I'm a Boxaholic

I know for a fact that it's not just me. I have met several other people, mainly women, who have been known on more than one occasion to drool longingly over the box that came with some expensive gift or purchase. Take Jo Malone perfume....beautiful bottles, wrapped in black tissue, in a perfect cream and black box, tied with black satin ribbon.

There is nothing nicer than receiving a beautifully wrapped gift.....take note menfolk! A bottle of Charlie in a Boots carrier bag is NOT the way to a woman's heart!

It's not just gift boxes. I like storage boxes too...a good thing when doing crafts because you need to have lots of storage to keep all your lovely craft goodies organised while waiting to be used. Plastic see thru ones are best, or non see thru with neat, straight labels on the front.



My favourite boxes though are old wooden ones, ones that are made by hand, by someone who had a purpose for it. Like this one..

This box was made by my Grandfather-in-Law, who, when serving as a Sergeant in the Police made three identical boxes. One each for his constables in Bellingham and one for himself. This was to keep their paperwork in order and very portable.

...and this pipe stand. Found in a local junk shop, obviously made by someone with a practical nature needing somewhere to keep his pipes and baccy. The fact that they are not highly polished, fine pieces as you would expect in some auctioneers makes them even more interesting to me. I'm going to put pens and brushes in this.

This is my ultimate goal,

An antique writing box.

I have always been a bit obsessed with stationery, pens in particular but pencils,notebooks and other items usually held under lock and key in the workplace are also desirable. A beautiful old wooden box, full of little drawers, sections, and pully-out-bits would be the ideal place to keep my precious collection don't you think?

Clogs, Large Mice and Fred Moore

Every now and again you have a day that's a little more random than usual. I bet the title of this post has your brain smoking from trying to work out what on earth I will be rambling on about today.
Plans changed about three times as we got up and discussed what we could do. We have never been uber organised over these trips, I would hate to have to follow a schedule the way some families do. We are tied a little to our dining reservations but often just go to a park for a couple of hours and then eat and leave. Some of these 'Martha Stewart' organised SuperMoms have itineraries down to a minute. They also have every member of their family dressed in the same brightly coloured T-shirt, often numbered....I suppose if you have half a dozen kids it's easier than remembering names. "Hey, where did kid three go?" ....

Anyway, we changed our dining plans and went back to Downtown Disney for a meal at the Irish themed 'Raglan Road'. Lucky clover, Leprechauns, Guinness all over the place, you know the kind. I noticed that you could get Sunday Roasts Yay! but that you had to pre order them...boo! So amidst the racket of an Irish band banging drums and playing fiddles and clog dancing going on all around we tucked into good old Irish cooking.



To be honest the ham with cabbage and mash was really nice, as was the raspberry pavlova to follow, but it was a tad noisy most of the time - "could barely hear myself think!"
After that it was off to the shops to get the last couple of things for Jordan, but had to bribe Alexander with a stop off enroute. We have made this trip every year....that's about 15 years worth of Chuck E Cheese.
Think of Pizza Hut crammed full of arcade games, bored adults, wild unruly children - hyper from spending tokens and winning tickets that they exchange at the end of their visit for.........a plastic frog........or a set of dracula teeth.





As I said at the beginning, this was a weird day, and wasn't over yet .
The finale was a Comedy Magic Dinner Show at Wonderworks. Now in all the years we have been to Orlando, and International Drive, we have never been in this place despite it being one of the strangest places and almost next door to our hotel on occasions. This time we were forced to make an effort as the dinner show was yet another of the freebies we got with our Disney package.



Inside we were surprised at how much there was to do. Definitely a place to go when it's quieter, and not on a rainy day as suggested in reviews as it will be jam packed then. There were all sorts of things to do. Lie on a bed of nails for example...


Put your head on a platter?

and even climb on ropes or play Laser Tag.
At 6pm we had to line up to go into the Comedy Magic Show. Not really sure what it was like, but being free we went with the flow. Seated very cosily with about 15 strangers on long tables in a fairly small room. It was a bit uncomfortable for us not being overly sociable types that happily chat with any old Tom Dick and Harry and particularly not with the three precocious pre teen girls sitting opposite.
Food and drink came out immediately. Salad, popcorn, pizza and cake plus unlimited drinks.
However the highlight of the show was most definitely Fred Moore (MooreFred.com)



He was actually really funny and very clever with his magic. He used the audience - thankfully not us, and had us all in stitches with his routines.
On the way back to the hotel we were hit by another amazing storm. A huge black cloud crept across the sky moments before the heavens opened again and forced us to spend the rest of the evening in the room as the pool and bar was closed for the rest of the night.

Tallying Up

Five days left. We are entering the 'Tallying Up' stage of the holiday. That includes how many dollars we have left to spend, what we still have to buy and for whom.

This time because we are enjoying the Disney Dining Plan we have to start keeping an eye on our dining credits. We get one snack, one counter service meal and one table service meal each day, but what happens is that you usually use up more snacks on drinks and things like popcorn or cookies as you walk around the parks.

Some table service restaurants use up two credits, like Jiko last night...more on that later, and if we decide to eat out of Disney, as we will when we have a one night stay at a Universal hotel, that means we will have spare meal credits. We found this a problem last time, but not as big a problem as getting rid of the extra pounds put on because of how much we had eaten.

As for shopping. It looks like I will be leaving without buying a handbag for the first time in years. Don't get me wrong, it's not that there aren't any I like, but I do have lots at home and I would just be buying for buying sake. Did I really just type that???

There is one place I would like to visit in Old Kissimmee - a little antiques shop that looked very interesting. It's in the old part, not the touristy bit, and so I thought we could have a look and see if there is anything we could take back home to add to our collection. We are still looking for something silver to buy for our anniversary.

Still harping on about that, we had another surprise after our meal at Jiko in the Animal Kingdom Lodge last night. The two of us had a meal alone, Alexander wouldn't have eaten anything, it was a two credit meal and he just wanted pizza in the room, which we got using a counter service credit. The restaurant is very highly recommended and one of the best in Disney. I would agree. There was nothing I didn't enjoy.

We were given a brief tour of the menu, the african names and what dishes meant etc, and after hesitating over what wine I preferred, ended up sampling three to decide which I wanted. I am not a connoisseur whatsoever, but there was no Pinot Grigio or Blue Nun on the list so I was a bit lost.

We were given a basket of bread with Tandoori Butter. Delicious! I ate far more bread than I should have and if I could have bought a pack of that butter I would to take home.

We were also given a tiny taster dish of some kind of seed risotto, only a few mouthfuls but that too was great, so many tastes and textures.

Entree's were Smoked Yellow Grouper on a bed of some kind of mealie, pulses and seeds. I wish I'd taken a picture of the menu so I could remember!


Mine was Filet Minion with red wine jus, green beans and Spoon Bread, which I can only describe as a kind of mashed cauliflower, with other things and subtle spices.

The flavours were fantastic. It was the kind of menu that you wanted to go back and try something else the next day. These were our puddings


Chocolate and Amarula Creme Brule with doughnuts and a cinnamon cream dip (Mine). Hubby had Roasted Stone fruit (cherries peaches and apricots) on a sponge base with Olive Oil Ice Cream. There was also that small anniversary surprise of a chocolate brownie kind of thing.
We both agreed that this had been the best meal of the trip, and glad that we could savour it without the complaints of a whiny ten year old who just wanted pizza.

Footnote - Sincere apologies to those of you on diets!

Back to 'The Norm'

You will all be pleased to know that the last couple of days has been typical Florida weather and not 'unusual for this time of year' weather. That means, a bit sunny, a bit overcast and a lot humid. Grey clouds and wonderful storms arrive late afternoon or evening as did the one last night.

Americans are pretty fearful of the weather I've come to notice over the years. Nothing like a rumble of thunder or flash of lightening to have them scurrying as far away from the pool as possible. Although the kind of weather they get can be a little more intense that the mediocre stuff we complain about. The Brits however, are more likely to be the ones electrocuted as they scoff with their "only a bit of lightening" attitude.

There is a place for a less hysterical 'we're all gonna die' exit though, more a "Oh bugger, a storm, better go move my England towel and flip flops before they get wet" kind of thing, followed by a slow swim to the nearest steps and amble to the sun lounger.

On a more unpleasant note, we had to take a detour last night on the way to The Magic Kingdom as there had been a nasty accident involving a car and bus it seemed. We heard on the news later that a woman driving the car had for some reason stopped in the lane, and the bus was unable to avoid hitting it. She died later in hospital. Fortunately only two minor injuries to bus passengers. Seeing things like that bring home how precious life is.

But life does go on and we somehow managed yet another fun filled day yesterday.

After a lie in, we set off to Downtown Disney again to have lunch at the TRex Diner. Thankfully Alexander has now grown out of 'Build a Dino' and we left without an orange or purple fluffy thing wearing inappropriate clothing.
We did however eat Doughnut 'holes'...yeah right. dipped in hot chocolate and caramel sauce. Delicious but nauseating after six.





Despite having a box as big as an estate car full of Lego at home, that rarely gets played with, Alexander couldn't resist nipping next door to see the newly refurbished Lego store.
Some of the displays outside..




and this is just part of a wall of plastic bins containing individual bricks in every shape, size and colour.



I did see a frantic father grab a small brick from the hand of a toddler which was about to be eaten...and there were no HSE notices about that either......

From there we headed out into the sticks to find the elusive Boggy Creek airboat rides that we failed to find a few days earlier. The sat nav v post code thing is a bit iffy at times away from the built up parts so I navigated using a combination of a map - on paper kind of map, you know like we had in the olden days? Google Maps and a downloaded 'How to Find Us' map from the website. We found it with only one wrong turn......which was of course my fault.

We checked in, this was another of the 'freebies' we got by staying in the Animal Kingdom Lodge, along with free mini golf and a $500 gift card. Our ride time was 4:10 so we had about 40 mins to wait. Of course there were the obligatory photo opportunities, 'here's your photo that we've taken the trouble to print but of course you don't have to buy it', so we didnt.

The problem with these away from Disney trips is that they don't
'sort out the mozzies' like Disney do. So being a tasty morsel, I have to drench myself in bug spray. One year I was so badly bitten having gone for a meal at a creekside restaurant near St Augustine I could barely walk. Until then I had rarely been bitten. Armed against bites of any kind, we got on our boat with a few others and set off for 30 mins of airboating. We did see a teeny baby gator, a bald eagle - high up in a tree but you could see it's white crest, and some big beaked birds. If you look closely at these photos you can see the gator head and that white dot to the top right of the tree is the eagle.




Arrival back at the base and we got chance to hold a 3 year old gator named Thor. Alexander was desperate to have his photo taken, at more expense. It was a good one though and nice to keep.
Back to Disney for an evening at Magic Kingdom, which was more a stroll round with a trip on the Peter Pan ride - one of hubby's favourites and back to The Lodge for a quick cocktail at the pool bar before the heavens opened.

Day 4 & 5 - Chill Factor

I know I'm harping on a bit, with it being Florida and August and all that, but it's really bloody hot here at the moment. Another of those 'not the norm' weather spells that often seem to occur when we are here. In the past we have had wetter 'than the norm', a tropical storm that hung around this area much longer 'than the norm', cooler 'than the norm' and now hotter and drier 'than the norm'. I'm not even convinced they know what 'the norm' is anymore.



So, according to the Fox News weather man, we are experiencing a particularly dry, warm front. Meaning it's bloody hot (106F/41C) at Epcot parking lot yesterday, bloody dry - not as high humidity as 'the norm' but still enough to have us feeble cold weather folk sweating like a...*insert an appropriately amusing comparison here*. It's supposed to be here for a while. At least we aren't complaining about having wet clothes hanging around the room, and not getting a decent suntan.

What have we done the last two days?

Yesterday we had a lie in, lazed by the pool (I did some washing in the guest laundry), had lunch at Coral Reef in Epcot with the big fishies, lumbered around the lake stopping briefly to laugh at 'England' with it's Fish n Chip shop, and lots of Americans doing that Dick Van Dyke accent thing.
The only other place we stopped at was Norway, going on the Viking ride inside the blissfully cool building.




At some point yesterday I 'might' have been bought a Nexus 2 7.0 Tablet. Yes, I know it doesn't have an apple on it but I was very impressed having played with the one hubby bought for himself the day before. That was the reason I am now writing two days worth of blogs. Well it's not going to set itself up is it? The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent at the hotel, mostly by the pool or cooling off in the room. We are starting to get into relaxing mode now, sleeping later and doing what we feel like doing.

Today we again lazed around the hotel until late morning before heading off out to Boggy Creek Airboat Rides. Well, we tried to get there. For some reason the Sat Nav didn't want us to. They have two locations and we didn't find either of them in the time we had. The plan was then to have an hour at Disney Quest before having dinner at The House of Blues before seeing The Cult play later.

The thing was, not only was the airboat ride a non starter, but when we got to Disney Quest - which is directly opposite The House of Blues, we noticed a sign saying The Cult, Wednesday 14th August. Obviously not today which was Tuesday 13th August. I take no responsibility as I just went along with the response to "what day do we see the Cult?" question asked last week sometime which was..."next Tuesday".

A couple of hours later we had showered and were eating a delicious meal, and drinking exotic cocktails in Sanaa restaurant. Which was exactly where we were supposed to be tonight.








I think the heat is getting to us!

Day 3 - Three Dwarves, Tired, Grumpy and Irritable

Woke early as usual and sat out on the patio behind the hedge with coffee and iPad to wait for the sun to rise. It's still pretty warm even at 6am, so you have to wait a few minutes for all your 'gadgets' to de-mist after the cool air con overnight. After a brief mental calculation and glimpse at my twitter timeline I realised it was Sunday.

After some discussion and debate we came to an agreement that today we would start with a few hours at Blizzard Beach, followed by a drive to Walmart and then an outlet mall. I desperately needed new trainers as I am having problems with tendons in my foot, possibly from wearing flat sandals all the time. We also have a long list of specific items requested by Big Dude Jordan as his holiday present for looking after the dog, Grandad and the house etc.

We had an early dinner booked at The Grand Floridian Hotel which meant dressing up a little more than we would normally in Florida.

It's safe to say everyone was still a bit tired as we got the swimming stuff ready, Alexander not helping by wanting to play football in the room, words were said, ignored and followed by lots of tetchy conversation in the car enroute to Blizzard Beach.



We picked a spot on the 'beach', it had just opened so had lots of loungers to choose from. Within an hour it would be jammed.

Not wanting to put everything in a locker (here comes my cunning plan), I volunteered to stay with the bag on the beach while the other two went off to enjoy the slides and waves. I resigned myself to lying in the sun, with a coffee.......see what I did there? I'm not a big water park fan.

We left after a couple of hours, leaving those without loungers to fight like cat and dog for them. The mood had lifted and everyone was happy again...momentarily. Until I, having taken the bags back to the car, forgot to bring Alexander's Magic Band which meant our free game of Winterland mini golf had to be a twosome rather than threesome. More words between Grumpy and Irritable. I did the scoring! (I'm not a big mini golf fan either, but that wasn't actually another cunning plan, however may use it in the future!)

The heat was getting to us all so half an hour in a wonderfully cool air conditioned car cheered us up no end, as did a walk around Walmart.....Grumpy treated himself to a new toy (Nexus 7 tablet) so he was now Happy, Tired got some new shorts, underwear and drawing things, Irritable got....some Ibruprofen gel for her foot and some aftersun lotion. Had I known I was going to be bitten to death later on I would have also bought some anti itch cream, that wasn't in the first aid kit as I thought it was....most likely still on the top of my dressing table at home.

Onwards to the Premium Outlets. Worst day of the week to go there. Bit like going to The Metro Centre on Boxing Day although the UK has 'no left/right turn' signs to avoid the mayhem we experienced - and the beep from the disgruntled driver hubby cut in front of....well shy bairns get nowt they say....

Finally, we got to the upper part of the indoor car park...the bit where there is no roof, and there were millions of spaces, had everyone just gone there instead of creeping along on the off chance a shopper was leaving, then waiting for them to vacate the space holding everyone else up while they did, then there would be no need for all the grumbling and tooting. This is the temp outside as we left the outlets. 97 Degrees!




The Outlets are mostly out in the open, as they are in the UK now, each shop has a/c but while walking round you are in the heat and sun/shade. I fared better here. I bought two pairs of Sketchers Trainers (Buy 1 get 2nd half price) which are memory foam soles....and like slippers! So light and comfortable. Alexander got two pairs of Converse sneakers, same deal as mine and hubby....well he got nothing!

Those of you who have followed by holiday blogs before will be thinking."She hasn't bought a handbag yet". Yes that's right. I haven't. To be honest I haven't even seen one I want. But there's plenty of time yet.

Getting out of the outlet was a lot easier than getting in, so a quick shower and change in the hotel and back out to the Grand Floridian Hotel and Narcoosee's restaurant. Irritable missed a turning, which forced Grumpy to make a two mile detour and late for our reservation. Tired dropped his new phone on the way into the hotel, shattering his screen, Grumpy and Irritable not happy.

Fortunately the food was delicious, something about getting a $200 bill that you don't have to pay for makes you appreciate what you ate. This was all on the free dining plan...yes I know you do 'pay' for it but you certainly get your money's worth. Hubby had 14oz Rib Eye with a lobster tail, Alexander and I had a 14oz New York Strip, although he left 3/4 of his. He eats very little over here. Tends to pick at food. It's a heat/drinking lots of fluids thing. I don't stress about it, he eats like a horse a home.




Back at the hotel and once again on pool duty. There must have been a 'snake' incident close to where we were sitting as a few people told us to "watch out for snakes" in a 'ha ha ha' kind of way.

Takes more than a snake to scare me away..ha ha ha!

Day Two - Speed of a Sloth.

Hot as hell today. It was a lovely hot sunny day, a bit humid, but ok as long as you didn't have to be anywhere in a rush and ok if you had to be inside shopping malls and electronic shops. Walking around Magic Kingdom was a bit of a struggle.

Luckily for us we have 'Magic Bands' that we are trialling for Disney. They have selected a certain number of guests to try them out around the resorts and parks. So far we have been impressed. Especially as you seem to be able to fast pass fast passers when wearing them. You are also referred to by first name and envied by the 'not so special' folk who weren't selected.

To use them most successfully you need to link to an App called My Disney Experience. All your hotel bookings, meal reservations, fast pass times are stored on there along with a bunch of other helpful stuff to use when going around the parks. Here is my Magic Band with some Disney 'Bling'. Of course Disney don't miss a trick to make money....make them grey but sell lots of accessories!



It's very hot and sunny here at the moment. Yes I know it's Florida and that's what you'd expect but often at this time of year it's overcast and very humid too. Thunderstorms in the afternoons and heavy showers. So far (hope I haven't tempted fate here) It's not been overcast or wet.

The sun, humidity and 90 degree temperatures (I'm still using old money) make for slow ambling and lot's of drink stops. People fight for seats in the shade...today while waiting outside for hubby, Alexander and I almost got first degree burns from sitting on a stone wall. No kidding you could have done a fry up on it!

Magic Kingdom was done at slow speed. we had booked fast passes for some of the rides and just went on them. Splash Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Thunder Mountain and Haunted Mansion. Just walking to and from them had us exhausted and soaked with perspiration, (nice look!)

We had a dining reservation booked for 7pm in the hotel so we were happy to get away from the park and back to the room for a shower. Funny thing about Florida heat is that you sweat a lot but you don't smell sweaty. I'm sure there is some biological reason for this but it's a very good thing because waiting in long queues with hundreds of other sweaty, smelly bodies would soon cut the wait times.

Freshened up, we ambled along to Boma restaurant, which is an African themed buffet. When we first ate here a few years ago it was the first time I had tried African food. Some is a little spicy for me but it's very tasty, especially when able to try lots of things in one meal. There are two other restaurants we are trying for the first time, Jiko and Sanaa so will be interesting to try other dishes. This was my pudding!



Having eaten far more than we should we went to the pool bar for a beer (which I didn't really want) so we could keep an eye on Alexander playing in the pool. I wanted to go to my bed but had to force myself to stay awake until they got kicked out at 10pm. My UP band told me the next day that from switching it to sleep mode and falling asleep took 11 minutes.

Knackered!

Day One - The Lodge and Other Stuff

Welcome Home! Thats what they always say when you arrive at a Disney Resort. Yeah cheesy isn't it? But It does feel like a second home to us here at WDW. They do a lot of this 'towel stuff' when you have kids too.



Yesterday when I got up I took a few photos of the hotel (The Animal Kingdom Lodge) while it was quiet and peaceful.
This is the corridor where our room is. You see the fire door at the end? That leads right out to the poolside.



This is the path from that door to the pool. Great room, similar to what we had last time we stayed. Some of the rooms are a good hike to the pool area, especially the ones where they look over the savannah.



Here are a couple of lobby photos. it's huge! As you walk in through the main entrance you can't help but be impressed. The detail, the colours, smell of the wood burning in the fire pit. It's also a fantastic place to people watch.



This is of the bar and Boma restaurant area. They do an african buffet meal here which is amazing. Even Alexander ate heartily last time. There is also another restaurant Jiko, which is said to be one of the finest in Disney. There are some pretty good restaurants too.



Here is one of the features of the lobby. The fire pit. Bet it feels great at Christmas when the big tree is decorated and the weather is colder.



There is also a fire pit outside, surrounded by carved rocking chairs where African cast members sit and tell stories of Africa at dusk. It's little things like this that makes Disney worth the extra money. I just had to do a book review on customer service for work and chose Disney's 'Be Our Guest' to do it on. One of the key themes is to make their guests 'experience' as many aspects as possible using all their senses. They do this very well. Having read that book, I am seeing Disney in a different light, looking at how they do things, what they say to guests, the details.....It's fascinating.



I also saw this bag in the shop....It may be coming home with me.....



So after a stroll around the hotel, we went out to Disney Hollywood Studios. We just drive there because the bus service goes round a few hotels and we often tend to go off to the shops etc afterwards. We did a couple of years early on without a car, couldn't imagine not having one now. Driving is so easy here, the cars are great and you can see so much more.
Hollywood Studio, or MGM as we still call it as always been one of the parks we enjoy. Not too big and has some good rides, like the Rockin' Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror. There is also The Indiana Jones show, The Great Movie Ride, Muppets 3D and The Terminator 3D. We may have seen them all a dozen times but they are still part of the trip.




This was a first though. We all went into the Animation Studio and was shown how to draw a Disney character. This was my 'Chip' from 'Chip and Dale'. Could have stayed in there all afternoon drawing things.


This is our lunch. As part of the dining plan you get to put on at least a stone in weight. Each person gets one snack, such as a drink, ice cream, cookie, fruit etc, One counter service meal...this is a picture of what we got in Pizza Planet. Yes, all of that is one counter service! and one table service meal, which is any main course, a dessert and a drink. That includes 16oz steaks and lobster if you want them. You have to time your meals well or you find you just aren't that hungry by the time you arrive for your evening meal. Of course you don't have to eat it all, but it's pretty hard to resist the multitude of dishes on offer. The saving grace of course is that you do an awful lot of walking!




So that's day one done. I am sitting in bed finishing this off before starting going out to collect ammunition for Day two blog. The lengths I have to go to, to keep my audience entertained. It's a hard life......

All the Fun of Air Travel

Being tired and grumpy before you set off to the airport isn't a good sign. Add an excitable, annoying ten year old and a bit of OCD regarding what goes into which piece of hand luggage and you are destined to have oodles of fun on a 16hr trip across the Atlantic.

The night at Lenny's wasn't the best. The hotel was fine, but the six boy racers, tearing round the car park at midnight when forced to have the window open because of the heat didn't make for a restful night. Even my new 'Up Lifeband' gave up on recording my sleep, maybe there was so little it thought I was out partying all night.

Getting to the car park and through the usual shenanigans of check in was relatively simple, no queuing, no annoyances other than the excitable annoying ten year old who has always had a fascination for those tape barriers, particularly undoing them on purpose. It's all I can do to restrain myself from strangling him with one.

Breakfast at Wetherspoons, followed by a very efficient security process. Unlike the one at Newark airport in New York which was a shambles mainly caused by one officer who barked instructions at the queue of passengers heading down his lane. Think sheep dog with a herd of confused foreign sheep trying to get them in single file through a small gate .

The flight to Orlando is around 9 hours normally. Travelling via New York reduced our flights by £400 each but meant a longer travel time. Seven and a half hours to Newark, three hours wait and another two hours to Orlando. It does break up a long flight but is very tiring. I get into 'the zone'. I am fine for about four hours and then I turn into a zombie. I can't be bothered with films, iPad or books. I plug in my iPhone and listen to music nodding off occasionally, disturbed only for food or drink.

United Airlines had loads of films to watch and I managed to watch one and three quarters of them. Starting with Iron Man 3, which decided to freeze at the part when he is captured. After two attempts to get it going again I resigned myself to watching 'Life of Pi' which I have to say I did enjoy.

Had a discussion with hubby about US Marshalls on planes. I play that game of 'guess which passenger is the US Marshall'. Doesn't everyone play that?

Newark airport. Well. Wizzed through immigration, waited an age for luggage. Had coffee and a long wait at the gate as the plane was delayed. Got on the wretched thing, and sat for two hours queuing on the tarmac waiting for a storm to pass. I'm typing this, on a very turbulent plane with a dodgey sounding engine just outside our window. I know this because I am a qualified aircraft mechanic. Possibly needs a few birds clearing out of it. On the verge on demented to be honest.

I think I may have spotted the US Marshall on this flight though. The dude in the grey shirt and glasses sat on the aisle three rows behind us. Looks a bit like Clark Kent.

Hoping for a coffee. Iron Man3 on again. Waiting to get to the part I missed so I can see how it ends.

Captain just told us that it's 90 degrees in Orlando and we will be landing about 8pm. Only 3 hours late then.

Car colour sweepstake... Hubby says Blue, Alexander says Black, I'm going for white. Will let you know later.

No coffee. Too turbulent. However must be less so in First Class.....grrrrrrr!!!

Lots of waiting for luggage again. Thankfully internal this time so no horrendous immigration queue to endure. That would have sent us over the edge I think. Deported before we even got here hahaha!

Car, well SUV as they call them here is rather swish, definitely an improvement on the Picasso we left at the airport. Bigger than we need but plenty of luggage space - not that we need that with only three of us and no hotel changes, but came cheap with some deal hubby found. And it's SILVER....no one went for silver, although I was closest with white wouldn't you say?

Now in hotel. Fabulous place as usual Animal Kingdom Lodge. More blogs with photos to come, and we got THE MAGIC BAND!!! Only 'speshal' guests get them as they are on trial still, but they replace room keys and link to the App so you can make all your reservations, fast pass bookings on there and it's all stored in the MB.

You know us and our gadgets...couldn't get a better family to try it LOL.

OK far too tired now. It's almost midnight, some of you will just be getting up for work now.

Have a good day, I'm hoping for a good night.

Packing and Driving

I have always believed that when going on holiday, it starts the second you leave the house with your suitcases. Never mind that you have another 20 hours or so before your plane leaves the airport, you can start to relax and enjoy not being at work.

Sometime this afternoon our annual jaunt across the Atlantic starts. Departure time is flexible, and depends on several factors including getting things out to pack, packing them and being left alone to have the 'mum radge' over people trying to
interferebe helpful. I am a good packer, I roll T-shirts neatly, have shoes around the sides of the case, stuffed with underwear, have a mixture of clothes in case one bag gets lost... oh yes, I'm an expert at this packing lark when left to do do my stuff.

However. There have been times when 'people' try to help, "Is this bag finished, can it go in the car?", "Do we need to take that?", "How long are you going to be?"....The answers being "I don't know", "I don't know", "I don't know". Aaaarrrggghhhh just go away!! I'm done when all the bags are beside the front door.

So, it's now 6:55 am. I've been up an hour playing Tapped Out and Tweeting. Oh, I have hung some washing out too!

I suppose I will have plenty of time later to sit around and faff on with blogs and games and suchlike so time to stop procrastinating and start doing.

Bye for now......

......I'm back!

Since I left you a few hours ago almost everything was neatly packed into two cases - including a large holdall for 'purchases' and another flight bag to bring back more 'purchases'. When I say 'almost everything' I meant everything we should have packed except for my swimsuits. In particular the rather flattering, tummy flattener one that cost just slightly less than a Gucci handbag. It was a touch of Karma though, having grumbled earlier at hubby for forgetting to put out his swimming shorts.

We said goodbye to Keesha who had that 'I know you're going somewhere without me' look on her face, and father in law who had that 'I wish I was coming with you' look and headed off north to Edinburgh for our night at Lenny's place. Alexander wittered on relentlessly, barely drawing breath. Even when listening to music for a whole 10 minutes with headphones on he sang every word of the song.

We called into Falkirk - just down the road from the Premier Inn, to get a swimsuit. I can't download a photo of it, but I feel Minnie Mouse may be a tad disgruntled to see me copying the red polka dot look she loves so much. It was the only one they had in my size. Luckily it also has tummy flattening capabilities and a cute butt covering frill - could struggle a bit with that!

We are now back in the room. Little or no 3g or wifi means we are having to watch TV. Fortunately I can still blog which means you lucky folk get a long rambling post just to keep me occupied. Having an early night and an early start. Leaving here at 5.30am to drive to the airport, park the car and find our way to departures.

We arrive in Orlando at around 6.15pm Florida time, 11.15pm your time. I always look forward to those long, tedious two flight journeys, the queues through security, and then immigration. The getting lost on the road we always get lost on as we drive from the airport to Disney and the unpacking.

....and the waking up at 3am followed by a trip to a 24hr Walmart just to get out and do something.

Travelling to Florida is a bit like childbirth. Long, uncomfortable and lots of wailing, but forgotten an hour after arrival. So that's all from me for now. Next blog will be the one where I observe other people milling around in airports.

Bet you can't wait.