Category: travel

Epiphany

[Note: I wish I were writing a post addressing the murder of Renée Good and the horrible actions of the Trump administration both in the United States and throughout the world but I don’t have enough brainpower to do so between the brain fog and jet lag, so something lighter today. I drafted this and had intended to post it for January 6th – itself a fraught date for those of us in the US – but our travel complications derailed my intent to do so.]

On January 6th, Catholics in the UK celebrate Epiphany, observing the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus. This ends the twelve days of Christmas, although the Christmas season continues liturgically through the celebration of Jesus’s baptism in the Jordan River by John.

Interestingly, in the United States, the observance of Epiphany is moved to Sunday rather than celebrated on January 6.

One of the most meaningful parts of our trip to London has been attending Mass with daughter E, son-in-law L, and granddaughters ABC and JG. I especially have enjoyed the Saturday vigil Masses because L has served as organist with E as songleader.

I’ve always loved listening to E sing. She was very musical from the time she was young and always sang in choirs at church and school. She majored in music in college and studied voice there. Because we live so far away from each other, I don’t get to hear her sing often, so it was a treat to hear her – and sing along – at Masses during our trip.

This post is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/09/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-9th-2026/

explaining the travel Jot

On Tuesday, I jotted that it was a long travel day.

Except with a lot more Os in “long.”

We were heading back from London to Newark and hit a few snags.

First, the simple route from our hotel to Heathrow on the Elizabeth line was shut down and the diversion took way longer than we expected. Still, we arrived at Heathrow in plenty of time. Unfortunately, the wheelchair assistance that had worked so well on our flight out was not very efficient with our departure. T and I were literally the last people onto the plane before they closed the doors. Then, our departure was delayed because there was a rare snow shower and the plane needed de-icing.

Still, we made up time, albeit with some turbulance, and arrived just about on time in Newark. The wheelchair assistance there was very good but we ran into trouble getting the van to take us back to where our car was parked, which meant that we started to head for home in the dark during rush hour. While we had hoped to make the 180 mile (290 kilometers) trip home that night, we were too tired and jetlagged to do it, so we crashed at a hotel along the interstate and finally made it home around noon on Wednesday.

Now, we are all trying to get back to Eastern Time. I’m notoriously bad at adjusting to time changes, so it will probably take a while.

This (longer) jot is part of Linda’s Just Jot It January. Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2026/01/08/daily-prompt-jusjojan-the-8th-2026/

Welcome, 2026!

After a rough 2025 for many of us, I hope that the new year will bring an increase in peace, security, freedom, and safety for each person.

We began our new year’s celebration yesterday with a midday dinner with son-in-law L’s parents. So much delicious food!

We opted to return to our hotel early in the evening before things got rowdy. We figured we could watch the festivities in Central London on the television if we managed to stay awake. I’m sure at E and L’s new home in East London there will be a lot of banging on pots and pans at midnight, along with personal fireworks. Granddaughters ABC and JG napped in the afternoon so they could be awake for the arrival of 2026.

They followed the Filipino tradition of having a bowl of 12 different, round fruits to welcome the new year.


This marks the first post for Just Jot It January 2026, an initiative organized by Linda Hill of the “Life in progress” blog. You are welcome to join in the fun at any point and can find details on her blog. I’ll write a bit more about it as the month goes on.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

Breakfast

(Photo by Chris Tweten on Unsplash)

While we are visiting in London, we are staying at a Hampton Inn. As in the US, breakfast buffet is included with the room, but the breakfast cuisine here is much more diverse. There are elements of the traditional English breakfast – eggs, sausages, bacon, potatoes, mushrooms, baked beans – but lots of other options, too. Porridge and cold cereals. Sliced cheese and cold ham. Tomatoes and cucumbers. Assorted fruits and yogurts. Waffles that you make yourself. Mini croissants and other pastries and bread to toast or not. Coffees drinks and teas and juices and milks.

It’s particularly nice to have so many options when one is here for a longer stay. You don’t get bored with the breakfast buffet. Today I had fruit and fiber cold cereal with milk and a waffles with banana and honey with peppermint tea.

Ready for Boxing Day!

Christmas Eve/Day

Spouse B, daughter T, and I are spending the holidays in London with daughter E, her spouse L, and granddaughters, 8-year-old ABC and 5-year-old JG. The photo above is of ABC and JG’s bedroom window decoration at dusk on Christmas Eve. Dusk comes early in London this time of year!

This is an exciting Christmas for our London contingent because they just moved into their first house of their own a couple of months ago.


Christmas Eve day was largely dedicated to finishing up gift preparation and baking cookies. B and E made lasagna for dinner, a nod to the Italian side of our family and the many years we made lasagna for Christmas dinner to accommodate E and T singing in the choir on Christmas morning because the lasagna could be assembled the day before and baked after church. For dessert, we had cookies and pandoro, an Italian sweet bread which is covered in powdered sugar and baked in a mold so that it can be cut in slices and arranged to look like a Christmas tree. This was not part of the Italian Christmas tradition that made it across the ocean to the US but it was so delicious that we will try to order it next year.

When E and T were young, every Christmas, my parents would give them Fonatanini creche figures. E’s figures were being stored in our basement but, now that she and L have their own home, we took the opportunity to bring them out to them. Here they are on the mantel, with a zebra addition courtesy of ABC and JG!


My parents, known here as Nana and Paco, have both passed away. They both got to know ABC, their first great-grandchild when she lived in the US for her first couple of years before moving permanently to London. Paco got to meet JG just once, when they were able to make the trip over from London a few weeks before he died. I love, though, that the creche figures they gave to E are part of their first Christmas in their new home. It feels as though they are blessing the house and their dear family.

I’m writing this early Christmas morning. Our plans include 8:30 Christmas mass, followed by gift exchange and an afternoon dinner at L’s parents with 20-some family gathering.

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate and wishes for peace and joy to all!

travel assistance

My family is travelling for the holidays. Due to our current health status, daughter T and I both qualified to have wheelchair assistance at the airports, which was a huge help, especially because we flew out of one big airport, Newark, and into another, Heathrow. Bonus: we got through security and customs through expidited lines. Second bonus: spouse B got to come along with us so we could move through the whole process together.

I’m very grateful for the help. This experience makes the prospect of future travel much less daunting.

(Photo is from a prior holiday trip to London. We are scheduled to go on a holiday lights bus tour later in the month, so more London lights photos may be forthcoming.)

May the fourth

The overhead warning signs on Route 17/86 near Binghamton, New York flashed this message:

Slow down you must.
Arrive safely you will.

They were channeling Yoda because today is May the fourth, the tongue-in-cheek day to celebrate the Stars Wars franchise because the dialogue sometimes included the phrase, “May the force be with you.”

I thought I should provide the explanation because some readers would have no context on this, due to their generation, cultural background, or obliviousness to Star Wars. 😉

(Image by martin from Pixabay)

Double-header Saturday

I realize that title seems like baseball, but it’s not, although Cooperstown is involved…

Despite my current health issues, I managed to attend two major events on Saturday.

In the afternoon, I sang-along with parts two and three of Handel’s Messiah. This was an event offered by the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton, with whom I serve as a singer and board member. Our artistic director, John M. Vaida, conducted a volunteer chamber orchestra and soloists with a chorus made up of those who showed up to sing along. Most of us were members of Madrigal Choir or Downtown Singers, although I think there were a few who aren’t presently in either group. It was a lot of fun to sing with old and new friends without the pressure of performance. Madrigal Choir hopes to do more events like this in the future.

Next up was heading to the Fenimore Art Museum, just outside Cooperstown, for the Write Out Loud ’25 reading, made possible only because spouse B did the driving, as we live about an hour and a half from there. I had been accepted to Write Out Loud ’24 last year with a poem from my chapbook, Hearts. When submissions opened for this year’s event, I sent the call on to my poet-friends in the area and I’m pleased to say that the Grapevine Poets from the Binghamton area were well represented this year with Merrill Oliver Douglas, Jessica Dubey, Richard Braco, and me all having work accepted.

Merrill read her poem, “Meditation in Walmart,” as the second piece in the program, with Richard reading “Pole Star Child” as the next-to-last piece in the program. Accepted writers have the option to read their own work or to have a member of the theater company affiliated with the Fenimore perform their piece. Cait Liberati read Jessica’s poem, “Love Birds.” Jessica wished that she could have been there to read it herself but she was away on a trip. I was thrilled with Sharon Rankins-Burd’s reading of my poem, “The Bridge“! I had planned to have an actor read my poem from the start because my health situation is too uncertain. I also appreciate hearing what a trained actor does with my words.

The Fenimore Art Museum has released the recording on their YouTube channel. If you click “more” in the description, it will open the program with links to the beginning of each piece.

I had figured that expending that much energy in a day would knock me for a loop and it did. I spent most of the day yesterday in bed and will lay low today, too, just going out for physical therapy. I’m grateful that I was able to attend these events and hope that we are able to get a better handle on my diagnosis and treatment options soon so that I have more energy to do two things in one day – or even one thing…

SoCS: calendar

My calendar used to be filled with meetings, volunteer gigs, poetry workshops and readings, family events, and music rehearsals and concerts.

Now, it’s mostly medical appointments.

I am still holding on to singing with the Madrigal Choir of Binghamton. We are coming up on performance week, which will be a challenge with my diminished energy.

Maybe this next round of tests and specialists will get to a full diagnosis and some kind of treatment to improve my situation. I know that it is unlikely to be fully reversed but I’m trying to retain hope that I can bring back the most important abilities and activities I can’t manage now.

If that happens, maybe my calendar will have somewhat fewer medical appointments and more poetry – with some more travel to see family and outings with friends.

Maybe that can even happen later in 2025.

It depends on what happens with the tests and doctor visits that are in those calendar boxes this spring…
*****
Linda’s prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “calendar.” Join us! Find out more here: https://lindaghill.com/2025/03/21/the-friday-reminder-and-prompt-for-socs-march-22-2025/