Summer Travels

Giant's Causeway

Last meal before living off of sandwiches for a few days.

Entry from Tuesday, 18 August

Giant's Causeway

The past few weeks have included a fair bit of travel. A friend from Hawaii, Patrick, was out here for a work conference and we took a trip to Ireland (some call it Fireland due to so many people having red hair) for a few days. We didn’t have much time, but we were able to hit the main attractions in Belfast and Dublin.

Giant's Causeway

Our day and a half in Belfast included a trip to Giant’s Causeway. It got its namesake from the hexagonal stones along the shore and cliffs (as the story goes, the giant Finn McCool built it to kill a Squirtish giant, but there was no fight and the bridge was destroyed). The real reason for the shapes had to do with crystallization and the way the magma cooled, but giants make for a better story.

City government center (the exact names escapes me), Belfast

Story behind the Red Hand of Ulster:

Captain of raiding party: "First one to touch the coast with their right hand owns it."

Soldier: (after cutting off his own hand and throwing it ashore) "BOOYAH!"

Black cab (ours was red) tour, Belfast

We also took a black cab tour of Belfast to see the old division lines of Protestant v. Catholic. Besides that, we did a good bit of walking around and even got to argue with some old people. Maybe I just haven’t had much luck with the Irish I’ve met, but I haven’t been able to carry on a conversation with any Irish people without it turning into them spewing a fair amount of hate and discontent my way. The evening in the Belfast pub started with some friendly banter about physical stature and John Wayne, but quickly turned into a discussion about who really should have won the American Civil War, how certain ethnicities are deceitful, and how America was a big bully. It seem that we were really just witnessing the start of an elongated downward spiral, so we left after two drinks.

Dublin started with a tour of the Guiness Brewery. Guiness happens to be one of my favorite beers. The key take-aways from the tour were: 3 million pints brewed there each day, each one is perfect, only 4 ingredients used (water, hops, barley, and yeast), and Guiness is good for you.

We also went to a few museums, one of which had quite a few mummified bodies from hundreds of years ago. Each one was slaughtered differently; some had body parts removed, some were slashed to death, others bludgeoned, still others were strangled. Bottom line: death and destruction appears to have been a hobby on that island for quite some time.

After the trip to Ireland I had two days to get ready for my trip back to the US. It was a 10 day work trip, but it just so happened that one of my friends from Hawaii who moved to Maryland got married on August 15th. Kate was able to come down from New York for the weekend, so it was a double bonus. The ceremony was nice and they had a really good menu: filet minon and crab cakes. Money.

Double fisting to start the evening (open bar)

Last call; down to one at a time

Although I was only in the UK for about 4 months, there are some definite differences I noticed from my short trip.

Some of the nice things about the US:

- If you are willing to drive for a short while, you can find anything you need at any time, day or night.

- Things are cheaper and bigger.

- The roads a big and wide and don’t have a roundabout every mile and a half.

Some of the nice things about the UK:

- People know how to use roundabouts correctly (it’s painful to watch their use in the US).

- Buildings don't look or feel like they were thrown together overnight by a developer looking to make a fast buck (our hotel in Annapolis was ridiculous. I really wish I took a picture of the "Greek" fountain.)

- No humidity

The trip was pretty good overall, but had its strange moments. This past Monday was somehow both fun and sad. I sat around my hotel room in my underwear eating microwave dinners, followed by going to a movie by myself. It’s like I couldn’t figure out what would be more disheartening, so I did both. While the tag line for the movie, 500 Days of Summer, was, “it’s not a love story, it’s a story about love,” it was, in fact, a love story. The theater was full of teenage girls traveling in packs and severely obese middle-aged balding men with goatees flying solo. And there was me.

Today I had some time to kill after my final meeting and before my flight, so I went to an all-you-can-eat buffet. Those are always a study in a certain element of society not found in other parts of the world. Anyone who wants to pick on how America does things has to go no further than a buffet. For under $10 (GPB 6) you can get stuffed with hot dogs, hamburgers, fried chicken, pot roast, pastas, potatoes, tacos, Chinese food, creamy soups, pies, cakes, ice cream, and more. Yes, they also had a fruit bar as well as a vegetable bar, but those weren’t very popular. I don’t work out as much as I should and I don’t always eat as well as I should, but I try not to make it a habit. For a good percentage of the people at this particular buffet it seemed that they were doing everything they could to be unhealthy. It makes no sense to me, but all I can do is sit silently and judgmentally and watch the show.

Another thing I did on this trip was to spend like crazy. My reasoning was that everything would be much more expensive in the UK, but I bought so much junk that I went over my weight allowance for the flight. Luckily I was early and was able to move some heavier pieces into my carry-on luggage (you’d be surprised how much Chaco sandals weigh) and get half a pound under, but I probably didn’t need the paper towel dispenser or quite so many spikes.

That brings me to my next subject: the crazy old man of the neighborhood. As it turns out, it’s me. A short background: I live in a maisonette (a detached house split into two apartments) at the end of a block of terraced homes (row houses). My flat also adjoins a bike path. Long story short, my yard is the only place people can cut through without going through someone’s house or around the other side of the block. In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not that huge of a deal, but I don’t like it. On top of the people coming through I also have animals pooping in my driveway and neighborhood kids tearing up my hedge making a fort. As you can see, there is a pattern of encroachment.

That’s where the Home Depot come in. Since I was here in the land of cheap and plenty, I decided to purchase some defensive counter-measures to the encroachers. The idea is to develop a layered approach to security and to do it one step at a time.

- Step 1: I am going to start closing the car gate to my driveway and drive some 3’ fence posts into the opening of the hedge.

- Step 2: I am going to lock the gate and add a good deal of chicken wire to the posts.

- Step 3: I will add some of the awesome spikes I bought to my car gate as well as the “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dog” signs. As for the kids in front, I might move some of the animal poop from the driveway to the area under the hedge. They already used a fence post to take down two sets of chicken wire and make a bigger hole in my bushes, but I have a feeling that crawling through poop will prove to be more trouble than it’s worth.

- Step 4: If that doesn’t work, I will need to figure out how to attract colonies of hornets and spiders to my bushes. It can’t be too difficult.

I was thinking that things would slow down after the conference, but my schedule is still somewhat busy for the next month. I have another work trip to Germany planned and I was able to magically match it up with Oktoberfest. The only question is whether I want to stay an extra weekend on both sides of the trip or just one weekend. I’m pretty sure I am just going to go with one. I am planning on staying with Jens and Ana (they came out to Hawaii about 2 years ago). Jens, our German foreign exchange student my senior year of high school, is always fun to hang out with and he speaks German. Always a plus when in Germany.

Other than that, nothing too crazy planned. I have another Friday off coming up at the end of the month, so I’m thinking about going somewhere. Maybe Spain, but I’m not sure. After only 10 days away from the UK I am already looking forward to getting back and relaxing at home. That might officially make me a crotchety old man; I can’t say for sure.

Entry from Wednesday, 19 August

I got stranded at the airport last night. Due to the thunderstorms, I didn’t make it to Newark in time to catch my flight to Manchester. Luckily for me, Kate lives in New York. After an air train ride, NJ Transit train ride, some walking, a subway ride, and some more walking, I made it to Kate’s apartment. I didn’t get there until after 2:00am, but she was nice enough to take the day off work and we were able to hang out. We went through the obligatory bring/don’t bring tour of her apartment. Long story short, talk to me in a couple of months and I might have a smoothie maker staring at me from my kitchen counter. Money.

Entry from Thursday, 20 August

I made it back home in one piece. I did get some bad news today, but I’m trying not to let it bother me too much. So far I have been somewhat successful at blocking the bad thoughts, but I am really tired and might dwell on it more when I am rested. Long story short, I have no one to blame but myself. I didn’t read all of the laws and did not do enough research. It’s amazing how much money one can save by speaking to someone with experience. Long story short, if I knew two months ago what I know now, I would most likely have an additional huge chunk (five figures) of British Pounds Sterling in a couple of years.

Entry from Friday, 21 August

As for the house, there's no going back. I will have to chalk this one up as a "learning experience" and move on. I did some more research today and figured out that it isn't as bad as it seems. When all of the factors are considered, yes I am still out a considerable amount of money. Bottom line, I do have a roof over my head, so I have no grounds to complain!