Classy Plumbing

Now in my two weeks in the US I have seen the inside of more than a few restrooms. I have seen porclein ware of all sorts and sizes. These have been position at all heights to suit anyone between a leprechaun and Chewbacca. Some have been automatic and one was actually waterless (in the interests of conservation and no, I don't know how it worked!).

In this current hotel I have noticed a tendency to dress bare pipe work under sinks in white cladding - never seen that before.

But the best must be the classiest urinals I have ever seen (see picture). Free standing porcelein in marbled enclosures. Beat that!

The sights one sees!

Yesterday as we headed out to an early evening dinner, I came across a sight that was slightly amusing, quite sad and almost surreal. It also showed my niece and daughter the real meaning of legless.

As we walked through an area of this lovely hotel that looks like a cloister my eye was drawn to an old lady who reminded me of the Disney characterisation of Cruells Deville and Joan Collins. I will say noe that it can't have been Joan as a check on Twitter shows her to be in St Tropez, but the parallels certainly had us wondering for a while.

You might think me cruel for blogging this, but I did say at the start of the blog that it would be an.electic mix of things that interested me or caught my eye snd this qualifies.

The lady was obviously one of means. She was dressed smartly with a wide brimmed hat, wrap around sunglasses and a well tailored trouser suit. I will add a picture later when I get back to my PC.

I would guess she was in her 70's and wad tended by a man, who by his accent was British, probably in his 40's. When we first saw her she was sitting and he was standing. There is nothing unusual there, but still something seemed odd.

As we stopped to take some pictures of the gardens I missed them moving, but when I saw them he was dragging her pull along case with large hand bag attached with his left hand and gripping her upper left arm FIRMLY. He was not guiding or escorting her, but physically holding her up - almost carrying her.

Now she might have been just very unwell, but I think this was the result of a long afternoon at the bar! She was legless with that crossover step and stagger that only serious inebriation brings. Sad to see it in a lady if her age and means.

The suspicion of intoxication was strengthened as I passed the seat she had occupied and saw a half molten bag, from an ice bucket, on the floor. It had had probably been a sobriety aid.

As the made slow progress "he" almost dropped both a number of times and did drop the bags at least once.

We next encountered them as he guided the stooped figure into the hotel lobby and set her down on a seat. It was then that we heard his accent.

He then loaded her bags and another set of luggage into a chauffeur driven town car before getting a staff member to assist him decanting her into the back seat.

This was the last we saw of her, but it did stimilate much was it, wasn't it debate on our drive to dinner. We were really uncertain and prepared to believe until a check on Twitter settled the matter.

As I said it was slightly surreal and a little sad to see such a lady in such a state. That she had help was good; that this seemed not unusual, maybe not so good.

Weird Al Yankovich and Peter Frampton (and Steve Forbert?)

For people of a certain age (my age give or take a few years) and long memories the two names above mean something. They hit the pop chart and were stars in their own ways for a while. That said they are two names I would not naturally link and cannot recall thinking about for many years.

Frampton sticks I my memory for his mouthbox(?) by which he modulated his guitar sound on "Show me the way"

Yankovich was a weird looking American comedian(?) who did p*ss-take cover versions of hit songs. I best remember him doing Michael Jackson's "Beat It".

Now both are being promoted, almost in the same breath or poster for concerts they are performing here in Florida including Universal in Orlando.

Strange, eh? I can understand bigger stars such as Duran Duran doing this - and yes they are on billboards too. They had bigger followings and a bigger repertoire, but I am surprised and disappointed that the current music scene cannot do better than re-hype and recycle the likes of Peter and Al.

If you are going to do that bring Steve Forbert over to the UK!


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Location:E Camino Real,Boca Raton,United States

Want an aggressive lawyer?

I have just driven 180 miles on the Florida Turnpike - not the most exciting drive. As my three passengers slept most of the way and the car drove on cruise my interest was kept up by retuning the radio and watching the billboards slip by.
Theses large and relentless, but fell into four main categories plus a few interesting "others".
After those for food/drink/rest stops there were ones for various gambling were probably most numerous. Then came a load for lawyers, particularly accident and bankruptcy. One caught my eye and said "Accident? - find an aggresive lawyer."
In most lines if business the attribute of aggression is not seen as positive,  but maybe here it is?
Then come a load of medical ads offering private care to jump queues and cure specific conditions.
Then came the interesting ones. One asked "Pregnant and alone?" and then just gave a number. I do hope the intent is to do the best for the women, but I did wonder about the adoption angle.
The last that made me smile was for an "adult superstore". It reminded me years ago of a cash and carry sex store in Holland. My imagination is trying to guess what one would be greeted with in either. I somehow doubt I will ever know for sure.

PS. I find it interesting that road sponsorship seems to be the domain on universties. Can you see Oxford sponsoring the M40 or Cambridge the M11 with signs stating the fact every few miles?

This is the American holiday, or is it?

In will start by apologising to any American readers who want to tell me that what I will now describe is not not America, but this does capture something real for me and typifies at least my experience in Florida.

The day started with an "all you can eat" buffet, gearing us up for a long day at a theme park. I have to say that compared with many I held back, but I still managed to fuel up well with cooked breakfast and then fresh fruit and orange juice.

As we hit the park and waited in the queue to get in I was assailed by a loud female voice that could only come from New York City, and just to remove any doubt this lady managed to drop some reference to NYC into every second sentence.

Once in the park, in this instance Universal Studios, we enjoyed a roller coaster to ZZTop music, then enjoyed a Blues Brothers rendition and a 1950's rock'n'roller music set that had my daughter hand jiving like a pro.

After a full day we headed out via the Hard Rock cafe and I sat eating a great burger, drinking Sam Adams while surrounded by great memorabilia and listening to Aerosmith, a Michael Jackson megamix, and other great rock music. They also have one cool thing, which is a whole video wall, like one you see on CSI. This had images of items that could be zoomed and "thrown" from one end to the other with a sweep of your hand.

This evening we plan to have a walk a long Downtown Disney and I suspect a large ice-cream will feature somewhere.

The key is the family enjoys it all!

Do you get much more "holiday" than all that?


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Hooray, the secrets of leadership have been solved!

Today as I drove in Orlando I was the recipient of a revelation - it seems that someone has sussed the $64 million question about what leadership is. Belhaven University here is offering a Master of Science course and degree in leadership; it said so on the huge roadside billboard so it must be true.

A little research on my iPad shows that I have obviously missed this key development. At home in the UK I can gain an MA in Leadership from Anglia Ruskin University! This all seems at odds with the discussions on the subject that seem endless on networks such as Linkedin.

Not only am I interested in what can be taught about leadership in an academic environment, I fear that it could start us down the same sort of road that MBAs. Will we get to the day that one could not stand as a politician without a qualification in leadership? How far could one be promoted in a company without the right initials after your name? And would it improve matters?

Well that is enough brain strain for today, but I wonder what other unusual degrees I can unearth while I am here.

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Location:Orlando, Florida

I wonder what the story was?

Not a lot to comment today, but I did notice the world of body art and in particular tattoos. With warm (well, hot) weather more flesh is on how and tattoos more obvious.

They do say that every tattoo has a story behind it and today I found myself wondering about a couple of them.

It seems popular for ladies/woman to have tattoos on the outside of their calves. It seems a strange place to me, but obviously seemed a good idea at the time. I also noticed a number of ladies with dark ebony skin who had gone with black tattoos. This reminded me of secret writing as it was barely visible except under the right light and viewed from a specific direction. I wonder of the stories behind them are ones that should only be whispered?

The one that left me speechless was a younger girl who had crossed coffins on the back of her pastey white right thigh. The coffins were not small, around six inches long and two wide. I have no idea what the story is/was but I can see there might be one, but why, oh why would one want it on the back/underside of a thigh.

Any suggestions?


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Location:Orlando, Florida

Another letter from America

Well Day 2 presented an interesting dilemma. It seems that this weekend (Friday, Saturday and Sunday - today is Thursday) the State of Florida waives it's sales tax on items needed by those returning to school. Subject to some maximums items such as stationery, clothes, shoes, briefcases, etc. qualify. This helps anyone buying those items not just students or their parents and does include tourists - hence the dilemma faced by my squad of consumer commandos (wife, daughter and niece) - to shop or to wait? In the end they performed a recce of one of the big outlet centres, but have held their money until tomorrow.

What was interesting about this, and you can figure this out, us that according to the local TV station hunting vests, both male and female, qualify for the saving. So how many schools run classes in hunting?

The other thing that caught my attention was when a good looking, young lady (yes, it is pertinent) came in off the street and asked to talk to the manager of a golf shop we were visiting. I didn't catch the whole conversation, but subsequent comments between staff members suggest I have the gist. It seems like she was promoting a website for golfers where one could arrange for a golfing partner. It seems all staff were young and female, this could be checked online, but there was no comment on handicapping!

This seems to be something that Tiger Woods could sponsor, but I seem to think the "business model" (sic) has been used before. I have to say "only in America", but then again maybe not.

I don't think this shop took this service up, referring the young lady to some department called "Corporate Affairs" (sic). That somehow seems so appropriate.

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Location:Orlando, Florida

Letter from America

As I enjoy a family vacation in Florida I thought I would endeavour to chronicle the things that catch my attention each day. If nothing else it will be a good exercise in observation, but hopefully it will amuse, entertain or stimulate ( or any combination of the three).

So Day 1 - The Jouney, was thankfully largely uneventful. Our flight was delayed for an hour as they swapped planes - better to use one that is working, eh?

On arrival there were the usual afternoon showers, but it was hot! The car hire tried to separate me from another $250 for a car that was way more than we needed and a large, though probably harmless spider sent my daughter squealing down the terminal building.

The hotel room was fine, just as described on the Internet and our travel agent had booked everything in do there were no surprises.

All in all an uneventful day, even when I parted with a small fortune for pretzels and drinks while promenading along the Disney Marketplace which is just across the road from us.

The most interesting thing I can report is the bartender at the hotel's sportsbar. I went there for the obilgatory pre-bed, first holiday beer - the one on the plane doesn't count. While ordering a Shocktop, a White Belgian beer seved with a slice of orange, I noticed a British accent. It turns out she is from Jersey (that is the Channel Islands, not the US State), but moved to Florida 21 years ago. I wonder how one lives somewhere like the US for over 20 years and not pick up a new / lose your old accent?
No answers fom me, just a question to ponder.

Not very exciting but let's see what the next days bring?


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Location:Orlando, Florida