True Cross

Just back from a seriously action-packed few days in the UK for the premier of my brother's short film, No Ordinary Joe. Stress levels were high as the film was only finished last week but all went brilliantly on the night.
Great to see everyone and Will managed to get up for the evening as well. It was all a bit of a culture shock though - so many people, such enormous cars and such posh dogs wearing onesies!! And not many masks.  We ate very well, managed a few good walks, enjoyed the trees and marvelled at the variety of architecture.
All good until our journey home! It was Ryanair of course. Having booked a while ago, a few days after booking I was informed that the returning flight time had changed by three hours. No problem. We left Barry's house at 4pm for a 7 pm flight - he lives about 15 minutes from the airport. The first ghastliness ensued  - we were stuck on the M56 for an hour and a half as an accident had happened somewhere. We exited as soon as was possible and Google led us down tiny back streets to the airport. We hurtled in - a mega queue but still do-able. We presented boarding cards  - no go! The very nice young man with a ZZ top beard informed me that the flight had gone and that there didn't appear to be one for Dublin at 7pm!  Apparently the flight had gone as first scheduled at 4pm. We went to the Ryanair area where a very calm and kind young woman, who stressed she wasn't really with with Ryanair,  told us the next flight to Dublin was 10pm and we would have to pay another £100 - each! AAarrgghhh. We did though and fell into the hotel at around midnight. The flight was 35 minutes!
Today (possibly Wednesday) I spent and hour and a half trying to speak to a human at Ryanair. I got a robot, a virtual human and then a real human who said I needed to fill in a form. I filled in said form and have had two replies from different people (none I suspect real) who have told me that it was my fault if I missed the plane and that Ryanair always tell customers if there's a flight change. Well yes, they did and that was the flight we turned dup for. I fear this will be an ongoing story.

A long drive home down the motorway and  fuming, we nipped into the Holy Cross Abbey to admire the fragment of the True Cross, as you do. Here it is in a rather gorgeous reliquary - can you see the cross? There's a nice story attached: an English prince was travelling through the area when he was killed by an O Fogarty and buried in the woods. Many years later a blind monk from the Abbey had visons directing him to the wood. When he got there he saw the dead man's' fingers poking up through the ground! The blind monk miraculously regained his visions and the young man was brought to the Abbey and given a proper burial. His mother in gratitude gifted the abbey some fragments of the true cross which she happened to have about her.
And there's more - in 2011 the reliquary was stolen by men in masks with hacksaws! Outcry. Several months later the reliquary and its precious contents were found, abandoned - apparently the thieves hadn't had a moment's luck since they stole it.
More backblips will ensue at some point.