James Pearl Thinks Blogging is Dead

Cole said:
When we went to Ireland we flew in the Shannon and drove across to Dublin, with stops along the way. We felt spending half the trip in Dublin was a mistake. If we go back, we will most likely fly in to Shannon and go south, and possibly one day in Dublin...
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We did an overnight flight arriving in Dublin around 9am, stayed 2 nights in Temple Bar area. First day toured the walking distance spots. Took a train south to seaside town Bray the next day. Definitely need more time there outside of Dublin.
 
Cole said:
When we went to Ireland we flew in the Shannon and drove across to Dublin, with stops along the way. We felt spending half the trip in Dublin was a mistake. If we go back, we will most likely fly in to Shannon and go south, and possibly one day in Dublin...
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Why was it a mistake?
 
JDurk said:
Highly recommend Dublin. We weren't there long enough since we were on a tour around the UK that included Edinburgh, London, Liverpool and the Lake District of Cumbria.

We've talked about going back to just tour Ireland or Scotland.

Iceland has been on our radar too.
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Yes with only two people it can be relatively inexpensive.

I get the big city tour thing as it has a must see aspect. I will say that the midsize and small towns are a significantly different experience and some of the places you can get to by car only are pretty damn crazy they exist. Like this castle people still live in.
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stb222 said:
Like this castle people still live in.
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The entire town of Segovia is like this. You're sitting in a town that was built 1000 or more years ago, and people still live in it. Has it been fixed up over the years? Sure. But people still live in structures that are 4-5 times older than our entire country.

The town of Segovia was still using the Roman aqueduct into the 70s.

Your general point is valid. If you go to Paris, like you can't skip the Eiffel Tower, as an example. But there are a lot of non-Paris things to do in France. We met some locals in Madrid on our last night at dinner who told us a bunch of non-touristy places to go. She showed us pictures of the town she lives in, Toro. It's really a totally different world in some of these places.
 
stb222 said:
Yes with only two people it can be relatively inexpensive.

I get the big city tour thing as it has a must see aspect. I will say that the midsize and small towns are a significantly different experience and some of the places you can get to by car only are pretty damn crazy they exist. Like this castle people still live in.
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All things considered, we did pretty well booking everything ourselves. Only time we used a car was the leg from London to Liverpool to the Lake District then Manchester airport. I didn't drive at all, left that to the 3rd wheel on the trip. I hadn't driven a manual shift car in a long time, let alone driving on the right in the opposite lane. We barely made it out of London leaving the rental place when he almost had a head-on with a garbage truck.
 
Cole said:
When we went to Ireland we flew in the Shannon and drove across to Dublin, with stops along the way. We felt spending half the trip in Dublin was a mistake. If we go back, we will most likely fly in to Shannon and go south, and possibly one day in Dublin...
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Concur. Have done Ireland twice.

First time into Shannon then South, east, north into Dublin.

Second time from Shannon north, east, ultimately Belfast, then south into Dublin.

Both times 3 days in Dublin is plenty.
 
Norm said:
The entire town of Segovia is like this. You're sitting in a town that was built 1000 or more years ago, and people still live in it. Has it been fixed up over the years? Sure. But people still live in structures that are 4-5 times older than our entire country.

The town of Segovia was still using the Roman aqueduct into the 70s.

Your general point is valid. If you go to Paris, like you can't skip the Eiffel Tower, as an example. But there are a lot of non-Paris things to do in France. We met some locals in Madrid on our last night at dinner who told us a bunch of non-touristy places to go. She showed us pictures of the town she lives in, Toro. It's really a totally different world in some of these places.
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When we did Spain it was Madrid, Sevilla, Malaga. We hit some smaller villages in between and those were the highlights. Particularly Ronda and Jerez.

And funny enough, Gibraltar was cool. To go from Spain, to England, back to Spain was a neat experience, and I mean architecturally, culturally, etc. not the odd border hop. And the monkeys at the top of the rock, watch your valuables!
 
Focus on London

This is what I do on conference calls - some conference calls. Before you get too excited let's set the record straight. This is a paint by numbers kit that I bought online. In no reality do I have this level of talent. I merely take my time when painting this so it doesn't look too bad. I'm sure someone with a more steady hand would do a better job. I do my best.

This is the 3rd city I have painted, after Rome & Paris. I didn't intentionally paint the first 2. They just came with whatever kits D bought and I happened to grab those 2 from the packs we got. Then I decided to paint all the European cities I've been to, in the order I've been to them. So I ordered a Brussels, an Amsterdam, a Barcelona, and a Madrid. I also ordered a Taipei as this is the other non-North American city I've been to but that can be a someday add-on. Technically I've also been to Dublin & Zurich but those were for layovers so they don't count.

Anyway, I do this because it helps me focus. I've found that when I'm on conference calls I get bored because most people are extraordinarily long-winded. And when that happens, I tend to do other things on the computer, like check MTBNJ and so on. Doing this helps keep me occupied but also allows me to focus on what those people are saying. I have a table directly behind my desk so when I need to look at the screen, I just spin the chair around and look.

Does this make sense to anyone else? Do those of you on calls all day have issues paying attention to what people say at times? Or is this just me? I do not classify myself as having attention issues. I think I'm just old and at a point where you can say, "I am cold," as opposed to, "So I woke up this morning and it was 34 degrees out, and..." then goes on for 3 minutes just to say they were cold.

Anyway, London.

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Norm said:
Does this make sense to anyone else? Do those of you on calls all day have issues paying attention to what people say at times? Or is this just me? I do not classify myself as having attention issues. I think I'm just old and at a point where you can say, "I am cold," as opposed to, "So I woke up this morning and it was 34 degrees out, and..." then goes on for 3 minutes just to say they were cold.
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Yes. And some days I just cut them off and finish the sentence, because I have actual shit to do. I guess you can say I think I’m just old and at a point where I don’t care who thinks I’m an asshole!
 
MissJR said:
Where do you buy your paint by numbers kits?
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We started on Amazon but I am now in a Fuck Amazon phase of my life, so I only use Amazon for purchases that I have no other recourse for.

I have used all 3 of these in the somewhat recent past:

Number Artist
Craft by Numbers
FiguredArt

My suspicion is that each of the above 3 companies are all in the same warehouse in China somewhere. They all have the same ordering/automated email/tracking email script. The China companies are all slow boat so they can take a while. But I guess at this point I'd rather throw a few bucks at some peasant in China than help send Katy Perry into outer space.

Anyway, those are a few but I think there are plenty more, almost all surely in that same warehouse.
 
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