Day 17: Wednesday 27 November

The day started with a trip to Lowe's and Wal-Mart and then we returned to spend some time on a variety of tasks including starting to pack up, do some odd bits of remedial DIY around the house.

We then spent time enjoying the sunshine before heading to Posner Park to see the film "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" about an episode in the life of Fred Rogers, a much-loved US children's broadcaster who died in the early part of this century - see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Rogers.

After a quick Subway sandwich we went round to Alex and Tim's house - or should I say 'palace' for them to demonstrate their latest gadget to us.  We enjoyed driving around their 'glf community' estate - Highland Reserve - a non-gated community with open access set around a golf course.  It's very spacious there with los of open land around the villas.

We enjoyed the Christmas decorations on the houses there and also as we returned to West Haven and The Manor.

Day 16: Tuesday 26 November

Today has been a mix of doing odd bits of DIY around the house and meeting with a fellow owner on Burford Circle as well as looking for a steak meal which we'd promised ourselves we'd have before we went home.

We painted over marks on walls, filled holes I'd drilled trying to put the key box up in vain and upgrading bulbs in some places from low energy to LED bulbs which are brighter and which use a little less energy.

Later in the morning our first new pool service visit took place.  Jackie and her partner came round and spent lots more time on the pool than our previous pool company.  The pool deck was washed down and Jackie, as well as putting chlorine bleach in the pool to sterilise it, she put in bicarbonate of soda and then added a small amount of something to test if phosphates were present.  She confirmed that they were and said she'd treat the pool for that after we'd gone back home as it makes it cloudy for a couple of days before it clears.

Jackie also advised us about pool blankets, both solid and liquid, as a result of which we've decided not to use anything and perhaps to get a more powerful pool heater when our existing one finally runs out of steam.

In the afternoon, we had invited round two of our neighbours who are UK owners and who had helped us a lot to start to get rentals in once we had gained ownership of the house.  We had a good discussion over a range of topics, but when the conversation later turned to their mentioning the 'Biased Broadcasting Corporation' and how left-wing it was becoming, we thought it might be time to move on!

We left around 6pm for the Texas Roadhouse for our steak.  We didnt take the Satnav and I thought I'd save time by using the toll road freeway.  After going through more toll booths than I was expecting and realising that the next exit was for the John Young Parkway it finally became clear that a grave error of navigation had occurred!

The Satnav then told us it would be the best part of half an hour before we'd now get to the Roadhouse, but it got much worse than that.  We were on the 192 about to approach Reedy Creek when a fire truck did its best to get through 3-4 lanes of solid traffic and we all then ground to a serious halt.  It seemed that there had been some sort of incident along the 192 somewhere beyond the Texas Roadhouse.

Finally we arrived there, by which time it was rammed with people, mainly young children it seemed.  While waiting for our table, we were reminded that they don't do their own wifi there and with the place heaving, we decided we might need a plan B.  That turned out to be Miller's Ale House in ChampionsGate where we got a table straightaway!

On the plus side, Tuesdays there are steak night, so between us we had a steak and a burger.

Day 15: Monday 25 November

The highlight of Monday was that we had promised ourselves that we would see the Christmas decorations and lights at Magic Kingdom.

We arrived as the sun was setting and the views from the monorail were lovely.

They didn't disappoint, but the big surprise of the day was that Magic Kingdom was as busy as we've ever seen it in such as July and August.

We've learned a few things on this stay at the villa.  It has been a reminder that the days are short - not as short as back home at this time of year but, with it getting light around 7am and being dark by 6pm, there's less time for the sun to warm everything up before the day starts to wane.

Is that the VIP room with the light on?  Ariana Grande was performing in Orlando, so was she staying here, perhaps?

When we came in early September we had an unseasonably warm spell of weather but we've had the opposite this time.  We began our stay with one of their occasional 'polar blasts', then the warmth came back briefly, but now it's gone cool again.  Once again, the weather is way better than it might be in the UK at this time of year, but we didn't expect to have to wear several layers, sometimes even in the daytime or to have to resort to having the heating on in the villa.

Another thing we've learned and which we didn't expect is that this week, having Thanksgiving in it on the Thursday, is a sort of half term week for schools and there are a lot of children around!

One unexpected surprise was that a marching band came through

We'd decided to move on as soon as the marching band had come by, but even then, getting out of the park in what was the early evening was as busy as at the end of the fireworks show

All in all this may not be an ideal time to come, unless flights and car hire are particularly cheap and we're mentally prepared for what the weather might bring!

Day 14: Sunday 24 November

The main event of the day was the we went for dinner with Larry, Dottie as well as Justine and her daughter Holly.

Justine ordered a tower of onion rings which she shared with the rest of us.

Day 13: Saturday 23 November

Today was a nice warm day so we spent the day swimming, chilling round the pool and doing jobs round the house.  There were 3 Premier League matches on TV, so we had those on all day while we were doing jobs.   

Day 12: Friday 22 November

In the morning we were waiting for BestBuy to deliver the new TV set for the living area.  They came around 9.30am so we set about getting it unpacked and hoping we would be able to remove the old one from the stand and install the new one.

Between us we managed to get to get the old one off the stand but although both the old and new set are Samsung, the bolts holding the set to the stand weren't long enough for the new TV set!

A visit to Lowes and help from one of their assistants soon rectified this and we were up and running an hour after we got back to the house.

The Lowes we went to was in Clermont.  Although it's a bit of a trek to get there, it has just about every mainstream store you might want to go to as well as a Gator's Dockside and a Sonny's Barbecue diner (but Sonny's is only open in the evenings).

The main reason we went to Clermont was to visit a large store with Tim had recommended - "At Home" - and it was interesting to see the stock they had.  After Christmas might be a better time to go as the store had so much space devoted to Christmas that we wee left wondering what else they might stock when all that stuff has disappeared.

On the way there we called in at Aldi and on the way back at Walmart near Clermont which has different stock compared to the one at Cagan Crossings.

Fully Smart 4K UHD 65" TV for under £500

The new TV is a fully Smart TV so we can add apps etc and the evening was spent browsing on such as Youtube, for example seeing the individual Strictly dances at Blackpool!

Day 11: Thursday 21 November

On Thursday we had a long meeting with Alex and Tim about the villa.  These meetings are increasingly turning into business plus social meetings and are very enjoyable.

We got up to date with one another and talked about some jobs we'll need doing

In the afternoon, our two handymen came round.  Dave is fighting fit but Ed is still struggling after falling from a rook a few weeks ago and breaking several vertebrae.  He's due to have an operation next week where they will set them back using concrete but he has agreed that, at 55, his days of climbing on roofs are over!

They replaced our 5 smoke detectors, advised us that we need to get a plug-in carbon monoxide detector and they also unblocked the outlets of 3 wash basins.

Day 10: Wednesday 20 November

We spent some time on Posner Park, primarily looking for a new TV set for the living area in the villa and we also had a browse round some other shops.

Prices are surprisingly low

The big revelation for us was the Ashley Furnishing store which had a good selection of items for as and when we might need to replace any furniture in the villa.

Posner Park continues to grow with new shops opening on the southern side, but traffic accessing it is also growing and it's perhaps a place to avoid at weekends.

In the early evening we went out with Larry and Dottie to Cheddar's, a new restaurant on the 192 almost opposite the Texas Roadhouse and near the US 429 freeway (where we once famously hadn't enough coins to lay the toll at the automated toll booth!).

The good news on that one is that the assistant at the car hire desk said there are plans to automate them all and do way with the pay booths - about time!

Day 9: Tuesday 19 November

This morning we went to Best of British for breakfast.  We had a cooked breakfast and hot drink and a lovely chat with Darcey our waitress – a girl from Hull who had lived here since she was 6.

Day 8: Monday 18 November

We went shopping to Vineland and then to Disney Springs.  We ate at Millers and then came back to the house and watched Dancing with the Stars.

Day 7: Sunday 17 November

We decided to day to go to the Mall at Millenia which is just off the I-4 beyond Universal.  We realised that we had been to stores on the periphery of the retails centre, but not actually inside the main mall.

At one end is Macy's while Bloomingdales is at the other.  We got into conversation with one of the shop assistants at Bloomingdales who revealed that Macy's and Bloomingdales are part of the same corporate group.

The other thing of note is that one end of the mall has high end designer shops.

One lesson we learned on this trip was not to go shopping on a Sunday!  It took ages to get through the traffic to get there and the mall was soon very busy.  We also had real trouble finding our way out back to the car. So many cas in the US are in dark colours so it's not easy to see where we've parked.

And indeed, the decorations there were beautiful!

Stephanie Pope-Hart