We watched the Royal Wedding along with millions (billions?) of others and I have to say I was proud of all the ceremonial stuff and felt quite moved when they exchanged their marriage vows. I think I am alone, though, in being a bit disappointed in her dress. I felt it was a little old-fashioned and I expected something more modern. However, it wasn't as creased as Diana's dress when she emerged from the car - I remember being really shocked at that!
After we saw them kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace Keith and I made a start on the garden. We strimmed the front verge which was full of dandelion weeds and sadly, got rid of three plants that were just not doing anything. I won't put anything else in to replace them and I hope that the mass of Hypericum will spread backwards and sidewards to fill the spaces they left. We worked for about two hours and it was pleasantly warm in the sunshine. There was not much going on around the estate so nobody else had planned any street parties!
Friday, 29 April 2011
Thursday 28 April - Catching up!
Today was catch up day for both Keith and me. The holiday now seems a bit of a distant memory and I think it's about time we were planning the next one!
Keith did the food shopping today and whilst out bought a new lawnmower and a barbecue. We didn't barbecue at all last year and I really missed the lovely smell of food grilling outside. When he got home he mowed the lawn and it looks so much better now. Yesterday evening we had a stroll around, the garden and I was delighted to see my baby vines had survived the winter and were in leaf. There'll be a Chateau Janie yet!
At work mum and I finished the year end payroll and submitted everything to Revenue and Customs so that's that little job completed. Autoglass came to replace my windscreen so that's another chore sorted. Before we went on holiday my car was playing up with two warning signs appearing on the dashboard, but they've suddenly stopped, which is a relief. I didn't fancy a huge mechanic's bill!
Keith did the food shopping today and whilst out bought a new lawnmower and a barbecue. We didn't barbecue at all last year and I really missed the lovely smell of food grilling outside. When he got home he mowed the lawn and it looks so much better now. Yesterday evening we had a stroll around, the garden and I was delighted to see my baby vines had survived the winter and were in leaf. There'll be a Chateau Janie yet!
At work mum and I finished the year end payroll and submitted everything to Revenue and Customs so that's that little job completed. Autoglass came to replace my windscreen so that's another chore sorted. Before we went on holiday my car was playing up with two warning signs appearing on the dashboard, but they've suddenly stopped, which is a relief. I didn't fancy a huge mechanic's bill!
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
It's the middle of the week!
I must admit I'm a bit confused as to what day it is at the moment. Last night, Keith went to the pub to meet his mate so it seemed like it was a Monday (plus it was my first day back at work). So today should have felt like Tuesday, but it didn't as mum and dad took a much needed break and Keith came into work with me, as he does every Wednesday. However, I called mum this morning to tell her that some parcels had arrived for dad for his model planes and perhaps he'd like them before he went to the club this afternoon?
"He's not going today," she said. "It's Wednesday, not Thursday."
"Oh yes," I replied, "so it is."
What day is it, then? To me it felt very much like Thursday as I didn't do the wages - Friday, as we all know, is a Bank Holiday, because...well, we all know why. Don't get me wrong, I wish them well, but why couldn't they have arranged this wedding in late June or early July so all the Bank Holidays were spaced out evenly? It's such a long time between May and August and then we have nothing, absolutely nothing until Christmas! Pah!
Will I be watching on Friday? I'm not sure. I would like to see the actual wedding ceremony as they stand at the altar and say their vows, but I'm not sure I have the stamina for the build-up and the endless discussions afterwards. I have too much to do at home (the lawn is crying out for some attention) and I really think my time would be better used doing things in the house. The planned street party in our neighbourhood has not happened, mainly because our mother village has put on loads of things so there's no way we can compete, plus if the weather is a bit iffy, as we've been warned, we'd look a bit silly standing out in the rain and pretending that everything is great!
"He's not going today," she said. "It's Wednesday, not Thursday."
"Oh yes," I replied, "so it is."
What day is it, then? To me it felt very much like Thursday as I didn't do the wages - Friday, as we all know, is a Bank Holiday, because...well, we all know why. Don't get me wrong, I wish them well, but why couldn't they have arranged this wedding in late June or early July so all the Bank Holidays were spaced out evenly? It's such a long time between May and August and then we have nothing, absolutely nothing until Christmas! Pah!
Will I be watching on Friday? I'm not sure. I would like to see the actual wedding ceremony as they stand at the altar and say their vows, but I'm not sure I have the stamina for the build-up and the endless discussions afterwards. I have too much to do at home (the lawn is crying out for some attention) and I really think my time would be better used doing things in the house. The planned street party in our neighbourhood has not happened, mainly because our mother village has put on loads of things so there's no way we can compete, plus if the weather is a bit iffy, as we've been warned, we'd look a bit silly standing out in the rain and pretending that everything is great!
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Down to earth with a bump!
This morning, after 10 hours sleep, I felt a lot better! The children went off to school very reluctantly and I caught a lift into work with mum and dad as one of Keith's tyres on his car was almost flat and he needed my car to get to the shops. They had told me yesterday that the warm and sunny weather had meant we'd had one of our worst Easters ever, business-wise, but that we'd managed to rent out the gym space to a local business for storage, which had helped a little bit.
As today was a training day for some children we were quite busy and the weather turned overcast and bloomin' chilly! I had to wear my fleece when we went over to the bank! Brrrr!!
Now we are back and removed from our wonderful holiday bubble, we have a long list of things we have to do. The windscreen on my car has a long crack in it which needs to be fixed (I suspect it was a faulty windscreen in the first place as it was replaced only a few months ago) and it's due for an MOT soon. The payroll at work needs updating and we have to complete the end of year returns which I'd forgotten all about! The garden resembles a jungle and we need a new lawnmower so that will have to be sorted out at the weekend. Plus, I vowed that when I returned from holiday I would start to use my Fridays off to decorate...hmmm!
Do I wish I was still in Florida? You bet I do!
As today was a training day for some children we were quite busy and the weather turned overcast and bloomin' chilly! I had to wear my fleece when we went over to the bank! Brrrr!!
Now we are back and removed from our wonderful holiday bubble, we have a long list of things we have to do. The windscreen on my car has a long crack in it which needs to be fixed (I suspect it was a faulty windscreen in the first place as it was replaced only a few months ago) and it's due for an MOT soon. The payroll at work needs updating and we have to complete the end of year returns which I'd forgotten all about! The garden resembles a jungle and we need a new lawnmower so that will have to be sorted out at the weekend. Plus, I vowed that when I returned from holiday I would start to use my Fridays off to decorate...hmmm!
Do I wish I was still in Florida? You bet I do!
Monday 25 April - Wiped out!
Well, we finally arrived home on Monday morning, just 24 hours and 50 minutes later than scheduled! Sunday was a long slog waiting around at the airport (Sanford is a lot smaller than Orlando) but the flight seemed a lot shorter than going out and I did manage to sleep for a bit.
Birmingham airport was deserted and Dad was waiting for us in Arrivals. I offered to drive home and promptly missed the turn-off for the M6 so we had a bit of a diversion via Hinckley. I seem to remember doing this after a Florida holiday before, when we ended up in central London, so it must be a jet-lag thing. And talking of jet-lag, yesterday we were all completely wiped out. When we arrived home I felt fine and unpacked all the cases but at about 10am I felt a bit sleepy and that was it...
Mum and Dad had invited us around for a meal which was a good thing as we had nothing in the house at all for dinner. We went around to see them at 2pm and had a lovely lunch sitting outside in the garden as the weather was still gorgeous.
Back home Keith and I kept napping and I couldn't seem to keep my eyes open! We sat down to watch some of the programmes we'd recorded and at 9pm I fell asleep sitting up on the sofa so I think it was time to call it a day and go to bed. Mikey had fallen asleep in our bed and was totally confused, bless him, when I woke him up to get him into his own bed. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow!
Birmingham airport was deserted and Dad was waiting for us in Arrivals. I offered to drive home and promptly missed the turn-off for the M6 so we had a bit of a diversion via Hinckley. I seem to remember doing this after a Florida holiday before, when we ended up in central London, so it must be a jet-lag thing. And talking of jet-lag, yesterday we were all completely wiped out. When we arrived home I felt fine and unpacked all the cases but at about 10am I felt a bit sleepy and that was it...
Mum and Dad had invited us around for a meal which was a good thing as we had nothing in the house at all for dinner. We went around to see them at 2pm and had a lovely lunch sitting outside in the garden as the weather was still gorgeous.
Back home Keith and I kept napping and I couldn't seem to keep my eyes open! We sat down to watch some of the programmes we'd recorded and at 9pm I fell asleep sitting up on the sofa so I think it was time to call it a day and go to bed. Mikey had fallen asleep in our bed and was totally confused, bless him, when I woke him up to get him into his own bed. I don't even remember my head hitting the pillow!
Sunday, 24 April 2011
I think we really are going home now!
I've been looking at the Birmingham departures and the Sanford departures and it looks like we're going to be flying today at 4pm. It's been a great stay in a lovely hotel - spotlessly clean and the bed was wonderful. As it's now Easter Sunday everything here is closed, as it is in the UK so there wouldn't have been much for us to do, except wander about and we do really need to get home now!
Er...did I say we were homeward bound?
This morning we left the villa with a feeling of sadness and I have to confess that I wished we were staying a bit longer. Little did I know I would get my wish...
We were out of the house by 9am and had breakfast at an IHOP. We all had a good breakfast which was a good thing! The journey to the airport was very smooth as we took the Florida Greenway which is a toll road and very quiet. We arrived at Sanford at 12pm, returned the car and made our way to the Departures. There were already quite a few people at our check-in desk, but when we looked at the screen, our flight said "See Agent" which was a bit worrying...
A woman standing near to us saw us looking at the screen and told us that we had a 24 hour flight delay as there had been numerous problems with bird strikes and technical problems. The word on the street was that we would be bussed to a hotel and flown out the next day.
A hour later this was confirmed by a Thomson rep but we had to check our luggage in, take out essentials such as clean underwear, etc and we would then be taken to a - what we thought - Best Western hotel. There was a mass scramble as people pulled knickers and pants from cases and anything else they thought they would need overnight. We then checked in and went to wait for our bus which took us to a beautiful hotel - The Westin in Lake Mary, about 30 minutes from the airport.
We were given two adjoining rooms which are beautiful ($299 a night). After checking in we went over to the local Publix and bought some water, some sparkling wine for later and necessities such as toothbrushes and razors (we'd thrown away our toothbrushes that morning and Keith had left his razor in his case). I also treated myself to three books in case the wait turned out to be a prolonged one.
The children were hungry by now so they had a margarita flatbread in a Crispers restaurant and then we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a freshen up (I washed a pair of knickers just in case). Thompson had put on a free buffet between 5.30pm and 7.30pm but after taking a look, we decided to go it alone and crossed the road over to a square where there were lots of shops, restaurants and...pubs!
The one thing we yearned for over the holiday was somewhere to sit outside and enjoy the warm evening air and we got our wish tonight when we found Liam Fitzpatrick's pub. We sat outside with drinks for a very pleasant and relaxing hour before moving inside for a meal which was delicious. Three of us had curried chicken (very hot!) while Keith had fish and chips. At 9.30pm there was live music - duelling pianos - but the children were becoming tired so we returned to the hotel.
As I write at almost 10.30pm we are still not 100% sure we will fly home tomorrow as Thomson cannot give us a guarantee. In a way I hope we don't but it will mean that the children will miss school if that happens. The way I see it is that we've been given an extra 24 hours of holiday and we really enjoyed the afternoon and evening, still basking underneath the Florida sun!
We were out of the house by 9am and had breakfast at an IHOP. We all had a good breakfast which was a good thing! The journey to the airport was very smooth as we took the Florida Greenway which is a toll road and very quiet. We arrived at Sanford at 12pm, returned the car and made our way to the Departures. There were already quite a few people at our check-in desk, but when we looked at the screen, our flight said "See Agent" which was a bit worrying...
A woman standing near to us saw us looking at the screen and told us that we had a 24 hour flight delay as there had been numerous problems with bird strikes and technical problems. The word on the street was that we would be bussed to a hotel and flown out the next day.
A hour later this was confirmed by a Thomson rep but we had to check our luggage in, take out essentials such as clean underwear, etc and we would then be taken to a - what we thought - Best Western hotel. There was a mass scramble as people pulled knickers and pants from cases and anything else they thought they would need overnight. We then checked in and went to wait for our bus which took us to a beautiful hotel - The Westin in Lake Mary, about 30 minutes from the airport.
We were given two adjoining rooms which are beautiful ($299 a night). After checking in we went over to the local Publix and bought some water, some sparkling wine for later and necessities such as toothbrushes and razors (we'd thrown away our toothbrushes that morning and Keith had left his razor in his case). I also treated myself to three books in case the wait turned out to be a prolonged one.
The children were hungry by now so they had a margarita flatbread in a Crispers restaurant and then we headed back to the hotel for a shower and a freshen up (I washed a pair of knickers just in case). Thompson had put on a free buffet between 5.30pm and 7.30pm but after taking a look, we decided to go it alone and crossed the road over to a square where there were lots of shops, restaurants and...pubs!
The one thing we yearned for over the holiday was somewhere to sit outside and enjoy the warm evening air and we got our wish tonight when we found Liam Fitzpatrick's pub. We sat outside with drinks for a very pleasant and relaxing hour before moving inside for a meal which was delicious. Three of us had curried chicken (very hot!) while Keith had fish and chips. At 9.30pm there was live music - duelling pianos - but the children were becoming tired so we returned to the hotel.
As I write at almost 10.30pm we are still not 100% sure we will fly home tomorrow as Thomson cannot give us a guarantee. In a way I hope we don't but it will mean that the children will miss school if that happens. The way I see it is that we've been given an extra 24 hours of holiday and we really enjoyed the afternoon and evening, still basking underneath the Florida sun!
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