Welcome to all the recent joiners to this thread.
Me and my family appear to be the only group travelling from the UK on this cruise (i'm sure that's not true really

). We fly out to Florida next Wednesday for a total of four weeks well-deserved rest.
I haven't posted much over the last week as I've been so busy. So busy in fact I decided to take two days off from work. Big mistake. Yesterday I had a phonecall to attend a Social Security Appeal Tribunal (representing the Government Department) and on the way out of there I had a voicemail from the Police requesting I attend the Crown Court within the hour. Crown Court in the UK is VERY important (it's the one where the Judges and Barristers wear wigs) so despite the fact I was on a day off I had to attend. I was a professional witness (again on behalf of the Govenment department for who I work) and had a very short time to meet the Prosecution and read the papers. The judge was very grateful to me attending at short notice and it was all down to mix-up between the Police and the Prosecution (the Crown).
Anyway after getting home we had a short time to change before we went into town to watch the local carnival - it's the second biggest in Britain.
This morning we were woken at about 07:15 by a thunder and lightening storm. Nothing too unusual about that as we live on the east coast (we can see the sea from our home). Suddenly there was one of the loudest bangs and flashes of light I've ever seen. Everyone came out of their rooms to see if everyone was alright. I got dressed and went outside to check the house and surprisingly every thing was fine. I went through the house to check the back of the house to be met with smoke pouring out of neighbours roof. It was apparent that their chimney had been hit by lightening and set the house on fire. Almost immediately there were four fire engines on the scene and within 20 minutes they had the fire out. Fortunately, the people were out of the house at the time (they had take a short holiday) but have now returned.
It's our 15th wedding anniversary today and with all the "excitement" we nearly forgot to exchange cards.
Anyway, as you can imagine I can't wait to get back to work tomorrow for a rest. I've only got two more days in work before we fly so time will rocket by.
I honestly believe that we now have everything ready for our holiday and cruise. Helen has packed and re-packed so many times and I think the flying nerves have subsided a little as well
We have arranged with
DCL to collect our docs in Old Key West when we stay there so we'll have to wait a little longer although our DME docs have finally arrived (and our DME card).
Bye for now
David