A return home, 50 years in the making.....

Before I blog anymore about this trip, I would like to give you the background of it's importance and cathartics.
Every person who had ever met my mother loves her. She is the proof for me that God exists and she is a woman. Time's that I was sick either with a simple cold, or chicken pox, I remember the healing comforting hands of her stroking my brow. Sometime in a fever I would swear it was her wings doing it, because I just knew she was an angel in a mothers body.( but aren't all mother's?) During these times she would tell me stories of when she was a girl growing up in  magical land's called Scotland and England. Stories that including her using her brogue ( that sing song way scottish people have) that would and still has me smile. Exotic food's, well exotic to me being 7, I mean, sourdough bread slathered in butter and chocolate sounded like heaven compared to the Special k crap she had me on. Or still gross food's like 'Black pudding" which ended up being fried blood. My whole existence has been these stories, and my love of everything anglophilic.
I have always wanted to share these experience's with her, but her fear of flying would never let it happen. So I had to come to the resolve to start this blog so she could read of Tim and I's adventures abroad and somehow relive them thru our eye's and words. Imagine what I felt when she did in fact dug down and despite her crippling fear, said she would go with us this time, with my father. They say you can never go home again. They are wrong. My mother was and did go home, while I found mine.
So thank's to Nancy Nystrom, perhaps the best therapist in the world (her office is in Illahee, Bremerton if you ever need one, she is the only one I would ever recommend for anything) and thank's to medical mild stress leveler's, and thanks to my father for being the constant rock to her that he is, we had lift off.

The next blog entries will include everything I got to experience with my mother and I hope you enjoy them. Both thru my eye's and her's, this was the most amazing and healing trip. Thank you Tim for all the planning you did that made this what it was. Also I would like to thank the staff of Sugardaddy's Salon who survived and thrived without us. I could not leave my salon to any other group of amazing people and not worry.

Valentine's Day in Cobham, Surrey

After arriving at our dear families home in Oxshott, we combatted the jet lag with a case.....yes a case, of champagne. The next day after the appointment with an immigration lawyer in Servington, ( Tim was right, I need to fill out the UKM form, and let bureaucracies take it from there for duel citizenship) we got ready to celebrate Valentine's Day at my beautiful cousins restaurant where she works called Strada in Cobham. This was just one of many culinary delight's we encountered in the U.K. Whatever you have heard about british food, you will need to rethink it, it was amazing. Far from bland, my tongue has never been happier......Sorry Tim.
From the vegetarian risotto with soybeans and asparagus, the charred yellow fin tuna, spring vegetables, and beef cheek's, everything was scrumptious. Experiencing  english lovers nibbling their meals exchanging secret glancing made for  fun people watching, and the restaurant itself was beautifully designed. Tim and I loved the odd shaped lighting fixtures and clean lines of the place all the while retaining it's warmth.
I also loved the fact that my parent's now having bragging right's to say they celebrated Valentine's Day in England, how romantic. I will include a supplementary blog regarding this trip and what exactly it meant for us, hell maybe that will be my next one so you can read this with that frame of mind.

Thank you so much dear Lydia for sharing this with us. It was, hand's down, the best Valentine's I have ever had. If you are ever in Cobham, Surrey, England you must try out Strada restaurant. It is right downtown Cobham. The staff is beautiful and friendly, the food is rockin', and they take American Express.( One huge note to those traveling regarding gratuties. They really do not believe in them, more than 10% would actually insult them. So if you are like me, and believe in heavy tipping, you must restrain yourself. They will respect the 10% fully. In fact a lot of the credit card transactions DO NOT include a tip line so you must tell them to add it when you give them the card.)

last week checklist:

When international traveling, here are some check list items you might not realize you should do. It will also explain the crazy look in my eyes and lack of tolerance for people asking me questions, Seriously, ONE MORE QUESTION AND I'LL BLOW!!!
But we're all friends here, it's all good, so if you need to ask a question, ask away......
1.  Order any medications I'll need from pharmacist.....check
2.   Inform bank of travel plans so I can use ATM card ( this gives you the best exchange rate, but some        
        banks bend you over with "international fee's" so check on your rates........check
3.   Inform all credit cards of travel, include dates, and every country planning on visit. In a time of
      identity
  theft and fraud, for this pain in the butt chore really is necessary. For one you don't wanna be caught in
   a  foreign country, their security measures denying you authorization, and then have to get someone on
    the phone and sort it out is really just a pain..........check
4.   Passport ready and secure in my Rick Steves passport under the shirt bag.........check
5.   Kitsap Air-porter reservations made..........check
6.   Someone to check in on 22 year old stepson, cat, and house............check
7.   everyone at work aware of breakdown of who's who while gone..........check ( on a personal note, if
      the plane goes down, I trust all my employees to keep the standards we have built up and to follow
      the lines of your cut and color we have done to you. You will be safe, keep Sugardaddy's alive in
       Tim and I's honor)
8.    Bills sent out or auto pay set up for while gone so no late penalties assessed..............check
9.     Emergency contacts left and also a copy taken, cause you know if there is a emergency oversea's
        like I am gonna remember the important things like numbers
10.   Copy of itineraries printed and put in travel folder in order of events. O.K. this sounds really anal,
        and in fact Tim's idea, but it totally will pay off in all the hub bub! An ounce of prevention, plus
         honestly, it takes 2 bloody seconds extra every time you make your reservations whether for lane,
          hotel, ect.

Ok, these 10 steps will be your 10 golden rules once you try them once! Learn it Live it Love it.  Now we are at 3 days and a wake up! Just breathe.........

SURPRISE TRIP!!

So this February an unexpected trip to the U.K. presented itself. What makes this more special my mother, whois from there, if finally going with us and seeing home for the first time since the early 60's. I have wanted this moment my entire life, seeing her home thru her eye's. I cannot wait to share all these moments with you guys!
We will be working on my duel citizenship, so cross your finger's!