January 2023 Part Five (Jan 24-Jan27)

January 24 – New and Old things, New and Old Friends…

We got up late on Tuesday morning, but that was okay, we were already sorted for theatre for the evening – but more on that in a minute. Needing sustenance, Lin suggested a place called “Today Bread” for our morning’s brunch (yes, we’d gotten up that late!). To be fair, this wasn’t generally my kind of place. This is the kind of place where everything is produced on the premises and it felt a bit “hipsterish” for me upon entering, but hey, I’ll give anything a shot (remember my “capacity to enjoy absolutely everything”).

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January 2023 Part Four (Jan 21-Jan 23)

January 21 – Once more unto the Breach

Weirdly, in past times, this is where my trip would start. I would arrive in London for a week of theatre and museums and being able to understand what I overhear on public transport and in coffee shops. This time, I had two weeks of travel behind me so I felt like I was at a slight disadvantage energy-wise.

Lin, however, was not to be deterred!

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January 2023 Part Three (Jan 16-Jan 18)

January 16 – Magic!

To be perfectly honest, today was one of the big highlights of the trip, something I had been looking forward to with much anticipation. Today was the day Troy was coming to get me and we were going to Disneyland!

We’d discussed this over the past few months, me explaining I really wanted to see Star Wars and Avengers stuff and anything else would be a bonus. He agreed. We decided on getting a 1-day, park hopper pass (the two things were in different parks) and then we figured that the 17th of January, the day after the MLK holiday, would be ideal (and also, the least expensive) day to go.

Of course, once we knew the dates, I contacted a few friends to see if there was anything else we could do. For example, Troy had never been to the Magic Castle, so I called my friend Michael, who’s a member, and asked if he was free to join us. He was. So we made plans.

And now the day was finally here!

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January 2023 Part Two (Jan 10-Jan 15)

January 10 – It all disappears… like Vegas in the rain…

Tuesday morning I woke up early and started making myself breakfast before I ventured outside. Good thing, too, since the alarm was on and even though the folks had left me a note with the code on it, I didn’t see it (and even if I had, I had no idea how to use the alarm system. So, thankfully, mom got up, helped me find the various things I needed to finish making my eggs and coffee and then showed me how to turn off the alarm so I could venture out back to get started with what was my main purpose for this trip.

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January 2023 Part One (Jan 6-Jan 9)

For the start of this story, we need to step into the “way back machine” all the way to 2010. Back then, due to circumstances, I had been applying for jobs in Europe. One of the gigs I applied to was teaching English to kids in Hungary. I got the job and the deal was I had a one-year contract with a mutually agreed upon possibility of a 1 year extension.

So in the late summer of 2010, I packed up most of my worldly belongings, shoved them into a storage shed (originally a pay as you go deal and then in my folks’ backyard) and headed off into parts unknown.

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The Coming of the Tree

It started a couple of days ago.

Even though we’re non-religious, Rasa loves the Christmas season. She loves decorating the house and putting up the tree and doing all the stuff associated with the holiday. At least the non-secular version. To be fair, when I was a kid, I really loved going to friends’ houses to help them decorate their trees. It’s a great family thing.

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Palanga Trip 2022

After our recent trip to England, we weren’t sure we’d get another chance to go anywhere this summer. Rasa certainly wanted to maybe take a day trip to the beach, or we could hit the labyrinth park again, or really, just anything to get out of the house. Thing is, with the economy the way it is, not to mention our work schedules, it just didn’t seem likely anything major would happen.

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And so it ends – England 2022 #6

Day 7 – June 30

Thursday was the last day we had anything planned or pre-booked. Today’s adventures were a boat ride to explore the “Jurassic Coast” and then meeting up with Rasa’s colleague Dai and his wife. The boat was leaving from Poole, a little bit further along the coast than Bournemouth (where we had been a few days earlier and where we would be meeting up with Dai) and since it had a precise departure time, so did we.

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The World of Peppa Pig – England 2022 #5

Day 6 – June 29

Honestly, today was the day around which this entire trip had been planned. Today was the day we were going to Paultons Park, home of Peppa Pig World. I’m not sure where we first heard about it, but once we did know it existed, Monki was determined to get us there. The park was about 20 minutes from where we’re staying and I was determined to get there early, like when the park opened, not having faith that it wouldn’t be crowded like Legoland was.

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Something Fishy – England 2022 #4

Day 5 – June 28

Tuesday, after Legoland, was supposed to be a rest day. In our planning, we knew we’d have been going strong for several days, sleeping in four different places in 5 nights, and so we figured that we’d take it easy before heading off to Peppa Pig world on Wednesday.

Except…

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