Finally, I have a few minutes to type this stuff out….



First off, I’ve accumulated many vacation memories in my day, been blessed to have gone to several places around the globe, and have met some very wonderful people. From time to time, certain vacations stand out above others. This one, stood out like non other for me.

I flew into London on June 20th, and was greeted by my sister and 2 nephews. I had only about 3 hours sleep the evening before in order to prepare my projects for as much self-sufficiency as I could give them considering my two week absence from work, so I was absolutely exhausted. My nephews were given very careful instructions to let me rest on the train, but of course, being undisciplined brats, they would not stop poking and prodding me and laughing about my being completely irritated by them straight away .
I spent that weekend jumping on the trampoline with them, watching 2 movies in the cinema, and dashing about towns like Oundle and Cambridge (both nearby), and just soaking up the rural and small town charm of England. My nights were spent online to pass the time (my sister and brother-in-law tend to sleep earlier than I do), and my mornings were spent orging until they woke up (with so much sunlight , and I’m not joking about that , I was not able to sleep for very long hours).

On Tuesday, a bit exhausted from having to constantly entertain my nephews during my waking hours, I raced off to South Wales, to the town of Cardiff, where I was met by Alun (onenitealone).
I seriously doubt I could say anything here that would give anybody an idea of my completely and absolute adoration for Alun. In short, I’m hopelessly in love with this man, to a level of intensity I’ve never experienced before for anyone. I sit here typing this ...erm.. tribute? … to him with a certain sense of melancholy, deep longing, appreciating to both reconnect with and express my appreciation for him. Alun is amazing.
He greeted me at the Cardiff train station, and the evening started off with gift exchanges, of which I won’t go into too much detail, but his gifts for me reflected a man who not only paid very close attention to my previous posts over several years, but also to my likes and dislikes spoken only in passing--one could easily have blinked and missed the things I mentioned, but Alun came to me in your meeting with an arsenal of charms all of which showed true and absolute tenderness and careful attention for detail. It charmed my socks off, really.
The next 10 days consisted of some of the best, most hilarious, and strangely comforting experiences I’ve had in ages. We saw the sights in Cardiff (Cardiff Castle, high street, Panarth, and seaside), took boat rides, walked the town, met up with his friends, and all along the insane, chaotic schedule, got to know each other in ways that I could only say made my return to the states painful yet filled with gratitude. Alun is love and tenderness incarnate.

Some stand-out moments include:
Ascending Mt. Snowdonia, and walking the town of Llanberis on lazy summers afternoon.
Driving through impossibly narrow, curving roads in the North Wales countryside, and losing the back of a rearview mirror to a roadside telephone pole you’d have to navigate around even without oncoming traffic, scratching my passenger side front hubcap beyond recognition because the roads lacked shoulders and oncoming with two cars coming towards each other in opposite directions one of them needed to be the martyr , and cursing with unabandoned discust that Brits pass off what are essentially bicycle lanes as bonafide roads qualified to support 18-wheeler traffic .
Visiting the quaint seaside town of Aberistwith (sp?), onenitealone’s Uni-town, and hearing his stories of where he’d gotten all crazy, places that he held dear, and of course the beautiful view of the Atlantic.
Roaming God’s green earth because the town of Penmaenmaw didn’t have a restaurant open, I was starving, and their only grocery store shut the lights off on us while we were still in the store .. We ended up driving 20 minutes or so down to a town called Bangor, where I convinced the manager of an Indian restuarant (officially closed, but willing to help a starving American and his Welsh friend out with what he had left in the kitchen ) to serve the two of us. We ended up taking the food back to our hotel in Penmaenmaw, and didn’t proceed to eating our ‘dinner’ until 1 AM in the morning …. God I love onenitealone . I. love. him.
Spending 11 hours buzzed off my arse because mdiver (Phil) took us to a local neighborhood pub in his little town of Chattermuffin or whatever it’s called, and basically drinking, talking, drinking, eating desert, drinking, and laughing our asses off until bedtime.

I wanted to thank Phil and Val (mdiver and Shanti) for their tireless hospitality. When I went over, I didn’t know what to expect, being that mdiver on these message boards always displays a strong alpha-male personality with hints of extreme gayness smattered throughout his posts--definitely a personality to meet with extreme caution. But of all the orgers I’ve met over the last 2 years, he definately surprised me more than most. Phil is a kind, genuine, considerate person, and as Alun mentioned he and Val were the consummate hosts (ok, I have no clue want consummate means, but I’m sure it’s good ).
I can not even begin to tell you the laughs we had over the days that we spent around them, some of it over the silliest things. They’re both generous, kind, wonderful folks who love to laugh and have a good time.
I also got to meet Alice (susanah) who flew in to London to surprise Alun. I admit, Susanah has threatened me in the past to stay away from her “Welshie” so I didn’t now what to expect. What I can say, is from the little exposure I’ve had to her is that she is a sweet, funny, warm and generous girl with a feisty attitude, a knack for nocking down liquor, and large luscious breasts. We are the sisters of perpetual Jambalaya.

My mind is numb and I must get to the Temple for some badly missed Thai Noodle Soup , but I’ll chime in more later.

Thanks to everyone for making this trip so special. Thanks to Alun, specifically, for making my life feel on track and special again.

Much love.

Glad you had a good time. I actually read most of that. Super jealous! But glad you had a good time nonetheless.

Glad you had a good time. I actually read most of that. Super jealous! But glad you had a good time nonetheless.

I loved it so much I'm looking into job positions at our Bournemouth site out there and my boss is helping me out with that.


The folks in the UK are really great. I don't care what anybody says--they're generally happy folks. Shame about the food

for some peculiar reason, when I see this pic, I keep thinking 'Sam & Frodo'.....

It's clear that you two are in love I've not been lucky enough to keep in regular contact with Alun so much but as I said before Dan THANK YOU for bringing that joy to him that he so deserves. He is very dear to my heart and it's wonderful to see and I haven't met you but I have a good idea you very much deserve that happiness too