DAY 15 - TUESDAY 15th MARCH 2011
Participants: Tam and Kev
As ever I
can’t really get up much enthusiasm for reporting our last
day, but I’ll give you the facts anyway.
Up around 9.00am, we have our usual breakfast of cereal and then
start the packing. I’m always surprised at how swiftly this
can be done and we are checking out from the resort at 10.30am.
The drive to
Orlando is easy and only takes a couple of hours. Our aim is to
spend some time shopping at the Florida Mall before going to the
airport. I expect that most of you are thinking this is a cunning
ruse on Tammy’s part to enable the spending of copious
amounts of cash. In fact this is strangely far from the truth. We
rarely spend money on clothes, but we had an endowment policy
mature recently and agreed that we should allow ourselves a small
amount to fritter away on clothes. On this holiday Tam has
decided to spend her allowance on an Ipod Touch (which is duly
purchased at the Apple store) for Georgia, as she feels the poor
child has been left home alone. Hah! I come away with two pairs
of trainers and some jeans! Don’t feel too sorry for Tam,
she’ll find some way to buy clothes for herself when
required.
Still, whether it’s shopping for Tam or shopping for me, I
still don’t like it. An hour or so of trying on jeans and
I’ve just about had it. Even a trip to Victoria’s
Secret (where we view the prices of the ladies underwear and
raise our eyes incredulously) cannot lighten my mood.
One fact that I
omitted to mention is that we stopped at the Orlando Ale House
for lunch prior to the shopping debacle. This was really good as
the place doesn’t pretend to be anything else than it is
– a sports bar serving good, cheap food and drink. We both
have steak, me a New York strip and Tam a rib eye. Including a
couple of Killian’s Red beers ($2.25 each!) and a $7 tip the
total is $42. That’s a good deal in anyone’s book.
Back to real time – shopping finished we head to the airport
where car return and check-in are swift and painless. I have
nothing but praise for BA this trip. I used to be a big Virgin
Atlantic fan, but I’m not sure that I don’t prefer BA
now, if only for the video on demand entertainment system.
Check-in completed we go up the escalator to the Hyatt Hotel
where I enjoy a couple of drinks while Tam does a brief spot of
fruitless shopping. She returns to enjoy a glass of red wine
before we go through security and get the train to the gate.
A litre of tequila is purchased for $18 in duty free and I enjoy
one last beer on US soil before we board the flight. We push back
from the gate bang on time, another thumbs up to BA. Once again
the flight is not full and Tam and I have 3 seats for the 2 of
us.
Not a lot
happens on the rest of the journey, I manage to snooze for a
while before disembarking slightly ahead of schedule.
Ah well, that’s the end of another holiday. The only thing
to do is look forward to the next one.