Author: admin

This will be my final blog. It’s Wednesday evening and we have pretty much packed everything and are watching real life stories on TV. We watched a whole load earlier too. It’s like those real life stories in women’s mags but played out and narrated. Tacky but addictive viewing!

Before I go back to Tuesday, here’s a few things I have forgotten along the way:

1. The annoying guy behind me on the plane.
   Since his footstool was attached to my seat each time he wanted it down and just let it fall it made my whole seat shake. It was so bad it shook Paul’s seat too. Paul then watched him and apparently he lifted his legs about a foot above the stool and then dropped them down. The constant thuds shook me so hard they actually made me jump and even woke me up.
2. Paul dropping his iPad in the bath.
   Literally, glug glug to the bottom! It came out still working and has been absolutely fine since. A great advert for Apple.
3. The standard of Florida driving.
   The standard of driving has been worse than ever, atrocious.
4. Rubber necking
   We have seen a few shunts and cars pulled over by the police but we were shocked at just how much people slowed down to really take a look. It was more than just being cautious it was seriously having a good old stare at what was going on.

So, back to Tuesday and we went to MGM, sorry, Disney’s Hollywood Studios. After another late start (our evenings and mornings are getting later which is gonna make the jet lag hell when we get home) we got to the park at about 1:30pm. We wanted to go to the 2pm American Idol experience but when we got there it was not on. It seems that they are struggling to contestants these days and we think that’s why a show got cancelled. Instead we headed over to Indiana Jones. We got decent middle seats and Paul took some pics. The ‘plant’ extra was really good. His head spin as he passed out was awesome. As we came out it was obviously totally lost on one kid who asked; “daddy, did that lady really hit the man?” Dad answers “no, they were just acting”. Kid still not getting it asks; “so, how come he passed out then?” Dad told him to come along.

It was a really nice warm day so we wandered around. We went in a few stores and I posed with the singing in the rain street lamp, although the rain still doesn’t work. Toy Story was still getting over 60 minute queues and we decided to skip Lights, Motors, Action but did get pics taken with Lightning McQueen and Mater. At one point there was even a 25-minute queue for the great movie ride but it seemed to lighten up later and we even got the front cart which was the cowboy action, we have always had the gangster in the past.

We did get to see and American Idol show at 4pm. The 3 singers were all very mediocre it has to be said. Despite recent finalists getting the Disney golden ticket it seems to have lost its appeal. I must admit, we don’t watch it anymore and haven’t done for about 3 seasons now. After this we queued for the new Captain Jack Sparrow, Pirates of the Caribbean experience. It is a walk through in the pavilion where Narnia used to be. Everyone who had checked in on four square had slated it but Paul thinks they all expected too much, it’s not a ride after all. It does have some good special effects and is worth seeing. They take groups in every 15 minutes so you can end up waiting 30 minutes if there are a few people but it didn’t feel too long.

It was now getting on for about 6 so we were in time to watch Fantasmic however…. the black clouds were rolling in and it started to rain. We figured that it may well get cancelled so decided to leave. We thought that we’d have dinner and if the weather was good then we’d go and watch Holiday Wishes from the Polynesian beach.

Dinner was at Longhorn and was really good. Paul was not very hungry as he’d eaten a huge funnel cake with cinnamon sugar in the park. We shared a loaded baked potato soup (with cheese and bacon – which is really yummy BTW) then shared a salad. I then had the Flo’s filet and Paul had Wild West shrimp. This was meant to be an appetizer but was a huge long plate piled with shrimp. They were coated in spicy breadcrumbs and had chilli peppers with them but Paul reckoned they were quite bland. We used our $25 credit that Paul had from June and we got a visit from the Manager. He actually remembered Paul and the incident and thanked us for going back. Lucky really since the incident was in June and the voucher said valid for 90 days!

After a quick stop for some essentials (toilet roll, coke and grape jelly!!!) we made our way to the Polynesian. We parked ok and went in. We looked around the shops and then went out to the beach. It was a warm evening and we sat out on sun beds. The holiday wishes are the 360 ones so the beach view is one of the best to see it all and it was pretty amazing. We then came straight home afterwards.

This morning (Wednesday) we were up about 10am. I have a sore throat and a cough and Paul has not slept too well recently. We sat out on the veranda and the sun felt really warm. We ended up going out about 1pm but it had gone really cloudy, overcast and chilly. We stopped at McDonalds (Osceola Parkway) for lunch before going to the new Art of Animation resort. The weather had gone quite grim and the wind made it really cold. We still wandered through and got pics of all the characters in each of the themed areas. All were open now; Nemo, Cars, Lion King and Little Mermaid. Since we both felt a bit rough and tired we came home about 4pm (and watched the real life stories movies) and rested for a while. We headed out again about 6pm and had decided on Chilli’s for dinner. Neither of us were hugely hungry and fancied more of the loaded baked potato soup so we had a bowl each followed by some chicken fajita’s to share. The food came up sizzling but sadly with no plates or cutlery so our server went off to get it. After about 5 minutes she still hadn’t returned so we got a little tetchy. She didn’t even really apologise (jeez I sound like Lewis now) so we left no tip. She innocently asked if we wanted change when we paid the check which amused Paul as there was no change to be had.

We checked in for our flight whilst at dinner. There were no better seats; in fact the entire cabin was full so it looks like a packed flight. We have two aisle seats next to each other so will have to put our private divider screens up but that’s ok. After dinner we thought we’d do a final fireworks on the beach so once more went over to the Polynesian. It was still cool so we headed out right before they started and came straight back afterwards. It was normal Wishes and the music was really hard to hear but still good to watch.

We’re now supping tea and watching Family Guy whilst perusing our photos from the last 2 weeks. Hope you’re enjoyed it almost as much as we have…. 8 weeks ‘til next time and counting…..

I left you on Saturday evening as we watched X factor. We had a later night and so had a lie in on Sunday until the start of the Brazilian GP pre-amble. We watched Jake on his last BBC broadcast before he turns to the dark side (football). It was certainly a thrilling race with the weather making it a bit of a lottery. There were times when we really thought Alonso had got it but Vettel’s luck struck again. How can a guy who gets hit at turn 2 then chooses the wrong tyres still do enough – the guy is truly blessed. Lewis on the other hand gets hit and taken out for yet another DNF. I loved his interview afterwards where he looks around to see who else is in the interview area and then says “the dude didn’t even come and apologise, that’s what you get racing with inexperienced drivers” Hulkenburg clearly saw this as there was a 5th driver tweet later showing him apologising to Lewis. I gotta say, despite not being a fan I had to feel for Alonso. He looked absolutely gutted at the end and yet maintained his composure and was graceful in defeat. I think I’ll hate Hulkenburg for a while!

After the race we headed out to Magic Kingdom once more. Since the whole parking, tram, boat or monorail is a bit of a bind we decided to buck the system a little so parked at the Grand Floridian hotel so we could get the boat shuttle to MK. We firstly wandered through the hotel stores and checked out the gingerbread house. It was really big – about 20 ft tall and easily 30 ft wide we reckon. They also sold gingerbread house models for Christmas which were adorable but not conducive to being packed in a suitcase we figured.

Once in MK we took the train around to the new Fantasyland. Since we’d only seen it in the dark before Paul took the opportunity to take some pics. We also stopped for some more Le Fou’s brew at Gaston’s Tavern and sat in the sun to drink it.

After this we went into Philharmagic. We got straight in again but it was quite full. There were also some quite annoying parents behind us narrating to their toddler. We then went into Small World. It had a 15 min queue but it seemed to move quickly. We wanted to ride Pirates but when we got over there it too had a 15 min queue but it looked way more than that to us so we left. We’d done enough and despite this not sounding much we were probably in there for about 3 hours or so and with the annual passes we’re not losing anything,

We came out and chose Kobe for dinner. We got there bout 6:30 and had to wait about 15 minutes to get seated. We had a family (parents with toddler) at our table and then an older couple with one of their grown up kids and partner. We had a spare seat too. As Mickey (the same chef from last time for those paying attention) began his act the elderly couple seemed less than amused. The small Shamu bit with the shrimp they seemed to find really uncouth and smiled at nothing, They refused the onion, making the chef cook it separately rather than merely leaving it on the plate and had the rice cooked with no onion. About half way through cooking the elderly woman looked horrified at her daughter and said ‘he’s cooking with coca cola’ the daughter replied ‘no, its soy’, the mother insisted it was coca cola saying she had heard the chef say so. At that point the chef added more sauce with his familiar coca cola saying and the mother added triumphantly ‘see, I told you – he just said its coca cola’. I decided to explain that it was a joke and she asked me what I meant. I must have said it was a joke, it is meant to be funny and its humour a few times and all I got was blank looks. Eventually the son-in-law seemed to get it and started laughing, he explained to his wife and the younger couple were then in stitches. Mom and dad were still less than amused. This was clearly their first time at Kobe and something tells me it would also be their last. To top it all, at the end of the meal the manager came over and said ‘who’s got an anniversary?’ and it turned out the be the elderly couple. The waiter promptly plonked Kobe paper chef hats on their heads and pulled out a camera. They looked horrified, most indignant and shouted no to the camera. The daughter and son-in-law found it highly amusing, slightly egged on Paul and I who were also finding it amusing. Their only saving grace was that the Kobe camera was broken so they got away with no pic on the website. I’m not sure the Japanese steak house they had clearly selected for their anniversary dinner turned out quite as they expected but it sure gave us some entertainment. We did want to go to the Polynesian beach to watch the fireworks but we’d have almost 2 hours to kill so with no bright ideas as to how, we decided to come home and watched the X Factor results and Jakes last F1 forum. We also caught up on the final Tooned episodes on YouTube.

Today is Monday and we have had a gentle day with a late start again. We began by going to Theme park connection, a warehouse type store that sells (buys and trades) Disney theme park memorabilia. Not just stuff you could have bought but actually park signs and models as well. They even had cast member costumes and badges. Paul got a name badge (he’s from Oakland MD now). Sadly all the Cindy ones were broken so I couldn’t get one. It was a cool place, we’ll deffo go back.

Since we were in the right area we decided to go to West Oaks mall. It was dead and in fact many of the shops were shut so I’m not sure how much longer it will last. We stopped for lunch first at Charley’s grilled subs (formerly Charley’s steakery) and had Teriyaki chicken with loaded fries and a mountain dew.

We then looked in JC Penny and Dillards. Paul managed to get a work shirt and I got a pair of Levi’s. We then visited Stein Mart on the way home to see if we could get anymore bargain Christmas gifts but to no avail.

We came home for a couple of hours (checked email and watched Return of the Jedi) then headed out to Applebees for dinner at about 7. We had a $10 voucher from last week when the manager didn’t visit our table so we had dinner for a whopping $15. Paul had the French dip sandwich again and I opted for the chicken and coleslaw taco’s. It was fairly busy in there for a Monday evening but we were in and out within about 40 minutes.

We are now home with a cuppa and some biscuits (Golden Oreo’s) planning our final days… we so don’t want to come home.

Well Black Friday didn’t turn our quite as expected. Despite getting to bed early on Thanksgiving neither of us could sleep and were restless to well after midnight. When the 6:30am alarm went off neither of us felt remotely awake. I dragged myself to the shower and Paul suggested another hour in bed, the lure of sleep was far greater than the lure of shops; bargains or otherwise so we eventually got up at 7:45. We stopped first at Posner Park then went to the Florida Mall, getting there about 10am. We managed to park ok (more by luck, as it was busy) and went in through the Florida Hotel. The mall was quite busy and only seemed to get busier. Since we were late there were no real bargains. There were still door busters at some stores but nothing we really wanted. I managed to get the things from my list I wanted; some cool James Bond nail varnish and gold leaf top coat and a great magnetic set that creates stripey nails. We managed to get a few more Christmas gifts too. Paul was disappointed once more, unable to find his work shirts in the right size.

It was getting really busy so we left the mall at about 2pm and as it was a nice day we decided we’d go and have some lunch at the Yacht Club. We parked and headed through the hotel, seeing a Scottish Bride on the way. Sadly, when we got out back we saw that Hurricane Hanna’s was all boarded up and closed for re-furb. AAARRRGGHH. After a bit of a re-think we ended up at McDonalds on Osceola Parkway, at least we could sit outside.

On the way home we stopped at Target for a browse around and then came home early and chilled out. It was a fairly quiet and bargain free Black Friday I am afraid to say.

Saturday morning we were up about 9:30 and decided to watch Brazilian F1 GP Quallies before heading out. The rubbish US channel skipped the start and put adverts in ridiculous places but we still enjoyed seeing an all McLaren front row, the first time a McLaren was on the front in Interlargos since 2007.

We headed out about 12:30 and were off to the Orlando Science Center, primarily for the Star Wars exhibit. We later went into Epcot so today you have an Epcot and Star Wars themed quiz…..

1. Who currently narrates Space ship earth and who was the previous narrator?
2. Who was Luke Skywalker’s father
3. What do the Finding Nemo seagulls say (found outside The Seas With Nemo and Friends)?
4. What is the name of Han Solo’s space ship
5. In which pavilion is Soarin’?
6. What species is Chewbacca

The Science Center was just off the I4 in Downtown Orlando. The car park looked pretty empty but there were a few families queuing to pay. It was $27 per adult entry fee which we thought was a bit steep (and said so later when we were asked to take part on a survey about our visit). We went straight into to the Star Wars exhibit, which was really good. There were models of all the ships and vehicles as well as all the cast costumes, Vader’s mask (in all 3 parts) as well as the droids, various guns etc and a lot of interactive Star Wars themed games. We took pics of most things although the glass cabinets caused some glare and the ban on flash meant some were just too dark. There were some cool souvenirs in the gift shop too including a 12 inch model of Vader but we didn’t buy anything.

After the Star Wars area we explored the rest of the Science Center and found that the adolescent alligators were being hand fed. I know they were adolescent as someone asked if they were babies and this was the answer. They were only about a meter in length. They sat patiently and begged for food with their mouths open. The feeding guy explained that they could be trained like other animals and any that nipped or got aggressive got no food. Food seemed to be dead skinned rats. There were other snake and bug type exhibits in this area that we chose not to explore in detail!

We then headed up to the top (4th) floor and worked our way down through the other exhibit areas. These included a dinosaur area with huge skeleton structures. A space themed room which still had Pluto as a planet (something else we pointed out in our survey). An electromagnetic room with cool interactive exhibits including a laser harp (yes we did pretend to be Jarre). The final area was about construction showing how beams are made stronger by the way that are constructed. All very educational and actually quite interesting. We didn’t stay too long in any area but I can see how families could spend a good few hours there and it was definitely well worth the visit as something we hadn’t done before.

We came out about 3:30 and after a quick Walgreens stop we went into Texas Roadhouse for dinner. It was good and we naturally had the filet. We decided again to take in some Disney and chose Epcot. We got in quite quick and despite a small queue at Spaceship Earth we were riding in about 5 minutes. Sadly, our video and pics could not be located but the computers at the end so we couldn’t get them. That’s the second time that’s happened to us. After the ride we went into the Mouse Gear shop and managed to get even more cushions to add to the collection. We got the Nemo Seagulls (with the answer to Q3 on it) and a Christmas Mickey one that says “twas the night before Christmas’. I also got a new Tinkerbell top.

We came out of the shop and made our way over the Ellen’s Universe of Energy but as we arrived it was closed. It closed at 7pm and it was now 7:03, how unlucky could we be?! We stopped and got a coffee instead and sat and watched the world go by for a while. We could clearly hear them testing the new test track but it was still closed and all boarded up.

Since Illuminations was not until 9:30pm and a lot of the rides were closing we did not fancy another 2 hours in the World Showcase so decided to blow the joint. We did get to ride Nemo on the way out as this was still running. We ended up exiting about 8pm but that’s the beauty of our passes, we can nip in and out as we please. I also got my 20% discount on my cushions.

So we’re back at the villa now, watching Star Wars and are going to watch X Factor once I’m done here that Paul has downloaded. So I guess all that is left for me is to give you those answers. I hope you found these ones a bit easier;

1. Dame Judy Dench and Jeremy Irons
2. Darth Vader; Anakin Skywalker
3. Mine, mine, mine
4. The Millennium Falcon
5. The Land
6. Wookie

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Today we’re going to mix it up a little and start you off with a quiz. There are 10 questions to ponder over as you read the blog and the answers will be at the end. I was going to torment you and post them next time but as it’s a holiday I’ll be nice. No scrolling to the end now…. read it all properly!

To start with, the following questions are all about my favourite ride, which hopefully you all know is Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom. So here goes:

1. What is the name of the family dog?
2. The first 3 scenes are set at the turn of the century, the 1920’s and the 1940’s but each is set on a specific date; can you name them all?
3. In the 1920’s scene the father character is holding a fan but what does it say on the fan?
4. What historical characters do the mother and father characters dress as for the 4th July parade?
5. In the final scene what mishap does Grandma’s high score lead to?

The second section is all about famous years:

1. In what year was the signing of the Declaration of Independence signed?
2. In what year did DisneyLand, California open?
3. In what year did Walt Disney World, Florida open?
4. In what year did Walt Disney die?
5. In what year did Mick, Chris, Paul and Stewart Brennan (plus nan and granddad) first visit Florida?

Ok, so back to the blog and Wednesday morning we were up by about 10am. Brekky was the usual bagels and Lays and we headed out about 11:30. First stop was Downtown Disney and we parked at Cirque to walk through Westside. It was a nice day but breezy and a little cool. The clouds were moving over with clear skies behind so it would soon warm up. We looked in the Disney Quest store, the Silver Emporium and the Hoi Poloi store. Then it was the D Street store and some Vinylmation purchase for our collection. We got a DVC one, a holiday gingerbread smelly one, and the 2 cruise lines we needed (Magic and Wonder). We also got a large white Lightning McQueen one for signing next cruise. Since there are no more colours of large Mickeys’ this will be a great alternative. There was also some cool Star Wars stuff in the store.

We then walked through Pleasure Island and round to Market Place. The clouds were gone now and it was really warm. We looked in the Lego store and then went into the World of Disney store. They have a new cool experience for the kids called D-Tech me. It costs $99.95 and they basically take a digital 3D photo of the child and then make a 6 inch plastic Disney Princess figurine with the actual child’s face. It was really clever tech and seemed as popular as the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique which was still churning out toddlers with scraped back glitter hair and make up.

We bought some more Disney cushions for our collection; we got ‘supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ and ‘the happiest place on earth’. Later on at the parks we also picked up ‘a wish is a dream your heart makes’ and ‘tomb sweet tomb’ so we have 9 in total now. I also got 2 more Disney charms for my bracelet. I got a Mickey symbol and Cinderella’s slipper. They fit on my Pandora with no needle filing required! We continued through Market Place looking in the Pin Station, Once Upon a Toy, the Christmas shop and the Art of Disney. I got a really neat crystal and enamel Tinkerbell in Arribas Bros the glass shop.

We had considered getting annual Disney passes this trip as there is great offer on for DVC members. A Premium pass (all parks incl Golf and water parks) is $425 (incl tax). This would let us go in and out of Disney as we pleased and if days were busy we could head out with nothing lost. We decided to go for it and bought 2 passes. They also get free parking and a 20% discount at all park stores. We then got the taxi boat back to Westside and made our way over to Premium Outlets. The traffic was really busy and parking proved difficult. We drove round and ended up in the multi story.

First stop for us was Starbucks for a Majorca sweet bread and a Latte, although I opted for a frozen strawberry and cream. Then we went round the stores getting a few more Christmas presents along the way. Paul was extremely disappointed when he got to Marc Ecko Cut and Sew and they had no polo shirts and he was planning on buying a few. He did manage to get a hoodie though for just 15 bucks. I managed to get a really nice leather biker style jacket in Wilsons Leather for $150 (down from $500) and that completed our purchases. It was now getting on for 6pm and we decided we’d make the most of our Disney Tickets and go into Magic Kingdom. We stopped first at Applebees for some sustenance, which consisted of chicken wanton tacos for Paul and ultimate trio of mozzarella sticks, cheeseburger sliders and honey bar-b-q boneless wings for me.

We got to the Magic Kingdom parking lot for about 7pm (did you know this is the 4th largest parking lot in the world?) We parked and got the tram to the entrance. We got on the monorail really quickly so were inside the Park for 7:30pm. Wishes Fireworks were at 10pm so we had time for a few rides. We began with my fave, Carousel of Progress. There was no queue and we walked straight on. After that we did queue for the TTA (or People mover as it is now known). It was temporarily stopped, hence the queue, but it was open again within a few minutes. It was getting to be a chilly evening so we snuggled-in as it gets breezy on that train. The highlight for us was Space Mountain. Rather than the usual route through the ride on the dark it was closed and the full lights were on so we got a great view of the entire structure from our TTA vehicle. It’s clearly not built to be pretty in the light but was certainly pretty cool to see.

After this we walked over to the new Fantasy Land that is partially open. They are still building and it is not officially open but Belle’s village, including the ‘Be Our Guest Restaurant’ and Gaston’s Tavern as well as the Little Mermaid Voyage Under the Sea and ‘Ariel’s Grotto’ are open for guests. Since the Under the Sea ride had a 40 minute wait we decided to get a fast pass to come back at 9:20 and whist we were waiting we went over to Paul’s fave; Philharmagic.

To kill time ahead of our fast pass return we looked in a few shops, including one in Belle’s village there the server’s all said ‘Bonjour’ to keep the theme. I replied ‘Bonjour, comment ca va”. Well that really threw the guy who fumbled and said he was really rusty! He just about coped with ‘Au revoir’ as we left.

We then went into the ‘Under the Sea’ ride with our Fast Passes which was a ride in a clam shell, very similar to Nemo in Epcot’s the Living Seas area. The ride basically tells the story from the film with animatronics scenes and the familiar songs. It was not very long (about 6 minutes) so afterwards we still had 30 minutes or so before fireworks. We decided to grab a drink at Gaston’s Tavern which specializes in Le Fou’s brew. We think Disney has created this to compete with Butter Beer at Universal’s Harry Potter land. It is a frozen mix of Apple, caramel, toasted marshmallow and mango. You can get it in a regular cup for $4.95 or in a souvenir cup for $9.95. We tried one and it was really refreshing. A little chilly for that time of the evening, but nice all the same. Once we’d finished we walked through the crowds to the end of Main Street (nearest the exit) to watch the Fireworks. The Christmas bunting got in the way of the view a little bit from here but they were still good. As soon as the finale was done we exited the park and managed to get on the ferryboat back to the parking lot. We got home after a long but enjoyable day at about 11:30 so it was past midnight when we eventually turned in.

After a late night we had a lie in Thursday morning and watched the Macy’s Thanks Giving Day parade on the TV before heading out about midday. We had planned to go to the Disney resorts as we didn’t want to waste a day of our passes but with the annual passes we thought we’d give Disney a go. If it was busy we could leave with nothing lost. We decided on Animal Kingdom and parked at what seemed the furthest point so we knew the park was pretty full. It was another warm and sunny day in the mid 70’s. We haven’t done the Kilimanjaro Safari trek for a while so went and got Fast Passes for this first. We then went into the Festival of the Lion King show (with a brief stop for Paul to have a Mickey’s cookies and cream ice cream bar beforehand). The show was full and we sat at the back of the Lion section but got a good clear view.

Once we exited the show we made our way straight over to the Safari trek. We got seats at the front and saw a few animals along the way including deer (of various kinds), okapi, hippo’s, crocodiles, elephants, flamingo’s, giraffes, warthogs, zebra and lots of termite mounds. Paul managed to get a few pics. After this we walked through the Pangani trek and saw monkeys, gorilla and a sleeping hippo. After this we’d had enough and it was getting cool so we decided to leave. It was just before 5 so we thought we’d get some food on the way home. We did want steak but since Texas Roadhouse and Longhorn were closed for Thanks Giving we had to re-think. Applebees was also closed so we opted for TGI’s. I stuck with my Jack Daniels chicken and Paul had the Friday’s shrimp. We of course had extra Jack Daniels sauce!

We came home about 6pm and have chilled out. A bath, some home baked white chocolate and macadamia cookies with a cuppa and Family Guy on TV. We have to get to bed early tonight, as we want to be at the Florida Mall by 8am for Black Friday so we will be turning in soon.

So that’s about all for now except for giving you those answers, did you get them all?

1. Rover
2. Valentines Day 14th Feb, Independence day 4th July (you got a big clue to this in Q4) and Halloween 31st October.
3. Niagara Falls
4. George and Martha Washington
5. The burning of the Christmas Turkey. As the father character repeats the high score it then voice activates the oven, which subsequently explodes, and burns the turkey.

1. 1776
2. 1955
3. 1971
4. 1966
5. 1988

We’re now in Orlando (feels like home) and the weather today has been gorgeous. Warm and sunny – definitely t-shirt weather and Paul even wore shorts. Its Tuesday evening right now, we’re just back from a top meal at Kobe and we’re settled with a cuppa in front of the TV (like I said, it feels like home!)

So, where did I leave you? Sunday evening I believe after that totally awesome US Grand Prix (nope, still not come back down to earth yet). We had a comparatively late night that night – a whopping 10pm!

Monday morning we were up about 8am. We’d set the alarm for after 9 but were both up by 8 easily. We’d packed most of our stuff the night before and succeeded with the miracle that was 49lbs for one case and 50 for the other – something the check-in lady was mightily impressed about at the airport but we felt pretty stupid as each passenger can have 2 bags of 50lbs free and we still had our other case inside the first – d’oh. We checked out about 9:45, printing our boarding cards in reception on the way. A stop for McDonalds breakfast was called for and as we had plenty of time we sat in – oooh, the luxury ? We then headed to the airport, briefly stopping for gas for the rental. We dropped the car back at Hertz ok (trusty tom tom again) and got the shuttle over to the airport. After security we grabbed a Starbucks and settled in at our gate. We had about an hour and a half before the flight. The airport was full of F1 fans and behind us were a family talking about the race. When asked how it was they replied “not bad but not good” I turned around and put them straight, telling them it was phenomenal.

We were flying Southwest where there are no assigned seats (a bit like EasyJet) but we’d paid extra to be the boarding group A. As boarding was called we queued in our assigned lot (there were numbered signs and we were A41). Most passengers did the same but 2 guys with A52 and 53 decided they were getting in front of us. We didn’t challenge them but in hindsight I wished I had. We boarded and got seats in the middle of the plane. The flight was full so we had a lone American guy sitting in the aisle set. The flight was equally full of F1 fans talking about the race. A lot of Americans seemed to attend because of it being the inaugural race at the Circuit of Americas but many of them clearly knew naff all about F1 – sacrilege.

The flight was about 2 hours 20 and we landed about 10 to 5. We’d added an hour on though as Orlando is only 5 hours behind. We got off the plane and made our way to baggage claim B and waited…. and waited…..and waited…and waited.. the bags took bloomin’ ages but eventually they turned up and we walked over to the parking lot. We were Hertz gold club again so headed straight for our assigned bay. This time was have a Kia Soul, a weird car cross small SUV with a big square back. It’s a little ugly to be honest but it’s new and Paul says its OK to drive.

We picked the keys up at the IPG offices and then went to Applebees for dinner. Paul had a beef French dip sandwich and I had chicken Caesar salad. We followed this with shot glass desserts; strawberry cheesecake for Paul and chocolate mousse for me. After dinner we did our shopping in Publix before making our way to the villa.

The villa is really nice. Exactly the same layout as the one we had last November but really nice décor and no locked away aircon. Paul had to fix the wireless but other than that we really have no complaints. We did see that someone was staying in 734 so considered telling them to get out of our house! We unpacked then had a cuppa whilst we caught up on the shocker that was X Factor. We eventually went to bed about 11pm.

Today we were up about 10am. It was a nice morning and we checked out the pool area. The villa is in really good condition all round. We had bagels for brekky before heading out about 11:30am. Our agenda today was Prime outlets and Millennia. First stop however was TJ Maxx, Nine West and Calvin Klein. I picked up a pair of skinny jeans, a studded T-shirt and some electric blue suede court shoes whilst Paul got some socks! It was getting really hot as we parked at ‘Last Call Neiman Marcus’ but there were no irresistible bargains so we moved on. We moved the car to the far end and had to park on scrub land as the car park was actually full. We wandered down to the Yankee Candle outlet. We got large jar candles for 14 bucks each so picked up 3.

After Prime we made our way to Millennia. I managed to get my Pandora wooden beads that I needed to complete my collection and we also picked up the first of some Christmas presents for folks. We browsed the Apple store (holding a new iPad mini) and various others including Swarovski, L’Occitane and Aldo. Paul had a look around the Sony store whilst I was disappointed to find that Jimmy Choo had no discounted section. We finally made our way to Tiffany’s where Paul bought my Christmas box – a Tiffany lock ring with diamonds and I also picked up the prezzie from my mum and bro – a Tiffany interlocking circles pendant (silver and yellow gold). We left Millennia and headed over to the ‘Off Broadway’ shoe store. Paul managed to pick up some work shoes whilst I picked up some boots for work.

We left the Millennia area and had to use back roads as Westbound I4 was closed. The traffic was really heavy as we’re in Thanks Giving week and everywhere is gonna be busy. We decided to head straight to Kobe and got there about 5:30. We were seated straight away at a table that had just begun serving. We’d missed he hot towels but joined as soup turned up. Paul had jumbo shrimp and I had the filet. The food was just as good as ever. Our chef was new, called Mickey – very un-Kobe! We came straight home after dinner and so here I am – watching America’s funniest videos between typing. Tomorrow is another shopping day and we really need to focus on Christmas presents.