Julia Park Tracey

Can you stand it? I’m not finished yet. We’re in Bath, England, today, taking a pause from visiting two museums and walking all up these cobblestone hills to see all of Jane Austen’s previous domiciles. Walking on cobblestones is not fun but worth it to see St. Jane, anything Jane. I’m on a mission. Got 2 houses already, 2 more to go. We had afternoon tea in the Pump Room after touring the Roman baths (that’s why they call it Bath, dur). Our room is cute, not hungry yet after all that tea but Bath is on a steep incline so we’ll soon work off the scones and clotted cream.…

Gack! So much to catch up on. It is a real super pain to get to an Internet cafe; Mia doesn’t have a computer, much less Internet access at home, so trying to get there (which is kind of a bore to her) is easier said than done. We’re at the library today, actually, which is free, nice, but not sure if this will post (you can’t cut and paste)…but to the task. (The keyboard is in English, tra la!) I posted from Brugge, which was an amazing and wonderful city, but getting home was easier said than done. We walked around and bought a bushel of lace and a…

oh lordy, we are here in Brussells, our FAVORITE place. it is beautiful, just like a real live Disneyland. Met up with the Other Mia last night and had fun, my Mia had escargot for the first time and loved them. We ran into some trouble (not too much) with the train this morning — direct to Brussells was about $400 so we went via Lille, which is semi-Dutch — it’s actually Flanders. Then got on the train to Brussells and suddenly we are in the Dutch world. No need for French, everyone speaks *perfect* English. We had a waffle with butter and sugar and “milky coffee” that was heavenly,…

(I tried to post this in Paris and had no luck…this is from Belgium…more to come.) Bon jour, please forgive me, I,m on the clock qt Internet cqfe qnd the keyboard is French,,,thqt meqns nothing is where it should be; if I try to correct it you,ll get nothing out of me = so pleqse beqr with me, Grrrr, who moved the A, the W, the period and the M, fergqawdsqke!!!??? Got here eqrly Wed morning qnd no trouble with customs, luggqge, tqxi, but it was q long flight qnd I wqs rum=dumb by then; we were delqyed qn hour on the runway in Chicqgo becquse = whqt else =…

When Kelly Thompson and I used to ride on the swings in Oleander Park, or somebody’s backyard, we’d pass each other, one going forward, one going back, and we’d say Hi…Bye…Hi…Bye…like it was the funniest thing in the world. It was, for a four-year-old. Try 40-something, and it’s harder than it looks, and yes, I’m a big fat whiner, I know it already so just shut your pie hole. (Um, and I mean that in the nicest way possible.) All that is my grumpy way of saying wow, I’m hecka swamped today and have way the hell too much to do before tomorrow morning, so bye and all that. And…