S,
Well, our best laid plans, plaid lans? to get to Ireland fell through: NON finally rented the car (finally) a week before we're to leave. And though there was ferry space yesterday morning to Belfast, by afternoon it was full....
You really need a schedule well in advance in order to travel. Otherwise it's extortion. Other sailings are 300 quid. More than $600!!! Not the time to travel to Ireland...I told him that but he was determined to go... the cost is making him pause. We leave in one week (23rd) for Boston.
We thought about staying longer to justify the cost. But to stay an extra week and change our Boston ticket is 200 quid ($400) each!
Exchange rate is less than $2.00 to the pound. The cost of living is far greater than I expected. So a pound is the equivalent to a dollar in buying power. I heard the inflation's much worse in Ireland. So we're cash poor...NONs family gave him a carload of pounds for his birthday and for car rental...so I've been giving him dollars in exchange so I don't have to trade in my money.
My cash stash is getting low but I still have traveler's checks and once we're stateside, I can use credit cards again. I should have enough in my account but it's getting low. And by Aug 1, you'll have deposited my check so I can pay off the rest of my AMEX bill.
They use micro chip cads here...sometimes you can find a place to swipe a card but not usually. Too much identity theft has done away with traditional credit cards. eating out is akin to highway robbery and most of the food sucks--even Chinese food.
I've been extremely careful and avoid the heavy sugar/carb syndrome whenever possible. But it rankles me to pay $50 for a paltry meal that's awful so I try to not eat out...but they're all keen on it here. Luckily we haven't had to pick up too many food tabs. The only fabulous meal we had was in Edinburgh, Italian.
I prefer home cooking any day but most everybody's into the prefab food thing. The only fabulous home cooked meal I had was in Inverness (salmon!!!) C's daughter.
The Highlands travel was pretty much a bust as C drinks like a fish and then won't drive for 20 hours after the night before so it was a lot of hurry up and wait... first AM in EB, I actually burst into tears after waiting around from 8 AM to 3 PM to go to the highlands....so needless to say, we drove up to Inverness but didn't see much.
Next time, we're jettisoning C at her daughter's...if there is a next time. Neil and C are too alike in wasting time...he hated it, and was pissed off at her...saying money has spoiled her...true she does have an abundance of it... but they're both willful and undisciplined when it comes to getting out and going.
I did get a brief 10 minutes in the new museum in Edinburgh and saw my beloved Pictish stones...so when we returned from the Highlands, we managed another hour in the exhibit. It was amazing seeing all the torcs and weaponry as well as the stones...so much of it I'd only seen in books.
When you come to Ireland, try & line up a place to stay beforehand, It's super expensive for B&B-50-90 pounds a night!!! Maybe I can join you. Gary Mullan would put us up but he's in Wicklow.
A friend is taking a course at Trinity. I'll see if I can get her info too. we will need credit cards with microchips though... Cell phones with pay per use are doable. If we both have o2 then we can call each other for free...or is it text? Calls are 35P a minute (about $75 c..)
Anyway. it's 11 Am, a grey, soup day, I'm sitting in the car sipping tea near my rock in the field below Neil's mum's council flat in Johnstone waiting to find a moment to transmit this email--only there's no service from the car--though it's right next to the rock, So I'll type in text edit and see if I can get reception later. Will probably have to sit on my little rock in the rain so I won't stay long.
In the land of Starbucks, my Peet's flask in serving me right well indeed. I load up with tea in the am and can transport it out to the field, for example. It is nice to sit here, away from the house and write a leisurely, if boring email to you...been wanting to write for days but wifi hotspots are few and far between. I understand now the significance of iPhone, being able to get on the web is critical here.
Neil's doing the usual crabbitting with me because he's depressed and wonders why I rile right back at him...but the negative speech acts are so deeply ingrained, from his mother (and father), he isn't even aware of them...but I've noticed that he doesn't use them on others ... So there are two languages here, one for the world where one is magnanimous and gregarious, and one used in the home to put people in their place, cut to the quick, etc.
I've heard her use it on Neil (and me too...really the longest conversations I've had with her are when she's displeased about something...she asks in the most genteel tone but you come away burning. A T (we saw her last week) said the best result is to smile and NOT let her know she's gotten your goat... (she gave me the other car key for her old Honda Civic too).
I need to surf and research Long Lock, next to Loch Lomond...the fierce glaciated mountains of Argyll are what I've been looking for all along.... here it is, practically at my back door but do ya think anyone would have thought to take me there? No they all like the endless low rolling lands that drive me mad.
I began to despair that I'd ever see any of the fabled Scottish mountains. I began to think they were a myth. None in Inverness either. Mostly like the moors of Point Reyes for miles and miles and miles.... and nobody actually looks at the landscape, they talk their way though it and so there's no opportunity to stop or take photos.
I hate drive-by touristing. D and M's husband A actually step on it and sped by the scenic portions! and I'm usually stuck in the back, carsick... Ayr and Galloway were a blur of overgrown leafy roads... I get that trees grow here, I want to see Iron age forts, standing stones...and they're completely indifferent.
We only found the mountains because I insisted on going up this road I found on a map...Neil's never been to many places including the lochs near Helensborough where the nuclear facility is....very mysterious. Anyway Loch Long is pretty cool, for a sea loch. I had to throw a tantrum to get him out of the car at Dumbarton Rock on the Clyde (Google Earth some of these places, they're amazing.)
Well, my tea's nearly done, my battery low, so I'll sign off...Can't send you the Onset address until I get online...Gmail does not save mail to the hard drive...I have to be online to retrieve any messages....something like 339 Onset Ave, Onset MA. Talk soon.
xxooo
yer cousin Mohead
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