Another Day......Another Plane

Today was a long day - I found out yesterday afternoon that I had to fly to the UK today for a meeting....okay, not a problem except that I had to be up at 5 to get the taxi at 5:40 for my 7:20 flight. Waited in the airport for my co-worker to arrive. Amelia arrives, driver is stuck in traffic due to an accident on the M4, wait for backup driver. Drive an hour fifteen to Compton (very pretty area of the world) and have meetings all day, at four drove back to Heathrow, catch 6:40 plane back to Brussels and arrive home at 9:40! A fairly long day - result was three more stamps in my passport, leaving only 14 open spots....seems like a lot, but consider that in the past week my tally is 6! I am assured 3 more on my trip back to the US, plus 3 more for my trip to Turkey.....yup, going to Istanbul in July with my wonderful friend Zori...crap gotta go get a visa!

Just back from another trip away!

I just got home from yet another trip off into the sunset. This time it was a flight to Dublin, a wee bit of shopping and visiting old haunts, then a very familiar train ride to the north where I spent the weekend visiting with my pen pal Adele! As some know, I received Adele's name during my first year of french class in high school, and have continued to write to her for many years now. The old Air Mail letters have gone by the wayside (it was always so much fun to see one in the mail!) and has been replaced by e-mails and the like.





We had a great time together catching up once again, and I even was able to cross another city off my list of cities to see since we went up to Belfast to do some shopping, dinner and drinking on Saturday. Came back via Dublin and arrived all in one peice although I did have a huge worry over not having my Residence Card with me (it was in my suitcase) but the immigration guy let me through without a question - yay!

I am still remembered in my local bar in Dublin! I realize that its almost exactly one year since I was last there, but the barman John still remembers me and unfortnately some of the events that occured while I was a regular Sunday patron.....long story which involves a steady session of Guinness and a not so brillant idea to exchange tops with the lads (it was a group of about 10 of us)....how he remembers that day I do not know since it took place almost 4 years ago! My lord - it is almost exactly 4 years since I boarded the plane in Chicago and set off to live in Ireland for 10 months.....never thought that I would be living in Belgium four years later!