Bed, Oven & Beyond

In this large country, sometimes it's a very small world.

In Sebring we have a store called Bed, Bath & Beyond, part of a nationwide chain I think. The bizarre thing is that it doesn't actually SELL beds or baths....but it sells loads of beyonds. Beyonds are just about anything you'd ever want in your home and many items you'd never ever want in your home but you can't resist buying them anyway. Remember the Innovations catalogue ? It's a bit like that.

You'll get the idea from their web site and basically, if they haven't got it, you don't need it. If I was moving here full time, I'd just take my wad of crisp new dollars into a BB&B and tell the spotty sales assistant I was going to spend an obscene amount of money there.

Then I'd go somewhere else and get a 54" TV and all the fixings as they don't actually sell those.

Like a lot of stores now, they sell even more goodies online. I want a combi oven and have decided to get one from BB&B. This is one oven that cooks using microwaves, convection and grilling either individually or in any combination and I just love the one I have at home. To get a crispy fluffy baked potato in 8 minutes is worth the price on it's own.

The Sebring store doesn't have one in stock, so they'll order it for me and deliver it to the house for no extra charge. Great service.

A few feet away from the store is Mattress Giant where last Thursday I bought a bed. I've only ever bought one bed before in my life and it didn't turn out too well as I just donno how to buy a bed. In the Leeds store I sat on them, I lay on them and apart from ones costing more than my house, they all seemed the same. The sales people saw my confusion and baffled me with techno babble about innerspring coils, tempur-pedic memory foam and the number of layers of latex used to make the mattress comfy enough for someone with 1st degree burns to bounce about on without a whimper. Then I got it home and it was like lying on a concrete slab.

10 years later and I've still got it as I just know if I went to replace it, I'd end up with one the same.

I'm not 100% sure about the one I bought last Thursday either. Seemed fine in the store, even though the model name was Newcastle. It was from a range named for UK cities and if they'd had a Leeds, I'd have bought it on the spot. Faced with a choice of Newcastle, Nottingham or York, I went Geordie.

We picked it up this afternoon and I'll be trying it out for real tonight. Watch this space.

Finally, a few yards from both these stores is our favourite eating hole. Ok that doesn't sound right. How come watering hole sounds good but an eating hole sounds like somewhere best avoided ?

Well it's the Olive Garden and it's not so long ago that you'd have stood more chance of seeing me at an Oasis concert as in an Italian restaurant. But last winter I fell in love with Olive Garden and then last summer I went to Italy for the first time and fell more deeply in love. Yes there are now at least three items on the menu I can eat !!! There is hope for me yet.

So I've got the bed, ordered the oven and will be eating the meal in a about an hour. Three locations about 50 yds apart.

It's almost tempting to walk.

Walkies !!!

I've just returned all hot and sweaty from a short walk along the canal path in sunny Buttonwood Bay. I didn't meet a single soul as it was early afternoon and 83F in the shade and yes, I know. I'm a mad dog.

I'd taken my binoculars with me, these being a very thoughtful pressie from the lovely Daphne and Stephen who were here for 2 weeks last November and knew how much I admired their binoculars. My pressie was a new pair and not their old cast offs just in case you were thinking - cheap skates.

Anyho as I was walking towards the lake pier and getting the binoculars ready for a bit of gator spotting, I saw a large bird approaching and then hovering over the water just a few feet from me. Through the bins I could see individual feathers bending in the strong winds that we've had here for the last few days that may be coming from Hurricane Ida which is south west of the state just now putting out gusts of 121mph.

The bird hovered majestically for about 10 seconds filling my field of view. Then it shot down, head first, and I tracked its dive until it almost hit the water. Then it raised its head, lowered its feet and.....splash. A nanosecond later and it rose from the foaming waters with quite a large fish in its talons. It was a stunning sight and the first I'd ever experienced. To see it all through the binoculars, in glorious close-uppedness, was awesome. So thank you, D&S.

A little later, at the point where the path left the canal and turned up back into the park streets, I came up these two, grazing on someone's lawn.

Well to be 100% accurate, one was drinking from a large mug that may have been left out on the lawn for that purpose and the other was keeping watch. They didn't mind me watching although I didn't try and get any closer.

Finally I checked out the larger swimming pool but there was nothing going on there probably because it was football time and anyway, it was too hot for the park residents to be out and about.

Just me and as I've already admitted, I'm a bit mad.


Sorry, Daphne.......I know I'm very very naughty for posting this photo !!

Down Mexico Way

You don't have to go far in the deep south of America to find 'a world of Mexico' where everything is written in both languages and you often feel that you're on the set of The Three Amigos.

I don't mean that you have to keeping ducking to avoid being accosted by lethal oversized sombreros but it's just that the flavour of Mexico is everywhere.

Here in Florida, zillions of Mexicans labour in the orange groves and are all here legally of course ! As a result many of the smaller towns have a definite Tijuana feel to them and a Spanish phrase book is almost a necessity. If I wasn't a typical Brit who thinks the whole world should understand English, I'd try and learn Spanish as it sure would be helpful here. If nothing else, I'd know what the staff are saying when we visit a Mexican restaurant !!

And quelle surprise, we went to such a restaurant last night. It was a first time visit for me but Debby and Dennis had been several times before. Now I'm a very picky and unadventurous eater and rarely try anything new as I just assume I'll not like it. Any new food item has to first pass look, smell and texture tests before it even gets to my mouth and sadly few pass them all.

Remember I'm the one who, when in the self proclaimed gastronomic capital of the world, Paris, ate my first meal in a McDonalds !

The outside of the restaurant last night did little to dispel my doubts about eating there.

Just a couple of points about the photo. Don't you like the name of the hair salon next door ? A bit different and a nod to our modern texting generation. Then there is the car for sale with a different type of way of letting people know it's for sale. See it ? Here it is a bit closer.


Thankfully the inside of the restaurant was much more welcoming than the outside and the staff were both friendly and attentive.

God I sound like a reviewer !!

Anyway Debby and I had already decided on splitting a flauta meal as it came with 2 flautas, deep fried tortillas filled with (in our case) shredded beef. I knew I'd not be keen on most of the 'stuff' that came with the flautas (cheese, guacamole, refried beans, sour cream and yellow rice) but I knew I'd like the flauta itself.

While we waited for the food to arrive, we made use of the paper 'game' that was provided as our place mats.


It's with a feeling of pride that I can tell the world that Debby found all 36 mistakes although we agreed that the woman walking a pig wasn't exactly a mistake and I'm sure I'd used a cart with square wheels on more than one occasion in a supermarket ! I also think that playing baseball with a tennis racket isn't a mistake at all but a very clever adaptation on the more customary bat idea.

But back to the meal and it was excellent. I loved the flauta, and my share of the rice and refried beans. I'd definitely go again and like I said at the beginning, a smattering of Spanish would've been handy - if only to know if they felt the 20% tip I left was enough !

I mean I'd like to know in advance if they toss anything 'extra' into my flauta next time !!

If you tell them it's your birthday, you'll get three 'presents'. First, for photographic purposes, they'll want to place a huge sombrero on your head but I'd pass on that as I'd imagine it had been on several hundred heads already. Next, I'd probably be able to stand the embarassment of being serenaded by the birthday amigos as long as this event was never ever mentioned again.

Finally, on the up side, I'd just accept the free dessert and call it a sopaipilla.

Buenos dias, amigos. Hasta luego.

Equality In Sport ?

Now I'm all for sex equality in sports even though there are some sports that women just can't or shouldn't be playing.

There, that should open a can of worms for sure and I can already feel the love coming my way !

But I have been known to watch the occasional women's soccer game, usually at international level, and not just because seeing 22 young ladies in short shorts is quite pleasing on the eye. Heaven forfend !

Sadly below this level of ability, or maybe below the level of the best couple of league teams in Europe and America, the standard isn't particularly high and it's like watching Sunday morning football on any park around England - except that ladies, and 5 year old boys, have a strange habit of kicking the ball in whichever direction their foot is pointing at the time and then doing a little jump of excitement when the ball actually goes more than a few feet in that direction.

But I've rarely seen much in the way of vicious play during these games and was hopeful that the ladies were more into name calling behind an opponent's back or shaming their clothes/makeup/hair/handbag contents once the game was over. I'd seen good tackling and a fair amount of pushing and shoving but little that would be worthy of a clip on YouTube.

Until now.

I think any of the fouls in this one short clip was 'worthy' of the men's game but when you combine them all, then.....wow ! This lot was more like an assault by the No.15, Liz Lambert and I just hope I'm never passing the pub when she's being ejected.

Of course she'd have a lot more trouble finding any of my hair to pull.

A Day At The Beach

Yesterday we went to the beach. Sadly we didn't get onto the sand until about an hour before sunset but we still had time for a swim and time for some people watching - always fun in America !

The first port of call on the 90 mile trip to Siesta Key on the West coast of Florida was the small town of Lake Placid. There wasn't any snow to speak off so I'm not sure how they managed to hold the Winter Olympics there in 1980. I know, I know. Different Lake Placid !!

This town is famous in these here parts for having loads of buildings with murals on them. Someday I'll go there and photograph a bunch of them properly but we were only there for a few minutes yesterday so I was only able to take photos from the truck. Oh and there are odd little things like the car and train dotted all over the place too. Yes it's a bizarre town for sure.

Then it was on to Sarasota for a spot of retail therapy with 'visits' to Sams Club and Best Buy before having a quick food court meal at the Westfield Mall.

By then it was a bit overcast and time was getting on so we got to the beach about 4pm. As usual on the West coast, you have to walk out about half a mile before the water covers your knees but I'm all for getting the extra exercise. The water was quite warm but not warm enough to walk straight into without a few pauses and woooohoooo's as it touched the 'sensitive' areas on my body !! You know what I mean, fellas ?

After avoiding the diving pelicans and the sudden rises and dips on the sea floor which would drop you to your chest one moment and then have it lapping your ankles the next, we got out and lay on the beach while the sun prepared to set. It was that strange time of day when you'd take a photo looking away from the sun and have that wonderful almost orange light which I love for portraits and then the other way would give the impression it was almost night time.

It was at this point that we saw some Amish or maybe Mennonite ladies strolling along the beach obviously enjoying the wind over their hair nets, the warmth of the sun on their faces and the unadulterated joy of no electricity in their lives.

I hadn't taken my SLR with me so this compact camera view is the best I could manage. I was hoping for a decent sunset but it became a bit too overcast so we left before the sun dipped below the horizon.


Just as a final touristy reference thing, Siesta Key is a beautiful part of the West coast with ample free parking right at the beach with excellent changing and restroom facilities. Actually ample doesn't do it justice as about 500 cars could park there. The sand is soft and white and goes all the way to the water which is always a good thing !

Expect a long walk to get the water up above your knees. Perfect for kids, hobbits and Tom Cruise. Be careful of kamakazi pelicans, water skimming birds and youths on skimboards that will fell you quicker than an offensive tackle.

Going to the seaside here can be a dangerous outing !

We're going again soon.

Halloween - Time To Be Silly

While still not mentally alert after my 18 hr journey to get here on Friday, I agreed to go to a halloween dance last night. As with all such events in sunny Buttonwood Bay, everyone got into the spirit of things and about 80% came in one sort of costume or another.

What made it so good was that these costumes weren't always themed, so we had Dorothy (Wiz of Oz) complete with Toto, a US fireman, a sheriff and his 'saloon flozzy', a few pirates and the usual plethera of doctors (Dr. Seymore Butts) and nurses. I did like the guy dressed in a large sack with a label on his t-shirt saying "Good".

Think about it !

Because I don't want to put up photos of residents that may not want even this low level of publicity (hey these people have family you know and what happens in Buttonwood Bay, stays in Buttonwood Bay), I'm limiting them to ones who were disguised by their masks or face paint or whatever. With a few of the residents being over 150, it wasn't always easy to know if they WERE wearing masks though !!

Hopefully only those who know her in the park will recognise her in this photo but it was just too good to not post here as it sums up the nature of the dance and the nature of the people who live here. Basically anything goes and being a senior citizen doesn't mean you've lost all sense of fun.


But just in case you don't want to be left with THAT image burned into your retinas and to show you that despite having little or no time to prepare for this dance, here is a photo of yours truely getting into the mood too.


This is a magical place alright and my normal British reservations and shyness get checked when I enter.

Of course it helps when you wear a costume so that no one knows who you are !!

The Brit Is In Florida

The big bald eagle has landed. Ok maybe I'm not as graceful as an eagle but the rest is true enough.

I'm in Florida for the winter and as the temp probe in the lanai/Florida room is currently showing 93F, I'm sure glad we have a/c in the living room.....where it's still 79F.

But enough of such trivia..........how was my trip here is what you want to know ? Don't ya ? Yes you do.

Left home at 9am yesterday (Fri) and got to Manchester airport at 10:25. No problems there.

There were 3 long lines at the Virgin Atlantic Economy check-in desks and as I'd not been able to check-in online, I'd no choice but to join one of them. But which one was moving the fastest ? The classic dilemma. Then a security guy asked if I needed help and I played the confused old man trick. Sadly it seems to come easily to me these days.

He led me to a check-in machine even though I told him it wouldn't work. As my ticket was for 6 months, I knew they wanted me to actually go to the desk to check my visa. But I tried anyway and sure enough it said........no deal. I think he then took pity on me, although my rolling on the floor and crying like a baby might've swung it for me.

In any case he opened up the First Class line for me (which was empty) and said.....you're on your own so go ahead. I went ahead and got right to the check-in and was done in about 5 minutes. Woohooooo for the confused old baldy man.

Then it was upstairs to security screening and this was a doddle too. As I'd taken the risk, for the first time ever, to put all the cameras and cables into my checked luggage, my carry on case just contained my medication (see previous blog) and laptop. I was through in seconds.

So I arrived at the departure gate at about 11:15am and my flight wasn't till 1:30pm ! The time passed and we started boarding at 12:45pm and I was in my seat at 12:55pm. At 1:25pm the plane started rolling back from the terminal and we were on the way.

Well not quite. 10 mins later we were back at the gate as we had a 'small electrical problem'. 90 minutes later this 'small' fault was fixed and we were off again. It was 3pm.

It was a really old Jumbo as you had no control over the in flight movies, apart from clicking on one of the 12 channels. The movies just played back to back so if you joined part way in, tough.

Probably only one plane in the entire fleet is like that and I was on it. Still, I managed to watch "The Hurt Locker", quite good, "Terminator : Salvation", ok and most of "Transformers : Revenge Of The Risen" which was as stupid as the first in the series. There were better movies like "Up" and "Ice Age 3" but I'd seen them too recently to want to see them again.

The pilot must've used his turbo lever or 5th gear or something as he made up the time somehow. "English Rose" touched down at Orlando only 5 minutes late.....only to find another plane in our bay ! Don't you hate when that happens ?

Then came the challenge of getting through immigration and customs. I have a history with immigration as basically they don't like me visiting for 6 months at a time even though I'm allowed to with my visa. Things started well as I found a line with only 3 couples ahead of me and in no time I was at the desk. The agent was not only friendly but chatty, two characteristics I'd never seen before. He called me a snowbird and actually welcomed me back - while stamping my passport. Phase 1 had been passed successfully.

Got my luggage and approached customs. Now normally this presents few problems for me but I probably had guilt written all over my face as I'd enough chocolate bars, After Eight mints, orange kit-kats, jaffa cakes and so on to feed a 3rd world country. I'd pretty much emptied the sweetie aisle at Tescos before leaving. With a straight face I told the agent I'd no food and he let me pass.

I was in !!

Deb picked me up and by 3am (UK time) I was at my winter address in Sebring. I'd been travelling for 18 hrs which wasn't bad for my trips here but was tiring nevertheless. I was in bed by 4am and as usually happens, I was wide awake about 5 hrs later and ready for coffee !

So that was it. I'll post more interesting blogs as the days go by (hard to top this one though !!) but it's time to catch up with how Leeds are doing. Ahhhh we're 2-0 up with time for more. It really is a great weekend and as the clocks here go back an hour, it'll last even longer.