Everything is open, Nothing is set in stone Rivers turn to ocean, Oceans tide you home
Blogging is a strange thing when you think about it. This will be my 349th blog post. On average each post is over 1000 words long. That’s a lot of words effort on my part and just as much on yours if you have read them all. It is a bit like writing a public diary except that I try to veer away from some really deeply personal stuff. No one cares about my own self-doubts, worries or aspirations. It is however a good record of our travels and I am told by the now average of 50 people who read it that it is sometimes enjoyable. As may know, annually I get all the blogs published into a hardback book as a permanent record. The website is a more transient record but if I had the time and patience, I would make it slicker.
Printing it as a book is quite cool. It only has a print run of 1 but it is there as a permanent record.
So, writing this is sometimes therapeutic when we travel. However, I still find the writing for my ‘faction’ book about Mum & Dad hard work. The words do not flow as easy. It also takes me ages doing all the research for each thousand-word chunk that I do for it. I want it to be an accurate record and as plausible as possible. Only 2 people have read what has been written to date (Sister – Lynda and Editor – Ed, both of whom were encouraging). It takes me a while to get back into it and generally I have a couple of months sprint at it during the winter when I cannot get outside as much. Will I ever finish? – I really don’t know. Will it be worth it – I hope so. I still believe their story is one that should be told and recorded.
I have reached 1942 in the book and Dad still hasn’t even left for overseas yet. When he does, I am not sure whether the writing will become easier or harder.
Reading back through early blogs I can see and feel how much my writing has improved. I hope this is carried through to the ‘other’ book.
Excitement is mounting this end now with the forthcoming arrival of Barry & Ellie and Neil when we rendezvous in Kissimmee in a few days’ time. We are so looking forward to being able to spend some quality happy time together in the sun. They are all as excited to be doing Disney again as the first time.
This morning we were both awake by 6.30am as Karen again struggled to get comfortable with her arm. She jiffled and moaned her way through the night waking me frequently. I have still not worked out why when it is me that has problems sleeping I have to relocate so as to not disturb her. The other way round though is a problem that has to be shared.
Breakfast was fine but starting to get repetitive. We were soon back in our room. Today’s plan was to drive North up as far as Ormond Beach and just see what we could see.
As it was there was little different to anywhere else along this coast, that is to say that it wasn’t nice – just the same. When Karen realised this, she decided we should instead find the nearest Starbucks to replan. Fortunately, there was one less than a mile away and it had nice tables outside.
The new plan involved a visit to Walmart to see they had any swimsuits for her. It was just a few miles inland. It was good to be in a not so busy store. We ended up just buying some more snacks and a new compact golf umbrella for me.
Making our way back to the Hotel we also stopped at a Dollar Tree and Marshalls where I found 3 bargain T Shirts which was most unexpected.
We ate our lunch on our balcony. Then before going for a long walk on the beach to the pier and back again, we had a quick Facetime call with Barry & Ellie. Their departure must be imminent as Barry said he was almost ready to think about his packing.
It was then time to have a relax and read on our balcony for a couple of hours for the last time before we move on tomorrow.
For dinner we headed over the bridge over the Halifax River to Fyshes which is newly built local restaurant which had great reviews and great views. Judging from the car park it was very popular and we thought we would have a long wait for a table. However, as we were just a 2, we were taken straight upstairs and put on a table on the terrace.
I will start with the positive, we both had different versions of Mahi which both were really good and tasty.
The negatives started with our table was next to the musician who was playing. It was so LOUD. He must have had his speaker turned up to 11. All the waitresses were complaining about the volume.
Then the table we were given was a high one with high chairs and not comfortable ones at all. I struggle with these. After 20 minutes I lost circulation in both legs and it was very painful. I had to stand the rest of the time we were there including whilst eating which then put pressure on my knee. The service was also very slow as it seemed the kitchen was having problems and unable to cope because of a problem with their friers.
The final negative is back to the musician. He was using a loop pedal in the style of Ed Sheeran. But he was no Ed Sheeran. In fact, he would have been good on ‘I’m Sorry I don’t have a Clue’ in the round called ‘one song to the tune of another’. The problem being every song seemed to be to the same flipping tune. It amused us how long it took us to recognise quite well-known songs when played to that same tune. In fact, it was so bad it may have actually been quite good.
Despite all this we enjoyed the experience.
