Travel Tuesday: Borough Market London

I have been to the Borough Market in London a couple of times, the last time in March of 2020, just as the world was coming to a stop.  I love it. 

 

Moody Monday: Denver August 2023

I had a different moody Monday post set to post, but this is brewing and needs to be put on paper (well e-paper.) 

I am spending a few days at the Embassy Suites hotel in Denver for work.  A nice hotel, the extra large room has been nice for a 6 night stay. The photo above is the breakfast room in the lobby of the hotel.  A nice breakfast, though a little monotonous, the same selection every day.  

The thing that struck me as I sat there on Sunday morning was the 5 televisions. I was going to pose a rhetorical question about the need for five televisions at breakfast, but I will skip to a statement of my mood. We don't need television, let alone five of them, displaying the worries of the world over breakfast. Maybe some of what ails us, is information overload and five televisions for breakfast is a part of that.  Breakfast is a time to talk, to think, to start the day, and NOTHING that was playing on any of those five screens was a good way to start your day.  

The boyfriend of a friend tried to commit suicide yesterday. They had an argument, and he emptied the medicine cabinet. I get angry at people who commit suicide or try to, it appears that said friend will survive.  I have never forgiven Tony Bourdain for offing himself, a talented writer, chef, who ended it all with no explanation. We had forgiven his transgressions, and would have supported his beautiful mind through the rapids in his path. How selfish to think death was the only way forward.  There are others I am angry at for ending it all.  As Doc Spo once described it, it is often a permanent solution to a temporary problem.  

Some good mood. 

ABA Media Affairs selected half a dozen projects to be featured in media for the ABA Annual Meeting, one of them was one of my projects, finished last summer, and starting to influence change.  

There were ongoing sidebar conversations at meetings about my impending retirement, and repeated pleas for me to continue to do parts of what I do.  

    A: It is good to hear people say that something you do makes a difference. 

    B: The parts of my work, people like, are parts that I enjoy - and hope to continue as a hobby.  

    C: They kept complimenting my writing, and saying that I helped to bring sanity and understanding to issues.  Enough to make my head swell.  
 

This has been a long solo trip, I am headed home on Tuesday. 

The Sunday Five: One-Night-Stand

1: Do you sleep well the first night in a hotel? 

2: Have you returned to the same hotel, and been recognized as a repeat customer? 

3: What is the longest hotel stay you have had? 

4: What is the nicest hotel you have stayed in? 

5: Have you ever vowed to never return to a hotel? 

My Answers: 

1: Do you sleep well the first night in a hotel?  No, that is why I try to avoid one-night-stands. 

2: Have you returned to the same hotel, and been recognized as a repeat customer? The Hilton on the south bank of the Thames said, "welcome back" it had been over a decade between stays.  

3: What is the longest hotel stay you have had? 7 nights.

4: What is the nicest hotel you have stayed in? A tie for this, the Langford in Chicago, and Fairmont in San Francisco - both were medical conferences - they stay at nice places.  

5: Have you ever vowed to never return to a hotel? A few of them.

The photo was taken near the Hilton in London, in March 2020, we were there for one night to meet friends for dinner in London.  

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Mary Louise Broadhurst

She was born in Swansea on the south coast of Wales in 1888, her father was a brickmaker, her mother was listed as a housewife. She married George in her late teens, she was 20 years old when she had her second child, my Grandmother - my father's mother.  

She seldom talked about growing up in Swansea.  One day she told me her father rode a train from a station at the end of the street to and from his work.  He was late one morning, chased the train down the platform and was pulled onto the train by his mates. 

When we visited Swansea, I took along a copy of her birth certificate that my grandmother had obtained when she became a US citizen.  I went into the local tourist office and showed them the records I had.  The lady at the counter searched a couple of maps, and couldn't find the street.   She said hang on for a second, and disappeared into the back room.  When she came back a much older volunteer was with her, a sweet lady who was probably 90 years old.  She looked at the birth certificate and said, "oh I remember that neighborhood, it was bombed into ruins in the war. When the neighborhood was rebuilt, the eliminated that street, she took a pen a marked an X on the map, saying, "it was right there."   

We walked over, passing the remains of the train platform, a couple of blocks away.  There was a retirement home where the house she was born in had been.  A couple of blocks away was the parish church.  It was locked tight.  We stopped a local pub for a diet coke, the locals perched on stools asked where I was from and what brought me off the beaten path in Wales.  I explained, he pulled out his phone and called the Vicar, who unfortunately was unable to come to the church before we needed to leave town.  Odds are her baptismal records are in the books. 

She married a tunnel digger.  In search of better work, and getting out of Europe on the eve of World War I, he took a job in New York.  After the Great War, he took a job in Mexico City for a couple of years, sending the wife and kids back to live with family in London.  They returned to New York, then moved around as new jobs opened.  

My earliest memory of Mary, was when I was about 10.  She was widowed, living in an apartment on the top floor of her youngest daughter's home in Detroit.  She had some health problems, and surgery. Then racism took over Detroit, her daughter sold in a panic, and Mary came to live with my grandparents on the farm.  Just around the corner from where I grew up.  She lived with them for several important years, in my formative years.  Her eyesight was very poor, she would sit for hours listening to the radio, or conversing with whoever was available.  I loved it.  I think she did also.  When I was about 15 she had another illness, was hospitalized, then cared for in a nursing home. When I was 16 she broke a hip. My grandmother was in Florida, I flew to Florida to help her drive home (to drive her home.)  She died the fall I turned 19.  

Lots of great memories.  

Fabulous Friday - Self-Love

You are the perfect you. You are unique, one of a kind.  Warts and all, you are beautiful.  Embrace yourself.  Find joy in who you are.  Your life's journey with all of the good, bad, and indifferent, has brought you to where you are. As long as you draw breath, you are you.  Find happiness and love in yourself.  

You are fabulous.  Say it outloud everyday.  Stand naked in front of the mirror and embrace every crease, fold and wrinkle, you are the best you in the world.  You are special.  You are one of kind.  

When you are a happy with yourself, it is easier for others to happy with you, for you and around you.  

When you love yourself, it is easier for others to love you for who you are.  

If any of you expected something different from the title, that is okay; enjoy whatever your imagination can ponder.   

Thursday Ramble: Pilgrimage and All 50

Pilgrimage is as old as civilization, and in a way that is what I was on.  A journey seeking something,  to see and experience things outside my norm. Many pilgrimages are religious,  but not all. Some like mine are deeply personal,  going to places seeking meaning that may be unique to me. This journey started 60 years ago, a family trip across much of the country from Michigan to Arizona, the only time I have ever been in Oklahoma.  

This trip will took me to Wyoming and Idaho, why those two? Because they were the last two states I had not been to. When I crossed into Idaho sometime on Monday afternoon,  I had sat foot in all of the United States of America. 

A lot of people have done this,  but surprisingly a small portion of the population.  

By my count I have been to 46 either for work, or,  like these two on trips added onto business travel. The exceptions are Oklahoma, Nebraska,  Mississippi, and Wisconsin.  I  have tried to get to Oklahoma for work,  Covid turned that into a virtual conference.  Nebraska I was in on a trip as a teenager,  and I am speaking at a conference there later this year. Wisconsin I did as a day trip by train from Chicago,  when I was in Chicago for a conference my husband was speaking at, Amtrak up lunch and a museum,  and Amtrak back the same day.  Mississippi, I have been there, and for work I would go back, but somehow I have escaped that. 

Why do this, because I can, because few do, to finish something. To better understand the country.  It is surprising how different the United States are. The vastness of the landscape,  the differences in economy,  culture and yes politics. I worry that my understanding of the country is from inside the beltway, a Washington DC view.  By seeking to see it all I hope to better understand it all. 

And bragging rights, I HAVE BEEN TO ALL 50 STATES.  

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws August 2nd edition

Where have I been? DC, Charlotte, Denver, Laramie Wyoming, McCammon Springs, Idaho, and if all goes to plan I will return to Denver today. Out and about. 

Why there?  I have a conference in Denver through Tuesday of next week, the add on was to go where I have not gone before.  

What is the car? An early 70's Chrysler Newport, the one my father owned was a bronzy brown, I passed my driving test in it.  It was the first car my parent's owned with air-conditioning. It was HUGE. My parents gave it to my sister in the fall of 1977 when they bought their first new Buick. (The first of many.) 

What have I been reading? Baking Yesteryear by B. Dylan Hollis, it is as good as his YouTube videos.  A couple of books on aging. Frightening and boring stuff - books 36 and 37 for the calendar year - I am on pace for one a week or more.  

What have I been listening to?  Instrumental music on YouTube, lots of Willie Nelson - he is not dead yet (he has a song about that.) 

Who have I seen? My sweet bear, folks at work, and not much of anyone I know.  I will have a few days with my fellow wizards starting this evening.  

What have I been thinking about? How many amazing things I have done, and the list of adventures left to do.  

What have I seen? Mountains, meadows, fields, gas wells, oil wells, wind turbines (in the same field as the wind turbines), fossils, highways, sheep, cows, buffalo, hummingbirds, bald eagles,  ravens, prairie dogs, hot springs, and more mountains.  

What was the best question anyone asked me?  How do we determine what is in a person's best interest?  I need to work on my answer for that one, I feel an enlightening essay or RANT coming on that one.  

Who deserves a THANK YOU!  4-Imprint, you have seen their ads.  My office ordered some items, and learned that the items were out of stock until October, so they offered us an upgrade to a nicer item at the same price, and delivered in less than a week.  The discount on the order for the upgrade was nearly 40%.  

Who deserves a slap?  The email scammers, I had 18 scam emails in my office email one day last week.  And why can't we stop this? Five out of Five slaps for the scammers, and  ten slaps out of five for Congress not having the guts to stop it.   

Travel Tuesday: Waterford Ireland and along the coast March 2020 (BC)

Waterford is near the Atlantic on the south side of Ireland.  The crystal shop and factory tour had closed a day or two before - thanks to COVID.  So we had lunch, and little wander around, then drove down along the coast for a couple of spectacular hours.  Much more fun than the Crystal works.