This is a commercial for Busch Gardens at Tampa Bay! If you don't like unruly children, foul language, drunkenness, dirty toilets, bad food, long queues, surly staff and rotten weather then I suggest that you visit Busch Gardens.
My granddaughters had a ball running from spectacular ride to spectacular ride and having two, three or even four rides without queueing or paying extra. Everywhere the atmosphere is pleasant and I was so impressed that there was not a burger in sight. OK some people like burgers but for one day it was nice to try something else.
The entertainment was also first class and even though I am almost completely theme parked out this was something different. Tomorrow is the day that we swim with the dolphins at Discovery Park. I really hope that it lives up to the billing!
It is quite amusing watching events in the UK from afar. British politicians just seem to stumble from catastrophe to mediocrity with far too monotonous regularity. I fell off my chair into the swimming pool when I read that Harriet Harman confused the Miliband brothers! I mean if ever a leading politician had a care of duty to disseminate between feuding siblings then surely this is the leading case.
Then poor old hapless Red Ed after being coached in waving to his disciples for hours is left high and dry when his key speech is blacked out by technicians as it was carried live by the BBC and SKY!
From what I hear all the former allies of Gordon Brown are rather belatedly standing up and confessing that they ruined the country during their time in government but they want the electorate to give them another chance to finish the job!
I cannot understand how the utterly discredited Labour party have not swept them all away. What for example can Ed Balls contribute after being at the centre of everything that has destroyed the economy of the country.
Thank heavens that I am well away from it all. Well away from the confession from Mrs Balls (Yvette Cooper) that Immigration has driven down living standards. Listen to them all...they are incredible...one after the other apologising for their mess, for their divisiveness, for their social engineering and for being plainly dishonest.
What a shambles this Labour Party conference has become because when you put it all together we can come to the conclusion that they are apologising for failing on almost every account during their thirteen years of government. But then most of us have been reporting that for a very long time.
Busch Gardens tomorrow!!
We are almost a week into our 'Disneyland' visit and the 'oldies' are having a 'down' day which has given me time to digest the holiday! They call the United States the 'Land of the Free' but I often wonder who or what they are describing?
We landed at Orlando International Airport and immediately had our thumb and forefinger prints taken and then moved onto a retina recognition test (even my eight year old grandaughter). Now my inclination is to rail against the erosion of individual freedom but if our immigration authorities employed this strict entry criteria then every single, individual 'Mohammed' could be identified.
Our luggage was pounced upon by a large, black, jovial porter who counselled us to follow him because he knew 'how things worked'! My first British defensive mechanism kicked in when I reasoned that all he was after was a tip. Ten minutes later we doubled his tip because he had been fantastic! When you hire a car over here you get a choice of vehicle...just pick one, load up and drive off!
The roads are almost too safe. There is a speed restriction on every yard, traffic lights on every corner and overtaking in every lane. It is however, easy to get lost!! We were offered a satnav for $140 at the onset and declined....on hindsight it would have saved us time.
At Disney the fingerprinting continues. Your every move is monitored and I never thought that I would have to give up my very personal identification to get into a funfair!! What a simple way to collect personal information without disclosing your eventual motives. How free is free I find myself asking?
I find the American people generally very helpful and always polite. Service is an artform and as yet I have not begrudged a tip. The weather has been blistering and stormy.
The grandkids triumphed when they conned grandad onto a really, 'gentle', roller coaster called 'Everest'! I must be getting old! They also joined me for their first sea swim in the Gulf of Mexico amidst some surfing rollers which was some 'first' for the girls who described is as 'awesome'. The tropical storm that lasted for well over an hour on the return journey was also awesome. Go Grandad Go!!
Even from here in sunny Orlando a story on the Mail on line caught my eye purely because I warned of endemic corruption some weeks ago. The sale of Olympic tickets has been a scandal of epic proportions but now the sell off of the Olympic village accommodation has uncovered further dodgy deals. It cannot all be a coincidental that a donation has been paid to the Conservative party and that his father has particular influence in this sphere.
This blog will be on holiday for the next two weeks in Florida. It is time to swim with the dolphins and treat the grandchildren. We are all looking forward to it and it will be my first long haul flight for ten years following major health problems. I never thought as I lay in intensive care that I would ever get to this point again.
I have also just passed 4000 visitors to the blog which is another milestone! I thank you all for your interest. It began out of pure frustration that I didn't have a voice and nobody was representing me...it has not changed...I still have not got a political platform but I feel a lot better shouting about it.
My tenure of President at my local bowls club is almost at an end so hopefully I will have more time now to develop some themes on this blog and do more research. The comments that I receive often give me themes to follow up so I do appreciate them (particularly Bewick).
I must mention Julian because I feel so useless. He is my blogging brother but has fallen on desperately hard times. I still cannot send him my support because of my technical ineptitude (my son would have sorted the problem in seconds I know). If anyone can explain to me how I can comment on his blog I would be grateful. I get the impression that I am dense!
By the way I don't know where the ads came from! I had a quick peep at Adsense, did not sign up for anything and they appeared the very next day! That is really quite scary but I don't think they are doing any damage so they can stay for the time being. Any comments on them would be welcome.
In the meantime I suspect that I will be off line. The laptop is coming with me but I suspect that the memsaab will not be too happy if she suspects that I would prefer to blog rather than hug Mickey Mouse! Psst....perhaps late at night!
Day after day we can open our daily paper and wonder what has happened to justice and common sense. Someone somewhere is appointing people to the bench who appear totally out of touch with the modern society. We regularly see puny sentencing which only encourages the criminal and was highlighted in the recent national riots. Most of those who ransacked the shops already had criminal records as long as their arms.
Today I read that a judge presiding over a child rape case 'released' a member of the jury because it was her 21st birthday and she had appointments at beauty salons! Can anyone credit the lunacy of that decision? Anyone on jury service can request a postponement for legitimate reasons. Birthdays however, can hardly be regarded as legitimate...bad luck of course but let us be serious for a moment. Children have been raped! A man's whole life could be at stake! These are very grave charges which merit serious consideration. The birthday of a juror surely does not come into the question?
This judge, in my opinion and clearly in the opinion of many others, has demeaned his office and should himself be discharged. His appointment was said to have 'split opinions'. I am not surprised!
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| Kweku Adoboli |
As my much more famous brother would scream 'I don't believe it' now that yet another rogue trader has been discovered squandering a large sum of money in what is effectively blatant gambling. Clearly the banking industry has not learned from their previous exploits which nearly wrecked the country's economy.
If they cannot install effective controls upon their staff then surely it is the responsibility of government to ensure that banking methods are secure and that public money is safe in their hands. The greed of the banking fraternity is legend and clearly they are unable to rein in their employees.
This episode has fortunately revealed that the culture of 'playing the markets' still exists but it should only be done with their own money! It is therefore time that the government once again called in the bankers and read the riot act. This irresponsibility must be curbed.
This is a commercial for Busch Gardens at Tampa Bay! If you don't like unruly children, foul language, drunkenness, dirty toilets, bad food, long queues, surly staff and rotten weather then I suggest that you visit Busch Gardens.