State of the wombat.

[curiouswombat]

Well - it's quiet around here - S2C is in bed, last night was his last shift at work for a couple of weeks and he's just rotating back to the same hours as the rest of us.

Well into the same hours as me - Daughter-dear isn't here at the moment - not that she has gone back to York yet, no, she's in Krakow. She came in last Saturday evening and said 'Katie and I think we'll go to Krakow for a few days.' 'Oh?' says I, 'When?' thinking 'the Easter holidays' or whatever. 'Saturday,' says D-d.

So they organised themselves, boat to Liverpool, flights from Liverpool, hostel for 4 nights, hotel in Liverpool on the way home, boat home on Thursday.

Looks a very nice place - here is a webcam - especially for Kathleen and Jim!

Next Monday we take D-d back to York - both S2C and I. Which means leaving the cat at home alone. I think he is better in his own surroundings, with someone coming in to feed him, but S2C and D-d think he might run away from boredom if there is no-one to make a fuss of him. I think he will just sit and howl in a cattery - and so I have arranged a compromise - I will ask our neighbour to pop in and feed him in the mornings, and my 16 year old niece will pop in after college each day for a while to feed him again and make a fuss of him. He gets fussed, and she gets the use of the widescreen TV and 100+ channels.

Seems to be a plan - we'll only know it's worked when we get home after our 5 days away.

My part of the next chapter of Access All Areas is written and now S2C is finished work for a while hopefully he will get his bit done. We're in an exciting bit!

Talking of stories, can I recommend Riders by new writer winsomeone. It is on seasonal_spuffy; all the chapters are posted, one after the other, on the community, it is complete - 29 shortish chapters and an epilogue - I have sat and read it this afternoon.

Summary: Buffy and Spike set off on the trail of a killer and wind up in alternate dimension 1870’s Nevada trying to prevent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse from rising. PG13. Good, good stuff.

Comments

[gillo]

My goodness, you're getting him to cross the water twice within three months? Count me impressed!

The web cam looks very pretty. It's always somewhat worrying when they go off on their own like that, but it does go to prove that we've brought up strong, independent women.

F is back in London - lectures start on Monday! (Remember how much earlier she finished than K in the summer, though?)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

York are always late - I think it helps them get a couple of extra conferences!

I got a text when they arrived at the hostel - which basically said they'd arrived, the hostel looked fine and all the drivers are mad!

They'll have a good time, I'm sure - D-d had got a guidebook in town, worked out just how much history she wanted to fit in - her friend did history at school with her, but dropped out of her Classical Civ. degree at Leeds after a term - so I don't know if D-d's idea of enough history, might be Katie's idea of enough or too much.

They don't think they will go to Auschwitz - Kat says she knows about it, what happened etc. and does not like the idea that it is a tourist venue. Katie added that her neighbour had been to Krakow last year, and had gone to Auschwitz - his comment had been 'It's not exactly fun central'!! There appears to be lots of castles, museums etc, - and enough bars selling vodka to keep them happy(!) at night.

[gillo]

Our history department does a joint trip with the Economics department - last year it was Krakow and they did go to Auschwitz - the year before was Berlin with a side-trip to Belsen and next Easter R will be on the Munich trip (excursion to Dachau). I understand what Kat means, though all the students I've taught or talked to about it have felt they have gained a great deal from the experience, including those who do economics but not history. I must admit, knowing how hyper-sensitive R can be that I am a little bothered about Dachau for her, but she coped OK with the Somme and Ypres a couple of years back.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think her attitude is that this trip is recreation, not work. Castles and museums are fun from her point of view. (And mine.)

She would regard the memorials etc at the Somme as interesting in the same way as all the other church yards I hauled her around in her childhood, I think! Remember one of the high spots of my last trip to London was wandering around the Merchant Navy memorial....

[keswindhover.livejournal.com]

Enjoy York - are you doing some fun stuff with your five days, as well as offloading your offspring?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Going to the Railway museum, I hope, and also to a Runrig concert. Anything else probably depends on how much help she is going to need with setting up the internet, and doing shopping that requires the car.

[mosskat55.livejournal.com]

Just meandering about York is fun.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I know - I never just take her and come home next day, I hang around for a few days every time.

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

Lovely link to Poland! Thanks (bookmarking here). The square and tower remind me a bit of pictures I've seen of Venice. Will have to look at it in the daytime.

Great S2C will be changing shifts again. It takes so long for the body to "catch up" with a shift change though. Poor baby.

Love,
Kathleen (and Jim says thanks for the link too!!!)

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

The webcam is a really good one - there are four of them - click in the list to the left for the others - one of which is in another interesting place.

S2C isn't changing shifts - just not going into work for a couple of weeks, with his 5 nights off, 5 days annual leave, and 5 more nights off before he goes back in again.

[mosskat55.livejournal.com]

Another Kathleen!! and we are pretty close in age, too :)

[pfeifferpack.livejournal.com]

HI Kathleen!!! Wanna be friends? Any friend of Curiouswombat has to be a fine person in my book.

Kathleen
Going to friend you hope you don't mind.

[jerusha]

I'm glad things are going well with you. And that you enjoyed Riders. I beta'd it, and encouraged the author to post on seasonal_spuffy. It sounds as though it's been well received.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Riders is a very good read.

[desdemonaspace]

Heavens, that's a lot of travel. And S2C must hate getting his hours jacked around like that. Poor man.

Your daughter-dear is an adventurous miss. You must be so proud of her.

I wish I could cat-sit for you and S2C. I lone cat who likes to be fussed over is about my speed right now.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

She has turned out to be more adventurous than I would have predicted when she was in her early teens, by far. She has a feeling for Eastern Europe - apart from her trip to Krakow she has also been to Berlin and is planning a trip to Prague sometime next year.

The changing sleeping pattern doesn't seem to bother S2C too much - he works five nights on, five nights off, and stretches his time awake at the beginning and end of his nights off to give him daylight awake time when not at work.

Pity you can't just pop over for a few days peaceful cat sitting!

[evilawyer.livejournal.com]

That's quite a feat of calm organization your girl pulled off. I hope she has a good time.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

It is, isn't it? She sorted out air tickets, hostel, and hotel in Liverpool on-line, and her friend organised the boat travel. All completed in one afternoon! They also had information on how to get from Krakow airport to the hostel, and apparently made it OK.

The weather there looks a lot better than home today, so they should be having a good time.

[winsomeone.livejournal.com]

Both of my cats do the hunger strike thing when we leave, for approximately one day, which must seem to them as if they've held out for absolutely *weeks*. LOL

I've always wanted to go to Krakow, it looks to be an amazingly beautiful city. It's good that your daughter has gone before she gets mired in life/job etc. and doesn't have the luxury of such spontaneous travel plans any longer.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Krakow does look to be a lovely place, and currently cheap for UK travellers - the hostel is costing about £8 each per night.

She agrees totally with what you say about travelling whilst she can - she hopes to get a good bit of travelling done before work etc. curtails things.

[bojojoti.livejournal.com]

Enjoy your trip. I'm back from a jaunt to Oklahoma City, but that didn't cure my wanderlust. I'm ready to travel again. I shouldn't have attended that lecture with the world traveler--it only increased my longing to travel.

We always leave our cat(s) at home. Bumberjean used to visit them when we were gone, but she goes with us on vacations now, so my sis-in-law does the duty. Cats really hate strange kennels. I think it's better for them to be lonely than stressed.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Cats really hate strange kennels. I think it's better for them to be lonely than stressed. That's how I feel about him, too. Especially as he hates having to use a litter tray - he goes out into the yard and uses the leave litter under the tree!

York is really a fairly short hop - apart from the 4 hours on the boat. It is a lovely place when there, too.

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

My reaction was, "Krakow... you mean POLAND?" And once again I am amazed at how close Britain is to Foreign Places. Although I know that the UK is in Europe, it never quite seems that way to me. (Much like penguins don't really seem like birds.) It's always a surprise when I realize, once again, that the UK is Way Over There, and York is only as far from Krakow as Little Rock is from New York City.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

My reaction was, "Krakow... you mean POLAND?"

Actually it was my reaction too! But it is only a 2.5 hour flight once she gets to the UK mainland from here. (It would probably have been less of an undertaking if she had been going from York, but it is still vacation, and this is a 'home friend' that she is going with.)

The main difference between travelling around Europe and around the US is probably that in Poland they mainly speak Polish, so she will have to get by with her English and German, hand-waving, and a phrase book!

They use a different currency too - so she has to change pounds to Zlotys - but Poland is still pretty cheap compared to the Eurozone - so she is staying in a hostel for about £8 a night. Although this is currently $16, practically the purchasing power of £1 and $1 is not a lot different - so it is, psychologically, as cheap as if you could stay for about $8 a night.

Krakow looks to me as if it is rather like York - a very historic, fairly small city, it will be interesting to see if she thinks there are any similarities.

(They had been thinking of going to Budapest - but the flights were from London, and it is more expensive to get there to start with! I love the idea that they can just pop off to places that seemed to be a world away when I was young.)

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

Does she need a visa to travel to Poland? Or can she just spontaneously go?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

No - Poland is in the EU, no visa needed. We can just head off almost anywhere - fancy a couple of days in Estonia, a week in Slovenia, or just a trip to Greece and you just need to get your ticket and pack your bag.

Actually we don't need visas for many countries - Russia, and possibly the USA (I'm not sure whether your immigration accept her Manx Crown Dependancy passport as being a UK citizen - my friend's daughter found herself being body-searched, threatened with prison and then locked in a tiny room with nothing to sit on or eat or drink etc., for 10 hours on a stop-over in the US because they didn't like the look of her passport - very scary for a young girl of 20).

[beckyzoole.livejournal.com]

very scary for a young girl of 20

The isolationism and ignorance of the American government is a constant source of irritation and embarrassment to me.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Don't worry - I don't hold you personally responsible- honestly!

Actually it may well be that it was an individual guard who didn't recognise it as one of the 'sub-divisions' of British passports, or it maybe that her passport was more than afour or five years old - apparently if you have a UK passport which is any older you have to have a visa to get into the US.
:~(

My daughter's 'shopping list' of places to see is very much Eastern European, so I don't think she'll be finding out personally whether she needs a visa for the US for a while yet.

[ayinhara.livejournal.com]

I always left my cats at home and arranged for somebody to feed them. They were always highly annoyed with me when I came home. So much for them being aloof.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yes - I think he will be better with the run of the house and regular meals. My sister suggested also locking his cat-flap, but he has never taken to a litter tray, he will sit by the door and howl piteously even if the litter tray is right there. He would eventually have to give in and 'go' indoors, but may well decide not to use the litter tray even then, but go behind the settee or whatever.

So normal outdoor access, two meals daily and a couple of hours of human company seems to be a fair compromise I think.