Two Roads Diverge in a Wood

So my plans to work on the website for Bolton Castle are on temporary hold. I sent an email to Tom clarifying the work I would be doing and, I included attachments with personal words to introduce me to readers of my work. I thanked Tom for giving me credit on the website since I was not going to be getting paid for my work, yet. He took my yet to infer that I was expecting to be paid by him at some point in the future. He wrote back that in no uncertain terms was I ever to expect any recompense for my work. It seems he completely missed or misunderstood my intentions of working with him. I want to establish a long term partnership. I hoped that my work on the website and later at the castle would bring in more business and thus I would be paid from the profits. Tom either does not ever want to pay out money to others or he did not realize that my pay would come only from future profit. Either way I obviously need to talk with him further to make sure he understands my hopes for the future. Either he comes around or he changes his mind and scraps all our plans. It has been a week since I received his email. As I have no current way of responding to it and I have been upset by his outright refusal to consider ever paying me for legitimate work, things have been left up in the air. I have also been working for the last nine days straight. I am off for the next two days and will attempt to reach him to talk things out.

In the meantime and, given the change in circumstances with Bolton Castle, I have begun to think of other parts of my life that I have either ignored or forgotten. Uppermost in my mind is the current status of singleness. Another part of my life is my health, and my other business interest which, is my Anti-Inflammatory Restaurant concept I have called Sustenance. I was thinking about what my life might look like with both of these factors added in. I had a mini video/film in my mind. I saw myself running my new restaurant, my husband is there, and he is supportive and helpful. My employees and my customers know him and all greet him upon arrival. I look his way and see that he is holding our child. I go over and kiss them both. We talk briefly about our plans for the evening. I am going to finish working in the next few minutes and then we will sit down at a table in the restaurant for dinner together and then go home. When I pictured these images, I was suddenly calm, relaxed, and I realized that my plans for Bolton Castle did not hold as much importance. I decided that I want to give 80-90% of my energy to my health, Sustenance, and a family of my own. I will give the rest to Castle Bolton, my B&B ideas, and my historical reenactments. I also see my travels from a slightly new perspective.

I am excited to say that the plans that Richard and I have been working on are almost finalized. I am even more ecstatic to share that Ian will be joining us for the entire trip. I received an email from Richard today giving details of hotels and a rental car. I called Ian to talk about it and it seems that he is on board with all the plans. So here is the last rough draft of our itinerary:

Paris Oct4-8th Fly to Venice on 9th.

Venice Oct 9-11th, Drive to Florence on 12th.

Florence Oct 12-13th, Drive to Siena on Oct 14th.

Siena October 14th, Drive into Tuscan wine country Oct 15th.

Montepulciano, Piensa, and Montalcino Oct 15th. Drive south to Rome either by way of Grosetto and Civitavecchia or via Orvieto on Oct 16th.

Arrive Rome late Oct 16 or early Oct 17.

See Ostia Antiqua ruins and tour Rome, Oct 17 - 19. Fly home from Rome Oct 20.

I am so overwhelmed by the whole idea of traveling through part of Europe that I still don't believe that it is going to happen. When I think about it as reality I discover that I have very little time left before October arrives. I have so many plans to make. Remember my work visa expires October 9 and my last day at Harvey Nichols will probably be September 30. I still have plans to travel back to London for three days to see the insides of Westminster Abbey, St. Pauls Cathedral, The Tower of London, Windsor Castle, and many more sites. Then I have to arrange to fly or Chunnel to Paris to meet up with Ian and Richard on October 4th. I don't believe this is happening. Somebody pinch me, I must be still dreaming.

By the way, could people please send me some hugs. I am so starved for physical affection. No wonder I miss my cats; I miss being able to touch another living being in a loving way.

I'm tired now and am going to go relax for a bit before going to bed. I am going to sleep in since I don't have to work tomorrow. Later.