This blog would be a painful place if it were merely to host an ever-increasing level of moaniness between now and August, about how we aren’t going away. It is indeed going to be that, but I feel it only right and proper to tell you.
With that disclosure done, we go on. Oh arse, that just reminds me of Reflections of Earth.
Any excuse for an ROE picture
That is the problem when you have spent every holiday since 1999 in WDW. To illustrate that point, whilst lay in bed this morning I also calculated that over the past eleven years or so, we have spent about 26 weeks in Florida. That’s more than half a year! We are practically residents. No wonder we are pining for home.
What could be similarly boring in a blog, is blogging about what you blogged about before. So we’ll do some of that too.
Last week’s blog (the doughnut burger experience) broke a few records in terms of readers. I was also really pleased to have the Teak Neighbourhood Grill spot it, and retweet it out to their followers and post it on their Facebook page.
How strange must they think we are that some seven or eight months after eating a burger in a bar in Orlando, we get together to recreate it, and then some idiot writes it all down!!
I got all sorts of reactions from all sorts of folks. People I never knew read my blog got in touch to express delight, revulsion and incredulity in fairly equal measure. As they say different strokes for different folks and all that.
So onto this week. As many of you will already be aware, Louise passed her first set of nursing exams this week. She was, as ever, convinced she wouldn’t, but in the end scored an impressively high mark. Her current placement is proving to be testing (to put it politely) but hopefully the positive news about her exam will gird her loins enough to get through it, and then enjoy the rest of the course. After this placement it is one year down, and two to go.
Whether we go to WDW or not any time soon, I am also planning our longer term trips (I am truly talented in this way, and I can have multiple trips percolating all at the same time), once she has qualified.
Not only will she earn more than she does now, but also both the girls will be out of full-time education, and we shall no longer be tied to the extortionate and sadistic mid summer flight prices. My heart is already leaping at the prospect of securing flights in the quieter periods of the year.
It will be like travelling back in time to when we first started going, and I sometimes do flight searches now for those off-peak times just to see some results come up that don’t start with a 7 or higher! It is both torture and joy combined.
Enough WDW whining I think.
We are getting used to Louise working shifts, including weekends. Yesterday it was just the girls and I, so I suppose that more or less made me “in charge”. We managed OK, and were even able to work the washer and attempt some rudimentary cleaning!
Today has been one of those lazy days, with us not getting out of bed till late morning. A delicious sausage and egg sandwich to start the day was then followed by, well, not a right lot really. I took Emily out for more driving, and she is really improving.
From the initial terror I felt sat in the passenger seat, I am now relatively relaxed when she is driving. Her overall control of the car is fine, and she can in fact actually drive now. The real work to do is around how to park, reverse and generally manoeuvre the thing at slow speed in small spaces.
Whether it is the heart wrenching fear and angst of their first day at nursery, their terrifying start at secondary school or them handling half a ton of metal at high-speed, they are just one long set of woe, worry and mietheration. The trick is recognising that this is all part of that often quoted Circle of Life, and trying to enjoy the ride, rather than shouting out STOP as she brings the car to halt seven inches short of that lamp-post as she parks the car up back at home. It is also important to recognise and appreciate that they are worth it too.
I’ll try harder next time, but I’m not that hopeful.
I shall leave you with a new picture of Oli, taken by Emily. For no other reason than I love it….
So the week just gone was rife with the pain and misery of the return to work. It has been many years since I had to endure going back so early after New Year so the pain felt was acute.
My early return was required mainly as I had a new chap starting work and felt it slightly unfair to allow him to spend three days sat wondering where the toilets were. Those three days felt longer than most full weeks, but I suppose that was always going to be the case.
The one positive from such a situation is that this initial pain is done and dusted and I can now sit and watch those endure it tomorrow as the late starters join me to sit still on the motorway tomorrow morning.
To make the week simply fly by, we have been enthralled and entertained by photos sent back home from those Williams’ currently enjoying WDW.
Nephew George with Piglet
With the size of the party travelling, they are getting around on some sort of double-decker bus.
The fun bus
You can only imagine how images like this have been helping the diet
Oreo Cheesecake
As is tradition on any Williams journey to Florida, a birthday is to be celebrated. This time it was my Dad who did it in his usual understated style. Apparently, he wore the hat all day.
Where did you get that hat?
They head home tomorrow (Monday), and if I were that way inclined to take solace from the pain of others, my own recently endured return to work woes will be a gnat on the arse of an elephant compared to that about to be endured by the returning tribe from Orlando. Apart from my Mum & Dad of course who will just go back to being retired and not going to work in a different country.
So if you have been one of those lazing at home for those wonderful extra few days since New Year, this is probably one of the worst Sunday nights of the year. I look upon you with a mix of pity, sympathy and gloaty supremacy. Don’t worry, as bad as you think it is going to be will be nothing compared to how it actually will turn out. I speak from recent experience.
Oh and after only a few hours at work, Louise and I had one of those text conversations that more often than not end up on a flights web site with a smoking credit card. Fear not, we remained strong, and no bookings were made. We were caught up in the madness for a few short moments but the sobering cost of flights and the lack of a method of payment that might be accepted swiftly brought us down to earth again……with an enormous and bone-shattering bump. It hurt.
So be warned, the pain of the return to work (especially if family members are sending you hourly updates of WDW activities) can make you do crazy things. Let’s be careful out there!
I know that I may have mentioned my illness in semi-jocular stati this week, but bloody hell I have been rough. The standard cold symptoms randomly brought their great mates heart burn and muscular aches, and just as I was hopeful of waving the bugger off over this weekend it has thrown one hell of a farewell party. Over the past two days I have experienced pain unlike any other. I’d call it a headache, but it isn’t really. It is more eye ache!
A searing pressure like pain right in the middle of my eyeballs. It hurt…like proper big boy pain, and I don’t like it. As you know I handle pain and illness well so you really wouldn’t have known had you been here.
Today has been a slight improvement with no such repeat of that, and apart from feeling like I have been battered with a big stick, there are signs of recovery. I have done nothing today which has really helped. Well, I took Oli out, and had the intention of cutting my toenails, but I haven’t managed that yet!
Being below par has been really frustrating. I had a heavy week at work, with stuff going on that couldn’t be interrupted by illness so I took my germs to Marlow for two days. What joy I felt in my deluxe suite in which I stay, wrapped in a blanket hugging the lukewarm radiator watching crap football. Who says executive travel isn’t glamorous? By the time I got to Friday I was no good to anyone and crawled home mid afternoon and went straight to bed for a bit.
Still, a productive week, with a key supplier decided upon for a very important project and a key person, with actual technical skills rather than my invented ones, recruited to help me do it. Snot and success in unequal measure….there was much more snot!
So let’s put all that illness behind us (I hope). Some regular sleep and less snot will help so fingers crossed.
Affairs of the teenage heart have been in play this week too, with some “stuff” going with Rebecca and her friend who is a boy. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it now, there is nothing harder than watching one of them going through pain and not jumping right in the middle and knocking heads together or off altogether.
I am biting my metaphorical tongue, and hoping it all gets sorted out without too much upset, and the need for me to remove limbs.
Talking about removing limbs, Oli also came pretty close to losing a couple whilst I was away. It seems that he left a large and damp message all over our bed, and those of you who sees Louise’s facebook updates will have appreciated her slight displeasure at this.
Thursday saw me travelling about in London, and whilst doing so coordinating my parents and a cleaning company to all work together before we got home to make sure we had something clean to sleep on.
My Dad sorted the duvet to the launderette, and Chem Dry turned up to sort the mattress. Apparently they do a lot of work for hotels, so are used to similar work but I suspect for different fluids!
There are lots of theories about why Oli would do this, as he is superb at doing his stuff only where he should, always has been, so we are a bit baffled. I wonder if it is connected to me being away, and him marking his territory in some way, but to be safe he isn’t going upstairs again anytime soon.
Just to remind us not to kill him here he is looking cute and lovable.
Adorable???
By the time we did get home on Thursday we were mostly sorted, and even had time to nip to my brother’s for a drink and pie celebration of his birthday. I had soft drinks and lots of pie, as you need to feed a cold of course.
The other bit of news to share with you this week will hopefully be in the happy to hear category. After the bitter disappointment in the summer for my Mum & Dad who had to cancel their trip to Florida with us with days to go, they are now booked to go just after Christmas. Alas, we are not playing host, rather my brother and his family. The party will be a huge one, nine in total, with his two elder children each taking their partner, so I think they have hired a coach to get them around. Good luck with that!!
All Aboard!
So I am offering some tips, mainly on where to find a donut burger, which my brother is slightly more interested in that my sister-in-law who I’m guessing won’t be partaking.
So here’s to a week of better health as we hurtle towards December. Someone might want to tell the telly that it isn’t December yet, cos if I see another version of the same advert from a bloody supermarket in November I might go and wee on their bed.
Why have they all gone for the same advert this year? A stressed mum being the xmas hero. I have no beef (or turkey) with the idea, but once you’ve seen it 48 times before December starts a dirty protest is the only solution. Maybe Oli was ahead of me there?
So it’s only taken the two months, but yesterday saw the 2012 trip report finally put to bed. During those two months, it has at times felt like a millstone around my neck. With the new job and new house it has had to take its place behind those two things. However, literally as I put the last full stop on the last sentence, it made me a little sad.
As ever finishing these reports absolutely puts the holiday to bed, and that is sad of course. Naturally a holiday forever sits in our memories adding interest to our nostalgia assets for years to come, and it does seem that a holiday just had can take a few months or years to be fully appreciated.
As well as those thoughts, I of course always regret having dashed several days off in a hurry, and wish I could go back and do them again without time being against me.
I mentioned in the final thoughts of the final day that this trip report may be the last one, and I’m sure that was greeted with scorn and derision, as of course for a decade now we’ve not been going next year. This year’s threat seems to be the closest I can remember to becoming a reality though. Even with unlimited funds I highly doubt Louise could be tempted to do another WDW based trip.
I agree to a certain extent. Naturally should someone shove four plane tickets in my hand and point me in a Trans-Atlantic direction I would gladly go and do WDW all over again. However, we are being drawn to other spots in the US. Should we be blessed with a lottery win I would whisk the family away on a Stephen Fry style tour of all the states, taking in the diverse nature of the various parts of the US.
Back in reality I suspect as and when funds become available we’ll do the West Coast thing next. So expect that trip report any time in the next decade.
Away from holidays and their associated reports I have been unable to avoid DIY this weekend. Parts of the kitchen need decorating. The previous residents had an unhealthy obsession with sauna style wood panelling, and I am attempting to turn it white. Two coats in, plus the assistance of my Dad and there is still no real sign of an end game.
The decorating is an evil necessity as we are to host the family for Christmas this year. So that totals twelve folks. Louise made this kind and generous offer at the wrong end of a bottle of red, and despite the fact we can seat six for dinner at a push with some emergency chairs, twelve it is. Add in a four stone sheep dog and our house should be an adventure come the big day!
Once I have finished painting the sponge like walls there is also some wallpapering to do, and the dreaded glossing.
On a different note you may remember me bemoaning a journey home from Marlow on a Friday afternoon? You may also recall me swearing an oath never to leave myself in that situation again?
So on Friday I had to drive home from Marlow. It was pretty much unavoidable. I left a little earlier but it did little to ease the pain. The M6 was gruesome and the M40 joined in too, not wanting to be left out. I crawled out of the car some five or so hours later, defeated by some bitumen or should that be bitch-umen.
I will make no similar vow that such a thing won’t happen again, but I’ll try really hard not to make the mistake again, and if I do, definitely not to moan about it again here.
It certainly took it
I don’t think I’ve done a family update for a bit so you can have one.
Last week saw me attend Rebecca’s Parent’s Evening. Despite the fact that appointments are booked every time, they are then systematically ignored by everyone, and it is just a case of grab a teacher your child recognises as soon as the seats at their desk become free.
She is doing OK. She could pass the whole lot at GCSE, but the recurring theme is she needs to apply a little more effort. I tried my best at motivational speaking as we walked home again afterwards. I suspect it will have little effect as Rebecca was just too cold to listen to me. This was because she didn’t listen to me earlier when I told her she’d need her big coat on as it was really cold even though it is only a five-minute walk. The trials of fatherhood.
She also has the distraction of her Tom. If Tom tells her she needs a coat it would be accepted without question! You can but advise and guide, as they don’t listen much anyway.
Emily is progressing well with her driving, being told by her instructor to concentrate on her theory now as she needs to get that sorted and passed as by that time she should be ready for her test. It really does feel odd watching her drive off in a car for her lessons. This week was the wonders of the roundabout. After being extremely nervy to begin with she seems to have found her confidence now, and is enjoying her lessons.
In her spare time she has taken to sheep dog fancy dress!
Nurse OliRoger Wilco!
Louise finished her first placement in a hospital on Friday much to her relief. It has been hard work, fitting in shifts and coursework as well of course as the grueling work of a nurse on a hospital ward. Some of the tales she tells of tubes, puss, vile body parts and in some cases viler patients confirm my conviction that I absolutely could not do that job. She is back to the less intense University elements of her course now until January.
Onto the wider family, and my Dad is still wrestling with the insurance company over his non-holiday with us. I am not one to suggest that these insurance companies use delaying tactics, but they have written back (by snail mail) half a dozen times to request extra and different snippets of information that they could have requested on the original claim form. Some of their clients might just give it up as the effort is too big, but they are fighting a losing battle with my Dad.
His persistence is only equaled by his retired free time, so they may as well just write the cheque and have done with it. We are also keeping him nice and busy with our DIY requirements. He’s in the middle of a project to un-damp our cellar which should keep him going for the next few weeks!
Mum is doing better. She’s had a couple of relapses into pain, but generally she’s doing OK. She saw a consultant last week who seems to have settled on a diagnosis of Irritable Bowel Syndrome, which was pretty much what we all thought before the dozens of tests and weeks of pain. Anyway, she’s on the relevant medication now, and we’ll see how that goes.
So that’s it I think. I had considered another vitriolic rant about the ways of the world, but thought better of it. The ending of the last/latest trip report is worthy of a mention both in appreciation of the time and effort spent on it and as a nod of respect to what could be the last of its kind. What do you mean you don’t believe me????
Just as I start to think I a recovering from post WDW blues, someone does something which brings all those thoughts and longings back.
Twitter is a cruel mistress
As much as I do feel honoured that the chap or chapess who runs the Applebees twitter account found me and decided I was worthy of a follow, as I read that email it hurt.
There were two reasons for this. Firstly it was 4.43am. I was just about to set off down south to get to Head Office for a couple of days, but secondly and mainly it reminded me that the joys of an Ultimate Trio at an Applebees was so beyond my reach that the pain was tangible.
I suspect it is more likely that Applebees will open up some UK branches before we get to go back. That’s right, I am declaring right here, as is my annual tradition, that I don’t think we’ll be back next year. The new house demands attention like a naughty toddler, and more than that, it demands whatever disposable income we are likely to stumble across.
I won’t go on about it, as we all know that isn’t the first time I have been here, so we’ll leave it there and wait and see. It is Emily’s 18th next July, and she has been less than subtle in declaring where she wants to be for it, but that doesn’t magic up the multiple thousands of pounds required, regardless of the amount of guilt I would feel if we didn’t do something special for her.
In real world matters, Louise’s back is improving, thanks to some physio and lots of medication. She should be returning to her hospital placement tomorrow which is excellent news. The physio seems to think that the back problems are caused by a long-standing ankle problem which is forcing Louise to walk in a way that compensates for the pain she feels, and this in turn throws her pelvis and back out of kilter, and leads to her back “going” from time to time. So the end game is to resolve the ankle thing.
The first step (pun intended) in this process is naturally to throw away the £50 trainers she has had for a few weeks and buy some new ones which will be better suited to her needs. Smashing. Should anyone want a pair of black Sketchers that have been worn about six times do let me know. Best price guaranteed!
With Louise mobile again, I am hopeful that we will tonight complete a long-held ambition to enjoy a night with a Bat Man costume in a darkened room. This is not a Shades of Grey type reference, more a 50 pounds of Pick n Mix reference as we are heading for the cinema. Our local Cineworld is still showing the Dark Knight film, despite the fact it has been out since July, and having heard nothing but good things I intend to snack up, settle down and slob out for a couple of hours.
Next week sees me in Manchester, Marlow and London, none of which have an Applebees and this is something I am struggling to come to terms with.
However, my pain is but a low throb compared to the white-hot burning heat of a post WDW depression that @tweetwizzo is feeling right about now, having recently landed back in the UK. He’ll be starting his trip report soon so look out for it. At the rate I am getting through mine, not only will he finish his before me, he will probably have had another holiday too.
Mind you, neither of us seem to be enduring a lack of mojo on a scale to compare with Gordon (The_Finkelstein) who hasn’t been seen much since his return back in the early days of summer. I am thinking of hosting a 24 hour telethon appeal to get him the support he needs in these tough times.
Right, I must go. The X Factor repeat has come on the telly so I need to go and throw it out of the window.
Apologies for blogless Sunday, and this is just a very quick post to confirm that we have indeed made it back home in more or less one piece.
There is perhaps a little more of me sat typing this than typed the last blog update, but such are the perils of a Florida holiday and I am classing every extra pound as a badge of honour for our latest adventure.
The trip report has started, but only just, and Day One, can be found over at the Dibb. Day Two has not yet been started but I hope to get to it this week. Work has had me all over the place since getting back, both mentally and physically. I’m away again Tuesday evening, and this, as it did last week, should give me the time to get it done. There is little else to do in the bustling Metropolis of Marlow (no offence Marlowians).
We are all back into our respective routines, me as I said above, right in the deep end of a load of new work stuff on my return, the girls into their own important school and college years (we’ll have one doing GCSEs and one doing A levels this year!), and Louise’s nursing course now has her in her placement doing some actual nursing.
She’s doing shifts and all sorts, and working hard, as nurses do, but she is enjoying it which is the main thing.
I won’t steal any of my own thunder by talking about the holidays, but I will give you this photo, as I think it made it to Facebook via Emily anyway.
Don’t knock it till you try it!
This was without doubt the tastiest thing Emily and I ate all holiday. Honestly. Right there on that plate are about half the pounds I gained! I shall leave the rest of the story to the trip report, and await the varied comments from “Yum” to “Vomit”.
Normal service next Sunday hopefully, but I shall keep bloggage light so that I can spend the time getting more days done.
I should also encourage anyone who doesn’t already to follow Wizzo from the Dibb, as he is about to embark on what I think is his sixth trip in as many months…something like that anyway. @Tweetwizzo is what you need if you twitter, and I’m sure he will be treating us to food porn and extreme gloating pretty much from Wednesday onwards, and I don’t hold it against him one bit!
So dear readers this looks like the last blog before we embark on our latest American adventure. This time next week, we shall be airborne over lots of water, full of barely edible food, anticipation and good spirits.
This will not be new news to you unless this is the first time you have stumbled this way. Certainly if you have the misfortune to encounter any of my social media outpourings, then surely by now you will be sick to the back teeth of smug countdown tweets and over excited nonsense.
As most of you will know, the smaller the countdown gets, the slower time goes by. The last month has been turgid, and now with just a week to go, it stretches out ahead of me like an endless runway of meh.
I don’t know if this is just us, but when we are deciding whether or not to book these holidays, we tend to tell lies to ourselves, such as, we won’t need to spend a fortune on holiday clothes, and we’ll just make do with that we have.
If I lived with three men, rather than three females then this may be doable. It would also be a weird type of family unit! So over the last few days we have been ticking off the essentials of the items required for such a trip.
Blinded by the light
Of course for me this must mean the purchase of some trainers that can be seen from space. I am complete. Other than that though I shall be rocking the same holiday clothes that I have enjoyed for the past decade or so. Why change a classic look?
We’ve done a couple of Trafford Centre trips to get the girls sorted with their staple items of denim shorts and T-shirts. In my next life I am going to be a denim short seller…seriously how much????
Rebecca is so excited that she has more or less packed with a full week to go.
A case of premature packing
Whilst I was taking that picture of Rebecca’s case in her room, I noticed some of the snaps she has on her shelves, and it brought home just how much history we have with these holidays, and what a massive part the place has played in our lives. I can only imagine what that’s like for the girls as it is all they have known really.
I took some pictures of the pictures, so apologies for the quality.
A big PoohWho knows which is which?
This next one is (I think) one of the earliest we have, from 1999, when Rebecca was just two.
I think I’d been drinking
We shall not be attempting a reconstruction of this photo this year!!
So many memories, and it is about this time in the countdown that I try to remind myself to enjoy every second. Even the boring bits like the flight. Who knows what memories we will make this time, and which of those will stick with us for the years to come.
Each year is different with the girls at different stages of course. As young adults now, I look back on memories of them in the photos above with great fondness. The strollers, the extortionate and endless Princess dresses we bought them, and their wide-eyed delight at every character encounter.
We’ve worked so hard for this trip in so many ways, and in equally as many ways we shouldn’t be going. We booked in a rush of blood and crossed fingers, and events have done their best to conspire against us at every turn.
We have dodged every one as best we can, and still we sit here, seven days away from departure still able to go, and determined to have a bloody good time. What happens when we get back….well we’ll deal with that then I suppose. I’ve been working on something that may make those long winter months and credit card bills less depressing, but more of that some other time.
I had a thought earlier this weekend, caught up in the euphoria of Mo Farrah’s incredible race and second gold medal. The country is currently experiencing some of the atmosphere and magic that us Disney idiots revel in. The shared and overwhelming feelings created by an event like this, the massive crowds, the shared focal point of everyone’s attention and goodwill, is much of what the crowds leaving Magic Kingdom after Wishes will feel. When you see photos of a line of Police doing the “Mobot” as the crowds leave is the equivalent of seeing the Cast Members waving you goodnight as you follow the crowds out towards the monorail.
Close your eyes, imagine the perfect heat of an Orlando night, the tiredness in your legs from a full day of touring, and that post Wishes lump in your throat as the perfect background music carries you on a cloud to your exit plan of choice.
Then, the endless twinkling magic of the resorts through windows as you speed past them on the monorail with *that* voice telling you what you know already about staying clear of the doors and which resort you are approaching.
These are a few of my favourite things.
I apologise for the cloying over sentimental tosh, but you will have to forgive me. I am a week away from a trip, not knowing if it may be the last for some time, and I intend to eek every last drop from it, and then some.
Before that of course I have to endure every painful moment of five endless days at work. It appears insurmountable from here, but I’m sure somehow it will pass. Won’t it?
So from a blog perspective I shall see you on the other side, as I cannot imagine updating this whilst over there. We probably will have a laptop with us, but I think the most I will muster is an odd tweet or Facebook update just to remind everyone where we are and where they aren’t. It pleases me.
Now, I have to go and be over excited, over emotional and overweight somewhere else. In this state, the Olympics closing ceremony may well have me in tears, but I suspect that will be for the wrong reasons when the Spice Girls take to the stage. Watching them? I won’t Wannabe!
We are a family in pain. We are in a bad way, with high levels of suffering. What is the cause? Severe WDW withdrawal symptoms!!
I have Louise posting on Facebook roughly every seven seconds about how hard she is finding the fact that we aren’t going, and I have Emily, listening to Spectromagic on repeat on her iPod and Rebecca joined in the self-inflicted pain by sitting with Emily at the iPad watching WDW parades this evening.
Craig, I miss you!!
Me? I am coping admirably, and I don’t think about it much at all really. I would say there are several seconds in each day where the thought of going on holiday does not cross my mind.
It does not help that I have two cyber friends fully immersed in Disney-dom with @tweetwizzo tweeting about ten times a minute whilst on his fourteenth trip in eighteen months, and Gordon in full planning mode, clogging up my twitter and Facebook timeline with WDW footwear conundrums and questions about dining options. Thanks chaps!
I have to admit that I have spent some part of today on websites related to the booking of such trips. We ABSOLUTELY cannot afford one, and it is only the fact that I want to eat in the coming months that I have not followed this searching with some plastic damage. Louise wants to go more than I do….so she says….but I think I just hide it better to be honest.
With a house move this summer, and then once moved, quite a bit of work to do to the house to make it acceptable, I have to save all my available credit card balances for that, and not squander them as usual on a trip to the States. Now, of course there is always Christmas…….stop it, and more importantly, stop me before I do something stupid!!
Speaking of the house move, things have kicked off, and I spent most of today filling out endless paperwork, and sending off pretty much every important document I possess to prove that I work, earn, exist and live as I claim I do. It is complex stuff this house move business, and I expect many a twist and turn before we eat that traditional take away amidst unpacked boxes on our first evening in the new place.
Planning a house move is substantially less fun than planning a trip to Florida. The costs are pretty similar, but the levels of resentment attached are just not in the same ball park. I can justify any cost attached to WDW, but paying some legal bloke a few hundred quid to check there isn’t an open mine shaft under my new house is just throwing money out of the window to be honest.
So with much expense to bear in the coming months if at any time you see me near a computer, all misty eyed, credit card in hand, please do the decent thing and stop me. I’m either just about to book a trip I can’t finance or I’m on one of those websites that require a credit card to proceed, and neither will lead to long-term happiness. Both give short-term relief to certain problems of course, and you do only live once!!
In other news, Louise became unemployed on Friday, leaving her steady regularly paid employment to become a student again. She has immediately bought three Smiths albums, some weed and two dozen pot noodles. On the plus side she won’t need to shower or wash her clothes for three years so that should save some cash!
This new lifestyle has also driven her to include the kids in this new hippy student lifestyle. Despite me putting my foot down and insisting it would NOT happen, both the girls had their noses pierced this week.
I nose this will be trouble
I enjoy my position of ultimate authority in our house. I have absolute power of veto as log as Louise agrees with the decision. In my experience, one out of two of every piercings goes wrong in some way, and involves yet more expense for lotions, creams, antibiotics or trips to the doctor, and this time my money is on Emily. Call it fatherly intuition.
So with three students in the house now, I expect to come home to a smoke-filled house, with three females suffering the munchies and searching through last week’s dirty washing to find something they can wear inside out. If we don’t own at least one Levellers album in the coming months I will be astonished.
So we plod on, holiday-less and hopeless, suffering the intense pain of absolute WDW cold turkey. Should any of you have a pot of money you aren’t using, and feel the need to donate us a trip, I would be delighted to accept, and even name the trip report after you. I have a minimal amount of pride I can assure you.
It is always nice to get comments to these posts, and last week I was inundated with a comment, expressing a view that there haven’t been any Oli pictures and videos recently.
It is a difficult one, to know what to drone on about here. Having said that, I seem to have managed to drone about work for the last few posts (I won’t this week!) so I thought I’d share some recent pictures. For fans of Oli, I can point you in the direction of Pinterest, which is the latest social media site which has appeared to add to the collection of sites that are a distraction from doing anything productive. On Pinterest I have a board dedicated to Oli, so if you are feeling the need for a fix of smelly mammoth, that’s your destination.
Anyway, here come the pics….
Yesterday after I walked him (again)Looking for *that* toyMaking a mess of the couch
So there you go with your Oli fix. He’s still behaving himself, unless you happen to be a cat, in which case he is constantly making every waking second a living hell.
There has been a distinct change in the weather over the past week, with the actual appearance of the sun. Granted, it is still freezing, and there has been some snow in parts of the country, but actual sunshine has an immediate effect on the country and certainly me. I am self diagnosed with SAD, so the dark cold winter months are not my favourite times, so at the first glimpse of the yellow round thing, inevitable events happen.
These events mean, unfortunately, that I immediately drop into “I want a holiday” mode, and my fingers are drawn inexorably to the keyboard, whereby I find them typing in letters such as K A Y A K. This is NOT a good thing. It matters not that I know we can’t go this summer, it simply cannot stop me trying endless configurations of flights, eventually even those via the Ukraine, in the hope of an Easyjet style price for a Trans Atlantic journey.
I also start to make other internet journeys, watching videos of the parks, and drooling over resorts and their fine dining menus. This really is bordering upon an illness.
This is not one of my usual posts were I moan about flight prices, and then two posts later you discover in a flurry of gloating and guilt that I have booked anyway. Alas,unexpected inheritances from long lost relatives or lottery wins aside, we REALLY will not be going this year. Really, I mean it!
This makes me sad. I miss Florida, and I am truly sorry that we won’t be going on one of our adventures this year. There is nothing that beats the thrill and excitement of that early morning at the airport on your way to WDW, when everyone is full of excitement, anticipation and over priced airport food. The world is literally your lobster as the days ahead of you shine as brightly as your brand new white trainers with endless possibilities and about one million calories.
So as much as I accept our fate, I don’t have to like it! There will be times a plenty in the future to get over there, and I assure you, we’ll be there as soon as is humanly possible, if not sooner.
I don’t know if we’ll go somewhere else instead to be honest. This is for two reasons –
I cannot summon any enthusiasm for other destinations
I begrudge spending any cash on other destinations as it means we can’t use that cash to go where I want to go.
Hey ho, musn’t grumble and all that. There are many worse off than us, who have never experienced the holidays we have, and probably aren’t likely to. I understand that, but I still want to lie on the floor and kick and scream until I’m sick.
The week ahead has a trip to London in store on Wednesday, and as the streets there are paved with gold, I’ll just dig up a couple of blocks and that should sort us out for the holiday we want!
I just need to point out that our fridge has broken. I appreciate the nine o’clock news will not be troubled by this news but it has really naffed me off.
It isn’t even the main function of the fridge which has broken. It simply will not dispense water from the fancy water dispenser thing in the door. After a bit of Googling on the subject the water tank may be frozen. I’ve turned up the temperature a bit and we’ll see what happens.
The reason this irks me is that there seems these days to be a constant stream of stuff breaking. A symptom I suppose of having so many gadgets and gizmos (I have them aplenty as my favourite Mermaid might say). Last week it was Rebecca’s netbook, before that Louise’s car, and next week it will be something else….so just to set the lovely jolly tone for this post, I am not in the finest of moods.
I do of course appreciate that there are many things worse than these minor incidents, but I reserve the right to be in a strop. OK?
Breathe!
As I mentioned in my last post, I am in milestone mode, and the arrival of June is another on the road to our holidays.
I know the start of June isn’t officially the start of summer, but in my mind it is, as traditional summer stuff happens in June, like Wimbledon, the World Cup, and this year the paying of the balance on our villa. See, so that last one proves that we are close now….right?? S’funny how usually the thought of dumping hundreds of pounds fills me with dread, (especially on netbooks, cars and fridges) but the cheque sent off today was written with a smile on my face, but looking back, a pen would have made things a whole lot easier.
Of course my notice period rumbles on endlessly, and this in no way meant that last week I spent most of it on the internet watching news events unfold, like the World Cup Squad “announcement” (I’ll come back to this in a minute), Rafa Benitez leaving Liverpool, and Rio Ferdinand getting injured.
For all of these, I think they all showed that the way in which news is relayed is changing (or perhaps has already changed) forever. Yes, for years the web has been a source of news from official sources, and most people would go to the BBC site for “official news”, but the advent of Twitter is the real change agent here.
News breaks on Twitter first now, and you can find out things much more quickly there than via any official news channel. To be honest, this will now be the way in which the official sources are getting first wind of news breaking. With an application like Tweetdeck, as soon as you are vaguely aware of an event, you can create a search column based on any term (I created a “Ferdinand” one and within seconds I had unofficial news of his injury, and that he would miss the World Cup, hours before it was official) and watch people, often on the spot, report on an event.
This meant that the “announcement” of the squad for the World Cup was actually a stream of tweets spread over the day, meaning that by the time the FA posted any sort of official announcement everyone knew the outcome. Even the unfortunate footballers left out, like Darren Bent, tweeted how gutted he was about three hours before it was official. It does amaze me how this isn’t thought of by bodies like the FA. This new fandangled internet thing has changed how stuff works, and they can’t send some bloke out in a blazer with a piece of paper to read stuff out anymore.
I do find this stuff interesting, which is odd, as really I have become familiar with it (or had to) due to the nature of my job, and it is very unlike me to like anything connected with my job. It will still be relevant to my new one too, probably more so, as that is much more closely connected to how people use the internet on mobile devices, and twitter, specifically to report stuff as it happens, is one of the major ways in which people do and will use their mobile. It may not be Twitter specifically, but how many of us update Facebook on the move? This is just news for our friends and connections rather then being about some overpaid fop tweaking a knee.
I know those following me on Twitter will be endlessly enthralled with news on lawn mowing, my tea and where I am dropping the girls off today.
Anyway, I digress…I’m not sure from what, but it felt like I did.
As we creep ever closer to departure, the sacrifice scale increases. What do I mean? Well, there are times when at weekend we would like nothing more than to go out for a meal or three, buy this or that, but with dollars to acquire, and the worst exchange rate in the history of the world ever (OK, perhaps I exaggerate) we have to hunker down, and have a few boring weekends. Even I, with my blind obsession for WDW feel this pain, and it can get quite frustrating. Ultimately though it is worth it, well it is when we are there. When we are tied to the couch enduring some bloke cut wood on Britain’s Got Talent I could quite easily give away a large sum of cash just for someone to make it stop.
Just put the dish IN the dishwasher.....
The girls have no issue in not doing a lot. In fact, if it were an Olympic event I would enter them both. We have recently decided that the handouts of seemingly unending cash is to stop, and they shall earn some spends each week. I’m not saying they are on their hands and knees singing Hard Knock Life, but little things like keeping their rooms recognisable as a room, a bit of hoovering and perhaps even managing to get the odd dish into the dishwasher rather than just leaving it either wherever it fell, or at best on the kitchen worktop, will make the house a happier place.
In this way they can fund their trips to Manchester, where they congregate with other Emo types, and stalk boys. We’ve already had our first “upset” over them both liking the same boy, but it didn’t last long, and to their credit they agreed that being sisters was more important, and they moved on. Emily has decided that she doesn’t want a boyfriend at the moment, and has recently turned down one boy, which quite upset Louise and I as we think he is great! He is now going out with one of Emily’s friends instead…how fickle these boys are!!
Mirror, mirror on the wall.....
Rebecca on the other hand definitely does want a boyfriend, and seems to have a different one each week, but most of them are mainly over Facebook.
She changes her status one way or another, for one boy or another, most times not even having actually been “out” with them. Bless her, she is finding her feet, and is ever so slightly conscious of her looks at the moment so we have to walk on egg shells most of the time.
At the risk of sounding like a biased Dad, if only she knew how beautiful she was…..same goes for Emily who has so little confidence in how she looks it is scary.
On another totally unrelated topic (why change the habit of a blog-time), it is looking like we will have three Dibb meets whilst in the US. Now, again, this is a sign of how life has been changed by the internet. Even when the internet was established in our lives the prospect of meeting people from off of the internet would have been a bit odd.
Through a mutual love of WDW we have met some lovely people, and we are pleased to call them friends now (not sure what they call us though). Our three meets this year consist of two regulars, Jakki (TinkTatoo) and her family, and Margaret (gala) and two of her kids.
Jakki is leaving Florida on our first day, so we have a very limited window of opportunity. We’ve arranged to meet at the Main Street Bakery in Magic Kingdom. We shall try not to gloat too much at their impending departure, but to be honest, they will have been in the US for about six months anyway, so my sympathy will be limited!!
Margaret happens to be staying at the Hard Rock Hotel on the same night, so we’ve arranged to meet at the pool bar for cocktails. There is nothing in the theory I can see you formulating that these meets are taking place around cakes and cocktails. They are simply the most convenient locations available!!
I’ve also got a yet to be fully arranged arrangement to meet up with Andy (Woody) as he is staying at the Beach Club at the same time as us. Again, I suspect this will be alcohol based. Having met Andy several times already (virtually) whilst playing Call of Duty on the Xbox, I’ll just have to look out for the bloke in the army uniform, fully armed, shooting at people.
Having also struck up a now fairly long lasting friendship with Mike Jones, and latterly his wife Amanda, based on a web site, I come back to my theme of stuff changing how we live our lives. It could very well be the case that my girls meet their future partners courtesy of the internet, and for their generation, any stigma we may or may not have about that will have long gone. They spend half their waking lives on the thing so the odds of a relationship starting there is pretty good. Don’t worry we’ve had the “conversation” about nasty folks etc……
This brings me to a parting thought, on this topic of change, that I don’t think I’ve shared with you yet, but I may have so apologies if so, but it is very relevant here. The headmaster at the girls’ school said that around 40% of the pupils now at school will do a job that hasn’t yet been invented.
I’m pretty sure I have mentioned that already, but hey ho, you are not paying to read this drivel!!
In life only change is constant. Someone clever said that, and it wasn’t me. My favourite piece of wisdom, that I really did invent is, In the great block of flats of life, one man’s ceiling is another man’s floor. Think about it.
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