Sunday, 24 August 2014
Saturday, 23 August 2014
Under the Florida sun
It was great that our villa agents had put on a welcome party for us when we arrived in Florida. Last night we had a tiny lizard hanging onto the netting by the front door as we arrived and this morning we had a huge cockroach scuttling about in the kitchen as I was making a cup of coffee...Needless to say my screams probably woke the whole neighbourhood, a bit of a problem as it was 5am!
Anyway, after Keith had dealt with it, we settled down and did a bit of quiet exploring as the kids were still asleep. Our villa is lovely - we have four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open-plan living room/dining room/kitchen and a pool with a large covered terrace. We are in a very quiet residential area and the pool area looks over beautiful gardens on either side of us, one of which has an oak with Spanish Moss.
We will still be finding things well into the holiday and it won't be until the last day that we discover something vital we needed to know (the light switches are a particular problem!) but it's a lot of fun getting to know a new house, even if it is for just a couple of weeks.
As it grew lighter outside we sat on the terrace with a cup of coffee (bliss!) and then we unpacked the suitcases, showered and had breakfast. The plan was to do a bit of exploring and I had a look at Google Maps on my laptop as last night we didn't have a clue as to where we were. Mikey is desperate to go to a Chili's restaurant and I knew there was one nearby so we piled into the car and set off.
The area around here has a gridwork system of roads which I find very confusing for some reason. However, we drove along the same stretch of road we were on last night and found Chili's a bit further on. Getting back to the villa was very easy by taking a different route so once we'd found our bearings we headed for the Publix supermarket to do a big shop.
I love mooching about in foreign supermarkets and looking at all the different foods on offer but the others seemed desperate to get back to the pool. We still managed to spend a hefty amount on breakfast and lunch foods, wine, beer and essentials, though, and all our stuff was very kindly packed by a young lad who told us he really wanted to visit the UK. How ironic that we love visiting the US!
Back at the villa it was time for relaxation in the sun, and although it's very hot - about 95f - the sun isn't as fierce as I thought it would be. It doesn't feel as though it's a burning heat, probably because of the humidity.
We spent most of the rest of the day lazing about and in the evening headed for Chili's. The car park was already quite full but we were given a table straight away and the children ordered some bacon and cheese fries for an appetizer. I'd decided not to have a starter and I chose a chicken salad for my main course, while Keith pushed the boat out and went for a Ribeye steak with broccoli (I was envious) and mashed spuds.
When my salad arrived I was speechless as it would have fed two people easily. Mikey had chosen a burger while Sophie opted for chicken pasta and their dishes looked reasonable. I think the restaurant put their whole salad offering on my plate!
I gamely tucked in but I knew that even after 20 minutes of eating it still wouldn't look like I'd taken a bite, so I ate the chicken and left almost two thirds of the salad. I suppose I could have asked for a doggy bag but I knew I would have ended up throwing it all away in a couple of days!
After our meal, Keith suggested we head further up the road and see how far the centre of Bradenton was. By now it was dark but we went all the same and drove for about 15 minutes, spotting a lovely marina on the way. We crossed over a large bridge and then Keith said we should turn back. Crossing a three lane highway with cars coming at you is not my favourite thing to do, but I managed to do a U-turn at an intersection and we headed back on what I thought was the same road...only it wasn't!
Keith could barely see the map by now and I had visions of us driving around and around until dawn but luckily we found the road near to our villa and thankfully turned for home.
I was shattered by now and it was great to sit on the terrace in the sultry night air and enjoy a glass of our Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon, which we discovered, to our shock, was from Chile and not California after all!
Anyway, after Keith had dealt with it, we settled down and did a bit of quiet exploring as the kids were still asleep. Our villa is lovely - we have four bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open-plan living room/dining room/kitchen and a pool with a large covered terrace. We are in a very quiet residential area and the pool area looks over beautiful gardens on either side of us, one of which has an oak with Spanish Moss.
We will still be finding things well into the holiday and it won't be until the last day that we discover something vital we needed to know (the light switches are a particular problem!) but it's a lot of fun getting to know a new house, even if it is for just a couple of weeks.
As it grew lighter outside we sat on the terrace with a cup of coffee (bliss!) and then we unpacked the suitcases, showered and had breakfast. The plan was to do a bit of exploring and I had a look at Google Maps on my laptop as last night we didn't have a clue as to where we were. Mikey is desperate to go to a Chili's restaurant and I knew there was one nearby so we piled into the car and set off.
The area around here has a gridwork system of roads which I find very confusing for some reason. However, we drove along the same stretch of road we were on last night and found Chili's a bit further on. Getting back to the villa was very easy by taking a different route so once we'd found our bearings we headed for the Publix supermarket to do a big shop.
I love mooching about in foreign supermarkets and looking at all the different foods on offer but the others seemed desperate to get back to the pool. We still managed to spend a hefty amount on breakfast and lunch foods, wine, beer and essentials, though, and all our stuff was very kindly packed by a young lad who told us he really wanted to visit the UK. How ironic that we love visiting the US!
Back at the villa it was time for relaxation in the sun, and although it's very hot - about 95f - the sun isn't as fierce as I thought it would be. It doesn't feel as though it's a burning heat, probably because of the humidity.
We spent most of the rest of the day lazing about and in the evening headed for Chili's. The car park was already quite full but we were given a table straight away and the children ordered some bacon and cheese fries for an appetizer. I'd decided not to have a starter and I chose a chicken salad for my main course, while Keith pushed the boat out and went for a Ribeye steak with broccoli (I was envious) and mashed spuds.
When my salad arrived I was speechless as it would have fed two people easily. Mikey had chosen a burger while Sophie opted for chicken pasta and their dishes looked reasonable. I think the restaurant put their whole salad offering on my plate!
I gamely tucked in but I knew that even after 20 minutes of eating it still wouldn't look like I'd taken a bite, so I ate the chicken and left almost two thirds of the salad. I suppose I could have asked for a doggy bag but I knew I would have ended up throwing it all away in a couple of days!
After our meal, Keith suggested we head further up the road and see how far the centre of Bradenton was. By now it was dark but we went all the same and drove for about 15 minutes, spotting a lovely marina on the way. We crossed over a large bridge and then Keith said we should turn back. Crossing a three lane highway with cars coming at you is not my favourite thing to do, but I managed to do a U-turn at an intersection and we headed back on what I thought was the same road...only it wasn't!
Keith could barely see the map by now and I had visions of us driving around and around until dawn but luckily we found the road near to our villa and thankfully turned for home.
I was shattered by now and it was great to sit on the terrace in the sultry night air and enjoy a glass of our Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon, which we discovered, to our shock, was from Chile and not California after all!
Friday, 22 August 2014
Phew! It ain't 'alf hot!
Well, we're here and it's bloomin' HOT!
Today has been a marathon of a day but everything went smoothly without any mishaps or problems, thank goodness! We were up nice and early after a somewhat disturbed night (the less said about that the better...all four of us in a room is a recipe for disaster!) and headed off to the pre-booked Summer Special parking at 8am. I left my beloved Audi sitting in the queue looking all forlorn and we took the Shuttle bus back to the North terminal.
The airport was heaving and I was so glad we checked in last night as it made things so much easier this morning. Getting through Security wasn't too bad, although Keith had to go and have the full body scanner, probably because of his hip joint and Sophie's handbag was searched because of all her make-up.
The departure lounge was manic and so, so busy. Last year I booked us into a lounge but we just didn't have time this year to justify the cost so we eventually headed for a Frankie and Benny's restaurant where we had a great view of the airport runway. The children had a full English breakfast while Keith and I settled for scrambled eggs on toast and before we knew it, it was time to head for our gate. Before we got there, though, I bought a bottle of whisky and a bottle of vodka from Duty Free for just £20 for the two. At least Sophie can have a vodka and coke when we're at the villa!
Our Virgin Atlantic plane was sitting waiting for us and was called Ruby Tuesday. She looked very big! We haven't been on a 747 for a while so it was quite an experience to be on such a big plane. Our seats were right at the back and it wasn't too long before we were boarding and making ourselves comfortable for the almost nine hour flight to Orlando airport.
For me, the flight passed very quickly. I watched a film called In Secret based on Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, which was a bit dark but enjoyable and watched a lot of TV. I have to say the entertainment was excellent as you could choose from about ten films, numerous TV programmes, music and games.
They literally stuffed us with food as well! We were given a small bag of pretzels with a free drink and a menu. The choice was chilli con carne, chicken breast or veggie pasta, followed by a Gu pudding. There was also a small starter of salad with a spicy potato topping. Just before we landed they handed out wraps with crisps and a cake. All the drinks were free so I feel that Virgin definitely beat Thomson who we flew with last year.
We could feel the heat as we walked off the plane to the terminal and started our wait to go through Immigration. As we'd travelled to the US at least once since 2008 and had completed our ESTAs we were able to use the machines to complete our Immigration checks. We had to put our passports in the machine, have a photo taken and four fingerprints. After this we were issued with slips of paper and these were taken to another desk for verification. They took photos of the children again and took all their fingerprints. She then stamped our passports and we went through to get our luggage which was by itself on the carousel as we were, as usual, the last to go through!
We had yet another check and this time she wanted to see my passport specifically...I braced myself for more questioning, but she just looked at me and smiled and sent us on our way! Thank goodness! I think that problem I had a few years back at Sanford will stay with me whenever I visit the US!
We hauled our luggage onto the monorail and went down a floor to the Alamo desk where we picked up the paperwork for our car. As we'd pre-booked everything, including a full tank of fuel and Keith as an extra driver (yippeee!), we were processed very quickly and out of the airport to the multi-storey car-park to get our vehicle.
We chose a large white Hyundai Sonata and our luggage fitted easily into the boot. I gingerly drove out of the car-park, we had our documents checked by a Keanu Reeves look-alike in the booth, and that was it...out into the Florida sunshine!
The Keanu Reeves look-alike told us to head for the 528 west and then we would pick up the I-4 which we needed to stay on almost until we reached Tampa. The sky looked a bit threatening with towering banks of cloud but it all added to the excitement. The road was busy but it was all flowing really well and before long we recognised where we were from previous trips.
Very soon, we were passing the exit for Highlands Reserve and which we knew so well, but this time we drove on. I didn't feel sad that we weren't doing the parks this year as we were looking forward to exploring the Gulf Coast and having some relaxation.
We had a brief heavy shower and saw a lot of lightening in the distance. Occasionally we saw signs for "Extreme Weather Alert" which was exciting! This was just the sort of sky I was looking forward to, being a bit of a cloud freak!
Before we reached Tampa we turned off onto the I-75 and headed south towards Bradenton. When we were only about 5 miles from the office where we had to pick up the address of our villa, we came across a really bad accident on the other carriageway. The police had closed the road completely and when we turned off the traffic queuing because of the accident was horrendous. We found the deserted office very easily (I'd actually Google Street-viewed the location from home!), opened the lock-box and finally discovered the location of our villa. It certainly wasn't where I thought it would be!
We had to go back onto the I-75 to the next junction and it was just a few miles along a busy road where we turned right. From here we drove along a much quieter residential road with estates branching off to the left and right. Our estate was called Sabal Harbour and we were on one of the roads leading off the main thoroughfare.
By now it was about 7.30pm and the sky looked very stormy indeed! We dumped our luggage, explored the villa quickly and then headed out to get something to eat. I turned right out of the estate but we just headed deeper into very rural countryside, with occasional houses dotted about, lakes, woods and quiet roads. The area was very beautiful, though.
We re-traced our steps and went back to the main road where I turned right again, but we drove on for quite a few miles without seeing anything promising. Opposite the turn for our road was a large retail complex with a Publix supermarket and a place called Beef O'Brady's, but Sophie dismissed this as just a fast-food takeway place...
We drove on and on until we decided to turn around again and we headed back to the crossroads. I turned right again but this road just took us past more estates of villas so we turned around yet again and decided to look at Beef O'Brady's and see if we could get a takeway and go back to the villa. By now, we were all very tired especially as it was about 2am UK time!
Beef O'Brady's turned out to be a great restaurant serving a huge range of dishes, with sports screens on the walls showing Baseball and NASCAR racing. Keith ordered himself a large beer from the very friendly waitress while the rest of us were content to have soft drinks. We shared some chicken tenders and chips covered in bacon and cheese (which on hindsight, we didn't really need) and then had our main courses. Keith chose ribs, I had shrimp, Mikey had an OMG! burger while Sophie went for her favourite, Philly Cheese steak.
I left a lot of my curly fries and I think I'm going to choose salads for my main course as I just won't want to eat fried food every night! After our meal we paid the bill and popped next door to Publix which was on the verge of closing. We bought breakfast foods, water and a bottle of Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon!
Back at the villa, we had a small glass of wine (I think I deserved it!) and then went thankfully to bed! What a day!
Today has been a marathon of a day but everything went smoothly without any mishaps or problems, thank goodness! We were up nice and early after a somewhat disturbed night (the less said about that the better...all four of us in a room is a recipe for disaster!) and headed off to the pre-booked Summer Special parking at 8am. I left my beloved Audi sitting in the queue looking all forlorn and we took the Shuttle bus back to the North terminal.
The airport was heaving and I was so glad we checked in last night as it made things so much easier this morning. Getting through Security wasn't too bad, although Keith had to go and have the full body scanner, probably because of his hip joint and Sophie's handbag was searched because of all her make-up.
The departure lounge was manic and so, so busy. Last year I booked us into a lounge but we just didn't have time this year to justify the cost so we eventually headed for a Frankie and Benny's restaurant where we had a great view of the airport runway. The children had a full English breakfast while Keith and I settled for scrambled eggs on toast and before we knew it, it was time to head for our gate. Before we got there, though, I bought a bottle of whisky and a bottle of vodka from Duty Free for just £20 for the two. At least Sophie can have a vodka and coke when we're at the villa!
Our Virgin Atlantic plane was sitting waiting for us and was called Ruby Tuesday. She looked very big! We haven't been on a 747 for a while so it was quite an experience to be on such a big plane. Our seats were right at the back and it wasn't too long before we were boarding and making ourselves comfortable for the almost nine hour flight to Orlando airport.
For me, the flight passed very quickly. I watched a film called In Secret based on Emile Zola's Therese Raquin, which was a bit dark but enjoyable and watched a lot of TV. I have to say the entertainment was excellent as you could choose from about ten films, numerous TV programmes, music and games.
They literally stuffed us with food as well! We were given a small bag of pretzels with a free drink and a menu. The choice was chilli con carne, chicken breast or veggie pasta, followed by a Gu pudding. There was also a small starter of salad with a spicy potato topping. Just before we landed they handed out wraps with crisps and a cake. All the drinks were free so I feel that Virgin definitely beat Thomson who we flew with last year.
We could feel the heat as we walked off the plane to the terminal and started our wait to go through Immigration. As we'd travelled to the US at least once since 2008 and had completed our ESTAs we were able to use the machines to complete our Immigration checks. We had to put our passports in the machine, have a photo taken and four fingerprints. After this we were issued with slips of paper and these were taken to another desk for verification. They took photos of the children again and took all their fingerprints. She then stamped our passports and we went through to get our luggage which was by itself on the carousel as we were, as usual, the last to go through!
We had yet another check and this time she wanted to see my passport specifically...I braced myself for more questioning, but she just looked at me and smiled and sent us on our way! Thank goodness! I think that problem I had a few years back at Sanford will stay with me whenever I visit the US!
We hauled our luggage onto the monorail and went down a floor to the Alamo desk where we picked up the paperwork for our car. As we'd pre-booked everything, including a full tank of fuel and Keith as an extra driver (yippeee!), we were processed very quickly and out of the airport to the multi-storey car-park to get our vehicle.
We chose a large white Hyundai Sonata and our luggage fitted easily into the boot. I gingerly drove out of the car-park, we had our documents checked by a Keanu Reeves look-alike in the booth, and that was it...out into the Florida sunshine!
The Keanu Reeves look-alike told us to head for the 528 west and then we would pick up the I-4 which we needed to stay on almost until we reached Tampa. The sky looked a bit threatening with towering banks of cloud but it all added to the excitement. The road was busy but it was all flowing really well and before long we recognised where we were from previous trips.
Very soon, we were passing the exit for Highlands Reserve and which we knew so well, but this time we drove on. I didn't feel sad that we weren't doing the parks this year as we were looking forward to exploring the Gulf Coast and having some relaxation.
We had a brief heavy shower and saw a lot of lightening in the distance. Occasionally we saw signs for "Extreme Weather Alert" which was exciting! This was just the sort of sky I was looking forward to, being a bit of a cloud freak!
Before we reached Tampa we turned off onto the I-75 and headed south towards Bradenton. When we were only about 5 miles from the office where we had to pick up the address of our villa, we came across a really bad accident on the other carriageway. The police had closed the road completely and when we turned off the traffic queuing because of the accident was horrendous. We found the deserted office very easily (I'd actually Google Street-viewed the location from home!), opened the lock-box and finally discovered the location of our villa. It certainly wasn't where I thought it would be!
We had to go back onto the I-75 to the next junction and it was just a few miles along a busy road where we turned right. From here we drove along a much quieter residential road with estates branching off to the left and right. Our estate was called Sabal Harbour and we were on one of the roads leading off the main thoroughfare.
By now it was about 7.30pm and the sky looked very stormy indeed! We dumped our luggage, explored the villa quickly and then headed out to get something to eat. I turned right out of the estate but we just headed deeper into very rural countryside, with occasional houses dotted about, lakes, woods and quiet roads. The area was very beautiful, though.
We re-traced our steps and went back to the main road where I turned right again, but we drove on for quite a few miles without seeing anything promising. Opposite the turn for our road was a large retail complex with a Publix supermarket and a place called Beef O'Brady's, but Sophie dismissed this as just a fast-food takeway place...
We drove on and on until we decided to turn around again and we headed back to the crossroads. I turned right again but this road just took us past more estates of villas so we turned around yet again and decided to look at Beef O'Brady's and see if we could get a takeway and go back to the villa. By now, we were all very tired especially as it was about 2am UK time!
Beef O'Brady's turned out to be a great restaurant serving a huge range of dishes, with sports screens on the walls showing Baseball and NASCAR racing. Keith ordered himself a large beer from the very friendly waitress while the rest of us were content to have soft drinks. We shared some chicken tenders and chips covered in bacon and cheese (which on hindsight, we didn't really need) and then had our main courses. Keith chose ribs, I had shrimp, Mikey had an OMG! burger while Sophie went for her favourite, Philly Cheese steak.
I left a lot of my curly fries and I think I'm going to choose salads for my main course as I just won't want to eat fried food every night! After our meal we paid the bill and popped next door to Publix which was on the verge of closing. We bought breakfast foods, water and a bottle of Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvignon!
Back at the villa, we had a small glass of wine (I think I deserved it!) and then went thankfully to bed! What a day!
Thursday, 21 August 2014
The Fifth bag...
Our journey to Gatwick was painfully slow, in fact we crawled down virtually the whole length of the M1 and the M25 and arrived at the Premier Inn at about 3pm. It didn't matter as we had plenty of time and couldn't have checked in before 2pm anyway! I'm just glad that we were were staying overnight and not catching a flight today!
After dumping our hand luggage bags in the room, we headed over to the South Terminal to get our bearings. It was a shortish walk to the North Terminal and we could easily have stayed at the Premier Inn we used last year but it didn't matter. Our hotel was fine and had a restaurant and a bar and a huge car park so we were happy.
Once at the South Terminal, we found the Virgin Twilight Check-in desk and then headed to Costa Coffee for a much needed refreshment! I shared a sandwich and a muffin with Sophie and we took Mikey a sandwich as he'd opted to stay in the room (he was plugged into his iPod!).
We had about 45 minutes to kill before we all trooped back over to the airport and once again, took the Monorail to our terminal. It was very busy with a lot of people hurrying about and I braced myself for more crowds tomorrow as a Bank Holiday weekend is looming.
We found a queue of people at the Twilight Check-in and waited about half an hour until it was our turn. I'd packed five bags, the fifth being a small holdall that I'd used for our toiletries and shoes. It weighed about 8 kilos and when he asked how many bags I was checking in and I told him, he asked if we wanted to pay for the extra bag! Oh...I thought that you could check in more bags if the overall weight allowance was OK, but it seems not! It would cost £65 to put the bag through so we hurriedly emptied it of all the shampoos and stuff and shoved them into Sophie's already heavy suitcase! I then started worrying that all the toiletries would explode and cover all Sophie's clothes in a gooey mess!
All our other suitcases were well under the 23kg allowance so with that completed and a few laughs with the very good-natured check-in man, we scurried back over to the hotel for a much needed drink!
In our absence, the hotel had filled up considerably and the bar and restaurant were full of families and couples eating and drinking and making merry before their holidays. We'd booked a table for 8pm and enjoyed a great meal in the Thyme restaurant with a few more drinks (was the last time Sophie could legitimately have an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant on this holiday) and then retired to bed at around 10pm. Tomorrow will be a long day!
After dumping our hand luggage bags in the room, we headed over to the South Terminal to get our bearings. It was a shortish walk to the North Terminal and we could easily have stayed at the Premier Inn we used last year but it didn't matter. Our hotel was fine and had a restaurant and a bar and a huge car park so we were happy.
Once at the South Terminal, we found the Virgin Twilight Check-in desk and then headed to Costa Coffee for a much needed refreshment! I shared a sandwich and a muffin with Sophie and we took Mikey a sandwich as he'd opted to stay in the room (he was plugged into his iPod!).
We had about 45 minutes to kill before we all trooped back over to the airport and once again, took the Monorail to our terminal. It was very busy with a lot of people hurrying about and I braced myself for more crowds tomorrow as a Bank Holiday weekend is looming.
We found a queue of people at the Twilight Check-in and waited about half an hour until it was our turn. I'd packed five bags, the fifth being a small holdall that I'd used for our toiletries and shoes. It weighed about 8 kilos and when he asked how many bags I was checking in and I told him, he asked if we wanted to pay for the extra bag! Oh...I thought that you could check in more bags if the overall weight allowance was OK, but it seems not! It would cost £65 to put the bag through so we hurriedly emptied it of all the shampoos and stuff and shoved them into Sophie's already heavy suitcase! I then started worrying that all the toiletries would explode and cover all Sophie's clothes in a gooey mess!
All our other suitcases were well under the 23kg allowance so with that completed and a few laughs with the very good-natured check-in man, we scurried back over to the hotel for a much needed drink!
In our absence, the hotel had filled up considerably and the bar and restaurant were full of families and couples eating and drinking and making merry before their holidays. We'd booked a table for 8pm and enjoyed a great meal in the Thyme restaurant with a few more drinks (was the last time Sophie could legitimately have an alcoholic beverage in a restaurant on this holiday) and then retired to bed at around 10pm. Tomorrow will be a long day!
Off to the airport!
Everything is (mostly!) packed, the house isn't in as much uproar as I imagined it would be and we're setting off at lunchtime for Gatwick airport.
I'm taking the laptop and I'm pretty sure our villa has wifi, so I will be updating every day. Tonight we're staying at the Premier Inn at Gatwick and our flight is tomorrow morning.
Hopefully, when I write this again we will be in hot and sunny Florida!
I'm taking the laptop and I'm pretty sure our villa has wifi, so I will be updating every day. Tonight we're staying at the Premier Inn at Gatwick and our flight is tomorrow morning.
Hopefully, when I write this again we will be in hot and sunny Florida!
Wednesday, 20 August 2014
A helping hand!
It's been another busy day and I was up early ironing all of Mikey's clothes while Keith spent the morning at the hospital doing his research thingy. Last night Keith had put on multiple washes so I faced a large pile of tee-shirts and shirts that needed pressing. His army stuff can wait until we get back!
Late morning we called in to see Mum and Dad at work to help them with a little problem and then we popped into Tesco to buy lunch and dinner for tonight. As it was a Wednesday and it's what we normally do, it seemed only right! I'm just hoping that's the last time I have to go to that particular Tesco in a while!
When we got home, to my delight, I discovered that Sophie had hoovered downstairs, put all my bedding back on my bed and packed Mikey's suitcase! It meant that we could indulge in a little Desperate Housewives after lunch before Keith and I embarked on a quick walk over the fields later in the afternoon.
After our breezy walk we popped to the pub for a quick drink, mainly to talk about plans for tomorrow and to make sure we had both packed everything we needed. It was very pleasant as usual and it was lovely to sit and talk about the forthcoming holiday. Sometimes this can be the best bit!
Late morning we called in to see Mum and Dad at work to help them with a little problem and then we popped into Tesco to buy lunch and dinner for tonight. As it was a Wednesday and it's what we normally do, it seemed only right! I'm just hoping that's the last time I have to go to that particular Tesco in a while!
When we got home, to my delight, I discovered that Sophie had hoovered downstairs, put all my bedding back on my bed and packed Mikey's suitcase! It meant that we could indulge in a little Desperate Housewives after lunch before Keith and I embarked on a quick walk over the fields later in the afternoon.
After our breezy walk we popped to the pub for a quick drink, mainly to talk about plans for tomorrow and to make sure we had both packed everything we needed. It was very pleasant as usual and it was lovely to sit and talk about the forthcoming holiday. Sometimes this can be the best bit!
Tuesday, 19 August 2014
A welcome home and more Birthday celebrations.
Today has been a busy day! I was hoping upon hope that Sophie wouldn't be called into work, and luckily she wasn't. It meant that I could get on with cleaning the upstairs of the house and packing our suitcases which took up most of the morning.
Keith and I also sorted all the paperwork out for the holiday and I remembered, with some fondness, of when travel companies would post out tickets about six weeks before you travelled. Now, we have reams and reams of emails and e-tickets which we have to print off ourselves! Travelling to the US is not the easiest journey in the world, either, with the ESTA we have to complete, the Advanced Passenger Information and the slight worry I always have now of being questioned by Immigration again!
We gathered up all the paperwork (airport hotel booking, car hire confirmation, travel insurance documents) and made sure they were all stowed safely in the hand luggage. I dreaded forgetting anything and to be honest I think I'll only truly be able to relax when we've arrived at our holiday home!
In the afternoon, Sophie managed to get an appointment to have her nails done so I drove her there and sat in the salon while she was being seen to. The salon was having the large front windows at the front of the shop replaced so that provided an hour's entertainment!
Back at home with most things done that needed to be completed, we relaxed for a couple of hours before Mikey texted me to say he was home. We raced off to Northampton in the rush hour traffic and picked him before speeding back home so I could get ready to go and celebrate my friend Lynda's 60th Birthday in the evening.
Keith drove me to her house and we had a couple of glasses of Champagne before making our way to the Oriental Paradise restaurant in Billing, which is only five minutes away. There were eight of us celebrating in total and we had a lovely time. We all ate far too much and had a few glasses of wine and Lynda enjoyed herself immensely! At the end of the meal we had a beautiful cake in the shape of 60 that Lynda's friend Norma had made for her. Delicious!
Keith and I also sorted all the paperwork out for the holiday and I remembered, with some fondness, of when travel companies would post out tickets about six weeks before you travelled. Now, we have reams and reams of emails and e-tickets which we have to print off ourselves! Travelling to the US is not the easiest journey in the world, either, with the ESTA we have to complete, the Advanced Passenger Information and the slight worry I always have now of being questioned by Immigration again!
We gathered up all the paperwork (airport hotel booking, car hire confirmation, travel insurance documents) and made sure they were all stowed safely in the hand luggage. I dreaded forgetting anything and to be honest I think I'll only truly be able to relax when we've arrived at our holiday home!
In the afternoon, Sophie managed to get an appointment to have her nails done so I drove her there and sat in the salon while she was being seen to. The salon was having the large front windows at the front of the shop replaced so that provided an hour's entertainment!
Back at home with most things done that needed to be completed, we relaxed for a couple of hours before Mikey texted me to say he was home. We raced off to Northampton in the rush hour traffic and picked him before speeding back home so I could get ready to go and celebrate my friend Lynda's 60th Birthday in the evening.
Keith drove me to her house and we had a couple of glasses of Champagne before making our way to the Oriental Paradise restaurant in Billing, which is only five minutes away. There were eight of us celebrating in total and we had a lovely time. We all ate far too much and had a few glasses of wine and Lynda enjoyed herself immensely! At the end of the meal we had a beautiful cake in the shape of 60 that Lynda's friend Norma had made for her. Delicious!
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| The Birthday girl and Andrea |
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