Saturday, October 31, 2015

Another SuperSavvyCircle Project - Always Discreet

I am a member of SuperSavvyMe (forever to be ref to as SSM) and a part of their review/trial panel SuperSavvyCircle (ref to as SSC)

If you have never been on SSM it's a pretty cool site - a site that offers lots of coupons, freebies, samples and reviews of different products. It's been around for years and is a great place to find out about new products as well as get a discount as it is partners with tonnes of companies.

SSC is a subsection of the site. It runs product tests/trials and allows members to apply to take part in these projects. You don't get paid to take part but you do get the product to try, plus normally some samples to hand out to friends and family and money off coupons.

The latest project I was lucky enough to be selected to take part in is for Always Discreet. Always Discreet is a product for people with bladder sensitivity - for me and you thats us ladies who due to age, medical issues, having kids etc get a little leakage when we laugh, cough, run, exercise or do a hundred other things.  We are not talking full on pee your pants but slightly embarrassing 'dampness'

So why did I want to take part in the project? Well when I had whooping cough two years ago it had quite an impact on me - it caused my ear drums to burst, my ribs to crack and unfortunately my bladder muscles to not be as toned as before. I joined the ranks of hundreds of other women who were afraid to laugh uncontrollably, to jump on a trampoline or to sneeze in public - just in case the force caused a little trickle!

To combat this and the possible side effects of 'wet patches' I will admit to using panty liners - my reasoning being I'm not about to let loose with a full on waterfall of activity so I don't need a massive walk like I am wearing a nappy pad on down there, they are easy and discreet to keep in my handbag and change as needed and they are cheap. The downside to using them is this isnt what they were designed for - so I always have the fear that I am going to smell and wearing them can cause some irritation - they arent designed to lock away urine and urine has acid and acid laying close to your skin can hurt - noone wants red and sore ladybits right?

So when I was offered the opportunity to have some free products designed specifically for bladder sensitivity I jumped (very carefully!) at the chance.

I did wonder very briefly is this something I will be comfortable talking about to other people and then I remembered last year a very long conversation I had with my best friend by text message regarding the colour of her poop and how it compared to mine and the conversations with work colleagues about yes tricklege in the nether regions after having kids (them not me) and I was like what the hell it's not like I hesitate to discuss every other bodily function haha. So yes I applied and got chosen whoop go me and my soon to be cushioned with an always discreet pad lady bits (I have to admit to quite liking that term lady bits and feel it should be used more often in every day conversation along with buttocks but thats an entirely different post)

Today my promised pack of goodies arrived from SSC - it included 3 packs of pads small, medium and large (or as I am going to nickname them, drip, rainstorm and waterfall mwahahaha), some fancy purple bags, some information on bladder sensitivity - why it occurs etc, money off vouchers, ask your friends sheets and most importantly the information book on what you need to do. 

I haven't read through the material yet but based on other projects I am guessing some of the pads are for me and some are for me to give to my friends and family and co-workers etc inside the snazzy purple bags along with the ask a friend sheets and vouchers. 

I plan on reading through the material tomorrow to make sure I have everything organised and then getting on with it so this is just a brief intro and hopefully I will have an updated review once I have had a proper chance to get started :D








+365 days 299 - 303

Day 299 - Tuesday

Nothing really happened today - it was just one of those days that you kinda sleep through. I didnt do anything interesting, nothing interesting happened, work was work and home was home and that's it.

But sometimes you need a banal nothing happening sort of day - having things happening all the time can be exhausting so yay for banality!

The new cat tree arrived and I put it together and the cats all love it which is good.

Today's positive is just that I put the cat tree together without any difficulty and the manic mogs actually liked it...after I sprayed it with catnip that is!

Day 300 - Wednesday

Today I had my diabetic and general health blood tests done - I really hate having bloods taken not because I am bothered by needles (having injected myself for a couple of years and having to finger prick test for the last 14 years needles hold little in the way for fear for me), no I hate it because I have stupidly small veins which are too deep and they often struggle to find a viable vein to use - at one appointment they tried both crook of the arms (is that the right word? you all know what I mean the normal place they take it from), they tried from my feet, behind my knees, wrists and finally got it from the back of my hands - I was bruised, in pain and then it took ages to stop the bleeding and they didnt take enough blood to test but I had nowhere left for them to take it from so had to go home lick my wounds and go back a week later to try it all again! And these tests arent just one vial either they usually take between 8-10 of them. I normally end up with a really nasty bruise too thats massive so yeah I wasn't looking forward to meeting the phlebotomist so when I rocked up I was greeted by the health care assistant who was doing my bloods.

She was actually really nice, took time to find a decent vein before just ramming the needle in and generally did an amazing job, one stab and jab and that was it - when she finished the bleeding stopped really quickly and hardly a mark. A couple of hours later a tiny bruise came out but nothing compared to what I normally get. I have decided its the healthcare assistant all the way in the future lol no more stab happy phlebo's for me!

Anyways now it's just a case of waiting for the test results. I am expecting them to be bad - I'm not sure how bad but seeing's how they look at the last 3 months and one of these was spent travelling in the USA it's just a miracle I dont have maple syrup running through my veins. I'm gonna get a bollocking from the diabetic specialist but thats saved for 2 weeks time so I guess I can just wait and see how awful they are. I should probably be more worried about my glucose levels than I am - I should also have carried on losing weight but I havent. I weighed myself and I think I have remained roughly the same which is good (all the walking on the holiday counteracted the fast food!).

So today's positive is the delightful health care assistant who is now going to be my best friend for all future bloods!

Day 301 - Thursday

So today kinda sucked in work for lots of reasons and it has just highlighted that I really do need a new job. I am completely in a rut and I really dont enjoy what I do anymore. I dont want to go into loads of details I am sure there is some kind of non social media / blog disclosure policy I havent heard of that will get me fired if I do! Let's just say I am not a fan of my new supervisor's rules and policies which are different to my previous supervisors ones. My previous supervisor looked at my role within my team only and therefore had no issue with when I booked my holidays, or with me taking advantage of the companies annual leave buy back scheme. My new supervisor looks at me as part of a team of admin people and therefore has issues with when I take annual leave and whether I can buy back annual leave or not. Having been in the job for 10 years and suddenly having this change is unsettling.

I have made some half-hearted attempts at applying for jobs but havent really been doing it seriously I have just been coasting but I really need to get my ass into gear and actually start looking properly and making a serious effort to apply not just chucking in last minute applications.

So whilst today was quite unsettling I probably needed it. For so long I have been saying yeah I need to find a new job but not been doing anything about it. The fact is I DO need a change of job and it may mean a pay cut in the short term but thats okay I can cut back on stuff. I have worked out my finances and I can take a job thats up to £5000 less a year if needed and still live okay - it will mean cutting back on some things but I know I can do it and knowing I can manage on a lower salary means I can start looking at jobs outside of the area I am currently working in.

So today's positive is making that decision - I need a new job and I will take a paycut if it means a job which has prospects for progression and training! Now to find myself one ...

Day 302 - Friday

Today was a half day in work for me which was good as I had to babysit H for a while as my sis had to have some tests done. We just chilled and watched TV I had a banging headache so didnt really want to do much else.

I also got some flowers I won delivered today. I was going to give them to my sister but as my mum has been a bit down since the holidays (she struggles with depression in the winter so it's not a surprise) I gave them to her instead.

They seemed to cheer her up which is good.

I also got a message from a friend to say our work colleague has had her twins. They arrived early as often happens with twins and the one was taken to scibu but over all a very good result for mum and the babies - they were okay weights and all seem to be doing well :)

Today's positive - happy mum and new babies awww sweet

Day 303 - Saturday - HALLOWEEN :)

Today is Halloween and its also the end of the month. If you enter comps like I do the end of the month is kinda a big deal - usually every day theres around 200 competitions closing but at the end of the month it can be anything from 500-1000 comps closing. Now sensible people (people other than me then!) do a few eom (end of month) comps each day so when it comes to the last day they dont have loads to do. Me I like to live on the wild side and so entered 500 comps today phew! Some of them actually closed at midnight so I missed them and there are loads run by spammy/scammy companies that I skipped too. Anyways am pleased I did most of them and hopefully I will win a few good prizes to put buy for Christmas for people and for the cat charity to sell and also for my friends raffle for neuro-rehab fundraising too.

As it's also Halloween when I took the dog for a walk I popped into the little Tesco to get some sweets just in case we had some trick or treaters - I also called in the charity shop seeing's how I was up that way and got a couple of dvds and 5 books (all in all I spent £3 on everything :) )

We didn't get any trick or treaters so I ate the sweets myself - thats what I call a win win situation.

I also managed to do all the comps closing tomorrow so I am going to kick back and have an early night tonight as tomorrow I have the fun task of giving the litter trays their weekly full clean and bleach and my mum was muttering about doing the garden - I'm allergic to most plants so that will be fun. I also plan on spending some time working on my cv, reading up on how to write a good personal statement and looking for jobs :)

Today's positive was probably finding a complete set of Robin Hobb books (trilogy) in the charity shop - I have read them before but a long time ago I think when I was in uni so over 15 years ago now so it will be nice to re-read them :D

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

+ 365 days 291 - 298

Day 291 Monday

Today I kicked my ass into gear and got round to book all my diabetic checks and blood tests that need to be done. I couldn't have my flu jab last time I was at the dr's due to having a viral infection so thats been booked in too.

Not really something I look forward too - who does enjoy getting bloods done and stabbed with needles but it's something that needed doing and has been done. Due to how busy everything is at the GPs I wont be going in for the bloods until 28/10 and then the check up and jab 12/11 so a bit of a wait but yay for the nhs

So yeah that's my positive :D

Day 292 Tuesday

Today was a work colleagues birthday and a staff meeting - the meeting kinda sucked but we had cake which made up for it. I consider this colleague a friend as well as a colleague and I know she doesnt have a huge amount of friends or family so I got her a little gift nothing much because it's the day before payday so SKINT. Anyways I think she liked it :D

Today's positive - CAKE!

Day 293 Wednesday

PAYDAY! Seriously I can't explain how I managed to be so skint this month - well I can I owed my dad £300 which he lent me to take on the hols so I wouldn't need to use my card and get charged - then I paid for our travel and hotel in London so I have been desperate for payday - literally on the red in the car and about 3p in my purse!

So after paying all my bills I remembered that 1. I have a meal out with work people and 2. I am going to a spa weekend haha so have had to put money by for both those things so looks like another skint month but at least I will have something to show for it :)

Today's positive - PAYDAY!

Day 294 Thursday

So I have been really tired since I got home from the hols - firstly I thought it was jet lag and then I thought it's prob cos I have the ear infection and the viral infection but now its like 4 weeks later and I am still really tired.

I find myself around 2pm in work literally nodding off at my desk. I get home and take a nap usually for 2-3 hours and then I'm super tired still and then I go to bed about 11pm and when I get up at 7am I'm still exhausted.

As I am getting blood tests done anyways I am going to ask them to check my iron levels. I've been anemic a few times in the past due to other medical conditions but I dont remember being this tired with it - maybe it's just a sign I am getting old. I realised with a shock that in 6 years I am going to be 40 thats like 50 % of my life gone! That kinds sucks - that means I have like another maybe 30 years of decent living and 10 as being a decrepit old woman.

Anyways this kind of thinking maybe me feel really low - I dont really feel old. I always thought at some point I would feel like a proper grown up all in control and stuff but I haven't yet. When I was younger I thought old people had it sussed but now I am one of them I realise they dont. Just because I am old doesnt make me mature.

So to cheer myself up I have spent time looking at hotels and places I want to visit in New York and looking at hotels in Orlando for next year. I know I only just got back but I need another one soon.

Today's positive - well I guess it's recognising when I am spiraling down. I dont have many dark days - even though I am naturally a grumpy I am not naturally depressed.

Day 295 Friday

Final day of the work week whoot! Seriously does anyone else find Fridays in work does something funny to the time? Like it seems to crawl backwards and the day lasts for ever - maybe its just the anticipation of the weekend and lay ins!

After the day in work finally finished and boy it took forever! I took my mum and uncle out for dinner to the local carvery. They have a new meal deal offer on where you get a meal and a dessert for like 5.59 (it used ot be just icecream for the dessert but now they have about 6 you can choose from).

I'd had a bit of a dodgy tum all day in work but I often get one if I am stressed or eat certain foods but thought I would be okay.

Everything was going good at the meal - it was really nice food we were having a good chat and a laugh and then BAM suddenly felt like a boot in the tummy and I had to run to the loo - not to be gross but I wasn't sure which end I would need to put on the loo ! what a waste of all the nice food.

After that I still wasn't feeling so good so my uncle drove us home - they stayed in the living room chatting and fell asleep and pretty much stayed in bed all night only getting up for water to drink and to use the loo.

I pretty much slept all night - I obviously needed it.

Today's positive - family time - sure I was mortified by throwing up in the loos and hid until everyone else left haha but the time we had together before I lost my dinner was good :D

Day 296 Saturday

I slept in today until like 11am ahhh bliss

Rest of day was spent tidying and cleaning my room - it was in a disgusting mess and smelled fousty - it needed airing! I changed the bedding too which I love - seriously what is better than crawling into a freshly made bed :)

I also finally got round to setting up my new printer - OMG I spent 3 hours doing this and I cursed HP in heaps the air around me was blue - the software didnt work, it wouldnt recognise the wifi connection, it wouldnt accept my details on the ink order etc - total nightmare but I finally managed to get it all done!

I also got a code for a free photo book with snapfish for using HP proper inks (just had to pay p&p) so I made a book for my uncle of our holidays showing the best snaps for him and paid the £1.99 p&p and it should be here next week - if it turns out good I might make another one for us :D

I finished off the night sharing a pizza with my mum :)

All in all a good saturday

So the positive was defeating the demon that is HP and getting the printer sorted.

Day 297 Sunday

Today was another mostly chilled day.

I drove to see my sister and my great nephew as he's staying for a few days over half term. Was lovely to see little Drake and he was super chatty :) Harmony has a stinking head cold so was snotty and a tad grumpy  - she kept blowing snot bubbles urgh!

My sis seemed in a good frame of mind too which is always good.

Drake's other nan had sent him with no clothes so my sis was worried as she had nothing for him to wear. They were due to drop some stuff off but hadnt by time we were there.

My aunty Chris used to buy him a few outfits whenever she was out so he always had clothes but as aunty chris passed in March he hasnt had anything bought and my sis as always was skint. I said I would look out n the freebie sites and charity shops for shoes and clothes in his size for her so she could keep a few outfits for when he stays.

After visiting my sis I came home and had a bit of a sort out of my books and some of my tees. I have way too many of both and I know a lady who raises funds for kitty rescues was looking for donations so I kept the best for her and messaged her and she is coming to collect in the next week or so.

I also ordered the cats a new giant cat tree - they have 3 scratching posts which I have decided to get rid of - I was going to bin them but then I thought that a cat rescue might like them - they are all well used but when they get a new cat in they have to isolate it in case it has anything contagious - they dont want to put a new scratch post in with them as its a waste - if kitty is contagious the post has to be binned - so they can have the old posts and give them to the kitties in quarantine and if they need to be binned its not a big loss. I have contacted the rescue and once our new tree arrives they will come collect the posts.

I also put a post on my local freecycle site asking for a couple of pairs of jeans /joggers some tees and a hoody for Drake and a pair of size 11 shoes/boots. I had loads of almost immediate responses and arranged with the 2 ladies to collect from them on Monday evening after work. They weren't sure exactly what they had but deffo had some clothes in Drakes size.

So all in all a good sunday :D

Today's positive - getting rid of old stuff - I am by nature a hoarder (at one point I had nearly 5000 books - my bedroom was full of them!) so I do find it hard to get rid of things and I have to make a real effort to say this needs to go!

Day 298 Monday

So today I went to collect the items I had offered for Drake from freebies.

All I can say is WOW :)

I got 2 carrier bags full of stuff and when I got home and checked it out it was all fab. All in really good clean condition - some items hadnt even been worn.

There was a pair of black nike trainers - worn but still loads of wear left in them, a pair of stripey wellies with tie tops so he can go splash in puddles and out in the rain and a pair of really smart almost new brown ankle boots. Several pairs of good quality jeans and trousers, some lovely tees, 3 hoodies, 2 thick winter coats, swimming trunks and some PJs and a bunch of other bits

I would guestimate that even if I had picked all this up second hand in a charity shop it would have cost £30ish and if new prob closer to £100.

This is really going to help my sis out a lot and I cant thank the ladies enough who gave it to her. Despite all the shit we hear on the news about how awful we humans are there are plenty out there who are wonderful kind people :)

And that's today's positive - the kindness of other people :)

Sunday, October 18, 2015

+ 365 Days 270 - 290

Wow it's taken me ages to catch up - I've had to block the last 3 weeks together as I am so far behind :(

So

Days 270-276

I was back in work the Monday after my holiday bright and early by 7.45 am thinking I would get loads done...which I would have done if I hadn't forgotten my computer password and our IT dept doesnt open until 9am!!! HA so I basically couldnt really do much at all for over an hour.

My work colleagues had done their best to sort through all my work when I was away so I pretty much spent the first week going through that, through messages and emails and catching up.

The weekend back was spent pretty much sleeping as I still felt pretty rotten from the ear infection and tired from the jetlag although I did go see my big sister and take her pressies for her H and D and my big nephew Josh :)

Positive was getting through the week without falling asleep at my desk :P

Days 277 - 284

Work was pretty much spent sorting out some messes that had been made by people trying to do my job when I wasn't there and making lots of mistakes because it's not something they normally do.

However I had the Wednesday off and tuesday night me and mum got the coach back to London and checked into a hotel for the night - Wednesday we had breakfast in victoria station and then headed to the west end as I had won tickets a while back to see a sunny afternoon a musical based on the life and music of the kinks. As I also had some leisure vouchers I won I booked us a table at planet hollywood for lunch. I have to be honest it wasnt that impressive compared to the ones I have been to in the states but it was still pretty good.

The show itself was amazing - really high energy, very loud and lots of fun and we both really really enjoyed it - mum is now dropping hints she would like to go see the kinks on tour when they come to cardiff next year!

We got the coach back to cardiff and got my car from work where I had left it and then picked up the dog (who was back with my aunty) and got home around midnight - pretty much shattered but after having a good day

Work for the rest of the week was much the same.

Saturday comprised of washing and shopping and cleaning and then on sunday we went to a vintage fair :)

I won a comp on fb for this cool japanese cake kit and it turned out the company i won it from was going to be at the fair - when I heard this I told them I would come collect my prize to save them postage costs - they are a small business and you know I live in Cardiff anyways it made sense. So they got me free entry to the fair and gave me a free slice of cake when I came to collect my prize too :D perfect

Lots of positives - a lovely time in london, a fab show, free cake :D

Days 285 - 290

So lots of changes have been on the cards for work for a while. One of them was my supervisor changing which was okay. I had an informal sickness review with her and my old supervisor and I think it went okay. I will have to wait and see.

This week I have been broke, skint and brassick - thankfully it's not long until payday.

After a hectic 2 weeks following the hols - I haven't really done all that much. A meal out with my uncle, a lot of cleaning (I cleaned the whole fan/light fitting in the living room - I didnt even know there were that many dead flies up there!) etc. I have also slowly been getting back into comping again and won a few prizes which made me happy - although I have also had a few prizes not show up and had to chase it up with the companies which makes me less happy!

I have spent a bit of time looking up different hotels and flights and stuff for next year trying to decide what we are doing - hopefully new york for a week and then orlando for 2

I also read The Sheppard's Crown - Terry Pratchett's last book and I cried. Seriously I dont know what the hell is wrong with me - I hardly ever cry but within a few pages I was bawling. He killed off one of my favourite characters - it was like he knew he was dying and maybe he knew it was coming soon so he went out with a bang. Anyways no spoilers here but it's another truly brilliant book by him - the last he wrote and he didnt live to see it published. I'd highly recommend it to anyone and although I doubt anyone else was blubbering over it I'd keep some tissues handy - just in case

This weeks positive is that I actually feel like I am back into the swing of things now - it doesnt normally take me quite so long to get over a holiday but I think the infection coupled with jet lag hit me a lot harder than usual



+ 365 days 259 - 269 9 days on I drive and home :(

Day 259 Thursday

Today we had to check out from our hotel at Disney and move to our next hotel on I-Drive - The Enclave - it was sad but there ya go.

Now I have stayed at the Enclave before and I know it's not the most modern place to stay - big back tvs anyone? but it was clean and in a good location so I thought it would be okay.

Our suite when we got it was pretty much the same as the one we stayed in 2 years ago literally no changes. It had a master room with a queen bed and ensuite shower and toilet, a twin room with single beds and ensuite with a bath shower and toilet, a open plan living room with kitchenette.

The furniture was old but useable, the room was clean and the ac worked provided you didnt want it lower than 70.

We stayed here for 7 days and it was horrible - the hideous surroundings would have been fine but they blasted tiki music every day from 830am right the way up to 10pm. I couldnt sleep - if your interested in seeing pics and reading my full blow by blow review about how truly awful this place was then it's up on tripadvisor and a linkie is on the side--->

Positive about this place though was the location and the fact I had my own room - YEESSSS - over 2 weeks of sharing a room with my mum and my niece was causing some serious stress so at least we all had our own space here.

Days 260 - 265 Friday - Wednesday

So I have to be honest I cant remember the exact order we did everything but here's the highlights of what we got up to:-

1. We hit the outlets at both ends of i-drive and shopped shopped shopped and shopped some more. We also hit the big Walmart near i-drive and again shopped til we dropped

2. I met up with a friend of mine who I know from when I worked at Disney - he used his cast member discount to get us Mickey's not so scary halloween party tickets and me him and another of his friends went to the party one night - my mum and niece didnt come - I offered but mum thought I deserved some time out with my friends.

3. My Disney friend who works in Guest Relations did me a HUGE favour and hooked me up with free FP+ to ANY attraction I wanted. Me and mum told my niece we were going to Magic Kingdom to get some photo's outside of Cinderellas castle and she was really excited - she got dressed up as Elsa and I had a tiara I bought her she wore. Anyways we got to MK and I was all grumpy and told her I had enough and wanted to sit down and dragged her into a building before she could see what it was...well we went in and she nearly cried as it was the meet and greet with Anna and Elsa themselves :) She really thought they were real - first and only time I have ever seen her speechless. It was actually Magical :)

After meeting  Anna and Elsa I used another FP so we could ride Peter Pan - this isnt my fave ride but I knew my niece would love it. We used our final FP then to meet Tinkerbell

Magic Kingdom was completely packed out so we didn't do much else but we didnt need to my niece had the best day ever - we stopped and I took some photo's on the way out in front of the Castle - finally some true disney magic.

4. We went to the Pirates Dinner Show - we have done pretty much every dinner show in Orlando now but we hadn't done this one before - I have no idea why not! It was by far the best show I have seen in Orlando - the pre-show included an aperitif of chicken fried rice.

We also got to meet the different pirates and get the background on what the show was about - then it was into the show itself which featured a really cool set up of a pirate ship surrounded by water. We were sat in the second row so had really good seats and could see everything. The show itself was funny, lots of tricks and stunts, some good singing, some awful singing, gunfire and lots and lots of audience participation - literally every kid was chosen for some task including my niece who whilst not a little kid (at aged 24) still looks like one and with her learning difficulties and disabilities is quite low level. She took part and was the first in her team to get her flag raised too! The food and drink provided was good - jugs of coke / diet coke and starter for the meal was salad, followed by a choice of chicken or beef kabob (yes thats what they called it not a typing) which you chose when confirming your booking this had a side of bread, fried rice and veggies and dessert was a slab of chocolate brownie. After the show finished there was a disco and more stuff to do with the pirates but we left at the end to take a few pics outside on the mock pirate ship. We all really enjoyed it.

Now unfortunately on the Monday I didn't feel well - I had been bitten by a mozzie on my neck and being me my glands had swollen to golf ball proportions - that in itself wasnt a problem but it caused my already poor ears (and the tubes behind them) to get blocked. By Monday night I had a raging temp along with a banging headache and severe ear ache. I was literally crying in the night and tempted to do a van gogh and chop it off. In the early hours of Tuesday morning my ear drum burst bringing with it sweet sweet relief from the pain (as the infection was festering behind the ear drum) and the most disgusting smelling and looking pus and blood discharge ever - literally not to sound gross or anything but it was like a tap pouring out of my ear and all over the bedding. I have ongoing ear probs so I knew that 1. I needed antibiotics, 2. my ear drum was once again perforated and 3. sadly that meant no swimming or getting water in my ear.

I checked out walgreens website and found that the big walgreens on i-drive had an urgent care facility and drop-in centre. My lovely friends met me for lunch and seeing how unwell I was took me there and waited whilst I was seen by a nurse practitioner.

It was kind of funny because she was quite like really you have an infection your ear drum is burst how do you know then when I lay down for her to exam me and all the puss and blood started pouring out she was grossed out. Anyways it cost me $170 to get seen, get a prescription and get it filled for painkillers and strong antibiotics which was much cheaper than visiting an actual doctors clinic. I did have insurance but to be honest by time you take the excess off £100 it wasnt really worth claiming back especially as I am planning on going to the USA next year and dont want my insurance costs to go up - they are already hefty due to pre-existing conditions. 3 days after starting the meds my ear was feeling a lot better but I was still slightly deaf but I am used to that :)

I wanted to add photo's here but my card reader is playing up so I will hopefully add a bunch in the week :D

Day 266 - 269 Thursday - Sunday

So once again on Thursday we were moving hotels - I cant lie I was so excited to be getting out of the enclave and away from that crappy tiki music we were up showered, dressed packed and checked out by 1030am!

I had called the hotel we were changing to - the Econo Lodge (which was handily a 5 min walk away) and the earliest we could check in was 12 noon. We decided to just get the hell out of dodge and get over there anyways we had a fair amount of luggage and we knew we could just chill. We made it there and I asked if they minded us sitting in the lobby in the ac - it was HOT outside and they said just go ahead and check in so by 11.15am we were sat chilling in our new room - once again the 3 of us sharing but what a difference. The hotel was clean and modern and it had working wi-fi - SCORE.

Now whether it was in sympathy with me or due to the ac my mum started to feel rotten! She had a nasty head cold brewing oops. We were due on Friday to go to Busch Gardens but as she was feeling so rotten we cancelled it. Instead we went to the Florida Mall on the bus and did even more shopping - I mentioned we like to shop right? Anyways we spent about 3 hours in JC Pennies which had tonnes of stuff on sale yay and after a stupid amount of time in the mall itself headed back to the hotel.

Saturday was our last day :( I paid an extra $25 to the hotel so we could keep our room til 3pm which was perfect as it meant no rushing our dragging our cases and having to get them stored.

We got picked up at 3.15pm by our airport transport and were checked in at the airport ready for our flight by 5pm with the flight going at 7. We grabbed some food in the airport and caught out flight which was slightly late. We had a 1hr stop off in iceland which was interesting and arrived in uk around 12.20pm Sunday!

So we raced through the airport, through security - grabbed our bags and ran to the coach pick up point for our coach which we just about made and then finally got into Cardiff at 6pm and home by 6.30pm

So that was basically it - 3 and a half weeks spent in the canada and the usa and then back to reality with a bump - we had some ups and downs, some arguments, we didnt do everything we wanted but we had fun and enjoyed ourselves and thats the main thing :D

Sunday, October 11, 2015

+ 365 days 252 - 258 - Onsite at Disneyworld

DisneyWorld woohoo :)

Day 252 Thursday

Today we said goodbye Las Vegas Hello DisneyWorld. My uncle was taken care of by the staff at Vegas airport so we were happy and confident he would get home okay. We hopped our flight to Fort Laudervale where we were due to connect to our flight to MCO - it was delayed, and then delayed some more :( we finally arrived in MCO (Orlando International) at gone midnight. Lucky our bags camepretty quick and we went straight to the Magical Express Desk (Thats the transport Disney provides for guests staying at its hotel/resorts for free from the airport). We were soon boarded on a coach and ours was the first drop off too.

We were staying at Disney's Caribbean Beach resort. Check-in was a nightmare - they had lost our magic bands so they took a long time looking to see if they could find them and stuff. We were eventually checked in and given replacement grey bands to use and got the bell hop guys to take us and our luggage to our room. We were in Martinque section room 2111.

They have refurbed since our stay last year and the rooms now have 2 double beds plus a pull down single bed - perfect none of us had to share me and mum got the big beds and my niece Lizzie got the smaller bed which was the perfect size for her. The room had lost some of its Disney'ness' in the upgrade and I am not 100% sure I like it - if I am paying a ridiculous amount to stay onsite at Disney then I want some Disney Magic.

Anyways we were all pretty much exhausted so we just dropped straight into bed!






Days 253 - 258 (Friday - Wednesday)

I really couldn't say exactly what we did on each day and in what order as we did so much so I am just going to summarize :)

We did ALL the disney parks and ate out in lots of different places as we had the disney dining plan :) We also did a lot of shopping as we had a $200 gift card as part of our booking. The weather was hot and rainy and stormy but thats fine its always like that - we also went to walmart on the bus :D and of course to down town disney (soon to be renamed disney springs)

Our favourite things that we did

Beauty & the Beast stage show
Festival of the Lion King show
Finding Nemo Show
Illuminations Fire works
Wishes Fire works

Rides: Its a small world (I HATE this ride but everyone else loves it); Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin, Tower of Terror (I rode as a single rider as the others dont do 'scary' rides) Splash Mountain (me and mam rode Lizzie is barred from rollercoaster type rides after her behaviour last time we brought her), Kali river rapids, Kilimanjaru Safari, Expedition Everest (again I rode alone), dinosaur, Haunted Mansion

Even though we were only staying on site for 7 days our tickets were valid for 14 days so we did come back to Disney our second week and I had some amazing treats in store for my niece too but I will write about that in the next blog post :)

but for now some photos :)