Farewell Peckham

Car hunting in London was a nightmare! - We kept going to "dealers" that don't actually have a forecourt - i.e. Arthur Daley's. The worst one yesterday was a car described as "STUNNER! SHOWROOM CONDITION! PERFECT!! - electric seats, heated seats, cruise control, Electric Mirrors Air con, 40,000 miles, new MOT. etc etc..... we got there and the car was on the road side and after calling the "dealer" he said, "take a look and call me if you are interested, then I'll come out"... hmmm... so he won't come out unless I'm interested!!?! - suspicious...

Well, it was grubby, with a ripped roof (hardly showroom condition), no air con, no electric anything, no heated anything, no cruise control, 50,000 miles and one tyre was so bald it was slick - how did it get a recent MOT??? Bloody robbers. We left very pissed off.

...It's been really getting me down, searching for cars non stop. I sat as usual this morning and kept hitting the refresh button on the car search site and BINGO! a car 8 years newer than we have been looking at, £500 less than our target, and a whole model range up was appearing before my eyes. The photos had not even had time to process. We were down there like rats up a drain pipe!

Voila! £1900 and we have this with a full service history, all the right things have been done, lady owner...

All we have to do now is grab a boot rack and a case for it and we are off to France!

YAY!

Just a brief update as you will have noticed the blog has gone all quiet - not a lot to report really. We are in London staying with friends while we sort out a car. We hope to be gone within a week. Can't stand being back here, apart from seeing our friends of course.

The plan is to grab a cheap rag-top and some camping kit, then hit Europe, working down through France, Italy etc. Buying a used car in London is proving a pain in the butt! - conmen at every corner. We'll get there! :-)

Well, what have we been up to since the last instalment....

It's no secret that Dad had a bit of a medical scare. I won't go into details but we've had to extend our stay while the docs sign him off for flying. He's fine now and we are hoping to return next weekend.

...Meanwhile.. whilst in Orlando - you HAVE to do theme parks so that's what we did!. We went to Cypress Gardens with Mum and Dad - it's billed as America's 1st theme park. For good reason. It's like stepping back in time. They should have people selling candy canes and general wellness ligaments. The biggest coaster was about 6 foot off the ground! We didn't stay there long...

(This was the high tech queue for the coaster, and you can see the height of the track)

We felt like right dicks when we got off. It's more fun sliding down the stairs on your bum at home.

Next stop was Typhoon Lagoon - A Disney run water park. I've never been to one before but Kirstin spent a lot of her childhood at one in Hong Kong. It was a pleasant surprise - well laid out and very green. So much so you felt normal walking around with hundreds of other people in your swimmers. We of course smuggled in our lunch and beers - we've quickly learnt that theme parks make half their money on food and drink, and we are fed up with junk, plus queuing for food, so we pack our own lunch in our little rucksack. They had a great selection of water slides, some you ride "naked", others sitting in tubes. The first "naked " one we went down removed a centimiter of skin from my ankle. I dealt with the pain and bled quietly.

They have a huge wave pool and the thing generates a 6foot wave every 90 seconds. Quite a giggle for a while. We saw some chap manage to body surf it.

They also have a "river" that runs round the circumference of the park with tubes in it and a gentle current. You can relax and bob round, or use it as a kind of water taxi service. Shame, it was so slow that we got bored after a few minutes. Still, another box ticked.

The best thing there was a "water rollercoaster" - basically you sit in tubes and go round as normal, but you go up as well as down with the use of some ingenious very powerful water jets. There was a photographer there, who, as usual, wanted to lighten our pockets of money for the pics, so I went to the website and screen grabbed them, hence the small size...

(That's part of the "water coaster")

(Us popping out!)

We had a great day. Only stayed about 3 to 4 hours. After that we'd done most things a couple of times and had had enough. We clearly get easily bored.

Next!

Next- Bush Gardens - a very highly rated theme park in Tampa that is a mix of a wildlife park and a coaster park. We rocked up and splashed out on express passes - i.e queue jumping tickets. An extra £12 each but worth every penny. They had a great wooden coaster that was brutal. Also quite a few water rides - a common theme here due to the heat....

..Then, then... there was the "plung coaster". A plung coaster is one that drops you vertically while you sit upright. The whole thrill is in the big vertical drop. They have one at Alton Towers in England called Oblivion. The one at Busch Gardens drops you further, faster, then drops you AGAIN, then loops you and lots of other stuff. The clever bit is that at the top of each drop they stop the "car" and let it hang over the edge, so you can't even see the track below you, and you are leaning forward at about 40 degrees. You wait... and then BLAMO - you drop. Terrifying.

(That's the 1st of 2 drops)

We happily barged past 100's of people with our express passes and climbed aboard.

Oh My God! - totally pant filling. Kirstin had her eyes closed when we teetered over the edge of the 1st drop. I screamed. K actually thought she was going to chuck up at one stage.

Here is a link to a small video I took of it...

We went back later and had another go, this time sitting in the front row! Again, they take pictures and charge you $12 a picture, so I took a digital of the computer screen. I reckon I'm public enemy number one in theme parks photographer circles now.

(Check out Kirstin's face LOL)

Another great day. Saw some animals, rode the steam train, blah blah blah...

Next! - Universal Studios. To be honest we were a little dissapointed. We expected more film sets and tours but it was essentially a theme park with "movie" based rides. Impressive nonetheless. We did the classics, like Jaws and the one where water pours round an underground train. All very well put together if a little dated.

Did the new Simpsons ride which is in reality a simulator with a giant screen round you. We had a huge guy in front of us so K saw bugger all.

Not an amazing day but a laugh all the same.

Next! - Well this one was a bit unique! - the SHUTTLE LAUNCH! :-)

What an event. We did a load of Internet research and went down to "Space View Park" which is a small area opposite the launch pad. It's as close as you can get without a site pass. We arrived and the best seating was already vanishing, and we had 4 hours to go so we decided not to worry about it as we'd have to sit on concrete for ages. Better leave it till later and relax.

(That's the assembly building on the right)

We grabbed the last bench in existence and read our papers, drank beers and generally chilled. Then we moved onto the grass area at the back and fired up a disposable BBQ and had some lovely ribs,

...then we moved to a great spot everyone seemed to have overlooked. Nice seat by the water with no one in our way. The countdown began.....

I can't really describe how it feels to be there. Especially after touring the facility a couple of weeks before hand and seeing the shuttle sitting on it's pad and learning all the processes involved in a sucessful launch. The site we were at also had speakers with live feeds to the NASA control centre which really added to the atmosphere.

We kept an eye on my uber-accurate watch and at exactly 5.02pm and 12 seconds - sure enough, a massive grey cloud of smoke appeared under the shuttle and then a couple of seconds later - whoooomph! - the solid rocket boosters lit and it leapt up like the biggest firework in the world.

When you see launches on TV they always look slow. When you are there you see that's not the case. The second the boosters lit it, well, it rocketed up! You really could see and realise the pilots were strapped to one giant firecracker that could not be stopped. It was awe inspiring and moving. A very surreal experience. Hard to explain, but it was certainly humbling and you got a great feeling for how impressive and dangerous the whole thing was.

The sound was awesome too - it took a while to reach us and when it did it was a deep bass rumbling.

Really can't explain it. You have to see one go! - and there won't be many more with it being replaced soon.

(A great viewing spot - the people in front were in the water for an hor or more...)

An unforgettable day, and unforgettable traffic on the way back! :-)

Meanwhile, Kirstin has been keeping herself busy.. knitting a toy turtle for a friends' baby...

We've now come back down to earth (I know, I couldn't resist that, sorry) - we moved to a new villa today - just accross the road. We've been here far longer than planned and were feeling a bit penned in at our old place so we've grabbed another with a larger pool area and a hot tub. Hopefull back before next weekend for a London hook up then off to Europe..

Our last couple of days in the Keys were spent relaxing (you may be surprised to hear). We had a little explore around the area, going North for half an hour to find somewhere to have a go on a Jetski. We found this place ....

Not bad hey!?! - anyhow - after our briefing about where to go and where not to go, we had a blast on a Jetski. The water is only a few feet deep in most places - it's a "Keys thing" - so it can be a little nerve racking doing 50kph over sand bars and the likes. Superb fun, and Kirst spent most of the time terrified and letting out yelps of terror.

After that we went off searching for a proper beach, and found one...

Other than that, it was chillin' time. I eventually worked out how to overcome the lack of shade problem on our sea deck. I up-ended two sun loungers, then attached one of our bed covers.

Job Done!!

Phew - I could play poker during the day too :-) - talking of which, once we left the Keys we headed back up to Fort Lauderdale. My poker friend there had received our passports and a watch I bought mail-order so we dopped in for a BBQ lunch and a swim.

Having a watch is cool - we started to notice not having one was becoming a major pain. It's no fun having to fish your camera out and go through all the menus to find out the time frequently. I got one for half price on the Internet - it has no batteries - it's solar, and it receives the time via radio from 5 atomic clocks around the world - so you never have to set it and it's never wrong. Waterproof too. All for £40. Bargain.

Moving on from lunch we set off on the remainder of our journey to Orlando, to the villa we have rented. It's in a lovely spot, right on the edge of a golf course. As we are discovering, everyone lives on a golf course here.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention... on the way to the villa we picked up..... Mum & Dad! :-)

They had a good flight with no problems, except being sent the entire length of the airport by a member of staff, to the wrong car park to meet us. Got there in the end.

So all tucked into our new villa....

.....we got stuck into what Orlando has to offer - starting with "GatorLand". I don't think I have to explain much about it really, only to say, well, it's a little lame. Sure it was cool seeing some aligators, but to be honest, once you've seen one, you've seen them all.

(Nice snap hey? - I know, I know)

Finished with Gatorland we went in search of some decent food. Problem is, in Orlando, the food joints are pretty much all fast food / burger houses. It's bloody tricky to find anywhere nice to eat. We were not giving up though - we read about a place near by called "Celebration" - "lovely restaurants by a lake" etc etc. so off we went.

The best way to describe Celebration is, well, have you seen the "Truman Show" film? - it is most exactly like being on set. We plumped for lunch at an Italian by the lake. The service was hillarious. Our waiter was 100% drunk or on drugs. He'd take an order from one of us, then literally 5 seconds later, ask what we'd chosen. At one stage he delivered two of the ravioli dishes and told us they were Calzones. wtf!?! How can you serve food from a 10 item menu and not see the difference between a calzone and a plate of ravioli? He got worse and worse. Don't know what dad tipped him but I hope it wasn't much.

After lunch we took a stroll around the lake.

There was one spot where water jets out of the pavement at random intervals, you know, like the kids like to run through at theme parks. Kirstin and Mum plucked up the courage and ran through, fully clothed, handbags and all, and got away with it. Dad, was WAY cooler. He walked though, taking his time. How we prayed the water jets fired up, but alas, he got away with it :-) The onlookers seemed most impressed!

I got a frickin' ticket there too! - and the offence? Parking with my left wheels by the pavement. That's right, it's an offence in Celebration to park on the "other" side of the road facing oncoming traffic. I assume it doesn't look "tidy" enough. Sigh.

The next day we went to the Kennedy Space Center. No, not Cape Canaveral, the Cape is there, it's stuck on the end , but it's an army base. They used to test military rockets there, but all the space rockets are launched from Kennedy, next door. There you go - a new interesting fact learnt, though try convincing the press that the shuttle luanches not from Cape Canaveral but the Kennedy Space Center......

First on the agenda was the coach tour. You get shuttled round the site and get off here and there to gawp at stuff. Our timing was superb, as there was/is a shuttle currently on the launchpad. Launchpads without spaceships are pretty dull.

You can't see the shuttle itself, only the fuel tank and boosters as it is rotated 180 degrees until launch day - to protect it. Still a mighty impressive sight.

(On the left are the gravel tracks for the giant crawler that transports the Shuttle to and from the Vehicle Assembly Building - there are not two gravel roads, just one, per se. The machine straddles the grass and puts a track on each one)

Which brings us onto the VAB....

This is the building they assemble the shuttle in, the doors to the left slide all the way up to let it out. Well, only a little way up, the shuttle is actually a tiddler compared to regular type rockets, which interestingly, they are switching back to as the shuttle has proven too dangerous and costly.

(This posing might take off...)

The whole tour was fascinating. We saw the clean room where they prep and load satellites, various launch pads, and loads of wildlife. The whole island is a nature reserve, and teeming with aligators, and a handful of bald eagles.

We also walked under the Saturn V rocket. It's bloody huge!!!

(The engines shot from below - amazing they work - looks like a mess to me!)

(We're off to Button Moon, .....)

We grabbed lunch midway, happening accross the viewing seats for astronaught's wives during launch. Mum and K , somewhat disprespectfully played the parts of mourning widows....

No Oscars there then.... mind you, Dad fared little better....

(note the authentic-from-the-shop NASA hat)

The Jetsons

You could get inside a lunar module mockup, whcih was fun in itself...

But far more fun watching K and Mum trying to get out. Mum kicked K in the teeth.

Another highlight was going into the original misison control room, which is still all 100% in tact, and then they do a full "re-inactment" of a launch. All the screens firing up, all the computers doing their things, and the whole room vibrating to the deafening noise of the launch. Much like standing at the back and watching it all happen as if you were there, in the past.

The rest of the day was no less fun. We went in the shuttle launch simulator. A standard affair simulator that moves about etc, but they put a huge amount of effort into the build up and presentation. The sim is fun too, it shakes the hell out of you, and the seats deform to emulate G-forces. They say the real astronaughts rate it as very close to the real thing. We were not quite so convinced.

Even more mind blowing was a 45 minute iMax 3-D film all about the shuttle launches and the building of the International Space Station. the screen was HUGE, the sound HUGE and the 3D "real". I can tell you, there is no way you could watch the launch of a space shuttle any closer. It is shot right by the engines with remote cameras. Forget anything you have seen on TV - this was amazing. To top it off, you got a pilot's view (in 3D remember) of the launch , sat in the cockpit. I've seen good films and simulations before, but there is no way you could get any closer to the real thing other than doing it. Truly fantastic and not to be missed.

It carried on in the same awesome vein, with the rest of the film spent in and outside of the space station. I now have as close to I'll ever have, the experience of looking down from a space station to Earth. Trippy man :-)

An amazing day out. We all loved it, and it will really add to the experience when we watch the launch this Saturday.

The following day, K and I went to Seaworld (Mum & Dad have been before). I had some reservations about Seaworld - I mean, anyone that knows me well is aware I'm not really "nature's child". I don't collect whale music and rub charm beads, I've never knit my own yoghurt.. you get the picture - I like action.

We headed straight for the main attraction - the Whale show (He's called Shamu apparently, but with 3 Seaworlds I guess they are all called Shamu) and grabbed prime seats.

I have to be honest, that one show is worth the $65 alone. We were gobsmaked. The whales behave like people. The play up to the crowds, launch the actors in the air, come up for stroking, jump out of the water onto dry land. Incredible! A cheesy, to be fair, but amazing show. You really don't get it until you are there. Telly does it no justice.

(Shamu! - and yes, he gets out of the water)

We had a butchers round the aquarium - pretty satndard fare afer the one in Bangkok, though the weird sea-horses were great...

..and we had a look at some native Manitee's - very odd things....

.. and then we sat down to watch the dolphin show, and the inevitable happened, the thing Florida weather is famed for - RAIN! - lots of rain, so much that the pavements were ankle deep rivers. We sat with everyone else, cowering from the downpour and lightening until we got bored, and ran to the shelter of the nearest gift shop.

Fortunately, a very kind member of staff gave us two huge plastic shopping bags which we adapted to become rain coats :-)

They worked a treat and we fled the park before eveyone else would surely do soon after.

Another great day out.

We have tickets to go to Busch Gardens next - a top park with 6 huge coasters and lots of wildlife. We are holding off until Tuesday though - it's Memorial weekend here so all of America is on vacation and none of us are up for queuing for rides with millions of screaming kids and rednecks (the theme parks attract all the rednecks and fatties - don't know why, but they do)

T-Minus 1 week and counting....

Oh - p.s. I entered a free game and have won a seat in the grand final for a World Series of Poker Main Event - a seat worth $215. If I win, I get a $12,000 seat in a game where I go to Vegas and play against about 7000 others for a 1st prize of about $14,000,000 - tall odds and to be honest, if I win a seat I'll take the $12k :-)

Update: Played the game last night. 5 hours. Was chip leader for some time. 3 seats to Vegas ($12k each) up for grabs. I came 5th :-( - one hand I lost that did it. Had I won that hand I'd be $12k better off and in Vegas playing the main event. Ahh well. PLayed a good game.

Hey Hey! – been a few days! – The firework display at San Francisco was a bit of a disappointment unfortunately. In the windiest city we’ve ever been in, yes, you guessed it, there was no wind the night of the display, so the whole lot went off in it’s own smoke. You couldn’t see a thing. Ahh well, seen plenty of fireworks in Valencia before so it was no biggie.

We did have the pleasure of talking to an older couple sitting next to us on the harbour wall. The lady was a textile artist by trade. When I probed further, I found out she makes sculptures out of bones…. And where does she get her bones? She buries animals in her garden. Any animals she can get her hands on. She waits a while, then digs up the bones when the critters have decomposed. She told us how her pet donkey is in the garden, so to speak, and she took a peek the other day (dug it up) and it was, in her own words, “not quite ready”. Lovely. They were actually. Just barking mad too.

Had a lot of fun the next day. After getting up at 4am to check out of our new hotel ( the meanest hotel in the world – they charge extra for onions on a burger. I mean, come on!) I discovered, just before getting into the airport taxi that we no longer had our passports. GULP! – Major panic!!

We quickly realised they only place they “should/could” be was in the room safe in our last hotel, so I called them and quickly ascertained that house-keeping had found them and put them in a locked room. Only problem was that house-keeping didn’t get in until 7am. Our flight was at 7.15 am…. I got guy on duty to call them but there was no reply. In the end, we decided to leave them behind rather than miss our 8 hour flight to the East coast. Fortunately you can fly domestically with other photo ID, so we used our driving licences. Phew! Mega relief. Would have cost a lot of money to reschedule the flights, the accommodation there, and the accommodation at the other end!

So sans-passports we set off to Florida. A long old journey. America is BIG, very big.

We checked into a superb hotel in Fort Lauderdale. I used hotwire.com again, and went for $89 a night 3 and a half star. Turned out to be an uber bargain. A proper suite plonked in a marina. Best hotel so far. Well, it was more like an apartment to be honest.

(this is the restaurant terrace at the hotel in Ft. Lauderdale)

The next morning I met up with a friend I’ve known on the Internet for a couple of years at least – I know him via online poker, Claudio. Top fellow. We headed to the local casino and entered a $100 No limit poker tournament. I lasted all of 27 minutes :--( I played like a total dick. He did a lot better and lasted a few more hours, which left me with little to do but sit by the pool and drink. I coped :--) All the while Kirstin went off shopping, probably glad to have me out of her hair for a day.

After that we hooked up with his wife Jennifer and the four of us had a lovely dinner. He’s also been a life saver – I’ve had our passports couriered the width of America but the problem is getting them delivered to a hotel that we are staying at long enough. As you can guess, problem solved, I’ve had them delivered to Claudio’s house. We are going to drop in on our way up to Orlando and grab them this Sunday. Sorted!.

As of now, we are in the Floriday Keys, on Long Key – it’s about half way down from Key Largo , which is at the top.

The keys are stunning. Nothing prepares you for how turquoise the water is, and how much of it there is!

There is one long highway, US Highway 1, which runs all the way down, much of it long, long bridges. One of them is seven miles long. Guess what it’s called? Yep, 7 mile bridge. I’ll see if I can dig out a library pic of one of the bridges. You can’t stop on them, and I was concentrating too much on not hitting oncoming traffic to take any pictures. Though I did liberate one from Google Images...

Our accommodation is cute, though a bit of a shock when we got here. It’s a motel on the water, and right by the US highway 1. Our room is basic, with a kitchenette. The shocks were:

Aircon unit: so loud you can’t even hold a conversation – let alone sleep
Smell – Oh My God! – like rotten eggs – and damn strong. Unbelievable
US Highway 1 about 40 ft away.

Luckily, after half a day we’d sorted everything:

Aircon: I went outside, and after much tinkering, I found ramming a spoon under part of the main unit shut it up. Eat my shorts McGuyver.
Smell: This was down to a thick layer of seaweed on the beach and under our sea deck. In the morning the staff came out and raked it all away. It had been washed in by recent rough seas apparently. Smell gone now.
US Highway 1 – well, it’s not busy, and we’ve driven all the way down to Key West , at the very end, and the one thing we realised is everyone is by the highway! – it’s the way it is. It is the only road all the way down and consequently everyone lives by it.

(This is the view out of our room. I sit outside at night and play poker online. We've seen oodles of stingrays and other fish in the water, and a baby shark!!)

Our balcony view in the evening - (I’ve started playing with HDR images – you take three different pictures with varying exposures and “mix” them together – that’s how I got the colour of the sunset without the sun being a massive white blob, and how you can see the boats near by – they would normally be black silhouettes with such a bright background - need practice but it’s a useful new skill) – Incidentally, that’s how I also got the room detail in the picture above this one. I’m getting photo-nerdy. Sorry.

My God is it hot here. We thought Phoenix was hot, where it was usually 90 degrees (gets to 120 in the summer!). Down here it is still in the high 80’s but due to the humidity, but more importantly, our position in relation to the sun, it is WAY hotter. Apparently it’s because we are at latitude 22, whatever that means. I’m assuming it basically means we are closer to the sun. Don’t understand why it is not therefore 150 degrees, but it isn’t.

You know there is a difference after your 1st 10 minutes sunbathing. You are burnt! We sunbathed on the 1st evening, from about 4pm to 5pm at the most, and are both like lobsters now. It is so hot that we simply cannot go out on our sea/sun deck during the day. Period. You just burn. You have to stay inside, or sit on the other side of the room , by the car park, in the shade. There is no in between, you simply cannot sit in the sun!

It’s a little frustrating as the only Internet I can get is by latching onto someone’s’ personal home wifi that they have not protected. Problem is, I can only get a signal sitting on our sun deck! – so no Internet until after 7pm, or before 9am.

We now fully understand why the Americans do a couple of classic things:

Wear socks with trainers: You either wear sandals, or if you need to be smarter, you have to wear trainers. But it’s so hot you’ll ruin your trainers and have sore feet. Hence socks. You can’t wear shoes. That would mean wearing trousers. Too hot for trousers.

Wear baseball caps backwards: Yes, I’m ashamed to admit, I now wear mine backwards here. You HAVE to to stop your neck getting frazzled. Even if it’s a bit cooler, you have to wear one, the right way round, or you’ll get sun stroke.

It is definitely too hot. Hotter than Thailand by a country mile. All the same, we were bloody glad to leave San Francisco. Having cold days reminded us of London and what we have fled. People get more up tight when it’s not hot. We really notice it as we travel. As soon as it’s hot, people chill and are more laid back.

Key West was beautiful. We didn’t see too much today but we got a good feel for it. We drove down and then hit the main “Duval” street which is all bars and live music. The houses are again beautiful, all colonial wooden style with verandas and balconies. The whole place has a real Bahamian feel to it, and I’ve not been to the Bahamas yet, but you know what I mean. Really relaxed, tropical, and up for a laugh.

No pics of Key West – the camera was flat. Silly me.

Right – another hour or so and I can venture outside and post this update!

p.s. Poker – after I lost the tournament in Fort Lauderdale I went online and played like a demon! – I learnt so much from that real game I’ve taken it into my online game. I played again last night and won another $170. :--)