A Bit O' Blarney

“Season of Winter”

Remembrances: I write this month’s blog with a heavy heart. The most significant event of recent months has been the loss of my dear friend Emily, who was killed in a tragic hit-and-run incident. We will make a visit home in late March to honor her beautiful legacy of faith and kindness. The loss has made me feel far away from home.

We also joined my sister-in-law Anne and niece Sarah at the memorial service in Birmingham for Anne’s beloved mum Edna.

Julian Alps, Slovenia: We started the New Year on a lighter note. We traveled with my nephew Daniel and his wife Mya to Slovenia and had a lovely time with them at Lake Bled and Ljubljana. One of the highlights was visiting Postojna Cave with its underground train. It was like being on Big Thunder Mountain at Disneyland but in a 15-mile cave system.

A Night at the Opera, Paris. We were invited by an opera singer friend to watch her sing in Paris, so we popped across the channel. While it all sounds very cultured, we’re really posers. My mom went to music conservatory and was a legit opera fan. When she retired, we say she became an opera groupie, playing host to visiting opera singers. Years ago, she invited us to an opera and dinner with the cast. Eric and I watched opera talk ping pong across the table between my then 70-year old mom and the cast, in their twenties, while we sat silent as the opera illiterates. Vivica Genaux was one of those singers, who moved to Italy and went on to make a name for herself in the opera world. Our friendship is owing to the lovely friendship between our moms. 

Visiting Vivica and the Newly Re-opened Notre-Dame Cathedral

Winter Oasis, Morocco: Last year Eric’s idea of a winter escape was to go to the coldest outpost of northern Norway. This year, in contrast, we followed the sun to the Sahara Desert in Morocco. It was a welcome change of scenery, although it did rain in the Sahara. We kinda feel like Pigpen bringing a little rain cloud from Ireland 🌧️ everywhere we go.

Beatles, Liverpool: One can hardly live in England without paying homage to the Beatles. We took a tour of Liverpool, which was quite interesting. One of our favorite landmarks was Penny Lane, or more accurately the Penny Lane bus stop, which served as inspiration for the iconic lyrics. The Beatles could make a clever turn of phrase from the most mundane setting.

“In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
of every head he’s had the pleasure to have known”

“On the corner is a banker with a motorcar”
“And the banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain, very strange.”
(A mac or Macintosh is named after the inventor of the waterproof material/raincoat.)

Winter Visitors: It warmed our hearts to have our first visitors from Ireland: our favorite pickleball leprechaun Joan and her friend Margaret. In addition to doing the usual London things, we of course played pickleball. And we played at Wimbledon, one of our regular practice sites. OK, it’s not the Wimbledon, but it is the 18-court site where qualifying rounds (“the qualies”) for the Wimbledon tournament are played. So yeah, we play Wimbledon.

We also had a visit from Eric’s young cousin Everett, who is doing a semester abroad in Barcelona. He’s in his Junior year of “Uni”. He has a summer internship and is starting to feel the impending weight of adulthood, so he’s taking the opportunity to pursue youthful adventures.

We are winding down our time here. Had we known we’d be home in March, we would have planned things differently, but we still have a tenant in our home and need to return to Ireland to sell our car. However, we look forward to settling back home in May, which is just around the corner!

We hug you tightly! 

Eric & Sharon

The home page shows blogs for three months. To view previous posts, scroll to the bottom of the post and click the Previous Post month.