Friday, April 29, 2011

Observations on the Royal Wedding


My observations on the Royal Wedding:

1. The bride looked wonderful, and her dress was beautiful and sophisticated
2. William's red uniform looked cheerful, and smart at the same time. A great choice
3. Harry should've combed his hair and held his shoulders back
4. Princess Anne's outfit looked like something the Easter bunny threw up (quote from my friend Christine)
5. Victoria Beckham looked like "an extra in Twilight" as one fashion guru said...and I agree



6. The Queen's outfit looked sunny and stylish, the Duke of Edinburgh looked like a skeleton

7. There were some bizarre hats worn!


And finally.....


8. Harry just HAS to be James Hewitt's son. There is nothing of Charles in his appearance whatsoever.

Happy Wedding Day!

Hmmm, not so sure about the "Duke and Duchess of Cambridge" title. The link to Wales has been removed......nice dress though

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Royal Wedding

Just spent the evening watching all the hype leading up to the Royal Wedding which is due to take place tomorrow. Hour after hour of in depth analysis of the event, dress, cake, flowers, venue, and of course, the cast of characters. Interviews with William and Harry, interviews with friends of Kate (oops, sorry...Catherine), and a summary of Diana's life ...I have to say...it was great and I loved every minute of it. I will not be getting up at 4am tomorrow to watch it live though. Rule Britannia!!

Sweet Sage Cafe

We were lucky enough to find a wonderful place for breakfast while in Florida. It is called the Sweet Sage Cafe (http://www.sweetsagecafe.com/) and is located on Gulf Boulevard in North Redington Beach. From the outside it looks like a gift store, with some garden-inspired nick-nacks. However closer inspection revealed an outdoor eating area and I have never seen such wonderful surroundings for a breakfast place. Everywhere you look there are trees, plants, flowers, garden ornaments, lights and all sorts of whimsical notices and trinkets scattered throughout the plants. The food was excellent and the staff very friendly. It may seem a bit unadventurous to some, but we had breakfast there every day, because it was so enjoyable. This morning, sitting in the kitchen staring at my bowl of "Honey bunches of Oats" I realized that I was missing it already.

Busch Gardens - a disappointing day

Sheikra
Of course, no trip to the Gulf beaches with kids would be complete without a visit to Busch Gardens however it was a day full of disappointments. The first disappointment was when we saw the price of an entrance ticket; $78 per person no less! Over $300 for the family for the day! Nothing is THAT good. Luckily we found a Burger King offer online which gave us $20 off per ticket, making it a bit easier to swallow. Of course when we arrived we had to dig into our pockets again for the $13 parking fee which gave us the right to park our car at the far end of a very large parking lot.
Montu

We started off well going on the Gwazi  wooden rollercoaster twice followed by Sheikra, one of only 4 vertical drop roller coasters in the world (apparently). We then traveled around the "Serengeti plain" on the train, seeing some zebra and giraffe. Things went downhill from then on. Two of the rides (the Montu rollercoaster and the skyride) were closed for maintenance. Then other rides started closing one after another due to a thunderstorm looming on the horizon. Eventually the skies opened and we experienced a huge thunder and lightening storm and torrential rain. The park never reopened after that and we trooped out thinking about our washed out day and how little we had managed to do for such a lot of money. Not a good day and the worst part was that the Anheuser Busch hospitality tent was no longer offering free beer. Very disappointing.

A week in the sun

Just back from a week's vacation in Florida. We stayed along the Gulf coast, at North Redington Beach. The beaches along the Gulf Coast consist of miles of beautiful white sand. The weather was perfect staying consistently at 85-90 degrees (toasty!)
  We took a trip to Caladesi Island one day. This is one of the few completely natural islands along Florida´s Gulf Coast, and Caladesi´s white sand beaches were rated America's Best Beach in 2008. We took a small ferry across to the island and enjoyed wandering along the boardwalk to the beach. We were even lucky enough to catch a glimpse of some dolphins, albeit quite a way out in the sea.
  We also spent some time wandering around Dunedin, the city across the water from Caladesi Island. The name comes from Dùn Èideann, the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland and the Scottish influence is obvious. We were greeted by a brass band of kilt-wearing teenagers playing catchy songs on the street - not accompanied by bagpipes (thankfully). All we needed was a drunken Scotsman to swear at us and we could've been in the real Scotland.
  When we arrived back in Massachusetts Spring had definitely arrived. The trees were covered in blossom, forsythia and daffodils were out, the temperature had picked up to a comfortable level and it felt good to be home....yeah right... 
   

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day (UK) to my mother. Enjoy your day.

Another birthday!

Happy Birthday to my husband Tony, 21 today (I wish :)