Is it August yet?

This blog would be a painful place if it were merely to host an ever-increasing level of moaniness between now and August, about how we aren’t going away.  It is indeed going to be that, but I feel it only right and proper to tell you.

With that disclosure done, we go on.  Oh arse, that just reminds me of Reflections of Earth.

That is the problem when you have spent every holiday since 1999 in WDW.  To illustrate that point, whilst lay in bed this morning I also calculated that over the past eleven years or so, we have spent about 26 weeks in Florida.  That’s more than half a year!  We are practically residents.  No wonder we are pining for home.

What could be similarly boring in a blog, is blogging about what you blogged about before.  So we’ll do some of that too.

Last week’s blog (the doughnut burger experience) broke a few records in terms of readers.  I was also really pleased to have the Teak Neighbourhood Grill spot it, and retweet it out to their followers and post it on their Facebook page.

How strange must they think we are that some seven or eight months after eating a burger in a bar in Orlando, we get together to recreate it, and then some idiot writes it all down!!

I got all sorts of reactions from all sorts of folks.  People I never knew read my blog got in touch to express delight, revulsion and incredulity in fairly equal measure.  As they say different strokes for different folks and all that.

So onto this week.  As many of you will already be aware, Louise passed her first set of nursing exams this week.  She was, as ever, convinced she wouldn’t, but in the end scored an impressively high mark.  Her current placement is proving to be testing (to put it politely) but hopefully the positive news about her exam will gird her loins enough to get through it, and then enjoy the rest of the course.  After this placement it is one year down, and two to go.

Whether we go to WDW or not any time soon, I am also planning our longer term trips (I am truly talented in this way, and I can have multiple trips percolating all at the same time), once she has qualified.

Not only will she earn more than she does now, but also both the girls will be out of full-time education, and we shall no longer be tied to the extortionate and sadistic mid summer flight prices.  My heart is already leaping at the prospect of securing flights in the quieter periods of the year.

It will be like travelling back in time to when we first started going, and I sometimes do flight searches now for those off-peak times just to see some results come up that don’t start with a 7 or higher!  It is both torture and joy combined.

Enough WDW whining I think.

We are getting used to Louise working shifts, including weekends.  Yesterday it was just the girls and I, so I suppose that more or less made me “in charge”.  We managed OK, and were even able to work the washer and attempt some rudimentary cleaning!

Today has been one of those lazy days, with us not getting out of bed till late morning.  A delicious sausage and egg sandwich to start the day was then followed by, well, not a right lot really.  I took Emily out for more driving, and she is really improving.

From the initial terror I felt sat in the passenger seat, I am now relatively relaxed when she is driving.  Her overall control of the car is fine, and she can in fact actually drive now.  The real work to do is around how to park, reverse and generally manoeuvre the thing at slow speed in small spaces.

Whether it is the heart wrenching fear and angst of their first day at nursery, their terrifying start at secondary school or them handling half a ton of metal at high-speed, they are just one long set of woe, worry and mietheration.  The trick is recognising that this is all part of that often quoted Circle of Life, and trying to enjoy the ride, rather than shouting out STOP as she brings the car to halt seven inches short of that lamp-post as she parks the car up back at home.  It is also important to recognise and appreciate that they are worth it too.

I’ll try harder next time, but I’m not that hopeful.

I shall leave you with a new picture of Oli, taken by Emily.  For no other reason than I love it….

Till the next time….