On the 12th day of Christmas

Cosmo Cricket, Scrapdolly's transparency Deck the Halls, various computer fonts

Gosh a busy few days. I had to stay in for the dishwasher engineer to come and 'repair' the dishwasher. Every now and then the heating element furs up from our hard water, and shorting the machine out. It takes seconds to reset but it really needs a new element so its bound to break again. I went to Ikea with Kelly yesterday. Only my second ever visit. I wastn too impressed the first time but managed to spend over £100 this time round. Then we went to Lakeside, had lunch in Nando's and went clothes shopping. We didnt do too badly although the Christmas party clothes are pretty dull this year.I stood in the door of one shop and all I could see was a sea of black, grey, brown and dark purples with no colour at all! Today Martin was off so we spent time putting all the new Ikea stuff together (new blinds, wine racks) and Martin went out to the farm shop and bought our Christmas Tree. So I decorated that this afternoon. I put the first 150 string of lights on but it is such a huge tree they looked lost so I sent Mart out for some more. It was only after I put them on that I discovered our other set hidden behind the sofa!

From mt Secret Santa I got

Day 10 - a mini book kit full of lots of little bits and bobs
Day 11 - a turquise sharpie pent
Day 12 - some Lush soap

And I managed to find my missing photos and do two more album pages!!

Cosmo Cricket Winterland papers, Heidi Swapp ghost star and play word, Stampendous fluffles stamp.

On the 9th day of Christmas

my secret Santa sent to me... some flower stickeez, just right for the thousands of microbeads I still have hanging around.

Sky Broadband went into meltdown again and refused me internet access until 11.30 am!!!

And my daughters have finally sorted out who is doing what where when for christmas and it seems we are at the younger one's for Christmas Day, with my parents and Wayne's parents (plus one huge puppy dog) but Kelly is calling in to open pressies and say Merry Christmas before lunch, and then its down to my mum's on Boxing day where Kelly will spend the whole day with us, Laura, Wayne, my parents (and one huge puppy dog).

I am giving the prompts to the pad girls for an A-Z christmas journal. So its really expected that I keep up to date. But this morning I spent the entire time hunting through backup discs for some Christmas photos I know I have but just cant find. So I have only made it to day 3 (shame on me).

Here they are.BG Blitzen, overlay free from Scrapdolly's blog, Deck the Halls, selection of QK dies, doodlebug frill


Cosmo Cricket Winterland collection, velvet ricrac from my Secret Santa, more QK dies, and Dolly's overlay again.

If Santa is to come ....

you must tidy up all your toys!! Did your mum ever tell you that? Well mine did, and part of my brother and myself's advent was to turn out the toy cupboard and sort everything out, putting it back neat and tidy.

Today I got up at 6.30 to sort out my toy cupboard - my scrap room actually. I use the wire cube system to store most of my stash, but for some inexplicable reason it has taken a definate list to the right over the past week. So before the whole lot came crashing down around my computer chair I decided to empty it and move it into the corner of the room, allowing the radiator to prop it up.

Now my daughters will both know that Saturday's in our house do not start until eight, nort, nort! Starting this early on 'housework' is a real No! No! but I really do have so much stuff craft wise to get done in the next few days it was really a necessity (plus I really would like Santa to come).

When I was a kid, tidying that toy cupboard, it was always those small last bits that used to frustrate me so much. You know, you got all the board games and puzzles back on the shelf, the boxes had all been mended with far too much sellotape at the corners, all looked spic and span, but there was this pile of playing pieces, jigsaw corners and other assorted 'junk' that required you to open ever single one of those boxes neatly stacked on the shelf to put them away.

Thats where I am at in my stash room.

So I've stopped.

For a cuppa.

Readers you will no doubt be over the moon to know that those missing scissors? the lost ruler? the awol christmas card from my christmas card swap? Not one of them has turned up while I have sorted and cleaned and tidied :(

Kelly you will be pleased to learn that I have finally piled up the small amount of stash you have left here ready to take back home with you, and after christmas I will be sorting out the stuff in the attic too!

Of course the land of spare 'oom is totally trashed!

But I think I stand a good chance with the Jolly Elf in the Red Suit!!

On the eighth day of Christmas my Secret Santa sent me some lovely Doo Da stars!

On a sadder note, one lovely, strong, generous, funny, kind lady left us yesterday. Jan I never got to meet you but through the forums we shared I got to know you and came to like you alot. You will be missed by so many, including me. So goodbye lovely lady, Godspeed, and hugs to Beth and her family who are left behind and are coping so well at this hard, sad time.

How?

How did I ever manage working full time?

This week I have been doing supply work every day except today (had to go to an appointment with the job centre instead) so am finding it really difficult to get on top of everything. I spent today getting my christmas cards in the post to their overseas recipricants, my christmas kit swap and stocking swaps in the post, and a heap of other little jobs that seemed to take all day.

I still have a zillion christmas cards to write, my journal only has the letter A done and someone has now pointed me in the direction of Tim Holtz's blog where he has tuts for some really zingy christmas tags I would love to find time to do. Hubby had to do the washing yesterday because I just hadnt found time to do it and as for blogging! Well.

Any way, even though I have no crafty stuff to put on here (cards I made last night are now winging their way to Australia and I forgot to take photos of them) I still want to make a record of all the lovely goodies my advent swapee has sent me so far.

Day 1 - A Woodware Tag board book
Day 2 - A gold gel pen
Day 3 - A Bar of Misteltoe kisses
Day 4 - Pink Porcupine lflipper study cards book
Day 5 - A plaid wooden word 'family'
Day 6 - A reel of brown velvet ricrak

Advent

December, and the countdown for Christmas begins. Somehow I have volunteered to give the prompts for an A-Z book of christmas that the girls on the Pad are taking part in as an alternative (or as well as for those with lots of energy and enthusiasm) to Shimelle's journal. Last year I kept up by cheating a bit and throwing in a few digi LO's. This year I am already behind, despite being the one with the prompts because I spent the entire day yesterday either cleaning the house or making a copy of our family traditional advent calandar for Laura.

Then because Wayne is away for the weekend on a stag 'do' and she is 'home alone' I went over and stayed the night and we had a lovely 'girly' time watching movies (Christmas to-do, Love Actually and the Alistair Sims version of Scrooge) plus a little card making, some wine drinking and mum/daughter chatting.

Today I did a heap of food shopping and have just spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning out all the kitchen cupboards whilst Martin has moved all the furniture to its 'Christmas position' ready for the decs and tree.

So finally I get to play with paper. Here is page A for my journal.
Basic Grey, Debbie Mumm stickers, and some Autumn Leaves stamps. The journalling is hidden behind the red and the square cut outs and tells about the angel we had for our tree when I was a child, and the beautiful angel (in the photo) we now have, sadly chewed by the cat as he thought it was a real bird with those geogeous feathered wings.

And ....

So I got meself all dolled up and trundled off for my interview. 2 years ago this would have been a dream job and I would have killed for it. Today I really wasnt bothered if I get it or not. There does actually seem to be more reasons NOT to take it then Take it. Anyway I answered most of the questions, admitted on a few that there were huge gaps in my knowledge, and waffled my way through some others that I only half knew about and now have to wait until Thursday's post to see how I did.

In the meantime I am still getting a steady trickle of supply work from the agency so am not too fussed as that at least means I can have plenty of time off to play (or even do housework if the mood takes me!)

And ....

I made some more christmas cards - really cant get into scrapping this close to christmas with so much to do to prepare for that so......



This is NOT my own design, but one I scrap lifted from here only having no Kelly Panacci stuff (isn't it all lush?) I attempted to make my own. The tree is stamped with an Autumn leaves swirl stamp and then eembossed with lovely green sparkly powder, the Joy I printed out and hand cut then added glitter to it.

And ...



This is one of the magnolia images from the image swap I took part. The same autumn leaves swirl stamp, again embossed, some really old paper from one of the first 12x12 scrap book mags and...yes I admit, a peel-off Happy Christmas!

Ok just discovered the battery is flat in my camera so only two for now, will upload rest tomorrow.

A nagged blogger

My youngest daughter has had a little moan about my lack of blogging updates lately (*little wave to Laura*). I mentioned in a little email to the supply agency that more supply would be nice and suddenly they are phoning me with work at every moment of the day. Now I would have thought a supply agency would know when you were actually in the classroom teaching and not ring you on your mobile, but the young ladies running my SA don't seem to be worried about how unprofessional answering your mobile in the middle of a lesson is. Mine is a really old Nokia, despite being a computer wizz I just cant seem to get the hang of mobile phones, their menu logic doesnt work for me, so even with my simple antique there are still features I cant get to grips with, and the silent ring is one of them. I like to have my mobile on because only my direct family (and the SA) have my number so if it does ring it is likely to be for a family emergency.

Anyway all that was to say why I hadnt blogged, I am either covering other teachers or too tired to be bothered to blog. Plus the end of the cold is still hanging about, making me feel down in the dumps so I havent even taken glue and scissors to paper in any meaningful way. I have started projects, but the minute any thinking is involved, I have pushed them to one side and surfed the net instead.

However:

Today I am not working.

Today I feel much more positive.

Today I am going to start organising my Christmas shopping

And on Monday I have an interview for a full time job!

SAD - its winter

I think I have been suffering a bit from SAD this week, I have felt really fed up and not really been able to set my mind to much. I have done some supply work at several schools this week, suddenly I am Miss Popularity at the agency and they not only keep offering me work but also want me to write a testimonial for them. I have just finished two days at a school with, shall we say, pupils with somewhat challenging behaviour? So as well as being down in the dumps I am now exhausted. And i still cant shake the last of this cold.

And to top it all on Monday I have to go have my 13 week interview at the Job Centre, who have asked for loads of paperwork I dont have. I'm not sure when I am supposed to look for jobs and fill in application forms?

On the plus side Martin is really enjoying his new role at work so thats a positive. He definately looks much happier and healthier.

Anyway my images from the second Magnolia Stamp swap arrived today, and that jolted me into making a few more cards. These are not from the image swap but are actually my own stamp.



Background papers Barbara Schiefer snowflake collection, DMD Joy stamp, lots of stickles and peewee glitter, glittery paints from The Works and snowflake die is a thincut I think

Background paper K Teague Berry Days (2 peas in a bucket), more glittery paint, Studio g stamp, holly leaf punch, more peewee glitter and staedtler triplus fineliner pens.

Hurrah for Laura!

Its been a rotten kind of week.

But it ended really well!

This cold is a particularly nasty strain and will not let go. I spent most of my birthday, Tuesday and Wednesday in bed dosed up on cough sweets and painkillers. I didnt really feel much better on Thursday when the supply agency phoned to ask me to go work in the same school as last week again. I pulled myself together and headed off, only to spend 40 minutes in a traffic jam as they were resurfacing the main road out of Thanet!

By the end of the day I had lost my voice and felt like death warmed up so when my phone went half way through Friday morning I was glad the battery was flat, as I was sure it was the Agency asking me to cover Friday afternoon. I managed a Tesco shop with my parents but that was all I could cope with.

I'm not sure what was the matter with the world on Friday. Tesco was packed to the rafters, worse so than Christmas. I think they were panic buying because of the flood alerts. Similar conditions prevailed to those in 1953 when most of Whitstable ended up under water so perhaps they were all barricading themselves in with their Tesco goodies? We had been to the seafront and seen the huge huge waves crashing over parts of the sea wall. At Hampton the car park was already flooded and at HerneBay the tops of the waves were hitting the bottom of the pieir! Of course Dad's camera - as usual - was in the boot of the car and it was far too windy to get it out. We saw one rather substantially large lady loose her footing so we knew how strong the gusts were!

Saturday the girls were organising a little bonfire party for my birthday, a small affair with just the family. That was all I had wanted. So after I struggled to cook baked potatoes, and make a few pots of homemade veggie soup, and Martin (no better than me because of the cold) struggled in the same way through the hoovering, I was sent up to my room by Laura to put on makeup, listen to music and mainly keep out the way.

When I was finally allowed down I was met by a room decorated with balloons, and banners, a table full of sweets and party nibbles, a caterpillar shaped cake, and sausages being cooked. What a honey she is. So with Mum and Dad, Kelly and Ollie, Laura and Wayne, we set too munching, drinking, chatting and laughing. They finally gave me my birthday present. They had all clubbed together to buy me two tickets to see Lord of the Rings, on the stage in London, plus an overnight hotel stay so we dont have to rush back on the train. Wow!!!

Then we all traipsed outside to light our boxes of fireworks. A running joke because eversince I was tiny ALL my parties have consisted of lighting boxes of fireworks in the garden, even if they are naff. As we stood there waiting for Ollie and Kelly to find the fuse on the rocket, the air was suddenly rent by a lone bagpipe playing 'Happy Birthday'!!! Laura had managed to find and phone my friend Val from Uni who plays in a pipe band. Not that practiced herself on the pipes, her other half (who I had never met) had agreed to come play for me. God alone knows what the neighbours thought as he played 'Congratulations' into the night air.

Val had bought another friend from Uni along and we left the men in the conservatory as we chatted and caught up with all the news.

Thank you Laura, it was a lovely surprise and a lovely evening.

I am just waiting for Kelly to post her photos now, as for once I didnt take any. In fact, I went through all my photos last night and as the family's official photographer, it would seem I never do take any on my birthday as I could only find 2 photos to cover 50 years worth of celebrations

Happy birthday

to

ME!!!


Half a century today.


And I feel like death warmed up as I sit here in bed surrounded by birthday cards, suffering from a really bad head cold :(

So far the postie hasnt been yet but I have had a few hand delivered cards, phone calls from both my daughters, a text from my sonin-law (congratulating me on getting to 40 at last, bless him) and gifts of a box of tissues and two packets of soothers from my mum and dad.

It can only get better LOL

Signs of Autumn

Last night we gained that extra hour of zzzzz's because the clocks go back - well we would have but my cat doesnt understand GMT so woke me up for his breakie at HIS usual time. Still it got me to thinking about signs of autumn.

When I was working full time it used to be learning songs for harvest festival, daily sweeping leaves off the classroom patio and most things school related.

But now its celebrating dad's birthday. It fell last wednesday and all the family came round for roast dinner, including the dog. Had a lovely afternoon even if I was worn out from cooking 2 joints (dad wanted pork, Laura doesnt like pork so had to do a bit of beef too) 2 apple pies and a plum crumble.

The poor dog got shut in the garden while we ate but I think he was happy as I had just mended and washed his toy teddy which he has had from birth and loves so much he trailed it round for the whole afternoon. He has caused us a bit of heartache this weekend, well not so much him but some annonymous 'well wisher' who thought they should report Laura and Wayne to the RSPCA for shouting and beating him.

Now eversince the two of them found their plot of land and started building their house, this 'well wisher' has been helping them and the council out with reports of every little move they made - builder too noisy (this is one bricky using hand tools), use of the 'wrong building materials' so that Wayne had to cart a bit of every material being used in the build around to the council offices; roof a millimeter higher than the plans (how the hell he could tell I dont know). Anyway the list goes on, but this really was beyond the pale. This dog has got to be the most spoilt, loved and lavished pouch in the world. And the biggest irony is that for the time they were supposedly abusing this animal, it was actually kennelling at my parents while Laura and Wayne had a night away in Oxford.

Of course the RSPCA guy took one look at Bailey and knew at once that no way was he being mistreated.

Anyway, just the last day of our holiday in Orlando to write about. Like all last days it started with the mad rush to pack everything and check out of the hotel by 11. There was plenty of room in the cases for all my scrappy stuff. So as I checked the room for any last minute or left items Martin took the cases down to put in the hire car.

When he came back I wasnt really taking that much attention of him, but suddenly he blurted out 'Someones hit the back of the car!

I went down to look with him. Indeed someone had ploughed into the back of the car with such force it looked like they had actually moved it forwards about a foot (we could tell by its proximity to the ant hill we had noted the afternoon before when we parked. There were dents under the numberplate and one part where the fibreglass body of the car actually had a hole in it. I was so worried, as on our first day, an old Scottish bloke we had shared the breakfast table with had been telling us how he never hired a car because they catch you on the damage waiver for big bucks. Martin was very cool about it all though as he kept telling me we had paid extra insurance and were fully covered.

Well there was nothing we could do for now, we had quite a lot of hours to fill before our 10 pm flight. So we left the car where it was in the car park and decided to use our I-trolley tickets to go visit the posh shopping mall we had intended visiting the night we had purchased our passes.

The trolley is quite an experience. The drivers have a pa system and the one we got considered himself quite a wag, telling his well practised jokes all the way along I-Drive. Unlike coaches or buses, they are all wood veneer and fancy glass windows, and quite comfortable to journey in too.

Interior of I trolley

The mall was a resounding dissapointment. Most of the units weren't open yet. It took us ..oh... 3 minutes to walk around it. So we stopped for a drink and tried to think of some other way to fill the 5 hours left until we could make our way to the airport.

In the end we decided to take advantage of our 14 day passes and visit Sea World again. It took as a bit of a while to get there on the I-trolley but we still got 3 full hours in the park, and I am so glad we did this. We took in the penguins again and then tried to go see the baby dolphin in the nursery. This one had been a day old on our previous trip so public visits were not allowed, we hoped we would be allowed in now. When we got there it was still shut. Turns out they had had another delivery the day before and yet another baby dolphin had made his way into the world only hours before we had arrived. Wow! 3 dolphins born in one week.

Then I asked Martin if we could go see the Polar bear again because he had been asleep before. Not only was he awake but he was a she and she was a mum with a baby.

A whole troupe of scouts were on an education trip and were asking lots of questions while the baby showed off in the snow just by our feet. We discovered that the Polar Bears are the only animals in the whole park that the trainers dont interact with directly but work with from above the enclosure. Not because they are aggresive but because they are so powerful and in play simply dont know their own strength.

These photos are not brilliant, partly due to the low light levels and partly because in the dark I had grabbed the wrong lens and used my soft brown tinted one by mistake.

Baby Polar bear rolling in snow by our feet.

Time passes so quickly in the parks, and all too soon it was nearly time to catch the trolley back down I-drive for the final time and go catch a plane home. One last look at the dolphins as we passed and then onto the bus stop. But what was wrong with that dolphin?

One dolphin had got himself up onto the flatter shelve in the pool and was acting very angrily towards all the other dolphins who kept coming over to see what was wrong with him.
There was a trainer paddling around the pool in a kyak but he didnt seem bothered. I stood and watched for as long as Martin would let me before he dragged me away to the bus, so I never did discover if the dolphin merely wanted some quite time, or was playing a game of hide and seek or was in genuine trouble.

Traffic was backed up all the way along the high way until about 3 miles from the airport. Yet we still arrived with plenty of time to spend a fortune on presents in the Duty free shop and to have a drink in the bar! As we pulled up to hand in the hire car, my stomach went tight as I remembered the damage. But why I worried I dont know, they didnt even look round the car, simply checked the milage, and told us to make sure we removed all our belongings, thank you for using them!

To make up for being an hour late getting to America, the pilote got us back to Gatwick in 8 hours instead of 9. Trouble was Gatwick was experiencing freak fog conditions so we had to go on stack for half an hour. And then another 3/4 of an hour waiting at luggage reclaim. Didnt really matter though as Wayne and Laura(who were picking us up) had slept through the alarm and were late anyway.

Its wonderful to go away, but ooo so great to be home and back in your own bed!

Bush Gardens

By paying £20 extra on our Discovery Cove tickets, we had free 14 day passes into both Sea World and Bush gardens. It would seem that, by accident, we had hit on the best week to visit Orlando as the parks are not as busy and there are plenty of deals to be had. If we had not already got our tickets, both parks were doing buy one, get another day free passes anyway. So today we were off along to the coast to enjoy our third playground, Bush Gardens.

We didn't really know what to expect. On the Internet all the info gave us was that it was an African experience with a video showing snap shots from colourful African shows, animals and rides.

Bush Gardens, unlike Sea World and Discovery, which are both situated at the end of I-Drive (along with the new soon to be opened Aquatica). Bush Gardens is to be found an hour's drive away in Tampa Bay. This time we knew the way, and once you get used to the strange traffic light system, and the way you suddenly find yourself in an exit only lane, driving in the U S of A is not that difficult. With max and min speed limits, which unlike here are stuck to in the main (probably to do with the amount of sheriff cars littering the highways) and traffic is far more sparse, moving much slower. So really the only dissappointing thing is the steep parking fees the parks charge for those using their hire cars to get to them. The hotels and the parks themselves all run coach shuttle services, so I suppose I can understand why.

Bush Gardens is much like a version of Chessington in England only much bigger, better, with more animals and the opportunity to get much closer to the creatures you had gone to visit. And you really do need more than one day to enjoy all the fun, shows, and things to do/see. Its a shame it was an hour away and that we hadnt known this before we went as we certainly would have liked a second visit.

We started off getting lost! Surprise? Not!

The park is divided up into countries of Africa, Egypt, Kenya, etc. each area having its own white knuckle rides, shows and flavour. So to get an overview we took the overhead ski ride across the 'plains' where the animals were allowed to roam free, just as they would in the wilds. This gave us a spectacular view of what was to come.

At the end of that ride, we had intended going to the 4D pirate show but got side tracked onto the log flume ride, and by the time we got back, the show was one minute in and we couldn't enter. Instead we went to watch the elephants, my favourite animal. I could happily stand and watch these magnificent beasts for hours, especially as these were Asian elephants, a beautiful mottled pink and grey species I had not encountered before. I took heaps of photos of them playing in the water fountain but loved the one of the two taking a share best.

Sad to say at this point I managed to loose my lovely blue straw hat! I was so happy it had gone, now I wouldn't feel guilty about abandoning it at the first opportunity, but Martin insisted in going to look, and then reporting it to the powers that be, and they have promised that should it turn up they will mail it to me. Please not postie!

OK time for the 4D pirate show. Ever done this before? Well strange. Wearing sexy 3d glasses you sit in a giant cinema where the characters flickering on the screen appear in 3d right before your nose when wearing the glasses. Scary enough when facing cutlasses and swarms of bees, but then you are subjected to jets of warm air, or warm water (to simulate presents from the overhead 3d seagulls) dropping on you. A surreal experience.

Next up the white water rapid ride. 12 people sit on a round boat with a huge hover skirt on it. Strapped in with seat belts and sent along the wild fast flowing river ride. Now this was fun, and given time one I would certainly have done again even though I am not a ride person. To start the fun one of our party of 12 was a rather portly - OK fat person who didn't fit the seat belt and embarrassingly had to ask for the extension bit. Off we went.

The first part through a water cannon run where people on dry land have the chance to fire jets of water at you. Martin had spotted this before and knew it was coming. I didn't, and got the first shot full in the face. The portly gent also got the last spray but everyone else still seemed relatively dry. Not for long. Each drop in the river level meant a white rapid surge, and as it spun the boat at the same time, each overflow or splash hit a different person in turn. All but one young lad were rather wet as we hit the last part, under some caves and out through the waterfall. Who would end up under the water fall? A bit like Russian roulette, we tried to guess as the boat spun round and the water got closer. Well it was an easy bet. Yes both Martin and I got totally drenched! But still this young lad was bone dry, and there was only yards to the finish with no visible splashes to go. Except as we approached the off ramp, a final jet of splashy cold water hit us from nowhere, dousing this lad to the skin! The whole boat was in uproar with load guffaws and peels of laughter.

A fantastic way to spend 10 minutes with a bunch of complete strangers. I will say that by 4 o'clock, even though temperatures were in the 90's Martin and I were still damp, and it didn't do my poor blistered feet much good walking round in wet trainers all day, but wow! Did we have fun.

After that the day just got better and better. The ride on the jeep that 'looses' its way through the jungle, and ends up in the water floating downstream (on tracks you are not supposed to notice I hastily add) is recommended, as is the train

which takes you through the plains, and close up to any animals standing by the rails (such as the rhino who were grazing feet from our hands).

Many of the animals are separated from the public by no more than a plate of thick glass so you can safely get really close. That is Martin's foot inches from this sleeping hyena,

and wow! Look! I am close enough to stroke the lioness.

We rounded one corner and unbelievable as it seemed there was only a chicken wire 4 ft high type fence between us and the Mere cats! I was stunned and just stood going 'look, real live mere cats' to Martin. They are little so-and-sos though, they actually do pose for the camera. Every time I moved, this little lad moved around to get his best side shot!


There were plenty of eating establishments dotted around the park, but I didn't really want to waste time sitting and waiting to eat, so we ended up with a snack and then carried on having a great time. We took in one show, which I didn't really understand as I had trouble with the sound system and hearing words clearly'


The shows were obviously not as popular as the ones at Sea world which had been packed to capacity, and maybe we should have noted this but you don't want to miss any of what is going, so we went, even though Martin had promised himself one go on one of the scary rides. By the time the show, which was very colourful and had good music even if I didn't follow the plot, was over, it was park closing time and we had to say goodbye to the animals and make our way home.

That evening we were exhausted but we cant recommend the three parks highly enough. I am so glad we opted for these and didn't do Disney. A few times when out we had heard people talking about the DW parks they had visited and no one we heard was that impressed. Not to put anyone off. We didn't go to them so we don't know. But if anyone wants a good grown-up alternative, these three parks are it. I have looked on the web at the artists impressions of the 4th park being built in this group and it looks like it is going to be just as magical. Will we ever go back? Mmmm, well Martin still wants to see the Keys and I still fancy New Orleans so who knows?

Oh and we ate in Chilli's again. I was quite addicted to those baby ribs and hoped we would get the really nice waitress Billie again, but alas we got Ray who I am sure is one sandwich short of a picnic, bless. The night before I had asked to take my desert home with me in a doggie bag (common practise in America) and the kitchen had put my large flapjack type cookie, my two fudge flavours of sauce and my ice cream in separate boxes so I could carry it home, put in the fridge and eat later. It hadn't been a problem and worked. I asked Ray for the same again. As he handed me the bag he said, 'I was worried about the ice cream so asked them to leave it out' Thinking he meant like it had been packed the night before I just nodded and smiled. Imagine how I was shocked to find, when we got back, that my desert consisted of just the flapjack!

Disappointed in The Space Coast.

By Wednesday morning, it was very apparent that the blister, and the monster bite were not responding to the expensive creams and apart from my trainers, none of my footware was comfortably wearable. Today the itinary had been to go shopping anyway. OK we had bought dad's Jeans in the first hour of shopping on sunday, and there wasnt any more we really wanted to buy, but I had to have something on my feet. We ended up in the Premier Outlet, a very swanky looking place full of designer names, most of which we had never heard of, so it was no surprise that I (literally) fell in the Clarkes shoe shop, happy to recognise a brand I could trust. (I had been hoping for some flyflots but of course they dont sell in outlets, only on line or mail order). I eventually found a pair that, at the time seemed to touch most of the healthy parts of my foot without agrivating the rotting parts. Later, my feet swelled up in the heat. So once again I was left bare foot and fancy free!

We then moved over to the Florida Mall where I was determined to find The Scrapbook Boutique. Now on all the forums I had been assured it was easy to find, right next to Joann's but we had been there twice and still not found it Eventually, fed up with my hobbling and moaning Martin found an info desk where they gave him a map with the shop marked. No wonder we hadnt found it, it is tucked away around the back, not easy to spot at all. And the Joanns was so small I struggled to see it even when we pulled up in front of it. As it turned out, the Scrapbook Boutique sold mainly paper, which I had decided was too hard to take on the plane and wasnt buying anyway, so I came out having spent only $11 on some stickles and one sheet of chipboard diecuts.

Martin was still insistant that he wanted to go to Cocoa beach, so we snagged a quick lunch and headed out. This was supposed to be a 45 minute drive. Of course that is for people with sat nav, maps, or the savvy to follow the road signs. But for Martin, who assumed that Cocoa beach was at the town of Cocoa, this turned out to be an hour and a half drive, through very deserlate march land, all looking a bit like Romney Marsh on the way to Dungerness Power station. The military notices signposting Kennedy Space station didnt quell my fears much either. And not one sighting of a space shuttle.

Eventually we did reach the beach - well not the beach front because that has all been bought up by hotels and you run along a road with large hotels between you and the sea, but we did finally find a road we could turn up, parked and got out to cross onto the sands.

I was so dissappointed. What I had hoped to do was take the water bus out to a thousand islands to see the manatees. What I got was a large 4ft x 4ft sign listing all the things I was NOT allowed to do on the beach, and then the most miserable looking beach front I had ever seen.


This is not my photo., its one I have borrowed from the net. I didnt bother to even get my camera out. We stayed all of 6 minutes, I didnt dip my toes in the Atlantic, and then we were back in the car and heading back to Orlando.

That evening we thought we would try the famous I-trolly that travels up and down International drive. Its a cute little bus, that has a thamas the tank engine type face pointed on it, and runs about every 20 minutes. You can travel as many times as you like in a 24 hour period for $3. I wanted to try some of the finer eating houses at the top of I-Drive where all the hotels and the conference centre were. We checked out the numbers of our stops, bought our ticket in the hotel lobby, and headed off for the trolley stop immedietly outside our hotel. Where we stood patiently and waited.......and waited.......and waited. After about half hour a trolley pulled up, but it was obviously well overloaded so the driver wouldnt let us on, telling us there was another right behind. So we waited... and waited,,, and then decided that even if one picked us up now, we wouldnt be able to eat and get back before the time the trolleys stopped working. The tickets dont actually start the 24 hour count down until you first use them, so we stowed them back in Martin's wallet and went off to enjoy our third meal at Chilli's. Well I just couldnt get enough of those baby back ribs smothered in brown sugar and chilli sauce.

Sea World continued

There is just so much to see in this Theme park, much of which I didnt photograph because light levels were difficult without a tripod but setting up a tripod to catch moving animals is just plain stupid. So some of these photos are mine, others I have 'borrowed from the seaworld site. From the dolphin show we went to see them being fed. You have to pay for food and the queue was very long. Its sold by the amount of fish not the amount of people in line so we didnt bother, just watched as others fed them.
Then we continued on to see the Manatees. I had been looking forward to this as I thought they were likened to dolphins, but I was less keen on them. They are very large bloated looking creatures with small heads and they move very slowly. Most of those in the park had been rescued so had chunks out of them from where they had been caught in propellors or attacked by other animals. It was a bit of a rush to cross the park and get to the Shamu show, but we still got reasonable seats. Americans can be very sentimental and this show was very full of 'stand up for our Millitary Heroes' and 'go for your dreams'.


Quite powerful but not for 'the British stiff upperlip' really, so we found it all a bit squirmy and embarrassing. The Whales were good though.


We snagged a quick snack of hot dogs and chips (crisps to us) and then went to see the rest of the park. We were actually heading for the sealions but ended up in the Artic World where the Baluga whales, and the polar bears are housed. Here the light is kept really low and the temp really cold so that the animals think it is the real thing. The theme is an artic research station so you walk through corrigated iron corridors full of mock 'supply' boxes and old fashion machines run with valves using old wind up handles. Its difficult to see the Baluga's in the dark and they move pretty fast.
And as usual the Polar Bear was asleep somewhere behind the icebergs - although we did see his nose.


Back ouside and the park is getting ready for Halloween. There is an additional evening show (which you pay more for) to see Shuma in the scary show. These displays were all over the park.

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After that , it was a quick walk through the tunnel to see the sharks, and coral fish, time to see the sealions and then we opted to go back once more and see the Dolphin show as we had enjoyed it so much before heading out the park.

Back home with a reality bump.

I wanted to get all my holiday details on here but as ever real life gets in the way. So there are a few bits need recording before continuing with the good stuff.

On Thursday, because my CRB check has finally come through, I got a call at 8.40 asking me to go teach - in the school literally next door to the one I used to. It was really weird as some of the kids I was teaching in Year 4 were ones I had taught in reception. And the TA was one of the first TA's I had ever worked with in the other school.

Not only that but my best mate Jan works there, so we caught up on each other's news in the break. I was devasted to learn that her husband and our friend was due to have important and urgent open heart surgery!!

On Saturday Martin phoned me soon after he had gone to work to say he had had another break down (stress) and the manager and area manager were suggesting he step down a grade. He has decided to do this and in two weeks time should be moving to another store to become Warehouse manager.

And craft wise, I have now turned the house upside down looking for my cutting ruler and my zison scissors to no avail.

Sea World

By now we had run out of ready cash (having only taken a small amount of ready money in dollars with us) so we had to get up a bit early to go find an ATM machine before heading to Sea World. Turns out there were lots of them in the actual theme park so we needn't have bothered. Anyway after paying the $10 parking at Sea World we headed into the park.

Another brilliant day. SeaWorld in Orlando is on the same block as Discovery Cove and is owned by the same people. Infact most of the Discovery dolphins started off in SeaWorld. It is much larger and even with a map we found the layout quite confusing and kept loosing our bearings.

There is so much to see, and thinking we only had the one day to cover it all, we didnt spend as long as we would have liked on each exhibition. But it was still a great day.

We started off watching the giant turtles swimming about but as not much was happening here we moved into the Penguin enclosure. The Penguins are housed behind glass in conditions as near representative of the Pole as is possible, which means it is kept so cold that it does actually really snow and the keepers have to be bundled up in loads of cold weather gear to interact with them.

I could have watched all day but we moved on to the next part where puffins were kept behind glass in a similar way. Americans are so good at showmanship, and even here, appropriate 'puffin movement' music was being piped into the spectator hall (hopefully not to the Puffins though).

There are about 6 shows running throughout the day but the dolphin and the Shuma shows are the most popular so you need to plan out your day carefully and make sure you are at the right perfomance places well in advance of the start times. We were absolutely wrapped with the dolphin show which is very powerful,very colourful, with lots of trapeeze artists interacting and performing with the dolphins and small whales. We were astonished when suddenly 8 blue maccaws flew around the stadium in time to the music and even more surprised when a large black eagle joined the show.
Of couse it is always the non-performers who take part in the show who steal it, and it was the wild storks who were attempting to steal the dolphin's fish around the back of the stage who caught our eyes and made us smile.

Stingrays and sharks

Discovery Cove doesn't just house dolphins, there is lots more to explore so after our interaction we went to look at what was on offer the other side of the bridge. Here there is a large man made beach, another lagoon complete with caves and waterfalls which joins onto a lazy river encircling the whole park. Slow moving with deep parts and shallow parts it takes a good 20 minutes to completely float around the whole thing.
So after a freebie snack and drink we enjoyed a slow relaxing go around that before heading into the stingray lagoon. Here the smaller rays, minus their barbs, are kept and again you can get in and paddle around with them. We were just enjoying watching them when a trainer arrived with a bag full of mackeral. Yes our timing was brilliant and we had arrived at a feeding time. Now my excuse was that I had hold of the camera so I got out of it but Martin was caught and so had to grab a handful of fish. You have to hold the food in your clenched fist ensuring your thumb is safely tucked in, the rays then swim up and litterally vacuumn suck the fish out of your grasp. They dont have teeth but do have flaps of skin that can give a bit of a nip, as Martin found out. He kept his thumb well hidden but his large knuckles stuck up and that is what the ray latched onto. Poor Martin, but what an experience.

So we took ourselves off back to the restaurant to console him on the all-you-can-eat lunch which again was excellent fare. Huge portions, lots of drink (Martin was a bit upset to find out there was free beer but as we had come in the car and he was designated driver he had to stick to the soft stuff) and delicious chocolate and cherry gateaux.
We couldnt really swim straight after such a huge meal so we had a bit of a wander around the avairy where you could get the birds to come right up and sit on your shoulder if you got yourself a pot of bird food. Plenty to see here for the bird lover and I was only dissappointed that there were no posters or labels up to let us know what all the bird species were. There are only so many times you can keep saying "and what's that one" to the handlers.

Another couple of floats round the park, a couple more freebie drinks and snacks and then the only pool left to explore was the larger rays, coral reef and shark one. This lagoon is much deeper and cold. You are supplied with a free snorkel so that you can swim underwater to watch all the coral fish, but neither of us could get on with these so we didnt see much. As well as that, the larger rays are much more agresive in their feeding and since yet again we had hit on a fish meal time, we had to make sure there was at least 10ft between us and the trainers. So for us this pool was a bit of a failure.

Anyway it was now getting on for home time so we hit the showers, got changed and headed off towards the exit. Where one last treat was waiting for us. Now I dont think this was part of the show but a guy had turned up with a wooden truck (quite a large box on wheels) in tow. We were curious to discover why so many people were crowding round. We could hardly believe it. In the box, free to be petted and quite happy with all the attention was a real live armadillo! I didnt manage to get a photo as the light levels were all wrong but I did get to touch it and stroke it. They feel a bit like cocoanuts LOL.

An extra surprise to a magical day.

I (swim/swam/swum) with dolphins!

It just doesn't seem right to have to wake to an alarm when you are away on your hols, but it was an hour's drive to Discovery Cove, and we needed to be there at 8am. I

f you ever do get the chance to go there, do this, then I cant recommend it highly enough. We had such a wonderful, super, and to take a word from the Americans, awesome, day. Discovery is not anywhere near as big as the other Theme Parks, but they pack a hell of a lot in. They only let in 1000 visitors a day, with about 75% of those booking interactions with the dolphins and it books up quickly. I can well understand why. It has a beautiful, lush tropical island feel with all the planting and meandering pathways, is clean, well organised, has high staff to guest ratio's,leaving you feeling relaxed and chilled out.

When we arrived (amongst some of the first, only row three back in the car park) we queued to show our tickets and ID. There were 8 booths and a member of staff at the head of the line chatting and directing proceedures. It was all very quick, our photo was taken and we were passed on to the next desk where, by the time we got there our waterproof maps and ID cards were hanging on a lanyard with our photos imprinted on them and our credit card details 'attached' to Martins. Now everything else could go in one of the free lockers and we didnt need anything else for the day because it was all provided.

Next we followed another member of staff down the winding path through the tall plantations where at a designated spot we were stopped and our complimentary photo of the two of us taken. Another staff member and on into the Park for real where we stopped again and the details of the day explained to us. All meals, snacks and drinks are included in the price as are towels, snorkels, wet suits, special animal friendly sun cream, shampoo, conditioner and shower gel. In fact the only thing we ended up paying for was some water wear shoes and a souvenir tee-shirt for me!

You are given a set time for your dolphin swim, and as ours was at 9.55am we opted to get changed before breakfasting, so following yet another staff member (all so friendly and reassuring) we wandered further down the right hand path to the wet suit/vest hand out and the changing rooms.
You could choose to wear either a cut off wet suit or a vest. Vests leave you with more maneuverability but wet suits keep you warmer. We went for the wet suits. Of course never having worn one before and with no instructions I managed to put mine in back to front. Embarrassed or what? And a short dumpy lady with not so long arms is no match for a wet suit. Martin had to tug quite hard to get it off me again. Anyway with everything stowed in the lockers, we headed back to the restaurant for our 'all you can eat' breakfast. Well scrummy. Heaps to choose from, all clean, tasty, well presented and lots of tables so room for all. It didn't seem long until our swim time came round.


There is a very large lagoon in the middle of the park which has been divided into four smaller lagoons. One is for the baby and 'still-in-training' dolphins and the other three are where the interactions take place

Trainers having their morning briefing by the 'nursery' lagoon.

Four dolphins can be found in each, and you are put into small groups of about 8 to each dolphin with a trainer and a helper. Our dolphin was Tyler, Erron his trainer. The dolphins work on hand signals and we were shown how to signal for him to put his head on our hands raising it up for a kiss! Yes, I kissed a dolphin!! I also stroked him, hugged him and eventually got to have a dorsal tow from him! Wow!! These creatures are just so incredible, they defy description.


Erron explained that nowadays America have made it a federal offence to interact in any way whatsoever (and that includes just waving at them from a boat) with dolphins found in the wild in USA waters. This is to protect them as they are becoming more and more friendly, loosing the skills to find their own food but also getting hurt. And since only yesterday I heard on the local news that Dave the Dolphin, our lad swimming off the Kent coast, has now had part of his tail sliced off by a boat propeller (sight seerers getting too close) I can understand the Americans reactions.

There was a young girl in our group who was obviously a bit wary, so Erron didn't really put Tyler through the same sort of paces which the other dolphins were seen to be doing later on in the day, but it was great to know she had been so considered of the little girls feelings. The dolphins are very controlled by the trainers signals so you don't really interact so much as watch/receive the trained tricks, that is until the dorsal tow. As I lay against Tyler's side, getting my hands in the correct place, I could feel his body quiver against me with excitement. This may be his nine-til-five day at the office job but it was clear he was having as much fun as the rest of us and was eager to show off.
Now as much as I don't want to criticise, I do have to say there was one point we were very disappointed with. The whole time you are in the water there are three photographers taking pictures. Erron even gave extra goes, if she thought the cameras had not caught the action. After the swim you were taken to see the resulting snaps. There were about 12 in all and for the princely sum of $65 (yes that is right - about £32) you could be the proud owner of 3 6x8 prints of your choice and 2 key ring fobs (same pics). Now why? Why charge such a high price? To my mind it was just emotional blackmail. You knew that possibly this was a once in a lifetime event, you did want photographic recording of your memories, you couldn't take photos yourself while swimming unless one of your group wasn't in the water. So I expect most people coughed up the money. But really, that was way too dear. The photos themselves weren't of professional standard (sorry if they were professionals but in the end they were only snap shots) and we had already paid a fair price for the day anyway. I have to say this was the only example I saw of tourists being ripped off all holiday and I really was disappointed about it. A wrench but no, we didn't get the photos. I went back and took random people doing what we had done. So that and what we have held in our heads is our reminder of a fantastic experience.

This was only the start of our day at Discovery Cove. More photos and tales to come.