My Arch Nemeses...and Taking Off in Two Hours!

Carry On...My Wayward Son

This week was surprisingly surprising. First, we found out that my relatives expected us to stay with them all along! So we did not need to book any hostels in Dublin. We will be staying in Dalkey, south of Dublin,  for a few days. The last two times I visited Ireland I stayed with Rosaleen, my grandad’s sister, and her husband Vincent in Dalkey too. Their son Niall will be picking us up from the ferry terminal in Dublin. Then we will be going to stay with Niall and his girlfriend Leonie for a week in Dublin. It’s crazy that we left our hostels so last minute—which is very out of character—just to have this work out in the end.

We unfortunately missed out on the Harry Potter Set Tour, but I must insist that we return to London for it at some point in the future. It sounds like friends and family who will eventually be travelling to London will make for a good excuse. Don’t tell them that’s the real reason, though. Luckily we did snag tickets for the Harry Potter Walking Tour on Friday. “Merlin’s Pants!” it’s going to be good!

On Thursday we moved Dale out of his apartment and into my house. The two of us did all the work ourselves except for a little cleaning help from his sister Tina. Our friends Brandie and Tyler lent us a truck and it only took a couple trips. And one fall up the stairs, one heavy picture frame dropped on a poor toe, and one pen scrape to the instep of my foot to get it done. Dale figures it’s stress, but it didn’t really rear it’s ugly head until it came time to print off our receipts and bookings. Then my arch rival, the Printer, and arch nemesis, Slow Internet, descended upon me like Thor on a second cup of coffee. Another! Every article we needed was agonizingly painful to get a hold of, and became increasingly lighter in colour as the ink ran out. I didn’t handle it any better than I used to when the nasty buggers attacked right when my various university papers were due. I got angry and wanted to pull my hair out. We are currently sitting in the airport with a flight delay of two hours so at least we know those particular tickets were legible.

We had to sort out what to do with Dale’s car at the last minute as well. His work backed out of storing it the week before we were set to leave, and other options turned out not to be viable. I put the word out to my grandparents and they turned to my uncle Dave, who came to the rescue. At his and my aunt Shandi’s house there is a paved platform where it can stay for the year, so we dropped it off before heading here. Thank goodness. And thank you so much to both of them!

My luggage decided to die on me the night before we left. A seam popped despite the fact the Sara lent me a vacuum seal bag, which I folded my clothes into rather than rolling like I had originally planned. It was the third time I repacked that bag. It also had no handle for dragging, and one of the wheels split. My mom went out to find a repair kit and came back with a much better piece of luggage. It has to return in decent condition because even the broken one was actually hers. Basically, my mom rocks. And the bag is no longer strained because it has an expandable pouch. In the end it weighed 49 pounds and headed down with the check baggage no problem. I found a neat trick that I used for my jewellery: straws to keep the necklaces from tangling. And I put all my earrings in a thermos I got for a grad gift. I also got away with a side-strap purse and a little backpack. Dale did the same, minus the purse, and plus a few bras because he rocks too. Did I mention we both have a little pink ribbon tied to our luggage to help us identify it on the other end?

No Tangles for this Necklace

My 24th birthday was Saturday. Our friends visited us from as far as Victoria and we enjoyed an evening on the patio furniture in the backyard. It was so hot out this weekend that I was able to enjoy two lazy days doing the same thing, followed by Canada Day at Cultus Lake. It was a great way to say farewell to my country and get ready for a whole new one. Or two. Or three. Danielle is already suggesting we meet her in Barcelona, or Paris, or Morroco, or a couple other countries. People have been constantly asking me if I’m excited or nervous. But apart from anger at the little inconveniences and stressors, I haven’t felt much of anything. Hopefully I snap out of it soon. Maybe when we board and I can actually relax for nine hours. Hah. We are seated at the very back right against the bathrooms. Wish me luck! But seriously, I’m sure I’ll appreciate where I’m going as soon as it seems real. Having said that, I’m quite glad no one in my family or friends circle cried when we said goodbye, and that includes my mom—which was impressive. Feeling nothing but stress has probably been quite helpful. I’ll have to muster up some excitement for Dale’s benefit though. This is an adventure, after all! Take off is in two hours!