Two weeks in the United Kingdom

You may have wondered why I was writing about trip planning. As it happens, we’ve recently returned from a two week trip to the United Kingdom. It was going to be a two week trip to England, but some friends in Wales said “you’ll be so close, come visit for a day”. And so we did.

One of the advantages of traveling in the United Kingdom is they have an extensive train network, so to bounce around between various cities, I booked train tickets. The disadvantage is that I now have three different apps on my phone for the tickets for each part of the journey; distinct parts of the country tend to be serviced by different companies. There’s some overlap, and when there are system problems – a bridge repair or signal cable theft cancelling your train – the notification lets you know which other companies will allow travel as you reroute.

Headstone Manor, in North Harrow, England, from the garden

The photo above is Headstone Manor, a manor house with a moat in North Harrow, in walking distance of my cousin’s house.

It goes without saying that we had a fabulous time. We started by visiting family in two different cities; of my seven remaining first cousins on that side, we were able to spend time with six of them. (The seventh is currently in Australia, so we didn’t get to see him.)

We then visited with friends in Southampton in southern England, where we visited a labyrinth on a hill, the “Round Table” (analysis of the wood dates it to the 1200s, almost 5 centuries after the first mention of King Arthur in literature), a wildlife preserve with a focus on otters, and Corfe Castle, which we reached on a steam engine train. Oh, and a Build-a-Bear shop that we didn’t make it to the last time we visited Southampton.

And then we were off to the trains again, heading to Birmingham for Conversation 2023. Similar to WorldCon, Eastercon rotates between diferent locations within the United Kingdom. I had last attended in 2000, when it coincided with a planned trip to Scotland. This was a delightful opportunity to meet a collection of online friends, and an even rarer opportunity to attend a convention that I wasn’t working at… no party, panels, or other responsibilities. As an added delight, next year’s WorldCon, which will be held in Glasgow, hosted a cèilidh.

As the convention drew to a close, train cancellations (due to the aforementioned signal cable theft!) made for an interesting travel day as we made our way to Wales, where we disembarked from one train and headed to a smaller local station to take a scenic ride through the Welsh countryside on another. The scenic ride was optional and quite worth the time.

We ended our stay in Manchester, meeting my Dorkstock UK counterpart (Dorkstock UK was held a couple consecutive years in the early 2000s) after more than twenty years of friendship. Not surprisingly, we met up at a game store.

As I reflect on the trip and all the planning that went into it, it amazes me that my father used to organize visits like this, with a day here and a day there staying with different friends and family, using only snail mail and telephones.

Different aspects of trip planning

There are many things to take into consideration when planning a trip. I typically start with where we want to go, why, and how we’re getting there. There’s a significant difference between planning a trip to tourist sites versus visiting family and friends (especially if you’re visiting for a specific event), though there may be some opportunity for overlap.

Back in 2013, we did a big road trip (12 days) targeting national parks and monuments within the United States. Except for our stop near Mount Rushmore, we only stayed a single night in each location, mostly at KOA campsites. On our trip to Florida last year, we stayed two nights near the Everglades, three nights in Miami Beach, and just one night everywhere else, almost constantly moving as we progressed from Key West to Orlando. In contrast, on our last visits to Oregon and Guatemala, we stayed in the same place the entire time because the purpose of those trips was to visit with family in one area.

Three of the four trips I mentioned involved flying to get there, and two of those involved renting a car to get around. When travelling by car – either at a destination or on a road trip – consider whether you need to print directions ahead of time. I know that sounds archaic, but in 2013, there were cell phone dead zones in some areas we travelled (Yellowstone and the Grand Canyon, for example), and even our GPS had trouble connecting. In other areas, we’re happy to rely on local transportation options, such as our 2018 trip to Philadelphia.

Once you arrive at your destination, where do you plan on staying? You can pick a hotel or bed & breakfast based on the activities you’d like to explore in the area, such as staying in the heart of Key West or a hotel in Florida City for proximity to the Everglades. In each of those cases, I wanted to minimize any extra driving where possible, knowing that parking is at a premium in Key West, and Florida City has the closest hotels to the Everglades.

When your trip is longer, like ours was last year, you may want to consider laundry options as part of your planning. Our three-night stay in Miami Beach was the ideal time for doing laundry, though a bit annoying because the minimum laundry card purchase was more than we needed. (I ended up handing off the laundry card to another visitor who was a dryer load short on his card.)

These are just a few of things I take into consideration when planning a trip.

Thoughts on Leap!

At first glance, Leap! is a feel good kids’ movie from 2016 about an orphan girl who flees her rural orphanage with her best friend to pursue her dream of becoming a ballerina in Paris. And it is absolutely that, a fairly typical underdog works hard to overcome obstacles story.

There are a couple surprises that made this movie stellar. For starters, the U.S. version of the movie adds lines for an otherwise silent character, Luteau, voiced by none other than Mel Brooks. I mean, how can you go wrong with that sort of talent? (For reference, the original release was a France/Canada co-production titled Ballerina.)

We have a tendency to watch shows and movies with subtitles on at home, largely because of how much the sound quality varies across platforms. That’s why we noticed early in the movie that the subtitles don’t match the vocals. This isn’t a case of somebody mistyped a word or two, as we frequently see… there are entire sentences in the subtitles that aren’t spoken.

In hindsight (with Google’s help), it appears there was some rewriting of the dialogue for the U.S. version of the movie. I’m guessing the subtitles weren’t updated to match, which made for an entertaining evening as we compared the vocals to the text. All in all, it’s a fun movie with either set of dialogue.

Thoughts on The Girl Who Fell Into Myth

Are you looking for a new high fantasy series with rich worldbuilding and strong female characters? This is the perfect time to jump into Kay Kenyon’s The Arisen Worlds series, at the very beginning. The Girl Who Fell Into Myth was just published on March 1st, so you can read it before the second book (due in September) is published. This review was originally published in the January 1, 2023 issue of Booklist.

Kay Kenyon launches The Arisen Worlds high fantasy series with The Girl Who Fell Into Myth, as Liesa is reluctantly summoned from her father’s Numinasi “consulate” in rural Oklahoma to her ancestral home of Osta Kiya to learn the way of her parents’ people. Literally adding insult to injury – she is struck by lightning en route to Osta Kiya –  Liesa is immediately greeted with intolerance, forced to change her name to Yevliesza, a proper Numinasi name, and generally ostracized while learning about the culture. Her father, already ill, is imprisoned, primarily for his crime of not returning with her sooner. Despite unearned enmity from powerful members of the court, Yevliesza thrives, discovering her hereditary magic and joins a triad of young ladies learning to control the same power. When disaster inevitably strikes, Yezliesza learns who her friends and enemies are, and where her true power lies. Kenyon masterfully creates a world adjacent to our own that balances their fear of technology with the use of magic, creating a civilization that is both advanced and medieval.

Thoughts on The Lost City

Within the first minute of The Lost City, starring Sandra Bullock and Channing Tatum, it became obvious that this movie was not going to take itself seriously. The protagonists’ of author Loretta Sage’s latest adventure romance novel expressions of admiration for each other as they’re tied up in an ancient temple quickly pan out to a gloating villain, followed by the hero, Dash, asking “Hold up. Are these- Are these your snakes?” This line of questioning continues… who feeds the snakes and why one snake is wrapping itself on a henchman’s leg and not biting the guy? Then the author kicks in with “Delete” on several aspects of the scene, switching to the reality of Loretta struggling to write the ending of her story and still coming to the terms of her husband’s death a few years before.

Minutes later, having found her ending, Loretta is on a book tour with her agent, reading awful online reviews before facing a live audience, and to her surprise, Alan, the cover model for her novels. Her agent, Beth, confiscates Loretta’s phone and sends her on stage in an uncomfortable pink sequined outfit, where she ultimately concedes to the audience’s demand to rip off Alan’s shirt, accidentally removing his wig. Arguments ensue and Loretta storms out into the waiting car of kidnappers employed by Abigail (a gender neutral name, she’s assured) Fairfax, played by Daniel Radcliffe, who noticed that her new book includes real translations for an archaeological site he’s excavating and wants her to travel to the Isla Hundida (“Sunken Island”). She declines; he takes her there anyways.

Meanwhile, Alan, having seen the car Loretta left in, tries to hop into her Uber with the stereotypical “follow that car” line; the Uber driver locks his doors. Police won’t help due to lack of evidence, so Alan reaches out to Jack Trainer (played by Brad Pitt), an ex-Navy Seal he met at a meditation retreat, and they track Loretta’s location using her smart watch (which had snagged on Alan’s wig earlier).

And then the real movie starts, with crazy rescue attempts and corny villain bits. There are a few serious moments as Alan and Loretta figure out how they fit into each other’s lives, but mostly this movie kept us laughing.

Will you join me in donating to support trans rights in exchange for RPGs?

I have a few things I want to post about – a fabulous movie we watched this week, a book or three I want to share – but this seems more important at the moment. Several states, including Florida, have recently passed bills targeting trans and queer people, including removing books from schools that mention LGBTQIA+ topics. Florida in particular is actively removing topics from their public universities, hampering the education students selected when they chose to pursue a degree there.

I don’t know if the politicians making these decisions honestly believe the bullshit they’re spouting, or if they’re just trying to rile up voters leading into the next (painfully long) presidential election cycle. What really matters is that they are hurting people in the process: LGBTQ youth who are unsupported by family or community as they figure out who they are in life have higher suicide rates.

Back to RPGs, or Role-Playing Games (if you don’t know what I’m talking about, Dungeons & Dragons is probably the most famous of those)… for a $5 (or more) donation, you can buy this bundle with 505 TTRPG-related items. (The TT stands for Table Top, as RPGs are traditionally played sitting around a table.) If you donate $10 or more, there’s an added supplement available to you (woot! 506 items!).

What are you waiting for? The offer is only good through the next 22 days.

A medically-oriented first quarter

I’ve had ongoing pain in one hip (and sometimes leg) for a while now, and finally made it into the Orthopedics office at the beginning of the year to address the issue. Noting that I highly recommend against dealing with pain for “a while”; I should have gone in sooner, so I won’t bother listing excuses.

After eight weekly visits for physical therapy (PT), there was some improvement, but also ongoing stiffness and pain, so my doctor sent me for an MRI. That was an interesting experience in several ways, starting with how I arrived twenty minutes early but checked in fifteen minutes late. (Someone forgot to unlock the main door.)

MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging, and there’s a fascinating explanation on Wikipedia about how it uses magnetic fields and radio waves to map out soft tissues. I was warned that it’s noisy… a “cacophony” of sound. The office fortunately provided both ear plugs (standard) and a headset (apparently this varies); the operator was able to talk to me via the headset.

I was concerned that I would get bored; I was told walking in that I needed to try to lay still for thirty-five minutes (without a book or cat!). Instead, I found the process interesting. Before each scan, the automated system told me the expected duration, and I almost immediately noticed that the sounds for each scan, and even within some of the scans, were different, and the direction the sound came from varied. After some thumps and murs and hums, I was released back into the world to await my results.

The scan results were sent to me online, followed fairly quickly by my doctor’s assessment, translating medical-ese into, well, slightly less medical-ese: “chronic degenerative changes to your labrum and hip impingement”. That’s about what it sounds like… I scheduled a follow-up appointment for today, and she clarified that it’s essentially wear and tear on my hip joint. We rolled straight into the possibility she had mentioned before scheduling the MRI: a cortisone shot.

Alas, it will be a couple weeks before I really know the impact of the shot, it takes the steroids a bit of time to do their magic to reduce the inflammation in the area. I was impressed with my doctor’s bedside manner, she talked through each part of the injection process as she approached it, from the pinch of the needle going in, to the sensations I’d feel as the different numbing agents were released into my system.

Now I wait and see.

Thoughts on A Killing Moon

I made a mistake at Capricon: I bought A Killing Moon, the first book in Alexis D. Craig’s Winged Guardians series.

I read the first couple chapters at the convention, along with pages 119 through 121 to be sure I’d be comfortable reading them out loud to an audience. The panel’s title was judging a book by page 119; the presenters skipped to 119 or thereabouts and read a couple pages, then the audience gauged whether they’d be interested in reading the book before the title was revealed. As I explained after revealing the cover, the book kicks off (in the prologue) with a sex scene, so I skipped ahead to see if the page selection was going to be appropriate for all ages attending the panel.

I can’t reiterate this enough: when given the opportunity to buy books directly from the author at an event, buy the whole damn series. I had to set A Killing Moon down for a couple review books, then breezed through it and wanted more… you know, those other three books that I failed to buy at the convention.

The book itself is a paranormal romance filled with shapeshifters, along with some assassination attempts and palace intrigue. The protagonists are a werewolf and were-crow, and many other were-species are mentioned in this robust hidden world intertwined with ours. Craig clearly has a knack for writing characters that obviously belong together both in and out of the bedroom (living room, and other places) and showing the character evolution as they reach that realization.

If you’ll excuse me, I have to go place a book order.

Chores as self-care for future me

From dishes to sweeping to cleaning windows, nobody that I know really likes chores. These daily, weekly, or even intermittent tasks are things we do because they need to get done, not because we enjoy them.

I had a revelation the other night as I was preparing for bed. As I approached the end of a toilet paper roll – you know, that single sheet or two left that have you wondering whether you should finish it – I realized that I would either be changing the roll in the low light of bed time prep or no light in the middle of the night. Changing it in that moment was looking after future me.

I thought about other chores that I do and how I space them out, realizing that I frequently look out for my future self. I start most mornings by emptying the dish drainer (after feeding the cats, of course), so that I have space after breakfast when I wash dishes. I wash some dishes as I’m cooking, reducing the clutter on the counter and in the sink. Since we have a policy that the person who didn’t cook washes dishes at shared meals, this also lightens the other cook’s workload.

I still don’t really like chores, but future me always appreciates the effort when she finds only one chore to do instead of two. Or toilet paper that doesn’t need changing in the middle of the night.

The Paramount Theatre presents Into the Woods

The third show of the Paramount Theatre’s 2022/2023 season is Into the Woods, which starts off with familiar fairy tales: Cinderella, Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Ridinghood, and Rapunzel, with a bonus story about Rapunzel’s brother, The Baker. The basic premise to the first half of the show has each of the main characters working towards their happily ever after. The second half covers the ramifications of those happily ever afters, including two princes in Agony (it’s a song), and the giant’s wife searching for Jack to avenge her husband’s death. There are, as always, a plethora of terrible character decisions needed to make a good story.

As a longtime Paramount subscriber, I am completely in awe of their ability to stun me with their set design. As we walked into the theatre, I paused to gape at the forest on stage. Wow.

During the show, the forest moves, so you feel the difference as the actors run through the forest or pause in clearings. When Rapunzel lets down her hair from the tower, it continues down into the forest for the prince to climb, ascending among those trees. And when the giant – who is never actually on stage (size different, you know?) – comes stomping through, you hear the splintering of the trees.

Into the Woods is playing at the Paramount through March 19th, so you have plenty of time to go see it.