January 2. Day 2. Come fly with me

 There are oh so many quotes about it being about the journey not the destination. Perhaps that is true of life but exactly the opposite is true when it comes to long haul travel.
The journey is an uncomfortable means to an end. The task is to survive the ride and the reward awaits at the other end. Today was London to Orlando with a stop in Miami.
The journey door to door was about 5000 hours - okay I may be exaggerating a bit but that was what it felt like.
But I made good use of the time. I watched two movies - Beetlejuice and Moulin Rogue.
What do these two movies have in common I hear nobody ask? Since you didn't ask, I'll tell you. The musical version of both are playing on Broadway right now. And once I survive theme parks and another travel day I'll be in NYC ready to hit the ground running (or at least hobbling from being trapped in a two small seat.

January 1. Day 1. In the driver's seat

Yay me.  I drove a car today.

Yeah that probably seems like an edition of Captain Obvious but for me it's front page news.

Sure I've had my driver's licence for approximately 35 years but I believe this is my first time behind the wheel on foreign soil.

We'd hired a car to drive into the Home Counties to do lunch with Charles' dad. Charles drove but after the meal he threw me the keys.

We both know that had we been in any country that drives on the right, I would have thrown the keys right back.

I'm am seriously directionally and spacially challenged. Truth is I often have a problem with left and right.

But in one of the few countries that chooses the left I took up the challenge with no worries.

It was a rather nice day and not just because of my bucket list achievement - it was nice to get out of the city and see a bit of the Surrey countryside around the area where Charles spent many years.

And the pie I had for lunch was pretty good too.