Halloween, Obama, Guido & Diamond

It's all been going on, we have just had Halloween, plenty of fancy dress. I see that the US marketing boys have been at it. They have convinced everyone that its all about fancy dress and every adult and kid MUST dress up. To apply kid pressure on parents wallets they put out what they believe are enticing costume for kids. Such as - French Maid outfits. I can think of plenty of girls I would like to see decked out in this fashion, but I am not sure about 7 year old French Maids, with complete make-up, wandering the streets. Only in America, but I guess in your street, coming soon. We prepared for trick or treat, but went to Pam & Pete's loaded with sweeties. I don't think kids are allowed on their community, as no one knocked. Ah well, lots of chocs to scoff! I wonder why we are putting on weight?

The election was finally completed yesterday and Obama made it look easy. Ten out of ten for the Makreel forecast 2 years ago. Perhaps McCain was put forward as a sacrifice as a republican success after Bush looked all but impossible. Perhaps the real republican candidates will step up next time. Voting has been going on here in Florida for over a week. I guess it was to give plenty of time to get the count wrong? It was strange, the early voting booths had massive queues, 5 hour for some, maybe the US doesn't put much resource to voting. In the UK, some 60 million with approx 75% turnout is done in one day with no queues. Florida has 19 million with a similar turnout. Some funny old candidates and campaigning going on - we had a convicted, awaiting appeal, candidate for state senate. He wasn't allowed to vote himself, but got in never-the-less. I wonder what that says about suitable candidates, the voters and the legal system.

Of course, we English have a political celebration ourselves on 5th. We celebrate a guy named Guido who tried to blow up the King and all the politicians at opening of Parliament in 1605. Apparently it was an act of terrorism by a bunch of religious extremists who wanted more power - nothing new under the sun then! Anyway, the English liked it so much they celebrate it still over 400 years on. It probably had an impact on how the US is today. One of the causes of the plot was King James bashing the Puritans and Catholics in 1604 and perhaps it was a prod for the Pilgrims to look for religious freedom elsewhere

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,

The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,

I can think of no reason

Why the Gunpowder Treason

Should ever be forgot.

Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent

To blow up the King and Parli'ment.

Three-score barrels of powder below

To prove old England's overthrow;

By God's providence he was catch'd

With a dark lantern and burning match.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.

Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Went to see Neil Diamond at the Amway Arena. He still has a very strong voice and a great show. I much prefer the old classics (guess why?) and he certainly got the crowd going. There were about 10-15000 people there, so nice atmosphere. The usual problems with exiting a big stadium, but we had parked down the road at the Orange Court House, so got away fairly easily.

The Big Day - Turkey's Done a Runner

Well its here - Linda gets her state pension. Yes that's right, she finally comes of age. Lots of cards arrived, some at the wrong address, we are away on holiday and the cards have gone home. No worries, we will catch up with them. Jack sent Lin a nice animated birthday card that he had created. Eevie told Lin she was 61. When asked why, she said that she came to Linda's 60th earlier in the year in September and this is the next birthday. Its got logic, no? Linda has just been chilling out, champagne and snacks by the pool, but we are now off to the Gaylord Palms for dinner with some pals.

Dan is doing his presentation to the group of bursary students at a dinner in a hotel in Cambridge. He investigated creating dyes to tag cancer cells for cancer research. Some of his work was censored as commercially sensitive by the company he was working in, so it could be an interesting presentation.

Just been watching Arsenal do Fenerbahce, 5-2 away from home, so a pretty good first half to the first league section. The next section will be tougher.

I have been chatting to the girl renting our villa. She has the same birthday as me. Apparently you normally need 21 people in the same room for 2 to have the same birthday. Can you work that out! Anyway, apparently its a much smaller number when renting villas! She was pleased to receive the flowers from Colin, shame for her they were Linda's. Linda starred on Youtube, amazing what pensioners will do!


Linda kept the celebrations going by having the pals around for snacks and drinkies on the Sunday, We stocked up
with some nice finger food - chicken wrap enchi-buri-tosta-i'm-not-sure-adas, Mex grub anyway, shrimp(that's prawns to you)-cheese-bacon on a stick, shrimp dimsung, cooked a bacon joint, yummy Brit cheese, crackers that looked like potpourri etc etc. We bought biggish packs with the idea of using some & keeping some in the freezer. We also bought the 20lb turkey for Thanksgiving and put it in the freezer. Arose from bed on the morning of the party, took milk from fridge for brekkie - whoa! - what's all that condensation on the contents of fridge - not that humid - motor's not running. The freezer door is open, turkey has slid and pushed it open. Freezer has gone bananas trying to cool the planet and switched itself off in disgust. Turkey goes for a drive to the neighbours freezer for a vacation.(US turkey) We ditch the liquid ice cream and eat the rest.

Party went great, loads of food, I tried to stuff it down them, but we still had lots of left overs. We partied hard, Pam fell asleep while being photographed.

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

Final Review - Its a wind up!

We have been back home for a couple of weeks, trying to get settled in and have had time to reflect and ponder. Its difficult to write a review after so long but here are some bullets about the whole deal.
1. Would we do it again - Definitely, we are thinking of a different route next time, perhaps China, Pacific Islands, South America, Africa
2. Where did we like best - Difficult, this is how I can best put it
#Rajahstan in India was fantastic, the places we visited were great but the historic train made it so easy. It might be harder driving around.
#Preferred Aus to NZ
#Liked E coast Aus better than W coast Aus, really enjoyed the run up the coast and swimming on the Gt Barrier
#Melbourne more than Sydney
#Uluru, Ayers Rock overrated
#There is no wild life in Australia
#Kiwis don't exist
#Pacific islands are nicer than Carribbean
#Take less clothes & more money
3. Would you do things differently next time. - If we went the same countries, we would go to Kerula in India, more far east countries, miss out W Aus, make sure you are in NZ S Island when the weather is good, tour whole NZ in one go.
4. Hotels - pre-booking first nights stay on arrival and then booking as we went worked well, no real problems. Look for deals direct with hotels, I got some better deals than were available with agents on Internet.
5. Tripadvisor was good but read between lines and who is writing - what is good for a teenage backpacker may not be good fro a silver surfer.
6. Car Hire - watch out for the rip off insurance coverage provided by hire companies to get rid of excesses. You can get it for one third the cost with reputable insurers, book before you hire.
Hope you found this enjoyable/useful - I certainly enjoyed writing it. If you want any advice Email me on wally_spooner@blueyonder.co.uk

USA: Orlando Florida

Well, we are here in the villa in Florida and our lifestyle has changed. We are no longer traipsing about, instead lying in bed 'till 10:00, swimming in the pool, lounging around, going to parties and catching up with our US pals. Well, someone has to do it! The flight from San Diego was pretty good with South West, leaving on time and arriving early at MCO. We flew over Texas, which at the time was experiencing some Tornado activity. I don't know if this disturbed the air at altitude, but even flying at 39,000 was pretty bumpy at times - you know the sudden little drops that make you grab the arm rest and squeal like a girl. Great aerial sunset.

The zoo in San Diego was pretty cool, we learnt that gorillas like to eat their own shit. That big silver back was relaxing in the sun doing just that, straight ATM. The polar bear in the picture was huge, probably 10 foot tall and quite a showman, he dived in to the pool and commenced to play in the water, savaging some canvas sacks and stuffing them into a little underwater cave, then blowing air bubbles into the cave and retrieving them from the top to play with them again. He came out of the pool to have a pee, there's training for you that some adults could do with, went over to a sandspot, peed and dug it over like a domestic cat.

The wildlife is pretty active here at the villa - the 'gator has been patrolling back and forth across the lake and growling at night when the Disney fireworks show starts, I guess he is a bit lonesome being the only one in the lake. The birds are in action also, the grackles and mocking birds all have their young and are busy showing them how to get a square meal. Unfortunatly so ar the raptors. A hawk came down, caught one of the young mocking birds and set about eating it in the tree near the pool. Not for long, - the grackles are so aggressive and mobbed the hawk in the tree, until it took off and then chased it, pecking at it in flight until it had left the lake area.

Went to Phil's 60th at the Gaylord Palms, very very nice. It is as the Yanks would say, an upscale buffet with food on mediterranean themes set in an "open air" restauarant in the enclosed atrium of the gaylord. The Gaylord is some place - under the atrium it has a swamp, complete with alligators and big catfish - a lagoon complete with dock, ship, fishing pier and more fish - a pirates castle with treasure - Neptunes grotto and nice planted gardens, plus all the usual swimming pools, spas, shops restaurants etc etc

Played some golf - rubbish after the long lay off, but did manage to win a Srixon hat off the nice lady promoting junior golf at the 5th. This round was golf with food thrown in dogs at the 9th, beer and lunch when we finished - all for $38. Getting ready for the flight back to blighty and end of the World Trip