Category: January 2009

So, Thursday evening was the Elvis tribute – what can I say?!
It was at an English run and styled bar called ‘The Stadium’ which was a sports bar with various UK and US sports matches being shown on plasma screens. We found a big table for all of us as the place was quite busy. The clientele seemed to be middle to latter aged brits, which was hardly surprising. After ordering our food and drinks we spotted Elvis. He was not a young ‘Blue Hawaii’ Elvis by any means. More a latter day, post cheeseburger Elvis!! He came over to introduce himself to our table and introduced himself as Jack. We instantly all knew he must be Jack Smink (We all remembered him as Jack Spink to be honest but as we got his website address later we realised it was Smink). The reason we all knew of him instantly was that for a couple of years in 2006/7 there used to be a huge inflatable Elvis down the 192 advertising Jack. We all used to see it and laugh and even considered seeing Jack before!!

The food was good – big portions and some good UK grub too such as bangers and mash as well as some US favourites. It was reasonably priced too.
As we ate, Elvis began his set. He did many classics but seemed to favour the up tempo numbers. He also did many tracks we didn’t actually recognise. He wandered around the bar as he sang and played up to the adoration he got from some of the clientele!! He spotted that Paul was not an Elvis fan at all and kept making a point of it to Paul’s disgust. He equally spotted then Paul’s mum and aunt were fans and even gave Auntie Anne one of his scarves (covered in his sweat – NICE!). He also got them both up for a photo with him that I will try to get posted on this blog.

For anyone remotely interested his website is wwww.jacksmink.com

Oh yes, the other very funny thing was that he had Minder who followed him around the bar as he sang. The guy was pushing 60 with Elvis style hair, jeans and a black leather jacket – think of a 60 year old Fonz and you may have it!!
He seemed more reminiscent of an insane fan than a Minder but he looked as though he could have been a rough customer if you did take him on. Quite what he was protecting Jack, sorry Elvis, from I have no idea!!!

We left the bar at about half 10 and he was still going strong!!

DAY 9 – Friday

I awoke still full of cold and bunged up!
The weather was still wet and temperatures cool but we had breakfast and headed off to Disney’s Wilderness Lodge for our horse trail riding. We had booked a 1pm slot but needed to get there early to get the bus out to the stables so arrived at the Lodge entrance at about 11:30am. We parked the car and as we headed to the bus station we saw the horse trail check-in hut. We completed our waivers (only Uncle Dave and I were riding) to say that we could be paralysed or die (NICE!) and opted for protective headgear, which is strangely optional. Since we were early but it was quiet they said we could go out straight away. We didn’t have to get a bus anywhere so this must have been a different stable to those we have been to last time we visited.

Dave and I were issued our hats (mine was a child’s as I have a ridiculously small head) and our horses were led out. Dave was to ride Romeo and I had Molly. We were on a raised platform to aid the mounting process and both got on ok. We were tethered to the fence as the instructor checked out positions – she seemed happy. We were told to ride Western style, so the reins were held one handed which is odd for me. We were also taught to ‘steer’ with reins only not legs as I had been taught as a child. The Western saddles were very comfortable though. There was only Dave and I riding so the entire stable staff decided to come out too – there were 5 of them! As we set off it stared to rain quite heavily. We opted to still go as we had several layers on and I was even wearing Paul’s coat!! Pics will be posted here later!

The rain quickly eased and we warmed up riding. The trail was very wet and Molly certainly didn’t seem to want to get her feet wet, bless her. We were told to stay on the right side of the path so I had to keep pulling her back to the water unfortunately. Bet she hated me! We had also been told not to let the horses eat the foliage. Molly tried once but I soon stopped her and showed her who was boss – bet she hated me even more then!! I did pat her and talk to her loads though as she was a good girl for me. The ride was really nice as the skies cleared and we meandered through the woods. Dave really enjoyed it too. We seemed to get back to the stables in no time at all but had been out for 50 minutes. As we got back Molly decided she had an itchy rear end and proceeded to rub and scratch on the fence!!

We dismounted ok, handed back our hats and said our goodbyes. We both then hobbled down the path as our legs adjusted!!

The others were nowhere to be seen but after about 5 minutes I spotted Paul’s car turning in. They had been to get us hot drinks as they thought we would come back cold. Actually we were quite warm but the drinks were welcome all the same.

We left Wilderness Lodge and Paul and I had decided to go for lunch at Downtown Disney and then to the Cinema. We had lunch at the new T Rex restaurant. It is similar in style to Rainforest Café but with a dinosaur theme as you would guess. It was quite big inside with tables crammed in; it was quite busy too. The prices we high for the kind of food offered and having 2 burgers and 2 soft drinks cost nearly 35 bucks – that’s expensive. There was a kind of show every 20 mins where the dinosaurs inside moved, the ceiling had fire and a storm projected on it and the whole thing had a corresponding soundtrack. It was ok but not worth the money in my opinion and I doubt we’ll go again.

We came out and headed over for the 2:45pm showing of ‘Paul Blart – Mall Cop’. We had seen the trailer at home and knew it stared Kevin James (Doug from King of Queens – very funny). The film was really good though the kids behind kicking and clambering all over the seats did spoil it a bit!

We headed straight home to wash and care for out tattoos once more before getting ready for our final evening and final dinner. We had decided to go to Kobe one last time. The food was as good as ever, I had my usual succulent and juicy filet and Paul had a mountain of shrimp, ordering double shrimp with a side of shrimp!!!

We came straight home for about half 9 whilst the folks stopped off at Wall Greens for some pills that can’t be got at home.

DAY 10 – Saturday

Well it’s the final day and today we have to go home sadly.
It’s been a great week and everyone seemed to really enjoy it.

We have packed and got everything into the suitcases ok including the new duvet set we bought!! The temperatures are still cool though the skies are clear and the sun is shining. We have tidied the house and packed the owners closet and are watching TV and writing this blog before we set of for the airport about 3pm local time. The flight is on time, we have checked in on line so all is well.

I will add my final thoughts when I am back in the UK to finish off the trip a usual.

Until then I am offski.

DAY 6 – Tuesday

We finally set off just after 1pm for the Mall at Millennia. It was quiet and we parked in our usual spot outside Neiman Marcus. Sadly, there was no designer shoe sale on 🙁
We looked around the ground floor firstly stopping at Swarovski (no Tinkerbell – they were limited edition so I think I’ve lost my chance to get one now). They had some cute teddy bears with pink balloons but they were $95 and for their size (and the naff exchange rate) this was way too much. We looked in L’Occitane but no deals there either and a couple of shoe stores; Aldo and Charles David. Although I found styles I liked there was nothing I was willing to pay the ticket price for! We then went into the Apple store and into Macy’s for me to get my Clinique. The Assistant tried to open me a Macy’s account so I could get a 15% discount but we needed passport details. Whilst we could scarily remember the number and expiry date we couldn’t remember the actual issue date so they wouldn’t open the account. After this we headed upstairs to the food court for a coffee at Starbucks.

We then went into Tiffany’s where I bought a bracelet. After this we spent what seemed like ages in the Sony store and finally a stop off at Jimmy Choo. They had styles I liked in the sale but not in my size so no designer shoes were purchased at all this trip – gutted!

We left Millennia and went over to the ‘Off Broadway’ shoe store. I managed to get some white mules – not designer but nice all the same. They can be left out here at the Villa. We headed home about 5pm to get ready for the evening.

This was the night of the ‘surprise’ for Paul’s folks. We do a surprise event each trip (although they’re getting harder to think of now). We set out about 7pm and headed to Disney (the scenic route to throw them off the scent). As we went into the Magic Kingdom Resort area we asked the folks where they wanted to go and then chose the Contemporary Resort. The monorail services all the hotels so we could park at anyone of them. As we went into the hotel and up to the monorail their initial pleasure at guessing the correct hotel soon turned back to confusion 🙂 We got off the monorail at the Polynesian where we met up with one of Paul’s work team who was here on vacation with his wife. We went to the beach to watch the Wishes fireworks in MK (this is the best free view of them there is). This was not the real surprise as we have done this before. Afterwards we went inside to the Ohana restaurant – this was the real surprise. This is a Hawaiian resort and restaurant as the name suggest. Ohana serves traditional food family style (that means you don’t order they just bring everything to your table) with entertainment laid on. The food was really nice and consisted of pineapple and coconut bread, salad with a really nice honey mustard dressing, chicken wings in a bar-b-q sauce, port dumplings with various dips, steak, shrimp, turkey and pork kebabs and noodles. You could have as much as you could eat and soft drinks were also included in the price. After all of this a coconut and pineapple bread and butter pudding with caramel sauce and ice cream was served. The whole evening including an 18% gratuity cost $37 per head which was well worth it. The views over the lake and MK castle were great too. The entertainment consisted of a Hawaiian guy singing and giving out Hawaiian leis, getting the kids to play maraca’s (which were really loud when played right behind you head by about 50 kids!!), getting the kids to take part in a coconut rolling race and teaching anyone who wanted to join in how to hula. We joined in from our seats and this earned us our leis!

After dinner we had to get a bus back to the Contemporary as for some reason the monorail had stopped running. The bus was full of deep-south Americans with the tell tale drawl! We had a quick look around the Contemporary before going home so got in well after 11pm.

DAY 7 – Wednesday

Today was another park day so we were up at 9am to head into Disney at about 10.15. We did the usual car sharing to get the free parking on our annual passes again.
We firstly went into Animal Kingdom. There is not that much we like to do in this park but there are a couple of really good shows we like so did them back to back. These were the Finding Nemo musical and the Festival of the Lion King. Both were as good as ever and we came out of AK at about 2pm. The weather was really hot and more humid than it had been and the park was reasonably busy.

We then went over to the Hollywood studios. We started off by getting some Fairfax fries, as we were all hungry. We sat on a bench whilst we ate and lapped up the warm sun. After this we decided to ride the Great Movie ride. It’s a classic!
After this the folks decided they wanted to go and see the Lights, Motors, Action show but Paul and I wanted to go and see the American Idol experience. The grand opening of this attraction is not until 14th Feb but as with most Disney attractions there is a soft opening whilst it is refined so all shows were open with open seating. We went into the 4pm show and the whole theatre looked excellent, just like the TV show. There was a warm up guy to get the crowd going and then Ryan Seacrest comes up on the big screen. Other past Idols also appear on the screen throughout the show and are filmed and timed to interact with the host and singers. The performers are all park visitors but have been through previous auditions. If you want to be a performer you need to register at the beginning of the day and be seen by 2 sets of Disney park producers before being selected for the on stage shows. In our show there were 3 performers, 2 women and a guy. They were all very unlikely looking American Idols but all performed well. There was a show host and 3 judges just like the real show and one judge was even a nasty Brit!! We didn’t recognise the judges or host but apparently they are all B-list type stars. The whole thing followed the format of the TV show exactly. The whole thing lasted about half an hour and at the end we the audience got to vote for the winner who would go into a grand finale at 7pm with all the other show winners throughout the day. The winner of the grand finale gets a golden ticket which entitles the bearer to go the front of the line at any American Idol Audition anywhere in the country.

When we came out we stopped for a coffee before going to see the Indiana Jones stunt show – another classic that was as good as ever. After this the folks decided they had had enough and left but Paul and I wanted to stay for the American Idol finale.

The show started at 7pm and was exactly as before but had the 5 winners from throughout the day. The host and judges were different however, although we still didn’t recognise any of them! The first performer was a 14 year old girl – she was ok but not brilliant and one of the judges told her so! There was a also a British performer who sang really well but we thought it a waste as non US nationals are not allowed to enter American Idol. There was also a Puerto Rican who sang La Bamba superbly and a bit of a geeky guy who was compared to Clay Aitken and the female winner of our earlier show. The show was really good again and we all got to vote again. The final 2 were the Puerto Rican and the geeky guy and the Puerto Rican snatched it. He was really good and was a worthy winner. His family had been going wild all through the show so celebrated big style as he won.

As we exited about 7:45pm I was asked to complete a survey about the show – this is the feedback that goes towards the refinement for the grand opening. I had nothing bad to say really as it was exactly what I expected and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

After we left the park we went for quick bite to eat at Dennys. It was cheap and cheerful as ever! Since I have seemed to pick up a stinking cold I went straight to bed when I got in at about half 9.

DAY 8 – Thursday

I slept on and off given my cold and Paul was up with a bad stomach in the night too.
We got up about 9 and I was more bunged up than ever! I have Sudafed and pain killers but felt rough pretty much all day.
We left the house about 11 to head over to Universal Studios City Walk (this is the shops and restaurant area outside the park). Our secret destination was Hart and Huntington, which if you don’t know is a famous tattoo shop. Paul and I have been thinking about getting inked for a while and had finally agreed on our artwork and met the artist and booked them earlier in the holiday. We had signed the waivers and paid $150 non-refundable deposit each so there was no going back! We arrived at noon feeling nervous. Robert was our artist and he cleaned up his area before showing me my pic. I wanted to go first to get it done!! I had chosen a moon goddess picture which is apparently what my name means. He had drawn it up for me and reduced the size so as it was not too big and it was time for the stencil placement. I chose my back right hip area and he put the stencil on. It looked cool in the mirror so we began! I lay full-length face down and was quite comfortable. As the needle began the pain was ok. Very bearable. The outline was to be in black and my tat was quite intricate. I have to say that some of the lines got quite painful and it definitely depended on the area of my back as to when the pain got quite bad. I managed to zone out and lie really still and my artist said I was doing great, he new I was a first timer too! The outline seemed to be done really quickly and Paul took some pics along the way that may well be posted here. The colouring then began. The pain again was variable, sometimes it felt like nothing at all, not sure if this was my endorphins kicking in or just me zoning out. The colouring is more of a burning sensation but was ok. My whole tat took about an hour and a half. It’s small but very intricate so the artist found it difficult he said. He has made a really good job of it though and I love it. After a pic he bandaged me up. This has to be left on for about 4 hours then it should never be covered again like this. It has to be washed with anti-bacterial soap twice daily and then lotion applied. All this has to be done for about 2 weeks until it scabs over and heals.

It was now Paul’s turn. He had decided on a Scorpio symbol (his star sign). His was to be on his right arm and was going to take way less time than mine. He opted for it to be in black and red only. I took pics of him too.

We were both very happy with the results and gave our artist a gratuity! Prices by the way were $250 for mine and $150 for Paul’s. ($150 is the minimum price anyway).

The weather was thoroughly grim all day with high winds and torrential rain so we picked a good day to be inside. We left the shop and came home for about half 3. I have written this blog and we have watch “Cash Cab” on TV. It’s a kind of ‘Who Wants to be a Millionaire’ based in a yellow cab in NY. People get in thinking it’s a normal NY cab then get told they’re in the cash cab. They have the length of their journey to answer questions and win cash. If the get 3 wrong answers they get thrown out with nothing regardless of where they are. If they reach their destination with less than 3 wrong answers they win the cash – or get the chance to answer a double or quits question. You can phone a friend or ask a passer by for one question.

Its now 6pm and time for me to remove my bandage.
Tonight we are off to an Elvis tribute dinner show!!!!
I’ll be sure to write about it in the next update…..

So, here we are again. It’s only a few weeks since we were last here but you won’t hear me complaining. We travelled to Manchester on Wednesday (21st) for an overnight stay in the Hilton as we were on the early flight out on the 22nd – 10:25am.
As we arrived at the airport it seemed very quiet, check-in had no queues at all. Upon asking the check-in Agent if the flight was full as it seemed quiet she snapped back to us that everyone else had checked in already and the flight was very busy. She was really quite rude in her attitude so later on when I was given a survey card on the flight I was sure to comment on the check-in Agent!
Manchester Airport is still under refurbishment but most shops are open with new ones opening all the time. Paul wanted to get a spare battery for his new HD video camera, which he did, quite easily in Dixons. I wanted to check out the new Lacoste perfume and in doing so an Assistant pointed out a special edition Lacoste perfume that is part of the traveller collection, only available at travel outlets. It smelled really nice so I bought some.
We headed to the lounge, which is a shared one at Manchester and pretty naff (again something I pointed out on my comment card) for about 15 minutes before boarding was called. We were back in Virgin Upper class – THANK GOODNESS!! So could board straight away. We had our fave seats too, the front 2 6a and 6k.
The flight was scheduled to be just over 8.5 hours which was good, previously flights had been 9.5 hours but the winds had ceased and a clear path across the Atlantic presented itself. We were however, late pushing back as the jetty got stuck to the plane and would not come off!! According to the Captain’s announcement it took engineers with hammers to get it off!!
Eventually we pushed back about half an hour late.
The flight was very smooth, the seats excellent and event the food was good. We had tomato soup, chicken tikka massala and bread and butter pudding with champagne cream – yum! The films weren’t bad either so as well as my usual puzzler, brain training and ipod I watched ‘how to lose friends and alienate people’. It was ok but could have been finnier. Paul watched this and Beverly Hills Chihuahua as well.
We landed at about 2:30 local time. We got off quickly to an empty immigration hall. After the Agent had finally logged into his computer (which he struggled with!) we were through. The system has changed again with all fingers and thumbs now being scanned on both hands. The cases came off quickly (love that priority baggage!) and we were out of the airport in half an hour. We had booked a small compact car as they are cheap but the Alamo Agent kept on trying to get us to upgrade. After several ‘no thank you’s’ from us he finally offered us a deal too good to decline so we opted for a convertible!! We left the airport and headed straight over to the Villa. Paul’s folks were already here although not home when we arrived. We unpacked and freshened up as we had all decide to go to Applebees for dinner. Applebees was fairly busy at 8pm but we got a table straight away. The food was ok as ever and we then headed straight home. Given the time difference we were exhausted and went to bed about 9pm local time.

DAY 2 – FRIDAY
We all awoke early as was expected and Paul and I stuck to our usual routine of McD’s breakfast at Downtown Disney. It was reasonably quiet as it was still early and although fairly cold (12C) there was no wind and clear sky’s so in the sun it felt quite pleasant. We wandered around Downtown and went into the new ‘design a tee’ store. The idea (as the name suggests) is to design your own personalized t-shirt. Apparently, any wording you put on is moderated – yes I did think about it!!!
The designs were actually very limited. You had to have a character design in the middle with wording (very limited on characters) underneath. Since neither of us could think of anything amusing (that would not have been thrown out by the moderators – Walt would have turned in his grave about what we wanted to call Mickey) we bought nothing, although enjoyed playing for a good half an hour!!
We bought some sweets for the trip and finally left Downtown just after lunchtime.
We needed to find a UPS store to ship important docs to Annette who had been robbed in Jamaica!! After this we decided to go to the Florida Mall to get the bits I needed to buy – well there’s always something! It was not very busy and we parked right outside Dillards.
I managed to have a good spending spree which is a great way to start the holiday!
I got 3 pairs of shoes and some make-up & skin care products. The first 2 pairs of shoes were from Steve Madden where the deal was buy one and get the second 90% off. So by buying a pair at $90 I got the second pair at $8. Splitting the cost meant I had 2 great pairs of going out shoes (that Ruth will envy) for about £35 each. The final pair were from 9-West and were only $30 so deffo cheaper than I could have got anywhere at home. The make-up and skin care products were from Sephora. I was after a new Lippy that was advertised in a magazine I had read – a Geurlain one. In the store the Assistant wanted to know the colour number and I only had the name so Paul’s i-phone came into its own. A quick google and the number was found – sadly the store didn’t stock it though!! I found an alternative Givenchy one in the end.
After the FL Mall I wanted to go to Best Buy. YES, I wanted to, weird huh? Paul made me repeat this statement over and over!!! (for those in the dark its an electronics store and Paul’s fave – usually the equivalent torture for me that he endures in my shoe stores) We got some new earphones for my i-pod and some screen covers for Paul’s i-phone.
After this we headed over to Universal city walk. We needed to research and book a special event for Paul and I, but the details cannot be published here until the event itself! We successfully sorted it and headed for home about 5pm.
That evening we had all agreed to go to Longhorn for dinner. We called ahead as we knew it would be busy and sat down to eat about 8:30pm. We had a very weird server who we had seen before on previous visits. He thinks he is being helpful I am sure but seems to just confuse everyone! The steak was ok but everything was over seasoned and salty. Shame, as I love Longhorn usually.
We came straight home, exhausted once more and after a cup of tea went to bed about 11pm.

DAY 3 – Saturday

We were up slightly later and had breakfast at home. The weather was definitely getting warmer although cloudier. After reading some emails (how sad are we?) we decide to head out about midday. We had decided to got to Wall Mart and Target to see what bargains we could get!! We bought useful products for home that are always so much better out here than you could ever get at home. We got Joy Mangano huggable hangers (actually you can get these on QVC at home), a bath mat and some bed linen. The latter we managed to get an 8ft by 9ft comforter (duvet to us Brits) for $70. You cannot get anything that size at home and even half the size is twice the price. God Bless the USA!! J I also got a couple of Tinker Bell t-shirts and a cardigan.

After the shopping we had a bite to eat and headed up I-Drive. We had the roof down posing as was befitting of us!! It was cool but we whacked the heating up to compensate. Weirdly, whilst in a car park we had 2 people asking us what we thought of our new Sebring. Paul helpfully told one of them that with the roof down the boot space was very limited. She looked blankly at him so he showed her, only then did it click that to her it was the trunk and she had no idea what a boot was (other then something you wear on your foot)!

We also booked dinner at Kobe’s (Japanese steak hose and Paul’s fave) for 8pm. When the email confirmation came through (good old i-phone again) we realised it was the wrong restaurant! We booked the correct one but couldn’t get an answer from the first to cancel – oops. We did kept trying though and later on managed to cancel ok.

At the top end of I-Drive we went to TK Maxx and the 9-West outlet. I got a couple of pairs of jeans (one really cute with Tweety Pie on the behind!) and a Michael Kors bag but to Paul’s surprise came out of 9-Eest empty handed.

We drove around with the roof down a bit more before heading home about 5pm again. Before going out for dinner we watched Jeopardy. It reminded us of Ellen’s Universe of Energy at Epcot which we will miss this time as it’s closed for refurb.
After competing in testing out general knowledge we went for dinner. Kobe is a traditional Japanese steak house with the hibachi grill where the chef entertains as well as cooking great food right in front of you. Tables are for 10 so we had a family of 4 with us. The food was great as ever and the filet tender and cooked to perfection.
The chef was Mitsubishi but we saw Toyota at the next table!!
Anne and Dave (Paul’s Aunt and Uncle) almost lost their eyebrows in the fire but the kids of the American family found it highly amusing. It transpired the boy was there for his 9th birthday and after signing happy birthday he shared his cake with us.
After dinner the others went to a coffee shop but I needed to come home and drink some peppermint tea as I always over eat at Kobe’s and need to settle my stomach before bed. Exhausted once more (doing very little is so tiring!) we went to bed at about half 10.

It is now Sunday. The weather is fab – 80C. Warm, sunny and very clear. We are all off to the Swan for lunch so until next time…..