 - Rail Trip

Today we road the rails from Windsor to Salisbury, England. It took 4 trains and 2 hours and it was a great trip. And why are we in Salisbury? . . . No, it is not becasue 2 of our children graduated from Salisbury University in Maryland, it is becasue it is the closest town to Stonehenge. This is someplace I have always wanted to visit so we thought we would give K&B & Abby some time to themselves and take a couple of days to tour the country side. The English train system is fantastic. We got off one train, walked across the station and caught our next train within minutes. Luck? Don't know but we didn't wait more than 10 minutes at any point. And the trains are amazing! They look new, they are clean, comfortable, have bathrooms and snack service. A person comes through the cars with a cart like on an airplane, selling sandwhiches, drinks, snacks and pastry. Amazing! I may spend the next few weeks just riding around the country eating and drinking.
Once we arrived at Salisbury Station we walked into town and wandered around trying to get our bearings. Kyle had given us a map and we did fairly well but after stopping at a pub for lunch we headed for the information bureau in the center of town to get pointed in the right direction.(NO, we did not have any beer for lunch so that isn't the reason we needed to get directions!) At the info station we met Simmon, an adorable Englishman who was so kind and helpful in setting us on the right path to the B&B where K&B had made reseervations for us. (They had made this journey with Abby a week or so before we came over so they gave us good pointers and recomended this wonderful place to stay.) After a long walk along the River Avon we arrived at the B&B, checked in, rested and then walked BACK into town. (I cannot believe the amount of walking we are doing but the blisters on my pinky toes are living proof.) We wandered through the town just looking at the people and the shops and then returned to Simmon for a recomendation for a place to eat dinner. He actually remembered us from the afternoon but didn't invite us to dinner at his house as Ger suggested. He did send us to the HAUNCH OF VENISON. A haunted pub with a restaurant on the second floor. WE did take a picture but you will have to wait for us to return to Windsor before I can down load it. The place was GREAT and the food was wonderful. Ger had lamb with yorkshire pudding and I had a venison stew. The atmosphere and the food were terribly English, in a good way. After the pint of beer and the dinner we just couldn't walk another step so we took a taxi back to the B&B where we have crashed for the night.
Tomorrow we will walk back into town to get a tour bus out to Stonehenge and go back in time some 5,000 years. I guess we will have to fill up on a big English breakfast before we leave in case we get lost in the past. Until tomorrow . . . Cherrio