Today started with a 45-minute call with a guy called Nathan from Apple Support in Arkansas. He was convinced the problems I was now having with my phone was caused to my health database being corrupted. Who knew that we even had a health database on our iPhones? Anyhow his diagnosis was to delete the database and then have it restored by the iCloud. I was not convinced but went along with it. He said it could take up to 24 hours to do so.
Jumping ahead it took about 12 hours and drained my battery flat in doing so. It made the phone appear better but I could see the underlying problem was still there in the background.
After the call and after we had all had breakfast, we all headed out for a lovely walk around the Lake at Celebration. As ever it was pure bliss. Not a cloud in the sky and beautiful surroundings. It for moments like this I long for during the rest of the year. Even Neil seemed to be taken in by the loveliness and sat agreeably with us outside Starbucks having a drink.
Karen had more trouble ordering my tea as they seemed to think she was trying to order coconut milk on the side rather than cold milk. Then when they got that right, they still put steamed milk in the tea, before she got them to make it again. I have tried writing to Starbucks suggesting they need to retrain their baristas in the art of tea making, but the response I got was a ‘Thanks’ and we will pass your comments onto Starbucks UK. I replied that in the UK they understand how to make tea and it was the USA that had the problem. Their second response was just to acknowledge my reply. We should never have trusted this country with tea ever since they wasted those barrels at Boston by throwing them overboard all those years ago.
We were back in the villa by 11.30am and spent a few hours sitting around the pool basking in the sunshine. I read one of the books from the villa whilst Karen watched the Strictly results show on the laptop. At one point we were all in the pool together unsuccessfully trying to make a ball bounce on the water.
Later in the afternoon we headed out again. We decided to go to the other outlets on International Drive on our way to Universal City Walk. Karen had a bit of a spending spree including some new speciality trainers that she must wear for her dodgy feet. They were still eye wateringly expensive but apparently a bargain compared to UK prices.
Then we drove to City Walk arriving at 6.30pm meaning we got the free parking. We parked in row King Kong 310. I had booked a table at Margaritaville as a backstop for 7pm in case we couldn’t get in anywhere else. We couldn’t. It was chaos as we walked in as it was turning out time at both theme parks. We ended up back at Margaritaville where despite having a booking still had a 15-minute wait for a table.
We were seated on the outside patio. The service was slow as our poor waiter had far too many tables to look after. Karen & Neil both had the large hot sandwiches (Club & Cuban) whilst with great restraint just had the soup from the appetiser menu as my meal. To be fair it was delicious and filling. I am quite fussy about soup as I am about most things but I can always recommend the Loaded Potato Soup whilst over here. I am not sure why we cannot get that at home. The waiter then impressed me when asking if any of us had the Blue Light app, which of cause as Neil works for the NHS did have. This gave us 20% off the bill taking the meal down from a City Walk premium to normal prices.
As we wandered round the shops, I mused on the fact that they don’t sell Dr Seuss books despite selling his characters merchandise being everywhere and that in Margaritaville they don’t sell any real stuff relating to Jimmy Buffet. For me Jimmy Buffet’s music is so evocative of Florida in general. Last year we had tickets to see him at the London Palladium but he cancelled because of ‘Covid’ concerns. With his recent passing I wonder if there were other reasons behind this. It just goes to show that you should go and see these people perform whilst you are having a chance.
Then it was time for Neil to pick up his ordered Voodoo Donut before we made our way back to row King Kong 310 and headed back to the villa.
When we arrived, I was a little annoyed that Karen & Neil jumped straight out of the car into the villa leaving me to bring the many bags of shopping. By the time I walked in there was lots of shouting. It seemed that Neil claimed that Karen had not shut the door quick enough and allowed a large lizard into the lounge. I couldn’t see what the fuss was about as it scurried behind a sofa. I said it was harmless and would find its own way out. Neil though was determined to catch it as for some reason he thought it would manage to get itself up the stairs, under his closed bedroom door and eat his face whilst he was asleep.
There then followed lots more shouting as Karen & Neil used various kitchen instruments to catch the poor thing. I just left them to it. Eventually it was captured in a saucepan and despatched back into the front garden.
Before retiring I scheduled another call with Apple support in the morning. When will my ‘Friday’ phone be finally fixed? Apart from that another very enjoyable day.
