Orlando Day 1

We woke up at 5am- which us understandable as we;
a) Went to bed at 9:30pm
b) Are 4 hours behind so it'd be 9am at home

Traff was really awake so he went out for a walk, I stayed in bed and did some puzzle book puzzles ad then had a really long shower.
Traff came back with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts for breakfast and he made me a cup of earl grey tea using the teasmaid. Impressive.

It didn't really get light until 8am so we got to watch the sun come up.

we started the day by mooching by the pool waiting for Ray and John, It was really hot- I slathered myself in factor 50 and my face is still a bit burned.
We walked out of the hotel and left down international drive, Ray and John hadn't been up very log so we stopped of at Dennys for them to get some breakfast- I had a milkshake with Oreos in it- they also had one which was basicly a blended apple pie!
Ray had baby doughnuts for breakfast, Traff and John went for a more traditional breakfast meal.

We Walked down international drive after breakfast just to see what was there- the answer is EVERYTHING! and everything is huge. I cannot get over how big and flashy al the buildings are- and I cannot get over the crossings- you have 20 seconds to run across the road! arrgghhhh. How do the elderly cope?!

We walked as far as wet n wild just to see how easy it was to get to- as the ticket is a 14 day pass- We stopped off in almost all of the trashy tourist shops on the way. John was after some new flipflops and it was nice to get out of the heat and enjoy the AC!
We found some very gaudy hats and Traff got to try on some wigs.

We also played Gator mini golf and we paid a bit extra to go into the enclosure and feed the gators. They hiss when they're grumpy! The guy who co-ran the mini golf rescued the gators from local farms where they breed them for shoes/belts/handbags generally they "dispose of" the boys as they're not so useful, so he takes as many as he can ad gives them a happy life of sunbathing and tourist feeds.

Before the mini golf we had beers in an irish pub called murphys.

We walked back along the mainroad and went to the Wallgreens supermarket by the hotel for cake and tea. I was saddened by the lack of tea varieties- I'm on the green tea now as I didn't need 100 tea bags for 9 days.

Traff got a new tattoo and then We went back to the hotel and had cake and beers on the balcony whilst getting ready to go out for the evening.

For something a bit different and for Traff to watch the wrestling we got a Taxi to Geek Easy bar and comic book shop.The ower was really impressed that w'd com all the way from the UK to visit his shop and wrestling screening night- he even put a table out for us! We were likefamous people! Lots of the regulars came to chat to us and it was fun.
They had a yummy cocktail menu with harry potter names and ace food- Yummy burger ad tater tots- which it turns out are hash browns.
We got Karl a present from Geek Easy too.
:D
To thank him for looking after Swimmy and The Baracuda. I hope they're behaving for him.

london - new jersey - orlando - bed

On Saturday we headed into london, as our flight in the morning was a really early one, we decided the best thing to do would be to stay over near to heathrow.
Knowing that the tube would be crazy bust I devised a quicker and more ingenious way to get to the airport- Get the stopper into north london, Change at West hampstead, get the  London overground to South Acton, Walk a mile to Acto tube station and do the last bit of the trip on the tube, completely avoiding central london.
Totally genius.
Except that overground line was closed for engineering works.
2 hours 4 trains, a lift, a 2 mile walk around the tower blocks of Acton and a rail replacement bus later we finally arrived at The Doubletree by Hilton.
Only to be told that they were really very sorry, but our rooms wouldn't be ready to check in for 40 minutes.
So we availed ourselves of the bar. I had a tea.. which was delivered as a coffee... and traff had a beer which they managed to get right.

When you check i the give you cookies. very ice cookies, but its still a bit of a weird concept.
The rooms were lush as you would expect, nice big beds and lots of free pens!

We couldn't get the boarding passes online so we went to the airport in the evening. after much too ing ad fro ing ad £40 on taxis it turned out that because John was a naughty boy and had to get a visa from the embassy he had to collect his boarding pass on the day of the flight, from an airline representative.
So, we went to get some dinner. John really wanted to get a harvester meal for dinner, and after discussion with the taxi driver and a google search we found the nearest on in Ruislip, 10 miles away, So we embarked on a epic 20 minute drive on the M4, and M25 only for it to be fully booked with no tables.
We ended up across the road at "The Duck House" pub. The food was really good- Traff and I both had portabello mushroom burgers and they really were the best I've ever had.
If you're ever randomly in Ruislip, go for it.

We got back to the hotel, had a night cap and hit the hay- bed about 10, up at 4am for the flight and lost and hour for daylight savings.
Don't we look bright eyed and bushy tailed for 5am?

All the flights went fine- I bought a puzzler book so I was perfectly happy. I did also try to have a nap but traff got rather excited when we were flying over greenland/iceland/the atlantic/canada/ america and kept trying to show me things out of the widow. good geography lesson. rubbish game of I spy. when over loud your options really are "I spy with my little eye, something begining with W/S/C/S"
which would be "Wing" "Sky" "Clouds" "sun"

We landed in new jersey and John got whisked away by airport security they were nicer to us- the guys who stamped our passports through Traff looked like the singer from taproot and kept asking "Are you sure you're not in a band?"
They returned him to us with enough time to go to a "bar" before catching our connecting flight (Which I managed to get on using the wrong boarding pass!) gin and earl grey cocktail. yesssss.

We got to Orlando fine, Picked up the SUV and Ray drove us to International Drive.
Our hotel Is massive- very USA.
All Motel style rooms with balconies and a pool. It also has a huugggeeee shiny sign up on the main road so we found it before the sat nav.
W got settled into our rooms- The went for dinner i the hotel as we were too tired to go very far. We had planned to go ad watch Wrestlemania at the Geek Easy Bar ad Comic book shop. Not a Chance!

We had pizza at the pool bar- no word of a lie it was the size of a bicycle wheel and equally thick. I managed to eat half and had the other half bagged up to go. I don't think I can face eating it but It seemed too wasteful to leave it!

**NB- I'm having distict difficuly typing- I bought my old laptop and because the battery is dead and only works when plugged in, I chucked it in my hold bag as it would have been useless on the flight and just a pain in the arse to carry. It seems to have taken a bit of a direct hit at some point and the keyboard is rather random.
Apologies for missing letters.
Usually easy to fix, but the mouse pad is also a bit dodgy now. it keeps randomly highlighting ad deleting stuff!

Friday night Pamper party

Yesterday evening Abida and I went to Salma and Ayesha's for a pamper party- It's not usually my cuppa but it was actually really lovely and very relaxing- Just what I needed after a super long week at work.
These are my spangly new shaped coral nails:

Salma also gave me a facial which was really good- Today my face is much less shiny and better moisturised than usual.
Fingers crossed it stays that way!

It was really lovely to catch up properly with Abida- who's been crazy lately with job interviews and her university course finishing shortly- She secured a permanent position at work on Thursday so she's feeling a little more chilled out. She used play dough in her interview and was commended for her creativity.
I haven't seen Salma and Ayesha in almost a year! They're always crazy busy with friends and social stuff and have changed jobs a few times- London to Sandy to Northampton and now they're moving house too- I don't know how they have time to do so much stuff! I'm hoping to see them a bit more when work gets less mental in the summer- So we'll all have a bit more time. At the moment whenever I'm about they're away and vice versa (I know, thats the story of my life at the moment.. I'm never free when anyone else is!)

Work gifts

I am spoiled today!
:D

I also got given a creme egg, but I ate it immediately!

:)

STEM fair in the news :)

Granny Mac's Wedding Photos

My Mum has started making digital copies of all of the photos in her enormous photo collection- This is her next big project (She was off on one about buying a negative scanner for her computer- I think she might be pretty serious!). Thankfully she hasn't uploaded all the shameful baby photos yet.

She's started with my Granny's wedding album-Which is really lovely. The photos are brilliant because they're so candid! They really show how pleased and excited they were to be married, and they even catch my great great Grandma telling of one of her grandchildren! I also love that the wedding presents were photographed- It seems such a weird thing to do but I now know that my jelly bowl was my Granny's wedding present (I will be soooo careful with it)!
My Granny and Grandad got married immediately after the 2nd world war ended- She was in the wrens and was a real looker in her uniform- she even won some medals (Although, she never really talked about it). After the war they moved to Oxfordshire, where he worked at AEEA (now RAL) and she worked part time in the jewellery shop (And spent far more than she earned I imagine).

My sister and I were always very close to my Granny- She always gave excellent advice and had the most brilliantly stocked kitchen- She was old school in her hospitality, I swear the poor gas man when he came to read the meter was forced to drink several gallons of tea from her best tea service (Royal Albert roses) and eat an entire battenberg. She also had a really love for cherry pop. All breakfasts were fried, all baths came with bubbles and red lipstick was the order of the day. A woman of excellent tastes, in my expert opinion!
She also attempted to teach me to sew, flower arrange and knit- I took reasonably well to the first skill but the other two were lost on me entirely.

Her life advice that I have taken very seriously on board is as follows:

• Only use a good hairbrush (Nothing but a Denman will do- My Denman hairbrush she gave to be when I was about 8 finally fell to bits last week- I have dutifully replaced it)
• Lipstick can be used as rouge- once the tubes get really worn down, dig the old lipstick out and keep it in an old powder compact.
• Always provide endless cups of tea to visitors, and cake, if possible. Being a good host relies on your guests being well fed and watered.
• Eat the things you like and enjoy them- you won't be here forever
• Cut flowers last longer in Lemonade
• Oil of Olay. I am a convert. It's keeping me wrinkle free.
• A petticoat will stop your unlined skirt getting static on your tights and riding up.
• Always scour charity shops for bargains- One man's trash is another man's treasure.
• Make time for everyone and Treat people as you would like to be treated. Listen to people and be as kind as you can. good manners and kindness cost nothing.
• Written correspondance and Thank you cards may be old fashioned, but they also show a far greater amount of care and gratitude than an text or an email.

Morag Spearfish is my Alias

I was watching an episode of Jonathan Creek and one of the characters was called Mr Spearfish.
I told Traff I thought it was the best name ever!

He said that if we ever had to run away together to evade the law, we would be Mr & Mrs Spearfish.
Mr River Spearfish and Mrs Morag Spearfish, our respective favourite names.

I was talking to Jay about it- his initial response was to say that I would never pass as a Morag, He then decided that if I had brown hair and rounder glasses I could be a Morag.

We started to discuss what she would be like- and this is what we have concluded:

• She wears a tweed jacket and a brown pencil skirt with a long slit up the back to show just slightly too much leg, with stockings, not tights.
• She wears sturdy brown leather shoes, from a shoe maker.
• She is stern looking and wears her hair in a bun, except in the evening where she lets it doesn't and is foot loose and fancy free- but never in front of the butler.
• She's outdoorsy, but doesn't like the sea.
• She works as a librarian and consultant from the chaise lounge in the library but on Saturdays she enjoys shooting pheasants with the men.
• She likes the finer things in life.
• She wears tasteful gold jewellery.

Needless to say I'd make a rather rubbish Morag Speafish- so ladylike and serious.

My plan B alter ego is to be Rhydian Davies, A gay painter and decorator from South Wales.

New boots!

Today Traff and I hit the shops- he was after a new wallet and whilst he was man shopping in TK Max I went to have a look at the boots.
There wasn't anything that took my fancy in the ladies section, so I went to find Traff who had given up on a wallet and was looking at converse trainers in the man shoes section.

That is when I realised that having massive feet is a bit of a blessing- I can buy mens or womens shoes- Why did I not think about this before?!

So, I am now the proud owner of these Kurt Geiger brown leather boots.
:D
Well, I'd never have been able to walk in any of his women's shoes.

Hiking- Amptill

Tats and I went on another adventure today- We went on walk around Amptill starting at the park and walking along the green ridge trail. The whole route was 8 1/2 miles, but we skipped out the bit around Amptill village so we did a maximum of 6. not too shabby.

The park is the Site of the old Amptill castle- which is long gone- however, the grounds (Landscaped by capability Brown!) are still there to walk round and enjoy.
Apparently the Castle was used to house Catherine of Aragon once she was divorced from Henry VIII so that he could marry Anne Boleyn. This monument was erected to commemorate her time in Bedfordshire.

 This is the view from the top of the ridge in the park, Good job Mr Brown- Stunning views- it even makes the wind turbine look like a feature.

 We also found a series of rocks dedicated to Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth. I'm sure she's delighted.

 We walked along the ridge for a few miles and came to a medieval church- It this was the view of it miles further on from the bottom of the hill- you can see that we walked a loooong way.

We carried on walking until we got to the testing ground a millbrook where the route took us up and round the testing area- We could hear F1 cars but we couldn't see them- I'd have liked to have seen that!
We got just over half way round the route and found a notice from the council pinned to one of the signposts telling us that the route was changed due to major roadworks . the map they'd included was awful. We stood there for a bit with the OS map trying to figure an alternative route but it was toooo cold. In the end we walked back the way we came- which meant we had to do all the massive hills twice!

Tonight Matthew, We're going to be Queen.

Friday is always a tough day because everyone is really tired at the end of the week. yesterday was a particularly tough day as one of my colleagues got a new job, one got a promotion, I was offered the opportunity to run another STEM fair and someone was really rude to another of my colleages. Lots of emotions. A full range.

More emotions are afoot as 3 people I work with are on contracts which end in July, We have one position available next year so they've all applied for the job (Naturally). The interviews will be on Thursday. It'll be a tough week.

Anyway, To celebrate, commiserate and let our hair down we had a guitar hero party on Friday night. Jenni and I drank allll the gin and did awful singing. 

It was brilliant.

And we had bangers and mash for tea courtesy of Traff and Ben and Jerries Ice cream for afters.

Winner.

This is us, doing our own version of Queens "Bohemian rhapsody".  Karl is being freddy mercury wearing the stick on moustache that has been in the toaster. 

The Solar Eclipse

We got to see the solar eclipse today! It was a teeny bit cloudy and my photos really don't do the event any kind of justice!

Loads of my friends got much better photos- I think a pin hole camera was the way forward. lesson learned.

STEM fair Success

Today was amazing- A massive thank you tot everyone who helped out with making the day a success!
:D
We hold the world record for the largest number of pop rockets set off at the same time, Lots of local businesses gave up their time to run activities and I was kept well tea'd up all day.

This is me, being highly commended at the end of the day, as the students who attended the event went home.

It felt very much like the day was over in a flash! Certainly worth all the stress and prep.

Approval event- Maths with QTS

Today was the approval event at the university for the Maths and QTS course I've written the dissertation unit for.

It turns out that an approval event is actually very intense, Not working properly in academia I did not truly appreciated how the meeting would work.  I think we did a good job of answering questions about the course and the panel seemed satisfied with our answers.

Now we await the results with very crossed fingers!

We rewarded ourselves with a maccy D's for after as we thought we'd earned one.

I am really honoured to have been involved in this project. I've loved having the opportunity and the creative freedom to write a unit for this new university course and it's been so interesting to follow the progress from the initial meetings where the proposals were given to the end product with students enrolled and ready to go from September!
I'm excited to see how this progresses and very pleased to have been of service.

Visitors

On Monday evening I had surprise visitors! Dan and Sah were down to see Dan's family so the popped in to see me before they had their dinner.
It was really lovely to see them and to catch up- Alice has really grown up loads and has lots of new words- She still loves no-legs though.
I'm not totally sure that the feeling is mutual...

I very much enjoyed my update from Cardiff- I can't wait to see everyone again in May!
I bet she has full sentences by then! xx

Segways!

Centre Parcs for Dad's 60th Birthday & Mothers day

Upon arrival John, my mum and my dad were waving at us from the balcony like crazy people! We unloaded the car and I played my Dad at pool- and WON!
I never win at pool- admittedly he potted the back but that isn't the point! He won the next game and practically cleared the table before I'd potted anything. John and Traff played him next and also lost.

I was really impressed with the accommodation- it's pretty much brand new as the park hasn't even been open 18 months yet. I love the big tree prints on the wall and the open spaces and wooden floors. please may I live here?
I especailly loved the chalk boards, massive kitchen games room and sauna!

When ray finally arrived Mum made dinner for us all- we had chilli from the hairy bikers cook book and tortilla baskets- made by baking tortillas in a mould. This is a new discovery on my mothers part and she'd never made them before so we were pleased they came out ok!

Whilst dinner was in the oevn my mum sent my dad out on a fools errand to collect something from the car that wasn't in the car in the first place- this gave us time to decorate all the space and embarrass him ready for his birthday tea- look! the bunting had pride of place!

Dad came back just in time to help Traff serve up dinner.

And there was birthday cake for afters with fireworks, not candles- for future note, they're probably not for indoor use and one really is plenty!

After dinner we had drinkies and watched the comic relief coverage on the TV- wearing our red noses!

Tis was the sun rising through the trees behind the log cabin on Saturday morning- it's so pretty! I was up really early on saturday- I think I was still running on work time!

We had a cooked breakfast all together- which was a bit of a mission- after cleaning and tidying up from cooking we had a few games of pool to let our food go down before we headed out to the swimming pool.

We were ready to go swimming, and my parents went out for a morning stroll to take in all the views and find the spa for the afternoon. They said they'd meet us in the water.
Unknown to us we arrived as the pool opened- it was already pretty busy but we did manage to go round the rapids a few times just the 4 of us before anyone else managed to find them- and we had a go on quite a few slides before it got really busy (Just as my parents joined us!) my dad loves slides- we could have left him there all day!

After swimming we went for lunch in Cafe Rouge- my top tip for centre parcs would be to avoid major meal times- eat a bit late lunch, save money by eating on the lunch menu and completely avoid all the exhausted families with very hungry small children!
I love the croc monsieur from cafe rouge! It's awesome. It's also massive- you might not beleive me but I genuinely didn't have rom for a whole pudding- I had an earl grey and a mini lemon tart. tooooo fullllll.

Traff did the best in the pudding stakes- this is the baked cherry tart and it looks too good. I wished I had had enough room to eat Traffs pudding too.

After dinner Mum, Ray and I went for a walk- this is our chalet as we walked past it- I couldn't get over the size of the accommodation, it's just like a really fancy eco house with a sauna in the garden. I'll move in now please!
The whole park is hidden by the trees, you can't see it from the road at all- we almost drive past it- and it keeps the noise right down.
It does feel like being in sweden on in the alps or somewhere continental and much more exciting than Bedfordshire.

After our walk we went to the spa for all our yummy spa treatments, Ray had a Madagascan mud body scrub and masage, my mum had a float treatment, my dad had a mens massage and facial (Which he loved far too much!) and John had a swedish massage. Traff and I had a couples massage which was a bit of a joke on rays part, because we don't usually do anything couply and we never do massagy spa type stuff.
It started off really well and was really good, all relaxing music and shoulder massage. Then my massage therapist said that she needed to step outside for a scond- I assumed that she'd run out of something. the next thing we know theres a massive thump and people come running and then more people came running and lots of commotion- Fair play to the massage therapist working on traff- she looked a bit rattled but carried on all the same- very pro. Then the manager came in to speak to me and said that the therapist had fainted and offered to rebook the session for the following day, and asked the lady doing traffs back to do mine too- so I got a 10 minute back massage and he got 40 minutes back and legs.
After the massage we used the spa and sauna rooms for a bit. Traff farted in the sauna and it stank. I escaped from him and had a relax with ray in one of the sensory rooms.

After the spa we went to the sports bar for cocktails and they sell bite sized deep friend macaroi cheese. I'm in love!

We headed back through the park in the dark to the chalet for gin cocktails. I went to bed about 10pm because I was super exhausted!
Eveyone else made it to 1am.

Traff and I got up super eraly on Sunday as Ray assured us that the pool opened at 7am- we were up, dressed and ready to go at 8am- only to find it' didn't open till 10!

We went to the shops instead and got pain au chocolait and paper to make my  mum a new mothers day card- I wrote one but I don't know where it went!

I Think it fell out of the hole in my back pack.

:(

We had bacon sandwiches and patries for breakfast (Which traff and I ate in our swimming things!) and then went swimming at 10 am when the pool opened- we got on all the slides before the queues!

Awesome.

After swimming we went for a segway experience. I've decided that I like segways! I can't understand why you can't ride them on normal roads! they go faster than mobility scooters.

In the afternoon Traff and I went bac to Aqua Sana for our reschedules massage- we had the bliss dual massage and it was AMAZING.

Traffs a complete massage convert now. he's very keen to go for another spa weekend. about now.

We had dinner in Strada- I had another "speck" pizza like in sicily but without pears this time. I think it was better with pears!

Maybe next time I can add them as an extra!