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.  





 

     

Sunday 16th February 2014 - BAFTAS

Sunday 16th February 2014 - a rather special day on the Thespians Calendar this year.  It was also a day with so many memories that I shall never ever forget.  As the day dawned we were praying that the weather would be kind to us as it had rained for the rest of the week, well, it had been really rather stormy and frightfully scary. 

My day started at 4.35am, although I did wonder if I ever really slept during the night as the excitement was rising and I kept thinking I must get some sleep otherwise I will be fit for nothing come the morrow.  I got myself washed and dressed and made sure that I had all the paperwork that I would need later in the day, packed up some sandwiches drinks and snacks, to help me get through the day.  

We (my husband came along for the trip, he wasn't overjoyed by the fact that we had to get up before the crack of dawn) travelled into London on the first train that was available, and arrived in the Capital City at just after 7.15am and made our way on the Underground to Covent Garden, we had been told to go to the Theatre Royal.  We arrived and the queue went under the Colonnades, to the end of the Russell Street, round the corner and down Drury Lane, and round the next corner and a good way down Tavistock Street.  We joined the queue and had been standing there a little while chattering with other people who were also queuing with us for the same reason.  We were hoping to acquire an elusive wristband which would enable us to be on the red carpeted public area for the BAFTA Awards Ceremony later that evening.  There were two girls standing behind us and one of them asked "Do you have a number?" to which I replied "No, we don't."  We had to go back to the front of the Theatre Royal and get a number written on the back of our hand and then come back and join the queue.  What a palaver, there was no mention of this on the website.  So we went off and got a number and then came back and rejoined the queue, the girls had saved our places in the queue.  

We queued for three hours or thereabouts, we were given our wristbands at just after 10.00am. There were 1000 wristbands handed out that day I was No. 0807.

The number on my wristband didn't correspond with the big black number on the back of my hand - but I didn't care I had a wristband and I was on my way.   We were given strict instructions by the Security people who were on duty, we had to be back at the Theatre Royal by 12.00 - 12.30pm to be ready to be led to the public area from 1.00pm onwards.

Having stood in the queue for so long, I was hungry, thirsty and I needed to use the bathroom too.  We made our way back through the Covent Garden Market buildings to the Church on the other side of the Square and used the public toilets down the side of the Church - they charge 0.50p to use the loos.   

We went to a small cafe in Henrietta Street and enjoyed a good breakfast with copious amounts of freshly brewed tea.  
Inside the cafe we found several members of The London Pearly Kings & Queens Society enjoying their first meal of the day too. 

The London Pearly Kings & Queens can be seen in the Jubilee Market Hall at Covent Garden on the 3rd weekend of every month. 

I asked if I could take some photos in exchange for a donation in their Charity Bucket.  One lady asked what I was going to do with the photos and I replied that they would appear on my blog later this week.  These lovely people do a tremendous amount of work collecting money for local charities throughout the year.  

After an hour, with a good breakfast inside our tummies we ventured back outside into the bright sunshine and made our way around to the top end of Bow Street, which is where The Royal Opera House is situated.  

 

The Royal Opera House from the top of Bow Street, this end was screened off in readiness for the evening's events. 

We made our way back to the Theatre Royal where we were told to queue in numerical order with the numbers from our wristbands and not the numbers written on the back of our hands.  That bit was a tad confusing, but we sorted it out eventually.

When our numbers were called because we were in the 800's it actually worked in our favour a little bit.  We were taken across the road and told to weave our way in around the back of the crowd to the spot where we wished to stand for the rest of the afternoon and evening.  We found ourselves a nice spot up under the rain canopy on the red carpet opposite the Worldwide TV Companies. 

    

 This is where we started off but we moved down 50 yards because it was easier to get pictures and some of the stars stopped to chat with us too. 

Below are just a few pictures of celebrities that I took during the afternoon and during the evening. 

 Dermot O'Leary - Television Presenter

Fearne Cotton - Television Presenter

Lily Allen - Singer

Little Ant & Dec - TV Presenters

Dame Judy Dench - Actress

Circled in Blue.

Emma Thompson - Actress

Leonardo DiCaprio - Actor

Michael Fassbender - Actor

All too soon the evening was over and the celebrities were taking their seats in the Royal Opera House for an evening amongst the "Luvvies".  To me it felt like organised chaos, as if they all came by bus and got off at the same time. Some of them rushed up the red carpet and whizzed into the Opera House without stopping for breath, I am sure some of them can run faster than Mo Farah.  Some of them stopped and chatted and some of them completely savoured the moment. 

There is a time-delay, the show started on BBC1 at 9.00pm.  The celebrities were up the carpet and all in the Opera House by 7.45pm, Bradley Cooper being one of the last.  This meant that we had a little while to get home by train before the program started - we were home by time the opening credits started rolling around on the television screen.  

By the time I got home I was completely exhausted but extremely pleased that I went.  My thanks go to my husband for going with me, my Mum, the Celebrities for turning up on the night and especially Michael Fassbender, for my favourite shot of the night, because by that time my camera's battery was nearly dead.  

Until the next time, 

Berty, Me & A Nice Cup of Tea

xxx

 














 

Who Is The Most Famous Person On Your Cell Phone Contacts?

Following on from a question that was posed on my Facebook pages, someone asked "Who is the most famous person on your cellphone?" and to prove it you had to have a picture of your phone showing the person, otherwise you could be telling porky pies, I guess. 

Well, my most famous friend just has to be Claire, she is one of the most talented people I know, she is funny, caring and kind and just totally amazing. 

As for the person listed beneath Claire, well I don't have a clue as to who he is, but he's definitely not the person that tries to sell me PPI and Life Insurance because they are listed on my cellphone as "NOBS" so I don't answer those calls by mistake.  

 

 

 

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Afternoon Tea At The Langham Hotel, London

My husband planned a trip to London Town for myself, our son and my Mum.  The reason to celebrate the fact that I was yet another year older, something I'd rather forget about, as age is just a number, but my family have other ideas.  

This trip was not like one of our normal jaunts to the Capital City, where we take a packed lunch and wander around some of the HOT touristy spots.  We were having Afternoon Tea in the Palm Court at The Langham Hotel.  The hotel is situated north of Regent Street just off Portland Place and directly opposite the BBC's Broadcasting House.  

 

Our tea table was booked for 3.15pm.  The hotel has two afternoon tea sittings, one at 1.00pm and one at 3.15pm and at 5.15pm there is a sitting for High Tea which is slightly different to Afternoon Tea, because it includes several hot dishes as opposed to sandwiches, cakes & pastries.

Upon arrival at the hotel our coats were taken from us by a member of staff and taken to the cloakroom.  We were then shown to our little round corner table where we would participate in that afternoon's session, along with other people, some were on a shopping trip, others like me were celebrating birthdays that they would like to forget and some were there just for the sheer fun of it.  

 

When seated at our table we were each given a menu to peruse and choose which tea menu we wished to eat and which blend of tea we would like to accompany our forthcoming meal.  We all opted for the "Wonderland Tea".  

My husband and myself chose the "Afternoon Tea Blend", my Mum chose the "Decaffeinated Tea Blend" and my son who  doesn't drink tea was offered Orange Squash or Hot Chocolate.  He chose the Hot Chocolate.  We were also asked if there were any dietary requirements within our party and our orders for tea were taken and whilst we chatted about the decor in the tea room as we waited.  

A few minutes later a young waitress placed four small glass dishes on the table which were filled halfway with a creamy coloured concoction with a tiny flake of gold on the top for decoration.  It was, in fact, Lemon Posset, a tangy fool, which is a traditional British Classic made with eggs, cream, sugar and lemons to produce a thick custard with a citrus bite to cleanse the pallet. 

When we had all finished the tiny dishes were collected and the drinking tea was served quickly followed by plates of savoury sandwiches and small bread rolls.  

The small round rolls were filled with a mixture of prawn and crabmeat in a seafood sauce.  The finger rolls were filled with egg mayonnaise and cress.  The sandwiches were roasted beef with tomato, salmon on rye, and roasted chicken with coronation sauce on granary malted bread.  

At the end of the sandwich course we were offered more, but we all felt that we had to leave some room in our tummies for the scones, cakes and pastry delights that were to follow so we declined.  

The entertainment for the afternoon was provided by the Hotel's pianist who played a good mixture of tunes, old and modern including a recent hit from Pink, to which my son happily sung along to, he was a hit with the young waitresses and several complimented him on his singing voice. 

The next course was a basket of freshly baked plain and fruited scones.  They were still warm when they were placed on the table and there were enough for two each.  

These were served with soft strawberry preserves and Devonshire clotted cream.  They were as light as feathers and tasted divine. 

When we finished the scones with the jam and cream we were offered a wonderful assortment of desserts, cakes and pastries.  The tall rocket shapes were like strawberry mousse rockets topped with tiny meringue buttons.  There were mango and vanilla pastries on shortbread bases, which my son referred to as the "egg yolk cakes".  The poppy seed cakes were unusual and to be honest I wasn't awfully keen.  The deep dark chocolate boxes were made from chocolate pastry and filled with a dark chocolate ganache, topped with fresh raspberries, they were very rich and I was glad that they were small and dainty. 

For the cakes that we didn't eat at the table the hotel provided a very classy 'doggy bag', shaped like a golden handbag for us to transport them home in.  

Our Afternoon Tea was priced at £40.00 per adult and £20.00 per child, we thought it was good value for the money, and a nice way to spend some time with the family and celebrate a birthday. 

The Palm Court at The Langham Hotel, London   

 

 

The Up Do - (#4 of #29 Faces)

Well folks, this is picture #4 of the #29faces challenge.  I tried to something a little different - I painted with acrylics, just one brush really for all the colours on the paper and no water for colour changes.  I have just had a brilliant idea for a face later on in the challenge but I need a bit of time to put the idea into practice which at the moment is very precious!  

I'm self-taught, yeah I know, it shows but you know what they say, practice makes perfect and I am enjoying these pictures immensely. 

The Up Do

#4 of #29faces