Had some tragic news

Costa Rica is beautiful, you'll love it! I staid at a resort at Culebra Bay in Guanacaste Province a few years back and had a great time.

That would be a dream. If I can find a sitter for my senior pets I can take off - probably wouldn't come back if it wasn't for the pets. It's so hard to trust someone with them though and they are so wonderful. I picture myself running around blowing up bathrooms all over the various towns. Actually I just looked it up and it's very reasonable over there compared to here. I need to improve my spanish.

HW meet up in Costa Rica! :D

I don't see why I couldn't travel in May or June - how long does the rainy season go on for once it starts? My passport expires on the 28th July, but that's still cutting it a bit fine I reckon: think it's safer to renew it before I go. Also need to renew my driving license this year as well, but I don't intend on bringing my car over to Costa Rica <_<.

Thanks UBTough!

ncot..The rainy season tends to start in May and get more intense as the month's progress until December. People will always visit even in the rainy season because the mornings are always hot and sunny and it is only in the afternoons when the rains come.

I think Ma or even June would probably be best because it is slightly cheaper, with less rain, and less crowds. I will speak with my daughter about this as she is the guru of Costa Rican trips, and she also speaks fluent Spanish which helps.

ncot...have you got my email? I will place it now in my profile.

Poppie - I'm probably the only person in the UK who likes rain. But that said, I imagine the rains in Costa Rica are a lot more intense than they are here. Plus it would be kind of hard to go sunbathing in the rain: could do rainbathing perhaps.

No I don't, but I'll check your profile now.

Scifigal - It would be lovely to see you :p I would understand if you can't make it though. But if you can, maybe you can teach me a bit of Spanish >.>

scifigal...That would be great!!! Do you really have 7 kids lol! I do speak Spanish...poorly...so having someone else here would be fun.

The plan is a week at a place called Manuel Antonio which encompasses rainforests and lovely beaches. The second week would be based in San Jose which is the capital of CR. You could then chill out for a couple of days and decide where else to explore as there is much to see, like Places like Rio Celeste in Alajuela for example.

My daughter (Sam) has agreed to move in with me for the second week giving Miranda and Kara the place.(If Kara can come) It is a very rustic two bedroomed, two bathroom place, really very quaint, very Costa Rican! It has a very large communal pool and it will be hot. If pushed we could maybe put another bed in there (blow up bed) It really all depends on how many people would like to come along. If a few ladies want to come out then it would make sense to find a cheapish rental nr to where my daughter lives.

Wow, what a fabulous potential meet up this could be!! Imagine the fun & relaxation that could be had for all. I would love to do this trip, besides crohns I have other health problems that often rear up. After a fiasco in Mexico in 2002, we stopped going out of the country. The stigma of being in the hospital & having surgery in a foreign country left quite a mark on me. We went on vacation 2016 & was there 2 days & had to come home. I was admitted to the hospital thru ER. However, with that being said, last year I did a 4 day motorcycle trip & a houseboat trip for 4 days without any incidence. My confidence is increasing lol. In fact a discussion is in progress of a group trip from Tx to the Florida Keys!! I have the option of flying to the Keys that would be a long trip for me.

Until 2002, we did several trips a year to Mexico staying at various places. There was usually 6-8 of us that went. When we first started doing this we would get out & scout out other places to visit. We always did an all inclusive trip, however, we rarely stayed at the resort. We would find a great local beach with good food & cold beer.

Poppie is right, when you have a decent size group rentals are inexpensive with everyone kicking in the money. Oh, I can visualize Costa Rica now, lol. My spanish is extremely limited & Tx Mex spanish is not the same, lol.

NCOT the ladies group gardening sounds nice, I wonder if we have something like that here, I should look. I don't blame you for not going into it about your recent lab work, lol. Sometimes, its just best not to go there.

We had an artic blast hit last night. It was 9 degrees this morning!! Our normal temp this time of year is in the 50's. Down south got hit with ice, sleet & snow. I saw a highway on the news this morning in Houston. It said because of the ice the traffic was at a complete stop for 4 hours on this highway. This type of weather is extremely rare for that part of Tx. Crazy Tx weather. There was a video of a tractor trailer sliding backwards down an incline. Scary stuff & tons of inexperienced drivers, a lethal combination.

Keep up the good work NCOT. Don't forget to check out the grief support to see what is available.

"Costa Rica’s unit of currency is the colon "


like most places, going during the off-season gets you more bang for your butt !

Unfortunately not. My husband's busy time at work is June/July, and he's literally not allowed to take any days off in those two months. And after that, my family is coming down to visit us. So I'm not going to be able to do it this year at all, I don't think. And we're currently trying to get pregnant, so any further out I may not want to be going to the beach lol!

It was my last day at the day hospital today, folks ;_;

Did anxiety management for the first session followed by expressive art for the second session. Amazingly enough, expressive art was actually about art and not thinking up dumb words or sayings: we worked on collages in pairs. If anyone saw my colouring in earlier on in this thread, they won't be surprised to hear I went for the goldfish bowl and made several fishies all swimming around.

At the end I saw the doctor, my new care coordinator and one of the women who's been running the sessions. We talked about what I would do afterwards. Got a few things lined up: a second day at Lindengate, attending a day care centre, voluntary work. Lindengate will probably happen the soonest; my previous support worker handled the day care centre application, but it seems to have become bogged down in bureaucracy. Hopefully it won't be too long :-/ As for voluntary work, I expressed an interest in working with animals - again, that might take a while to set up. I could also look for voluntary work myself, but I think I'll just deal with Lindengate and the day care centre first.

Was also told I would have to refer myself to bereavement counselling - Cruse don't accept second-hand referrals anymore apparently.

So yeah, that's it for now. Oh no, one last thing. I've got somebody's phone number >.> Said I'd download Whatsapp and that we - as in a few of us - should meet up for a coffee one of these days. He agreed. I'm not getting over excited yet, as I know how often things are said and then never happen. But I'm gonna download Whatsapp at least: F27, now you can finally talk to me <_<.

@scifigal - That's a shame :-/

That's great ncot..it sounds like you have a few things moving along in the right direction.

Make sure you push to meet up with those guys even though the thought of it might not appeal on the day, and you might be the one to have to chase them up about it.

One thing I do know for sure is that the more you 'put yourself out there' the easier it becomes.

I'm so excited for you NCOT! I hope this positive momentum keeps flowing! You deserve it!

Hey guys, it's my birthday today. I'm 43; I wanna go back 20 years in time and live my life again with all the knowledge I have now. No card from my mum, which is a bad sign - she's the sort of person who hunts for suitable birthday cards months in advance and then sends them about a week early just in case. I'll just have to wish myself a happy birthday then. *hums* Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, happy birthday, deeeear NCOT... happy birthday to you ;3;