We are nearing the end folks. I committed to getting two days done this weekend and I did. Eleven and twelve are in the can (barring grammar corrections and tidying), and I only have one more full theme park day to do in Epcot. The last day of travelling is always a brief blur of angst, anger and airline food so it shouldn’t take long.
With a following wind, of which I have an endless supply we could be ready to roll in a week or two. So I am hoping not to drag out this tedious teaser campaign much longer and that is something we shall all be grateful for.
Day Eleven was a long one, as it covered probably the most memorable day of the trip as we did the Keys to the Kingdom tour and Be Our Guest. Day Twelve gave some balance as it was a rest day and so was quite brief. It ended as most of our rest days do, arriving home from a theme park at almost midnight!
Writing up these last few days is bitter-sweet. Going back there, on paper at least, is glorious, but the last few days of any trip are always a series of goodbyes as we visit parks for the final time, never knowing when we might return.
Yes, I know I always say we are not going next year. It is a tradition. All I can say is that I always believe that when I say it, and this year more than most I cannot see a way in which we will be booking again.
Work just gets busier, which in one way is good, but in another bad, as it interrupts my trippie time. The good element is that it shows that what I’m up to is going OK, and folks want more of it. Did I tell you I was a gigolo these days?
It must be how I am wired, but even when things are going well, the praise is flowing, and I’m being asked to do more, I still have this unshakable feeling that I am about to be found out at any moment. I shall retire with that feeling intact I am sure.
Louise is finishing her latest placement in A&E in style with a series of twelve-hour night shifts. This is undoubtedly hard work. Pretty much all she is doing is going to work of an evening, completing multiple hours of gruesome tasks and then coming home and snatching a few hours kip.
We will both be very glad when she finishes on Monday morning and returns to Uni until January. The student life of this being a nurse business is much easier than actually doing the nursing bit. By Monday evening, her hair will be in dreadlocks and she’ll be listening to The Smiths in a baggy jumper. Bloody students.
At least when Louise is working nights and sleeping during the day it puts an immediate end to any DIY that I may have to do. Anyone making any sound in our house at times such as these shall be subject to one of Louise’s nasty stares.
With Louise out at work last night and Rebecca at her boyfriend’s for a party, Emily got her way with the remote and we watched the X Factor. It is interesting, like rubber necking at a crash on the motorway, to see this thing wriggle and squirm as it dies a long painful death.
The contestants this year seem to be competing in a forgettability contest that makes me yearn for Jedward. The desperate tweaks to the format, and the final desperate attempts to make the final few million from it are so obvious it is an embarrassment.
Samsung devices everywhere, you know because all these singers just happened to be carrying the latest devices all from the same manufacturer, and the entire show now being constructed as a device to support the adverts that come up every six minutes. An 80’s night? Really. Based on what rationale?
Well I spotted a few, and that was all the 80s compilation albums being pushed in the breaks. The whole thing stinks of the tail wagging the dog, and I find it insulting.
As a form of antidote, straight after this shambles Jonathan Ross interviewed Tom Hanks. He is the absolute definition of class, talent, star quality and being a down right nice bloke. Long may he continue, and if Emily gets any more excited about watching Saving Mr Banks, she might not make it until its release.
Of course Mr Hanks has a head start for us, having voiced Woody, and been a huge part of the girls childhoods, and now about to play Walt Disney, he would have to do something really bad to make us not like him. Like be Simon Cowell.
Damn it, just one live X Factor show and it has drawn a rant from me already. Never mind, I feel better for it even if you don’t.
Till the next time….
Mkingdon's Blog 
Tom Hanks for president.
Best film ever, Forrest Gump. No one could have played that part better than our Tom ❤
I watched Tom Hanks at a friends house last night and we all commented that we didn’t know anyone that dislikes Tom….he’s just a thoroughly likeable fella.
You know, I think you secretly love X-Factor – he doth protest too much and all that. I agree about Tom Hanks – he appears a thoroughly nice chappy all around. Loved the comments he made about spoiling his grandkids “Oh, it’s hilarious, because you can just throw them around like bean bags. It’s great, they love it. It’s fantastic.
“They live on the other side of town and it takes forever to get over there sometimes but I swear we’re just going to rush by and steal them out of the house one day so we can keep them and spoil them to the point of no return.” Bless. I’m a little bit in love with Tom Hanks now. Even if my of my least favourite movies is Big (shock horror).
Glad you managed to heave yourself out of bed at the ridiculous time of 9.25 (some of us had been up for hours…… Japanese grand prix qualifying and all that, zzzzzzz).