WHAT A DAY

I have been struggling to get out of bed the last few days, when the alarm goes off the room is still murky with a slight nip in the air, whilst my bed is toasty warm with Americo in it.

Yesterday my alarm buzzed into action and I pressed snooze, once, twice… after that I must have lost consciousness. When I resurfaced, I woke with a feeling of contentment, safe and happy and - WHAT - five minutes before I had to leave the house!

I leapt out of bed, raced to the bathroom, frantically brushing my teeth whilst scouring the cupboard for something to wear. Obviously not something in need of an iron.

Americo meanwhile briefly raised his head to see what all the fuss was about, before pulling the duvet more securely under his chin and mumbling “mm, late too”. Clearly not!

I (just) managed to get my self dressed, dashing out the house in record time, with a vague resemblance to Cruella DeVille - minus the fur.

LATE! But not late enough not to grab a mocha chilla (my new addiction) from the coffee shop.

By now I was seriously late; rushing to the office whilst attempting to juggle my mocha chilla, umbrella and handbag – when my phone rang. It was an employment friend of mine who I wanted to ask a favour of, so I couldn’t exactly rush things.

Eventually I made it into the office only to see that everyone was in the boardroom. Bollocks! Forgot all about the 9 o’clock meeting. Who in their right mind books a meeting for 9am?? Clearly ridiculous morning people! Or the Australian…..

After all the excitement of the morning my day settled into an impression of normality. I say impression as things are not really normal – for instance, I don’t usually have my resume floating about the ether in the hopes of snagging some fabulous job … elsewhere. Anyhow, we do what we need to do, hmm?

By the time 5.30pm rolled by the day had disintegrated, weather wise, with pouring rain and huge puddles. St Pauls, the tube station, was flooded with people, everyone being a little more cautious as umbrellas dripped, creating a slick mess on the floor.

To say I was thankful to be going home would be an understatement. I was thrilled to be almost home; moments from the door I was already creating a list of priorities - out of the rain, out of sopping trousers, into nice hot bath ……….. cigarette.

Propping my umbrella up against the wall I scratched about in my bag for the keys. Hmm? More scrabbling – nothing.

In desperation I emptied the bag onto the front step then sat down next to the upended contents, rolled a cigarette and thought “sod it; I’ve left my keys in the house!”

TELL ME....

… What are the advantages of being a woman? On Saturday I was feeling slightly envious of the male creatures on this earth. It seems to me that the ladies received a very short straw when the ‘divine being’ was handing out favours. In my personal interpretation HE stood, like Santa - a sack full of goodies before him, with all the men and women at his feet. “LO, I have here celestial gifts to bestow upon my chosen ones…”

And so the men all rushed forward and grabbed what they could. The women, having the hindrance of heels, were just not quite fast enough so they got stuck with, PMS, Osteoporosis, hormone imbalance etc - I think you get my general meaning......

I promised to give a full update of our tour around Florida and, so far, have been very slack. The problem is when you go on holiday, then return to work, some evil pixie has looked at your work load and gone “for fun, lets double that”. On top of this your mind is still firmly ensconced in a foreign land so it takes you triple the amount of time to figure out .. What the hell do I do?? Anyway.

As you know our pre holiday rush was somewhat hectic, with me losing my wallet and cancelling all my cards, our Tom Tom breaking down and the new one not having enough memory to download the required maps. All in all it would be fair to say, we were quite stressed the night before departure. It was at this point that I decided to go on packing strike - I was feeling disgruntled that this task always seems to fall on me. After heavy negotiations, terms were agreed and I trundled back upstairs to resume packing responsibilities. (Mostly Americo sulked better than I did!!!)

At last Friday dawned and we were on our way, arriving in Tampa late in the evening. For the purposes of a true road trip we hired a convertible, it sounds like a good idea at the time but after hours of being wind blown I admitted defeat.

From Tampa we went to friends of ours in Orlando for a few days. It was great, we hadn’t seen Tina for years (I won’t mention how many!) but it was as though we had never been separated.

Onwards to Miami, the place of beautiful people and LARGE cocktails. We were referred to Mango’s which had fabulous live entertainment that left both Americo and I silently watching the stage! I feel I should put in here that if you are travelling in the States be sure to ask about the ‘walk in rate’, Americo and I got some wonderful hotel deals on this tip.

The most relaxing part of our holiday though were the few days we spent in Key Largo. We stayed at the Coconut Palm Inn, another referral, and it was two days of absolute bliss.

Then there was the shopping… Americo was in seventh heaven and traipsed me around the malls for HOURS. To be honest I was a little disappointed in the ladies fashions and unhappily report that my shopping excursions were not nearly as successful!

HOLIDAY

Last night I finished all but a few planks of decking (because I ran out of oil) just in time too as the weather has turned. With the temperature dropping, cloud building, I would say this is the perfect weekend for Whisky and Poker, failing that, junk food and movies!

I am currently counting down the weeks until we wing our way over to The States for our road trip. I know it is MILES in advance but cannot contain my excitement! When Americo and I got married we were not able to go on honeymoon due to .. getting married and buying a house. So we decided to do a ‘year of honeymooning’ this year, slightly excessive I will admit – but great fun. In December we went to Thailand, where I introduced Americo to the concept of light packing and adventure travelling.

For Americo, being a true accountant, it did not compute to arrive in a foreign country without booking any accommodation and only a vague notion of what we were going to do when we got there. Luckily I have cured him of this and he has taken to my adventurous ambitions with gusto.

Compared to our very lazy Thailand holiday, this trip will be packed full of activities, we land in Tampa, drive to Orlando – there to hit a couple of theme parks then onwards to Miami and back to Tampa on the opposite coastal road. Brilliant! Again we will be rocking up blind with no set plan, only our trusty Tom-Tom and a hire car to hand.

To some people travel is all about the exciting monuments you will see, people you will meet and memories you come away with. Americo, as much as he appreciates all of this his real joy will be of the food – if the food is good we will go there again.. if not – I will have to try better next time! ;)

To end this week is my usual tale of woe – the house has been thoroughly neglected and is once again looking like a charity store. There are more clothes in the washing basket than the cupboards and, if it doesn’t get attended to promptly, we shall have to join a nudist colony.

Luckily I have found the perfect answer to anyone who arrives and walks into the chaos that is our life..

I HAD A DREAM..

Last night I dreamt we were living in a haunted house. It was very graphic, with that feeling of dread as the walls started to shake and I watched in horror when the roof began to collapse in on us with a huge roar. I awoke with a cold sensation that only dreams can induce.....

....... to find Americo snoring loudly in my ear! This was a very frustrating moment for me, where usually I would kick him until he shut up, my silencing leg is currently out of commission, so I gently (or not as the case may be) nudged Americo into wakefulness with my shoulder.

Actually we seem to have had a slight shift in sleeping habits which I am not very happy with. Historically I was the first to fall asleep in the belief that Americo remained awake to guard me in repose. Recently this has not been the case! In fact, this week he has actually fallen asleep BEFORE me??? Not really a good thing for him, as I am a nervous night time person and keep asking 'What was that?' - thereby waking him constantly until I do eventually drifts off to nod. I have said it before and I shall say it again .. isn’t he a lucky man?

We have now finalised our trip to the States – well, what else was I to do whilst recuperating? Instead of focusing our efforts only on Orlando we have decided to do a road trip round Florida. Our starting point will be in Tampa where we land, 3 days in Orlando to visit two of the theme parks, onwards to Miami. From Miami we will then return to Tampa via the Everglades and up the west coast. I cannot wait.. now to find that perfect bikini!

Wish me luck this evening as my friend Liz is coming round for dinner and scrabble - hopefully, my planning has been a bit slack this time. Last time she thoroughly thrashed me so tonight is all about saving face.