July 2 – Day 5
One of the other places we wanted to visit was Balos Beach. This is the location of the pale green, almost crystal waters you’ve seen in all the adverts. It was also someplace Rasa’s friend had been to last year when she visited Crete. The only problem seemed to be it was down another long slope from a high mountain parking area. Since we’d just done this, we wondered if maybe there was another way.
Continue reading “Seasick Mermaids – Crete 2025 – Part 3”June 30 – Day Three
We were to meet the car rental representative in the hotel lobby at 9:00 a.m., so we arrived bright and early at 8:55. He showed up promptly, and there was no problem signing all the paperwork. Honestly, one of the easiest car rentals I’ve ever done. The only issue came when we had to pay for it, and he couldn’t take cards. Of course, they never told us this. If they had, we could have gotten the money while we were out the day before (or even brought it with us). Instead, I took the car into town, following our rep to an ATM. I got the cash, paid for the car and headed back to the resort. The fun here was that I don’t usually drive. Rasa is the driver in our family. It had probably been a couple of years since I’d been behind a wheel, so driving a manual transmission up the narrow, windy 2km back to our place was a little nerve-wracking (not as nerve-wracking as driving in the UK a few years ago, but still…). I made it back safely and met the girls in the restaurant for breakfast.
Continue reading “Caves and Hearts – Crete 2025 – Part 2”June 28 – Day 1
There were a number of options for our annual summer break this year. So many, in fact, that it took us a while to finally settle on going back to Crete for a second year in a row. Remember, we also went last year, with my folks, right after Monki’s birthday. This year, we’d booked another all-inclusive for the week before her birthday, at a different resort in a different part of the island (Crete is the 88th largest island in the world). We also decided to rent a car this time, to get out and explore a bit more.
Continue reading “Back Again – Crete 2025 – Part 1”Tuesday January 14
Today was the day I’d been waiting for! Today was Pompeii. Weirdly, today was also a late day. We wouldn’t be docking until around 13:00 (1pm) so when I went down for breakfast it turned out, they were actually serving brunch. Wild. Although it wasn’t really since the more traditionally afternoon tidbits weren’t actually going to be served until after 11:00. Anyway, before eating, I made a stop at the excursions desk. See, the way I figured it, after Genoa, I decided I’d rather have a guided tour than strike off on my own. In a city where I was staying and not under a time deadline, it would be fine, but knowing I had to get back to the boat by a certain time, just filled me with a particular panic. Thus it seemed best to get it sorted. I booked myself on a city tour for Palermo, which included seeing the opera house. But more on that in the next day’s entry, when it actually took place.
Continue reading “Cruising the Med – January 2025 – Part Two”Pre-Trip
My January trips are something I look forward to every year. The past few years I’ve headed off to London to see theatre and hang out with friends, which is amazing. Then last year, at the very last moment, I had to cancel my trip because the girls had Covid and while I felt fine and was testing negative, I couldn’t in good conscience leave them.* So no trip for me in 2024.
Then, with January of 2025 rapidly approaching, I knew I should start planning my trip. At first I thought about returning to London, but some things there had changed and while there were still shows and friends to see, I wasn’t sure I wanted to go. So I kept hemming and hawing and dragging my feet about the whole thing.
Continue reading “Cruising the Med – January 2025 – Part One”
We like to take day trips. It’s fun to jump in the car and go off exploring parts of Lithuania we’ve never seen before. Or at least parts which some of us have never seen before. Interestingly, I’ve probably seen more of the little out of the way places than either Rasa or Monki. All of which brings us to this past weekend, when Rasa decided we should take a little trip to Anykščiai.
Continue reading “Anykščiai – Ten Years Later”July 18
Thursday was the day we had booked for our big excursion. But when we woke up, Monki was still feeling the effects of her exciting night, so she decided she wasn’t up for a long bus ride and Rasa was going to stay with her. Fair enough.
We all went to breakfast together and got our pre-packed box lunch from the resort to take with us (yup, all-inclusive means if you let them know you’re going to be away for lunch, they’ll send you along with a pre-packed meal). Then we said good-bye, asked for a ride down to the bottom of the hill and away we went.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 3”July 16
We had such a good time the night before that most of us slept late on Tuesday morning. I say most, but not me. I was up early as always so I went out and read on the patio. By the time we all finally made it down for breakfast, they were closing the place up. We were the last ones there and there wasn’t much food left.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 2”Prologue
It’d been a while since the folks had seen Monki and she had seen them outside of a video screen. Sure, we facetime’d regularly, but nothing beats actual face time. Since we didn’t know what Rasa’s vacation schedule was going to be like this summer, it seemed better all-around for them to come this way. So they made plans to head out over the summer to celebrate Monki’s birthday with her.
Continue reading “Crete Trip July 2024 – Part 1”
Back in January, when I was in London with Lin, we were lucky enough to attend an after-show party of Mother Goose, the Panto with Ian McKellan. It was a ton of fun and on the way home, Lin asked me if I didn’t miss it. I replied that I did, but I really didn’t want to go back to it full-time. It was fine to enjoy it piecemeal, every now and again.
Continue reading “Comic Con Baltics – 2023 Edition”
We needed a vacation, this much was certain. So far, we’d been having a summer of uncertainties. We had been looking for a place to buy, but prices were soaring, way above what they should have been, so we were stuck in a holding pattern there. Rasa was working on finishing the details for her defense of her dissertation and Monki had graduated from first grade, but now we were looking at different summer camps and things for her to keep her occupied for the summer.
Continue reading “Šventoji – Summer 2023 – Part 1”
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.
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…
Prologue
Back in February or March, Rasa was informed of a conference in her field coming up in Manchester, England at the end of June. We talked it over and decided it would be a good idea to go. It would be her first in-person conference as a PhD student (due to the pandemic) and was scheduled to include a number of big names in her field as participants, including her unofficial supervisor (whom she would be able to meet in person for the first time).
My time working on Comic-Con Baltics 2022 started with working on Comic-Con Baltics 2020, when I interviewed RJ Mitte to announce his attendance. Of course, then COVID hit and everything was postponed.
Then postponed again. And again.
Continue reading “Comic Con Baltics 2022”
Getting the Hang of Thursdays 