Five months and counting...

That's how long till my next trip. Five months. I've already booked my plane ticket, reserved part of the hotel stay, and nagged the boyfriend about going to see Giant's Causeway this time. I'm a little ahead of myself, but I like the feeling of knowing I'm going. E-tickets take away a little of the "got the ticket in hand" feeling, but I suppose I could just wave my MasterCard bill around and get a similar high.

So here's the plan so far: take the train (or a lift, if I can find one) to Toronto, fly to Belfast, stay 2 weeks, then fly to Southampton, bus it to Portsmouth, and then take the ferry over to Caen for 5 days before flying out of Paris. Sounds like a lot of cities, but I'll be seing most through the windows of moving vehicles.

I'm excited about Ireland, although I've been before and the lack of "newness" takes a little of the edge off. Still, I have a long list of places I'd like to see or see again, and I can't think of the of duck and sweet/mashed potato dinner at the Northern Whig without my mouth watering. Throw in cheap beer and a chance to see Neal for two more weeks before we're apart again for 7 more months and there you go.

In Caen, my goal is to see all the D-Day beaches and cemeteries, and attend the Canadian Rememberance Day ceremonies on Juno Beach on November 11th. It's one of those always-wanted-to-do-it things - both because the history of WWII fascinates me, and because my grandfather landed on St-Aubin-Sur-Mer on June 6, 1944 and switched from one division to another (and from Canadian army to British army and back) as he was more stealth (and more lucky, I imagine) than the other members of his divisions.

But all that's still 5+ months away. For now, I'm waiting around the office at suppertime to interview a family for an upcoming newsletter, while worried (cause I like to worry) about my busted laptop and how much I'll have to take out of my vacation fund to fix the dang thing. Ah, well. I'll always have Paris! At least for the half-hour it'll take me to get from the train station to Charles-de-Gaule.