Banbury, England – my other home

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My views do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer.

April 2025

My vacation usually starts to take shape midway through my contract – I have an idea about where I want to go and then someone invites me to visit and it all starts falling into place. When I was in Hamburg, I thought it would be nice to see it in the spring. And if I was in Germany, I’d been trying to get to Berlin for ages. I couldn’t come over here without seeing Rose, and with my new job, I’d need to do a five-day safety training that I knew was offered in the UK, but probably not in California (I later looked it up – there is one training facility in San Diego, so I’d still have travel and lodging expenses). There was a course on the Isle of Wight (which is closer to Rose) and one in Liverpool, which is also somewhere I’ve wanted to go (and failed when my plans fell through in 2020). Plus the offices of the new company I’m working for are near Liverpool so that would have been fun to visit. Peter also invited me to visit in the Netherlands. And if I’m on this side of the Atlantic, I could stop to visit Amanda in Baltimore, Bri, Erich and my family in Boston – plus some new friends in Atlanta and Charlotte.

But when I tried to figure out where to start and how to make the puzzle pieces fit together, I was overwhelmed. I was trying to fit too many people and places into not enough time.

So, I simplified my plan – I’d fly in and out of London and start and end with Rose in Banbury (I love doing that). The safety training was a priority so I booked that. And then I relaxed. I decided to go hang out with Rose and then decide where I wanted to go in the middle later. Rose told me I should just stay with her the whole time, but that just seemed too decadent. Surely a plan would present itself once I got there.

Rose met me in the airport with a coffee – even closer than where she’d dropped me off three weeks before.

And then I arrived at one of my favorite places in the world – sitting comfy on Rose’s couch.

This is what we do. We start with a cuppa (after cuppa) and sit on the couch. Sometimes we talk about going out in the world (and sometimes we end up doing that), but mostly we keep chatting and giggling until we realize how late it’s gotten and we should probably eat something.

This time the sun was shining and it was warm, so we took our feast into the garden.

The last time I had made it to Banbury, Rose was pregnant and just days away from finding out that she would be having a girl (I already knew- I had known since she told me she was pregnant). Rose’s impeccably charming house now had toddler toys tucked into every corner. I’d briefly met Raeya when she was a couple of months old, but now she’s two and a half. We picked her up from nursery, and Rose was very impressed with my ability to understand her two-year-old dialect.

Nestled into our resourceful seats around the bathtub while Raeya took her bath, Rose marveled at how things had changed. Here we were, sitting on the toilet with a naked two-year-old, instead of sitting on the sofa drinking wine. To me, it felt exactly the same (also, we would end up on the sofa drinking wine after Raeya went to bed).

The first week, the sun insisted that we spend as much time as possible in the garden.

And on some evenings we burn the garden’s detritus in the fire pit.

One Sunday, Rose and I drove to Bristol to meet up with another one of my favorite people from our time in Italy: Jack and his partner, Fawn.

In 13 years, we hadn’t changed a bit 😉

We parked at Jack and Fawn’s newly purchased house and walked into town. We got a round of drinks and then sat down on the ledge by the river. I had a moment. I told them that when I was in Paris and everyone was lounging on the side of the canal, all I wanted was to do the same – with friends. We were living my dream.

Rose and I had met up with Jack in Bristol at some point – but I think it must have been in 2012 after we’d done the summer camps in Italy. Jack and I caught each other up on the last 13 years of our lives. We had a lovely Mexican lunch and it was just delightful to have the gang back together again. Jack has such a still, loving presence. I just love being in his company.

A couple of days later I popped over to Oxford for a couple of days to meet a friend (more on that in a future post), and then inevitably made my way back to Banbury.

So, I had meant to go somewhere and see new places, but – as Rose predicted – my soul just wanted to stay in this little corner of heaven. On the days that Rose went to work, I slept until 10am and then spent quality time with my laptop – catching up on this blog before heading off on new adventures to write about, reading the materials they sent me to read before my safety training, and getting ahead on the research for the first few destination talks I’d have to give on the ship. I had originally been asked to join the ship at the end of May, but the date had been moved to the 10th – I would have two days at home instead of the three weeks I’d planned. I felt so much better when I got all that stuff done.

We tried to remember the things we wanted to do before it was time for me to leave the nest, but being together had been the most important part. Still, there were some adventures that would involve a change of scenery. There was a forest that Rose wanted to explore. Of course, we started and ended at the cafe (after rescuing a lovely old man who had strayed from his group).

We did a photo shoot with this heart that seemed to capture how much I loved getting this month with Rose and her family.

I love these pictures.

On our last full day we went to a wild animal park and had a great time.

I love reuniting with friends, but the best stuff comes after we’ve filled each other in on what we’ve missed since we last saw each other – the day-to-day dramas, the silly, non-sensical games Raeya made up, the tantrums and the little stories that don’t make it into the recaps. I didn’t know how much my soul needed this time with Rose, but I feel worlds better for having had it.