Drinks On Marriott and Well Travelled Americans! Miami, FL

Miami, FL

We were up early to go to our update meeting with the Marriott Vacation Club Advisor. We go to one of these every 3 years or so just to keep updated. With any other company a meeting like this is a full-on hard sell timeshare session. Marriott are not such a company which is why we bought with them in the first place. They give you the information. If there’s something extra you want, they will sort it. Otherwise to use their own words “we part as friends regardless, so just relax”. Anyway, we heard about the latest updates to our programme, didn’t buy anything , didn’t need to and received a couple of free nights sometime for a reward. They ask you for 75 minutes. They time it just right. We’ve been to ones at other places where we’ve literally staggered out like Colditz escapees after 8 hours, feeling drained and battered.
Spent the rest of the day around the pool. No storms or showers today. Met some really nice people staying at the hotel and it must be said we Brits are very popular. As soon as they hear the accent , the compliments start. There are a lot of Spanish Americans staying here. People originally from Cuba, Mexico, Latin America who have made new lives in the US. Nice to talk to them and hear their stories. And their take on Donald trump whose hotel is literally next door and is the centre of controversy this week after a dreadful speech which he followed by banning staff from the Hispanic Broadcasting network from visiting it or the golf course. He must have gone literally mad to have said some of the things he said as a presidential candidate in a country with such a huge Hispanic population. Electoral suicide. I leave aside the moral merit of his opinions.
Anyway, many of the people we met have been to England and hope to come again. We were nice tt them apparently. All good to hear.
Came inside about 4pm and had showers and then went to the weekly reception for Marriott owners. Such a nice event. Free champagne, wine, you name it plus delicious hors d’oevres. There were some spinach and cheese patties that were fabulous. Plus prawns and all sorts of other stuff. we met other guests there and had good chats again. A really nice old school couple from down the shore NJ. They had been all over including the UK many times. Nice to hear their impressions. Apparently we are very well mannered, very friendly, our food is getting better and better but our hotels are horrifically expensive. yeah… can’t argue with any of that.
After errr…. maybe 5 glasses of champagne each we tottered back to our condo and had dinner. I had put some really succulent pork ribs on to slow cook before we went out. First we had a long facetime call with Daisy. She had sent me some pix of our white rose in bloom for the first time. Quite an achievement as it is planted in a corner that receives no sun whatsoever . At all. Ever. She is watering the pot plants and pot veg for us. Feeding the tomatoes too. What a girl. Was very nice to see her dear face on the screen.
After dinner, Bob went into our massive bathtub and fell fast asleep. I checked him for drowning every so often but he seemed very happy and peaceful so I left him to it. He’s playing golf again tomorrow morning.