Roger Allen RIP

Our good friend and member of the exclusive Parrot Club passed away late yesterday after a long illness caused by the dreaded cancer. He will be very much missed by Jennifer and I plus many of his good friends.
We were able to spend lots of time with Rog and Sue up and till I came down with the rectal and liver cancer in 2015 and so our regular jaunts to their house in Spain had been put on hold but during those visits together with other friends John and Lyn we had a really great time with lots of laughter and the odd Rioja or three.

Dear Rog Rest in Piece...

Happier days in Spain 2014

Getting used to the house and some shopping

Well the last couple of days we have spent doing some final shopping and in the meantime enjoying the sun and the warm weather with the temperature around 27 degrees centigrade and the pool is roughly the same temperature.
Watching TV in this county is very frustrating as its full of adverts and so we have our own Amazon Fire stick which enables to watch certain Amazon prime films and also Netflix which has a good selection of British programs, with a lot from the BBC. 
We have BBQ a couple of times including nice sirloin steak and yesterday we did some huge pork chops which were really delicious.
In the meantime have been watching some of the absolute rubbish [put out by the the anti Brexit idiots who liken it to the end of the world with all sort of rumours and statements all contain the word 'COULD' which means absolutely nothing.
If you remember the Millennium and the BUG that would cause aircraft to fall out of the sky, all computers to turn off leaving us without power, water  or anything even the traffic lights would stop and which 'Could' kill a million people. But what happened was nothing and everything went on as normal and that wil happen after Brexit. If the Brits cannot find a way to move a few oranges from Spain I would be surprised.
There appears to be a number of Lords and or large landowners who all receive large land subsidies from the EU and so they will lose out when we leave, its not a political view but one motivated by the loss of money. Where have I heard that before.
Oh well back to the swimming pool

Nearly there!!!

Well, another Hotel breakfast and then a little delay whilst Noel caught up with the Blogs and photos and then about 11.00 we set off for our shopping trip to Costco Sarasota.

As usual this place was packed and the car park pretty full but this may have been because this weekend is ‘Super bowl Weekend’ and so there will be parties and BBQ’s and so the trolley were full of beer, wine and steaks etc for those who were planning a party. I heard one guy who had a trolley quite laden with stuff say to the check out out girl as she was ringing up all the purchases “ I only came for a dozen eggs”. So we had lunch first and both decided to have a hot dog, which for Noel later turned out later to be a bad decision( Noel discovered there was an extremely high fat content and Garlic- Hey ho of the the Loo we go).  We bought some steaks, and pork chops and fish and also the most expensive bits were the razor blades we both needed as well as some glucosamine tablets which helpfully will help us both.

After the shopping we took the main road out through an area obviously heavily populated by the Amish people and there were many of them riding bicycles as to have horse and carts around the very busy streets of Sarasota would be very dangerous for all Then we left Sarasota for Rotunda West by way of the local Publix supermarket where we bought the last few bits and pieces we needed and then on to the house which will be our home for the next two months. By this time it was about 28 degrees Centigrade and so in our long trousers we were both getting a little warm as we unloaded the car and carried our shopping and suitcases inside. The a cup of tea and a biscuit and slight relaxation and then a shower and a BBQ which took a little while to understand. The steak was delicious which we enjoyed with a baked potato and salad.

Our home for the next two months

We did not bother with TV as its all adverts anyway and tomorrow I will set up the the Amazon Fire so we can watch some decent TV. Ando so to bed about 9.30 pm, after a little light reading and some music

Head Southwest for the west Coast of Florida

The usual start for the day with breakfast provided by the Hotel, a limited choice, but more than sufficient. We left the Hotel around 10.30 and picked up some fuel with the usual issues about the machines not accepting Credit Cards without a USA Zip Code and so the lady said how much do u want to spend , and I said I am not sure but knowing that fuel is so much cheaper here I said $25.00. Actually the car was full with $ 23.75  which is amazing as we have driven several hundred miles all for about £ 18.00, would cost three times that in UK.
We took took the main roads which was planned as avoiding the Motorways takes a long time but still it took us nearly 5.5 hours to arrive in Sarasota after brief stop for a burger in Wendy's, which was rubbish and will not be repeated. As usual when you arrive at the Hotel its always the other side of a main dual carriageway and so working around the roads and then two U turns when everybody is in a hurry to get home was not so easy.

Homewood Suites Sarasota

We checked in to the Hotel and had a nice cup of tea and although the ‘social’ was on that night the food was pizza which is a bit of a no no for Noel and so we had a glass of wine in the room and a very nice smoked salmon salad and then watched TV for a while.
The photos we had purchased were included in a PowerPoint presentation and so not the easiest to extract just the photos and so many hours have already been spent getting them ready for upload.
And so to bed .

Visit to St Augustine Wildlife Reserve

Following a nice breakfast at the Hotel we headed back to St Augustine for the second time in two days. So why did we stop in Jacksonville and its because the Hotels are about 50% cheaper and we could get a Homewood Suites with the possibility of in suite cooking which suites us.
It took about forty minutes to get with a mile or so of the reserve and as it was very cold , about 4 degrees Centigrade, we found a sports bar and enjoyed a port chop and fries for Noel and pork chops and a rice dish for Jennifer, the pork chops were really juice, tender and tasty.

The St Augustine Wildlife reserve was set up many years ago to save the lives of animal which would otherwise be killed. Rich Americans and other purchase these mostly big cats and then find they are to big and dangerous to keep and look to move them somewhere else and so they have accumulated about 30 big cats, together with wolves and many other types of animals. So anything that somebody doesn't want they come here including two big cats from The Michael Jackson estate and there was also a black leopard which had been used in a Las Vegas show. We spent about two hours looking around the site and the tour guide really gave a good account about each animal. One amusing thing is that they give the big cats a bubble bath every two weeks, as it makes them smell nice and keeps the flies away and they really enjoy it. There was also a bear that had been so badly physically treated it was scare of everything and been fed the wrong food and was twice e the weight it should have been, but since they have had it it lost weight and beginning to recognise the care and friendliness of the staff and no so shy.

For reasons that I understand they do not allow cameras or mobile phones in the animal area as the sounds of mobile phones ringing or perhaps camera flash guns going off would disturb the animals but we purchased a small USB drive with lots of photos.
We left the site around 16.15 and headed back to the Hotel and slightly later joined the Hotel organised ‘Social’ is what they call it and u get free beer and wine and there is some free food, limited choice, but enough for many American to have up to three burgers together with mac’n’cheese and some salad, and some people went m=back more than twice. On our part we had a couple of glasses of wine and talked to the bar tender and then back to the room for a chicken salad.
We watched TV for a while and caught up with the end of the find we gave up on the other night.

A day long visit to St Augustine Florida Historic Town

We were a little slow off the mark this morning as still suffering from time change but after breakfast we headed back South to visit the very famous historic old town of St Augustine.

St. Augustine is a city on the northeast coast of Florida. It lays claim to being the oldest city in the U.S., and is known for its Spanish colonial architecture as well as Atlantic Ocean beaches like sandy St. Augustine Beach and tranquil Crescent Beach. Anastasia State Park is a protected wildlife sanctuary. The Castillo de San Marcos is a 17th-century Spanish stone fortress with views of the St. Augustine Inlet. founded in September 1565. For more details see following link about this fascination old town.
Info on St Augustine
We arrived in St Augustine just before midday and collected our tickets for the train ride around the old town and this takes about 1.5 hours. The Driver on our trip had married a woman from Suffolk which he had visited several times and loved the UK, who doesn't.

His commentary on the journey was really excellent and quite humorous at times and it made for a very interesting trip. Unfortunately the earlier sun had disagreed and we reached the end of the trip, we could go round again we decided we were a bit to cold.
The train ride takes in all the important locations and there some beautiful buildings here and it really worth a visit if you can manage it some time. A video of the train ride is linked below.

By this time we were getting hungry but were also wanting to visit the offshore Island and then use the road back to our Hotel alongside the sea. We found a Publix store where they do great sandwiches and then sat in the car park to demolish them. At around 15.00 we headed North passing house after house right by the sea and we wondered how they would survive a really big hurricane and there was a real mixture of old and new house styles and then on the opposite side of the road blocks of mostly new Condos.

we arrived in the town of Sawgrass and there were some lovely housing estates and really attractive shopping malls, if you can say that, and finally arrived back in to the Hotel just before 17.00 and little tired. In the Hotel they provide each evening a convivial hour with free wine or beer and some snacks but we are still a little tired and chose to avoid but in the meantime Noel wanted to read the instruction book on the BMW 530 to understand what all the buttons and icons mean. This car has what they call I-Drive which is an Apple invention which means its to complex and many things are unnecessary and I would not by this car for this reason alone.
We still had some of the excellent Costco chicken left and so with a salad and a glass of Chardonnay , £6.00 for 1.5 litres is pretty good value for money for the wine.
Noel caught up on some blogging for the first couple of days but thought he would leave todays trip until tomorrow morning when less tired and so we are in bed by 9.30 pm no doubt to awake early.

Lets head North

Well the rain had stopped and we had our Hotel supplied breakfast which is always a little basic but enough to quell the hunger and took the Hotel shuttle bus back to the Airport for us to visit the Alamo Car rental company to pick up our Toyota Camry or similar, as they say. Anyway after a lot of banter with the staff member he upgraded us with a little extra cash on our part to a BMW 530 which was brand new and only done about 480 miles. Oh well a little bit of luxury does no harm and we are due to travel quite a few miles and so we will do so in a very comfortable car.

We located the car  in the garage and then discovered it had its own Satnav which looked a little complicated but we persevered for a while and then settled to use the one we had brought with us. However we could not easily find how to turn off the BMW one and so for the first few miles they were arguing about turning left or right so after a while we located a quiet place to stop and re adjust everything. We had decided to stay off the highways and stay on the main roads as they are more interesting as you go through towns  etc . We had to travel approx 160 miles today and about 13.00 stopped for lunch in a Subway restaurant, which are always good value and easy to digest.
As we approached Jacksonville we instructed the Satnav to take us to Costco

where we could  purchase some wine and few other things and also a cooked chicken which we would have tonight for dinner. The advantage of the Homewood Suites chain is that all the suites have a mini kitchen with hot plates and microwave and crockery etc and so its easy to cater for your self. After Costco we then went to the Publix Supermarket just across the road for the hotel and we arrived there about 18.30, a little later than we wanted but that's life.

We checked in to the Hotel and had a shower then followed by Chicken and salad with a glass of Costco Chardonnay to wash it down and then settled down to watch a film on the TV but we were beginning to sag and so gave up half way in to the film which was called, “ The shape of Water” which was quite interesting and worth perhaps watching the complete film.
And so to bed, Oh boy do we need this…

The Shape of Water ...

Off to sunnier climes we hope

After an overnight in the Hampton Hotel at Gatwick we grabbed our suitcases and walked across the bridge to the main North terminal and were quickly checked in , less than five minutes, oh the the pleasures of travelling in business class.
In the Virgin lounge we had a good breakfast and read the Sunday newspapers and then we had arranged for a people carrier to collect us as Noels knees were a little troubling after carrying suitcases around the house and airport terminal and this was a good decision as the gate was at least ten minutes away for somebody with good walking skills. we boarded the Virgin B747-400 which was named ‘Jersey Girl’

and settled in to our seats for the 9.5 hour flight to Orlando. The flight left pretty much on time but we had quite a lot of rough weather for several hours which was, according to the flight crew, completely unexpected. It was perhaps one of the roughest flights we have had since flying across India in a monsoon, its amazing how bumpy and noisy it is at 36000 feet when the rain suddenly hits and the aircraft lurches all over the place.You could spill your drink!!
However Noel had a few slight challenges food wise and tried a couple of dishes and settled on the last fillet steak which by this time was rather dry, and so it was a steak and six small bits of carrot and a couple of bread rolls which kept him going not forgetting a couple of glasses of Chardonnay sitting with Jennifer at the bar.

We arrived in Orlando Airport and I was then beginning to worry how long it would take to get through immigration and it it was brilliant and it put Seattle and Fort Lauderdale airports to shame and was on a par with New York Newark Airport. From getting off the aircraft to getting the luggage was about 35 minutes which we thought was excellent. So then to try and find the Hotel shuttle which we did and in the heavy rain it took us to the Homewood Suites

Hotel about ten minutes from the Airport. After a quick wash and freshen up we walked next door toe the Long Horn Steak House where we both enjoyed a nice sirloin steak and baked potato, salad and broccoli and couple of glasses of wine for under £ 40.00 including tip. You cant get anything at this price in Weybridge.

And so to bed

BREXIT- A constitutional crisis- Well done Mrs May

Whether you are for or against the BREXIT that the UK public have opted and voted for is not the discussions here. What is important is where you have the so called people representative who are known by the term Members of Parliament who did not like the British people voting when they felt they should be making the decision.
With Mrs Mays efforts to try and please some of the people part of the time and all of the people all none of the time she has succeeded in upsetting just about everybody in the UK. The conservatives are in a complete shambles and only to be outdone by Labor Party. There are no other parties of substance at this time other than these two.
There many MP's calling for a new vote, I am not sure why unless its the best vote out of ten that wins. They also call it a 'Peoples vote' which is what I thought had happened!.
A number of my friends, no names who did in fact vote to remain have changed their views on the EU following the way in which the EU have also handled the negotiations. Its all about the money that will be lost and nobody else in Europe wishes to pay more and so lets try and hang on to UK by causing mayhem.
There are over 139 EU Embassies around the world fully staffed with expensive personal based in very expensive offices, WHY OH WHY DO WE/THEY NEED THESE EMBASSIES when all of the EU countries have their own embassy there anyway.
And now a European Army, what for?? who are they going to attack ,maybe perhaps its England once we have left the EU
Many countries in Europe are all having second thoughts about the EU and the people are speaking with demonstrations around Europe and governments being changed.

SO LETS JUST GET OUT AND DO OUR OWN THING LIKE WE USED TO DO. AND WE DID IT VERY WELL IF YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER.

Christmas at the Groves household

Due to Michael working on the 24th and 25th of December we decided to have our Christmas family lunch on the 23rd instead.
we were lucky enough to have the complete family including three grandchildren to enjoy the usual turkey with lost of trimmings. The presents were also great for the grandchildren and Joanne and Tim could have done with a bigger car to get them home but they managed it.
Anyway a great time was had by all as the photo below will show.

Although Katherine looks a little cross

Another day another restaurant and delayed by the "gilets jaunes"

Well it was jolly cold this morning as we all met up around 0915 for a walk back in to the old town to the bar where we were yesterday to enjoy a breakfast of croissants, baguette and coffee. Knowing that it was going to be damn cold this morning we did not use our usual haunt which is a little shop with mostly outside seating and at minus 3 Degrees Centigrade, No Thanks.

having enjoyed the breakfast then we left for the large Auchan Hypermarket just down the road for so,me last minute Christmas Food shopping for some whilst the others waited patiently with some more coffees etc. From there it would only be a quick 30 minutes up the motorway to Les Attaques and the next restaurant we thought!!! Only we woz wrong.
Not long after we got on the motorway heading North we came to a grinding halt and we dribbled along for a good 25 minutes and we thought there had been an accident but we found out later it was due to protest's by the 'Yellow Vested' people someway up the road. we exited the Motorway as soon as we could and then got held up by the police checking on our destination but we got through that and arrived at the restaurant 40 minutes late.

The Restaurant le Gare is a very basic place but with really excellent food and very low prices, which helps to offset the previous nights excess, and very little wine was drunk mainly due to it being decanted form the sewer outside, or so it tasted like that.
We then departed around 14.45 and arrived at the Eurotunnel and we all left on the 15.20 and all back home early evening and some went straight to bed, well I did almost.
A really enjoable trip aided by us wearing some rather natty french berets provided by the tour leader.

The Jubilados leave for Bologne-Sur-Mer

It is the time of the annual visit to France for the Brothers of the Jubilados group and this time we return to Bolougne-Sur-Mer close to Calais.

The group departed from three locations and headed towards the Channel Tunnel where it was delayed by the purchase of Bacon Sandwiches although one group , no names, appeared to have arrived the previous evening in preparation for the event, says Bob.
Satisfied with the late morning breakfast we entered the train for the 35 minute crossing and 10 years behind , France before heading down the Motorway to our destination which was the Ibis Hotel next to the Old Town.

Somehow we all arrived without getting lost and then headed in to the old part of town the the bar we had frequented in the past for a few glasses of something and some light snacks. One of our Brothers became very attached to a very friendly dog and not long afterwards they were married in the Church square to the heckles of the remaining bros.

Some dissapeared for a late afternoon kip before meeting up and going for dinner in the restaurant we have used in the past where much to our pleasure we were shown in to a private room where we could make as much noise as we like without disturbing other guests. 

Many bottle of wine and some really excellent food again and the budge was nearly broken but the good thing was it was cheaper than last year in Saint Omer. By midnight it was time for a quick return in the freezing cold to the Hotel and one last glass of plonk before hitting the bed sheets.

Ethan Leslie Groves born today to our son Michael and Daughter in Law Becky

We are proud to be Grandparents for the third time with a lovely boy Ethan Leslie born at 08.30 this morning to Michael and Becky and weighing in at 8 pounds 11 ounces.

So Congratulations to parents.