Author: mkingdon

What is an mkingdon? Well, it is a long story, but a simple one. I have an addiction to Walt Disney World and Florida, and have done little else but holiday there for the past ten years. Worse than that, I have written about it too,in the form of long and detailed trip reports mainly on The Dibb. Upon joining that site I had to choose a username. I chose mkingdom, with the obvious relation to the Magic Kingdom. However, I am cursed with less than perfect typing skills, and I actually entered mkingdon. So it all started there really, and people have come to know me as that, so I’ve sort of adopted it as my online identity. Behind the name is a late thirties Boltonian with two girls, and Louise, a wife. I work in IT/Web stuff, and endure it to the best of my ability. You can find me in various places online. You should follow me on Twitter, and I am facebooked up too.

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Eleven 12th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025


I was inexplicably and annoyingly awake early again. We felt the need for a proper breakfast and after wandering to the relevant building we had a 10 minute wait for a table. I went for a random bowl of fruits and museli type things and some toast.


Our usual beds at the beach had gone. I decided against violence and let them stay on them and we took the next set of beds instead.


From there we could stare at them in an intimidating manner. After some resting we both walked up the beach but we couldn’t get too far as the seaweed was pretty bad in places. Once again we were thankful for our resorts efforts.

Once back at our beds I finished my third book of the trip and then we watched the volleyball, both to admire the ever increasing levels of competitiveness and to make sure any rogue balls did not hit us which has to be an ambition in most situations.

We went in the pool again for a bit and we had a Baby Guinness each.


We stayed on the beach till 6. We weren’t out till 8 and there was no wait for a table at the
Asian restaurant.

We went crazy tonight and ordered two starters as the portions looked smallish. I had a Beer. The food here was excellent and it turned into our favourite of the trip.


After eating we headed to the theatre for a The Voice competition. This had the a big chance of being awful but it was very good fun.


After the show we walked to the lobby bar where some live music was happening. We took a seat across from a young couple who turned out to be two lovely Germans and we chatted with them for a good while, humbled by their mastery of the English language. They were recently engaged and proved to be lovely company over a few drinks.


We were in bed at Midnight.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Ten 11th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025


A light breakfast of coffee and a pastry around 9am after a decent sleep. Guess what? We went to the beach again. On the way we nipped to the onsite shop as we had run out of toothpaste. I say we, but such matters are the sole responsibility of Louise and she had woefully under stocked for the trip in this area.

You can only imagine how we laughed when the chap at the till asked us for $18. Yep we paid £15 for a toothpaste. For that money I was expecting new teeth to start growing.


Just to mix things up today we shared a club sandwich for lunch after some lazing.


More beach ensued. Feeling guilty that we had not made use of all the food options on offer yet I went and got some meat from the poolside barbecue and a pizza from the pizza oven. The pizza was lovely but the meat was a bit fatty for me.

Whilst waiting for the pizza to be ready this chap was sunbathing and eating pizza.


After lots more beaching we wandered back to the room around 6 followed by our usual routine to get ready. Have I mentioned how much we loved the turndown service. We would get stupidly excited to get back to the room once it had been done.


Out at 7.30. Bordeaux tonight and we had a twenty minute wait so we got a drink in lobby.

We actually waited 40 minutes so there were two drinks.


We had our bouches amused before Cauliflower and onion soup.

Lamb for me and chicken wellington for Louise.


Once done we headed to the theatre for an acrobat show. There was a lot of impressive dangling from silks.


With that done we headed back to the bar for one more. It was incredibly hot and humid tonight so we were glad to get back to the room and bed at 10.45 for the air con.

Till the next time…..

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Nine 10th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025


I was inexplicably awake at 5.30!! With seemingly no prospect of more sleep I lazed and scrolled until a more civilised hour.


One we were ready we headed to the Coffee shop for brekkie around 9. We encountered
two iguanas on the way. Latte and cinnamon roll and blueberry muffin. That was our breakfast order not the Iguana’s names.


You will be shocked to hear we went to the beach. The morning passed without incident until we shared a club sandwich for lunch.


More beach until we moved to the pool in the late afternoon. We had a couple of drinks in the pool before, you guessed it, returning to the Beach.


We were back in the room around 5.30 for our usual CNN and after sun session. Usual showers and getting ready etc.


We were out at 7.15 and we headed to the main pool for tonight’s Asado show.

It was a bit slow to start and it seemed to keep stopping but it picked up towards the end.


Once it was done we did the short stroll to the beach as we clearly hadn’t spent enough time there. The moon and the decor looked lovely.


It was time for food so we wandered to Portofino. We passed the half hour wait at the lobby bar.


Artichoke soup and Caprese.


Followed by Pappadelle and pizza.

Again it was all excellent.

Bed at 10.30 for a bit of TV before sleep.

Till the next time…..

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Eight 9th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025, Uncategorized


We woke hungry so breakfast was required but not before saying hello to the locals.


We tried some beds at the main pool just to add some variety and we got the last two beds. However we did not stay long. There was no breeze and we just accepted that we preferred the beach and moved to our usual beach spot.


We rested all morning and had no need for lunch. We did have a few drinks though. There was some reading and I paddled in the sea. These extremes sport holidays are exciting aren’t they?


Around 3pm we could see storm clouds heading our way. I checked my weather radar app and it said we had about fifteen minutes before it got to us. It was five.

We quickly packed up and headed for the room. We were mildly concerned that a group of swimmers out on a turtle spotting trip were left out in the water.


We got rained on a bit on the walk back until we reached cover and our room.


We sat on our covered patio watching the rain and listening to our yank neighbour talk to their Brit neighbours. We chuckled as our US friend told their Brit friends all about the Beatles, the UK and at one point he even tried a Scouse accent. Emily’s scouse boyfriend Mikey felt a disturbance in the force at that exact moment.


Once the rain passed we went for a swim in our pool and then started to get ready. We were out by 7 and headed for Akumart which is a weekly craft fair at the resort.


The food was BBQ style and very varied.

There were stalls of local fares and food.

After eating we browsed the stalls and inexplicably spent a fortune on two fridge magnets and a carved wooden stingray. The drinks must have been strong.

We walked back to the lobby bar and had some drinks whilst listening to an excellent singer.


Apologies for the bar staff being in the way for some of this video but it is worth watching the whole thing. She was excellent.

Bed at 11.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Seven 8th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025

I had a week off last week as it was my birthday and the day got away from me. What do you mean you didn’t notice?

Than I returned to write today up and my notes are quite sparse and I didn’t take any photos during the day. Can you tell I had little to no intention of writing about this trip.

Anyway, I’ve started it now so we plough on.


We ventured to the proper buffet breakfast but I only had toast. After a later start and a sit down brekkie we got to the beach around 10.30. Then we did absolutely nothing of note but don’t take that as a negative.


There were two more sessions of competitive volleyball and at some point Louise had a stroll up the beach. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed doing literally nothing all day on this trip.


We were back at the room at 5.30. The usual ritual of watching the news, having showers and a relax in my resort robe ensued.


Out at 7.30 and we started with a drink at the lobby bar.


There was a show at the theatre at 8 so we headed there deciding to eat later. I understand that a five piece Mexican Beatles Tribute might sound weird but we loved it.


We chose the Seaside restaurant for dinner. It was pretty empty being later now and we sat at a table at the edge of the restaurant and spotted raccoons wandering about again. They are very cute.

Obviously feeding them would be stupid but as we saw the staff throwing them some bread we did too and then of course it wouldn’t leave us alone.

We didn’t mind.


The food was great too.

I opted for steak and it was massive.

I couldn’t finish it and threw a couple of pieces to our new friend. Eventually he jumped up and the wall at the side of me and stared at me. Then, maintaining eye contact, his very human hand reached across the table and slowly dragged the steak from my plate and ran off into the bushes.

I was delighted to be honest. I couldn’t eat it and I was very happy it would go to a good cause. It made our night.

Full and tired we walked back to the room, transformed into a mood lit delight by our turndown service and went to be at 10.30.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Six 7th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025


A later start today with us not getting to the beach till 10.30ish after the usual coffee and Danish for breakfast.

There was lots of reading and watching seaweed removal. To give them their credit our resort did all they could to move the seaweed out of the way. It’s a seasonal issue and beyond their control but they had a crew of men and trucks shifting it.

No lunch today as we just didn’t feel hungry enough after a late breakfast and we wanted to save ourselves for dinner. Our preference for the beach was justified again today with a lovely breeze making the silly temperature bearable.


Mid afternoon and I walked up the beach. The seaweed situation further up was pretty grim to be honest which increased my appreciation for our resort’s efforts.


After some more resting we went back to the room at 5.30. Showers. We both were nursing a fine collection of bites by now. Itchy was the main symptom. Somehow we would survive these horrors.


Out at 7.30 and we went to the main pool. Tonight was the Decades show and that was the glorious Starwberry Margarita with Tajin.

The buffet on offer was ok but we definitely preferred the restaurant food on offer.


I included that photo to show even the best photographers like me take a bad one.

The show was as you may have guessed a musical journey through the decades. We stayed till 9 and then walked to the lobby bar. We managed a couple more drinks before tiredness took over. We decided against going to the theatre show that was starting soon and instead went to bed at 10.30.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Five 6th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025


I struck out solo leaving Louise in bed and got myself a coffee and a muffin and then secured beds by main pool. It was busy and the pickings were slim.


Louise didn’t know where I was so went to our usual spot on the beach and messaged me. I joined her there as there was zero breeze by the pool and we stayed on the beach every day from here on in.


Volleyball happened with the male competitiveness growing. We were in mild danger of stray balls a few times which is never nice.


Lunch time came around and we shared a club sandwich and chips. It was delicious.


I read for most of the afternoon and volleyball and ice cream happened again. We stayed on the beach till 6.


This little chap hung around with us all day.

After showers etc we were out around 8. There was a half hour wait for a table at The Patio which was the Mexican restaurant. We waited with a drink in the sports bar. In there were the most scouse family on the planet. The bar staff did a better job than us of understanding them.


I had Tortilla soup and the beef.


Pork belly and lamb for Louise.


We went a bit mad and ordered 2 tequila shots from the premium tequila trolley. Louise assured me it was fanstastic. Having never had tequila before I couldn’t comment.


Once we’d eaten we wandered to the theatre but there was no show tonight. Back to the lobby bar instead for drinks. Bed at 11.30.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Four 5th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025

A more civilised awakening time today thankfully. I left Louise in the room and made the effort to secure us some beds around a pool as we fancied a change from the beach today. I took the opportunity to do a full resort stroll too.


It took me a long while to choose two beds that might give Louise the sun and me the shade and they turned out to be more in Louise’s favour.

This was the quiet pool.

We lazed and spent a good amount of time in the water as the sun was pretty brutal.

We had a raccoon sighting which would be a common occurrence.


We had a drink or two and then Lunch by the pool. Nachos and burrito.



The next beds to us which had been empty yet reserved all day had a lovely couple from California arrive. We chatted for a bit. They asked what “Europe” thought of what was happening in the US so we gave them our view and explained why we were in Mexico and not Orlando. They explained that despite being US citizens from birth they now felt the need to carry their passports everywhere as they were not white. That bit hit home.

At some point the Spa folks came round touting for business. We declined but Louise still got a head massage.

Then ice cream man came around with his cart.

We moved to one of the other pools around 4.30 for the last hour for reasons I can’t remember.


Back to the room at 5.45. Showers etc.


We made our way down to the main pool to check out the Mexican show and buffet that was on.


We decided against it and walked to the Mexican restaurant. Alas it was closed. We found out they close it when the Mexican show is on as if you want Mexican food you can get it there.


Several steps later and we were at the Asian restaurant.

With a twenty minute wait for a table we walked several more steps to the Sports bar to wait. Espresso martini for me and a mescal and wine for Louise.


The food was excellent. Spring roll chicken satay to start.


Sweet and sour and mixed teppanyaki for mains.

We wandered back to the lobby bar and watched a harpist. After he had finished we had a wander around the resort and sat by the main pool for a bit getting feasted on by biting things.


Back to the lobby bar again. I went back to our room to deal with a pressing issue. Luckily our room was steps from the bar!!


I briefly joined Louise again but it was bed time and sleep was welcome.

Till the next time…..

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Three 4th July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025

Awake at 4.30. Well that’s much better isn’t it.

Rather than the buffet breakfast we headed to the Coffee shop around 7. Coffee and a Danish each.

Mexico appears to have bigger lizards than Florida.

We loved seeing these guys almost every day too.

This will get repetitive really quickly as we headed to the beach again but for variety we chose some beds a little closer to the shore. That’s when we realised that all this seaweed could produce the odd waft of an unpleasant smell.

With no breakfast to speak of we were hungry nice and early so we walked up to the Sea Side Grill restaurant by the pool at 11.45.

I had the Toast Trio, a trip to the salad bar and Fish Tacos. I would never normally order that but when it’s “free” I get a little more daring.

Louise had a goat’s cheese stuffed chicken thing.

Beer for me and a Margarita for Louise.

Back to the beach again. We considered doing a pool for the afternoon but there were no beds with shade available which is a non-negotiable for me.

Reading and resting followed.

Towards the end of the day I went for a stroll up the beach then we went back to the room around 5.25.

Once there we went into the swim up pool for the first time. Our turn down service person came and made our room all delightful and ready for the evening and honestly this ritual became a real highlight of the trip.

We didn’t make it out for dinner till 8.30. Bordeaux was our choice tonight. French of course.

French onion and cauliflower soup for starters.

But only after our bousches had been amused.

Small but lovely. 

Steak for us both.

That was fruit tart thing and these, well you know what they are…

We stopped at the lobby bar for one drink and watched the band.

Bed at 10.30 still feeling jet laggy.

Till the next time……

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day Two 3rd July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025, Uncategorized


Awake at 3.30, which was nice. Dozed and doomscrolled till 6ish. Showers and got ready.


Once 7am hit we were first in line for the market cafe for buffet. It had a seriously vast array of choices.


Just the one plate as my body is a temple.

We walked down to the beach passed some shy fish…well they weren’t shy just coy.

The beach was pretty much empty at this early hour so we easily got beds but to be honest that would be the case all holiday regardless of time, on the beach at least.


We just relaxed and half slept for a while, with some reading thrown in.


At 11am and 4pm every day the staff organised a volleyball game that I did not take part in once. We watched it though and over the days it would get ever more competitive.


That cloud makes it look like I have a white tuft of hair. If only.

At some point we went for swim and got a drink from the swim up bar. A margarita for Louise and I had an Iceberg which involved beer and some form of alcohol slush.


Back to the beach. More doing nothing.


We had noticed immediately that there was a seaweed issue. Mainly as the hotel had a team of workers, a JCB and two trucks carting it away. It’s a seasonal thing and couldn’t be helped but at least our resort was shifting it. Others up the beach not so much.


We had a small pizza from the pizza oven between us around 13.30. It was lovely.


More volleyball watching at 4.


We were both tired today with the travel and jet lag so we didn’t do a lot. That didn’t change over the holiday so maybe those were just excuses today.


We went back to the room for showers around 5pm and a lie down which was different to lying down in the beach of course.


Out at 7. I stopped at reception to change some larger dollar bills into smaller ones for tipping.


We ate at the Italian, Portifino.


Espresso Martini for me and wine for Louise.


We started with the first two items on the menu which were a Caprese and a meat thing.


Parm chicken for me and lasagne for Louise.

We were full but shared a tiramisu.


We paid the bill….oh no, there was no need but we left a tip. We made it back to the lobby bar for one drink before having to give up at 10. Knackered.

Till the next time…….

The Tajin Dream Tour 2025 Day One 2nd July

by mkingdon, posted in The Tajin Dream Tour July 2025

We are back from Mexico! Whilst I did say prior to departure that there wouldn’t be a full blown trip report (and that is very much still the case) I will share some photos and information on what we did.

Most days we don’t do a lot so this will be mostly food related but hey what’s new.

Before we left I was unaware of Tajin. This changed early in the trip with my first strawberry margarita. It then became a consistent theme of our trip hence the title.

If you don’t want to plough through the detail of what is to come and just want a TL/DR summary of the trip, we loved it.

The resort, Secrets Akumal, was incredible. We would recommend and return for sure.

Anyway, using minimal notes and a few photos here we go.

Day one July 2nd

It was a painless journey to the airport and check in was a breeze.


Security was very quiet and we headed to the
lounge at 8.15 courtesy of our TUI Premium tickets . I had two plates of brekkie.


Adhering to airport traditions at least for holidays where I don’t need to drive at the other end we had some free alcohol. Our first attempt was very crap draft alcohol. Beer for me and Prosecco for Louise. They were undrinkable so I went back and got two bottles of Carlsberg instead.


Louise had forgotten her reading glasses so we went to Boots to get some temporary ones and general flight stuff.


Gate A6 at 10.30. One of the last to board.
Fizz was served as we sat down. We were of course 20 minutes late taking off.


I was so tired. I had felt stressed and unready in the lead up to the trip so this tiredness was probably a work hangover. My body gave in and all I could do was sleep.


Louise watched films.
The food was Ok but I didn’t eat much.


When I woke up I watched the Better Man film and enjoyed it.

It’s a bit blurry and it was probably my tired stressed state of mind but that cloud looked like a dog.


The flight was 9.5 hours. Upon landing there was no gate available so we had a 20 minute wait on the tarmac.


Immigration not too busy. Baggage claim slow and chaotic. Then we had to go through the weird x-ray customs thing as I believe they were checking for vapes and e-cigarettes which we were told were not allowed to be taken into Mexico.


It was hard to find our taxi rep but we got there eventually but needed one taxi to take us to another terminal to get our proper transfer taxi.

The transfer was just over an hour and felt like a high speed car chase. I was messaging folks back home from the back seat and felt car sick so had to stop and concentrate on not ruining the taxi.

Check in was a dream. We were seated with a concierge who sorted everything. There was lovely champers whilst we did all the paperwork.

We were escorted to room 8105. It was a huge beautiful room. We unpacked and then Louise passed out and went to sleep.

I had a brief wander around the resort but it was so hot. I was soon back to the room and asleep by 9.

Till the next time…..

Hasta Luego

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Uncategorized

Well, as punishment for daring to go on holiday, last week at work was one of the worst I’ve experienced in all the decades I’ve been sucking this shit up to pay the bills. Just two more similar days to go before I can pretend to not think about it for two weeks.

I can feel the stress coursing through my body and my neck and shoulders feel like I’ve done something that is very bad for your neck and shoulders.

All that meant that yesterday was also stupidly busy as I had to do some work that has to be finished before I go and I’m in meetings for every hour God sends from the start of Monday to the end of Tuesday and then start to try and prep the stuff I prep for the holiday. That meant printing off the stuff we might need (I’ve been over cautious as this isn’t our familiar journey) and can I say, how is it that in 2025 AI can do your job for you but we still can’t build printers that print? I also filled the rucksack, which won’t be Ryan for this trip. Louise says he’s too scruffy to go a resort like ours and I gave in as his role is solely for US based trips. Instead I’m taking son of Ryan, the brand new exact replica Louse bought me a few years ago.

Filling the rucksack is faffy, ranging from the essential passports and docs to the relevant phone and watch chargers, camera, kindle, painkillers, money and credit cards etc.

What I also learned this week was trying to order some US dollars in specific denominations appears to be impossible. I tried a load of websites and nobody gives you the option to request smaller bills (these dollars are only for tipping folks) so in the end I had to go old school and rock up the local post office and ask them to give me the smallest they had. They were still mostly too big.

With Louise out working I was also in charge of doing multiple washer loads, mainly of the dog’s bedding, and our bedding despite the fact that our house sitter is Emily, who lives here. I waited in for a delivery for Louise, which I “missed” as when it arrived, the chap rang the bell and then seemingly sprinted to his van and drove away by the time I walked the thirty steps from the couch to the front door.

Then I had to do some mowing up on the field as the grass was getting ridiculous despite me attacking it with a strimmer for the past week and I had to at least cut some walking paths in it for when Emily walks them whilst we are away.

I took delivery of an obscene amount of pet food for the dogs and cats and then nipped to the supermarket to get enough food to feed us until Tuesday and then I made tea.

It was a busy Saturday and today is looking similar. I’ve done some more work this morning, wrote this clap trap and then I have to go to a shop to collect an order Louise clicked last night and then go and see my Mum.

Anyway, as it always does, time will pass, I’ll get through work and we’ll be off soon enough. I’ll probably share some stuff on the Mkingdon Facebook page whilst away so do what you need to do if you want those. A day by day trip report is unlikely as it would be (more) boring than a US trip and I almost certainly won’t have time to write it, but I will of course share thoughts, highlights and food in some way.

See you in a few weeks.

Till the next time……

It’s A Nice Day For A Welsh Wedding.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Cheer up. Just two more of these things and you get a couple of weeks off from them being inflicted on you.

Yes the holiday is so close now I can almost smell it, literally. I don’t know if it’s only me but when the warm weather hits there’s a certain smell that I get that just evokes holiday. I used to think it was sun cream or Florida but I get it here too. It’s either that or I’m having a stroke.

Ahead of me are seven more work days and they feel like a marathon right now but this is always the way.

Other than wishing my life away it’s been another week of being busy at work and none of that is worth documenting here but at least I didn’t have to go anywhere and sleep in a strange bed.

Yesterday I did leave the country as we had a gig in Wales. Denbigh to be exact. It was a wedding at an unnecessarily rural location. The last four miles, yes, four miles involved a single lane country road that did nothing for the blood pressure. It was, as you might expect a lovely location when we got there and we were surrounded by alpacas, peacocks and most importantly freshly baked pizza.

They were a good crowd and the dance floor was full from start to finish which is always lovely. I don’t know if it’s some sort of Welsh tradition but we witnessed our first ever conga to AC/DC.

That clip is quite short as I started filming before very quickly realising that I had to play in about nine seconds.

Being a fair distance away it was a late night and necessitated a lie in this morning. With Louise working and Woody away in Liverpool with Emily it’s just me and Bean today taking it easy. All I’ve done so far today is clean the kitchen, do the recycling, had the big shop delivered, got all my band gear out of the car and packed it away and had some toast. I suspect all international rock stars have similar mornings after a gig in Denbigh.

Speaking of the dogs Emily recently created these lovely pics of the dogs using some AI magic and I love them. So I’ll leave you with those.

Till the next time…..

Marlow and Memories

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Uncategorized

My recent tour of the UK continued last week with a couple of days in Marlow doing things considerably less fun than playing bass to people. Work required my presence and so 450 miles of driving, a night in a Travelodge and two days of meetings made up most of my week, as I was off on Monday.

I think/hope that might be it for travels until after my next proper travels to Mexico but with a couple of weeks still to go, who knows. Work is a bit like that at the moment.

My night away did afford me an expenses paid meal at a place called the Giggling Squid in Marlow which was very nice, even if the main course I chose snuck up on me with its spice. A wander down by the Thames on a summer evening did beat more recent trips of staring at a concrete tower block in London with a Tesco meal deal, but I’d still rather be at home.

My pre-holiday prep is complete with two deliveries this week. Louise has “toiletries” to procure, mainly sun cream, but it’s almost time to get the cases out. I am unusually anxious about the trip as I lack my normal levels of certainty of what is to come. Louise’s uncertainty was I suspect none existent until Friday’s Air India crash and now all of her long held fears around flying are re-surfacing.

Any last minute buying will need to be done outside of the next two weekends as she has somehow been rota-ed to work both of them. I’m at the stage now where I am scouring my work diary and counting how many really crappy things I have to endure before we go. Anyone else do that?

Aside from the mundane details of how I’ve passed the last seven days, today is Father’s Day which has been weird for me for the last couple of years of course. I think about my Dad a lot, but I suppose today is the a day when that is bound to happen more than it might normally.

I still don’t think I have fully accepted that I’ll never see him again. It’s very weird and for reasons I don’t understand I regularly play back those last few hours we spent with him in the hospital before he died. I somehow feel like I did it wrong or could have spent those more wisely even though he didn’t really know we were there.

Anyway, I love you Dad, and I miss you every day. It’s a cliché but if you’ve still got one, try to appreciate them as when they’ve gone and you think you can’t even remember their voice, you start to panic a bit and feel like you’re letting them down. Enjoy your Father’s Day and here’s mine as he would probably like to be remembered.

Till the next time……..

Harley Worth Bothering.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Another week with a half baked post. I’m currently in the back of a van heading back from a festival/gig up in Scotland. This rock n roll lifestyle is getting out of control.

As typing is difficult in these circumstances I’ll just share some photos of the very scenic journey up to Dunoon and the journey so far back where we played at a Harley Owner’s Group event.

That bed was not built for a man of my width.

The gig itself went very well which is always nice. It’ll be a good few hours before I’m back home so forgive the poor posting and enjoy your weeks.

Till the next time….

Woody Worries

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Another four day week leaves me wondering why we splurge them all at this time of year. I suppose it gives us all a chance to enjoy the lovely weather, unless, like last week, we reverted to mid winter up in the frozen north anyway.

With four weeks to go until our holiday our minds have turned to preparing a bit, and at least thinking about what we need to take from a clothes perspective as our needs will be different to a Florida trip to some extent.

I already actually wrote down in words my trouser buying experience a few weeks ago, so believe me when I say I shall also detail other irrelevant and uninteresting details about my wardrobe.

I did a “try on” yesterday, digging out the summer stuff that hasn’t seen the light of day since our last trip. I have a lot of holiday clothes. That may not to be too surprising I suppose, but having managed to drop a few pounds in my usual pre-hols preparation I do have slightly more options than otherwise I might.

So thankfully my need to go out and do any actual shopping is limited to stuff I can buy online like some shoes, a new cap and some socks. Yes, I am actually spending time writing this stuff down on the internet.

Louise enjoys the madness of a real shop so her buying started this week with a couple of dresses and some shorts.

The rest of the week was of course dominated by work as it always is. However, there was a mild drama on Friday afternoon. I was, as ever, on a Teams call with the doors open as the temperatures had recovered to at least double figures and the dogs were pottering about in the garden. All of a sudden I heard Woody yelp in pain and he came running to the door feeling very sorry for himself. It took a few minutes for him to stop crying and I got him inside and up onto the couch in the conservatory where he literally flaked out.

He was worryingly limp and his eyes glazed over. For a few minutes I was genuinely worried about him. I comforted him for a bit until he started to come round and after half an hour or so he was up and about again.

He’s been fine since so whether he was stung or stood on something, we have no idea. There was no sign of any damage and he wasn’t paying particular attention to any part of his body so it was a mystery. He took himself upstairs to his proper bed for an hour or so and then seemed to be fully recovered. We went out for a decent walk yesterday and he was absolutely fine. It was all a bit strange.

He’s now gone over to Liverpool with Emily to spend the rest of the weekend there at Mikey’s where as you can see he struggles to settle!

Emily’s prep for her August WDW and Universal trip continues. They have booked Mickey’s Not So Scary and have what looks like an action packed and fun plan.

They are taking some first timers with them who of course are listening to almost all of Emily’s advice. However, she did share some shocking news this week. Apparently the newbie couple have bought new trainers for the trip but are refusing to wear them until they get there despite Emily’s advice and pleadings to wear them in. Is this the most rookie of rookie mistakes for a WDW newcomer? It’ll end in tears.

Till the next time……..

A Post About Not Posting.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Sorry there has been no time today for a post even though you are now reading one.

I’ve been out at a music festival with my band mates. Not to worry I thought, I will take some photos and videos of the day to post instead. Then I forgot as things are always hectic when getting set up and ready to play in the very short time afforded for such things.

All I managed was this brief backstage clip ….

We just did half an hour of 80s tunes and it went pretty well. It was a charity festival for Cancer charities. The weather could have been kinder of course but it was dry if a little windy and chilly as bank holidays tend to be.

Now I’m planted on the couch watching Liverpool and waiting for them to lift the Premier League trophy. Add to that not being in work tomorrow and I’ve had worse Sundays.

So apologies for the size and quality of this micro blog and enjoy your Monday off if you get one.

Till the next time…..

99 LuftBallons

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Thankfully no tales of work travel this week.

The main thing of note to share from the past few days was our gig last night, which was our first public outing as the Neon Vortex, our 80s tribute band.

We had rehearsed on Wednesday and felt completely unready for public performance, mainly due to a lack of rehearsal time due to our collective busy lives. Anyway, that fear drove us all to do enough homework before last night for it to go off almost mistake free.

It was pleasing to see this new show go down so well with the audience and hopefully things can only get better from here on in.

Earlier in the week something a bit odd happened. I started to get alerts that my blog was getting large volumes of traffic. Now, those days are long gone so it felt weird and certainly unexpected and I wondered if someone had uncovered my secret scandalous life of drug abuse and crime, but no. After a bit of digging into the stats and the source of the traffic almost all of it was coming from Facebook but in Germany.

Of course I have legions of readers all over the world as you would expect but the sheer volume was off the scale of even the height of my relevance and readership.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, mainly as I stopped researching it as soon as I figured it out, it would appear that I am not the only one who can’t type kingdom. A typo decades ago on The Dis saw me create a username of mkingdon rather than mkingdom and here we are. Still, it made buying the domain cheaper and easier.

At some point during last week something happened in German politics which saw a group or party get banned or something and they were called Kingdom of Germany. I have no idea how, but it seemed folks searching for that somehow then led them to click through to my blog.

I can only chuckle at the bizarre and surreal experience my new German visitors had when trying to make sense of the absolute trivial nonsense I pump out here when they were looking for some insightful information on whatever these Kingdom folks said, did or had done to them.

I only hope they used Google translate on my posts to see what it was all about and suffered whatever Google made of my drivel. If any of my German friends have stuck around, literally all I can say to you is Ich mochte ein stuck shwarzwalderkirschtorte bitte.

Two years of German study in the mid 80s has not gone to waste.

Ironically, one of the songs we did last night was Nena’s “classic” Neun­und­neunzig Luft Ballon. We did however take the easy option and do the English version. It’s spooky how different themes collide or at least how I can desperately mash them together in an attempt to churn out a few hundred words every week.

At this point doing these posts is solely driven by my “completion complex” (not a euphemism). I’ve been posting nearly every week since 2009 and every cell in my body rejects the idea of stopping now, and of course once I pop my clogs, all this inane crap will be a fitting testament to my time on the planet. Take from that what you will.

Till the next time……

Capital Punishment

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

In an unpleasant and unwanted turn of events last week I was once again in London.

I’m not really saying I want another pandemic to obliterate travel for work and in person meetings but it was a silver lining in the heaviest of clouds.

I left on Tuesday afternoon on an uncomfortably packed train from Piccadilly and arrived in my “digs” that evening not too far from the Gherkin (not a euphemism).

I doubt that anybody’s company’s travel budget affords them luxury but a London Travelodge is never going to evoke memories of the Yacht Club. I settled into the room desperately trying not to think of everyone else who had slept in that bed and I took in the view.

I was not expecting a glorious vista with herds of wildebeest but perhaps the odd London landmark would have been nice.

With a Tesco Express meal deal secured I returned to the room for an evening of freeview telly and an early night.

The work itself was nothing I wish to recall. It was bad enough going through it once and I escaped the capital around 5pm on Thursday thankfully being able to secure a train an hour earlier than the one I had booked so I got home around 8.30, tired and all Londoned out for the foreseeable. The parking fee at Manchester Piccadilly for those three days will be given our finance folks heartburn for a while I’m sure.

I was very happy (relatively speaking) to be back at my desk at home for work on Friday. Sure it was an unacceptable day of back to back Teams calls but at least I didn’t have to wear proper pants.

Saturday saw me gigging with Mustard down in Knutsford at a 4×4 car festival thing.

Our first outdoor gig of the year, albeit within a marquee. Luckily it was a dry sunny day but as we crept into darkness the temperature dropped and my already average playing skills were tested as I started to lose all feeling in my fingers.

It has been nice to see the sun recently and experience some hint of warmth as the weather improves. I am so tired of being cold. It makes me look forward to our July Mexico trip where we can hopefully forget all the coldness for a couple of weeks and instead moan about it being too hot.

Thankfully next week has no requirement for me to be anywhere for work so it will just be the standard level of horror. Can’t wait.

Till the next time…..

Thank The Bank Holidays

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

It’s Bank Holiday season. Damn these pesky four day weeks preventing me from spending all the time I’d like to at work! Since we last spoke it’s been a proper busy time and it whizzed by in extra fast fashion as it was broken up by a visit to London for work. I’m never a fan of work involving leaving my house but it’s becoming more of a thing in recent times as things change at work and it all gets busier.

It was fairly painless as work trips go with a 8am train out from Manchester and a 4.15pm train back out of London with a 3 hour meeting in the middle. So just the 13 hours end to end journey.

Despite the horrific Wi-Fi on the train I even managed to get a little bit of work done on both legs of the journey.

The rest of the work weeks have followed the recent pattern of absolute chaos, back to back meetings all day every day and the feeling at the end of each day that I’ve been run over by a train with a brain that can barely remember how to eat my tea.

There was more travel and leaving the house last weekend too as Louise and I went to see Calamity Jane in Liverpool, which was a recent birthday present from Emily for Louise.

It was funny to watch the show as a million years ago both Louise and I “starred” in a local production of this show. Well, Louise starred as Calamity Jane and I had a slightly less vital role as Joe the bartender, but I feel I added my own unique take to the character.

The lead role was taken by Carrie Hope Fletcher, who you may know is the sister of Tom Fletcher from McFly, both huge Disney fans and regular visitors to WDW. I’m sure both of them read this blog religiously of course as every Disney fan on the planet tends to.

We arrived in Liverpool nice and early and of course immediately had some food. We stumbled across an eatery called Smoke and Dough and were glad we did. It was an unlimited meat platter kind of deal.

They had me at assorted breads.

The main platter was very nice and we could not take advantage of the ability to order any more.

Following our meal, still with time to kill we took the opportunity of being in Liverpool One to do some holiday shopping.

I have secured my holiday slacks. I confirmed my middle aged middle class status but procuring four pairs of summer trousers from M&S. That blew my usual clothes budget for the year.

The day after I was busy mowing and choring around the house and then had to enjoy watching Liverpool secure the league title. All of that was the reason for no post last week. There was just no time. I hope you coped and suspect you didn’t notice.

This week just gone saw a Mustard rehearsal as we enter a busy band time over the next few weeks and of course there were more manic days at work. One day did include a working lunch with a supplier down in Knutsford. The weather was proper summery and we ate outside, lightly toasting my glorious dome.

Tune in next week for, time permitting, more tales of this jet set lifestyle.

Till the next time…..