by | Nov 12, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
As I sit and type this, we’ve already been home for almost three days. A combination of factors has contributed to the delay in compiling this final wrap-up blog entry. For one thing, the jetlag for travelling eastward around the planet—especially when travelling...
by | Nov 10, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Today was our last full day in Florida. The plan was to take advantage of one final visit to a theme park. Consequently, we were all up slightly earlier than usual. Enough of these lazy lie-ins—there’s still some fun to be had. We had agreed to be out of the house by...
by | Nov 10, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Once again, both kids were enjoying a lengthy lie-in this morning. Sandy was on the couch with her Kindle when I got up, so I parked myself behind the laptop to write up yesterday’s blog. It was a longer-than-usual entry, which put me squarely into the writing zone...
by | Nov 8, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
As has become typical, both kids were sound asleep well into the morning after Sandy and I got up. Last week, Joey dropped a slipper onto the glass side table by the front door, breaking the glass mirror. I have been trying to find a way to rectify this ever since. I...
by | Nov 8, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Last night, right as I was finishing off my blog, the internet went down. It’s remarkable how quickly and directly this affected everyone. My blog writing was impacted because my grammar checking software and AI assistant are both cloud-based. Both kids were...
by | Nov 6, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Today was the day I had been anticipating for many months. As people with a keen interest in theme parks, it’s not every day we get the opportunity to visit an entirely new theme park. We’ve watched countless videos from various YouTubers and influencers, all...
by | Nov 6, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
I had this weird dream at some point throughout the night. Alarms were going off in my head. It turns out it wasn’t a dream at all. Joey had decided to cook himself some late-night bacon, but neglected to switch on the extractor fan. The resulting smoke, although...
by | Nov 5, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
It was another blissfully slow start to the morning. I’ve consciously disconnected from work this holiday—something I struggle with as a workaholic—and the mental break has been therapeutic. Allowing my mind to drift somewhat, I spent the morning lazily catching up on...
by | Nov 4, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
I was up early this morning. I had no reason to be. I’m a slave to my body clock, which wakes me into action whenever it sees fit, and whether I want it to or not. It wasn’t because the bed was uncomfortable. Quite the contrary; it was a most comfortable night. In...
by | Nov 3, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
We agreed with Jennifer this morning that we would return for another overnight stay here in St. Augustine after our visit up north to Jacksonville today. That way, we could break up the journey back to Davenport, giving me my best hopes of staving off World War III...
by | Nov 3, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
We had arranged to drive up to St. Augustine and Jacksonville this weekend to spend time with Dave and Jennifer, as well as Carlos and Kristy. Our plans were still somewhat tentative, but our theme park schedule isn’t set in stone, so we really have no reason to...
by | Nov 3, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
NOTE: For the next several days, I’ve taken a break from my blog writing, so the following few blog entries, including this one, will be written well after the fact and will likely be less verbose and more summarised. We spent quality time with good friends in Saint...
by | Nov 1, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
While I have lots of friends who love me dearly, at home, it’s not often that there is a day that is solely about me. I grew up in a house with an Autistic brother, meaning a lot of the attention went to him. Anything we wanted to do, Mum and Dad had to calculate and...
by | Nov 1, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Hot on the heels of two intense back-to-back days of theme park trekking, we had a blissfully quiet day planned for today. At least, that was the case for Sandy and Joey. Jae and I had a date tonight with all the ghosts and ghouls from Universal’s Halloween Horror...
by | Oct 31, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
A conscious decision I made early on, when I was planning this holiday, was to make it a lengthy one. One of the principal reasons for this was the foreknowledge that theme-park-trekking would be an arduous, energy-zapping activity. It’s a lot of fun, to be sure, but...
by | Oct 29, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
We’ve had terrific weather so far here in Central Florida. If anything, it has been a little too good. We’ve had clear, blue skies every day, with temperatures persistently hovering around 30°C (86°F). That’s near perfect, but a couple of degrees lower would have made...
by | Oct 28, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Today marks an inflection point for this holiday in two ways. Firstly, we have completed our two-week all-access pass to all the Disney parks. Tomorrow marks the beginning of our two-week all-access pass to the Universal theme parks. We’re also now just past the...
by | Oct 26, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Over the past two weeks, we’ve visited a Disney theme park no less than nine times, excluding a few trips to Disney Springs. People talk about being inside the Disney bubble, and I can certainly understand this. It can create a false reality, change your behaviour...
by | Oct 26, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Hot on the heels of a long day of theme park trekking, a slower pace for today is just what the doctor would have ordered. Checking my iPhone’s pedometer, I see that my step count for yesterday hit a record 15,377. When I’m not on holiday, I lead a more sedentary...
by | Oct 26, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Despite having a theme park planned for today, we decided to start slowly. The plan was to be ready to leave the house by around 11 am. That would allow plenty of time for a relaxing, slow start without the usual mad rush to pack everything and get everyone out the...
by | Oct 23, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
For the past few days, I’ve been using Claude.ai, an AI chatbot I subscribe to, to help me with the overall structure of my blogs. All blog entries are still very much my own writing, but I’ve been getting guidance on whether I need to add a bit more detail here or...
by | Oct 23, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Today we were to feed Sandy her character meet-and-greet fix with a 12-noon breakfast (yes, really) reservation at Disney’s Polynesian resort. Character dining with Lilo and Stitch was on the menu at Ohana’s restaurant. We’ve done this a couple of times before and had...
by | Oct 22, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
So far, it’s been a brisk pace for us all. Notwithstanding my attempts to moderate our activities by building in rest days after every theme-park day, it still feels like we are motoring through this holiday at a high pace. Every day has been full-on with something or...
by | Oct 21, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Perhaps like many other couples who have been married for several decades, Sandy and I have developed our own little way of communicating with each other—something that’s less direct than usual. There are subtleties and nuances at play, which may not be readily...
by | Oct 19, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Sandy was already up and about by the time I was out of bed this morning. I had a hankering for my familiar Waffle House, so I tried to coax the kids out of bed to join us for breakfast. Strangely, the prospect of a cooked meal wasn’t enough to dislodge either of them...
by | Oct 18, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Today, we continued our onslaught of visits to all the Disney theme parks with a planned trip to Disney’s Animal Kingdom. We are now one week into this one-month holiday and almost halfway through the 18-day all-access pass to the Disney theme parks. Our ticket grants...
by | Oct 17, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
My internal body clock got me up quite early again this morning. I was exhausted last night and went to bed earlier than I usually would, which probably explains why. Sandy was up not long after me, but the kids were still sound asleep. Sandy and I decided we’d...
by | Oct 16, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
We all lounged around the house this morning, trying to find ways to occupy ourselves. The plan for today was to have a slow start and to visit Disney’s Magic Kingdom. Of all the theme parks, this one is the most debatable when it comes to which attractions we would...
by | Oct 15, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
In accordance with the carefully planned, predetermined schedule of events in my complicated holiday-tracking spreadsheet, today was designated a rest day for all of us. We literally have nothing planned. I’ve built in plenty of rest days to prevent theme-park...
by | Oct 14, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
We had another restful start to the day today, which is a sure sign we are starting to relax and unwind. I spent my time finishing up day three’s blog. I’ll do a final pass through tonight to edit it some more before uploading. We decided on a home-cooked breakfast...
by | Oct 14, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
It was a blissfully slow start to the morning. We all spent the first few hours of the day lounging around the house and pool, chilling and relaxing. I chose to spend my time at the laptop by the pool, finishing up my blog from yesterday’s notes. Joey was wandering...
by | Oct 12, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
It doesn’t matter what exotic holiday destination I go to; one of the persistent constants that accompanies me wherever I go, whether I like it or not, is my body. I often wake up wondering which part of me will be complaining. It’s a bit like a lottery. Will it be my...
by | Oct 12, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
So, it’s finally here. Our epic one-month-long Florida holiday officially starts today. Despite not falling asleep as quickly as I needed to last night, I surprised myself by waking up after having had a good few hours of restful sleep after all. For the past few...
by | Oct 5, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
Despite all the previous preparations, there is still much to do now that the departure date is just six days away. For the past three weeks, however, I’ve been ill, fighting off a nasty viral infection, which has slowed me down considerably. I’ve had cold-like...
by | Oct 5, 2025 | Florida Sep Oct 25
It feels like it has been a while since I started one of these travel or holiday blogs. In fact, it was only last October, so I suppose it wasn’t that long ago, at nine months. As the title of this instalment is T-81, that means we’re just 81 days away from departure....
by | Oct 23, 2024 | UK Oct 24
It was another reasonable 8 am start to the day for me this morning. I had slept well again but would need it today, as the anticipated day out with Jae to London beckoned. I collected Jae from Dad’s, much to Jae’s annoyance at having to get up before the day was...
by | Oct 23, 2024 | UK Oct 24
It was an early rise for me this morning, relatively speaking. I slept soundly. Kerry has me in Jospeh’s bedroom, which is quite comfortable. I spent the bulk of the morning chatting with Kerry on the couch while chipping away at writing yesterday’s blog. Since I’ve...
by | Oct 21, 2024 | UK Oct 24
I was already awake, albeit still dozing a little, when Nick popped into the room this morning looking for some soccer clothing for Joseph’s football game this morning. My body clock was in the process of getting me up anyway, s that was all the impetus needed to get...
by | Oct 19, 2024 | UK Oct 24
And here we go again with another Morgan family holiday blog, or half thereof. This time around, it will be only a half-holiday in two senses of the word. Firstly, it will be a flying visit of just four nights, so not a long time – certainly not enough to reach that...
by | Mar 31, 2024 | UK Mar 24
Being the last day of the trip, we naturally had an early start to the day. We still needed to pack everything away and leave the place at least as clean as we found it. As ever, it has been a whirlwind trip. Fortunately, I wasn’t in too much pain this morning. The...
by | Mar 25, 2024 | UK Mar 24
For the first time since arriving in the UK, I woke up without writhing around in agony. The neck pain was still there but considerably more subdued this morning. It was fitting that the problem was now mostly healed, given today is our last day in England. Although...
by | Mar 24, 2024 | UK Mar 24
I was still in pain this morning when I opened my eyes. Damn! Admittedly, it was a slight improvement, but still enough to wrench me from bed. The one and only plan we had for today was to visit a good friend, Cara, for the birthday celebrations of her son, Conall....
by | Mar 23, 2024 | UK Mar 24
When I opened my eyes and checked my phone this morning, it was still only 2 am. Damn it! As much as I tried, I couldn’t get straight back to sleep again. I ended up browsing on my phone for the next 2-3 hours before finally nodding off again. Despite a reasonably...
by | Mar 22, 2024 | UK Mar 24
Our first day anywhere on holiday is usually to acclimatise and relax into the visit. That was also the order of the day today. Although I call it a holiday, it’s anything but. Visiting back home like this typically involves a lot of stress, moving around and...
by | Mar 21, 2024 | UK Mar 24
And here we go with another whirlwind trip back to my old stomping grounds of South Ockendon, England. Unlike the last two visits, it’s not just me and one of the kids visiting. This time, the whole family is making the road trip together. What could possibly go...
by | Aug 28, 2023 | UK Aug 23
I tried my luck one last time at scoring a free breakfast this morning, but it wasn’t to be. This time there were a couple of staff acting as gatekeepers. I went in and had a nice breakfast anyway, but this time I had to pay for the privilege. I wasn’t complaining....
by | Aug 27, 2023 | UK Aug 23
Even though it was [cough] inadvertently free [cough] again this morning, the same hotel breakfast each morning is starting to get a little boring now. Still, it makes for a good start to the day My main mission for this morning was to address the problem of my little...
by | Aug 27, 2023 | UK Aug 23
Another day, another free breakfast. Jae was being a little grumpy and slow to get moving this morning, though nothing out of the ordinary for a typical teenager. I had to cajole a little harder than normal, since we had a deadline of 12 O’clock to meet up with...
by | Aug 26, 2023 | UK Aug 23
Something has happened every morning we’ve been here in this hotel so far. Shortly after waking up, Jae has chosen to show their affection for me…by way of a pillow fight. Not with actual pillows, however, but whatever they have on hand at the time, which can be...
by | Aug 24, 2023 | UK Aug 23
My body clock apparently still knows I’m on holiday and saw fit to wake me at around 6am this morning. This time, I was determined to fight it on the issue. I decided to do my usual morning rounds on the phone and then roll over and try to go back to sleep. Morning...
