Florida 2013 - It was just one of THOSE days!

Bear with me these notes are those that I scribbled whilst we were away.  One I was supposed to keep a diary for important medical reasons, so I won't be telling you about those bits but I thought whilst I do that I can also make other notes for the antics we get up to - yes there were quite a few hiccups and a couple of Scarey Mary moments.  We didn't get as much done as we would have probably liked but we did the most important bits I think. 

The weekend before we went it snowed and our plans changed somewhat, we had to be at the airport for 7.30am in the morning and with the prospect of icy roads looming with even a strong possibility of snow we decided that we would not take a taxi as planned but drive down to the airport and stay in a hotel the night before and then park our car at the long stay car park as we had previously planned for the duration of our holiday. 

So, Wednesday 27th March 2013 when my husband came home from work we drove down to London Gatwick Airport and stopped overnight at the Premier Inn Hotel on Airport Way and parked our car in their car park for the night.  We ate a good hearty meal and toddled off to bed.  My sleep throughout the night was disturbed by people above running backwards and forwards across the room like they were competing in the Olympics for bedroom antics. 

The following day we had to be out of the hotel at 5.45am, and decided to eat breakfast in the airport rather than at the hotel, because we had just over three hours to kill before boarding our flight for Orlando Sanford. So with the car packed to the hilt once again we bundled into the car and set off.  We only went about fifty yards to the barrier in the car park, we came to a halt as the barrier refused to play ball.  It just would not open the husband was pushing the buzzer but nothing was happening and we were sat there like lemons and we had a few buses and a couple of cars behind us, so I got out of the car and headed in the direction of the hotel reception, when one of the hotel staff who had just arrived for his shift shouted out across to me "Have you pressed the buzzer?" "Yes" I replied his response was that he couldn't hear it going off.  He went to his car and got out what looked like a tiny remote control panel and opened the barrier so we could get out.  So the husband drove out of the car park and pulled up just outside the car park.  I thanked the man and made my way back to the car, slipping and sliding across the ice as I went.  I got back into the car and we carried on with our journey round to the long stay car park.  It was going to be a long day and it was going to be one of THOSE days! 

I woke up thinking it's going to be "one of those days" but did I ever go to sleep in the first place.

We got to the car park and were parked in Row 13 - you just know it was definitely going to be One Of Those Days!

We piled the cases into the luggage racks on the park and ride bus, but the bus pulled away before I had sat down, I lost my balance and I ended up with a very bruised bottom, where I fell between the seats. 

Surprisingly check-in of the hold luggage was quick and very smooth, and none of us bleeped as we passed through the x-ray machines either - now that's a first! 

We had breakfast at the Cafe Rouge which consisted of one portion of French Toast, one full platter of English Breakfast and 3 latte coffees including a tip came to £21.85. 

Take off was late due to a shortage of baggage handlers.
Lunch on the plane was chicken or beef stew.  The steward asked me what I would like, so I replied chicken, but was given beef as they had run out of chicken, so I then asked for a veggie meal but was told there was ONLY beef, so I refused to eat it and sent it back.  Practically told them where to stuff it.  I was fuming!

We landed at 16.05 (20.05 UK time) - Let the fun begin and boy it certainly did. 

So, we had landed and we were in the good ol' US of A. 

Next task - IMMIGRATION.

We were prepared for a long wait - but we sailed through immigration, baggage claim and were on our way to collect the car within 50 minutes of stepping off the plane.  We don't know why people have been moaning about the long wait to get into America because it wasn't at Sanford, Orlando.  It really was easy peasy lemon squeezy.  

We trundled across the road with the cases in hand on on wheels to be precise, there were no trolleys available.  We had to pick up some paperwork that we needed for the duration of the holiday from the Thomson Office and then onto the Alamo Car Hire desk to pick up the car which was to be ours for the duration of the holiday.

The car was a Toyota Sienna and it was very spacious and comfortable and automatic. 

With the cases and bags piled high in the trunk we set off on a simple journey down to Celebration.  A simple journey which should have taken us at a rough guestimate of just around an hour.  Our journey took us just over two hours.  Coming down the 417 the road split and somehow we ended up on the 408, when we came to the next toll booth we asked which junction we needed for Celebration, "Ten West", came the reply.  We came off at "Ten West" and hit the top end of the Orange Blossom Trail although we didn't know that at the time.  We were LOST!  The husband was dispatched from the car for directions when we came to a small garage.  He eventually got back into the car and we set off again, going back the way we had come until we got to the I4 South.

Everything was going swimmingly until the driver (Husband) took it upon himself to turn off the main road and we ended up stuck in at the tail end of the rush hour traffic near to Sand Lake Road but we were still LOST.  We pulled off the road once again.  This time it was myself that was sent on an errand for directions with the map in my tiny mitt.  I approached a guy who was polishing the door of a dark cherry red coloured car.  "Excuse me Sir,"  I called to him, "Can you tell me how we get to Celebration, as we appear to be a bit lost."  holding my map out to him and pointing at it, it was upside down at this point.  "Get back out there, Miss." (I've not been called Miss for a very long time).  "Turn right at the lights and head for Junction 64, and when that twisty slip road spits you out at the other end, just take the first turn right and you'll be okay." He told me.  I thanked him and got back into the car and as Husband pulled out of the car park, I looked to the nice man and waved and noticed that the car he was polishing was actually a cherry red coloured funeral hearse with a black leather top and pale blue cushioning on the inside! 

The nice man was correct with his instructions.  We got to the hotel at 19.45 hours. 

Our apartment was on the fifth floor at the very end of the corridor and we had a two bedroomed suite and two balconies.  Only thing we didn't have in the apartment was an oven and a kettle, we did have a hob, microwave oven, a small dishwasher, fridge and toaster. 

We dropped the cases into the apartment and set out for the big Walmart down at Lake Buena Vista for essential supplies and a bite to eat, because it was the only supermarket that I could remember how to get to, there were some that were closer as we found out in the following days but Marker 8 is a long way down the 192 from Celebration or it seemed that way.  Eventually we got there, and purchased quite a few items of shopping.  Our return journey was something else.  On the way there Husband turned off before we got to the traffic lights and we had to get back onto the Vineland Road by going around the block.  Then when we were coming back we missed the Celebration turn off and had an impromptu visit to Disney after it had closed.  We managed to turn our vehicle around and head back the way we had come but the road forked and we stuck to the right lane and by the time we realised we should have been in the left lane it was too late to get back onto the right road when we saw a sign for "Celebration" going in the other direction, we were now headed for Tampa.  

We drove to a place called Sinclair Road or Avenue Toll Gate before we managed to turn ourselves around and head back for Celebration.  We had to pay a toll of 50 cents to get off the road and another 50 cents to get back on the road again over the other side of the bridge.  We had some fun scraping the few coins together that were left in our purses.  The big bag of change that I had left over from my visit to Las Vegas at the end of the year before had mysteriously disappeared although I knew that I had packed it and had not left it on my desk at home.

When we got back to the hotel, just before the pumpkin hour, we were so tired and were past the hunger hour, we got ready for bed.  My head was pounding and I ended up sleeping in the spare bed in my Mum's bedroom. 

We spent $69 in Walmart on drinks, water, sweets, italian bread, ham, donuts, swiss cheese and washing stuff.  

Good Friday - 29th March 2013.

Today we decided to have a lazy day.  We had with all good intentions planned to go to Epcot, but I woke up with a migraine, and we were all generally tired.

We went for breakfast in the hotel, as it was free to us as paying guests and it was a little short of organised chaos.  There was plenty of goodies to eat, but finding a table to sit and eat at was a nightmare.  I managed to eat a bagel with cream cheese and drank some coffee - not the ideal thing at the time - but with the tiredness kicking in together with the headache I thought I'd go the whole hog and amazingly it stayed down and I felt a bit better afterwards. 

When we finished breakfast we decided to go and look around Downtown Disney and do some mooching.  We walked around and looked in a few of the nice shops some of them were very nice with nice prices to match.  We stopped at the bandstand and listened to a school orchestra from Wisconsin who had been invited to play there by the Disney Corporation, they were very good.  Afterwards we went into Ghiradelli's for another coffee.  We spent $27 on a Caffe Latte, a Caffe Mocha, a Kid's S'more Sundae, a White Chocolate Mocha, a Signature Brownie and a Chocolate Dipped Strawberry which was very large and was the sweetest strawberry that I have ever tasted.  1 single berry was $2.95 without tax. 

From Ghiradelli's we headed towards the Sassagoula Ferry Boats (for those of you who *know* me in real life - will know that by reading this I was feeling very rough because I don't do boats in any shape or form - we all got on the ferry boat and had a free trip around the lake it was very pleasant and very warm weatherwise. 

When we came back to the Market Place ferry stop we got off and decided to go and get some lunch at the Earl of Sandwich.  A BBQ Ranch Chicken Wrap, an Original 1752, a Tuna Melt and 3 20oz soda drinks came to $25 or thereabouts.  Our little one kipped out in the corner for an hour as he was exhausted.  Afterwards we had more time for mooching about and then we toddled off to Walmart at Lake Buena Vista and we managed to get there and not get lost.  Our little man wanted some Star Wars Lego sets, unfortunately there weren't in stock so he was very unhappy.  We came back to the hotel without getting lost.  Decided we would have dinner at the hotel, BIG mistake, we ended up with a ham and cheese sandwich in our suite.  Nothing to do with the hotel food, as that was great, but the entertainment was a little too loud for the little person with sensitive ears and I didn't want to start my head pounding again. 

Spends in Walmart today were $15.15 but I didn't scribble down what we brought.

That was the last of my scribblings for my very important diary too, I went for two weeks and we thoroughly had a good time and I forgot to write stuff down - but I can tell you it was good fun.  Didn't want to come home at the end of it all.  







    

Academy Award Winner Matthew McConaughey's Acceptance Speech for Best Actor 2014

Comedienne Ellen De Generes introduces actress Jennifer Lawrence who sweeps gracefully across the stage wearing a beautiful bright red strapless creation with a peplum waistband by Christian Dior, her blond hair swept away from her face, she brings with her a gold coloured envelope and announces the winner of the Best Actor Category.  “And the Oscar goes to....." she says as she fumbles around with the envelope, to release the name of the winning Oscar Nominee.  "......Matthew McConaughey.”

The auditorium erupts with thunderous applause as the television camera pans around and down to where Matthew is sitting next to his wife Camila, and Matthew looks up to the ceiling of the Dolby Theatre.  As he stands to his feet, the audience stand with him and he turns to Camila who looks stunning dressed in a full length gown of baby pink and places a gentle kiss on her lips.  He pulls away and moves along the line to where Jared Leto is standing and they hug one another, he turns and moves towards where Leonardo DiCaprio, another Oscar Nominee, is standing and hugs him too.

 

Matthew, who is wearing a white tuxedo jacket with a black waistcoat and black trousers then turns back towards the stage and runs up the stairs to where Jennifer Lawrence is waiting and gives her a massive hug as she hands over the Academy Award, he then makes his way to the podium with a huge grin on his face and he begins his acceptance speech.

"A-ha.  Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, to the Academy for this, all six thousand members!  Thank you to the other nominees, all of these performances were impeccable in my opinion I didn’t see a false note anywhere.  I wanna thank Jean-Marc Vallee our director, I wanna thank Jared Leto, Jennifer Garner who I worked with daily.  Umm.  There’s a few things, about three things to my account that I need each day.  Umm, one of them is something to look up to and another one is something to look forward to and another is someone to chase."  

Now first off I wanna thank God, because that’s who I look up to, he has graced my life with opportunities that I know are not of my hand or any other human hand. Umm, he has shown me that, err it’s a scientific fact that gratitude reciprocates.  Umm, in the words of the late Charlie Lawton, who said "When you got God you gotta friend and that friend, is you."  Umm.

To my family that’s who and what I look forward to, to my Father who I know is up there right now with a big pot of Gumbo, he’s got a lemon meringue pie over there, he’s probably in his underwear and he’s got a cold can of Miller Lite and he’s dancing right now. To you Dad, you taught me what it means to be a man.

To my Mother who’s here tonight, who taught me and my two older brothers, demanded that we respect ourselves, and what we in turn learned was then we were better able to respect others.  Thank you for that Mama.

To my wife Camila and my kids, Levi, Vida and Mr. Stone. The encouraging significance you give me everyday I go out the door is unparalleled, you are the four people in my life that I wanna make the most proud of me. Thank you.

And to, umm, my hero, that’s who I chase.  Now when I was fifteen years old I had a very important person in my life come to me and say "Who’s your Hero?" 

And I said "I’m not even gonna think about that, give me a couple of weeks." I came back two weeks later, this person comes up and says "Who’s your Hero?" 

I said "I thought about it I said you know who it is? It’s me in ten years."  

So I turned twenty five, ten years later that same person comes to me and goes "So are you a Hero?", and I was like "Not even close! No no no".

She said "Why?" 

I said "Because my Hero’s me at 35".  

So you see every day, every week, every month and every year of my life my Hero is always ten years away, I’m never gonna be my Hero, I’m not gonna tame that I know I’m not, and that’s just fine with me cos that keeps me with somebody to keep on chasing.  

So to any of us whatever those things are, whatever it is we look up to, whatever it is we look forward to and whoever it is we are chasing to that I say amen, to that I say Alright, alright, alright.  To that I say Just Keep Living - thank you." 

Matthew waves to the audience and is enveloped with rapturous applause as he turns around and escorts Jennifer Lawrence from the stage.