The suitcase is dusted off and out!

SO...its getting closer.
The suitcase was pulled off the top of the wardrobe yesterday and is sitting there empty right now.

Its all becoming real.
I'll be getting some money exchanged soonish - and worrying that I dont have enough.
But what do I pack to wear?

Do I take a jacket?
Do I take layers?
What's the weather going to be like...
And then...

Hell ...another plane crash - now that doesnt add to my feelings of security for the biggest trip I have taken in 20 years.

I dont know about you - but the idea of sitting in a tin box thousands of km's in the air is rather disconcerting.
Hearing about airline pilots with a death wish does not instill confidence.

But back to the suitcase...
Mine is huge - I am anticipating filling it with English goodies - but how will I get that thing up stairs and into small rooms.
Will it even fit into the boot of the car that we are hiring for the trip?

Maybe I need to rethink this?
I do face coming back and lugging that thing onto a train to get myself back to Newcastle.

Decisions - decisions!

UPDATE - Only one month to go before we hit England!

Only 720 hours left until the big trip.
Feeling very excited, that's for sure.
One thing that is keeping me grounded is the extra added things to think about when one is slightly more "mature" when traveling.
Point in case - compression stockings!

When I was a lot younger the only thing I would worry about when going flying was whether they would still have my food selection when they got to me for dinner and that I could get a glass of wine.
The wine is now gone - it can give you a headache.

And I made sure I bought a pair of compression stockings making sure my legs dont swell like sausages on the long haul to London.

Then there are the pills to makes sure you can get some sleep amongst the screaming littlies...

The pills to make sure I am not overcome with wind (we have all sat behind a FARTER!)

The pills to make sure you dont suffer from backed up bowel!

Lets not mention feeling like you have been run over by a truck with the change of hemispheres...

But hey...what's a bit of cramping, farting, enlarged veins, and lack of sleep when...

I AM GOING TO BE IN ENGLAND!!!!!

50 DAYS!!!

OMG - its 50 days until our trip away.
Good thing the trip is paid for  - all that is left now is to save, save, save for spending money.

Gayle and I are getting very excited and exploring all of the spots that we will be able to visit.
Now when I see a news event from England I turn to my hubby and say "I'll be there soon!"
Also just purchased our Heritage Travel passes from VisitBritain - a 16 day pass for the UK and a 7 day pass for Scotland.
We intend to visit a whole lot of old smelly and damp places - dungeons, towers and prisons!
And I hope to learn a lot from the tour guides that do these tours.

Squeal!!

Just under three months to go!

Three months!
12 weeks!
82 days!

I'm excited and apprehensive at the same time.
These weeks will fly past so fast and then I will be boarding a plane and heading overseas.
What are my "not to be missed" spots while I am in England and Scotland?
Any suggestions?

Honoring the Dead - even the sullied ones!

So the plan now is to gather a list of interesting places to visit while we are in the UK.
The list is getting longer and longer  - I know that we will just not have enough time to see all that we would like to see - but we will give it our darndest best shot.
A site that was sent to me for further perusal sounds very interesting.

                              
 THE CROSS BONES CEMETERY - SOUTHWARK 

Author John Constable, a local poet and playwright, has begun his own work at Cross Bones. As Constable tells it, he was writing late one night in November, 1996, when he felt overtaken by a character he calls “The Goose,” the spirit of a medieval prostitute. She began dictating what would later become the first poem in Constable’s Southwark Mysteries:

For tonight in Hell
They are tolling the bell
For the Whore that lay at the Tabard,
And well we know
How the carrion crow
Doth feast in our Cross Bones Graveyard.

Constable says that later the same night, “the Goose” took him on a walk through the Southwark streets, whispering more poems, plays and songs in his ears, until the strange tour ended in a vacant lot. According to Constable, he didn’t know the lot contained Cross Bones until several years later. In fact, Constable insists that on that night in 1996, he had never heard of Cross Bones at all. 

Something rather unique about paying your last respects to the "Outcast Dead" of old London town ~ I think they will be nice to us and give us their blessings. I will love to hear their stories - maybe "the Goose" will come and say hello to me too.

Done!

I am very happy to report that all of our accommodation is now set in place - booked.

I have a slight feeling that maybe....just maybe, not all choices were the best, but its been a bit of a nightmare.

First you try and use the best search engines and booking sites....then you have to narrow your choice because what they are showing you is too bloody expensive - then you find you really dont have much to choose from within your budget range anyway.
200 hotels comes down to about 4!
Then its time to try Trip Advisor - and you realise that the only places you can afford are  dumps on the edge of a town that is 20kms from where you want to be with no parking, no breakfast and, in many instances, a bad case of mold on the ceiling.

Right now staying in a place that is haunted may not be the biggest thing to be frightened of! 

It might be the argument on arrival when you find out that your twin reservation is now a double in a room where you cannot even open the door because the bed is in the way and the only toilet/shower is shared amongst 15 rooms and down a dark, smelly corridor and the place is booked out with a local hen's party.

I guess what is now left is to trust that I have made the right choices and that all will be good - I might take my blue light anyway just to check the sheets before we lay our heads to rest at night.. mmmm....maybe not?

Sometimes ignorance is bliss!

Bodmin Jail

I have just been corresponding with Mark Rablin, host and paranormal investigator at Bodmin Jail who has invited us to come and check out the site when we are in Cornwall. Hell yes!!! He has promised to take us through even if there are no tours available. Ohh!!! A private visit and time to spend wandering around the old site and meet the resident ghosties.

This is a write about about it:

Bodmin Jail has a very dark and sinister past which has made it popular with tourists and ghost-hunters alike.

This ominous and foreboding 18th Century stone building was built in 1776 to house the county prison. It was the first jail to hold inmates in individual cells and famously carried out grisly public executions by hanging until 1862, 55 in total!

This mid-Victorian prison was also home to the Crown Jewels, Doomsday book and other national treasures during the Great War.

The prison's dramatic and ominous history has brought it to the attention of many paranormal investigations and was recently a location for the popular Living TV's Most Haunted.

The prison finally closed in 1927 and since then has become a popular tourist attraction with fascinating exhibitions telling of the 150 years of torture and punishment which took place in this dark and mysterious place. 

Just for you Gayle - we will go during the day ok?! I am sure that if the ghosties are there they will greet us at any hour.