Steve from England

Checked in bags at Disney Monday morning, all good. No long wait, seats booked and spent a lovely day in the Magic Kingdom. Got back to the car and found out that Freddie, our cat, had been killed by a car. Deej got really upset right off, didn't get me until Matt posted a message about him and dripping taps on MySpace . It brought Freddie real again for me and I blubbered a little. He was an amazing cat, very well mannered and loving and he and Tilly had started to get on really well to the point of playing together. So, now we are back to just our Tilly again and I think we shall leave it that way. We got to the airport by about 4pm and thought we'd done real well on timing ... due to go to gate 85 at 6pm. Thing was, nothing showed on any screens. Flights before and after but not ours. I used my laptop and went online to see if there was any news ... our flight had been delayed by 24 hours! We went to the Virgin desk, they put us up in the Hyatt Orlando at the airport and ha...

Checked in bags at Disney Monday morning, all good. No long wait, seats booked and spent a lovely day in the Magic Kingdom. Got back to the car and found out that Freddie, our cat, had been killed by a car. Deej got really upset right off, didn't get me until Matt posted a message about him and dripping taps on MySpace . It brought Freddie real again for me and I blubbered a little. He was an amazing cat, very well mannered and loving and he and Tilly had started to get on really well to the point of playing together. So, now we are back to just our Tilly again and I think we shall leave it that way. We got to the airport by about 4pm and thought we'd done real well on timing ... due to go to gate 85 at 6pm. Thing was, nothing showed on any screens. Flights before and after but not ours. I used my laptop and went online to see if there was any news ... our flight had been delayed by 24 hours! We went to the Virgin desk, they put us up in the Hyatt Orlando at the airport and ha...

A busy day! we planned on Ponderosa this morning for breakfast ... we didn't plan for a traffic jam which made our 5 minutes journey over 40. By the time we got there it was really too late, the queue was too long as we'd have gone into the lunch time period so totally no good. We drove, instead, to Cocoa Beach. I asked the satnav nicely to show me the way but by the time it kicked in we'd already got most the way there so that was rather pointless. Had a lovely wander along the surf. The water is warm but not as warm as the gulf. Lots of nice little fishies and only one jellyfish. Went into Ron Jon, got an amazing deal ... pair of cool DC's for around 17 quid! I also got myself a 'Vans' hoodie thingy cos I just so happened to have one in a dream last night and there it was so I sort of had to buy it. Visited some more stores too, made a few purchases there as well. Was lovely there at Cocoa Beach After we headed over to Kennedy Space Center. Decided that we re...

A busy day! we planned on Ponderosa this morning for breakfast ... we didn't plan for a traffic jam which made our 5 minutes journey over 40. By the time we got there it was really too late, the queue was too long as we'd have gone into the lunch time period so totally no good. We drove, instead, to Cocoa Beach. I asked the satnav nicely to show me the way but by the time it kicked in we'd already got most the way there so that was rather pointless. Had a lovely wander along the surf. The water is warm but not as warm as the gulf. Lots of nice little fishies and only one jellyfish. Went into Ron Jon, got an amazing deal ... pair of cool DC's for around 17 quid! I also got myself a 'Vans' hoodie thingy cos I just so happened to have one in a dream last night and there it was so I sort of had to buy it. Visited some more stores too, made a few purchases there as well. Was lovely there at Cocoa Beach After we headed over to Kennedy Space Center. Decided that we re...

Today we managed to complete our list of theme parks! So, we have done ... Disney's Magic Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Hollywood Studios Epcot Seaworld Universal Islands of Adventure Universal Studions Busch Gardens Our illness is restricting me from doing the big rides. I did Exhibition Everest but it was really too much for me, got me choking so not good. We want to return to Epcos because we couldn't do Saurin or Test Track last time, ran out of time. we'd also like to pop back to Hollywood Studios to see fantasmic but if we don't, it's no big deal. Busch gardens is impressive in what it has though the implimentation needs a lot of work. It's like they spent loads on rides and exhibits, which is cool, but then forgot to get in the little extra glitz to make it special. Today we went to Clearwater Beach. Boy I love that place! It is probably the first place I have been since being here where I totally relaxed. It is soo laid back. The warmt...

Today we managed to complete our list of theme parks! So, we have done ... Disney's Magic Kingdom Disney's Animal Kingdom Disney's Hollywood Studios Epcot Seaworld Universal Islands of Adventure Universal Studions Busch Gardens Our illness is restricting me from doing the big rides. I did Exhibition Everest but it was really too much for me, got me choking so not good. We want to return to Epcos because we couldn't do Saurin or Test Track last time, ran out of time. we'd also like to pop back to Hollywood Studios to see fantasmic but if we don't, it's no big deal. Busch gardens is impressive in what it has though the implimentation needs a lot of work. It's like they spent loads on rides and exhibits, which is cool, but then forgot to get in the little extra glitz to make it special. Today we went to Clearwater Beach. Boy I love that place! It is probably the first place I have been since being here where I totally relaxed. It is soo laid back. The warmt...

Another glorious day over here. Sun shining, we are being lazy. is 10:45, should prolly do something. Have thought about alligator hunting. Deej has not seen any yet, can't be having that! May just do Hollywood Studios though not many of the rides thanks to illness :-( Gonna drink a root beer now, sit by the pool ... may just do that all day ... good job we don't have a fever seeing as we have all the other symptoms of swine flu. Dare not mention it though because we get quarentined for the rest of the holiday and cannot fly home until they are sure we are clear ... sod that! We feel lethargic, we have sore throats and coughs. I'd say that barely qualifies as man flu let alone swine flu! Got a new lappy ... hence my bursting onto the net. It cost me 170 pounds but is on sale in the UK for 330 so quite a saving! It is diddy though, just a 10" screen which fill up real quick but a lovely red colour (like that is important). It has WiFi and a built in card reader, no CD/D...

Another glorious day over here. Sun shining, we are being lazy. is 10:45, should prolly do something. Have thought about alligator hunting. Deej has not seen any yet, can't be having that! May just do Hollywood Studios though not many of the rides thanks to illness :-( Gonna drink a root beer now, sit by the pool ... may just do that all day ... good job we don't have a fever seeing as we have all the other symptoms of swine flu. Dare not mention it though because we get quarentined for the rest of the holiday and cannot fly home until they are sure we are clear ... sod that! We feel lethargic, we have sore throats and coughs. I'd say that barely qualifies as man flu let alone swine flu! Got a new lappy ... hence my bursting onto the net. It cost me 170 pounds but is on sale in the UK for 330 so quite a saving! It is diddy though, just a 10" screen which fill up real quick but a lovely red colour (like that is important). It has WiFi and a built in card reader, no CD/D...

Have spoken to Anna, seem it was not her who told anyone else what I had written, it was someone else, someone I also really like and admire as a person and that disappointed me. Those who normally read this are generally my friends and they read it because they know that, right here, I allow myself the luxury of explosion. You know, people ask how we are and we always reply how we are fine, it is rarely true and each time we do that we bottle up a little untruth and these things build up and it just isn't good. So, like the other day, anyone reading in context will have seen that I was actually having a quite awful few days, very stressy what with one thing and another. Now, sometimes I don't always put a lot of thought into what I am writing ... I am writing 'live' and unedited except maybe the occasional spell check. When I referred to the Newton crowd I was referring to the rumour mill over there. Sadly, they do mention me negatively thanks, to a large extent, to t...

Have spoken to Anna, seem it was not her who told anyone else what I had written, it was someone else, someone I also really like and admire as a person and that disappointed me. Those who normally read this are generally my friends and they read it because they know that, right here, I allow myself the luxury of explosion. You know, people ask how we are and we always reply how we are fine, it is rarely true and each time we do that we bottle up a little untruth and these things build up and it just isn't good. So, like the other day, anyone reading in context will have seen that I was actually having a quite awful few days, very stressy what with one thing and another. Now, sometimes I don't always put a lot of thought into what I am writing ... I am writing 'live' and unedited except maybe the occasional spell check. When I referred to the Newton crowd I was referring to the rumour mill over there. Sadly, they do mention me negatively thanks, to a large extent, to t...

The first few days of the holiday went really well then I developed a nasty throat thing and cough. Even if I can control the pain I am remaining worn out. I cannot manage more than a few hours activity each day. This has also meant that the theme parks have been cut down loads. We have so far done ... Seaworld, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and both Universal Parks. Epcot we barely touched on. We arrived late and all the fast pass tickets had gone and the rides had nearly 2 hour queues. We need to try and get back some morning to play catch up. Tomorrow we hope to do Hollywood Studios. Still, as I am currently feeling I shall not be doing Rock and Roller Coaster, I may try Tower of Terror. I did do Exhibition Everest at Animal Kingdom ... a great ride except I hated it feeling like this but I know I'd love it if well. The Hall of the Presidents in the Magic Kingdom is awesome. It is difficult not to get caught up in the patriotism of the place despite having nothing to do w...

The first few days of the holiday went really well then I developed a nasty throat thing and cough. Even if I can control the pain I am remaining worn out. I cannot manage more than a few hours activity each day. This has also meant that the theme parks have been cut down loads. We have so far done ... Seaworld, Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Epcot and both Universal Parks. Epcot we barely touched on. We arrived late and all the fast pass tickets had gone and the rides had nearly 2 hour queues. We need to try and get back some morning to play catch up. Tomorrow we hope to do Hollywood Studios. Still, as I am currently feeling I shall not be doing Rock and Roller Coaster, I may try Tower of Terror. I did do Exhibition Everest at Animal Kingdom ... a great ride except I hated it feeling like this but I know I'd love it if well. The Hall of the Presidents in the Magic Kingdom is awesome. It is difficult not to get caught up in the patriotism of the place despite having nothing to do w...

I love it when a plan comes together, when hard work pays off and I can rest easy knowing there really isn't any better I could have done. The software company have agreed to supply all missing software and pay the full cost of postage We finally got our new car friday afternoon and a special gift from Citroen by way of an apology Our Civil Partnership was a massive success ... by which I mean, it went at least as well as we could ever have hoped it would. The statitsics of yesterday are as follows: 41 people were with us at some point during the day to join in the celebrations 12 were sadly unable to attend or declined our invitation 16 either never replied to our invitation or just failed to turn up after agreeing to attend Nothing got broken! All three speeches went really well For what seems to me the first time since 1986, the sun was shining, I am thankful. There were no arguments, loads of people laughed and got otherwise merry. We received some lovely gifts ... only one per...

I love it when a plan comes together, when hard work pays off and I can rest easy knowing there really isn't any better I could have done. The software company have agreed to supply all missing software and pay the full cost of postage We finally got our new car friday afternoon and a special gift from Citroen by way of an apology Our Civil Partnership was a massive success ... by which I mean, it went at least as well as we could ever have hoped it would. The statitsics of yesterday are as follows: 41 people were with us at some point during the day to join in the celebrations 12 were sadly unable to attend or declined our invitation 16 either never replied to our invitation or just failed to turn up after agreeing to attend Nothing got broken! All three speeches went really well For what seems to me the first time since 1986, the sun was shining, I am thankful. There were no arguments, loads of people laughed and got otherwise merry. We received some lovely gifts ... only one per...

Fooking Pinnacle and their crapinastisity! "We'll give you a refund" - "Go ahead and reorder and we'll make sure you get the sama package" well, that was bollox! Today, my neighbour ... yes, UPS once again delivered to a neighbour, handed me a package. It was not, as expected, the software plus all the extra items I ordered, no, it was only the software. According to the paperwork, that was all I ordered! I checked back and, sure enough, that was what the email confirmation said as well, 'that's weird' I thought myself. So, I did some checking in the only way I could. I checked my browsing history and cache in Firefox for the time and date of my order and there is was, a still active website on the Pinnacle server clearly advertising what I had ordered as being the software plus around half a dozen other items yet, on checking, when one clicks on 'buy now' the description reduces to 'Boxed item'. It totally is not clear that the o...

Fooking Pinnacle and their crapinastisity! "We'll give you a refund" - "Go ahead and reorder and we'll make sure you get the sama package" well, that was bollox! Today, my neighbour ... yes, UPS once again delivered to a neighbour, handed me a package. It was not, as expected, the software plus all the extra items I ordered, no, it was only the software. According to the paperwork, that was all I ordered! I checked back and, sure enough, that was what the email confirmation said as well, 'that's weird' I thought myself. So, I did some checking in the only way I could. I checked my browsing history and cache in Firefox for the time and date of my order and there is was, a still active website on the Pinnacle server clearly advertising what I had ordered as being the software plus around half a dozen other items yet, on checking, when one clicks on 'buy now' the description reduces to 'Boxed item'. It totally is not clear that the o...

You know when you have one of 'those' weeks? You know, wake up Monday morning, all seems to be well, the start of a new week and then, by the evening the trend for the week is set and it is all downhill ... and this does not mean more economical. Yes, we have the 'James' ongoing situation, we have the neighbours from hell who have stolen my stuff and the companies who don't seem to give a shit even though they gave it to them! We have the car which we are now told we won't have before the wedding because it was damaged in transit and somehow this is all jolly unfortunate but guess who has to foot the bill for sorting out the mess it causes (grr). We have James sister, Emily pissing Daisy off and being really rude, we have the Post Office who can't organise a piss up in a brewery unable to tell me with any certainty whether or not I shall get the letter I paid to be delivered, the second this week which someone didn't put the correct postage on. We then h...

You know when you have one of 'those' weeks? You know, wake up Monday morning, all seems to be well, the start of a new week and then, by the evening the trend for the week is set and it is all downhill ... and this does not mean more economical. Yes, we have the 'James' ongoing situation, we have the neighbours from hell who have stolen my stuff and the companies who don't seem to give a shit even though they gave it to them! We have the car which we are now told we won't have before the wedding because it was damaged in transit and somehow this is all jolly unfortunate but guess who has to foot the bill for sorting out the mess it causes (grr). We have James sister, Emily pissing Daisy off and being really rude, we have the Post Office who can't organise a piss up in a brewery unable to tell me with any certainty whether or not I shall get the letter I paid to be delivered, the second this week which someone didn't put the correct postage on. We then h...

Yet another July, that's 46 1st of July's I have experienced now ... scary thought, it was 30 years last week since I left school, 30 years tomorrow since I started work ... OK, not that scary but those numbers with a '0' on the end of them seem to keep getting bigger numbers in front of them! We think we more or less have the Civil Partnership all sorted, just a few loose ends and we are set to go. A few days ago I ordered some software. I really want not to be one of those going the route of illegal downloads and, as it is software I have preferred and bought before I thought I'd buy an amazing offer on an upgrade pack. Yesterday, UPS delivered the package to the chavs at number 29. None of us lot were going to go up there so I called the UPS team, explained the situation and today they came out again to collect from 29 and deliver to us. Predictably, the people at 29 claim they left it on our doorstep. Now, UPS don't believe them for one moment, I could not p...

Yet another July, that's 46 1st of July's I have experienced now ... scary thought, it was 30 years last week since I left school, 30 years tomorrow since I started work ... OK, not that scary but those numbers with a '0' on the end of them seem to keep getting bigger numbers in front of them! We think we more or less have the Civil Partnership all sorted, just a few loose ends and we are set to go. A few days ago I ordered some software. I really want not to be one of those going the route of illegal downloads and, as it is software I have preferred and bought before I thought I'd buy an amazing offer on an upgrade pack. Yesterday, UPS delivered the package to the chavs at number 29. None of us lot were going to go up there so I called the UPS team, explained the situation and today they came out again to collect from 29 and deliver to us. Predictably, the people at 29 claim they left it on our doorstep. Now, UPS don't believe them for one moment, I could not p...