The Fish and Chips Have Come Home to Roost.

So after waltzing all over Ireland and indulging in fish and chips, scones and bacon, (oh my the bacon), Guinness and wine with supper. I stepped on the dreaded scales the other morning. Crappity crap crap. Apparently I brought more home with me than just Irish knick knacks. Those yummy chips and fish have come home to roost all right, right on my butt, thighs, belly and anywhere else they could cling. I willingly undid all the good I did before I left and am back to square one. (Sigh). There is something innately wrong with the fact the pounds go on so much faster and easier than they come off. Time to get back to working on this again. Walking, eating healthy and generally starting from ground zero and heading up again. Oh bother.

I would like to say I regret it all but I don't. I loved every single mouthful and enjoyed myself to the full. Ireland was a dream come true and I made the most of my time there. I will now slide back into my routine again, battling this weight thing, ah yes the fight of a life time. Go me!!

Next week I will get back to the walking track, I have not been there for a long time and it really is the best thing for me. I can actually do it. I don't like it but I can do it.

Right now, I am going to go play on Pinterest!!

Toodles,
Linda

I Have Been To Ireland!! Pinch Me!!

One week ago today I landed back in Canada having accomplished the dream of a life time. I could not believe it was going to happen, then I could not believe it was happening and now I cannot believe it happened and its over and yet I have pictures and memories to prove it happened. I would go back in a heart beat. Lovely country and wonderful people. It was all I wanted from a vacation and more.

I went with The Banker. She is a wonderful travel companion. We managed two weeks together and we are still friends at the end of it. We did not do a tour, we were on our own time table, we started in Belfast.

This charming little bed and breakfast welcomed us in for the first three days. We made the Titanic museum a first see.

Between the Banker and I we took over 1500 pictures. Before you faint I will not inflict them all on you, I will try and hit the highlights. We saw old castles.

Gorgeous scenery. Yes this place really is as green as they say it is;

Lots of fat and happy sheep grazing in tiny little fields.

We say the ocean

The Giant's Causeway:

We moved on to Gallway, which is a pretty little city full of tiny windy streets and quaint shops.

Neat old pubs. We checked out several all over Ireland and had our fair share of Guinness. We sat in side in this one, just inside where the open window is. Its really old!!

We did a day tour out to the Cliffs of Moher, with some stops along the way:

An ancient Church

A burial sight that is thousands of years old but I don't have a picture of it because The Banker took the picture and I don't have her's yet. But I do have a picture of the cliffs.

Still cannot believe I was there!!

On to Limmerick and the River Shannon

Then a day at Bunratty Castle, and the folk park, topped off with a medieval feast!!

I cannot believe I climbed these narrow windy stairs but I did wish on this fertility goddess for Miss Mouse and the Farmer!! IT worked we now have a little Farmer Boy!!

We then moved onto Cork and Blarney Castle

That fuzzy blob up there is the Banker kissing the Blarney Stone. I did not make the climb, I was happy to sit and watch. I have enough blarney in me already.

Wexford was next. No a really big tourist area but we walked the little winding streets and shopped and had a lovely day anyway.

This was the view out our hotel room. Not too shabby.

Winding narrow streets, quaint little shops, lots of pubs and cafes were the pattern for each city we were in. We moved on from Wexford to Dublin. A city that is a thousand years old. We toured it all, saw Trinity College and the book of Kells, The Temple Bar area and the Guinness storehouse.

This is the Zero Gravity  lounge at the top of the storehouse. We downed a free pint of Guinness while looking out over a 360 degree view of Dublin. AMAZING

Fabulous architecture, something new to see around every corner. All top soon we were back in Belfast and at the airport headed home.

Its just memories now but oh what wonderful memories. I will cherish them. Not often your life long dreams come true. This one did for me and I cannot articulate what that means to me.

Slainte Mhaith!!

Linda

Home From Ireland

Yes I am back, I had the best vacation ever and I have loads of stories and pictures to share. I will be doing a post really soon. Right now I am trying to get my mind back to reality, dealing with a stuffed up nose and rooting through my treasures that I brought back with me.

Best News ever is that while I was away, Miss Mouse and the Farmer welcomes a little Farmer Boy to the family, premature, but healthy and strong, he is a most welcome and wanted addition to our family. I am over the moon happy for them and I cannot wait to see him.

Now I am headed to the shower, then off to run some errands then back home to chill out and try to convince myself that I am back to work tomorrow.

Toodles,
Linda

So Instead of Packing I Did This.....

Teddy Bear is working on redecorating her house, the No Cook group did her kitchen a while ago. Now, while, her daughter and grandsons have gone on holiday, she wanted to get her bedroom done. I had promised her that I would help with the flooring so on Saturday I headed over to lend a hand. Then I went back today to help finish.

She had the first coat of paint on the place so I helped slap on the second coat. It a lovely pale lavender colour or Lilac or whatever you want to call it but its pale, pretty and perfect with her new bedding. She has a lovely embroidery piece that was in her Mom's stuff that started it all. Its lavender, lilac and green. The green matches the chair in her room so off she went.

She pulled out the old  carpet and scraped off the backing that had been glued to the hardwood. Instead of refinishing the hardwood, she, well we, laid hardwood looking vinyl planks. A jig saw, a rubber hammer and off we went.

Once again, my magic photo skillz come into play but this will give you an idea. This is the before and after shot of the floor. Look at all that glue on the hardwood. Its a sin and a shame but that was the fashion 40 year ago. Cover that wood with carpet!!!

The new floor is  very pretty and I think we did a super job for two women who where learning a new skill. I have laid vinyl flooring before but not this kind. Mine glued together, this clicks together.

This is where we had to stop last night because she gave the hardware man the wrong room distentions and we ran out of flooring. We had to wait for today so she could get more. Another bonus, she has a box full she can return.

We even managed the closet. We learned lessons on cutting around things and maybe its not a perfect job but it looks fantastic to us. I came home wishing my bedroom floor was done.

That is the piece of needle work that inspired the room. (What HGTV would call the jumping off point.)The walls are not the colour they appear in the picture, I could not get them to show properly but trust me they are lovely.

So pretty and I am so happy I could help her with it. Its nice to be able to give back my good friends, after all they are so good to me. Can't wait until its all back in place, pictures up, furniture in place. It will be grand!!

Toodles
Linda

Saturday Stuff

Just sitting here, blogging away, sipping on my Tim's coffee and waiting for the cleaning bug to take a chomp out of my butt and send me into the kitchen to start getting my house in order. I do not want to go away and leave a messy house. Not to mention I promised Teddy Bear that I would come over and help her with her bedroom. I like to paint and I want to help her lay the floor. Its new stuff and I am thinking I may like it for my bedroom. So before I get all involved in playing in another house I need to spend some time with my own. I have hardly been home at all this week. Oh dear I digress, I am having coffee, yes that is where I was.

I phoned Amazon again this morning to see why my promised Kindle has not shown up. Well there is a good reason, the nice young man I spoke to, who promised to fix my problem, did not place the order for the replacement. So I have let a week go by, waiting for something to arrive that was never ordered. I really wonder why the universe think I should not have a Kindle. This morning's call, the third one about this situation has yielded me an actual order number and a delivery date. This is some improvement. I have been told it should be here on the 29th. I am holding my breath.........not. I am getting sick of telling my story to now 6 different people at the Amazon help desk.

Kindle problems aside, I am in the home stretch of pre-vacation prep. Doctor's appointment over and done with, and everything is good. We are moving in the right direction with everything but the weight. Sigh......... the weight, its my constant companion. No matter what I seem to do, it lingers and clings and refuses to budge. Oiy!! But on to better news, its nice to know that two sentences can change your whole attitude and thought process. "Oh one of your lymph nodes is enlarged, we need to watch that" has turned into "its going down, I am not worried about it". I have happily gone from total panic to rubber doll relaxed in a heart beat. "Lump" is never something you want to hear your doctor say. Happy Happy Happy that all is well and I can go back to panicking about the flight and not my neck. Having a swift and vivid imagination is not always a blessing.

Today I need to get started at putting the house to rights, starting to organize to pack and then heading over to Teddy Bear's to help out. Maybe I will even do a load or two of laundry. I think my coffee is kicking in so I best make the most of it while the mood lasts.

Later,

Toodles,
Linda

Busy Week

It has been busy around here but that is ok, I like busy. Went to the big City on Sunday, to see Mary Poppins performed at an open air stage. Went with a group of friends and it was fantastic. The play was wonderfully magical. The day was great and we had a lovely time. Good food, good friends, good entertainment makes for some happy times.

Back to work on Monday, getting fried by Mother Nature how thinks hot flashes are extra special fun!! Then I went to a Doctor's appointment on the wrong day so I will try it all over again tomorrow. Really my mind is mush these days. I have been helping Teddy Bear get her room ready for painting and new carpeting. Well by helping I mean I went over one night and looked at the floor and then we went to her friends place to see the colour of her bedroom. Tonight I actually did work, I washed the walls while she scraped glue from the floor and vacuumed up the dust. Then we made a trip to Home Depot for a scraper and came back with a ceiling fan. Don't you love how girls shop??

Tomorrow is Friday, No Cook night and then hopefully I will get my house cleaned up. 9 more sleeps until Ireland and I want to leave a reasonably tidy place. It will be great to come home to a clean and tidy house. I have some last minute details to organize, but on the whole I think I am ok to go. I have nearly everything that I need. Just the last minute bits and pieces to throw together.

 Tonight I am tired, I have been tired every night this week. The night sweats make peaceful sleep a thing of the past. Not permanently I hope, but for now, I would give anything for an uninterrupted sleep. Wish me luck tonight!!

Toodles,
Linda

Adventures in Shopping and Customer Service

I am not an unreasonable person (imo)and I honestly don't think I have outrageous expectations. I will own to being impatient and quick tempered. That being said, I appreciate customer service, good customer service. I really do not like to be mislead. This little song and dance that lead me to being annoyed to beyond endurance began with an impulse. I got a Kindle e-reader at a local pharmacy with my "points". Never wanted one an if I was not going on a dream of a life time vacation, and it had not been on sale and I did not have enough points to cover the cost, I would have gone on my way but I didn't. I bought it, I did not ask questions but I was not told there were any special circumstances or rules when getting said item. Off home I go to set it up.

I charged it up, went through a nightmare of trying to get it organized with out any clear concept of what wi-fi really is. I will give you the readers digest version of the next few hours of my life that ended with me nearly in tears and seconds away from smashing the reader AND the computer to electronic dust. Ok here we go, e-reader says you do not have to connect to wi-fi right away but EVERY THING I WANTED TO DO resulted in the thing asking for a wi-fi connection and a pass word. Quickly reduced to frustration. I then turned to the computer to find out more about wi-fi. Wi-fi is one of those things that I know a little bit about but not a lot. I wanted to know how to get it, where to get it, what it is. I never could quite got the answers. I found lots of invitations to join things and give them personal information, I found lots of deals on all manner of electronic devises created to make my life so much EASIER, more FUN, more CONNECTED and STRESS FREE. No real answers to my questions but I did get my high blood pressure to go up and got a new lesson in restraint at not doing damage to the technology I already own. For a little bonus I got a killer headache and a desperate need to consume alcohol.

The next morning when I unplugged the Kindle and hit the power button to see if it was completely charged, half the screen was dark and the letters distorted and hard to read. OH OH, defect, since its only a day old, I will just return it and get another, simple...no? NO. The first trip to the store garners me the information that they do not usually do returns on those sort of items but I was welcome to come back and talk to the manager who could "maybe" approve such a return. This manager would not be in until today. I returned again today to speak to helpful manager with the power to approve. I was promptly told that: they do not do returns on these "big" items, not store policy you see, even though they do not tell you that when you buy the stuff. Don't be fooled byt the fact that the till slip says "retain the slip for returns within the first thirty days". that does not apply to these "big" items. However I was more that welcome to come back on Monday and talk to the actual real manager with the actual real power to approve a return on this "big" an item. Hmmph. I was miffed most mightily. I did not pitch a fit or make a scene but I did let them know that while they were sorry, so was I because my shopping  there in furture will not be the sames as it has in the past. My good will toward this place has now and forever been tainted. On my way out the clerk said I would probably do better to contact the company through the internet. Oh yes, I am really good on the internet.

I did give it a try and eventually I got the Kindle customer support team to call me. I got to talk to a very sweet man who said all the things he was supposed to but only served to make me even more frustrated. Things like, the store should do the return, you need a wi-fi connection and password, there is nothing he can do without a serial number. God Bless him, he hung in there when I came close to loosing it. He patiently guided me, the frustrated fed up me, through the ins and outs of finding the serial numbers, registering the machine and keeping me calm, all without wi-fi access or a wireless password. The man was a saint.  The lovely folk at Kindle are going to send me a new one, no problem!! I was very grateful and certainly thankful of the young man's help and persistence in finding me a solution.

Then I went to Target to see if I could find a carry-on bag to suit me. No luck. I,  then decided to go to the bank to pick up the money for my trip. Easy  peasey, the bank had called and confirmed it had arrived. I was assured I could pick it up anytime, no problem. Of course it was no problem to pick up, providing that I came back on Monday when the head cashier would actually be working. She has my money, its all locked away safely, no one can access it, not a soul in the bank but her. I need to relearn the English language because to day I learned: pick it up anytime translates to pick it up only when the right person is working and free to help me. So sorry, ma'am, move along, we have customers to tend to.

Thankfully things went a little more up hill for the rest of my day. I got new walking shoes, and I got the material to make my own carry-on bag. They do not make one that suits my fancy. I am not sure why but I have not found one that makes me think, "that would work". Not to mention, the material was a fraction of the cost of buying one. Love a fabric store having an inventory clearance sale. Sweet.

I need a nap

Toodles,
Linda