konfessions of the Koog

Well, that was an exciting night! We got underway late due to some jack wagons at a pub about 500 yards from the ship that didn’t want their day to end. Not kidding, probably the 4 most disliked people on board. As soon as we pulled away from the dock and moved into the channel, it was game on. I was tracking the maritime forecast on an app and was pretty unnerved when I saw our course right through the red part of Storm Betty. Talking with Mrs. Koog tonight I mentioned the 15 foot waves. She clarified, the waves were 15 meters (45-ish feet). Now things started to make sense. That would explain how my stateroom on the 4th guest deck got hit with a wave. On deck 5, 2 or 3 cabins aft from mine had a glass pane shattered by the wave and they also lost a deck chair. The ship sounded like it was being pulled apart. I bet you are wondering if the kids were scared. Honestly, no. The Circle C kids club had some activities for them in the clubhouse. Each kid basically had a counselor that w...

While the little Koogs slept soundly, sleep eluded me most of the night. The head cold/sinus situation got worse. I think I was feverish in the middle of the night due to the intense body aches. A few warm showers throughout the night seemed to help break the fever, and sometime after 4:30 am, I was finally free of body aches and sleeping. We were on our own today, so there were no crazy early wake-ups necessary for the three sleep deprived travelers. We slept in until approximately 8:15 (late for us) and leisurely got dressed and ready to head into Cobh. For those that don’t know, and I didn’t until I saw the itinerary for this trip, Cobh (pronounced Cove) is part of County Cork and about 25 miles-ish from the city. Looking outside from our balcony, the clouds were ominous but it was not too cold nor raining. Always prepared, we donned our waterproof pants, shoes/boots and rain jackets descended the 3 flights to disembark at beautiful Cobh. The security guy on the gangway made...

For ease of reading, I will give you the pronunciation of Dun Laoghaire. It’s Dun Lerry. You are welcome. Well, we had a silent night last night! Seems like the switching of the beds was the trick for B-Koog. According to E-Koog he didn’t sleep for even 5 minutes. His very loud snorting told another story. As for me, I’ve now developed a head cold. So, while the night was silent it was not restful. First order of business once we get to Dublin is a pharmacy. I was up early as my throat felt like I swallowed knives and my nose felt like I’dstuffed my dirty laundry up in there. We have to tender from the ship to the port in Dun Laoghaire. To keep the gangways clear and safe, anyone going ashore has to have a boarding group. The instructions were to be at the main desk no earlier than 7:15 to queue up for the boarding tickets. Since I was awake, I headed downstairs to get ready to queue at 6:50. Good thing I did since they had just started to give out the boarding tickets. We ended u...

Ah, again with the middle of the night shenanigans from B-Koog. Starting at 2 am and continuing hourly until approximately 6 am, he woke me up to tell me he was not sleeping. I am not friendly when awakened from a dead sleep. I was less friendly the 3rd time. Homicidal the 4th time. He and E-Koog are swapping beds tonight. I also gave him a dire warning about waking me up. Just don’t! I have not really slept in about 10 days and I’m very ornery and I control many things that make your life amazing. I can make it not amazing, also. E-Koog suggested we try to sell him, I’m not there yet. But I will reevaluate tomorrow. We were all up and ready by 9 and headed off the ship and into Liverpool. All 3 of us clad in Everton Blue! We received fist bumps and high fives from the port staff who also support the Blues! Apparently there is another team here in Liverpool besides the Blues, but we don’t speak their name. Our itinerary was touristy and trite, but I’ve waited a half century to do i...

The middle of the night antics of the exhausted continued this morning at approximately 3:45 am. We each have our own twin bed in the stateroom. B-Koog’s is the convertible bed and is perpendicular to mine with his head closer to my head. For some reason, he felt compelled to check on me in the middle of the night. Like some strange proof of life was needed at 3:45am. His way of “not disturbing” me was to stare into my face to see if I was breathing. Nope, not creepy at all. I could feel someone/something looking at me. When I am startled awake, I swing in whatever direction the startle was felt. B-Koog almost got it in the head! Luckily, I was able to stop mid-swing. His response? “Why did you almost hit me? I was just staring at you while you slept to see if you were awake.” You lucked out, kid. Talk with Mrs. Koog about the near misses she’s lived through! Back to sleep we all went until 8am when the alarm went off to begin our day at Giant’s Causeway. Both boys were exhausted and...

The day started at about 3:30am with B-Koog gently waking me because he had some pain in his legs. I asked him what kind of pain and he said they felt like they were on fire, as did his eyes. At first, not keenly awake yet, I was worried. He then explained that he used approximately 3 gallons of Tiger Balm on his legs and, forgetting to wash his hands, he touched his eyes. I did something similar once with Zostrix. It’s made from capsaicin pepper. I didn’t know this when I slathered it all over my legs, feet and because I was not thinking, my face and eyes. My entire body felt like I was on fire. My poor guy had the same thing last night. His legs and eyes were bright red and he probably would have cried if he had any moisture in his eyes for tears! I hosed him down in a cool shower, eyes and all. He felt better and we quickly fell back to sleep. We had a more proper wake up around 8:30 when my bagpipe music phone alarm rang. Each of us got up easily and ran to the balcony to see the...

After taking 3 travel sickness pills last night and sleeping for about 10 hours, I woke up right as rain! We had to meet our tour to Caernarfon Castle at 8:15, so we were all up and ready by 7. Soon after I used the app to get a table for breakfast, I was notified our table was ready and we headed down and ordered. The waiter misunderstood my order and brought me a single banana. Oh well. We finished our breakfast and headed to the meeting place for our excursion. I have to give Carnival props for their level of organization. We were checked into the holding area, the large theater, and given a number for our bus/tour. Then they called the numbers and we all walked to our buses and boarded. Orderly and organized, just as I like it! We were the first ones to our bus and were able to get the front seat as B and I were still on the razor's edge of motion sickness. The entire bus was delayed for 2 stragglers. As they got onto the bus, the elderly woman made a snide comment about me...

We were all very happy to have no reason for an early wake up, I think we slept until 8:45. Boys headed to the buffet for breakfast and I went to the main dining room. Not a fan of any buffet. Nice breakfast omelet, bacon rashers and a pot of hot water since I brought my own Glengettie tea from home. I met up with the boys and we headed to the sports bar to watch the Women’ World Cup matches. We saw Australia beat France and the Lionesses from England beat Colombia. Hard to pick favorites because all the women have worked so hard, but I was pulling for the Lionesses! Shortly after the game, we attended the art auction. I was suckered into another piece of art. Mrs. Koog will be happy because it was on sale! During the auction, the water started to get very nautical and B-Koog and I were low key sea sick. As soon as the auction concluded, we headed back to the room to sleep off our nausea. What a nap, it was 2 hours! We both woke up refreshed and it was time to properly use the App...

At 5:15 I heard the sweetest little voice saying, “Momma, it’s time to get up. We get on the ship and have unlimited soda for the next 10 days!” E-Koog has been counting the days for the cruise ever since I told him about the ultimate bottomless soda package I got for him and B-Koog. He was so excited about this drink package, he went through our flat to make sure everything was packed up. Emptied all the garbage and took the garbage to the curb per the check-out instructions. At this point, B-Koog was up and equally excited  about soda day. He put the remaining dishes in the dishwasher, cleaned the kitchen counter and set the bags up in the hall all ready for us to head out. By 6:30, everyone was dressed and packed and the flat was ready for check-out. We headed across the street to the Costa Coffee for some tea and porridge for me and 2 cokes and freeze dried strawberries for the boys. I know this is not a breakfast that Mrs. Koog would sanction, but our Adult was on her own adve...

Wow, day 18 already? Doesn't seem real. We are more than half way through our big UK vacation-palooza. Every moment has been amazing. Let me not exaggerate, most moments have been amazing. The others are a mix of abject terror (driving) and annoyance (twin 12 year olds bickering). So many more amazing than not, though. It really has been magical. Today the reality of being 2/3 of the way through was in focus. Very early this morning, Mrs. Koog kissed us goodbye and headed to her train that took her to Gatwick Airport for a plane that took her to Croatia to meet her sisters and friend for the 50th birthday yacht/bike extravaganza. The boys and I were relieved when she called as soon as she landed safely. As for us, we spent the day in London shopping and chatting and riding the tube. The kids are very familiar with the Tube now and pretty much navigate me through the underground stations. Today, we headed from Farringdon to Knightsbridge to Harrod's! As I was talking to the ...

So, my day started at 3am when I had to leave the bed and head to the tiny loveseat sofa again. The topper the property manager got for our bed was just the mattress from the sofa bed. So at 3am, me and Mrs. Koog moved said mattress back to the sofa bed so I could sleep on the loveseat. Total hours of sleep was 4. As much as I really like London, I cannot wait to leave and get proper sleep! Our main priority today was to ship our box of souvenirs and stuff we don't need for the remainder of the trip home. We looked up the DHL service point and it was .3 miles from our flat. Awesome! So we grabbed the 12lb box and walked the .3 miles to the DHL place. And the least knowledgeable shipping lady worked there and literally had no idea how to ship this box. We were literally at DHL. They ship things as a business, yet this lady had no idea. Frustrating. So, we grabbed our 12lb box and walked the .3 miles back to the flat to regroup. We found a different service, DPD, and made it nearly...

Well, today was a better day considering sleep happened last night. The tiny loveseat was better than the bed. Mrs. Koog's side of the bed seems better than the side I was on, so she opted to stay in the bed and also got a decent night's sleep. The boys, well, they traded beds with Mrs. Koog and it was no bueno for the guys. Hopefully, we will hear from the management company before they hear from me again. We headed to the Tube again this morning and got on the train to Greenwich. On the agenda was the Maritime Museum, National Observatory and Prime Meridian. Also on the agenda, rain. Luckily, we still have all our waterproof clothes, so we were dry and trekked on throughout the day. As we arrived at the Farringdon Tube station around the corner from the flat, we got a note from the management company apologizing for the unsleepable beds and they let us know they would be around to the flat today to deliver mattress toppers. Excellent! The boys enjoyed the ride on the Tube,...

The Family Koog is TIRED! Not just because we are marathon vacationers, but because the beds in our super posh flat are torture devices. I sent a note to the property manager and have not yet gotten a reply. We are not typically complainers, at least not formally, but this is completely untenable. At least we are in London, right! After cracking our backs and having some significant caffeine to make the day livable, we decided to stick to our plan and get tickets for the hop on/hop off (HoHo) bus to get our bearings and decide what our day was going to look like. We had a lovely walk from our flat to just outside St.Peters, stopping quickly for more coffee and tea and breakfast. Mrs. Koog had purchased our HoHo tickets online and as we were boarding the bus, they were unable to activate our tix due to a wifi issue on their end. This is important because the tix are good for 24 hours from their first activation. We only used the bus that one time so we are saving the actual activation...

We leave the Murder Pod today. I highly recommend the Highlands Gateway and Glamping if anyone is looking for a super cool place to stay that is centrally located to Stirling, Edinburgh, and Fife. Packing up there was easy because we didn't take much out due to space! Due to Royal Mail weight limitations, we had to repack the stuff we packed to ship and haul it to London to send it via DHL. Shipping is another theme on this vacation as we left our son's necessary medicine in Maryland and had it FedEx'd to Liverpool for the low, low price of $300! A goddess of a friend answered the frantic text message, found the medicine and shipped it. She rocks! Anyway, we got all packed and headed to the Highland Games in Bridge of Allan. I wore my kilt. Highland Games Knowing we had a very short time to experience the games, we were there when they opened. We got our tickets and a program and made our way into the oval where all the action was happening. The first competition was H...

Alas, a day without packing and moving! We slept pretty well in the Murder Pod considering our bed is also the kitchen table banquette. Surprisingly, it is much more comfortable than the bed we had in the posh stone cottage. I think that bed was original to the house from the 1500's. The Murder Pod's water pressure, for those that are tracking my water pressure reviews, it was surprisingly well pressured! Better than our house. Maybe we need to consider a Murder Pod instead of a bathroom upgrade? We spent the day in Edinburgh with at least 2 million of our closest friends. It was the first weekend of the Fringe Festival. It was completely mad! There were so many people it was hard to see and enjoy the full beauty of the City. But we did our best and enjoyed what we could. Travel to Edinburgh The drive was largely uneventful until we reached the city. Similar to Bath, the experience can be described in 4 words; What. The. Actual. F#*K. Between street closures and mobs of p...

On the road again! This morning was a sprint, at least for me. Mrs. Koog, knowing I have not been sleeping well, let me sleep in until 9. I slept like I was dead due to the Harris Teeter brand of Nyquil I took to get that dead like sleep. It worked, but the checkout at the stone cottage was at 11 and we had a lot to pack up! We got it all done, team work makes the dream work, and headed out of Aberdeen toward Clackmannan. Driving out of the city looking at the North Sea we realized we forgot to leave the parking permit at the stone cottage. Ugh!. We drove back. Sounds easy enough but Aberdeen has the least intuitive roads we've seen yet. They are narrow but we're used to that, its that they turn into non-roads with no signs or signals. BAM, there is a bus heading toward you and you are not the wrong way on a one way street! Anyway, we safely navigated back to the stone cottage, left the parking permit and headed for Clackmannan for good. Dunnottar Castle On the way, we st...

We took a much needed "day off" today. Took things slow as we were all tired from the previous 10 days. There were a few things on our agenda today, tour the University of Aberdeen, tour the Cathedral Church of St. Machar, replenish the groceries the little koogs ate 30 minutes after we purchased them and get a kilt. I should report the water pressure here in Aberdeen is on par with our place in Conwy. We all felt very clean and maybe a little bruised after our showers. Cathedral Church of St. Machar On our walk from dinner last night through Seaton Park, we approached the towering Cathedral Church of St. Machar. It was closed when we passed last night, but it was a must today. A little about the history...the site has been some type of Christian church since 580, when according to legend St. Columba on Iona sent his disciple Machar to convert the Picts to Catholicism. It was rebuilt many times, but the church we were in today was built between 1380 and 1520. If you are i...