The reason this blog has been silent for a while is that I have been in Ireland. I'm now in the Shannon Airport killing time before my flight to Boston. Dr. M and I had to drop the rental car off at ten a.m. this morning. Our flight is at 1:30. We gave ourselves two and a half hours to get to the airport, left a half hour early, and got here in 90 minutes, meaning that we've had, and still have, a lot of time to kill. Dr. M is reading a trashy novel she picked up at a second-hand book shop (that's what they call used book stores over here), and I'm taking a break from God Emperor of Dune to use up some of our Euros on some Internet action.
Expect a horseload of photos when we're back in the states and settled in, along with a lot of stories and snarky comments about the way they do things over here. For now, I'll just say that our animal encounters in the land of Erin have been very pleasant. There are sheep for days over here and they don't mind if you stare at/photograph them (though they tend to scamper if you get too close). At one guest house, there was a dog who stole my slipper right off my foot, which was a whole ordeal but very amusing, and at one of the sweater shops on one of the charming little islands we found a kitten napping amongst the merchandise. The kitten hung out on Dr. M's lap for a while before the owner of the shop told us that the kitten had to go, which was understandable but also sad. I didn't encounter any animals crawling on the walls of any of our accomodations, which is always a positive.
The Euro cents, they are a-ticking. Seacrest out.
You bring slippers with you on vacation? Do you also pack a smoking jacket? This is a whole unexpected Giles kind of a side to you.
i take slippers with me on trips within the US. i've never done it abroad, but i prob would if i was going somewhere that might be cold. huh. i think i've only ever traveled to foreign parts in the summer.
...the kitten had to go where? OUTSIDE?! ON THE MEAN STREETS?!!
i'm looking forward to photos! i want to go to ireland. :)
I acquired the slippers specifically for the trip, actually. I don't wear slippers in real life. We stayed at a lot of country guest houses and I wasn't sure we'd always have our own bathroom (we did).
I notice you don't address the hot-button kitten issue, however.
This must seem very off-topic - but could you tell me who the woman on the top right of your banner is? She's quite the looker.
That would be Adriana Lima.
I am woman enough to address the hot topic.
The kitten was about 6 months old and looked to be a part of an island cat family we already ran across in our exploration of Inishmor, the largest of the Aran Islands. It was clearly homeless, but also clearly well fed and super friendly. I was forced to bring it outside and leave it, but I swear to you that, were we in the US, that kitten would have been coming home with me. As it was, it didn't seem too perturbed by losing it's wooly refuge.