Mind Over Matter In Motion and More

**please note...sometimes these entries are to family members who read our blog, primarily The Father, while they may not be fascinating to you, it's both for our benefit, and that of people who care...if you don't, you know how to exit. We just want to remember and this is the way we do it. Writing Therapy.**

This weekend didn't turn out how we would have liked, but being used to disappointment and being apt to adapt to the flow of some things (we're not all good at it either) we were far less upset than James was. He just figures we deserve things to go the way we hope for them to go, at least some of the time. He is sweet to think that.

So we went to a village outside of the town where we are living temporarily, to meet his Nan (grandmother) and Uncle. Once we go there it was fine, albeit slightly uncomfortable because, well, when is meeting the significant others' family for the first time not uncomfortable. We survived. Somehow we made a good impression, according to the e-mail James received from his Uncle the following day. Yay! (something....)

The worst part was hands down the drive there. It vexed us for awhile, the experience we had.

"This doesn't bode well for the drive to Cumbria next weekend" James said, concern in his voice over our general demeanor in the car, as he adjusted his driving and instructed us to stop reading Twitter. (We're sure he hoped that it was the reason for our physical reactions to the car ride). He drives like a proper "young man".

You see, we have only been in a vehicle in England a couple of times, the first being on the main road, what Americans would call an Interstate, but what the British call a Motorway coming in from the airport, as one of his relatives drove and we sat in the backseat. While we had many seat gripping moments pass we handled that ride well. The a very short trip with Serenity when we went to visit her in London a couple of weeks ago. And cab rides, in the backseat. The front seat is definitely different.

While we handled most of those rides well, we did not with this one.

As we started around the first few roundabouts (of which they have an excess in this country) we began to feel a bit queasy, as we had two nights before when we had gone to a local pub, just out of walking reach, and had a fairly tasty, yet still disappointing meal. Roundabouts are funny things, if you have never experienced one...they take the place of stop lights...we're guessing.

What a roundabout looks like from the top.
So, how does it work?
Read: Roundabout Basics on Roundabout.net  

As we neared the "big road", following a series of roundabouts, I began to feel as though I might vomit. We, all, are terrified of vomiting...no matter the reason, and being queasy is enough to bring us to tears. We began to shift our feet uncomfortable and moan a bit, James instructed us not the vomit in the foot well. We could feel tears welling in our eyes. Seriously, we are that afraid of vomiting.

We turned off of the main road onto a country road ("dual carriageway") because James wanted to show us the countryside. As the day was turning to dusk we glided around the winding, obscenely narrow, roads of the English countryside. They were just barely wider than an alley, but with lanes in both directions and oncoming vehicles, even buses, approaching from what our brain read as the wrong side. Even at the moderate speed, which tends to be higher than that in America because many of the cars are made to take corners better here, so we're told, James elected to slow down as per our request, if just seemed too much. In any other situation we would have likely enjoyed it, we usually go GoKart racing for our birthday, some of us are a fan of driving fast, and corners; just not at the risk of throwing up.

We made a couple of stops, both on the way to his Nans house, and then on the way to the pub where we were to meet them for drinks after we had our dinner, so that we could get some fresh air, take a breather. It gave us a chance to take a couple beautiful photos though, so it kind of worked out for the best.

England Countryside, March 3, 2012

Winding roads of the England Countryside, March 3, 2012

A church in Suffolk County, England.

On the way home, with our stomach full of food, but not alcohol because we were afraid what that might do to us on the nearly hour car ride home, we discussed with James what might be the cause of our sudden car sickness, as we tried to control our nausea. We are always trying to locate and eliminate issues, whenever possible. Helps us deal with the bigger issues, and also enjoy life when we can. Plus, we have A LOT of driving in our near future where England is concerned. Gotta nip it in the bud.

We have never been car sick, for the most part, though a time or two Catherine (one of our alter persons/personalities) had gotten a little nauseous on short drives around the city where we used to live, when riding with Non-Bestie (TNB), something about the jerking motion of riding in a manual/clutch vehicle. But nothing like this. (The car James recently purchased is a manual)

After some contemplation we figured out what it must be. But how to explain...

Imagine you are about to be in car accident, recall, if you have ever been, how your stomach flip flops and drops. Now imagine that happening over and over as your brain tries to process what it perceives as continuous near accidents.

You see, our brain, our mind, when seeing oncoming traffic in the way we were seeing it, fails to interpret it as normal, so it's telling our body we are about to be in an accident and our stomach responds appropriately...over and over. Gag. Literally pale green.

Our mind in motion. We were in a very bad car accident in the past, and despite it being just over 7 years ago, we had spent several of those years in a state of paralyzed fear, refusing to drive outside of the city at the mere whisper of snow...meaning in the climate where we lived for seven years, there was a huge part of the year we refused to travel. There were two exceptions, which was once for Baby Brother's wedding, and we cried almost the entire 7 hours to the city where he held his nuptials, our of fear; and then again, for Grandpa's funeral a couple of years ago. Other than that our brain was so paralyzed from the trauma TOG (The Other Girl, our former core) never got us out of the city in the winter. And then a few years ago our car stopped working so we never really drove anywhere, preferring to bike and walk.

Flash forward to the acrobats in our stomach this weekend and we concluded that because our brain is freaking out about oncoming traffic, not interpreting it properly, it was making us motion sick. Now we have to work on training our brain that it's okay, by facing our fears (going for car rides and being a front seat passenger as much as we can), and working to rationalize the feeling we are getting, lest we vomit all the way along the 5 hours drive to Cumbria on this coming Friday night. James would not be pleased. Or maybe it's just me, and Catherine and I have a weak stomach when we're in charge.

Other than that our weekend was fairly calm, we just completed what should be the final paperwork on our house sale and sent it to post, hopefully that will be the end of it. We're not sure what we'd do without James, who did most of the work filling out the copious amounts of paperwork, including all the math work required for the revenue agency. Well, we know what we would do, be overwhelmed, panic and mess the whole thing up. If you ever buy foreign property, don't. It's ridiculously difficult for a layman to sell, down the road. What with all the stipulations for non-residents and tax issues...the paperwork was maddening, even for James, and he's a grown up. Ugg, so much work.

Today is Monday, and the weather is proper English wintry and miserable, grey, blustery, rainy, driving us beneath the covers with hopes of writing and art adventures for the day. We popped off to the grocery and plan to make a nice roast chicken for dinner (easy peasy, and that pre-dates Rachael-stupid-Ray). Another week is before us, with a glorious treat at the end, a trip to Cumbria and a visit with our friend Kerry.

So the "More" of this post (yea, you're like, "More?!" and didn't even read this far)...Ivy found a beautiful song we'd like to share, it's actually a song used for a motorcycle awareness and safety campaign in England right now...

Also, we'd like to share two new graphics designed on Sunday.

For the first design 'Jester Elite' we were not without inspiration and so we want to pay thanks to a fellow follower for being our weekend muse.

Follow @RummyLauded - we are a big fan of the tweets from this account.

A little fun.

And then, of course, a little nonsense we like to call 'Pelican Paradise'...even though we're not entirely sure it's a pelican, it's from a photo we took and played around with, we thought it cute, and it appeals to a couple of us. Wooo, children.

As usual our designs are available in our "shop" on CafePress, on loads of products. The graphic design/creative talent that oozes from Cafe Press, in general, is amazing. Any graphic t-shirts we buy from here forward will surly come from that site, there is some pretty unique stuff there. No, we're not an affiliate. We just like to help people find creative endeavors.