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Kris my dear, we will have you jigging from dawn to dusk. Practice starts Thursday. For someone with your physique and athletic experience this should present no problems. Plus you can do the man's part if you don't want to bother with complicated footwork!
I went to Patsy and Ron's house today. Nathan and his parents were waiting in the car... for a long time... I couldn't get away. They are so sweet, and their house is very cute - you are in a twee little room with patchwork quilts on the twin beds, and she even has fresh towelling robes hanging behind the doors for you! The breakfast menu looks fantastic (please note you have to select your breakfast choice the night before. This would be terrible for me: as it is, I go to sleep most nights wondering how long it will be before I can get up and eat breakfast, so this would make me hunger even more for the first meal of the day). I thought for a moment they had a dog - how perfect would that have been - but the dog in pictures everywhere is their son's.
Patsy gave me a key because she was terrified she might be out when you arrive. Have you any idea when you will get here? If it is after 6:30 she will be out. I have no idea how I will get the key to you, but we will work something out. [Where did I put that key??] Anyway, the good news is you should be v comfortable, and it is only 1.1 miles to the barn, and v close to the station: an easy walk. Plus you have the option of your own bathroom (£45 per room per night) or shared with J&K (£40 prpn), it's up to you. And for all you Americans reading this and gasping, you have to pretend that $1 = £1, that's how crap your currency is.
The wedding plans are all under control, but people keep calling me wanting to have long meaningful chats. I almost want to say, "are you out of your mind? Please let's have these discussions when I don't have 100 ribbons to tie and 150 cookies to bake and DJs to pacify and gin to buy and name cards to set out and priests to collect and and... Katie sent me some fine advice to "let go of the details" which I plan to do on Saturday, but at the moment the details won't let go of me!! I think my problem is I am trying to be too Martha Stewart.
I'm about to end here, but first I must express my concern at the "anti spam-bot question". Invariably these are colour related. It asks me "what colour is the sky". Today it was aquamarine here, some days it is grey, other times gold tinged with rose. Clearly though, the answer it wants is blue. I have a problem with this. It seems that anti spam-bot programs work in a chrome-specific universe. I'm going to type in grey now, and see if it will post this...
AH ha! It didn't work! Okay, okay, I'll conform and write blue...
Dammit, the question has changed! | | | |
Oh Kris - I had such a similar experience in Portbou, Spain... I was unceremoniously dumped off the train at the border of France and told that there was a train worker's strike and nothing would be going into France. I had to catch a flight leaving Marseille that next morning. An uncomfortable night was spent on a station bench with smelly old men nearby.
The good thing about crazy ordeals like that is that you make it through them somehow and you have renewed faith in your wits and abilities.
Hang in there. We miss you too.
PS - thanks for the sweets. yum. | | | |
Karl & I received your postcard today - thanks! Looking forward to the wedding weekend chez New Milton & I'm sure you can wear adventure pants to the rehearsal dinner :-). See you soon! | | | |
Kristophe, As you are attempting to repel the advances of stinky strangers on trains, I am having to tell a coworker not to touch me at work (or ever really)-- on my birthday no less. That is the extent to which our lives are mirroring each other-- I am not hiding my passport in my pants. Anyway, it sounds like you are having a whole gamut of experiences from wonderful to horrible. I guess that is a TRUE adventure. Katie and I are ironing out the nitty gritty for the wedding which is 45 days away! Softball is over and football is beginning. How is the wrist by the way? When do you return to the States?? I want to find out if you are at all amenable to doing dog sitting while Katie and I are in Hawaii. Katie says you can have a party every night and in addition to being paid, you will get a special surprise (not sure what she has in mind). The dates are Oct 8-20. Let me know what you think if you have time to think. Missing you from boring ole USA. -Angie | | | |
dude. these are hilarious. thank you for letting this parent of a 20-month old vicariously live through your adventures. Please be sure to have a LARGE glass of red wine and stay up past 10pm for us. | | | |
You mention 'pots' in jest, Jess. Little did you know that my mother has an antique collection of early twentieth-century chamber pots, which we can certainly make available to Kris and Emma. She also has a porcelain "slipper" bed pan, for use should either of them become incapacitated by Singapore Slings...
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Missed you the last few weeks of softball but reading these journal entries makes me feel better....glad to hear about your adventures and it sounds like you're having a blast....keep'em coming! PS especially love the roadsign pictures....t | | | |
Hey Kris - looking forward to sharing a bathroom with you in New Milton! Karl & I are thinking of enacting a toilet charge to keep foot traffic through our bedroom to a minimum. Or we'll be happy to supply you with a pot.
In all seriousness, I am so looking forward to seeing you in a couple of weeks. I've been bombarding poor Hannah with emails, peppering her with questions about the weather & dress code...I am a notorious over-packer & bring clothes for every contingency. Maybe all I need is a hottie shirt, too.
I love all your pictures, particularly the ones from Florence/Tuscany, which reminds me of my trip a few years ago. And I can totally sympathize with the "under your pants" passport holder. Only slightly worse is the "around the neck & under the shirt" passport holder, which I've used & almost flashed people because of it. Classy.
Have fun in Spain (is that where you're headed next?). I won't be joining you in the Pyreneese (sp?) - Karl's passport came throug, even though we were sweating bullets!
Much love - see you soon! | | | |
Dear Kris,
Am sorry to hear of your pickpocket experience, but am relieved you are only down 10E. I recall a near-pickpocket experience in Milan. I was Eurorailing on my own round Europe, aged 17, and before I reached Italy I received many hysterical emails from my mother warning me about gypsies... (If there are any Roma reading this blog I do apologise). Apparently said gypsies would distract me with cardboard boxes while their offspring moved in for my valuables. I thought this was highly improbable, but the moment I arrived Pisa people came at me with cardboard boxes. Thanks to my mother's paranoia I was able to outsmart them.
I also recall eating at least one gelato a day when eurorailing. At the end of my week in Italy I ran out of lire and couldn't afford to change more (the days before the Euro). Some girls I had met in a youth hostel smuggled me in wrapped in a blanket, and I lived off a bag of cashew nuts, having spent my final pennies on icecream.
Oh, and final nostalgic thought, when backpacking through Europe I remember the English-speaking muppets who made me wish I were Scandinavian, or Hungarian, or something. At least when you get here you will be a wonderful novelty; American accents go down well this way.
There isn't much news here in Lymington. From glorious sunshine we now have rain and damp :-( Nathan arrived from Cairo today, so the fact that I am marrying him in a fortnight suddenly came home to me! (While he was away it was more of an abstract proposition). I'm very excited but can't believe it's coming up so quickly. I met with the florist to discuss arrangements. Sam's rabbit, arguably the cutest four-legged creature in this shire, just stepped on the keyboard. His name was Smudge but we have renamed him "SpiderSmudge" in homage to the Simpsons Movie. Tomorrow we are going into Southampton: me to have my make up done at the Bobbi Brown counter in John Lewis (I never wear make up, so this should be fun), Nathan to try on his morning suit at the hire shop, and then we are going to walk round the roman/mediaeval walls, go to a 9th century church, and perhaps stop in at the archaeology museum. Hampshire is particularly rich in remains. At the weekend I think we are being drafted in to work at the Barn.
Hope these are the minutiae you wanted. Hope you have a wonderful time in Roma. When do you leave Italia?
Safe travels, and see you awfully soon.
Hannahx
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Ok, you asked for some reports:
1. I think I hurt myself last night jumping around after the walk off sox win. Apparently we were 1 and 41 in games where we were behind after the 8th. It was already an emotional game, being Jon Lester's return to Fenway. He pitched great, and I cried.
2. Kate was telling me last night that someone at her office was in the bathroom when he heard from the next stall "Hmmm, when did I eat corn?"
3. Although I borrowed your kareoke machine, I have yet to pull it out. I decided that not only do I need to wait for my roommates to not be home, that I should probably make sure the whole building is empty.
4. I reorganized under my bathroom sink.
Clearly things are quite exciting here without you. Would much rather be there with you! | | | |
Kris, you have to publish these adventures. Perhaps the book could come with a free pair of adventure pants? Am loving your stories and can't wait to see you at the end of the month. (Don't get too thin or your wedding suit will fall down). Much love, Hxx | | | |
hi lady!!!! having a great time reading your journals. it's keeping me quite entertained when I should be studying. we miss you. twice in the past two weeks simon and i have walked right by your house, and thought, we should stop by and see kris... oh... wait...we can't...how sad... simon echos my thoughts by peeing thoughtfully on one of your bushes each time we walk by :) miss you lots. have fun and keep writing!!! | | | |
Kris,
Your trip sounds utterly fantastic and adventurous. I can't wait to see the millions of pictures you took (I'm sure there will be at least a million).
*Softball update*
We ended our season 7-7 and in a tie with Red Scare but they beat us out for 4th place given some other rankings. We are playing in the tournament next Sunday so wish us luck!
*Red Sox update*
After a bit of a scare with the Angels we finally won a game. Yeah! We are 6 games ahead of the evil empire. Big Papi's body is hurting and Manny is not producing like he normally does, but Lowell is kicking ass as well as Pedroia and Youki. Still waiting on Drew though.
We miss you greatly and eagerly wait your return! Send kisses to Nikki from me!!
Love ya!
Marina | | | |
Bon Voyage, Kris!
I miss you already. | | | |
I'd love to find out what "adventure pants" are :-). Can't wait for the next entry - here's to hoping you recover from jetlag quickly! See you at the end of August! | | | |
You haven't even left the country yet and you and your "adventure pants" gave me a good laugh. | | | |
Kris, you put me to shame having a travelblog... Mind you, were I to have one it would read:
"Monday. Wake up at 8:45. Damn. Will be late for class again. Drink Nescafe. Run to class dodging hellish traffic. Am convinced taxi drivers are trying to kill me. Sit through 5 hours of classes. Drink more Nescafe. Crawl home wearily. Medicate self with G&Ts. Slog away at homework until 2am.
"Tuesday. Wake up at 8:39. Damn. Will be late for class again. Drink Nescafe. Run to class through hellish traffic. Narrowly escape death under wheels of bus..."
There is some variation at the weekend, when I spend most of my time in bed. Also my father visited last week, in transit on his way to Saudi, and so I had a chance to enjoy the Good Life - dinners in fancy restaurants, visiting the pyramids, sailing on the nile, and a trip to the incredible Egyptian Museum. Cairo is a crazy but wonderful place - and I suppose there is a small (sadistic) part of me that enjoys being an Arabic slave, sigh.
Wishing you and Nikki wonderful adventures through Europe. I can't wait to see you at the end of August, and to hear all about it. What a knees up we shall have at the Old Barn. Don't forget you can send your glad rags and dancing shoes to my parents house. I will ensure that they are hung in my wardrobe with care. Much love,
xxHannah | |
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