Ireland

Ii am typiinng this on a keyboard thaat was in the desk drawer (in my room at Ashford Castle, Cong, County Mayo, Ireland.)that enables me to us the tv as a commputer. Hhowever thiis keyboard, as you can see, is ultrasensitive so I get a lot of double-strikes and other poor spelling. I also have no idea how to download photos onto this thing.

Ashford Castle really is aa castle and was owned by a Guinnes for many years. It has a lake, a fountain, horses, falcons ( and an owl named Dingle), 3 reestaurants, big shiny bathrooms and a garden.


We have seen bogs, other castles, the ocean, and the tower wheree W.B. Yeats lived. But it's 12:30 an d I still have to pack.

Off I go

Tomorrow I drag 4 heavy bags to San Francisco airport and am on my way to Ireland, Scotland and England for about 2 weeks.

I will be leading a group of assorted mostly-70-year-olds.

I will be the one in black (my Macy's & Starbucks wardrobe) having the most fun.

My feet hurt right now after wearing silly shoes to the Travel/Study Launch party, and I had to drive all the way back to Hollister because I left my passport in the photocopier, but now all is well.

The next signal will come to you from County Mayo, Ireland.

Last Friday I attended my niece Julia's last high school play. She was "Bubbie" in Crossing Delancey. It was eerie, as she channeled my grandmother Rose Gewirtz, in language and attitude, and my mother Margaret Gage in appearance.

That's Julia/Bubbie between her parents, and on the right is Rose's boy, Nathan.

Today I did my day job in two parts, one from 8:30 to 10:30, then back from 5:00 till closing at 9:00.

In between I sat at Starbucks and had coffee from a real cup and read the New York Times. Ah, luxury. Then I went to the library and fooled around on the internet (when I could've been writing my column) then browsed among the books.

This unstructured time made me energetic for the rest of the day. Energetic and loving to the world.

I plan to use this blog to document my upcoming trip.

In a week and one day I will fly away on an adventure. I am the tour manager for a Stanford Travel/Study program to the British Isles. We will start near Shannon, Ireland, then fly to Edinburgh, then Aberdeen where we board the Island Sky and sail counter-clockwise around the top of Scotland, visiting famous remote islands along the way.

I have been making lots of jokes about haggis. One friend told me to ask for the vegetarian version.

I plan to fortify myself with single malt whiskey or maybe just beer, and take a big bite, like the adventurous traveler I am. I read somewhere about a company that is offering Indiana Jones-like adventures, so you can pay to eat live snake (no monkey brains, though). So since I am BEING paid, seems like the least I can do is try haggis.