Today I awoke with thoughts of the match at Carrow Road I would be missing later today. There are not many times I regret being in Florida but a famous City victory against Man Utd might be the cause of one.
I had just started writing up the blog leaving Karen sound asleep in bed when I could hear a ringing of sorts. I didn’t recognise as such until Karen burst out of the bedroom saying it’s Barry calling on FaceTime. He and Ellie were visiting Nanny and decided to call us from there. It was lovely seeing them both and for Karen to be able to see that her Mum was safe and well.
We gave them a virtual tour of the Villa and enjoyed a chat with them all. Hearing how excited Barry & Ellie are to be flying out on Friday to join us made it even more special and increased our own excitement levels even further.
After finishing breakfast we headed out for our first visit to the nearest Wonderful World of Walmart. As usual I lost Karen within minutes of entering as she scurried off, here there and everywhere stocking on things she can only get over here. Eventually I found her again and we then headed to the food section to get some fresh provisions.
As Walmarts go, this one was quite quiet and well stocked. I felt I walked miles up and down, especially when trying to find Karen. Yet when we compared Step Counts on the way out I had barely done any whilst Karen had clocked up thousands. We wondered if that was because I had allocated the trolley to push and that somehow reduced the number countered. Something for me to investigate later.
On the way back to the Villa we stopped at the Starbucks Drive Through to get Karen a coffee to take back with us.
I then tried to work out what channel the match would be on TV but disappointingly found it would only be shown on the NBC streaming service. I was grumpy about that, but managed to find a good HD stream with English commentary to watch on the laptop,
I almost shouted myself hoarse at the VAR debacle. Unlike those at the match, the stream I was watching was showing all the rerun of the replays that the VAR official were watching. From every angle it was not a penalty and if anything a foul to us. I was incensed and Karen had to tell me to stop shouting.
At half time I went in the pool to calm down.
The truth of it was that City were beaten by the better team on the day. We looked poor for most of the game and as much as you can blame the defence, it was the midfield were outclassed and outfought. Sometimes I really hate Football when we are not doing well. I was so optimistic especially after having my tour the day before we left of the fantastic new facilities at the Colney Training Ground.
After having lunch and a further chill out time, we decided to go and have a walk on Bradenton Beach, which about 10 miles of so away from Bradenton itself. The journey didn’t take long and we conveniently found a parking space.
The beach was stunning again although not very deep. It was lovely having a walk on the white firm sand. There were lots of people surfing the gentle waves. We then drove on further down to Longboat Key.
This is a strip of land full of large houses and condos backing onto the sea. Most looked shut up and probably used as second holiday homes. There were so many of them and we pondered how all the owners had managed to accumulate such wealth to be in a position to own them. Karen suggested it was all from illicit activities. It would be very intriguing to take a random selection of a 100 houses and find out how actually the owners came to be in possession of them. Perhaps there is a TV series in that.
For tonights meal Karen fancied getting a Takeaway back to the Villa to have with the bubbles we had bought to toast the non existent City win. We settled on getting a Pizza on the way back. Now I am fussy what type of Pizza I have but then again Karen is just as much so. Whats worse though is that she is really fussy where we get it from. She only really likes Pizza Hut.
We had a bit of a fuss finding their nearest location, mainly due to the fact that their illuminated sign was broken meaning we missed it when driving past. After a couple of U turns at the traffic lights (which took ages to change) we managed to order and get the required Pizzas. Getting back to the Villa, Karen then declared she didn’t like hers as ‘The cheese tastes funny and not the same as at home’. Through gritted teeth I just sighed.
Whilst drinking her bubbles she then watched the Strictly results show, whilst I watched the end of a Christmas schmaltzy film. I am not sure which of us is the sadder though. This brought the end another day.
I do enjoy those films though.
