The day was spent with a walk down through the Meadows where we sat at the lake watching the Terrapins lying in the sun, then on the way back there was this six foot Alligator on the lake bank also sunning itself unfortunately Noel did not have the camera with him. As soon as we got within about ten feet it reacted quickly and dived back into the lake and quickly swam away. Alligators do not attack humans unless they are themselves attacked and/or when humans feed them, then they can turn a little nasty, but they do like to eat the odd little dog it is said and so we keep watching.
The afternoon was spent at Starbucks using the WIFi and catching up to date with emails then we headed off to the 'Outback Steak House' for an early dinner before the cinema. The restaurant was offering a 2 for1 happy hour drink and so I said I would have a bottle of Chardonnay. The waiter looked confused and then came back later and said it only applies to a glass of wine and not bottles. Damn.
We both had the baby back ribs and a crab-stuffed shrimp starter, the meal was very nice and considering we eventually had 3 large glasses of wine each the bill was only around £ 35.00 which is not bad really. We headed off to the cinema and were a bit worried as the ticket cost is only two dollars each and we wondered what fleapit was waiting for us. Actually the cinema was not too bad although I think the projection and sound equipment may be a little old. The film was called 'A Serious Man' directed by the Coen Brothers who have made some excellent films in the past so we now go to see all the films that they make irrespective who the actors are. This time there are no well known actors but it is a very good film and briefly the story is as following. It follows a period of what you might call a mid life crisis for a Jewish father with a family of two kids. The kids play up at school, the neighbour keeps taking part of his garden, the wife decides to leave him or more to the point he should leave the house and stay in a nearby motel whilst the wife's new partner moves in to his house which he still has to pay for. After a month or so the new boyfriend dies in a car accident and the husband is now forced to pay for the funeral and also the younger sons Bar mitzvah is coming up and he is running out of money, what with all the legal bills for the car accident, the funeral and the Bar Mitzvah and then the uncle who also lives with them is arrested chasing little boys. The kids, all they do is complain that the TV is not working correctly and they even call the father at work to say that they cannot see particular channels and so can he come home and fix it. Talk about a life going downhill. It may have helped if you are Jewish, as many of the audience were, as when they were singing an obvious Jewish tune some of them joined in. There is a strong Jewish population in Sarasota by the way. But it was a good film and really quite funny.
It was a nice evening and as it was a bit late to start reading we decided to channel hop to find a good programme to watch before bed. This was extremely difficult, for almost twenty minutes we changed channels and all we got were adverts. The adverts on TV here are mainly for cars, restaurants selling large platters of food, and medicines which you should ask your Doctor about as it may improve your life. But all of the medicine adverts have riders which say this could damage your liver, heart, blood pressure, kidneys and perhaps even kill you but don't worry as it probably won't hurt too much.
It's Tuesday morning, we are off to the Ringling Museum and the sun is shining....
