Kissimmee

Now back in Kissimmee at our good friend's house. Nice over-lake view. Just idling away here in good company. Went to a cocktail party over on Rolling Hills - dunno why they call it that - pancakeland would be better, not a trace of a slope, never mind a hill. There used to be a sand dune, but builders bulldozed it to make a foreclosure community, loads of happy people with no money. People at the party were great fun, lots of good chat, food and booze and one great guy had the patience to explain baseball to me. Red Sox were playing Tampa Bay - RS pulled it back to all square with one game to go.

Been keeping my hand in at gardening, did a bit of mowing - somewhat different to what I do in the UK tho'

They've got big snails here, look at these that I found in the garden - they sure do munch their way through the bedding plants.

Looking at cruises the other day. Found a cruise on Norwegian Lines, 5 days to Mexico Costa Maya - Belize - Roatan. If you could go tomorrow, you could get it for $250. Some deal huh?

Petrol (gas) prices continue to fall rapidly. 6 weeks ago it was $3.70, today the lowest was $2.34. I wonder if the utility companies will drop their prices as quickly as they put them. What do you think?

Tampa Bay won and now face Phillies in the final. We have Arsenal v Fenerbahce tonight, I'll try and pick up a SOP live broadcast.

Fort Myers

We have been sunning ourselves down on the Gulf Coast in Fort Myers. I think you need a fortress to get away from the election hype. Although both candidates have laid out their plans, their adverts are still knocking one another. It looks at the moment if Obama has it in his hands to lose, but only time will tell.

Its very nice and relaxing down on the beach at the fort. Nice beaches all the way down to Naples. We had lunch on the dock in the old fisherman's area - called Tin City, I think. We lounged around, watched the sunsets and wandered back to the cocktail bar for drinks and appetizers. Pretty relaxing - I was relaxed as a newt.

Visited the Calusa nature centre - rescued birds and animals and a planetarium. OK but pretty basic, next to no visitors. I don't know if they can keep going at $9 per adult and only 20 visitors per day. Perhaps they do better in the summer. The planetarium was very relaxing, I missed most of the moons of Jupiter as I was staring at the back of my eyelids. I wonder if I could get a planetarium projected onto my bedroom ceiling. Must be better for you than all them tablets!

Linda likes to lecture everyone in the family about the risks of tanning. Guess who got burnt on the last day? I just could not bite my tongue(who me?), so I was in the doghouse.

We seem to be getting to grips with some of the financial crisis in some shape or form, I guess someone's making money out of it. I don't really understand all the figures, but I read that about 2% are in foreclosure, lets say that's some 3-4 million homes worth, at a guess 600 to $800 billions. Is this enough to make banks in every country (except Iran) in trouble. I know other countries have bad home loan debt, but nothing like the level of the US. It doesn't feel like it to me, yet all the banks are rushing to grab tax payers money. It smells fishy to me.

I suspect we are about to run into a retail crash in the US as well. There are already loads of retail outlets in the shape of malls, yet massive new malls continue to be built. I can just see the Mall company board meetings - "We are having a downturn - spending is dropping off - malls have so few people in them. What shall we do? I know, lets build more malls" Where will it all end? Tumbleweed malls. I guess. Still, the government can buy all of these with tax dollars and house foreclosed families. Sounds like "Dawn of the Dead" with CEO's and bankers playing the parts of the zombies.

Election Special

We have finished the world trip but we are back in the US for winter. We've been here for a month nearly now and we are worn out. The TV is so, so frustrating. Everytime you switch on, the presidential election is on. You used to get some relief with the adverts, but not now. The two candidates have taken all the advertising space as well. I don't really understand it - in one camp you have Army Camp O'Bama ( he may be Irish with a name like that) and in the other you have Keith Richardson ( I know he was moving, but when he said Washington, I thought that was somewhere up in the north of England). I attach pictures so you know who I mean.

This is O'Bama


This is Keith
Anyway, Keith says you can't trust O'Bama, or anyone with a name like Army Camp and he's much too young. Keith seems to have a nice lady in tow, Sarah, I think her name is. Keith told me she is his running mate. I've never seen Keith go running anywhere, so I don't know about a running mate. I wonder if Lynda know anything about her. Dark horse, that Keith. She's quite pretty, better than John Prescott anyway. Maybe Sarah has some Red Indian blood and Running Mate is her surname.


Sarah Running Mate

I don't know what's going on at all. Someone's fixed the petrol prices, but the stock prices are all shit. Perhaps they're selling stock to buy petrol.

I am fed up with Orlando & Kissimmee, and me and the old dear are on our way to Fort Myers for a break. It will be good to get behind the ramparts with all this election nonsense going on.

Speak soon, your correspondent in Florida

Wally