Saturday visit into town

Granted, yes, this picture is of the countryside park, nearby, but today we did visit the city.  We headed out into the chilly, damp air around 11:15 this morning.  First we walked up the hill, caught the bus, got off at the library, got my photo taken for my provisional driver’s license and headed through the city.

It’s neat to walk around without a big agenda for the day.  We talked about going back to the Laing, or watching Jane Eyre at the Tyneside, but instead we looked around for signs of  Christmas at Fenwick.  Drank coffee at Nero’s on the lower ground floor, bought Skippy peanut butter (an American specialty item here) and investigated all the possible Thanksgiving foods.  After that we strolled around Eldon Square and The Gate, trying to find lunch.  Frankie and Benny’s was packed so we had Chinese buffet lunch at Lau’s 202 (all you can eat for £7.99 before 5PM – pretty sweet.) 

That’s a typical day for us when we wander around town.  I love living so close to the city centre.  I’ve never had so many things to discover in one place like this before.  It’s a new adventure each time we go around there.  I also successfully found the bus stop once again so when I do venture out further than down the street, I can get myself home.  That’s always a reassuring feeling.

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Between two Fridays

NaBloPoMo: Talk about one important thing that happened between last Friday and today.

One important thing? I flew across an ocean in 7 hours and 20 minutes. A bunch of other things? Well, let’s see:

Last Friday was Sept 30. At 12AM London time we were sitting at the airport in Sanford, watching a Manchester flight leave. Our flight was to take off around that same time but was 7 hours late. We were the last flight of the day and the staff at the airport begrudgingly let us know about it. We heard comments between one another about how they just wanted to go home (yeah, same with the other 200 of us stuck at the airport, don’t you think?)

But we left at 12:50AM Orlando time to arrive home at 2PM Newcastle time. We slept and slept after a quick trip to the store. We tried to get back on our schedule. We stayed home, watched the rest of this season’s Doctor Who (I understand about as much as can be expected now). 

I tried jogging outside in the park. I decided that was a bad idea: cold wind & lack of pace monitoring. I hung a wedding picture up that we got from my parents in lieu of our first anniversary. I tried out my new Kodak Easyshare camera. I got (somewhat) use to the cold again. I baked pork chops and potatoes in the crock pot.

So the all of this does lead to the most important event – I’m back in England.

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I live between…

I signed up for National Blog Post Month a day or two ago but I’m just not getting around to working on writing anything else for October since we got back from vacation.  NaBloPoMo prompt for yesterday was: List two things (however close or far) that your current home is between. I guess it makes sense to kind of describe where I live since I just got back from Florida and now I’m reacquainting myself with the place.

My current home is between Denmark and Ireland.  Between Scotland and France.  Between the Angel of the North and St. James’s Park.  Between Edinburgh and York. Between Oslo and Dublin.

I’ve posted pictures of all the things I’ve seen since I’ve been here.  I have parks, museums, art galleries, castles, cathedrals, buses, trains, pubs, hills, rain, libraries and soccer here.  I eat beans on toast with my eggs in the morning.  I drink Earl Gray with rich tea biscuits (I still call them cookies.)  I don’t have humidity or giant wasps.  I don’t have to hear about shootings each day, or worry about dog attacks while walking, or wait in traffic on I-4.

I miss being in Florida, but I like it here too.  There are pros and cons to each place.  Here I don’t have a 24 hour Wal-Mart or a car to scoot around in.  I can’t wash my hair in the morning and go outside.  I can’t wear flip flops and shorts for 10-11 months out of the year.  But I didn’t always live in Florida and I wasn’t always without seasons.  I lived in Ohio for the first twelve years of my life.  I played in the snow and carved pumpkins.  I remember those days well and England reminds me of living there.

So yes, where I live in a seven hour flight away from where I use to live but I manage just fine.  The leaves are beginning to fall and the wind has picked up.  Our house is in a place that is in between seasons – something I haven’t really experienced for 22 years.  It’s nice to be between something new for a change.  It’s not like Florida is going anywhere – it’s always waiting for me. (Just like that Target store!)

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Florida and back again

On Thursday we set out to Florida. The plane ride took 9 hours and 20 minutes – slightly longer than expected. It really did feel like a long time even though we saw X-Men First Class and I read some of New Moon on my (now, old school) Kindle. Once we got in Orlando, I was so happy to be in the warmth and humidity. It felt like my body started working normally again. My blood and skin were so glad.

We stayed in Titusville for the first few days.  We had a big hot tub all to ourselves there.  The hotel was nice for relaxing before heading over to Disney.  It was so nice to be able to drive again, have the abundance that is Wal-Mart and Target again, and sit in the relief of air conditioning while it was in the 90s with high humidity.  It was a feeling I was used to but I forgot how much I didn’t miss not being able to just go outside like I can do in England.

After a while the heat got to us. It’s great fun for a while until it isn’t. We celebrated our 1st anniversary, went on most of the rides, went on the safari, saw some fireworks, used the Extra Magic Hours to ride Star Tours 3 times in a row and played in the pool at the hotel. Being at four Disney parks over the span of a week was tough. It’s so exhausting to walk around all those people, pushing and shoving in the humidity. That’s when we were ready to head back to Cocoa Beach.

Once we got there, it was sunny and relaxing. Less people to mess with at the hotel too.  I had my birthday, visited my parents, got a new Garmin sports band, my Kodak Easyshare mini camera (for all my fine blogging needs) and a dolphin bracelet. We took pictures on the beach, swam some more in the pool, ate seafood (heck, we ate all sorts of food while we were there) and relaxed. 

Then it was time to come home.  However, after spending the last two days in Titusville at our awesome Hampton Inn (awesome hotel – free 24 hour coffee and tea) we had to say so long for now to Florida. 

We went back to Orlando Sanford Airport, 3 hours ahead of the flight to get through customs and return the car, then found out our flight was 7 hours late.  What a hassle.  We got two $8 food and (non-alcoholic) drink vouchers but that gave us maybe a free order of chicken tenders – not that great of a deal.  Plus, since our flight was then scheduled to leave at 12:50AM, the airport staff had to stay late instead of leaving around 6PM after the flights usually have taken off for the day.  Boy, did we hear them complain about that.  Plus, whenever you asked them a question, you could tell they were irritated that we were still there.  It wasn’t as if we all had a choice to be stuck there – customs closed at 8PM so we had to stay (aside from the fact that we had no more rental car).  But once the flight from Newcastle arrived, we got on the plane (thanks to my last minute Facebook updating we were the last on board) and we had a smooth flight that lasted only about 7 and 1/2 hours.  I finally saw Water for Elephants on the plane too, which was very good.  The rest of the time I slept – no reading.

Now we’re back home, all rested and completely off schedule.  Steve’s upstairs in the computer room looking over our holiday videos.  We had a great time, despite our unwelcomed wait at the airport.  It made the arrival into Newcastle all the better though.  Ah, it’s so nice to be back home to be with Jake again too.  He’s one happy cat now that we’re back.  I missed having him curl up in bed with us each night.

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It’s officially Autumn

Over the weekend, Steve and I took a walk to the Quayside because it was so nice and sunny.  We knew that Summer was slowly but surely moving away from us, but once in a while we still get some sunny moments.  It never lasts a whole day.  By the time we were on the other side of the Tyne River, it was rainy.  We grabbed a QuayLink bus (handy little things) and made our way into the city centre for some shopping.

I has just been looking at shorts and summer weather gear the past few weeks.  Granted, a lot of it was on sale but the shops usually still had plenty of shorts, tank tops and other necessary items to wear on sunny days.  Bringing a jacket is always necessary but wearing sweaters just yet – no.

Today I went to exchange a bunch of my too large sized vacation clothes when I discovered stores full of coats, boots and all-out winter Autumn weather.  I guess in the North East we don’t have much time to get Summer in so we’d better act quick.  I did score some things but there were very few options.  The Fall jacket I found on sale was much more beneficial to the weather we have today – windy and rainy.

So now that Autumn is here, school has started but I’ve not been called in to work as a supply teacher.  I was so hoping for something to put a little cash in my pocket but nope, still no luck.  I’m not even sure if my chances would be much better in Florida either.  Last I enquired, the school board wasn’t even taking substitute teachers anymore, despite the fact that I had been registered when I first graduated college.  No libraries have called me either.  I wonder how many people are applying for the same jobs I am.  I’ve been hearing people say that for jobs that their company’s have posted, they’ll get a hundred applicants.  Yup, this unemployment thing has gotten really old.

But nevertheless, I’ll carry on as I have been.  I can take my sunny weather gear and my windy weather gear and wear as needed.

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