Thursday 3 July 2008

Travel to Orlando

As Paul B was leaving the office and returning to the UK we had a lunch for him last Wednesday, followed by a generous portion of ice cream cake when we got back to the office. It was the last time we would officially see him in the office (the just popping in times don't count) and it was a sad day. I'm going to miss the cries of "Sister Mary" in the morning...

When we got home we had to do a quick pack. Yes - once again we were heading off somewhere for a few days!! I also had to undertake the pre-sun exposure task of getting myself in a position where I could wear shorts without embarrassment. Can I just say (without going into too much detail!) that Veet is a lot more powerful here! I used the gentle/sensitive skin stuff, left it on for a scant 5 minutes and practically had 3rd degree burns!! In the UK you can leave it on for a good 20 minutes and it won't depilate a single hair!!!!

We were running about like headless chickens the morning of the flight. Despite the fact that we didn't take off until 11:45, we still ran out of time! The taxi was prompt, Stephen was in the loo, I had to cart all the cases down to the cab, then he rushed out, we rushed off and 5 minutes later he said "I'm not sure I locked the car...". D'OH! (Thankfully it turned out he had!)

The good thing about flying to Orlando is that the flight is only 2 1/2 hours. The bad thing is that the flight is FULL of kids. The family with toddler age children bullied a woman out of her seat in order that they get to sit together (then dad rescinded all responsibility and left Mom to look after them anyway!). They were loud and they kept kicking the back of my seat. I went to reach for my bag to get my ipod in order to drown out the screeching. Not so easy! The family in front had kids aged around 7-9, and the younger one had reclined her seat. She wasn't sleeping. In fact she was bouncing in her seat and it kept knocking my magazine into me. And, because her seat was reclined I couldn't reach my bag to get the ipod to drown out the screeching...I was trapped! I was actually getting quite claustrophobic as I was effectively pinned into my seat. I can see why Stephen complains now....

I intend never to use Dollar rental cars again. The front desk service wasn't great and the car they tried to give us was filthy. Stephen, who has absolutely no OCD tendencies, absolutely refused to drive it, or even touch the steering wheel after the first initial touch. He complained and they did swap it for a Chrysler 300 - which wasn't a whole lot better! It was also whiffy, but not quite as sticky. There is nothing quite as gross as than other peoples 'stick"....

To be continued...

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