Before we go on, just a note to say this is a long webpage. Hope you make it through it all. Onward.
The occasional webcam
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Hello again - we're back. Sadly, we are becoming less motivated to write these updates, perhaps in part because we have become acclimated to our new way of life here. Perhaps that's a good thing. Perhaps not, as soon we will have to return from our visit to Wonderland and start living in the real world again. At least you'll all be there with us. And that will be good.
Before we go on, just a note to say this is a long webpage. Hope you make it through it all. Onward. |
The occasional webcam |
First off, our sincere wishes for a very happy and healthy year for all of you - even if you didn't just celebrate Rosh Hashanah. Perhaps this year we can reduce the amount of crap going on in the world by just a little bit. Perhaps.
Secondly, some family news. Sadly, my (Toby's) uncle Max died a few weeks ago. (Dad's sister Doris' husband.) He was 89 and thankfully, healthy until the end. As with Tom's Uncle David who died last year, it still makes us feel far away. So we send our love back home and join you in spirit. I'll say my good-byes at Thanksgiving, although it won't be the same without his brilliant smile or his tolerant looks when I snitch food.
On a happier note, Tom's sister became a celebrity by challenging President Bush. That's right, my sister participated in a meeting with the president and 16 rabbis from around the country. She's the only one who really challenged Bush (about child care) and pretty much got the brush off from him. Not only that, but apparently he called all the other rabbis by their surnames (all men), and chose to call my sister "Amy". Click here for the story. Anyway, that makes us all one degree of separation from the president. Not sure that's an honor....
And a quick plug for dad who has left Dana Farber and is now a licensed realtor working for Century 21 in their Natick/Framingham office. Looking for a house in the area? Selling a house in the area? He's your man - click here to go to his realty office's website. Congrats dad - and good luck!
Since our last update, we've had a couple of visitors, seen some plays and some movies and taken a trip to Ireland - finally! But that was just last week, so hold on while we fill you in on the little stuff.
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The first happening was a meeting with Jon Baggott in London. Jon worked with me at Interleaf for about 8 years or so. Actually, Jon was born in England but raised in New England and just became a US citizen a few years back. I used to rag on him for spelling things funny (like ageing instead of aging) and saying things like 'bloody hell' even though he'd been in the US since he was a tot. But now it seems we've changed places. He was here for a family wedding and said he could never live here permanently while I just love it here and use British expressions all the time. Anyway, we spent a nice day in London walking around and catching up. There's a picture of us by the telephone booth I used to call the Abarbanels - our dinner dates that night.
The Abarbanels (family friends we've mentioned before) were here for some holiday, a conference, and Mayer Wantman's unveiling (we mentioned his death a year ago). We met them for dinner since we were conveniently in London and as an added bonus they had Dolly Rosenberg with them. The Rosenbergs lived around the corner from me growing up and I can't remember the last time I saw her. Always good to catch up.
That week, Tom and I were both sick (I got my cold from Tom!). Unfortunately, Tom was in London working a conference while I got to stay home from work one day. British daytime t.v. is crap. Although I did get to see Charlie's Angels and 15 minutes of Little House on the Prairie. Wouldn't you know it was a 'to be continued' episode! I still don't know if the little boy was able to afford a Christmas gift for his mom. Or if Mr. Ingalls got back in time for Christmas. Or if Nellie finally understood that Xmas wasn't all about who got the most presents. Did any of you see the next episode????
The following weekend, Joan Abarbanel came to Oxford for a conference at one of the colleges and we had the pleasure of her company on Saturday night when she joined us and Sharon and Steve at a performance of the play "They Play What I Wrote". It's a comedy based on the duo Morecambe and Wise (or Eric and Ernie) who became famous back in the 50's. It was a lot of corny jokes and slap sticky humor, but very well done. It's really a play within a play of sorts, and there is always a famous special guest. Our night it was Adam Cooper - the ballet dancer, once a principal with the Royal Ballet. I was hoping to get someone like Kenneth Branagh, Dame Edna, or Sting (all of whom have done it), but Adam was really good. If you've seen Billy Elliot, he plays the grown up Billy at the very end of the movie. (If you haven't seen Billy Elliot, go rent it.)
The St. Aldates Carnival came to town that week also - a fair set up in the streets of Oxford city center that was really amazing considering it was a moving fair and set up so close to the city buildings. There were some really (REALLY) scary looking rides and the usual fair arcade type games. We didn't end up on any of the rides (perhaps showing our age, just a bit) but we did get some good greasy food for dinner and Tom did win me a few stuffed animals. My man!
For Tom's birthday last year, I gave him a one day fly fishing lesson with a famous British fly fisherman, Charles Jardine, which didn't happen until last month but which (he says) was great fun. Tom says: a group of about 20 of us had a good day of fishing on some 'gin-clear' lakes stocked with trout. I landed one, threw him back and then almost landed another. Beautiful day to be out fishing - perhaps in the spring I'll do more of it.
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We went to London again, this time North London to have lunch at Tom's cousin Margot's. Her son Alastair was there with his wife Sylvia and their adorable little girl Costi. We hadn't met Sylvia before or spent any time with them so it was a really nice afternoon. Check out Costi's eyes in the photo. Gorgeous. Yummy lunch too - thanks Margot!
And after a year and a half we have finally had a proper, non-pub Sunday Roast. Sharon invited us over with Trevor and Autumn for the home cooked meal which was delish! You can bet I'll be making some Yorkshire Pudding when we get home. (Yeah, me. Not Tom. Me.) After lunch we went for a little walk around the village where the boys picked up some conkers (horse chestnuts). Back at the house they taught Tom a new game - really a boys schoolyard game - where you poke a hole in the conker and thread a string through it, tying a knot at the other end. Then one by one you take turns hitting each other's conker and trying to get it to break off the string. One person holds his conker still by the string while the other player gets one chance to try and hit it with theirs. Not really that exciting, but fairly amusing. Tom held his own, winning one round. Although I think ultimately Trevor came out on top.
Rich Weiss (the guy who was here before Tom and had our flat) is back for good with his wife Kathy. They went back to Texas for about a year and decided to move back to England permanently. (That'll get our folks worried!) We had dinner with them a few weeks ago and they seem to be settling in nicely. Nice to go out with some Americans for a change - even though most of the conversation still revolved around the Brit vs. American cultural differences. At least this time we agreed on whose way made more sense!
OK. You've suffered through the routine stuff, now you can read about Ireland! We flew to Dublin on October 4th - our first flight with one of the cheap, no frills airlines, RyanAir. No seat assignments and you have to buy your snacks. Still, we got front row seats (exit row) and had no problems. Other than at the airport where I spilled coffee and burned my hand. I bought some antiseptic cream at the airport (it really hurt) and spent the whole flight with a wet paper towel wrapped around my hand. It was a miserable morning, but pretty funny in hindsight. Ask me sometime about how the coffee was taken away at security and then how they asked where it was before we boarded the plane. Amazing. But don't worry, my hand is fine.
Anyway, we landed in Dublin, met Rich (our friend who came traveling with us - was in Scotland with us too), got the hire car, and headed south. We stopped for a quick lunch in Wicklow and then detoured a little to Wexford, where we saw a movie on the town history. Ireland is one of those places with lots of battles and leadership changes and if you don't come prepared, it'll do your head in. Lots of Normans in their past. And Cromwell was everywhere. Below is a picture of an old abbey cemetery (Selskar Abbey) where someone famous who is related to Boston is buried. The name escapes me now.
After Wexford we headed over to Waterford where we spent the night in a lovely B&B. Check out the pretty fall colors on the front of the house! At breakfast on Sunday, Rich tried some black (blood) pudding. Brave Rich.
We spent some time in Waterford Sunday morning - checking out Reginald's tower (the walls are 10 feet thick) and being filmed for tv! I was actually walking over to the camera crew to see what this big line of musicians was for when they walked right past me and over to Tom. Turns out the line was part of a competition to see who would represent Ireland in next year's Eurovision competition. The Eurovision is an annual European song contest that used to be good and now is a big joke. This guy named Terry Wogan does the commentary in England and you should hear the way he makes fun of it. I'm surprised the BBC sanctions it. Each country gets to vote (via people calling in) for their favorite acts and it is totally political - most countries voting for their neighbors. Last year, England didn't get any (NONE) votes - not even from Ireland. More fallout from Iraq..… I voted for Belgium 2 years ago and Ireland last year (mostly because it annoys Tom! Not whom I vote for, but the fact that I do it at all and it costs 25 cents or so). OK. Back to Ireland.
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) Selskar Abbey in Wexford |
) Our b&b in Wateford |
) Reginald's Tower, Waterford |
) Inside Reginald's Tower. Thick walls! |
) Waterford city street |
) Beer kegs in the handicapped parking space |
) The queue for Eurovision auditions |
) Tacky Waterford Crystal |
We did stop at Waterford Crystal on our way out of town, but didn't see anything we wanted. Just not our style, I guess. We made a quick lunch stop in Youghal (pronounced y'all), the fishing village where Moby Dick was filmed, and then headed west to Kenmare where we based ourselves for the next two nights.
Although the roads were better than expected (I think we only actually saw a sheep or cow in the road once), they really weren't meant for speedy driving and everything just seemed to take a long time. Luckily, the scenery was great. Ireland is green. It's flat and farmlike, then mountainy. The coastal villages are really cute. Most with brightly colored buildings so they look well kept even if they aren't.
Kenmare is a very cute town (with nice wool sweater shops) on the west coast, right at the entrance to the Beara Peninsula and close to the Ring of Kerry. We found a B&B right in the center and walked to a pub the first night that advertised folk music. Expecting fiddles, bodhrans and penny whistles, we were sorely disappointed to hear a cover band doing John Denver tunes! Oh well, the Guinness was good.
Given how much time we had spent on the road already, on Monday we opted to drive the Ring of Beara, which is shorter and less touristy than the Ring of Kerry or the Dingle Peninsula which was further north and west. It took us almost all day to go 70 miles, but it was great. Ireland's highest mountain is on the peninsula as well as some really dramatic scenery. Rugged mountains running down the middle of the peninsula with beautiful rocky coasts along the water. They farm mussels out in the bay as well - you can see the floats that hold the lines up in one of the pictures. The coast was stunning, especially on such a nice day. (We had great weather all week with only one day of slight rain.)
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) Beara Peninsula roadsigns |
) Rich, Tom, Toby along the Beara Peninsula |
) Rafts of mussels, Beara Peninsula |
) Don't drive off this small pier! |
) Toby by the sea |
) View from above (Beara Peninsula) |
) Another pretty view |
) Sheep by the road |
) Cow by the road (notice the car side mirror on the left) |
) Quaint town on the Beara Peninsula |
) Another great view (Beara) |
) Natural tunnel in the road |
Tuesday, we stopped by the Torc Waterfall at the Killarney Nat'l Park and went on a little hike through the forest to stretch our legs. We basically climbed up one side of the waterfall and came down the other. Then we stopped by Ross Castle, but it was 40 minutes until the next tour and we decided to head back east to Cork instead. Stopping, of course, at Blarney.
Blarney Castle is a way cool castle. It's mostly ruins, but it just feels castle-like. Plus, if you're a sad tourist like myself, you have to kiss the Blarney Stone and get the gift of eloquence. (Have you noticed how eloquent my writing has become????) It's not easy, but if you're there, you just gotta do it. (Well, not if you are Tom or Rich, you don't.). But I kissed the stone, and Tom kissed me, so he claims to have benefited as well. Not sure I agree. Check out the picture - the stone is in the castle wall below floor level, so you have to lie down and lean backwards over the edge (with the help of a guy who sits there all day helping the sad tourists) holding on to two poles. It actually is a little scary, but you only live once, y'know?
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) A small walk near Torc Waterfall |
) Blarney Castle |
) Blarney Castle, close-up |
) Tom and Rich inside Blarney Castle |
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) The famous Blarney Stone |
) Toby kissing the Blarney Stone |
) View from top of Blarney Castle |
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Wednesday in Cork city was a bit of a disappointment. A sizeable city with nothing too exceptional really. Well, they do make Murphy's Stout there, but the brewery tours weren't running that day. And the butter museum was also closed --- believe it or not, butter was a huge export of Cork in years gone by. We did go to the Church of St. Anne Shandon (1752), where (for a fee) we rang the bells. They have cards with many tunes on them, like "Happy Birthday" and "Oh Canada" and some other classics, and you get to pull the ropes to ring the bells. Kind of amusing, and not all that easy - it does take some muscle. We played happy birthday for Rich, whose birthday was the week before. You can also climb to the top of the bell tower and get a view of the city. They make you wear ear protection when you climb up past the bells.
We also popped down to a coastal town called Kinsale to have dinner with another Abarbanel - Yossi and his wife Lilach. They were coincidentally in Ireland for a barbershop quartet / chorus conference. (Timing is everything.) We had a delicious dinner with good company in a beautiful setting. Would have been nicer to spend more of the day down in Kinsale than in Cork, but who knew?
Off to Cobh Thursday morning to explore the history of all the emigration out of Ireland over the years. Over 2.5 million people left Ireland through this port between 1848 and 1950. Amazing. And, the Titanic and the Lusitania set sail from here. (The Lusitania was hit not too far from shore.) Small town, but one with a lot of history. Rich does have some Irish roots, but unfortunately he didn't have enough info with him for us to do any research. Oh well. Odds are good that at least one of his ancestors passed through Cobh. The picture below of the statue is Annie Moore and her two brothers - the first ever emigrant to be processed at Ellis Island when it officially opened on 1st January 1892. (In the picture, Toby is welcoming her to America.)
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) Ringing the bells in Cork |
) Cork from the top of the belltower |
) Andother view of Cork from the belltower |
) Statue in Cobh commerating the emigrants |
We spent the rest of the day heading up to Dublin, making just a couple of stops along the way. The first was at Cahir (pronounced care) Castle - a 15th century castle belonging most of the time to the Butler family (Cromwell took it over for a while). It was pretty good as far as castles go, but what really made it special was the tour guide. She walked us around the castle and gave us some history while explaining to us how things would have happened - namely an attack on the castle. How they'd need to attack, where they'd have had hot oil poured over them, and all the good stuff. She really made it interesting. Part of the movie Excalibur was filmed there. And it was such a beautiful day we got take away food and ate outside behind the castle. Not bad for Ireland in October!
The next stop was at The Rock of Cashel - mostly an old cathedral (catedral, as the Irish say) on a large mound of limestone. The tour made it pretty interesting, but it couldn't compare with Cahir Castle. Except for the fact that it is on a big hill with a great view. Actually, I thought the coolest part was the fact that people are still being buried there among the ruins. The deal is that if you are a direct descendent of certain families (church members?), you have a right to be buried there. But once the line dies out, that's it. I'm not sure I'd want to spend eternity at a tourist site, but there's something cool about it none the less.
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) Cahir Castle wall with cannonball in it |
) Rich at Cahir Castle |
) Lunch outside the castle |
) Rock of Cashel, cathedral remnants |
) Rock of Cashel |
) looking out from the Rock of Cashel |
We reached Dublin around 7pm and stopped for a quick drink with Tom, Sinead and Bernie - folks from Akzo's Dublin office. Actually, although Tom is the Financial Manager of Akzo Ireland, he spends most of his time in England and has a desk next to mine in the office. My co-workers call him Tom Across The Desk to differentiate him from Tom At Home. The latter, of course, being my husband. Would you believe that as we got to Dublin, Car Talk came on the radio? Turns out they have better radio and better tv in Ireland. (We also caught Mad About You and Everybody Loves Raymond on the tube.)
Friday morning we walked down to St. Stephen's Green (beautiful, large park) and then got on the tour bus. Our first stop was Dublin Castle, which was great. Because of fire, it was rebuilt and is a lot more modern than most castles. Truth be told, it's more of a palace with some Castle-like walls around it. It was really pretty inside and seemed a lot more comfortable than a lot of the older palaces we'd been too. Plus they've recently (due to part of the building collapsing) discovered some more of one of the original castle towers and walls and the moat that ran around it. You can go underground and see it, which is great. They said they found about 300 (?) skulls in the moat. Gross? Or cool? You decide.
We stopped by Christchurch Cathedral but decided to go into St Patrick's Cathedral instead (Jonathan Swift is buried there). It was nice, but dark and not very inspiring to me. The altar was beautiful, but I'm not sure I'd want to worship there. (The Marble Church in Copenhagen is still my favorite.) After lunch, the boys and I split. They went to the Guinness brewery and I went to Kilmainham Gaol (that's how they spell jail here - go figure). I'd been to the brewery last time and I've now seen (and smelled) about as many breweries as I think I need to now.
The jail was great. The tour took about an hour and a half and went through lots of history. Most of the prisoners there were political ones involved in the fight for Ireland's independence from England (finally achieved in 1922 - the jail was closed in 1924). There was terrible overcrowding and rotten conditions. People were shot and hung in the courtyard. We learned about some of the freedom fighters and it actually made a lot of the stuff we'd heard over the week make more sense. Not the really old stuff, that may never all fall into place. But the last 150 years or so. They fought long and hard to become a republic. Charles Stewart Parnell, whose grandfather was Captain Charles Stewart (who commanded the USS Constitution at some point) was imprisoned at Kilmainham for a while for fighting against the English. In the Name of the Father (with Daniel Day Lewis) was filmed there. Unfortunately, Tom had the camera with him so I've got no pictures. But if you're ever in Dublin, I'd highly recommend going. Go for a Guinness when you're done. Any pub will have some.
We met up again and walked around Temple Bar for a while - the happening section of Dublin. Heard some Irish music in a pub, had some dinner, and headed home. Unfortunately, smoking is pretty much allowed anywhere in Ireland (which will hopefully change in January) and it makes the pubs pretty unpleasant at times. Given that we're not big drinkers, we really didn't spend much time in pubs at all. Sad thing to admit, but true.
Saturday we went back into Dublin and walked around Trinity College a bit. Didn't want to spend the money to see the Book of Kells, so we looked at the books in the gift shop instead. Some people probably wouldn't admit that, I know. But it's late, and I'm sick. And it's true. You don't really get to see much of it anyway, and I guess it just didn't have any special significance to us. We also walked down Grafton street - passed the statue of Molly Malone with her fish cart. Apparently, the locals refer to her as 'the tart with the cart'. No picture since there were always too many people around her.
The boys then went off to the Jameson distillery (been there, done that in Scotland, thanks) while I walked around Dublin some more and then we met up for dinner and went home to pack.
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) Symbol of Ireland, seen in Dublin |
) Interesting fountain in Dublin |
) Christchurch Cathedral, Dublin |
) St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin |
) St. Patrick's baptismal well |
) On the Dublin tour bus |
Ireland is really a beautiful country with wonderful people. They were really friendly wherever we went. And the Irish accent is so great! Everything is 'grand', and 'tanks a million'. The only real problem with Ireland is that there isn't really time to see it all in one trip. Well, that and the fact that the food was really not so great. The potatoes were good, but the rest of it was pretty blah. When we first got to England, Ireland was the one place I really wanted to go. And I have to say that I was slightly disappointed, not in Ireland, but in my reaction to it. I think the fact that it is so similar to England in many ways made it not less interesting, but somehow less exciting and new. I felt like I'd been there before. (Pretty little villages with pubs. Lots of sheep and cows and castles. Scenery is a little different, but has a similar feel.) Does that make sense? I'm still hoping to go back and see the rest of the island.
Interesting Ireland facts: The national symbol is the harp, not the shamrock. The current flag of Ireland came into use in the 1920's when Ireland became a republic. The green represents the Catholics, the orange represents the Protestants and the white represents the peace between. I like that.
Next trip - home for Thanksgiving!
No web update would be complete without our list of movie recommendations:
Don't know if this belongs in our movie list or not, but Tom and I finally got to go and see Sing-A-Long Sound of Music. How fun does that sound? Well, that's how fun it was. Much of the audience came in costume (fancy dress, as they call it here) for the competition at the beginning of the show. Mostly as nuns, but some more creative costumes like the goat herder puppet people, brown paper packages tied up with string, the musical notes, and even a warm woolen mitten. The kids were particularly cute and all got sweets. Aside from getting so sing along (words are printed on the screen like subtitles), you get to do other things like:
It's really pretty funny. Only downside is that it is a 3 hour movie, and by the end, you're ready to go. The costume contest and the instructions / warm up take an hour and there's an intermission, so it is a long night.
We also went to see Kate Rusby again - we went about a year ago for the first time and loved her. She's from Barnsley, Yorkshire and sings mostly traditional / traditional style English songs with the most gorgeous voice. If you can understand her accent, she's really very funny (despite having only one happy love song). We highly recommend her cd's.
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Tom's been working hard on his family tree. Lots of holes to fill, an endless (but interesting) task, he says. Click the picture at left to see a cool picture of his grandfather Louie in Paris in 1928. Cool outfit, huh?
Lastly, Toby's gambling update. Basically, I've been 'level pegging', as they say here. Breaking even. I may have lost £4 since our last update (3 months?), but that's it. No great gambling worries here.
Bits & BobsAnd there you have it for this report.
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