Every day she takes a morning bath She wets her hair
It’s just another day in the big Florida Villa. Karl is outside by the pool having his morning porridge. He is joined by Karen who today is finishing up her Raisin Bran.
Even before ‘The Truman Show’ film was made I often mused that my life was all an experiment and that tests and tasks were being set for me whilst I was being observed. But then I think nobody could ever dream up the sometimes bizarre and yet banal life that I am having.
When writing this blog, I never have any plans as to what to write (this being obvious to any reader). I literally just start typing and see what comes out. So far today it is a bit surreal so let’s get back to reality.
After being here almost a week, we were starting to need to top up some food items especially with our guests arriving tomorrow. So, the plan was to go back to Publix in Celebration to do just that. For Karen it was also an opportunity to go to Starbucks beforehand.
We managed to get a parking spot on the Main Street. I was tasked with finding seats overlooking the Lake this time, but failed. They were all taken by other grey-haired wrinklies enjoying their drinks in the sun. I considered either waving my Hertz Gold Car Membership at them to get them to move or either asking them ‘if they knew who I am?’ but in the end settled for a bench set a little way back from the Lake.
It was still glorious. After finishing our drinks, we thought it would be rude not to have a walk around the Lake as well. On the way around we encountered a couple of baby Alligators basking on the bank in the sun. They looked as though they wanted to be picked up, but Karen for some reason wasn’t keen on doing so. In fact, she thought the larger of the two was given me the evil eye and would still have a very powerful jaw.
We then wandered down the Main Street and Karen got chatting to someone in the Wine Bar and we learnt about a Wine Tasting evening next week we may come along to.
At Publix despite us supposed to just be topping up the food, we still managed to fill the trolley. Whilst in there my phone in my pocket somehow managed to phone loads of people at random. The seemed to be no connection between them. When I came out from the store, I had several messages responding from these people. If you were one of them – Sorry!
After unpacking the shopping, we had lunch by the pool. We then have a Facetime call with Barry & Ellie to catch up with them. It was lovely to see them both looking so happy. Karen then had a chat with Kevin to see how her Mum is doing. Apparently, she’d had another fall which was not good news.
We sat and read for a good while before heading out again. This time Karen’s idea was to park in the surface area of Disney Springs and walk around the Lake through the Golf Course and Saratoga Springs resort. It is a bit of a tricky route to work out as you have to double back on yourself and then navigate through the resort. However, we managed it. It was a lovely walk in the sunshine with a lovely warm wind. We got to the half way point around the Lake when we had to decide to turn back or continue round and return through Disney Springs. As there was a Starbucks on offer in Disney Springs it was no contest really.
Disney Springs was still quite busy with the usual long queue to get into the Lego Shop. They seem to be the only place we have seen this trip that is still restricting admission and it must be costing them dearly in sales. Predictably we stopped again at Starbucks where I had my usual free Iced Water whilst Karen had an Americano this time.
Back in the car we set Waze to take us to another Red Lobster restaurant to try again. This time we headed to the one at Old Town. We were taken another route I would never have had considered to beat the traffic.
We were seated immediately. Sadly, we were not attended by any waitress for some time. Eventually Juanita took our order. Let’s just say her heart was not really in the job. There was very little personality and our orders were not exactly thrown on the table but I’m not convinced she actually stopped as she was passing to do so.
We both had the 3 course Sea Special, which consisted for us of a small appetiser (3 Jumbo Coconut Shrimp (Delicious), a side of Caesar Salad (not bad) and a large dish of Shrimp Linguine Alfredo (that was fine but too large for both of us). The best part of Red Lobster remains the hot cheesy bread. I would have been very happy with just that and the Coconut Shrimp.
As we were at Old Town, we decided to have a wander around. They have spent some money on trying to do it up. But at the end of the day, it is still like wandering around Great Yarmouth and I know it is snobbish to say so, the clientele is about the same. Still, we spent a pleasant 30 minutes having a wander. The prices for the rides etc though seemed high and you wouldn’t have to do too many of them to have then spent the same as the price of a ticket into Disney, which made us think again that perhaps the Disney prices were not too bad in comparison.
The traffic back to the Villa was horrendous and there was no way to avoid it. It took more than double the time that it should have. Karen tried to dampen my frustration by singing and dancing to the radio. I think it was the large Blue Hawaii cocktail that she’d drank with her meal at Red Lobster kicking in.
Finally, back at the villa, we finished the wine that was open and watched another couple of episodes of Shark Tank. We due find it quite addictive. It is amazing how well some of the products that have featured on there have done, including the Ring alarm system.
Then at the end of Another Day, it was time for bed.
