Since Christmas

Louise and I are back in Ireland.  We flew out of Uganda Christmas morning.  British Air flights leave from Entebbe on Mondays, Wednesday, and Fridays only.  The East Africa University Games ran through Friday, December 22, so we had to stick around until Monday.  Louise and I are both nuts about Christmas.  Both about the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and about cold weather and coats and lights and trees and carols and bells and smiles and food.  But it wasn’t so bad hanging around Uganda.  We were allowed to wish friends Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and to spend Christmas Eve in Owino Market in Kampala--digging through second-hand stuff looking for cold weather in the UK, things we’d left in the US.  If you think Wal-Mart is nuts on Christmas Eve, you ain’t been to Owino.  It was crazy, but fun--and we got what we needed.

We flew out Christmas morning and landed in London that afternoon.  We had a long lay-over, so we booked a hotel in London--hoping there’d still be some Christmas spirit on the streets and in the trees.  There was a little, but it was already dark and it was cold and there were no trains operating so we were stuck on buses and in taxis with drivers who’d rather be anywhere else.  We needed dinner, the hotel restaurant was booked all night and everything else was closed.  We were told China Town was still open so we taxi’d there and ate mediocre food that cost 30% due to a Christmas surcharge.  About 8:00 we were back in the room with the heat turned up ready to watch a Christmas movie or two.  We were both asleep within five minutes and woke up only to turn off the lights and the TV.  Boxing Day we turned on the news and the BBC people told us they didn’t know the meaning of Boxing Day either and we walked around London a bit, got back to Heathrow on trains that were back in business, and flew to Dublin.  In Dublin, we went to the parking lot and found Denise’s car.  Denise,  Louise’s sister, flew to the Philipines to be in a wedding and left us with her car and her house.  So we drove a couple hours from Dublin up north to Waringstown.

The time here has been good.  We’ve been seeing lots of Louise’s friends, spent time with Louise’s faimily and we’ve also been able to get some needed rest. 

We’re scheduled to fly back to London on Monday to attend a CMS Training seminar in Oxford.  We’ll be there until the 19th, when we’ll fly to Atlanta.  We’re looking forward to seeing the United States and many of the people in them.