Dining with sharks

Today was the grand opening of a new building at the learning center our company has near Tulsa, and lots of bigwigs flew in for the occasion. I came because we are having a workshop here starting on Monday, and I figured I'd come a bit early because of the occasion (and I've become good friends with the manager here). Tonight was a big fancy dinner at the Oklahoma Aquarium, followed by speeches and seniority awards, which were all given at a podium in front of the shark tank. It made the evening much more interesting to be able to admire (and feel a bit sorry for) the sharks swimming around.

 After the event was over, a group of us walked back to our accommodation and stopped along the way a few times for refreshment. The final place we stopped had loud music playing and some older men standing on the bar! It turns out that these guys were the bar owners and it was one their birthdays so decided to do whatever they wanted to. This photo I took was literally the moment that the guy in the foreground was on his way to the floor - caught mid fall! Fortunately he wasn't injured and was soon back on his barstool but in a seated position.

 The bartender took this photo of us - Holly and Heloisa were the only two that I knew prior to this evening, but the rest were good fun to be with. I was glad to be out having fun but was done with alcohol by this time of the night, though not the same with my colleagues.

Joyful arrival to Tulsa

I had a few good days in Houston. I stayed in a modest, practical place near the Galleria and got a lot of work done. Then tonight I flew Houston to Tulsa with Southwest Airlines, and I had forgotten how fabulous they are! The flight attendants have such a pleasant, lighthearted spirit and make an effort to get people smiling. Love it.

Tonight after we touched down in Tulsa, the head flight attendant got on the PA and said, "Are you ready for some rock and roll?!"  Silence. "Are you ready for some ROCK and ROLL?!!"  Murmurings, still mainly silence. "Well, I'm going to give you some anyway. Avocado AJ, you know who you are and this goes out to you..." and then she starting singing 'Sweet Child o Mine' by Guns n Roses. She had a gorgeous voice and sang confidently without any accompaniment, and it brought smiles and huge applause throughout the plane when she finished. Wow. The world needs more impromptu singing!

We welcome Winnie

Auntie Sions is on her way to a year's posting in Washington DC and we are going to look after her dog and her car! So as I've been traveling to Houston, Sioned and Winnie have been driving 'Banger' to our house and having a few days of settling in.  Looks like they went to the Coach & Horses pub at least once!

 She is a very photogenic little doggie and we are excited to have her in our household for the next 12 months.

 They had a lot of fun building ramps and runways for Winnie to run through and jump so they could try to photograph her ears in flight mode!

 Meanwhile, the football season has started for Tryfan and Oscar who are in the 'Under 11s' team now for Forest Row.

So its all about to kick off now this week, with school starting tomorrow for Tryfan (Year 6) and then Rhiannon (Year 8) the day after.

Separate ways to start September

After the wedding last night we all had a good sleep in the hotel back in Keene and then left for Boston airport this morning. We dropped Will at a gas station so he could visit a friend for the day and catch his flight later tonight, then Eric, Mom and I returned the car and checked in for our flights. I hung out with them at their gate for a little bit, then peeled off to find my flight.

Originally I was going to fly back home to Gatwick but then something for work came up, so today I am on my way to Houston for 5 days, then Tulsa for a further week and then I will get to go home on Sept 13/14. 

I felt quite teary as I said goodbye to my Mom and brothers just now. It has been so wonderful to be with them the past few days, even though we all felt the absence of Heidi. 

Live free or die! The wedding

That is the New Hampshire state motto, in case you didn't know!
So we arrived intact to Ryan and Jessica's new house where their wedding was taking place tonight.
It is in a gorgeous location and everything had been very tastefully, elegantly decorated with cozy little hang out spots, a fire pit, drinks and appetizers laid out on the deck ahead of the ceremony by the pond.

Cousins unite! Holly, Ryan, Eric, Will and me. We missed HEIDI!

The ceremony begins...

 And then on to dinner in the garage

 

 Then to the firepit to enjoy the bluegrass band and fireworks!

  

It was a fun night but we were really missing our sister Heidi, especially since the 6 of us used to spend a lot of time together as kids and it was amazing to see both Holly "Hod-Bod" and Ryan "Ry-Guy" again. 

Covered bridge tour

We had nearly the whole day to kill today, since the wedding didn't start til 5pm. The brothers and I kicked it off by going for an early morning run at the nearby state park, the Horatio Colony Nature Reserve. We were surprised to learn that Colony was just the surname of one of the two Horatios who were important to the area's history. No photos from this little morning adventure, but it was really fun to run in the woods with my brothers!

Then after breakfast, we headed out for a driving tour of the Monadnock area's covered bridges. We visited 6 of them in the end, and we had a lovely time exploring the area. Lots of above ground swimming pools and trees.

One of the highlights was the lunch stop, which was 'Willy D's Driving Range and BBQ'. We met an interesting guy called Gunner who rehabilitates pit bulls, had a delicious BBQ meal, and hit a few balls before continuing our covered bridge adventure.

Peaks departure and onwards

We all got on the 10:45 am ferry to go back to Portland. It was sad to say goodbye to Jackie and also to Clay. However, we did possibly manage to convince Jackie to start using a cane - look out wider public! She sees it as a weapon and a prop to twirl round and surprise people with!

It was a gorgeous day and the colors from the ferry were incredibly vibrant.  We were met on the Portland side by dear Kara (who of course used to live with us when we went to UCSB together, and then the year that I went to Leeds, she continued to live with the fam, so it was a very happy reunion).

We spent a couple of hours in Portland walking around, having lunch, and then a quick trip to Trader Joe's as part of Cat's educational experience. Then we dropped Cat at the bus station so she could journey home to start her new job on Monday as a French & Spanish teacher, and the rest of us drove to Keene, New Hampshire to get ready for Ryan's wedding tomorrow.

Island happiness

After the special boat trip, we 'kids' spent a couple of hours tooling around in the golf cart. We went swimming and exploring

.. and we also popped into the Umbrella Cover Museum for just a little too long. In other words, we got a bit trapped. Cat came in to rescue Eric and I by making some excuse about needing to get back to the house before the meat defrosted. Nancy 3, the curator of the museum, then started a new line of questioning about what kind of meat and what sort of recipe. Cat was out of her league and we all got roped into a round of theme tune singing before we could gracefully exit. We sure did laugh about it later, though!

For dinner, Jackie had secured 8 fresh local lobsters to be delivered to the door and we feasted! She taught us how to eat them and we had a grand ol' meal out on her deck.

It's been a wonderful trip to Peaks Island and we sure don't want to leave tomorrow.

Special trip on the water

Today would have been Aunt Carol's 83rd birthday and we honored her by going out on the ocean to spread her ashes. It was a carefully orchestrated event and one of the gentlemen from Peaks offered up his 'yacht' which he had freshly painted for the occasion.

Loading onto the yacht

Spreading ashes and waving to Jackie's relatives who were on the cliff near the lighthouse

 Jackie's nieces and their children were all up by the Portland Lighthouse and wearing bright red clothing so we could see them all clustered together waving to us. That was the carefully orchestrated part!

 We toured in the yacht around the far side of the island and just talked amongst ourselves. It was wonderful and special.

Me, Karen, Clay, Mom, Eric, Will, Jackie and Val

Carol's memorial

Today was Carol's memorial for the Islanders from 3-5 pm at Jerry and Jack's house at the end of the road.  We kicked off the day with a lovely breakfast of oatmeal and ice cream on the front porch!

Then we drove the golf cart around so Cat could practice driving in case she needs to drive people around later today.
 

 It was a little tense as the hour approached because a lot of people were arriving on the 2:45 ferry and then Clay was arriving on the 3:45 ferry. But it all went to plan and it was absolutely wonderful. Many locals and friends from the mainland were here to commemorate Carol. Karen spoke a bit, Michelle (from Jackie's all female jazz band a few years ago) played 'A Closer Walk with Thee' on the trumpet, and then Clay read a poem that he wrote about Carol. It was really special.

 Then we went back to the house for a bit of a happy hour

We met up with Karen and Clay for dinner and heard some great stories about the days of Clay and Carol dancing together as part of the Theatre Dance Trio, then called it a day.

Peaks Island to ourselves

Today was our first full day here on the island and we had a lovely start this morning with a walk down to the beach and along the road. We found out later that this was the furthest that Jackie had walked in a long time.

We went out to breakfast to Lisa's Cafe near the jetty, then ran a few errands and went back home. Today ended up being quite a lovely day all around as we just relaxed and enjoyed each others company.

 Later in the afternoon, Cat and I went for a swim over at Sandy Beach and then called into one of the establishments to have some nachos, sweet potato fries and a couple of cheeky glasses of rose.

 Jackie played her sax for us in the late afternoon and then a bit later we all went for dinner at the Cockeyed Gull. As we were dining, we were treated to a most spectacular sunset (no special filters applied to the photo below!).

Journey to Peaks

Cat picked me up at 1:15 and we headed to Gatwick for our 4:15 flight which ended up being delayed by 1 hour. We tried to sit together but were not able to in the end and we both had middle seats, so... not ideal but we survived the flight. When we landed in Boston at 7:45pm, I thought we could still make the 8:35 pm bus to Portland, but the immigration queue was soooooo, soooo long it was ridiculous! Cat and I got separated since we have different passports and it was her first time to the USA.
As I was inching along in the immigration queue, I was starting to realize that we were probably going to miss the bus we needed to be able to catch the last ferry, which meant that we would need to find a hotel in Portland... uh oh!  Fortunately there was free wifi in the queue so I did some hotel searching until I got a text at 8:33 pm from Cat saying that she had my suitcase and was through to the arrivals!

That is when I took drastic action:  I flagged down a security guard guy and asked if I could possibly jump the queue because I was traveling with someone else who was already through and we were trying to catch the last bus. He paused and then said, 'Sounds like you need to come with me' and lifted the cord so I could go underneath and jump to the very front. I found Cat and we ran through the airport to the bus stop and discovered that the bus hadn't arrived yet! Crisis averted by a sympathetic security guard - that NEVER happens! We made it onto the bus when it did arrive, and then rode for 2+ hours up to Portland where we took a taxi to the ferry. We had time to have a quick beverage before the last ferry at 11:30 pm and found the Subaru that Val had left for us to drive to Jackie's house. What a journey!

A short week at home

We landed on Sunday morning at 7am after a pretty good flight, and we drove home and went straight to bed for a few hours. That was nice! We spent the afternoon unpacking and settling in. It is always nice to come home.  The rest of the week was spent back at work and getting caught up with stuff we had missed. We got to catch up with our friends and enjoy some cool weather.
Tomorrow I'm off to Carol's memorial on Peaks Island, Maine and then Ryan's wedding somewhere in New Hampshire.