Category: mkingdon

I (Haven’t) Got A Blank Space Baby

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Our dining plans are complete!

That last night of the trip was taunting me in its blankness, sat there on my plan, goading me to book something. What do you mean I could have not booked something and just gone with the flow?

I had thought I’d book somewhere around the Boardwalk but didn’t in the end. The Edison got the nod and that last remaining blank space is filled.

I looked at a few places and really wanted to try somewhere new. The menu and experience look pretty good based on what I read and watched so it’s booked and we’ll see how it goes.

Thanks to those suggesting things last week. Whilst we didn’t book to dine there, I did discover from one suggestion that there is another Jellyrolls style dueling piano bar at City Walk, in Pat O’Briens so we’re going to try and give that a go one night when we have dining planned at City Walk.

I’m now in that countdown hinterland, where no further planning is needed and it isn’t time to go to the airport yet. This feeling is probably why the plan will change before we go but it’s all part of the experience, right?

Away from holidays, our roof is still leaky, but now we know what it may cost for it not to be so. The figure is so large I cannot speak its name. Where we live, on the edge of the moors, where rain only happens 23 hours out of every 24, and when it comes, it comes sideways, we cannot risk not having a waterproof roof. We now sacrifice things at the altar of Sarah Beeny in the hopes of bringing the roofer to our property to actually do the work. There are rumours he may be with us “mid next week”. We shall see.

Our kitchen is more battlefield/bomb site than kitchen, and we spend our days working around the carnage and trying to tempt workmen back into the house to get it progressed. If someone were to condemn me to my own personal hell this would be it.

Oh and for good measure yesterday the washing machine broke so I had to find another workman to come into my house and relieve me of some money. Of course, despite not even being two years old, it is unfixable and we have to get a new one. Kerching!

Emily had her own troubles last week, finally catching Covid after all this time. There’s a lot of it around. She’s been quite poorly with it and is only now starting to feel anywhere close to normal again, but still testing positive almost a week later. Last weekend she attended two Busted gigs in Liverpool and Manchester arenas plus the work event I told you about down in Cardiff, which was attended by around 2,000 people, so it’s almost certain she got it at one of those. She’s been too ill to leave her bedroom for most of the week so protecting Louise and me from infection has been fairly easy.

Writing about trip planning and Covid takes me right back a couple of years to when all I did was plan trips that got canceled and moan about the handling of the pandemic.

Louise and I went to see Busted with her last Sunday too in Manchester and it was very enjoyable. We got Hanson included in the price of the ticket and here they all are performing one of my favourite songs.

All is well with Rebecca, Tom and the boys. Freddie is excited about his upcoming sixth birthday to which he has invited his whole school class. Sensibly, it will be held at a local play area. Dougie, who is 18 months old now, is starting to walk which only adds to the fun of daily life for Rebecca. He is a little bit more of a handful than Freddie was!

We are off out for tea with them later, along with my Mum who is doing OK, despite feeling a bit lonely at times. Adjusting to life without your husband after so many decades together must be difficult.

So there ends a post with a nice mixture of trip planning and life updates. I feel really out of practice in writing non trip report blogs so let’s hope something (good and not expensive) happens in the next seven days to give me something to droan on about.

Till the next time…..

No Telling How Pharaoh’d Go

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

As I fired up WordPress to write this week’s post, I instinctively reached for my trip report note-taking book. What do you mean you don’t have one of those?

For inexplicable reasons, I am currently using one bought on The Disney Wish for more money than I care to confess.

However, I find myself in the unusual position of not having any such notes to write from. We have been fortunate/irresponsible enough of late that I have had many trips to write up and having to go free form this week is all a bit alien.

I know many of you may be thinking I’ll be telling you about the next trip we have booked in this post. I’d hate to be so predictable.

Well, a few months ago we were discussing when we may get away again and the need for a short winter break somewhere warm. So yes, in November Louise and I are heading off for a 10-day sunshine break that will definitely not involve WDW parks!

It’s trickier than you might imagine finding somewhere to go that will be warm at that time of year that doesn’t involve a stupidly long flight for just 10 days away and doesn’t cost the earth.

Many hours were spent on the internet, researching and planning, dismissing the obvious Mediterranean spots as the temperatures were just too low and unreliable in November. The Caribbean was pricey, as of course were far-flung spots that we can only really dream of affording such as The Maldives.

Eventually, it looked like Egypt would be the winner and specifically Sharm El Sheik. I knew nothing about the place but gradually got to know the lay of the land and almost every detail of every hotel in our price range. I won’t admit to how much time I invested on Google Street View “wandering” the local area. Once you are a holiday-obsessed planner there is no turning back regardless of the destination. It seemed to have all we needed.

• Hot weather
• All-inclusive resort
• Some nightlife suitable for two tired 50-somethings

Louise would have liked to see the Pyramids but we quickly discovered they were a 5-hour drive away!

A hotel was pretty much decided upon and much time was spent obsessing over the reviews and the 1% of them that were not great, naturally ignoring the 99% that were.

This is the thing when going somewhere unfamiliar, especially on All Inclusive, as if something isn’t right you are stuck there for the duration. Due to this uncertainty, my finger continued to hover over the “Book” button rather than commit, terrified of throwing a chunk of cash at something we may have to endure rather than enjoy.

Anyway, Louise and I chatted and we went ahead and booked.

We’ll be arriving in Florida on November 13th.

Look, it was Louise’s fault. We discussed the Egypt thing and the risk of it being not all we may wish for, especially the food and potentially getting bored of the same menu every night and having to go out and eat in unknown places. At this point, Louise suggested Las Vegas, and that was the slippery slope to Florida as we were already in the right country at that point. Vegas was too far, and too expensive for what was a short winter break and that led me to pitch the idea of Florida. I wouldn’t class myself as a natural salesperson, although, inexplicably, I did support the family as one many years ago. The pitching was not too arduous before agreement was reached.

Bear with me. What we wanted was nice weather, great food, and guaranteed quality of resort and restaurants. We had no need (or real desire to be honest) to venture near any theme parks, we could just sit by a pool and then at night choose from limitless eateries, many of which we knew would be excellent. There is also suitable nightlife for us in the shape of Jellyrolls, Yeeha Bob, City Walk, Disney Springs, etc and we know where everything is. It took all the risk and worry out of what is intended to be a relaxing respite from the winter back home.

See, it made perfect sense.

Cost-wise, it would be no different from the Egypt option we were looking at. It is out of any school holiday period which keeps costs down and cheapo flights are booked in Economy with Aer Lingus. A sensible car, (and car hire prices seem to be settling finally as we got a Compact SUV for £380 for 10 days), and hotel-wise we have been very practical and pragmatic, avoiding Disney resorts despite our love of all things Yacht and Beach Club.

After a decent amount of research, I decided on the Drury Plaza Hotel near Disney Springs.

This was for a few reasons.

• Location – We can walk to Disney Springs and it is central to anywhere we may want to drive to.
• Price – It was very reasonable, especially as the price has no add-ons like resort fees and your room cost includes a free buffet breakfast and a form of happy hour in the evening where you get three free drinks per guest and some complimentary food (I suspect we won’t use the latter too much).
• Reviews – Almost all good across the board and the place is pretty new so everything should be in good condition.

So I apologise for the predictability of this post. We really did try to go somewhere else, honest! I can honestly say I have no desire to go to a WDW park on this trip. However, should we encounter a chillier day or two and not be able to sunbathe by the pool, we may go to Bush Gardens for the first time in years or even Sea World, who knows, but they don’t count!

With perfect timing for this week’s post, our ADR window opened last week and I have booked our first at Sanaa on the evening of our first full day. There is no distance too great for that bread service.

There won’t be too many ADRs made as we love so many off-site places, but we may try a few new eateries at Disney Springs with it being walkable from our hotel. If anyone has any “must-dos” there I’m all ears.

Till the next time……

Going, Going, We Keep On Going…

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

With another trip done and written up, what the hell do I write about now? Hmmm…

Well, I like to plan, you know that, and I am fairly good at it, but where I find myself now, with the perfect synchronisation of the end of my latest trip report last Sunday, leaving just one Sunday free for a blog post to confess to you all that we are going again, was pure luck.

Yep, we fly out to Orlando again on Tuesday. We booked in late February and timing it perfectly, as far as these Sunday ramblings go, I unconsciously left myself the perfect one-week window to allow you all to collectively eye-roll at the news.

We really didn’t mean to go. I don’t mean that I fell over and landed on my keyboard, pressing several “Book It” buttons all at once. It was less accidental than that, but not by much.

As we returned from the trip you’ve just read about we had some tentative, back-of-the-mind intentions to maybe go on holiday, maybe to Orlando, maybe not, just Louise and I, around September time, but there was no planning going on.

For those who actually read this stuff and pay attention, you may remember that Rebecca, Tom and the boys had booked to go this April, but for boring real-world reasons, they had to postpone/cancel that trip. Well, we got chatting and the idea of all going together (alas Emily had used all her holiday entitlement on other trips with her boyfriend) at some point came up. Initially, as we often do we looked at non-US destinations. As ever, we inevitably drifted back to Florida due to its familiarity and the guarantee of it suiting us and particularly the boys.

We started looking for Florida trips at the end of August into September and spent many minutes laughing at the prices. When did the prices for school holidays become so ludicrous? We went for years at the end of August and we were skint! Hmm, maybe that’s why we were skint.

We then started to work our way back through the summer, trying to find dates that would work for everyone. To cut a very long story short, we had limited options and it ended up being May.

To be honest, May was probably too early for us, and certainly too early for Louise and another trip to WDW, but the carrot of being able to go with Rebecca, Tom and the boys and to see Freddie and Dougie experience Florida overcame all sticks easily.

The compromise was that Louise insisted that we spend a week at a beach. This kicked off the most complex trip I have ever organised, as a week at the beach wouldn’t suit a five-year-old and one-year-old, so I began the process of planning multiple itineraries within one holiday.

Flight-wise, the lowest cost was the order of the day, so Aer Lingus won this time and we are all in economy on the 16th of May. As we have a lap sitter in our party in Dougie, I was unable to book our seats online, but their WhatsApp service was excellent and that was sorted in minutes.

The basic plan was to get a villa for most of the stay, but Louise and I would go off to the beach for a week, with Rebecca and the crew joining us there for a night or two, before they would return to Orlando for theme parking. Alas, our favourite villa was not available for our dates, so we chose what we hope is the next best thing from Airbnb.

In a strange and not to be repeated turn of events Louise chose our accommodation at the beach. I had wanted to go to Vero but hens have more teeth than they had availability, so we opted for a previous destination in Daytona, and Louise did five minutes of searching and informed me we would be staying at the Hard Rock there. Rebecca, Tom and the boys would join us for a couple of days at the beach and then return to Orlando and the villa.

Then, to finish off the trip, and to use up the three-day park passes still owed to us by Hurricane Ian, we booked to stay at our usual place, Royal Pacific at Universal.

I secured us a mini-van and would later return to the issue of how Louise and I would get back from Daytona to Orlando as Rebecca and Tom would be taking our main car back to Orlando with them.

It was about a week after sorting all this, (which I have massively over-simplified above by the way, please show some respect for my planning skills), that Louise and I chatted and thought we should invite my Mum along. Clearly, the complexity of the trip was not sufficient to test my planning expertise.

Mum took a little convincing, unsure about undertaking her first trip without my Dad, but was soon on board when we asked her what Dad would have said! It’s been a while since she has been to Florida and for her and let’s face it for all of us, who knows when that trip might be your last. They are physically demanding so making hay in the sunshine is important.

So I then went about adding Mum to the flight and messaging Aer Lingus to change all our seats again from two sets of three to a four and two, booking her a room at Daytona (she will come with us to the beach) and finally adding her onto our room at Royal Pacific. We will share for the few nights we are there to avoid huge expense.

Park tickets and then of course park reservations were bought and made for all.

One of the most complex issues now presented itself. The car.

With seven people now on the trip and with car seats and strollers and oodles of luggage, the standard seven-seater van we had reserved would not cut the mustard. With every seat taken, there was just no way we would fit all that into the thing. That kicked off a ridiculous amount of time looking at alternatives, some of which would involve me getting my HGV licence, but the answer was presented by Rebecca, who suggested I look at what car we got the last time we had 7 people on the trip.

Finally, I found a use for my obsessive trip reporting and went back to that trip and found the make and model of what we had. On that trip, we also had a stroller and all that goes with a small child so we could be fairly sure it would all fit.

Of course, none of the main car hire sites listed this 8-seater Toyota Sienna, so I reached out to Andy at Discount Florida Car Hire, who I had booked with and explained our predicament. He was incredibly helpful and located one and secured it for us via Dollar. What an 80’s pop duo are doing in the hire car business I do not know.

Hopefully, we are all sorted now as I didn’t fancy driving a 12 or 15-seater thing, especially as Tom would be driving it around for a week during his first time driving in Florida.

I have even booked the three beachgoers a car for a few days in Daytona, crucially giving us a means by which we can drive back to Orlando. For our first two days in Daytona, we will all be together with Rebecca, Tom and the boys then driving back to Orlando at the end of day two, after watching the baseball, which we have always enjoyed in the past. Once the three of us are done with Daytona a few days later, we will drive back to Orlando, drop our hire car at the WDW car centre and have Tom pick us up before heading to check in at Universal.

So, I think that’s everything?? Still with me? Complicated isn’t it?

If anyone still has any appetite whatsoever for another bloody trip report, and even I barely do, I’ll be back here in June popping another one out. I can only apologise.

As ever, the Mkingdon Facebook page is your source of any live updates during the trip and I’ll see you back here in June if you can stomach any more of the same old guff.

Till the next time……

Dream It, Wish It, F**k it.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

What is this madness? Two posts in one day? Often it takes a superhuman effort to squeeze out one, but we are mid-trip report, so my weekly nonsense about what is happening in life (and as ever, there is a fair bit going on) isn’t a thing. So I just wanted to share an update with you as it relates to the main reason this blog exists.

Despite only recently returning from our “couples retreat” trip in September, we have booked to return to Orlando, this time taking Emily along with us. Rebecca, Tom and the boys are already booked to go in April/May so Florida is getting its fill of Williams dollars it seems.

Oddly, I feel some sort of need to justify this ridiculous extravagance. Let me confirm, we are not very rich, just really irresponsible!

Before I share the plan, the reasons for the trip are many and include –

  1. First and foremost of course, we want to go again.
  2. Fantasmic is back and it needs watching. Or at least we need to go and try to watch it and no doubt end up disappointed.
  3. Our last trip, as much as we enjoyed it, and we really did, was beset with three days of a hurricane and of course Mary’s sad passing, so we feel like some of that trip was lost or impacted.
  4. My Dad isn’t in the best of health these days, and along with Mary’s passing, both Louise and I are firmly in the “f**k it” mindset of doing stuff we want to do whilst we are fit and able to do it. All too soon it will be too late.
  5. With one thing and another we’ve had a tough year or so and, well, as I say, f**k it.

We asked Emily if she’d like to come along as she’s not been since last January and has severe withdrawal symptoms. With saving for her own place being a priority for her now, she would be unlikely to return under her own steam for a while.

So enough apologetic justification for doing what we want to do. What is the plan?

We go on the 9th of January. We are flying with Virgin this time and managed to get Premium both ways for an acceptable price. We like Aer Lingus a lot, but they only offer Business Class as an Economy alternative and that is big money for the three of us. Premium is a decent halfway house between Economy and Business so they got our business this time.

We are staying at Caribbean Beach for seven nights to start. This resort was selected mainly due to the Skyliner, as it will enable us to visit our beloved Boardwalk of an evening without the need to drive. It’s a cheaper alternative to staying at one of the Boardwalk resorts but still allows us to do what we love to do there.

Yes, this time we are definitely going to do the WDW parks. January is not a time of year to depend on there being sunbathing weather, so the plan is to do Disney.

Even though Louise and I have three days of Universal tickets to use from our last trip, due to Hurricane Ian, we aren’t doing Universal on this trip as there isn’t time. Why you may ask?

Well for the first time ever we are doing a Disney Cruise. We move from Caribbean Beach to the Disney Wish for a four-night cruise to Nassau and Castaway Cay. Being a walking contradiction, Louise suggested/insisted we do this despite having told me for the last few decades that she would never do a cruise.

Had we added Universal to the plan then we would have been in a park every day and that way lies tiredness and a lack of enjoyment.

After the cruise, we then move back to Orlando to finish with three nights at the Yacht Club, where despite my nightly prayers, I suspect we won’t get another upgrade to Club Level. Go on Disney, you know it makes sense!

I honestly didn’t plan this but it seems if I continue to write up the last trip at the current rate, the last day will get posted the day before we go on the next trip. This is ridiculous, extravagant and at the same time awesome.

We’ve been watching a fair few Tracker vlogs recently as they now seem to live on the Disney Wish, so I feel we have a decent amount of knowledge about the cruise experience and The Wish, but as we were starting from zero knowledge, of course, if there are any cruise experts reading this, your tips and advice would be most welcome. Ditto Caribbean Beach.

So far our plans include dining at Il Mulino again, Yak & Yeti whilst in DAK and a brunch at somewhere new to us, City Works at Disney Springs. We also plan to spend another evening with Yeeha Bob.

It feels weird to be one of those folks who have multiple trips per year, but I come back to the recurring theme of this post, f**k it, you’re a long time dead.

Till the next time……

Mary

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

We’re back and many of you will have seen the news that Mary, Louise’s Mum, passed away last Sunday. Whilst not unexpected, it is of course very upsetting, especially for Louise as we couldn’t get back in time to be with her. Mary was not alone as she passed, and of course, there were video calls where love was shared and tears were shed.

The past week has been a blur of my return to work and the non-stop flurry of activity and arrangement-making that happens when a funeral is needed. There is a surprising amount of things to do and I have been fortunate up until now that I have never needed to be involved in anything like this. The funeral will be on the 20th, and we have made a lot of the arrangements now.

So it won’t be too surprising that I have not given any thought to anything as pointless as writing about our holiday. I probably will at some point. As trivial and silly as it may sound we had a good time for most of the trip aside from the usual array of eventful happenings that seem to come with us on holiday. Our time away included a flooded kitchen, a natural disaster, a death and a hospitalisation!

For now, the focus is on Louise, the funeral and coming to terms with Mary’s passing.

Thank you to everyone who left messages and love on Facebook about Mary. They are appreciated.

Till the next time…..

Travel Tribulations

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Number of days remaining until holiday – Low

Stress levels – High

Confidence levels that we will get on the plane – Low to Moderate

It has been a stressful old week. Work has been ridiculous but more importantly, until late afternoon on Thursday, we had no respite care booked for Mary. If this were as easily obtainable as hen’s teeth, dipped in unicorn semen, we would have fared better. Louise has spoken to every care facility in the North West, and each one had some new and interesting reason why they could not help us, or it was a dump. We were getting worried.

Anyhow, on Thursday I got the call from Louise that her lastest and last visit to a nursing home had paid off, and Mary was booked in. With this news in the bag, I allowed the release of the suitcases from whichever dark hole they had been stashed into since January and the packing has begun, I am led to believe.

The limited belief that we might go away has risen slightly but not to any level that allows excitement to build. This may be the case until we are wheels up from the runway, at the obligatory half an hour later than the take-off time planned. How I long for a holiday that can be booked with the confidence that it will actually happen. It will be a fraught week to come, as we keep everything crossed that Mary remains in a state of health conducive to going on her holidays to the nursing home.

I am getting so paranoid about travel now that every news event is considered a potential barrier to it happening. Of course, I have persistent low-level fear that the airport will be packed and queues horrendous, and/or the airline will cancel our flight at the last minute, but yesterday when the Queen’s funeral was announced for the day we should be travelling, I spent a panic filled few minutes on google trying to figure out if some ancient custom would mean flights might be affected. I know it’s silly, but I am scarred by the last three years of uncertain plans.

These restrained levels of excitement have probably played a part in my resisting making any more ADR bookings. It is one less thing to cancel should it come to that. I would make an exception for O’hana still, as I would like to tie that in with an evening on the Poly beach watching some fireworks and maybe some Trader Sam’s, but the respite care of the North West had more availability it seems. I am getting a bit weary of having to try so hard to “do things” on Disney property. I yearn for the days when all you had to do was pay a small fortune.

In other news, Freddie completed his first week at school and enjoyed it. More importantly, Rebecca is now past the trauma of him going to school for the first time! There were tears.

Dougie rolled over for the first time and has teeth incoming, and at this rate will be at University next week, and I completed ten years of service at my current employer. I arrived home from the office on Thursday to a huge Fortnum and Masons hamper. It is a lovely place to work, assuming you have to work somewhere (and I do), and Louise was very excited, not so much by the contents of the hamper, but more the hamper itself becoming a high-class repository for our Christmas decorations for years to come.

My Dad is coping OK following his release from the hospital but isn’t in the best of health and our work of course is still not complete, with the eternal promise of “tomorrow” being the completion date. That “tomorrow” should have been Saturday and then today, but naturally is once again “tomorrow”.

We have a bit going on as you can see, and if we ever exist in a chaos-free world again, I’m not sure I would know how to deal with it.

Still, on the plus side, only one more week of this unbearable wailing in blog form to endure before we all know either way. I’m off to rock back and forwards in a corner for quite some time.

Till the next time……

I’m “Enjoying” Your Holidays

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

It will not be a huge shock to you that the ongoing work at the back of our house is still exactly that. Some progress was made, followed by a delay awaiting more materials, then some more progress. My guess last week, that aiming and hoping for completion around the end of August seems sensible, and it remains a possibility for now at least. There was crazy talk from our builder of being finished by next Tuesday or Wednesday but this isn’t my first rodeo.

I bemoaned the fact last week that this time in August has always been our WDW time. My social media confirmed that this is also the case for almost every Dibber and blog reader I am connected to on “the socials”, as every bugger was getting on a plane and walking up Main Street with little to no regard for my feelings on the matter. You are all selfish and should be ashamed of yourselves. As if you’re reading this claptrap if you’re in WDW.

Watching the parks as other folks do them feels weird. As you all know, because I keep bleating on about it, I have a strained relationship with them right now, but seeing Main Street and the rest of it stirs up the deeply rooted longing to be there. But I suppose I want to be back in the parks that I remember pre-pandemic and Chapek.

All these folks in WDW did also start to fuel my persecution complex as everyone there seems to be posting stuff like “Wow, the new Guardians is awesome, we rode it 76 times in a row with no queue” whereas on our last trip we struggled to get on the monorail without a fifty-minute wait.

As Chapek reads my blog every week of course, he’s probably blackballed me.

Back in the real world, Mary continues to battle on despite her health issues and now my Dad has joined in, not being very well for the last week or so and having to spend some time in hospital. I don’t like this and it can stop immediately, thank you. He’s only allowed one visitor, so I’ve only managed to talk to him on the phone a couple of times, but he does seem to be slightly better now and with a plan in place over the next few days to hopefully see some further improvement.

Woody the wiener continues to settle into the family unit. (Not a euphemism). I wouldn’t say he is fully house trained yet, but will now hold things until you take him out, if you take him out regularly enough. He’s doing OK. He is especially good at annoying the other animals in the house, and he has many to choose from.

His other speciality is causing carnage around the house and then falling asleep in it. Exhibit A.

He has had a weekend away this weekend, with Emily taking him over to Liverpool to her boyfriend’s. Nobody has enjoyed that more than our Cocker Spaniel Bean, who has not had to compete for attention for a few days.

Speaking of other pets, Loki our huge Maine Coon cat had to go to the vet recently as one of her already huge paws had blown up to the size of a baby’s head. The discussions led to talk of a CT scan, to see the root cause. Prices started at around £2000 for that so instead, we opted for £160 worth of pain killers and anti-inflammatories and the ability to continue eating. I suspect the talk of CT scans at thousands of pounds is just a softener so you feel like paying £160 for some Calpol is a bargain.

The paw does seem to be getting better/smaller and I wonder whether the bloody idiot got stung whilst tormenting some insect. It would be some form of cosmic retribution for the huge number of small rodents she has massacred and brought to our back door.

So the absence of any holiday plans continues and I’ll be honest, it’s beginning to sting a bit, much like Loki’s paw. You can tell my booking finger is itching to see some action as I seem to be watching endless episodes of A Place In The Sun just to see some sunshine, sea and beaches. My hiatus from vlogging continues but is softening as I have watched the odd Tracker video recently. This is all leading to some inevitable Veruca Salt moment at some point in the not too distant future when I stamp my feet and declare at loud volume that “I want a holiday and I want it now!”.

For now, we gird loins and other body parts and hunker down through the Groundhog days ahead of us and the relentless mediocrity of going to work every day.

Still, all our work on the house will be finished by the middle of next week…..right?

Till the next time……

Dig, Doug, Dougie

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Apologies for the lack of blog last Sunday. We had a lot on and let’s face it, nobody cares.

I was inundated with one message asking if I was still alive, so thank you.

I doubt there are many other blogs where you can receive regular digging updates. It’s a niche market, but I’m happy to tackle it.

More digging has happened. We now have two “tiers” to complete the many other tears all this work is driving us to. To be fair, it has been relatively painless so far, for us at least. The digger driver did have a couple of interesting/terrifying moments in the smaller digger he used to do the final bits of shaping etc, as he traversed the moonscape that is currently our back garden, but the digging, at least involving the big machinery is done. Anything else will be done by hand now.

That is a relief in itself as just getting that sort of heavy machinery into position had the potential to upset the neighbours, damage property and see our field make an appearance in our kitchen.

We spent all week awaiting the delivery of all the materials so the reconstruction could begin. As with everything else in the country these days, building materials have become akin to precious metals and bugger all happened until yesterday as we awaited the delivery of rare commodities like wood and sand. The builders estimate about a week of work to get things complete once stuff arrives, so let’s say two and hope we’re somewhere close to done by the end of August. It’ll be lovely to look out at our new outdoor space through the drizzle and fog of Autumn.

The other news since we last “spoke” was our wedding anniversary on the 3rd. Twenty-six years of marriage and twenty-eight together. People often say things like “where has the time gone” in these circumstances. I know where it has gone. Mainly working, many lovely holidays and the usual mix of ups and downs. Literally, cest la vie.

In other news, and the latest “you couldn’t write it” episode of my life, one evening last week as I returned home from walking the dogs, I spotted some movement near our kitchen bin. What followed was twenty sweaty minutes of Louise and I trying to catch a mole that no doubt one of the cats had brought home and then lost or got bored with. It’s at times like these that you realise how much furniture you have, as the poor little bugger scuttles from one piece to another. Eventually, I threw some tupperware over it and took it outside to hopefully find its way home and not to another cat. We named him Doug. It felt appropriate.

To complete the Dig, Doug, Dougie trilogy, the latter has been a little unwell this week but a visit to the docs confirmed it was nothing serious. He was off his milk, which based on his track record to date, was very unusual. Anyway, he is on the mend and back to staying awake all day, smiling at everyone and eating.

With it being mid-August now, by rights I should be boring you to tears with the detailed coverage of our last-minute preparations for a WDW trip. This time of year has, more often than not, been our time of choice to visit Florida. It isn’t possible this year at this time for many reasons and for Louise and I, we just don’t know when it may be again with Mary needing the care she does. Respite care is not an option as the worry whilst away wouldn’t make for a relaxing time.

I’m not sure I’m ready to tackle WDW again yet anyway to be honest. It seems the more time that passes since our January trip, the less I feel inclined to combat the complicated mess that is visiting a WDW park. It’s like some mild form of Genie+ PTSD. Maybe it is better now? If you’ve been recently I’d welcome your feedback.

The CEO this week confirmed the one call I got right during the pandemic. The park reservation system is here to stay. As I guessed, this is just too useful to Disney in terms of their planning, cost management and ability to staff the parks, or perhaps more relevantly, limit the number of guests aligned to how many CMs they have available.

I don’t mind this too much. As someone who plans their days months in advance, mainly so we can eat where we want to, the chances of us rocking up to a park that’s full and having no reservation are slim to none. What I do object to is having to be awake and on-line around 6.30am to fight for the chance to pay extra money for Genie+ to have any chance of riding anything that resembles a headliner.

With a good number of new rides open or about to, this is only going to get worse. It may be years before folks get to ride a “new ride” even if they visit annually.

With no prospect of a holiday any time soon, the main reason I need to get one booked is that it is typically the only reason and motivation to lose a few pounds and let’s just say I should book about a dozen holidays to generate the weight loss required right now.

Let’s reconvene next Sunday with hopefully, news of a very nearly finished back garden. What could possibly go wrong?

Till the next time…..

Can You Dig It?

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

Brace yourselves.

The conservatory…….is finished!

Well, I say finished…the workmen have left for the last time so they are done. I have a few small DIY tasks that I have to do (badly) which fell in between all the various trades that worked on it. I have some floor edging stuff to do on the stairs and some beading around the wooden cover for the electric box. This is the sort of detail you need of a Sunday I know.

That happened on Friday. All week we’d been braced for the start of the groundwork at the back and despite a promise of Tuesday, a brief visit to check a few things out on Wednesday it wasn’t until Friday that we were told they would definitely be coming. Of course, it had to happen that despite all the available days, both sets of workmen had to be coming on the same day!

Well, thanks to a fire on the M6 our groundwork chaps sat in traffic for four hours before giving it up. So all that happened on that day was the delivery of the digger and dumper truck.

Do not worry, the next day they were here bright and early and things got going. To access the back of our house, there is a ramp around the side and Saturday morning was the first morning since living here that someone had chosen to park in front of the gate that leads to it. So I spent much of early Saturday knocking on neighbour’s doors, asking if they owned said car.

Long story short, we did not get that car moved, but we did find the owner of the one next to it who moved it and allowed the machinery to squeeze past up onto our field.

Naturally, being peak summer, it rained all Saturday whilst they were working, and in the early stages there were definitely some “what have we done?” moments.

It was better for my mental health not to watch too much, to be honest. By the time they left they had made decent progress with only one minor scare when the digger driver thought he was heading for our conservatory.

You can now start to see the shape of what we are trying to do. One big terrace level at the bottom for a table and chairs etc and one smaller terrace above it mainly to stop the field coming into the kitchen and for flower pots and other stuff that I will not be involved in sourcing.

The thing that concerns me most right now is the photo above shows where the digger was left. It has rained for 24 hours and I have visions of the rain eroding….

the earth beneath it and the digger coming down the hill at speed into our only just finished conservatory. I’ll be very glad when they are back tomorrow to move it. They are bringing a smaller digger tomorrow to get down onto the respective new levels to square them off etc. Hopefully, by early next week, we’ll be past the digging bit and into the putting it back together bit.

This is the worst part of any job for me with my aversion to mess and disruption. It still has to get a little bit worse before it starts to get better. Anyway, this huge investment in our outdoor space will be well worth it so that we can enjoy these endless summers we are experiencing so frequently in the UK!

It has been a while since this blog brought you news of any Florida adventures, but that changes today. Last week, Rebecca and Tom booked a holiday for next April and they are, quite rightly, very excited about the whole thing. They are doing ten nights at Animal Kingdom and then four nights Royal Pacific at Universal. They are in the very early planning stages and it will be weird for them having to plan stuff for themselves and even weirder for me to not to take over and try to plan stuff for them! I am trying to strike the balance between helpful advice and meddling idiot. I think we all know which way that may go.

I shall leave you now, as I have a mound of muck with a digger on top of it to stare at for the rest of the day. If you hear on the news about a fat lad up North getting crushed to death by heavy machinery in his conservatory then you’ll know what happened.

Till the next time…..

An Officer and a Moaning Man

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

What sort of idiot would I look like if we still hadn’t got the conservatory finished?

Our chap came on Monday, did a bit, said he needed his helper and would return on Tuesday. He did, with his helper. Then he declared it too hot (it was 34 degrees to be fair) and his silicone was all runny, so he couldn’t finish off. He’s due back tomorrow. By the time this thing is finished, we’ll need a new one.

Anyway, I moved my “office” into the conservatory on Friday, unable to wait any longer. The bits left to do are largely outside and what passes for my office (a chair and a desk) won’t get in the way. Louise isn’t keen on my less than sexy office furniture messing up her lovely new room so they may be in for a swap out at some point.

That blue wing-backed chair doesn’t officially live there but I wasn’t moving it to take a photo! You can see that outside is still in a state of flux too, awaiting the next phase of work.

Nothing has a permanent home outside yet, hence the random covered things strewn around the place. Once we get the next bit done, we can restore some order.

This is what the old conservatory looked like.

What was my office upstairs will be inherited by Emily as a dressing room/bedroom overflow, in an attempt to see what colour the carpet in her bedroom is for the first time since we moved in. She needs the extra space.

On the first day in my new office, it happened to rain for the first time in about two weeks. Of course with the last few jobs outstanding being the final bits of guttering, it was akin to water torture with the many and various drips. Still, it’s a much more pleasant environment to spend 8 hours a day, four days a week in. I spend the other day in my “proper” office in Manchester. Every time I make that journey now, I marvel at how I tolerated doing that commute for five days a week for nearly a decade, and other similar ones for decades before that, without blowing my brains out. It’s funny how what once appeared normal can now feel ludicrous and unnecessary. There was a very large part of my working life where I wore a suit and tie every single day too, and as ridiculous as that concept is to me now, it went unquestioned at the time of course. These days, the most formal I get for four days of the week is to replace my slippers with trainers to walk the dogs. Having to wear jeans for my office day is barely tolerable!

I am braced for the start of what will be some significant groundworks starting this coming week. The mess is isolated to the rear of the garden but I am still not looking forward to it, knowing it will bring mess, unforeseen complexity and stress. A couple of weeks of that and I really hope we can then say goodbye to workmen, disruption and angst for a good while.

Aside from me stressing about minor inconveniences, in more important news, it is Emily’s birthday on Tuesday. Allow me to make you all feel old by telling you she will be 27. The fact that our last workmen thought she was 16 is funny, and I keep telling her that it won’t be long until she enjoys looking so young.

Have a great week and brace yourself for what could be an armageddon of moaning next week if the work goes as I expect it to. Who knows, the conservatory might be finished too.

Till the next time…..

Conservatory…Still Loading.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Imagine if we’d gone a whole other week and still had no progress on finishing the conservatory.

He’s coming tomorrow. Sigh.

Phase 2 of the garden stuff starts a week tomorrow, so by the time the Christmas adverts start in October we should be close to done. We’ve been working hard out in the garden, and I know it’s hard to imagine what could be left to do, as we have no grass now, but the more we do, the more mess we seem to make. Ultimately, until phase 2 is done we’re not going to be in the settled state of the end game.

Louise tended to an unruly bush yesterday and that was long overdue. Today she is planting some flowers in our newly exposed flower bed (it was hidden by said unruly bush) and I spent Saturday tidying up all the mess the various tradesmen have left us with. Broken tiles, window frames, old radiators, doors and a smorgasbord of detritus in various outdoor locations were gathered, bagged and stacked ready for a tip run during the week. I may be a lot of things, but I am not stupid enough to attempt the tip at the weekend.

Rebecca and Tom are in their new place now and it’s lovely, with a much more suitable amount of space for the new size of their family. They’ve been doing what everyone has to do when moving house, namely shifting stuff from one house to another, cleaning and going to Ikea. I popped round to have a look and Freddie gave me the guided tour, full of the excitement only four-year-olds can express. As for Dougie, well it’s safe to say, he changes every day at the moment and there are signs that his character is starting to emerge.

For those of you persisting to read this tripe, over a decade in now, I do offer an apology that there is little of substance at the moment. Yeah, I hear you, when was there ever? With Louise (willingly) tied to Mary’s care, which only becomes more involved and demanding, there are no holiday plans to “entertain” you with, and our lives are a little Groundhoggy right now. Luckily, we have all this work on the house to keep us and you entertained, right?

The joy of listening to some idiot whinge about his first-world problems every Sunday is the very foundation upon which the “success” of this blog has been built on.

The news for most of last week has been full of heat wave warnings and clips of folks eating a Solero, yet up here in the frozen north, we’ve had very little of it, to be honest. It’s been “pleasantly warm” at times, but nothing worthy of uncovering the now many and varied pieces of garden furniture strewn around our new flags. You’d hope, at some point this summer that we might get a chance to use our newly enhanced outdoor space?

I’m sure the temperatures tomorrow and Tuesday are going to be dangerous in places so please do take the warnings seriously and sit in a cold bath with the obligatory Solero. I await the call from the conservatory man to declare the weather too hot to do what he needs to do and we’ll continue to be stalled at 98% completion of the conservatory.

Having worked hard all last weekend and all of this so far, I am now going to make some lunch and attach myself to the couch and watch some of the golf. Who said there was no glamour in this blog?

Till the next time……

I Missed A Bit

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

It turns out those 67 coats of the conservatory ceiling were still not enough and it probably needed one more. Did I mention my hatred for painting freshly plastered ceilings?

We’ve had a frustrating lack of activity on the whole getting things finished this week. Our conservatory man had van issues early in the week and then tested positive for COVID, so he won’t be with us until next week. The angst of being at about 95% completion is like waiting for those last few percentages to load for your new Play Station game when you have average broadband speed like in our front room.

Life continues to be busy and chaotic and we aren’t choosing to just take one day at a time, we just have no choice as we don’t have time to think any further ahead. We are dropping balls all over the place, not speaking to parents as often as we should and not spending time with the girls and grandkids as much as we’d like. Mary has not been well this week and has needed a lot of TLC and more basic and less pleasant attention for a stomach upset, and of course, we continue to try and integrate little Woody into our house. He’s doing OK and finding a routine but he still needs a lot of attention.

Yes, he has his own Instagram account. Blame Emily and Louise for that.

Rebecca and Tom are moving house this weekend. Of course, I feel for anyone going through that experience, as those scars are still very real for me, some eighteen months after we did it. I am hopeful their experience will be better as their move isn’t one all being done in one day so they have got some time to move their stuff over time. They got a lot done yesterday so hopefully, the worst is behind them now.

Dougie is doing well. He recently slept from 10.30 till 5.30 which is better than I normally manage. Obligatory Freddie/Dougie photo incoming.

They were at our house on Friday and I had the pleasure of being able to feed Dougie. Whether it’s wind or an actual smile is there anything more lovely than a baby smiling at you?

I spent all day yesterday painting the conservatory. I know painted windows may be an odd look but we are going with it. Of course, the painting was not of the glass but instead the seemingly small areas of plaster and wood that I thought might take an hour or two but I started at 10 and finished around 5.30. Even after doing two days of the same last weekend. That involved one more coat of the ceiling and two coats of the walls. Thankfully Louise has chosen a darker colour for the walls so just the two coats seem to have done the trick.

Today there were more “finishing touches” to do before we get the last of the construction done by our hopefully soon-to-be COVID-free builder one day next week. As another sign of my surprising DIY prowess, I used a drill this morning and there was no fire, hospital visit or damage to property.

Then it took me another hour to clean all the frames and windows of all the dust, crap and plaster that had happened to them during the construction process. All that work and a long-overdue visit from my Mum and Dad are the reasons for the late hour of posting this thing. I won’t speak of the time spent cleaning all the paint speckles off the floor tiles. I had put covers down but somehow this stuff found its way to the floor.

So with time a precious resource that’s the lot for this week. I’m going tp nip over to Rebecca’s new house now to have a look around. Louise went on Friday as they started the move and will have to stay home with Mary today as she needs 24/7 care.

I hope you’ve enjoyed your sunny weekends and endured less painting than I did. There surely can be nobody on the planet who has spent more of their weekend painting than I? Persecution complex? Never!

Till the next time…..

Punching Kevin McCloud

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

You’d have thought the chaos and stress had peaked last week, looking at the photos I shared, but no. Early this week went to another level, and I don’t mean some mildly successful R&B boy band from the early 2000’s.

This week saw Magic Mike and his mates doing all the cutting of the flags to fill in the bits around the edges. Endless noise (sorry neighbours) and a dust cloud suggesting a volcano had gone off not too far away made for a lovely time.

Sporadic rain also made the endless treks of workmen through our kitchen all the more muddy and lovely and all in all, as with any job of a decent size, you find yourself wondering why you started.

They finished (this phase) on Friday and aside from the wall at the back that looks like a bomb site until phase 2 gets done, (avoided in these photos) the results are below.

Clearly, we have yet to make it all pretty and stuff but at least the “construction” phase is complete.

At the same time, we edged closer with the conservatory, with the plumber coming to change our old radiator to a new one. I’m not saying I am an expert at all things DIY, but I had to show the plumber how to refill our boiler. Just before we moved in, the previous owner fitted a boiler just slightly less advanced than the space shuttle and the plumber had never seen one like it before. Amazingly this sharing of expertise resulted in no discount.

The tiler finished the floor last Sunday and aside from blasting the caked-on dust all over the outside of it, caused by the cutting of the flags, we have some painting to do before we can start to move furniture in and begin to use it. Is there any DIY task more soul-destroying than painting a freshly plastered ceiling? By the looks of the first coat that I applied yesterday another 67 should do the trick.

We have one more day for the builder to do next week, finishing off some guttering, downpipes and snags before a job I thought would take a couple of weeks at the end of April might get done before the end of July.

If Kevin McCloud were to turn up now and have the post-project chat with us, at the point he asked us how we were doing versus our original budget, the only response would be to punch him in the face. These last couple of weeks especially have taken it out of us, whatever it is.

We’ve spent the weekend cleaning up outside and painting, driven by the desire to have some normality back in our lives. If we don’t get some decent weather now I may ring Magic Mike and ask him to come back and return it all to how it was.

As much as the new layout at the back of the house looks better, mainly as the dogs had ruined the lawn by peeing on it, and it was a bit untidy and overgrown, the largest benefit beyond having some lovely outdoor space now is that it is one less patch of grass I have to mow. I have a Flymo going spare if anyone needs one? Only used about a dozen times and is useless to me now for the “big mow” on the field as that one needs the petrol thing we’ve got.

So I must leave you now, as I have a date with destiny in the conservatory. That ceiling won’t paint itself another 67 times. Who knows, by the time we meet again next week we may be approaching something that looks like completion. As much as that will be a relief to all of you reading about endlessly, I know I will be significantly more relieved.

Till the next time…….

A Postcard From Chaos

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Not one to be prone to exaggeration, but this week I have mostly been living in the Apocolypse.

The conservatory build drags on endlessly and to add insult to chaos, we also had Magic Mike and his mates turn up to start turning our back lawn into a patio. I’m not saying good looks go a long way in life, but when the chap came to quote us for that work, he could have said he’d be setting fire to the house as part of his work and Louise would have agreed to go ahead. Apparently, he looks like a young Elvis but with an eight-pack. How do I know he has an eight-pack? Well, thanks to the warm weather he and his mates walked up our drive drenched in baby oil, with their budgie smuggler shorts on ready to start work.

Despite the warm weather I have had to keep my top on as I did not want to intimidate them.

In a normal house, turning a lawn into a patio is fairly simple. But when the access to the back of your house is via a near-vertical hill then it becomes challenging. The comedy show of watching them trying to get a mini digger down that incline was too horrible to watch.

Almost as horrible as the scale of their quote, but we’ve been trying for a year to find someone brave enough to take it on, so needs must.

My aversion to chaos is peaking this week as all this and the conservatory is coming to a head simultaneously. We’ve had electricians here, plumbers not here (coming next week, honest), tilers and the builders finishing off, all whilst The Chippendales are romping around the back garden causing absolute destruction to my property. At one point one of them was doing the boy band thing under our hosepipe. No wonder I am constantly objectified as a piece of meat just because of the way I look!

Wandering around where our garden used to be, when it is still in the “destroy” phase is just horrifying to me. My brain is looking for completion, tidiness and a lack of chaos and it cannot even foresee a time when that might be the case again. It causes me anxiety and stress like nothing else.

I’ll remind you that we have a new cat who can’t go out yet (perfect with workmen in and out all day) and a puppy not yet house trained. So every day we are herding them into various rooms to avoid them running out and simultaneously trying to find somewhere the puppy can pee that isn’t our living room rug. I’m so stressed my hair is growing back.

Then, to add to my wonderful week, on Tuesday I tested positive for Covid. I had felt rough for a little while and it was getting much worse on Tuesday, so I tested. I was genuinely shocked to see the double lines and spent a few days feeling ill.

Then on Wednesday evening, our lovely neighbour popped round on the verge of a mental breakdown/arrest hurling all sorts of abuse at us because some soil from our digging had gone into his garden. To cut a long story short we told him where to go in very direct terms and not long after, he came to apologise to me and has since sought Louise out to do the same. He has a track record for this stuff and despite his sheepish apology, I’m pretty sure this won’t be the last such episode.

I cannot wait for a time in the hopefully not too distant future when we have our house and lives back. My kingdom for some normality.

In a way it is fortunate we have no travel plans as the current chaos there would perhaps tip me over the edge. It seems we now live in a country where doing things like going on holiday is too complex. I’d ponder how we got here, but you get what you vote for I guess. If I keep expressing my views on the shower in power then I may be able to get myself on a flight, but to Rwanda rather than Florida. I have heard it is simultaneously lovely there, so nobody should have an issue with refugees going there and at the same time so awful that it will deter refugees from coming here. Makes perfect sense.

Here’s to a calmer week to come. Hopefully the garden should reach the “putting it back together” stage and we can make some tangible progress getting the conservatory habitable. What could possibly go wrong?

Till the next time…..

Look, I Am Your Father

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

As with all parents, we have had our fair share of trips to A&E, worries and mishaps. Being the parents of two girls may have lessened the frequency of our trips to A&E a little but probably not too much.

Last week saw some signs for Rebecca and Tom that they may not be so fortunate. With two boys now, and with Tom capable of being a third child in shenanigans and roughhousing, I can see a fair amount of bumps and bruises in their future.

Last week Freddie spent time at A&E after an accident at home. After some initial panic, he was fine and will suffer no long-term effects. If you are a parent of boys it may not surprise you too much to learn that this visit to the hospital was actually nothing to do with the video below.

This took place a few days after his accident and did not result in any injury. To his great credit after a hug and some encouraging words, he got right back on the thing and had a great time. The only thing more shocking than Freddie falling off the bike was the speed at which Tom’s brother moved to get to him!

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of all-action stuff for kids, of course, it is all a part of growing up. It’s just the stress and worry inflicted on parents that may also result in a need for medical treatment. As Rebecca said when she sent us this video, “these boys will be the death of me”. Indeed.

As today is Father’s Day it’s a good time to reflect on all things parenting and although we may be beyond the fear of one of Emily or Rebecca falling off a swing, slide or even mini motorbike, the shape of worry just changes. At times, I would go back to scraped knees and the odd trip to the hospital for a minor injury but I certainly would not go back to the late teens angst of boyfriend drama and some of the horrendous choices they both made at that time. If you’re coming up on that phase with your daughters then, you have my best wishes.

At my stage of life, we then move into the role reversal of looking after our own parents as they inevitably start to succumb to the perils of old age. Whether that be the physical care of Louise’s Mum of course, for which I tip my hat to Louise, or whether it is telling your Dad not to click that link in that dodgy message on Facebook as it is a scam, it is all done without a second thought as it is just returning the favour from all those years ago.

Being a full-time carer as Louise currently is, needs a certain type of person. It can be relentless, exhausting and heartbreaking. It’s a necessary but not necessarily pleasant part of the circle of life.

My own Dad (and Mum) are coming round later for a Father’s day meal, along with Rebecca, Tom, Freddie and Dougie. Three generations of Dads around the table. I wonder how many hours in A&E we have clocked up amongst us and how many more Tom might have to endure. If you are celebrating your Dad today, or anyone who has that role in your life, I hope it’s a good one and hopefully they can all have a stress-free, non-hospital-based 24 hours. It’s probably the best present they can get.

Till the next time…….

Do It (To) Yourself.

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon, Walt Disney World

As if we are once again in some days gone by, transported back to the latter end of 2021, I bring you important travel news that you will all be aware of already. The need to provide a negative COVID test prior to departure for the US ends today, at least for those fully vaccinated.

There’s a weariness to this news as if a long exorcised ghost has returned to haunt us once again. I mean, imagine if all these years after the vote we were still talking about sorting Brexit out? Right? I suppose with COVID our weariness does not defeat the thing.

With no travel plans in place, I feel like I have lost all touch with what may be required to go on holiday but with testing now gone, at least some of the anticipation and excitement can return in the countdown to a trip. The ever-present sword of Damocles of that last-minute test I know was a huge source of stress in our countdown, so being rid of that, hopefully for good, is a positive step. One small move in the direction of re-capturing some of the magic that we all used to treasure.

From my brief scanning of social media around the Disney experience, that seems to go from bad to worse. I also saw that there were some boardroom shenanigans at Disney recently, with the CEO coming under some pressure. I have no clue if he is directly linked to the poorly perceived park experiences, or whether those calls are made further down the hierarchy, but ultimately I suppose he is responsible and needs to carry the can. It does seem that a lot of the Disney internet community blame him completely for the state of things. The Disney share price is in the toilet, but I suppose as long as crowd levels are high and revenues up, he will probably be OK for the time being.

It is very strange to not have that absolute compulsion and obsession to return. I have not been without that for decades. I am still of the feeling that, for now, the cost and complexity of attempting WDW parks are too high. The squeeze is not worth the juice. As a man who loves a plan that seems silly, but having to be up at 6.30am to fight for the privilege of buying Genie+ and then hoping to get some decent use out of it does not feel like a holiday. As for the best rides, well, as long as we don’t stay on-site, those experiences will be denied to us, even if paying around $10 each to do so were acceptable, which is quite frankly, a disgrace, and Walt should be spinning in his cryogenic chamber.

Recently I have found myself, when asked by those who know I have done a bit of Disney over the years about going for the first time, trying to put them off. They look at me quizzically at first but as I begin to lay out the levels of complexity and planning required to go to a theme park, it starts to make sense to them. That is all before the cost of everything is laid bare.

It feels like a loved one is currently held hostage and I just hope and pray they are returned to us at some point and we can resume the relationship we have had for many decades. Driving massive crowds to parks with limited availability and huge queues by continually adding accommodation without expanding the parks or adding a new one or two is not sustainable in my view. Especially when those excessive crowds are then denied the previously free method of getting on a ride or two and made to pay extra for the “privilege”. Yes, investment is being made in new attractions, but they are typically replacing old ones and will only serve to increase the crowds and demand even further. That fifth gate is desperately needed.

I’d have had more empathy for Disney if they had come out and said COVID has been hard for us and we need to do a ticket price increase beyond the norm to keep the experience as you expect it. Adding $10 a day to everyone’s ticket would have generated much more revenue and pissed off fewer guests in my view, leaving the free FastPass+ system as it was.

Before posting this I was watching one of those House In The Sun programmes whilst breakfasting. A family were looking for a holiday home and of course, considered properties all around the places we all know so well. Of course, with these programmes you know they could have been made at any point between the 1990s and yesterday and with that in mind, it is not too shocking to hear that it stirred a yearning for the “that” Florida. Whilst I am currently not on the best terms with the WDW parks, I miss Florida and how I feel when I am there. Our return is inevitable but as yet unplannable.

In real-life news, my Dad has spent a few days in hospital this week. I won’t go into the details but he had some treatment that seems to have massively helped and hopefully he will be home in the next few days. One major downside of getting old is that parents do too and inevitably incur health issues. I do not like this, so if that could stop I would appreciate it.

Louise’s Mum, Mary, continues to bounce back from a recent suspected minor stroke a couple of weeks ago. She too went through a bad time a month or so ago with a prolonged hospital stay, with pneumonia, but is thankfully now making good progress in recovering from both of those things. She is a tough old boot as they say.

Rebecca is making her own recovery too from her C section, with her scar causing some concern and trouble. I suppose having a baby freed from your stomach is apparently quite a big thing and your body does not appreciate it. Dougie and Freddie are both doing very well and are very much welcome positive beams of light in our lives.

I am hopeful that the week to come may be the final week of conservatory disruption. The builder doing it had the absolute gall to go on holiday for a week last week, so it has been stood progress-less for that time, and my OCD-driven hatred of tasks being incomplete has been rife for that time. Luckily just as this work is coming to an end, we are “hoping” to have someone start flagging our back garden. I can’t wait!

As Radiohead once said, you do it to yourself, you do, and that’s what really hurts.

If you can’t end a blog post with an oblique song lyric, are you even trying?

Till the next time……

Would Ju-Believe It?

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

I can’t be sure but I think I heard something about some royal celebration? Did I get that wrong? I turned on the telly and I couldn’t see much about it.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against the Queen. I thoroughly enjoyed The Crown, I have bought many of her stamps over the years and I’m sure she brings in a few quid for the country, but I have reached Jubilee fatigue now. If I see one more interview with a “member of the public” recounting a six-second meeting with the Queen a few decades ago I may have to gouge my own eyes out.

None of their “meeting Queenie” stories can top mine of course. In 2012, I had a deep and meaningful encounter with Her Majesty, as you can see here.

There can’t be many folks who can claim the Queen did a driveby on them. This picture was taken from my then office in Manchester. It was during the hipster start-up phase of my career, which mainly involved writing on windows, not selling very much and the owner changing his mind every six minutes. I returned to the comforting monotony of corporate life some six months later.

A lack of respect for the Jubilee this weekend is probably about as popular as my tweeting about Sunlit Uplands, but as much as I wish her well, it’s all got a bit much. I’ve appreciated the four day weekend of course. I’ve had no work to get in the way of puppy minding. It will not shock you to learn that my weekend has involved some mowing, but only on the regular lawn and not the big field. I mowed that for the first time this year three weeks ago and I think I just made it angry. It has grown back with a deep and meaningful vengeance. I may decide to leave it as a nature supporting, wildflower meadow this year. The only trouble with that idea is that Woody’s little legs can’t cope with blades of grass above a couple of inches high and he has very much enjoyed his times on our field so far. I can see another three to four hours with a mower in my not too distant future.

Anyway, away from committing treason, most of my week has been spent outside waiting for Woody to wee. His first few days here were blessed with November-like weather, which was especially pleasant. I struggle to relax with a puppy in the house, treating them as a ticking time bomb, and mentally counting down from the last time he emptied himself. So I tend to be outside with him on the regular.

It is too early to say, but there are signs that he is starting to get the message now and if he’s anywhere close to ready he will immediately wee as he gets outside. Don’t get me wrong, there have been 45-minute battles of will under an umbrella, with him darting to the back door every two seconds and me telling him we aren’t going in until he wees. I’ll let you guess who has won these battles to date.

He sleeps well though. We’ve not had any nights yet where he has cried more than a minute or two before settling down and despite a slightly earlier rise than normal it hasn’t been too bad.

Hades, our newly inherited cat, has settled pretty well too. He’s had the occasional forlorn wailing session but we suspect it is because he still has his bits and bobs and there are two (neutered) female cats in the house. He will be “done” soon. What a welcome to the household! Here he is looking as if he knows what I just typed.

It’s raining again today here in the Costa Del Darwen, so more fun and games with Woody and his weeing. Wishing you a more pleasant Sunday than that!

Till the next time…..

He Wouldn’t? Woody?

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Last week’s post saw me bemoaning all my stresses, strains and tribulations. In the context of how bad some folks have it, of course, it ain’t so bad, but busy and stressful it is.

So it would make perfect sense then in these circumstances to go out and get a puppy right?

With my usual level of input on things we commit to for about a decade, Louise brought Woody home last week. We have of course been considering getting another dog at some point in the future for a while. Whilst I did not agree that this was that point, here he is.

He is a Daschund. The fact that I am not sure how to spell that highlights my involvement so far. He is of course a cutie and seems to be settling in pretty well. My great fear when getting a new dog is always the horror and pain of house training. It stresses me out and I find myself dragging the poor bugger outside every ten minutes telling him to do something he has no clue about.

In the few days we’ve had him he’s been doing OK. He usually does what he needs to outside and on the odd occasion we don’t have him out at the right time he’s finding a puppy pad.

The other big worry with a new puppy is of course nighttime. It is very early days there too, but so far, with not too much whimpering, he’s then settled down for long enough for us to get some kip.

As we can never have enough pets, it seems we may also be adopting Rebecca’s cat, Hades. He’s a hairy thing and they fear all that fur is causing issues for Dougie. When we bought a farmhouse it seems we knew what was coming.

In other news, the frames and glass for our conservatory turned up and, miraculously and thankfully, the next day so did the chap who was fitting them. So they are in and the room exists again and we are water tight and secure at the back of the house again. There’s a good number of days of work yet and then we have to get the floor tiled and do some cosmetics but there is (a lot of light) at the end of that tunnel.

I’ll share some photos once we are done. It will be a huge cosmetic improvement of course but the old one may not have have survived another winter and it was that magical mix of freezing in winter and sauna like in summer and often less than water tight in heavy rain. The new one has a “proper” roof and better glass so hopefully it will be somewhere in the middle now.

Time for blogging is at a premium so apologies for the brevity but it’s time to stand outside for twenty minutes again until Woody has a wee.

Till the next time…..

Dougie, Doggies and What We’ve Been Doing

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

This is the first non-holiday blog in forever so let’s see if I can remember how this works.

Let’s start with the obvious update. Last Sunday morning little Dougie joined us and due to an arduous birthing process and one that we should not repeat please Rebecca, he and his Mum did not come home until Wednesday.

The thing that Rebecca had been yearning for was to introduce Dougie to his big brother who had been patiently waiting at home unable to visit the hospital, along with the rest of us apart from Tom, due to Covid regulations.

Here is the moment they met.

It’s fair to say they have been inseparable ever since.

Rebecca is recovering well after her emergency C section and thankfully all the drama of that is behind us. For those eating and/or a little squeamish that is all we shall say about that.

We got our chance for a hold and a squeeze of Dougie on Thursday evening and it was glorious.

So that’s a delight and a relief!

The last time I wasn’t doing trip report things here, we were just about to go away to Florida (maybe, depending on Omicron…remember that?) and Louise’s Mum suffered a stroke. She went into hospital in late December, which led to Louise staying home to look after her. Mary came out of the hospital in early January and came to live with us, under the expert care of Louise who has given up her job to look after her Mum.

It would take too long to go through all the ups and downs of this past almost six months now but safe to say it has been a mix of good times and tricky ones, both in terms of Mary’s health and the challenges presented in caring for her. She was back in hospital recently with pneumonia but is home with us once again now.

Outside of that, just to add some spice to life, we are halfway through getting our conservatory replaced and you all know how I love having jobs done around the house with all the mess and disruption that goes with them.

There is some sad news since we last “spoke” about our lovely Old English Sheepdog, Oli. Sadly we lost him unexpectedly in late January and we were all incredibly upset. Time helps, but I still get overcome with it at points when things remind me. Everyone says it, but he was truly a special dog and a huge part of our lives. It still hasn’t really sunk in that we won’t see him again. It happened so suddenly that I still feel traumatised by the events of that evening. All these months later I still find myself expecting to see him in his favourite spots around the house.

Our other dog, Bean, has been soaking up all the extra affection and attention (and food) since we lost Oli. In her bereaved state, Louise finally let Bean up on the couch and she seems quite happy about that situation.

In other animal news, and we have a lot, you may remember that Emily has pet rats? Well, there have been turbulent times there too with three of those sadly passing away in recent times. They all have a forever resting place in our field now and Emily has added a couple of new babies to her collection. They really are lovely pets and cute little buggers and if only pets didn’t pass away that would be great.

So with all that and my work being especially busy and stressful in recent times, it has not been a time of great peace and quiet, but when is life ever?

As mentioned towards the end of the trip report we unusually have zero holiday plans. Louise especially is in need of one, but that isn’t possible for now. I have finally watched a vlog now though. Only one, and perhaps it is quite telling that it was a Universal one, but maybe the urge to return is slowly starting to awaken from its slumber. However, the more I read and remember about the WDW park situation now, the more that cost and complexity just make me reluctant to go through that stress. I have enough of that in real life. We all know we’ll return at some point of course. I can only hope by that time it is recognisable as the WDW we love so much.

So there we go, a whirlwind recap and you are up to date I think. I have no doubt forgotten some stuff but that’s enough for anyone on a Sunday.

Till the next time…….

Say Hello….

by mkingdon, posted in mkingdon

Hello again, it’s been a while since there has been any non-trip report bloggage. I hope you are all well.

Even before we went away, the previous seemingly endless months were just me making inaccurate guesses and predictions about travel restrictions and moaning about having to rearrange a holiday four hundred times.

So today would be the post where I would typically catch you up on everything that has been happening in the four months since we got home. I’ll probably save that for next week as today, with absolutely perfect timing, we have a new arrival in the family.

Please say hello to Dougie.

He arrived at 5.56 this morning weighing an eye-watering 9lbs 15oz. We are so relieved proud and in love all at the same time. Much like almost all of the pregnancy, his delivery was not straightforward, but all that matters now is that he, Rebecca and Tom are through it and everyone is safe and well.

It looks like Rebecca and Dougie may be staying in for a few days so I’m not sure when we will get to meet him yet but obviously we can’t wait. He has cheeks that just need a good squishing!

So that’s all I wanted to say today. This is Dougie’s post on his special day. A huge well done to Rebecca for getting him here and for Tom for getting her through it. Freddie will be an excellent big brother I’m sure and becoming a Grandad for the second time is just too awesome for someone as average at writing as me to convey.

Be braced for Dougie photo spam in the coming weeks. I make zero apologies.

Till the next time….