Monthly Archives: September 2015

The Cure For Disappointment

Downtown Chester, where my mission for moisturizer began.

Downtown Chester, where my mission for moisturizer began.

If you find yourself overseas, in a foreign place you’ve never been, and you have lost your luggage…then, like me, you may focus on basic necessities.

Add to this, your delayed flight in Phoenix causing you to miss three days of your cruise. You then may also feel the need, (like me), to compensate yourself for your loss.

For this reason, I spent my afternoon in Chester, England in search of moisturizer. I could not enjoy the U.K. until I knew I had my skin care under control. read more

Be Miserable and Enjoy Life Anyway, Part V

Strap your seatbelt, we're on our way!

Strap your seatbelt, we’re on our way!

Tiredness, jet lag, disappointment, and a big dose of self pity made my summer travel adventure more challenging.

But the seatbelts on the bus to Londonderry made the challenge even worse.

I choked as I strapped in, “AHHHHG-GAAAAGGGG!’

The seatbelts had torturous qualities with malicious intentions of strangulation.

“Seatbelts must be worn!” our tour guide said after our group boarded. Click. Click. Click. We all dutifully obeyed.

This compulsory seatbelt law in the United Kingdom must have an ulterior motive. Either to slowly kill tourists by constriction or to prevent their return to their country. read more

Where Are the Tangerine Trees? Part IV

Welcome to Liverpool

This is the sign I saw after disembarking the ship at Liverpool.

This is the sign I saw after disembarking the ship at Liverpool. I didn’t see tangerine trees or marmalade skies, just funny-looking little taxis and gray skies.

Everything in Liverpool is Beatles. The Fab Four Cafe. The Beatles Story Museum. Giant poster in a restaurant window announces the Beatles knock-off band, “The Cheatles.” Bus tours go to Penny Lane (there really is a Penny Lane); to Strawberry Fields and John Lennon’s childhood home. Beatles smile at you from colored t-shirts sold in every shop.

…Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes…

Ha, I always thought Penny Lane was a person, not a street.

Ha, for the longest time I thought Penny Lane was a person, not a street.

We love you Liverpool, but where are the tangerine trees and marmalade skies?

We love you Liverpool, but where are the tangerine trees and marmalade skies?

The weather is windy and biting cold in Liverpool. “Not our usual weather for summer,” a Liverpoolian explains. (This is summer?) read more