The Last Post

I can hear the lone trumpeter collecting up his spit already but it's not THAT kind of last post and before you start on the howls of protest and looking on Google Street View for the nearest tall building to jump off at losing your regular fix of this great blog, it's not THAT kind of last post either !!

It's just going to be my last post from sunny Buttonwood Bay for 6 months and with timing so perfect you could be at a Swiss railway station, the rising sun has indeed burst forth here at this ungodly hour of the morning. Ok so it's 8am already but hey, it's still ungodly enough that even HE might still be in bed.

And guess what ?  I've not started packing yet and we leave for the airport in 5 hours.  I'm definitely a leave-it-late Johnny when it comes to packing but of course it helps when 99% of your stuff is in the bedroom already.

I've just emptied my MP3 player and loaded it up with over 600 'new' tunes from my laptop music folder.  I've loaded several tv shows and movies from my external hard drives onto my laptop drive so I'll have those to watch either on the flight or while 'enjoying' the 11 hours I have to wait at Heathrow tomorrow morning before my connecting flight up to Leeds.  That takes care of the entertainment bit anyway.

I've checked on Virgin Atlantic's web site and there will be 60 movies for me to choose from on the flight but I rarely watch in flight movies as those screens are so damn small and hard to see at times and the audio quality makes Radioshack speakers seem like Bose, even using my own earphones.  I can't sleep on planes though so I'll either just chill to my MP3 music or watch some tv shows as they are acceptable on those little screens even if a full blown movie isn't.

I know the food will be awful so we've figured in a last US meal in Miami before I'm dropped off at the airport and hopefully that will see me through to Heathrow.  

I was going to try and catch some rays before leaving the park as I know already what lies in wait for me in Leeds this weekend - rain and temps in the 50's. But I'll be busy packing and anyway I already look like a Mumbai Call Centre trainee so another couple of hours in the sun won't make much difference.  I know my tan will all be gone by this time next week but for that week I'm planning on answering all questions about it by proudly telling people "yes I winter in Florida you know" as if everyone should do it.

What they'll never know, however, is that the tan is only on my arms, legs, head and that part of my neck that's been open to the elements for the last 6 months.  The rest of me is pure Brit white. I never did do the full sunbathing bit and got this tan from my daily walks in the park and some sitting outside when fully dressed.  If I strip off for a dip in the pool, I look even more peculiar than usual but many others are like that here so I don't feel too conspicuous.  Putting it another way, I just won't be exposing my full body to the UK public for many months by which time I'll be pasty all over again.

Oh stop it with the cheers and applause will you ?  That's just cruel.

I hope to be back on t'internet by Saturday and at the super fast speed of 50Mbs as well.  When I left last October I was on the fastest speed available to me at the time which was 20Mbs.  Since then time and fibre optics have moved on and now my area can get 50Mbs and being the download geek that I am, I'll be having a drop of that, thank you very much Mr. Branson.

So it's bye for now and 'see' you all shortly from the other side.

Ok now THAT was a weird thing to type just before a transatlantic flight !