Yesterday (Monday) Stuart and Fi went back to Disney for a second day in the parks. They started at Hollywood Studios and later took the boat across the lagoon to Epcot to explore World Showcase and to see the evening show.

We dropped them off, a tad enviously, although our tired and broken bodies probably cheered, and went back and spent the morning catching up on tasks, then we drove to Melbourne to spend the afternoon with Harriet. It was a warmer day today, and sunny, but still much colder than is the norm. We played Rumicube after lunch and talked over old times, then came back to Orlando by about 6. Picked Stuart and Fi up at abut 930 after the show. They reported it was better even than the Magic Kingdom show on Sunday night and certainly Stuart’s photos bear that out. They are amazing and I include a couple below. The added dimension of everything being reflected in the water of the lake gave it a big impact. They had a great day and a lot of fun by the look of things!

Today we woke up to rain and greyness. We had breakfast in the apartment and then late morning we headed up to Walmart to get some shopping that we needed. Had our usual good mooch around and also went to the liquor store for ….. well….. supplies.

At 4pm we had the greatest reunion! In March 2019 we took the Queen Mary 2 cruise from Dubai to Southampton – 21 nights – and we were on a table of 8. We met a lovely couple, Don and Joan, from Norfolk,, Virginia and spent many an hour over dinner swapping travel and life tales. They were delightful company – Joan is a live wire, huge fun, and Don is very much a Virginian gentleman. Lovely. We have planned to meet up a couple of times before but covid got in the way. This time we wanted to make it work.

They were about to embark on a Caribbean cruise and were driving down from Virginia to Miami to pick it up and we arranged to meet up in Orlando. As it happens, the cruise was cancelled and they had to make other arrangements but thankfully we could still get together. So we met in our apartment for gin and tonics and a great catch up. They brought us a lovely bag of presents including Don’s home made sour cherry jam, made from cherries he picked himself.

We then went out to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory. Lovely dinner, big portions. I had shrimp with angel hair pasta, Bob had bang bang shrimp, Stuart had Jamaican jerk shrimp, Fi had steak diane, Don had a big breakfast omelette and Joan had lemon garlic shrimp with pasta. Then we all shared 3 different cheesecake slices. Utterly yum . The place was packed with people queuing out the door. I’m not surprised.

It was lovely to see them again and spend the evening and we look forward to seeing them in Folkestone in the not too distant future before they set off cruising again. One of the nicest things about travelling, is the great people you meet along the way, people you just “click” with and Don and Joan are perfect examples of that. Here’s to more reunions on land and sea.