So started vaguely on time. New guy started today, he hasn’t said much or left yet, so take that as a good thing. Mother picked me up so I could collect a new car battery from down the road. She enjoyed talking about how much other people spend on their shopping and how she had no money to spend on it. I’m sure that by getting a lift I will be indebted for life for something or another.

Worked until about 2PM then took Sasha out, beautiful hot day. Then worked through until early evening. I didn’t do Combat tonight as I think Laverne would have shouted at me. I’m still doing my stretches. Fitted the car battery. I was quite impressed with ‘Tracker’ they called the house phone within one minute of the battery being disconnected and my mobile within two minutes. Went for a nice walk this evening, came back and finished off a book. I’ll have an early night I think. Still need to sort that damn SSL certificate.

So had a nice quiet night until about 5AM when I got up for a piss. That was fine, but Jamie with his plague was making more noise than club night at Liv. I reconvened in the spare room, which wasn’t great as the sun was rising so it was almost daylight in there. Still, managed to get some sleep. Went back to the main bedroom after he’d left for work. I had breakfast and coffee quite late. At bout midday there was a constant nice from the front door, I’m not sure what he did but basically the front door lock was now fucked. You could no longer close it without the key in it. I then spent the next hour stripping the mechanism down and cleaning it all out. It all works now, but I’ve ordered a new lock barrel as thats very much on the way out. It’s interesting to see that you can still get parts for Coldseal about fifteen years after they went under. Spent the bulk of the rest of the day in the front garden. Must have spent five hours out there in making heat. Felt like I’d chopped down the whole of Endor. Then walked the dos for two and a half hours. Had a bath. Now curry time.

So this morning started with all good intentions at 7:30AM. By 8:45 I was up and in the car. By 8:46 I had a problem. Pushing the start button on the car yielded very little, flat battery. I then phoned the Physio Clinic and left a message. Then with a bad leg I ran to the gym and got there at 9:20.

She had a good number of questions and had a good feel around. I think this is probably the only acceptable environment that a man and a lady of similar age can share a small room with a bed in it while wearing speedos. She found that my left groin was certainly far more solid than my right groin, also that I had an old hamstring injury that had torn a muscle so big that she could put her finger in it. Apparently I have torn a muscle somewhere that I can’t pronounce and that it has failed to heal properly. She then proceeded to pummel the said area into submission until it was boiling hot and throbbing. I’ve been given some new stretching exercises and an appointment at the same time next week.

I walked home and put the car battery on charge. I walked to the community festival which was shite. I then walked the dog. Then finally caught up with four weeks of paperwork. Put the charged battery back in the car and it was fucked. Put a meter on it and it read 10.2 volts, so that’s as dead as anything. Had a bath. Now time to eat. May do some gardening tomorrow as I certainly won’t be driving anywhere.

Today my leg was hurting like hell so I phoned another doctor, actually it was a receptionist, I couldn’t get an appointment without having a phone call with a doctor, so they phoned me back, she said to make an appointment. I then finally managed to get one, oddly she said that I may need physiotherapy and it would take up to sixteen weeks. So I have a physio appointment tomorrow morning, oh how many talks. Walked Sasha, nice weather today. Limped to the gym, limped through Pump, caught up with Laverne and then limped home. Had about thirty minutes of work to finish off, hour and a half later….

If you get a weird message about SSL certificates it’s because I haven’t updated them yet. They have to be keyed and everything and that requires logging into the SSL site and that requires remembering the password, so that’ll have to wait.

So I started at 9:15 and had a fairly dull morning. Spent all afternoon though arguing with the art director so was quite a productive day.

Weather is horrible, walked Sasha and it looked like it was about to piss down constantly.

Wrote a complaint email to Virgin about Alamo. Went out and got a local Geocache that was new. Sat down and watched the Spanish GP. Now watching the Monaco one. Think we’ve both come down with diphtheria over the last couple of days.

Not sure exactly how many days out I am, but as usual check the videos at www.youtube.com/mannmansion

In the evening we ate a ‘tasting menu’ at a very upmarket (Michelin starred) Italian.. Next day was horrible weather in the morning, so we lazed around the room until afternoon. We then headed down to the pool and had a sun bed and a few beers. In the evening we ate at another Michelin star Asian restaurant, which was more fancy than the last one.

Next day we picked up the hire car, which was a Chevy Camaro, it looked fairly pretty but had the performance of a sofa and not a very nice one at that. Still, we drove the six hours to ‘Key West’ in heavy traffic. Got there. Spent less than an hour there and then drove back. Finally ate just before midnight and had a rather mediocre but expensive steak. The beer was nice though.

This morning I drove down to Pompano beach. Picked up an R22 and flew it with a Swiss guy as safety pilot (can’t fly solo due to security laws). We flew down the coast of Miami at 300 feet, it was crazy. Then flew over to the everglades and crossed them at 100 feet. Finally over to a lighthouse to see some sharks. It cost me what I would pay in pounds, but in dollars, far far cheaper in the US. But it’s a bit more noisy as they don’t bother with things like doors. Stopped off in an iHop for lunch. Drove back to the hotel, picked up the luggage. Drove to airport, where Alamo successfully pissed me off again.

Eight hour flight back to Heathrow. Car was waiting which was nice. Need to call ‘Tracker’, apparently some alert was triggered, will have to look into that. Drove home, picked up the dogs. Now pretty much all unpacked. And the washing machine is on. Back to work tomorrow.

Oh dear I haven’t really been keeping up with this. The days are long, then I have to edit everything at night and then sleep, this does oddly leave very little time. The fact is now I’m sat on the 11th floor balcony at the most expensive hotel in Miami. The car lot is full of lambo’s and Ferraris. Trevor Nelson (Google it) is two rooms along. There is a full on EDM gathering at the pool and it’s full of beautiful people. I had a wonderful surprise this morning, we were delivered two bottles of Moet and chocolate covered strawberries. Unfortunately we had to go out, but anyway, lets go back a few days.

I think I left you dear reader just before we were going to ‘Be our guest’. Oh wow. That’s all I can say really. Disney really did up their game on this one. The main ballroom where we were seated was just amazing. I’m sure the ceiling must have been hand painted. The food, for Disney, was exceptional. Actually, that’s not really fair. If you paid the rice in Disney you would have a very decent meal. We paid the price and ate like kings (or queens). Actually we paid bugger all apart from the wine, as it was all part of the Disney dining plan. Now here’s a clever ruse from the server. When I ordered the wine, she instantly asked, ‘Do you have ID?’, we both said ‘Yes, of course’ and reached for our ass pockets. She pipped up, ‘That’s fine, you reached for your ID, that’s all I needed to know.’. Smart cookie. We both had the pork chop. Now. Lets get this straight. My experience of all meats is somewhat limited. Meats were always served at home, ‘cooked’. As in, one step away from charcoal. This is why I don’t generally eat meat. I’ve never eaton anything other than ‘well done’. So to be honest I’m fairly scared of anything that has any red in it at all. I had ‘medium’ pork chops, and they were devine. This was our last night in Disney and we rounded it off with one final go on ‘Space Mountain’.

The next day we had breakfast at the hotel and picked up no less than thirty-two snack items. We then left Disney for the last time and made our way to Legoland Florida. It was a painless one hour journey.

Legoland Florida. Well, what can I say. It ain’t Disney. It’s quite a small park in comparison. It doesn’t exactly have any ‘thrill’ rides. Still. The hotel was fun and the park was ‘okay’. We made the best of it and had a good time. We especially enjoyed the ‘quest for che’ which was a water ride where we got absolutely soaked. We had a bit of an issue in the evening where we booked a time slot for the buffet, but the buffet was closed. So we ended up eating by the bar. We then had fun issues sorting this out in the morning.

We then left Legoland Florida and drove to Miami. The drive was painless. We eventually arrived at the most expensive and excessive hotel in Miami, the Fountaine Blue. It’s just so much style over substance. The bathroom looks marble, but really it’s just plastic. I had to drop the car off at the rental company. So I dropped Jamie off at the hotel and had to do a six mile diversion before I could do a u-turn. I almost took out a bus. Still, dropped the car off no problem. We ate at the cheapest restaurant at the hotel and it still cost almost two hundred quid. Was very good though.

This morning we were greeted by two bottles of Moet and strawberries in chocolate. We had to leave them though as we had a tour of the everglades booked. Bus picked us up and eventually we ended up at the alligator park. We had an airboat tour which was cool and then a show thing. We then ended up at the hotel mid afternoon and tucked into the Moet. So now we are up to date…

I’ll keep it short and sweet as usual you can see the video in the usual place www.youtube.com/mannmansion We basically drove round various shopping malls. I bought some new sunglasses and a suitcase, as four large cases is a good number for two people. We ate in Paradiso 37 and had some nice cocktails.

Today we went to Disney’s Animal Kingdom and saw some animals plus went on their only coaster, twice, it’s very good. Tonight we are eating at what is supposed to be Disney’s best restaurant, I’m sure it will be awful.