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January 7, 2026 Thursday Beginning this post with a couple of travel details. We have been getting messages from Aer Lingus about bidding on moving up to business class. The minimum is $600 per seat so that’s a hard pass for us poor folk. We have our excursion to Northern Ireland paid for so hopefully the weather will cooperate. We have two more days to do some things in and around Huddersfield. This afternoon there is supposed to be 3-4 inches of snow so that’s may limit

January 6, 2026 Tuesday This morning David was up fairly early and put on some layers and walked to the local grocery for a few things. It had snowed more overnight and was still snowing lightly. Later the snow turned to rain and melted most of the snow. Temperatures here range from 32-35 degrees Fahrenheit. We have train tickets to Manchester for 14:55 so we headed down to the bus stop with about 11 minutes remaining before the bus arrived. On the way we rechecked the

January 5, 2026 Monday This morning was another mostly lazy day with the dog and cat. We kept the fire going and watched a little tv or listened to BBC 2. Our outing for today was an afternoon trip into town. We caught the bus to Huddersfield and then did a little walk around the area near the bus station. We explored and took some pics. We went into an old church and read about the history and looked at their stained glass and ceiling architecture. After our little walk

January 4, 2026 Sunday Another cold day but with a blue sky and lots of sun. We had some breakfast and started some laundry. We had packed light and had almost entirely gone through our clothes. At about 1:30 David put on layers of clothes and left for the Huddersfield Town Football Match. He walked down to the main road and caught a bus into town and then another bus to a stop out near the stadium. It wasn’t a long walk to the stadium. David made his way to the correc

January 3, 2026 Saturday Today has been one for relaxing by the fire and not doing any major trips. When you are Wayfaring you have to have days to just live. You can’t look at each day like you are on vacation. We haven’t completed our monthly spending for December but hope to have it completed soon. David was up early enough to cook some breakfast. Afterwards he fed the cat and the dog and then started a fire in the wood burning stove in the living room. We lounged aro

January 2, 2026 Friday Today we drove over to another one of the estates that are part of the UK’s National Trust. This time we drove a little over 40 minutes to The Nostell House. The choice to go here was due to the fact that they still have their Christmas tours of the house. We drove the freeways for most of the trip which we felt was safer. We only hit one curb and had to go all the way around only one roundabout. The Nostell mansion is massive but not overly opu

NEW YEARS DAY 2026 JANUARY 1, 2026 Thursday Since we had yet to get enough sleep after our flight from the US we slept in some. Our hosts were up earlier getting ready for their flight this New Years Day. Around noon they were on their way to the airport. We spent most of the day just hanging out with the pets and watching TV. In the evening we had Burger King just as a matter of convenience and then stayed up very late watching TV. Overall sort of a travel day for gett

NEW YEARS EVE December 31, 2025 Wednesday We were up at 3:30am and to our uber ride by 4:15. We arrive at the Dublin airport with plenty of time to navigate the Ryanair bag check area and then security. It was mostly an uneventful check in and we were in the terminal almost two hours before our departure. We were, of course, at the last gate in the terminal which seems to happen to us a disproportionate percentage of our flights. Ryanair has no jetways here so it was a ver

December 30, 2025 Tuesday We were up and out of our room by 6:20. Breakfast was open early so we grab a bite before heading to our 6:40 meeting point. Our meeting location was just a short walk away at the hotel next door. We showed our ticket and they sent us to the correct bus since there were 5 buses leaving from this location. The tour guide and driver were very welcoming and had us moving out before 6:55 as advertised. We stopped at our only other pick up point at a

Dublin, Ireland December 29, 2025 Monday Our 787-800 touched down in Dublin at about 7:10am. We had prearranged our taxi for 8:00am. Ireland does not have true Lyft and Uber as we do in the US. You can book through Lyft and Uber apps but you are really setting up a ride with a taxi service. That said, the taxi service seems to be very good here. Our driver was on time and very friendly. He had us to our Holiday Inn Express on O‘Connoll near downtown Dublin. In about 20 m

December 28, 2025 Sunday By 9:00am we were on our way to the airport. We stopped at our younger son’s house to drop off something he wanted and to say goodbye. Then it was on the our older son’s house so that he could take us to the airport. Our grandson had to show us all his new toys which was very exciting. We had also brought him presents from David’s brother and his parents so there was more Chritmasing before leaving for the airport. Our son and grandson accompanied

December 27, 2025 Saturday Today is our prep and packing day for our trip to Ireland and the UK. We have so many things to do today that is a little overwhelming because it is impossible. There were several things we needed to do for David’s parents that we did not get to today. Packing is always a challenge and today was no different. With each trip we try to pack as simply and as light as possible. We have never felt like we have done a perfect job but we keep trying.

December 26, 2025 Friday The day after Christmas. Today we have few plans. We continue to deal with our loss by talking to family and friends. It was already decided that there were two memorial services for our niece. There will be one where she has lived with her mom for several years and one back at our home base city for those who knew her for most of her life. There was some leftover barbecue for lunch which was a nice change of pace. We decided that the three of us

CHRISTMAS DAY December 25, 2025 Thursday We were up early as planned with everyone bustling about preparing for our Christmas get together. David’s brother went to get their mom and dad and got them there without incident. With David’s middle brother and his daughter’s family we had 10 people in all. We had the traditional meal for David’s parents: Turkey, dressing, baked beans, dumplings, green bean casserole, broccoli and rise casserole Mac and cheese, sweet potatoes and

December 24, 2025 Wednesday This morning we planned to leave sometime by lunch but plans changed. Our son and his wife purchased a new bed for our grandsons room. The new bed is a full over queen bunk bed. David and our son decided to unpack the boxes and build the bed. We didn’t think it would take most of the day but it did. The assembly was not that difficult but had a lot of steps and just took time to put all the pieces together. Once we were done with the bed our g

December 23, 2025 Tuesday Today the high temp will be 80 degrees here. Christmas Day will be a sunny 81. Even for this part of the country this is unusual. It just doesn’t seem much like Christmas. Well, maybe in Kunnanura. Today we spent some time with family and then headed to our son’s house for a Christmas get together at their house tonight. We left there at about lunch time and were all at our son’s in the afternoon. We had lunch at a Dairy Queen onnthe way and fo

December 22, 2025 Monday This morning Amy’s dad made us all breakfast by making all the fixings for taquitos or breakfast burritos or breakfast tacos depending on your definition or experience. David went with Amy’s younger brother out to the their nephew’s family’s lake house to pick up a couple of things. David had never been there and he was impressed by the location and the house. If they lake just had more water it would be an excellent lakeside retreat. This lake is

December 21, 2025 Sunday Our first full day at Amy’s sister’s house began with some of the family going to church while others stayed home. Someone has to stay home with our niece so we took that assignment so that other family can go visit with their friends for a while. When everyone was home after church and lunch, the rest of us went to a local restaurant for lunch. After lunch the process of getting things ready for tomorrow’s family get together started in earnest. Th

December 20, 2025 Saturday Today we official begin our family Christmasing. We drove to our son’s house and picked up our grandson on our way to Amy’s sister’s house. Our grandsons parents will join us in a few days. His mom has to work and his dad is on a road trip with the team. Our grandson was excited to get to go play with his cousins so that’s what most of the afternoon and evening was spent doing. His cousin’s house is fun with all the outdoor areas to play, toys a

December 19, 2025 Friday Once again we are at the hospital this morning. This meeting was to make a decision concerning the next step in trying to get David’s mom’s situation improved. We discussed the risks of the surgery and what alternatives are available. We did not make a final decision but we go back next Tuesday for a follow up. David, Amy and his youngest brother all went back to the nursing center to provide the nurses there with some changes in her meds that were