Magic

J's turn not to feel like getting up and at 'em this time, so we were a party of three heading off reasonably early to AK, getting there a little before general entry, and in time for us all to go on Navi River, followed by a fairly short line for Flight of Passage. Then on to Safari where the lions were out this time, and even on the train to Rafiki's and the Affection Section for N to get up close and personal with the goats.

N and I enjoyed and wander through the Maharajah Jungle Trek, mostly marvelling at the theming, and spending some time together, but spotted the tigers too!

Nemo show perhaps still fun, but perhaps not what it once was - someone obviously told them to cut it in half, which seems a bit of a shame, but there you go.

Coming out of Nemo, it had started to rain, which was a bit of a surprise - first time this trip. So we took shelter in It's Tough to be a Bug, after which it had pretty much stopped, and it was time to head for home.

Main event of the day was in the evening - the opening game of the season for the Orlando Magics. Return trip for me and J, and first time for N! Magics cruised to a 30-point victory, we got more free t-shirts, and we generally soaked up the razzamatazz!

Keys

N&J up and away early today for their 'Keys to the Kingdom' fun and games at the Magic Kingdom by early Minnie Van, whilst Nan and I took it easy at the resort. By all accounts, lots of fun was had (but no pictures taken!).

Therefore, the best, and only, picture I can manage from today is from the dinner menu!

Billy

Delightfully late off the mark, followed by a trip (N, J and me) to the Vineland Premium Outlets for a second go at shopping. Tommy Bahama shirt for me, and then J and I cleaned up at CK requiring two fairly sizeable bags to pack it all in.

Back in time to collect Nan and transfer by Skyliner to Epcot and our early 'Eat to the Beat' dinner at the Rose and Crown. We were served by Roisin from Benfleet - who entertainingly had married someone from 'next door' Canada, and is relatively famous on TikTok. Scotch Egg to start all round, and sticky toffee pudding to finish all round, and a mixture of fish and chips, bangers and mash, and shepherd's pie for main.

But the real main event was Billy Ocean - all the way from Caribbean Queen to Suddenly!

Buccaneers

Road trip for J and me today to Tampa and a first - a chance to see an NFL game, finally completing the set of hockey, basketball, baseball and football.

Travel was straightforward (95% I4), parking easy (J had booked us lot 14 in advance), food ok (we had a free sample from the Publix zone outside before we went in, and then Jake had a pretty decent burger, whilst I insisted on having a 'foot-long' which was pretty average), stadium impressive (it has its own pirate ship), weather hot (I took advantage of the free - gloopy - sun lotion dispensers. Jake didn't), merchandise so so (I think J might be saving himself for Wednesday, but hey, we got free T-shirts!), and game very entertaining (even if the wrong team kicked the winning points with four seconds to go!).

Meanwhile, in Orlando, I am reliably informed that the new Cirque du Soleil 'Drawn to Life' is excellent!

To finish the day off, once we were all home, as I hadn't seen her all day, N and I went out for dinner together. We found Estefan's Kitchen, just off 192, and the food and the music were only bettered by the company.

 

Top

Reasonably early start to take advantage of our resort extra half hour in Hollywood, as a result of which we were able (three of us) to ride the ever-fun slinky dog, before getting into a not-too-long line (four of us) for TSM where, once again, I took the bronze medal.

Disappointing to report that two of our favourite places to get a drink and a pastry in the Studios no longer exist - no more 'Starring Rolls' and no more 'Writers' Stop', so, after a visit to see the Muppets (where the shop is closed also, and the whole area is looking a little unloved - time for a revamp perhaps - maybe it's bye-bye time Kermit?!) we found ourselves in Galaxy's Edge having a 'Ronto Wrap' for a late breakfast.

Plan formulated that Nan and N would stay at the Studios for a little longer (first stop Frozen singalong) whilst J and I would head back to the resort and then make a move for Top Golf where we had a booking.

Top Golf was exactly like Vegas, and lots of fun. As always, lots of talk about 'if only I could take some of these shots out onto the course...' and so on. We enjoyed aiming for the targets and playing virtual rounds. I even managed to sneak in a trip to B&N on the way back to the hotel.

Off to Springs for dinner, and to give the Boathouse another chance. It might be a while before we give it a third try. Food ok, but place generally noisy and chaotic. Shame really - could and should be much better. At least Nicky had a drink with a rubber duck in it!

MK

Refreshed from an easy day, J and I headed off early to MK to take full advantage of our extra 30 mins. Front row (apart from the preferred) in the parking, fairly chilly ferry, and then straight onto space mountain. Out and onto Buzz just before eight. I didn't do well. Into the queue for Seven Dwarves, where we only had to wait about 20 mins (love that ride) and then over to Big Thunder and Pirates, both of which were pretty much a walk on. About a 20 min wait for Jungle Cruise, at which point it was about 10 o'clock, we were six rides in, and it was time to head back over to Tomorrowland for our Tron boarding group.

We got row one.

It was awesome!

Brief stop in Main Street Starbucks for celebratory drink and pastry and that was MK done!

Sneaky trip out for some shopping in the afternoon, followed by evening dinner at Topolino's on the top floor of the Riviera.

Food good. Service and ambience average.

Wall

Thursday came and I hit the wall, needing to have a bit of a lazy day, so N&J headed off to Epcot for some fun, including a lightning lane ride on Guardians ("fun but done"), plus I'm sure there was a little bit of Food'n'Wine festival enjoyment as well.

Evening trip to Springs.

AK

And so to complete the set, a trip to the Animal Kingdom. First stop, of course, the safari, and despite it starting to get warmer today, and us not exactly being early risers, hence it being pretty late morning by the time we were approaching the ride, there were still plenty of animals to see, some very close indeed to the trucks. Lots of photos taken, small number of which were decent.

Jake and I took a stroll on the next-door walking trail afterwards, and got some more good pictures (along with a quote that will go down in family lore - "Would you like to know some more about the okapis?", "No, that's alright, I know everything about them already!").

Then, excitingly, it was time for another new experience, lunch at Tiffins. And wow, what an excellent meal it was too. I think we all agreed that this wins as our best in-park dining experience by some distance.

After a leisurely and long lunch we wandered further into Pandora thinking that we might secure a Navi River journey, but the queue was too long, so other than a look around the shops (much better than the day before - good selection, not too busy) resulting in new top for me and gift for Evie, it was back home.

Then to the second new experience of the day, the DVC member firework cruise. Reporting to the boat dock for 6.30pm at the Contemporary we were given our drink and box of snacks, and at about 7pm we set sail with our skipper Gary for a tour of Bay Lake and the Seven Seas Lagoon prior to taking up position just before 8pm right in front of the entrance to MK for a great view of the fireworks, with the soundtrack played into the boat. Again, awesome!

What a fab day!

Hollywood

Tuesday so it must be Hollywood Studios, again by the wonders of Skyliner, with a quick change at Caribbean Beach onto the right line. No particular plans on arrival, but it turned out there was a short wait for Star Tours, so off we went (all four) for some simulator fun. I think it might have been slightly downplayed for Nan, who might not have 100% enjoyed it, much much kudos for coming on the ride!

The park didn't feel too busy at all, but some of the main attractions still had fairly long queues. We joined the line for TSM, which I think was advertised as 25 mins, but probably waited for almost double that time. I have to report that, of the four of us, Nicky was the winner by a small margin, and that I came third. You can work out the rest for yourself.

Time for food, so we had some sandwiches from Woody's Lunchbox whilst contemplating our next move, which turned out to be Smugglers' Run which, understandably as it is another Star Wars simulator ride, Nan decided to sit out. Again a longer than advertised wait, but good fun.

At this stage flagging to some degree, and so a quick visit to One Man's Dream and a look in the shops (not as good as previously) and back to the Skyliner towards home.

Dinner at the Primo Piatto at the Riviera (excellent burger) followed by a drink in the bar for me an N.

MK

Of course, next on the park list was MK, and Nicky did a great job of securing us 'lightning lane' passes for Tron - boarding group 38. We set off first, with Nan to follow a little later, planning to get the bus, but switching to car when it turned out that the wait was rather long.

The ferry ride from TTC was a little chilly (the forecaster had warned that we would have to suffer two days with highs only in the 70s before consistent 80s for the next week or more!) and we arrived in time to ride the people mover before it was time for our boarding group. As always, some nervous anticipation before a new ride, but I think it is fair to say that we all loved it (i.e. came out - well I certainly did - like giggling idiots afterwards).

Afterwards we went and found Nan near the castle, and meandered over to Philharmagic and then the train station in Fantasyland / Toontown (whatever it's called these days) for a circuit and a bit to bring us back round to Main Street and away by monorail.

Afternoon trip to Premium outlets at Vineland, where we all got something (Nan - warm top, Nicky - Timberland boots, planning ahead for holiday next year, Jake - Adidas top, me - socks!) and home in time for a brief rest before heading over to the Polynesian and the Ohana restaurant and their skillet dinner which was scrummy, with the added bonus of watching the fireworks at MK part way through.

Epcot

Time for Epcot proper, and so off to the Land pavilion to start the day, and on to Living with the Land, followed by Soarin' (whilst the wait time was reasonable), and then a trip next door to see Figment. Then it was time to avail ourselves of the Food and Wine offerings, highlights of which included the 'Fry Flight' and the PBJ chicken wings.

(By the way, Skyliner as a mode of transport to Epcot = excellent)

However, realising that we couldn't live off the Food and Wine festival for the next fortnight, it was off to Publix to stock up on the essentials of life, and then a trip on the bus to Springs and dinner at Wolfgang Pucks plus a little bit of shopping - Nicky very kindly treated Jake and me to some clothes from Uniqlo.

Arrived

Time to catch up on some blogging, having been here for a few days already!

Travel day went smoothly. We were at the airport in plenty of time, which was probably a good thing because the bag-drop line was fairly long. We decided that the Virgin computer systems were having an off day. However, we got through in reasonable time, and then collected a chair for Nan, mostly to make sure we would get assistance at the other end. It did mean that we didn't have time for a sit-down breakfast before our gate was called, so we grabbed provisions from Pret, and there was just enough time for Jake and I to select a couple of books from WHS before the trek to the gate.

Flight uneventful. Seats seemed spacious and food not bad - we thought that we were probably on one of Virgin's newer planes - an improvement on the palaver of going to Washington in June. Famous comedian and family in row behind us.

First impressions of Riviera are good, and pleased to be able to tick off another hotel on the DVC list. We even made it into Epcot for a brief visit on evening number one.

Editions

Books on order whilst I was away now safely arrived, so I am the happy owner of a full set of the new paperback Bond editions, just out to mark the 70th anniversary of the publication of Casino Royale, and rather nice they are too.

Also collected the new Bond story by Charlie Higson, published to mark the King's coronation.

And as I mentioned, this along with my recent purchase of most of an earlier paperback edition, although with two gaps to be filled. 

Home

 One thing we've learned, despite the best of intentions, is that overseas trips aren't the best for blogging. One starts off with the best of intentions, but then stuff just gets in the way! The days are pretty full, and by the time that it is time to switch off, the energy just isn't there. As for those people who manage to get into a proper habit of keeping a daily diary irrespective of how busy they are, heaven knows how they do it!

Anyway, we ended out trip with a couple of days based from Singapore - meetings and property-related stuff, including a visit into Johor Bahru in the southern tip of Malaysia (the causeway and border being a bit of a pain - much easier to get in and out of Singapore by air than by land!). One of our stops was to the URA (the Urban Redevelopment Agency), and they have a couple of rather fancy models of Singapore, one of the whole country, and one of the central area only, with enables them to show how the plans for the country's continuing development are being deployed.

Interestingly, they also have a Stephen Wiltshire artwork in display, done in 2014 after he visited Singapore.

Then, of course, never mind models and drawings, the real place is rather photogenic as well. 

Train

 Well, here it is at last. Another blog post from the trip, this time being written offline from the six-hour train journey from Medan for later uploading. Rather a lot to catch up on since previous posting from Singapore.

We all made it from Singapore to Jakarta fine last Saturday, meeting up with more colleagues on arrival, and the main event of our first stop in Jakarta was to have a celebratory dinner with everyone from the office on Saturday evening. Our staff did an excellent job of organising the event, and we had the hotel ballroom booked out and decorated, along with traditional dancers, two members of staff dressed in traditional costume doing MC’ing, speeches before dinner, and lots of photos (the least said about the 360 video/photos of me and a couple of colleagues now doing the rounds on Tiktok the better). I was called on stage to hand out prizes for the logo competition (!) after dinner and then, having thought I’d dodged them, to make a speech of my own.

Up and out on Sunday to fly to East Kalimantan and an opportunity for the other directors to visit our regional office there before the long journey on Monday by a combination of road and sea to the very eastern tip of East Kalimantan where huge changes had taken place since my last visit which was pre pandemic. Because of this, we were catching up with official openings of new facilities, all operational at this stage, as clubhouse remains a building site for now. Not my turn to do ribbon cutting, but it was nice to see my gold pen signature turned into permanent chiselling at our regional office.

More celebratory parties and more speeches on our last night (in hastily constructed marquee due to lack of clubhouse), before our return trip to Jakarta with early start to get to boat (thankfully millpond-like), followed by car and plane – with car journey running well enough to time that we were able to take our first flight option. Total door-to-door still around 12 hours, so we sensibly decided against trying to wedge in any time in the office and decamped straight to the hotel and after a brief rest gathered for dinner in their teppanyaki restaurant, sadly minus P who wasn’t feeling too good.

And so to the office on Friday morning for meetings and presentations, still without P, left to recuperate in the hotel, and gradually during the day some members of the group peeled off for their respective onward journeys, some to KL and some for the return trip to London. L and I saw it through to the end of the day and headed out to our favourite Jakarta Indian restaurant with R, before the journey to Medan on Saturday morning, where we settled in in time for watching the Coronation. Understandably, it was only L and I who were particularly bothered about it, and R & G went out in Medan for dinner whilst L & I ordered in some room service whilst we watched London in the rain.

And that brings us pretty much up to date. Up and away this morning to get the 8am train. Station only a few minutes from the hotel, but the powers that be decided to make it briefly interesting by closing most of the roads around the station, so making for a fairly mega taxi detour, but we still made it with plenty of time. Passed the time on the train by finishing book four of the trip (already mentioned two in previous post, but also read Richard Osman book 2 and a Harlan Coben), and finally catching up on some emails.

Throughout this update, it’s all been a bit factual hasn’t it. I haven’t mentioned that I’ve spoken to Nicky every day. I haven’t mentioned that being away doesn’t get any easier. I haven’t mentioned that I miss her hideously, so much so that I don’t know what to do about it at times. She sent me a link to a special song, and I listened to it this morning in the hotel whilst I was packing. I think I’m going to stop now, and go and listen to it again.

Fullerton

 Here I am back at the Fullerton, just for the one night before moving on to Jakarta tomorrow with our merry travelling band. Six of us left London yesterday, and we have collected one more here, so we will be seven travelling on tomorrow, where we will have the small matter of dinner for about a hundred, before our travel group will grow by four or five more as we head on to Kalimantan.

Time currently late, or early depending on your point of view - 4.30am and woken by a combination of jetlag and not having turned down the thermometer on the room's aircon. Have caught up on some work emails, and might read some more.

Read Richard E Grant's book on the way over. Good job the plane was dark and people around me were sleeping. I managed to hold it together, but there were a few tears.

Have moved on to something considerably lighter - Hitchhiker's Guide - which I haven't read in decades.

Missing my Singapore travel buddy from January.

Sale

 We may have sold a house.

Well, Nicky may have sold a house - having done all of the hard work with organising visits, co-ordinating with family and neighbours/friends, meeting with agents and appointing them, cajoling the chosen agent every step of the way. After several months, we received an offer today, which Nicky negotiated up, keen to do the best for family, and here we are - offer accepted.

No doubt now the really hard work starts with conveyancing, final clearance, making sure everyone is happy ...

It's a good job Nicky is brilliant at this stuff!

Present

My lovely friends gave me a belated birthday present whilst we were away - track, display case and all, which is now proudly on display in the hall.

Cheltenham

 After a hearty hotel breakfast, off to Cheltenham for an explore.

We found the wrong bit first, which was populated by teenagers pretending to be football hooligans, because it was local derby day, the fans from Forest Green were in the pub, and they needed to be chanted at and have red smoke bombs set off in their general direction.

It was all rather amusing, but we gave them a wide berth around the one-to-one police marking that was being provided, and took refuge in a couple of shops.

Shortly afterwards I found the sort of second-hand bookshop I rather like, and somewhat over-extended the patience of my friends and my wife by studying most of the stock, before retreating empty-handed. However, I did dash back just before closing and buy twelve rather nice Bond paperbacks (just need to track down the other two to make up the set!).

Dinner back at the hotel, where Nicky and Z had the advantage of being on the side of the table facing out into the rest of the dining room, and happily made up stories about our fellow diners. Also, as will now go down in folklore, at one point Nicky did make a rather unfortunate Google search on her phone, the results of which left her and Z without the power of speech for most of the rest of the evening!

Ellenborough

 And so to Ellenborough, by way of motorways, Oxford, the A40 and a stop off at the poshest garden centre in the world (Burford). There in time to meet up with D & Z for afternoon team, which fairly seemlessly rolled into dinner in the bar, with barely a pause for breath (other than to check in, discover that the room thermostat was stuck on 28, and move somewhere a little cooler).

Exam

I went into the hospital today to follow up on my medical exam.

Jake had an exam of a different kind.

My exam had taken place at the start of March in the form of an MRI scan, and after almost six hours of waiting around at the hospital to receive the feedback, I was told that I may have something called a cholesteatoma in my right ear.

However, further investigation is required by ENT so I have been referred for an outpatient appointment.

(And maybe that will be the end of this being a health / medical blog for a little while, other than to say that I had a call from my GP whilst waiting at the surgery to say that they are prescribing something for my feet - no need for a blood test, but to let them know if I go a bit yellow when I start taking the tablets!)

Gate

This is the gate post ;)

(I'm sure if you hunt hard enough I've used that terrible pun before in this blog - most likely when posting from an airport.)

The gate people came to fix our fancy gates today, which had stopped working. Turns out the reason was that an insect had been shut into the box with all the electrics, and had rather fried them, as well as the SIM card. So, parts needed to be replaced, new SIM card needed to be ordered (with temporary one in use in the meantime), and box was re-sealed carefully - hopefully this time without any additional inhabitants.

Jabs

This is in danger of becoming a health blog!

Today was a trip to the local pharmacy to get some updated jabs prior to our next trip to Indonesia. As Nicky had managed to dig out an old vaccination card of mine, I didn't have to start completely from scratch, but still ended up having two in each arm, along with a request to go back next week for a couple more top-ups before travelling.

Peter also had four, and total cost between us - just over £600! I'm sure that last time I went along to the see the nurse at the GP and they were all free. Either I don't remember these things well, or times have changed somewhat.

Appts

 Health day! Finally, after much procrastination, spoke to someone on the 'Babylon' app about my feet, although they told me to see my GP as I need a blood test as the next step, so not exactly definitive progress, but still, progress nonetheless. Also, finally phoned the hospital about my MRI scan, only to be told I have to come in on Thursday to talk to them about it (and not for a specific appointment time, but to come in and expect a potentially long wait). Does slightly make me wonder - as soon as I enquire - six weeks after the scan - they want to talk to me straight away, but were they going to contact me at any point? And to top it all off, it was the dentist as well today, although I seemed to survive that one pretty unscathed.

Pitch

 A first trip of the year for Jake and me to the pitch and putt.

Amazingly, we both went round in <80, and I even got what we like to consider to be 'par'!

Must have been all the practice we had at Top Golf in Vegas!

(/center>

Mud

Dog walking in the woods after overnight rain.

Willow behaved.

Maisie did not.

Car

Out with the old, in with the new!