Friday, January 12, 2018

A semi relaxing week

Well the week has been filled with lots of doing nothing to a day out to Port Charlotte.
The weather has been quite good this week and so we have spent quite some time by the pool and some swimming of course and lunch by the pool of course.
We had a visit from a large bird, photo taken through Lanai so perhaps not as clear as it could be.

We came to use the BBQ and discovered that it was quite filthy obviously not cleaned for several weeks, possibly months, and so we complained and the response was not quite what we expected. First of all they were sending somebody round that afternoon and he never arrived or even the next day but at 08.30 on Friday the lady boss turned up and she tried to explain the BBQ can get very rusty in the Florida weather but as I showed her it was nor  rust but a great big thick layer of fat and meat juice and no doubt BBQ sauce, I had cleaned the actual grill by this point as we wanted to use it, but she also went on to say that you don't actually cook on where this muck was, I was incredulous by this statement and told her so. Later in the day she popped round and left a small present as an apology. Her excuses about lack of time and the owner does not pay her to do this I told her was not my problem as we had contract with her company. Oh well that’s the end of that saga.

We also visited the local library so that we could complete the on-line check-in in for our Caribbean cruise as we needed to print boarding cards and baggage label's.. Its a very nice library and it was quite busy with about 16 Pc’s available for free use and you have to pay fro printing which is no problem. A visit to Publix Supermarket took place a couple of times and then on Friday a day out to Port Charlotte.
Port Charlotte is about ten miles South of where we are staying and we wanted to visit the Shopping Mall as it would appear that Noel needs to have a jacket and tie for the cruise and he did not bring either. So after trolling around Macy’s and a couple of other stores we found the required jacket in J C Penny and at a 60% discount, and what with two for one offer’s (bought two shirts) and tie and pair of socks for less that we would have to pay for a jacket in Macy’s. We then had lunch in Ruby Tuesday’s and it was excellent and the amount of food on the plate was about right, not like the Venice lunch, and the quality was also very good.
Following lunch a further look around the Mall which was not busy, perhaps because it was Friday, and then we went to the Cinema to see a film called ‘ Darkest Hour’ with Gary Oldman playing Winston Churchill and the prosthetics were brilliant and the acting was also superb, well worth the visit. The fun thing was at the very end of the film just prior to the credits the screen informed us the Churchill stayed in power for five years after the war, that Neville Chamberlain died about six months after Dunkirk  and that Viscount Halifax who was a thorn in Churchill's side and was all for negotiating surrender with Hitler got posted to the British Embassy in Washington DC to which the all American audience, excluding us, all laughed out loud.
Then home and we watched a film on Netflix called a ‘Trip to Spain’ quite humorous really but some lovely places they visited including so we have also been to.
We plan a quiet weekend in the house and will visit Sarasota either next Monday or Tuesday. Right now Noel is monitoring the Chelsea vs Leicester game.