Almost Too Late, The First Entry

10 July

The BW Rosslare Harbour suffers from an appalling lack of guest information. They give you the access code for their wireless broadband but they don't tell you that you have to buy a voucher from the reception desk. I'm in my PJs already so I guess this post will wait until tomorrow.

They also said on their website that all their rooms were on one floor. I assumed that meant they were on the ground floor. Wrong. All the rooms are on the floor above ground floor. So I had to hike myself up the stairs twice (once to put my stuff down, and once after dinner), and my knees are telling me they didn't like that at all. Besides, at the end of this hallway is a small staircase leading to the rest of the rooms. So they aren't strictly on one floor.

I forgot plug converters. Damn. The only thing with a UK plug is my iPod speakers. At least that will charge up. The TomTom and the phone will charge from the car. The Macbook is out of luck.

I also wish I'd brought my travel pillow. Would have worked really well on the ferry.

I left at about 4:45 AM and exactly four hours later I crossed the Severn River. (5.30GBP for a toll, ouch!) Other than a snack and petrol stop at Michael Woods Services, I went straight through and arrived at 11:06 AM... almost four hours early. I snoozed in the car with the iPod until they moved us into position for the ferry, and then for the next 90 minutes or so I watched the "tugs" load and unload the lorry trailers. I never realized that the drivers don't always accompany their loads; sometimes they just drop the trailer at the port and the tugs hook them up and put them on, and their counterparts take them off on the other side.

I asked for enough space to get out of the car, since the last time I was on an Irish ferry they parked me so close to the wall that I had to damage the door to get out. They gave me a handicapped spot right next to the elevator. How nice. They make you turn on your emergency flashers as you drive through and that tells all the parking people that you get special handling.

I was waiting next to a tour bus that had parked perfectly so that a sign blocked the name on the side of the bus, but the color striping on the side looked an awful lot like the Globus Gateways tour bus that Dad and I rode around exactly 18 years ago. I flagged the tour guide and asked him if it was the Globus two-week England/Ireland/Scotland/Wales tour, and he said it was, and I told him how much I'd enjoyed the same tour in 1990. What a fun coincidence. I wish Dad was still alive; he would have enjoyed hearing that the tour was still on, and reminiscing about what we did and where we went.

The ferry ride was pretty calm, considering that we'd had some pretty heavy rain going through Wales. A little pitching now and then, but nothing I couldn't handle.

So tomorrow, a leisurely journey to Macroom. I'll need to stop and buy a plug converter for the MacBook somewhere.

13 July

In Macroom (or rather, the environs). Of course I can't find anywhere to get a plug converter. The computer is at 82%. Lisa is trying to find the password for her wifi modem so I can get connected. But I still think I'll have to go into town or even to Cork to get what I need tomorrow.

We drove out to the country yesterday and saw the Bamboo Gardens and wandered around a gift shop. Glengariff is the name of the town. Mostly we sat and had coffee and/or tea and talked. This is fine with me; I knew before I came that this would be one of those trips where I just sat with my feet up and schmoozed. I'm trying to be unobtrusive, as much as possible, and keep all my stuff contained in the suitcase and the Ziplock bag in the bathroom.

I do like travel. It breaks me out of my rut. And Nancy has shown me that I can do a lot more than I think I can, so I'm willing to try climbing over things and walking around. The one thing I can't do is put weight on my left knee. I also have to be careful about taking the anti-inflammatories. I forget those and suddenly it is painfully clear how much I've been using my knees and heel and sciatic nerve.

I slept like a rock last night. I know someone came downstairs but I don't remember much else. They said they fed the cats a bit because one of them was making a fuss but I never heard a thing. The one thing about this place is how quiet it is. If I had someone to live with, I could probably do it, but if I were here alone it would take a lot of getting used to and I would probably have the radio going 24 hours a day.

We saw a one-woman show last night in Cork, a woman named Karen Underwood. She's an African-American woman from Chicago who relocated to Cork with her family and fell in love with an Irish woman and changed her life around. It made an impression on me but probably not what she wanted to make. I thought it was very thought-provoking, but I'm not sure what thoughts I want to share about it just yet.

[Later] Lisa and I drove into Macroom and did some shopping and wandering around. We spent a few hours having lunch (at 2:30) and talking in the hotel bar. Nice place, Macroom. I could probably live somewhere this small but no smaller. I'd guess it's about the size of Northallerton or Knaresborough.

Unfortunately, Anne turned off Lisa's modem, and just turning it back on again didn't reestablish the wifi connection. Lisa already went to bed and I didn't want to yell up the stairs for her to give me the password again, so I'm writing this offline again. At least she found a small transformer with an American 3-prong grounded socket in it so I have a full charge on the MacBook. When I'm through here I will disconnect it so no one falls over the cord in the night. The cottage is under construction (unemployed Lisa doing most of the work) and there are only a few sockets that function.

America's first gay Anglican bishop made the news tonight when his sermon at the Lambeth bishop's gathering was heckled. I was surprised to hear the English give the heckler the "slow clap" (a show of displeasure) until he was escorted out. They had a sound bite from a traditional Anglican who gave the usual pap about how introducing homosexuality was undermining "the great Christian tradition of the family" and worried about the sanctity of the marriage sacrament. I was so mad I wanted to throw something at the TV. What part of "love one another" don't these people understand? Do they really think that being openly gay makes someone a bad leader or bad Christian? Argh...

We had tacos tonight made with the corn tortillas I brought with me. They were really good -- the tortillas are much better than I expected they would be -- but it was funny how much I missed the beef. Anne is a vegetarian, and I can eat vegetarian and enjoy it (I will do that if I want to stay awake after lunch), but somehow tacos need to have the seasoned meat in them.

Tomorrow is Monday (I'm just reminding myself) and Anne goes to work tomorrow morning. I may take Lisa somewhere, or I may just take myself off somewhere and give her some breathing room for a few hours. I've really enjoyed their company but I don't want to crowd them. I will probably leave early Wednesday and dawdle my way back to Rosslare, where I will spend the night before getting on the 8:45 AM ferry. Arrive at Pembroke at about 1:00 PM, drive home and pick up the cats. And then to work on Friday.

I'm going to bed myself.