Day 532...Last Day of Summer Break

Day 532...

Today has been the last day of my summer break from work. Working in education means that I am fortunate enough to have a six week break from work over the summer, although this doesn't stop me from doing some work as well!

But tomorrow we are back, well kind of. We have two 'inset days' planned; these are days for the staff to get back into work, go over plans for the coming weeks and get to grips with a revised curriculum that comes into effect this new academic year. We then re-open to children on Monday!

But my day today was all about getting caught up on a couple of jobs around the house. The first being to clean Molly's bedroom and ensuite bathroom whilst she is away this week. To be fair Molly is pretty good at keeping both rooms clean and tidy but with her not being here it's a good time to get in there and have a good clean through. Plus, as we are due our main bathroom revamp next week, it does mean that we will all need to use her ensuite so I thought it only right that I took on the cleaning responsibility!

I had perfect timing as the cleaning was finished just as Simon broke for his lunch which meant our usual walk out and about. It was another very grey day and although not cold it was a bit damp in the air again but we still managed 2.4 miles in about 44 minutes.

After a spot of lunch my next job for the day was to tackle the ironing pile, which thankfully didn't take me too long to master. And then I decided to scan in a few more photos. As the last few I'd scanned had been from our Orlando trip in 1992 I thought I would see if I could find the rest from this trip as I knew there were more. But in searching through the masses of photos I came across some loose photos that had been removed from albums and discovered a number that belonged with our 1991 Orlando photos. I knew when I'd worked through the 1991 albums that some of the photos were missing but couldn't for the life of me remember what I'd done with them. I think they had been removed and scanned for use on this blog, many moons ago, and had, obviously, never been put back from where they came.

So my focus became scanning these remaining 1991 photos and then uploading them to my laptop and then trying to figure out whereabouts in the timeline of photos already catalogued they fitted. A little detective work was needed to match up location and then outfits and weather conditions so that I could be sure exactly where they fell.

And today in the post I received the copy of Birnbaums Walt Disney World 1991 that I was missing. Going through all the photos I had remembered that our 1991 copy of Birnbaums had been lent out and never returned. After purchasing the book in 1991 it has become a tradition to buy a copy each year we visit and so it felt wrong to no longer have it in our collection. But today that has been put right...

...and as I flicked through the pages look what I found....

...a park guide that has a print date of 1990! What an amazing, and lucky, find!

And I think that is where I shall leave it for today...see you tomorrow.
xx

Day 527

Day 527...

Well we have a Friday and I'm rather late writing this one today! Not because it's been an overly busy day just because it's fell that way.

This morning was taken up with a few work emails that needed replies as well as some personal ones that needed sorting. I then updated all the photos that I'd scanned in and downloaded to my laptop yesterday with information relating to the date, time and whereabouts.

It is proving to be an interesting exercise finding the information for these photos, especially as at the moment I am going through our very first visit to Walt Disney World. I am now thanking my past self for saving all the park maps and guidebooks so that I can make sure I have the correct information relating to each photo...well as correct as I can make it.

When we were getting ready for our first visit to Walt Disney World I bought a book called 'Birnbaum's Walt Disney World' and found it to be a fascinating source of information and opened me up to the stories behind the parks and the attractions. It has now become a tradition that each year we visit we buy the latest 'Birnbaum'. So when cataloging all these photos I turned to my copies of 'Birnbaum's' and that's when I remembered that I no longer possessed the 1991 copy; I remember loaning it to someone but never getting it back. But the park maps, the subsequent year's edition and a little googling have proved to be extremely helpful when tracking down the exact details relating to the when and where the photos were taken. But because I was missing the 1991 copy I decided to see if I could find a copy online. My first instinct was to look at Ebay and whilst there were copies for sale they were all in the US and consequently the shipping was almost as much as the book itself! Most copies were being sold for between £15 and £25 (plus shipping) so I decided to do a 'google' and lo and behold I was able to track down a copy in the UK for just over £5 and free shipping!

We had our usual walk out at lunchtime, managing 2.4 miles in 46 minutes. And then my afternoon was taken up with a couple of work emails and more scanning of photographs. I have now scanned in all of our 1991 trip to Orlando and have started with our 1992 trip; I think I have scanned and edited around 150 (or more) photos today. Of those I still have about 90 that have been edited and uploaded but still need the data for each one inputting which I think will be a job for another day.

Later on this afternoon I got chance to chat with my very good friend, and podcast co-host, Michelle, who had just gotten off the Disney Magic cruise ship after a four night 'staycation'. It sounds like she has had a fabulous time and has enjoyed being able to get a little touch of the Disney magic into her life.

Molly's fella Dan arrived for the weekend earlier on today and they ventured into Nottingham for a look around. Molly came home with a Primark bag which can only mean one thing in this house...Disney! She also found a vintage store that was selling old Walt Disney World t-shirts...mmm...I might just have to pay Nottingham a visit!

The time seemed to fly this afternoon so quite late on I nipped out to a local supermarket to buy a few bits that we were running short on before getting home to cook dinner. Simon has been working late this evening as he wanted to get the piece of work he has been doing today all finished so I guess it's time to refresh my glass of red and call it a day!

See you tomorrow.
xx

Bank Holiday Monday

Day 285...

Another slow and steady sort of day on what is called here in the UK a 'bank holiday'; this is basically a day that is classified as a public holiday, and is marked by the fact that the banks are closed.

Many moons ago I used to work for one of our high street banks and always enjoyed the Christmas period. We used to work till about midday on Christmas Eve and it would often be worked in fancy dress. We would then be in the local pub by about 1pm which was always such a great time. And on years when Christmas fell over a weekend we would enjoy the bonus of 'bank holidays' by having a break from work of four days! Those were the days!

Now working in education I do benefit from having a couple of weeks off over the festive period, and as Simon's work tends to shut down for the same amount of time it is great to have time off together, and time off as a family.

So today has been fairly standard; a mix of online shopping, ironing, a few odd jobs and more R2D2 building for Simon. But I did decide to gather up all of my Christmas presents and find a home for them all to live so thought I would share some of them here with you.

My good friend and podcast co-host, Michelle, knows me so well...I have a big soft spot for the attraction Mr Toads Wild Ride that used to be at Walt Disney World and can now only be found at Disneyland, so this mug is just right...

And then knowing my love of Disney jewellery she gave me this necklace which is gorgeous...

...and Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without some chocolate...

Couple of my favourite chocolate bars!

There of course had to be a little Star Wars in this years presents with Molly getting me this Stormtrooper themed gift...

Stormtrooper Bottle Stopper

And Simon got me this Loungefly purse which is just soooo cute...

I also received a couple of Disney books; this first one is 'Disney Book of Maps; A Guide to the Magical Worlds of Disney and Pixar'...

...this is a beautifully illustrated book and covers 25 films from Peter Pan to Snow White to A Bugs Life to Coco and more. Each film has its own 'map' depicting the story as well as a synopsis and an overview of the key characters.

But the present that brought me to tears was this book; Birnbaum's Walt Disney World The Official Vacation Guide 2020'...

...so it may seem a little strange why a guide book for the year just ending would bring me to tears, so let me explain.

When Simon and I first visited Orlando, Florida back in 1991 we had little, if any, knowledge about Walt Disney World and the Orlando area and so being the organised people we are (and before the days of the internet!) we bought ourselves some guide books one of which was the Birnbaum's guide to Walt Disney World.

Well suffice to say I read the book from cover to cover and my love and obsession with Disney World began. Each year we visited after that it became a tradition to buy the latest version, just in case anything had changed so that we would be as up to date as possible with new attractions, restaurants and hotels. Those were the days when travel research was by way of reading a physical book rather than sat staring at a screen. I now possess 17 Birnbaum guides including ones 'For Kids', Dining Guides and even a couple for Disneyland. Getting a Birnbaum guide book has now become a key part of our vacation.

For a multitude of personal reasons we have not been able to visit Disney World since 2013 but 2020 was going to be our year; all the things that had been stopping us in years gone by were no longer an issue and we were getting ready to book a trip and then 'you know what' happened. Simon knows how much I have missed my Disney fix and this gift meant the world to me acknowledging the sadness of not being able to go but embracing the hope that we will get there as soon as we possibly can.

Take care out there, and hopefully we can all get back to doing what we love as soon as possible.

xx

180 is a Magic Number

To those of us with a love of WDW the number 180 should need no explanation, but for those of you who are perhaps thinking I've lost the plot let me explain.

So this magic number has something to do with the number of days leading up to you vacation and food!  Now food is an integral part of any Disney vacation and can, for some, need a little planning.

'But isn't it all burgers and hot dogs?' I here you cry...well yes there are burgers and hot dogs and all the usual 'fast food' but there is also a lot more which can be a surprise to some.  WDW offers everything from snacks to fast food to high end dining, from food carts dotted around the parks to counter service restaurants to full table service establishments, in fact something to meet everyone's taste and pocket.

Main Street Bakery - Magic Kingdom

ABC Commissary - Disney's Hollywood Studios

Pecos Bill Cafe - Magic Kingdom

Now as a family we tend to be more of the fast food, counter service type and on our last visit took advantage of a free Quick Service Dining Plan offer, which meant that we each had an allowance of 2 counter service meals and 2 snacks for each day of our vacation. These 'dining credits' could be used as we saw fit over our vacation; so if we wanted 3 meals one day and only 1 meal the following that was fine - once all the credits were used we then had to pay for anything else.  As it was we used all the meal credits and were still left with 7 snack credits on our last day!  This year we shall be using the Quick Service Dining Plan again (although Disney has dropped it to only 1 snack per day....think our 15 year old may have to dig into his own wallet to pay for all the snacks he can usually get through!) but we are thinking about trying one or two of the table service restaurants that Disney has to offer and this is where that magic number of 180 comes in.

For a lot of the table service restaurants it is recommended that you make a reservation, or as Disney call it an Advanced Dining Reservation (ADR) and the earliest that you can make an ADR is 180 days ahead of when you need it.  A perk of staying in a Disney resort is that ADR's can be made 180 days prior to check-in and for up to 10 days of your stay.  So we have reached that magical number of 180 days to go till our vacation and we can now give some serious thought to ADR's.

So for us eating at a table service restaurant would be outside of our Dining Plan but it is something that we have on our 'To Do' list for this year's vacation; so we are looking long and hard at which restaurants we would like to try and that we think all four of us will like, thankfully none of us have any real food 'no-no's' so the world is our oyster!!!

There are even guides about food and where to eat, check out Birnbaum's Dining Guide...

That reminds me I need a new one of these!!

...as well as The Disney Food Blog

Any recommendations out there?  Once we have decided where we would like to dine I shall of course let you know....you can't beat Disney planning :)

Countdown to Christmas - Day 13

13th December

Right so what shall I write about today...then I looked at my holiday countdown app on the i-pad and we've hit the 250 days till our next WDW trip mark!!

Now on my Christmas list I had already specified a number of Disney themed books that would help me with my planning for next years trip, but I was actually lucky enough to get an odd one or two for my birthday :)

Now the Birnbaum book has become a bit of a ritual in our house, it was the first WDW guide book that I ever bought.  It was so informative, and full of little pieces of interesting trivia that it has become an essential part of our holiday planning, and a trip just wouldn't be right if I didn't have the latest copy to peruse through!

Happy planning to me!