Some pictures of Ireland follow. We had a nice time reconnecting with old friends and celebrating their marriage. Lisa and Steve are lovely, kind people who have been Chris’ friends for years and have been very nice to me since I met them.

It’s nice to have friends for all seasons of your life, people who are in your daily life like Joanna and Melissa, and people at a distance who mean the world to you such as Jen and Lise. I try to be a loyal, non judgmental, understanding friend and appreciate when that is reciprocated.

It was great to see those folks. I wish we could see our other European friends more often too. We missed another friend’s wedding and in retrospect I suppose we should have tried to make it, but it was in conflict with other long standing plans so in the end, we had to skip it. We thought about them all day and really wished them the very best, but I think he was hurt, which is upsetting to me, because I have liked him a lot since I met him, and have felt closer than ever to him since my mom died because of his very real sensitivity towards me. I’m not the sort of person who would ever deliberately hurt a friend. It’s just not in me. It’s hard to be so far from people that you love. I felt it when I lived it Munich and I feel it now. I still think about those folks every day of my life. They were all wonderful to me, and to Chris and I love them.

P.S. Started marinating pork tenderloin for vindaloo tonight. Will report back tomorrow. Also, have some nice pics of England.