Four parks

Yesterday was a four parks in one day day. And today is getting old already, so here's one photo from each park for now, with more to come later, depending on what I end up doing today!

Flower

The time has come for a long overdue post, now that I have been at WDW for a bit more than 24 hours.

The rest of my time in Atlanta was fairly uneventful, even if it did turn out that I'd rather bashed up my legs playing Whirlyball, and walking was a little bit painful for the next couple of days.

That evening, we went out to a nice steak restaurant not far along the road from our hotel, and then we were in the office all day on Tuesday. We did, however, manage to catch up with our US colleagues over the course of Monday and Tuesday, meaning that once the Tuesday meetings were finished, Ian made a dash for the airport so that he could get the Tuesday night flight home, whilst I stayed one more night in Roswell, and hitched a lift with the US guys back to the airport on Wednesday morning.

My flight to MCO wasn't scheduled until just after 7pm, and we arrived at the airport a little after 9am. I was hoping that I would be able to move my flight to the morning, but it turned out that the first one with space was at 2.55pm, which meant that I had a fairly long wait at the airport, during which I caught up on a few work emails and calls, read my book, finished it and bought another one, and generally wasted time.

Still, the flight left on time, and we were a little early into Orlando, and my bag was waiting for me when I went to baggage reclaim (already off the belt to the side, but being looked after by an attendant - I wonder whether my bag went on an earlier flight than me), and there was no line at the Budget desk, so I picked up my car (a Mazda 2) and drove straight over to the Caribbean Beach and checked in.

By the time I got here it was about 6pm, and once I'd unpacked, had a little explore, and facetime'd with Nicky, I decided that I was too tired to venture any further out and that I would save my explorations for today.

I was up and out at a reasonable time this morning, and true to form, went and parked at the Boardwalk, and enjoyed a leisurely stroll over to the International Gateway. I then spent a very pleasant morning in Epcot admiring the lovely Flower and Garden Festival displays. I have never seen Epcot looking so lovely. I ended up taking over 200 photos today (be warned), but will only add a select few to the bottom of this post.

I left Epcot in time to get back to the hotel for 3pm so that I could FaceTime with Nicky when she was at her Mum and Dad's. Unfortunately I got my times muddled up and so ended up trying to get through to Nicky whilst she was still on her way home from Kings Hill. Still, no great problem as it gave me time to upload a few photos before catching up with everyone.

Once I'd done that, I headed back out and had a productive trip to the Premium Outlets, after which I had a much less productive trip to Downtown. I had to park all the way over near Cirque, and the place was packed, so I gave up fairly soon and went and had dinner at Denny's before coming back here. I'll have another go at Downtown during the day at some point in the next couple of days.

Right here are some photos of the lovely-looking Epcot.

Whirlyball

Time for just a quick post as I will be heading out for dinner with colleagues soon, and need to look up a couple of things to talk to them about before I go.

I'm in Atlanta, or actually Roswell to be a little more precise, and today was a morning of meetings in the office followed by an afternoon of team-building at Whirlyball Atlanta.

Whirlyball is an entertaining game, and is essentially part lacrosse, part basketball, and part bumper cars, and if you don't believe me, here's a photo to prove it!


Hopefully will post a little bit more later on, depending on what time we get back from dinner.

Out of office

Today was my last day in the office until after Easter, and the to do list was rather long. I had a pretty steady procession of people coming to my desk with requests for things to be done.

Still I made it out at a reasonable time, and now the focus turns to getting ready for my trip across the Atlantic.

Off out tomorrow morning to buy myself some dollars.

Just passing

Today's first trip was to Wimbledon for one of my occasional visits to see them out of the tennis-playing season. If you've ever wondered what it looks like when the tennis courts aren't tennis courts, well here it is.


On my way heading back south, in the eventual direction of Hove, I stopped off and saw Bec. We put the world to rights over a cheese toastie and a cup of coffee, and jolly nice it was too!

Turn back the clock

Nicky and Jake have been home having a duvet day today, both of them having succumbed to the lurgy. Still they've at least been able to enjoy a new discovery - one of their favourite programmes from last time's Florida TV has made it onto a UK channel - Dance Moms, so they've been watching a bit of that. And Storage Hunters was on last night. With the number of channels on Sky, it all arrives here sooner or later!

Nicky and I both heard a song on the radio this morning which was something of a blast from the past - turns out that Johnny Hates Jazz have brought out a new song, and have a new album coming out soon. Bring the wheels of time to a stop indeed!

Overdue

Definitely long overdue for an update to the blog. I was sat reading through old posts last night, and thoroughly enjoying them (they were written mostly for this purpose after all), but it made me realise that I have been missing out recently by not blogging. Seeing some of the older posts reminded me of things that would otherwise have long been forgotten, and so now is the time to start up once again, reporting on the little things in life.

I worked from home today, which I have managed to do about once a week over the last few weeks. I thoroughly appreciate not having to face the M25 every day, especially with its rotten roadworks between 5 and 7. A couple of weeks ago, I had a four and a half hour journey home, and that was no fun at all. Mind you, I did sense a slight undercurrent in my boss's voice when talking to him on the phone at one point earlier on - "oh, you're working from home again". Will have to keep an eye on things there - make sure people realise that I am still working (surely the fact that I was on the phone to him was a clue!).

Anyway, there were a couple of practical reasons why working from home was sensible today - I needed to go into Maidstone so that I could go to the Post Office there and get an IDP (International Driving Permit). Seems highly unlikely that I'll actually need one when I'm in the US next week, but better safe than sorry. The fact that I could have lunch with Nicky at The Living Cafe was an added bonus (she even stood up the Samsung repair man for me - he's coming on Friday now!).

The other good reason for working from home today was that Jake and I had an appointment at the dentist, which went well apart from the stark warnings about acid erosion risks as a result of a liking for fizzy and sugary drinks. Not good news when your favourite tipple is a glass of Mountain Dew! For our sins, we've both been booked in to see the hygienist in a couple of weeks. Plus, we should be getting a referral to go and see the orthodontist in Maidstone some time soon. Maybe braces beckon?