Hello from hot and sunny Florida!

Phew! What a day we had yesterday, and as usual, we can't go on holiday without some sort of drama happening! More of that later!

We had a brilliant journey, setting off from home at 5am and getting to Birmingham airport well ahead of most of the passengers on our flight which meant we were all checked in and sitting in departures by 6.15am. We had some breakfast, did some shopping (I treated myself to a litre bottle of Jamesons for the amazing price of £13.99 - great for a nightcap) and were boarding at just before 9am. The flight was great. We seemed to have more legroom with the Thomson flight and the children happily watched films and played on the games. Keith discovered Bejeweled Blitz and spent most of the flight playing either that or Who Wants to be a Millionaire (we won $1,000,000!)! I also have to say the food was very good - a four course meal which was delicious and then, just before we landed, a cheese and onion wrap and a scone. No complaints there at all. I sat by the window and had an amazing view of the icy wastes of Canada and Newfoundland which were incredible.

Landing in Sanford, the drama began...

We made our way through Immigration and this time I'd made sure I'd filled the form in correctly. We were almost the last to go through again and the man dealing with us seemed fine, although I did notice he'd put my passport to one side. Three of us had our fingerprints and photos taken and then he said to me that he needed to ask me some more questions, but that Keith and the children could go and collect our luggage.

Thinking that it was just another routine form of security I followed him to a waiting area and was then called into an office. He joked about my surname and then asked me when was the last time I'd been to the US. He looked very serious and I replied that I'd been to Florida in May 2009. Then he said when was the last time I was in trouble and I had a terrible feeling that the last time I'd been here I'd done something wrong, like been spotted on a camera for speeding or a parking fine. All these thoughts were racing through my head and I was trying to remember what, if anything, I'd done.

He made a joke when I said that as far as I knew I hadn't been in trouble and then he said seriously, "Have you ever been to Colombia?" The question was so unexpected I nearly burst out laughing, but I said no, never been and would never really want to go. Then he asked if I'd ever had dual nationality, i.e. British and Colombian and I said no, trying not to sound incredulous!

He then explained that they were looking for someone with the same details as me and that they were ruling me out, which he was 99% sure he'd done. He disappeared off, then came back and did a lot of typing into the computer and told me he was trying to purge all the information so that the next time I came back to the US it wouldn't happen again. I was speechless, to be honest, and although relieved that the situation wasn't serious, I was a little worried that someone may have been trying to impersonate me! The consequences of not being allowed into the country were not worth thinking about! I would have been even more worried if I'd rejoined my family and Keith had said he didn't know me, a la the film Unknown!!!

Of course Keith and the children were very worried when they saw me being taken away but at least they know now that I'm not a Colombian drug baron!

Heaving a huge sigh of relief we made our way to the Thomson desk, picked up the directions to the villa and then went to get our car for the two weeks. We had no hassle at the desk, other than a payment for a full tank of fuel, and we chose a Chevrolet which had a nice big boot to take all our luggage. The journey to the villa was without incident and we were very close to the house we had in 2009 which was great as I knew my way around.

We unpacked and then headed off to the Sweetbay supermarket where we bought some essentials for breakfast the next morning. Our first meal was at Chili's where Mikey was desperate to go and we had a lovely meal with very friendly waiting staff. Keith went for the full rack of ribs while Sophie had fajitas, Mikey had Big Mouth Bites (mini hamburgers) and I had some crispy chicken strips. Delicious! The children even had balloons made for them by Randy so they were happy!

Back at the villa we rounded off our very long day with a drink by the pool (after my strawberry lemonade in the restaurant the whiskey was fantastic) and a sleepy chat. We were all shattered but I knew that the next morning we would be up early as we'd still be on UK time!