Well, I’m on the plane, which is a very good thing, considering that I broke my pelvis four days before this group’s last adventure and consulted on the accounting from my adjustable bed in Napa. Steve and Trish Harrold had come from Florida to our nice wine-country condo to mind Sylly P. Imagine their chagrin, when they ended up taking care of Elvon and Helen, too. Luckily, our Napa neighbors, led by Deborah Robertson, stepped up to the plate with rides to the gym for Elvon, and meals for all four of us. I am still grateful, and happy to feed any of you who show up at the doorstep of Fountaingrove Lodge.
I have to warn you, though, our Lodge is addictive. Steve and Trish were in Napa to look for a retirement community. The next year (2016) they came again, for the same purpose, and stayed in FGL’s guest room. They never did find a better place, so they joined our wait list, and last month they moved in. So here they are minding Sylly P again, in their own apartment. I hear she has already taken over Trish’s lounge chair and hisses Trish off, when she approaches. Delightful cat, that.
The current plan is five days in Dublin with Carolyn Eyster, with whom I have been traveling since 1985, with a quarter century pause for Elvon. It’ll be good to have my old travel buddy back. Then we’ll be on the Shannon Princess for a week, followed by another week at Lisheen Castle in Tipperary. Some of you will know our chef. He’s Scott Kendall of Carpe Diem. If you’re in Napa, pop in this week and tell him the road will be rising to meet him, and all that.
Carolyn and I were christened Tweedledum and Tweedledee, by a McGill group on the Danube in 1988, when we were still writing one liners, instead of blogging.
Some of the choice ones included:

• Carolyn gets all the fruit and veggies. Helen gets all the booze and chocolate.
• Einfart is an entranceway in Austria.
• The Crusaders ate and drank their way down the Danube, and spent all their money – not unlike us.
• Bernice reports the loo at the conservatory is a squat, but a clean squat.
• The counage in Roumania is the “loo”. Bernice will get a lot of it.
• You can take your last drink with you. We kick over a couple every morning.
• Traffic signs are only suggestions in Istanbul.
• Pedestrians stay on the side they are born on.

And, here we go again. Definitely older, 30 years older. Keep following to see if we got any wiser.
My 2019 Assignment – Maybe a cruise for you?
Seas of Enlightenment – Oceania Insignia, March 4 to 31, 2019, yup, 27 days
Enlightenment or not, this is a dream of a cruise. I got early access to this for long and faithful service, as a concierge host. The starting and ending ports are Sydney and Tokyo, places I’ve always wanted to explore more fully, I love Indonesia and the Philippines, and what’s not to love about Oceania?
https://tinyurl.com/InsigniaAsia190304 Australia, Indonesia, Philippines, Taiwan, Japan
Most categories are already wait listed. That no longer scares me. Three months before, plenty of cabins open up, and the wait list clears. It is important to be on it.
And the one in between:
It’s a Mediterranean Cruise this October. We go Rome to Rome on Holland America’s Koningsdam. I have clients booked in two cabins and it’s a Distinctive Voyage. I bid for and got it. Who else is coming with me? Take a look:
https://www.hollandamerica.com/details?webItineraryIdForAudit=E8M10B&fromSearchVacation=true&guestsCount=2&voyageCode=K862&selectedMeta=Interior&shipId=KO October 8 sailing.
It’s seriously inexpensive. Treat yourselves to a suite. Comes with a free cocktail party and shore excursion. I’ll have no trouble booking you from wherever I am.