Learn any new languages lately? To my flabbergastation, that’s what it felt like we were doing when we toured the UK – learning a new language: English. British English, that is. Considerably different than American English, let me tell you. Here’s a small sample from my growing colloquial collection. Say, how’s about we don froo-froo ...
Abbey Robe
As innocent and historically ignorant as spring lambs, we arrived at Glastonbury Abbey, a 7th century monastery in Somerset, England. The Abbey once boasted the richest and most powerful monastery in England, and was the hub of activity in a large swath of surrounding countryside. Until crotchety ole Henry VIII, probably in a vile snit ...
My Tattoo
I sat through a tattoo. Not the kind painfully etched into your skin with ink, no, a military tattoo in Edinburgh, Scotland. A royal one at that. This kind of “tattoo” is defined as a display of armed forces and musical performance. It was an elegant, dignified, flashy affair dating back to 1949, complete with ...
Nekked in London
(Continued; scroll back to part 1, “My Year at the Airport”) So after much ado, we finally made it to London. Our luggage, however, had been distributed among the multiple airports we’d been rerouted to at some point thus far on our ill-fated journey. “We really don’t know where it is,” the Heathrow airline agent ...
My Year at the Airport
I was so excited, my toes tingled. My husband Chuck and I were headed to a 15-day UK tour with my sister Cindy and her husband Jim to celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. We envisioned regal red-coated guards in fuzzy black helmets, delicious breakfast scones with clotted cream, bagpipes and kilts in the Scottish highlands. ...
Hidden Bonus
A recent Associated Press article grabbed my eye. It was titled, “Sit All Day? Find Time for an Hour’s Walk.” See, the thing is, I’m whatever the step is beyond ADD and am afflicted with a sitting attention span of about 20 minutes. Not really a good thing for a writer. After a while, my ...
Overcome
It was Thanksgiving. My extended family had gathered from far and wide around the food-laden table: grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, cousins, siblings, my dear husband and our own beloved children. The souls most precious to me in all the world. Noisy, messy, hungry, healthy, happy. The fact that we were all there together went straight ...
Collared by Choice
My pooch Fenway wears a – wait for it – Boston Red Sox collar. Bet you didn’t see that one coming, huh? He didn’t choose this particular collar, in fact, he much prefers a nekked neck, But because his human daddy is a diehard Sox fan, Fenway received, for his first Christmas in our fam, ...
God-Bumps
I get God-bumps every time my friend Rachael tells me about the miracle in her son Javin’s life. Thirteen years ago, Javin was born deaf. Rachael, a single mom, first noticed that something was wrong with her baby when he was an infant. Very wrong. Medical and hearing tests by various specialists at two months ...
Multitasking Master
The other day in my backyard I was wiping sweat out of my eyes, a filthy hand spade in one hand and muddy phone in the other, as I simultaneously weeded my garden and participated in a live computer program tutorial. Everything was just peachy until a dadgum bee decided my face resembled a chrysanthemum ...