2BoysMum&Dad
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2004
In my hand-written notes I made at the end of Friday 23rd July, I spookily gave the days report the heading The Calm Before The Storm, only because it was the day before we flew out to Florida and didnt think at the time it was really a very good or apt title. I have decided to name all the parts of my trip report The Calm Before The Storm Tour, in honour of the climax of our trip - Hurricane Charley which gave us an extra day in Florida.
Monday 16th August (Home At Last)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
So, here we are, flying above the big pond and on our way to Gatwick at last. Piers manages to fall asleep twenty minutes before landing and Michael didnt sleep on the plane at all. Despite varying estimates on the way over, we land at 6.20am B.S.T. After a long trek from the plane (mainly using moving walkways) we go through customs and find the luggage reclaim area. We had a long wait of around 15 minutes before the carousel number appeared on the screens. Then we spent half an hour watching one small blue suitcase, an empty water bottle and an empty packet of Hula Hoops going round and round and round and round. We were standing close to where they were reappearing and Piers started doing a countdown to accurately announce the reappearance of the lonely suitcase exactly on the spot of his zero, much to the amusement of those around us! The suitcase then mysteriously disappeared, stamping out our only form of entertainment
. Eventually our suitcases start appearing and theres a huge round of applause from all the passengers (just as we start thinking our luggage was in Timbuktu or still in Florida).
We make our way out and pass the crowds of people greeting passengers, some holding up cards with peoples names (including one for a BBC member). We make our way to the front of the terminal and spend a few minutes trying to work out where the taxi queue is. We see the taxi office but do not realise we have to speak to someone in there until we are advised of this by someone from the office wandering about outside accosting people. The system works by you telling the chap where you are going, how many there are of you and a contact name. Then you sit down and wait for your name to be called. We do not have to wait too long, only about ten minutes. Taxi drivers turn up and come into the office, taking the next card of information. My name is called and I follow the taxi driver to his car. I call for Trevor and the boys as they hadnt noticed my name had been called. The driver is fine, thinking I am on my own until he sees Trevor and the boys with enough luggage for a family of ten. Hes then worried, tells us we will not all fit in the taxi with that lot and takes us back into the taxi office, telling us well have to wait for a people carrier type taxi. The driver is actually very pleasant and apologies. He hands the information card back to the chap in office and takes another passenger. Its not long before we are off as luckily the next taxi is big enough for us and our luggage.
Were off to Reigate where Trevors parents live, having phoned them while still at Gatwick airport waiting at the taxi office. The cost of the taxi (for those of you who are interested) was £15 plus tip on top of that. After a cup of tea and a chat, we decide we need to use both their cars to get us and our luggage (containing the contents of most of the Florida shops) to our house in Guildford. Trevor, Michael and Piers travelled in Trevors Dads car with some of the luggage while I travelled with his mum and the remaining luggage in her car. Piers and Michael both fall asleep in the car and we manage to get Piers into a lounge chair still asleep where he stayed (zonked out) for several hours. Michael woke up sufficiently to get himself into his bed where he also stayed for several hours.
Trevors parents didnt stay too long, only a few minutes. Trevor went to bed virtually immediately and I contemplated doing the same ... but, there was something I was itching to do first! I turned on the PC, having had to plug it in first. We had unplugged all the electrics before going away. I must have spent around 45 minutes on the DIBB, answering some p.m.s and announcing my safe return before collapsing into bed myself.
Later, we discovered wed left the large black suitcase (one of the new acquisitions from Wal-mart) full of dirty laundry on the back seat of Trevors Mums car. We arranged for them to come to visit on Wednesday morning to return it. They are very helpful and do all sorts of stuff for us, looking after the house and cutting the grass while we were away. One thing they didnt fancy doing, though, was doing our washing!
That afternoon I checked my main e-mail account, thinking it probably must have exploded. Luckily not, but I did have a rather horrendous number of new e-mails over 1,600!! I am sure you will not be surprised to learn that very very very few were of any use, mainly being spam.
It has taken me seven weeks to write up all the parts to my trip report. If I ever go away for three weeks again, Ill take up a DIBBers advice and only admit to going away for one or two weeks maximum to save me the effort of all this typing. Saying that, I am still likely to produce a short part 26 with leftover bits of information that didnt have natural places in the rest of the trip report! Watch this space ..............
Monday 16th August (Home At Last)
THE CAST
Sergeant Major Zoe You WILL enjoy yourselves
DH Trevor I am NOT going to like this
Birthday Boy Michael (aged 10 to 11)
Why to everything Piers (aged 8 and a bit)
So, here we are, flying above the big pond and on our way to Gatwick at last. Piers manages to fall asleep twenty minutes before landing and Michael didnt sleep on the plane at all. Despite varying estimates on the way over, we land at 6.20am B.S.T. After a long trek from the plane (mainly using moving walkways) we go through customs and find the luggage reclaim area. We had a long wait of around 15 minutes before the carousel number appeared on the screens. Then we spent half an hour watching one small blue suitcase, an empty water bottle and an empty packet of Hula Hoops going round and round and round and round. We were standing close to where they were reappearing and Piers started doing a countdown to accurately announce the reappearance of the lonely suitcase exactly on the spot of his zero, much to the amusement of those around us! The suitcase then mysteriously disappeared, stamping out our only form of entertainment
. Eventually our suitcases start appearing and theres a huge round of applause from all the passengers (just as we start thinking our luggage was in Timbuktu or still in Florida).We make our way out and pass the crowds of people greeting passengers, some holding up cards with peoples names (including one for a BBC member). We make our way to the front of the terminal and spend a few minutes trying to work out where the taxi queue is. We see the taxi office but do not realise we have to speak to someone in there until we are advised of this by someone from the office wandering about outside accosting people. The system works by you telling the chap where you are going, how many there are of you and a contact name. Then you sit down and wait for your name to be called. We do not have to wait too long, only about ten minutes. Taxi drivers turn up and come into the office, taking the next card of information. My name is called and I follow the taxi driver to his car. I call for Trevor and the boys as they hadnt noticed my name had been called. The driver is fine, thinking I am on my own until he sees Trevor and the boys with enough luggage for a family of ten. Hes then worried, tells us we will not all fit in the taxi with that lot and takes us back into the taxi office, telling us well have to wait for a people carrier type taxi. The driver is actually very pleasant and apologies. He hands the information card back to the chap in office and takes another passenger. Its not long before we are off as luckily the next taxi is big enough for us and our luggage.
Were off to Reigate where Trevors parents live, having phoned them while still at Gatwick airport waiting at the taxi office. The cost of the taxi (for those of you who are interested) was £15 plus tip on top of that. After a cup of tea and a chat, we decide we need to use both their cars to get us and our luggage (containing the contents of most of the Florida shops) to our house in Guildford. Trevor, Michael and Piers travelled in Trevors Dads car with some of the luggage while I travelled with his mum and the remaining luggage in her car. Piers and Michael both fall asleep in the car and we manage to get Piers into a lounge chair still asleep where he stayed (zonked out) for several hours. Michael woke up sufficiently to get himself into his bed where he also stayed for several hours.
Trevors parents didnt stay too long, only a few minutes. Trevor went to bed virtually immediately and I contemplated doing the same ... but, there was something I was itching to do first! I turned on the PC, having had to plug it in first. We had unplugged all the electrics before going away. I must have spent around 45 minutes on the DIBB, answering some p.m.s and announcing my safe return before collapsing into bed myself.
Later, we discovered wed left the large black suitcase (one of the new acquisitions from Wal-mart) full of dirty laundry on the back seat of Trevors Mums car. We arranged for them to come to visit on Wednesday morning to return it. They are very helpful and do all sorts of stuff for us, looking after the house and cutting the grass while we were away. One thing they didnt fancy doing, though, was doing our washing!
That afternoon I checked my main e-mail account, thinking it probably must have exploded. Luckily not, but I did have a rather horrendous number of new e-mails over 1,600!! I am sure you will not be surprised to learn that very very very few were of any use, mainly being spam.
It has taken me seven weeks to write up all the parts to my trip report. If I ever go away for three weeks again, Ill take up a DIBBers advice and only admit to going away for one or two weeks maximum to save me the effort of all this typing. Saying that, I am still likely to produce a short part 26 with leftover bits of information that didnt have natural places in the rest of the trip report! Watch this space ..............
..nice reports Zoe!
