21st November:

Well I was awake early mainly I think because of nerves, I know I did it last year but travelling alone is not something I am used to and to be honest the passport business has got to me a little. Most of you now know though that I opened a small drawer next to the bed which has been opened and checked many, many times and there in a bag was my passport, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry so did both!

Now came the question what to do about the tall, bearded guy with glasses that was coming to meet me at Orlando airport to conduct an interview and issue me with a temporary emergency passport. I rang the number given and went through to London and the Embassy there, I explained the situation and asked the lady to pass on the news to Orlando, she obviously did because as I hadn't heard back I rang the number again a few hours later and spoke to the gentleman who was coming to meet me..... everyone was charming and very helpful and in the end it only cost me $12 for the passport photographs I had done.

The morning did drag a little but at least the sun was shining and I sat round the pool for a while but was restless so was ready for my 2.30 pick up from Peter, and Car on the Drive, the car hire might be more expensive but to me was worth every penny, I did say that I missed having central locking though, it is amazing how much of a nuisance not having it was. Was dropped off right by the Virgin desks and there was a bit of a 'line' but when I asked the guy if there were any seats available in Premier Class he put me in that line and said he would go look. There wasn't but I could stay in the queue and went immediately to the desk.......... good  job! Security was efficient too and I am now
here with a long wait before gate opens, plenty of people watching to do though.

Now the reason I decided to ask for an upgrade was twofold, by finding my passport I saved a lot of money, probably over £300 and also I get my first OAP payment next week so I thought why not treat

myself, I have worked hard for the past three weeks and with an overnight flight I had hoped to get some sleep, I do have an emergency exit seat in the upstairs which is much quieter. Hey Jane and Viv,

I wonder if I will get the same flight attendants now my luck has changed.

Home now, arrived back at midday after a very good flight, only managed about an hours sleep though. Managed to blag a glass of fizz though without even asking for one , lady flight attendant asked me if I had had a good holiday and when I explained it wasn't a holiday as such and told her about  GKTW she said oh we had a family on yesterday who were going there and told the other stewardess to fetch me a glass of bubbly! Sat next to a young lady who was also a type 1 diabetic so we had plenty to talk about , the time passed very quickly and we landed at 830 and I was in the car and on my way home by 920. Thanks  Ian 

Went out almost immediately and we met up with Hanna, Lucy, Mark, Evie and Martha in, yes you guessed it, Costa and lovely it was too.  Off to babysit Martha for the first time tonight, she has really changed since I went away, very interested in what was going on and chewing on everything, two teeth now as well. Evie was sticking her Frozen stickers all over us, very impressed that there were 300, not bad for a dollar from Tarjei aka Target.

Well my blog for this years trip is now at an end and I have again had a wonderful time, a great charity that really makes a difference. Can't help but feel proud to be part of it.

20th November:

Well today was my last day volunteering at the Give Kids The World Village, I will be sorry to leave but also pleased to be going home to see my family, especially my grandchildren. I am fortunate as they are healthy, the children at the village less so but believe me when I say they all have a wonderful time and lots of memories are created there, I just hope that in some small way I have helped.

I did as instructed, and got there 40 minutes early for the breakfast shift, just as well I did as the roads were closed and quite a few volunteers did not arrive. Normally there are 28 per shift, today there were 15 of us serving approximately 400 breakfasts, very busy but everyone pulled together and the job was done. Worked as a server of the hot food again, today it was scrambled eggs, sausages, fried potatoes, biscuits, sausage gravy , pancakes, maple syrup and blueberry syrup. I think I have already described Mr Muscleman, yesterday he ate a huge stack of cheese omelettes, today his plate was piled high with scrambled eggs and sausages and biscuits and gravy... He got his own food and went to sit down and started eating leaving his slip of a wife to sort out the 3 children's breakfast by herself... I did ask her how she managed to feed him at home and she said he was a nightmare... not quite how I would have phrased it!

After the shift had finished I had a walk around with my camera, much easier to do in the day as the families go off to the parks, these photos will be added when I get home. The village is looking even prettier at night now as the Christmas decorations are going up, the villas are decorated inside and out too by the Elf Fairies so when the children get back from their day out, they come home to a huge
 surprise

Tonight, my last shift is Christmas, always poignant as some of the children might not be around by Christmas which is why this is a weekly event. Strange to actually put that down in writing because when you are here you really don't see ill children just lots of smiles and happiness. Of course some of the children look quite damaged but we all speak to them as normal asking if they had a great day and don't they look pretty/cool/ awesome etc.

Well I managed to be with Santa Claus again tonight helping the parents with their photographs and guiding the families through the procedure of Children first with Santa them the parents and sometimes the grandparents too and then sending them off to see the Elves for their presents - beautiful presents all donated by I think, Hambro Toys, they get to choose what they would like.

Now I didn't mention that I too had my picture taken with Santa, a really jolly fellow, he told me he is not allowed to sit any child on his knee and finds this quite difficult because some of the children cannot support themselves so he tells the parents that if they want they can put the child on his knee so they make the decision - seems a tricky subject and how sad is that.

One child had his letter written to give to Santa to ask him for a special gift for Christmas, Santa gave it to me to look after and I have it here, it says:-

To Father Christmas love  ----

Please can I have two factories and a boat that I saw in Florida.

I've been a very good, kind boy.

I hope you have a safe flight on Christmas Eve

Then there was drawing and a signature how can anyone beat that for an experience???

I have chatted to another Dad several times over the past few days, seems he moved with his family to America when he was a child and was born in Nottingham, a really lovely family and he admitted to being quite emotional tonight and yes we did hug each other, and he thanked me for being a volunteer; a special moment.

The one thing that has made an impression on me is by doing a lot of shifts over three weeks is that you get to see lots of the families and they notice that too, and are so appreciative.

Tonight I had hugs from staff and volunteers alike, took lots of photographs and will miss it all when I go home but can't wait to see my wonderful family too.

Here's hoping the tall, bearded, bespectacled man from the British Consulate is there tomorrow with my emergency passport as I have packed all my things and have not found my passport ..... a real mystery. Have checked in online, got my boarding pass, packed, done the laundry and will hopefully sleep tonight and have a morning by the pool, got a tan to work on!,,,

Thank you all the people that have made this another magical trip, too many to name it I hope to see  you all next year.

19th November:

Arrived at the village this morning ready and willing to be the train conductor, not a role I have done yet and must admit that being so cold today I wasn't looking forward to it much but when I arrived I was told they had cancelled the train today as it was too cold for the children and would I please help out in the Gingerbread House serving breakfast. Now it didn't take me long to agree as at least I would be in the warm! As soon as I walked through the door, Phil, (a Brit, originally from Warwickshire) said, "morning Lorna", would you please be a server in the hot food area, now out of the cold and into the steam suited me fine so of course I said yes! Today's food looked a little more appealing although the combinations still bemuse me, cheese omelette, fried potatoes, baked ham, biscuits, gravy and grits....., I was asked what grits were by one family, the answer I was given by another volunteer was it is like wallpaper paste, and I must admit that is what the looked like!

The gravy was sausage gravy and looks like a white sauce with lumps in it!!!! The biscuits and gravy went down a bomb today, kept having to ask for refills.  Funny but this time I have done 3 different breakfast shifts and they are completely different due to the team and the team leader, would not choose to do a Tuesday again but the people today and Thursday are lovely and worked well together. The breakfast shifts seem to be done by regulars who are a little territorial and do it their way and their way only, understandable I know but it can be a little itimidating for the likes of myself.

Now as arranged yesterday I waited for Wendy, my saviour from Quebec, who kindly drove me to the Consulate office on Tuesday and had invited me out to her and her husband's time share condo in Star Island for lunch, and a trip around to see the Floridian Hotel from Downtown Disney as that is where the guest buses run from - a tip for people that come to Florida and want to explore different areas, go to Downtown Disney and get on the free buses or boats to travel from A - B, we did have a little trouble finding where the buses went from  as there is a lot of building work going on to build new car parks  but it really turned out to be a magical mystery tour.  We did however find the bus and were taken to the Floridian Hotel which was very lovely and quite chic with a pianist playing at a grand piano, an orchestra that played big band music daily and lots of great looking restaurants at very inflated prices. It was a lovely afternoon, thank you Wendy and David for your kindness and hospitality!

I got back to my villa at 5 pm, managed to Skype Allan before dashing off the the village again for 6 pm for my third Village  Idol evening. I have to say this was a great night, the children were very good, only two Frozen singers - and I had on my Frozen hat with plait attached in readiness too!! Dan, the guy who runs this event, was on top form and really made me laugh, even Ms Hitler was pleasant tonight. I was on Hand Prints with Jay, a lovely guy who was in Florida with his partner and was volunteering for the week while his man was at some exhibition. Got back to villa about 930 and will be slightly earlier to bed tonight, because as I left the village to come home, Velvet suggested that I should get there for 7 am as the road would be closed for another 'Fun' run, oh deep joy!

Was given hugs again by a family tonight, they are leaving early tomorrow morning for their flight home,

Oh my goodness, just looked the clock and it is 11 pm, I also looked in the mirror and there're a lot of bags under my eyes so am going to say goodnight now. My last day volunteering tomorrow until next year.

18th November:

An early start this morning as I was in the Gingerbread House helping with the breakfasts, not sure how many came through today but it was non stop for 2 1/2 hours. Today I was on toast, bagels, English Muffins and Krispy Donuts, my goodness how many donuts were eaten this morning, unbelievable. The most fascinating person was a chap who obviously worked out a lot! His arms, legs, chest and leg muscles were enormous, watching him sit down on a child's chair was fascinating as was the amount of food he put away. He had a wife who quite honestly must have been a size zero! It seemed I made a couple of errors this morning and was duly chastised by the waffle maker, must try harder Lorna !!

I left the Gingerbread House very promptly as I needed to ring the Embassy guy who had left a message for me yesterday... Douglas, who was very Scottish, I won't hold that against him as he has agreed that I can be interviewed for my emergency passport at the airport on Friday, I have full instructions of where I am to meet a tall, bearded, bespectacled gentleman who will interview me and hopefully let me out of the country. I am to take along my driving licence, two pictures of myself and my credit card to pay the fee of $128. This will give me my emergency passport for the duration of my flight and it will be taken off me at Gatwick. I will then have to apply for a new passport, a massive expense because the one I had did not expire until 2020!

When I got back to the villa I had an a mail from Wendy, the lady who kindly helped me out yesterday, inviting me to go to their villa for lunch tomorrow and have explore some more of the area. How thoughtful is she!

Pat on the back time for me today because I found Walgreens which is where it was suggested I got my passport photographs done and also I managed to fill the car up with petrol. For those who don't know, here you have to gauge how much petrol you might need and pay for it in advance, I went for $30 as I had put nothing in for the whole time I have been here and we did travel around a little when Jane and Viv were her, I was pleased that I had guessed enough and even got $4 dollars back. Also here the green nozzle is diesel and the black nozzle unleaded, chose the correct one thank goodness.

The weather is really quite cold today and I had to wear a cardigan, Jane you would have needed you thick coat for sure.

Noticed last night that the toilet basin in my bathroom is leaking slightly, can't see where it is coming

from, am wondering if my passport has been shoved down there by Big Chief Tukmapaspor! Had a few hiccups this time with the villa, all been solved pretty quickly though.

Tonight it was Mayor Clayton's Surprise Birthday Party again, poor chap gets older by the week not year like us lesser mortals! It really was very cold tonight so the party was held in Julie's Safari Theatre and I have to say it was a little cramped and less well organised than usual although my friend Eric, greeted me with his usual enthusiasm introducing me to the other volunteers, all who had never done the Birthday party before. Had to train the Chicken in the Pants guy as well, being the current expert, how will they manage next week I wonder? The lucky guy only did the job for about 20 minutes because of being inside other things took over - seems a little unfair to me as I did it for an hour and a half and he was only about 12!!!!!!!!

I tried a new job this evening, yes Jane and Viv, a craft one, carrying on your stirling work making the birthday cards. The children certainly seemed to enjoy themselves and I am covered in ink from the pads too. Tonight there were two surprises, a group playing drums and singing...too loud as stunted any conversation with the children. The second was a pair of guys who were trying very hard to involve the children in their humour, trouble was most of the families had left for the evening, it really was cold so I didn't blame them at all. Had a lovely conversation with an Irish family who were there thanks to Make A Wish UK, their daughter was there to swim with dolphins and Mum said that there was a real connection, amazing animals.

Came back to villa and put on the TV, gosh we moan about our TV but this is really shocking, watching a CSI but it breaks for adverts every 5 minutes or so with no warnings, you really have to try and follow the plot. It really is so bad. The adverts are mostly medical trying to sell you a medicine but they take two seconds telling you about the benefits of the drug and then follows a long list of side effects. Crazy..

Right only two more nights and am going to take an early one tonight.

Good night all. X

17th November:

Answer to what you are all wondering is NO! I have not found my passport. Had a fitful sleep last night and started looking again before I left for my morning carousel shift, no joy. I do have a theory though..... it seems the area that the villa is on is an old Indian burial ground and we have had some odd things happen both times we have stayed here, nothing malicious just mischievous, for instance the radio has switched itself on several times in the middle of the night, the clock on the wall, last year corrected it's time when the clocks went back and it is a battery clock not electric, my loo roll have been changed over so the leaves hung down from the back and not over the front how I always put it.....this time it is going a bit too far though but perhaps Big Chief Passport wants me to stay a little longer!!!

Well talked to Allan on Skype this morning and he had done some research for me re contacting someone for a temporary passport, at least to get me home on Friday. I too had found the same address and while I was working the carousel a lovely volunteer, Wendy, a snowbird from Ontario came across to me and said she had just heard I had lost my passport and was there anything she could do to help. I told her I was going to go to the British Consulate in Orlando and she immediately insisted on driving me there. I did very gratefully accept and once the shift had finished and she had dropped her husband back to their villa we set off.

The drive there wasn't too bad and we found somewhere to park in an underground car park. We set off for the building listed on the site and approached a guy at a reception desk who told us the Comsulate had moved over a year ago, we were dumbstruck but Earl, the chap gave us their new details and said that we would probably have to drive to Miami, a mere four hour journey to see anyone re the renewal. Wendy then asked if we might use his phone, he kindly rang the number on the card and got through eventually to a person (same problem as in the UK, press button, A through to Z before you get to speak to a human being. At this point I took the phone and explained the situation and the fact I was returning to the UK on Friday evening. Several details were taken and I am now waiting for either an email or call to let me know that, yes, they can provide me with a temporary passport and hopefully. I will be able to be interviewed at the airport on Friday and collect it there rather than drive to Miami. Please all keep your fingers crossed.  Back to Big  Chief Passport, how did he know where I had hidden it....... Jane, Viv and myself all thought it was in the same place but it is most definitely not, curiouser and curiouser. We got back to the village at about 230 I think so thank you again you wonderful person

Wendy, you are a saint xxx

Now the weather, isn't Florida supposed to be the sunshine state?  Wrong, this afternoon the sky is black, the rain is falling and the thunder and lightening is happening too. Tonight's Halloween party will have to be inside again so I doubt too many families will be out late, forecast for rest of the week is cold too. Wish I saved those wretched Malls to this week and sunbathed last week. Perhaps I should carry on the passport search.

Went to the village tonight for Halloween dressed in my 60's Flower Power outfit only to find that because of the heavy rain the event would not be held outside but inside the Castle of Dreams and that nobody would be dressing up! Nevermind I think they think I am a bit eccentric anyway so proved them correct this evening. Good news also when I arrived the British Embassy had called and asked to speak to me... Poor Shannon, one of the volunteer coordinators told me the caller was Scottish and she couldn't understand him but that he had left a number to ring and he said all should be okay, I will ring him in the morning during my breakfast shift to see what else I need to do.

The evening was fun, loved watching the children dancing and interacting with Ms Merry and Mayor Clinton. Their faces said it all and several families who are leaving tomorrow thanked me for what I do, one lady said my goodness you are always here, and she even thought  that I bore a striking resemblance to Snow White, amazingly similar in fact!

Interestingly the format of the parties is very simple but the children and their families love it and the smiles are immense.

Had been home about 30 minutes and our friends from California rang to confirm some of the details for their visit at New Year, we had a lovely long chat and put the world to rights at the same time.

Well I have an early shift tomorrow so I am off to my bed, night everyonexx

16th November:

Spot the difference.........................oh yes 47 years! 

Bridgend Bus Station 1967

Kissimmee Bus Station 2014

Well I left Jane and Viv in bed this moring as they were leaving today and I am now doing 2 shifts a day until Friday when I fly home. It will be quiet without them but hope to keep busy and I will have some time to chill out in the afternoon without having to go to any Malls. Shame is though the weather is supposed to be turning cold for the rest of the week and I was hoping to get a tan too!

This morning I was the carousel operator for a three hour shift, the children love it and have multiple rides, the great thing is that even children in wheelchairs can take a turn as there are two adapted rides for them. The role of the volunteer for this very important job is threefold...there is the gatekeeper, the person who checks the children are on safely and strapped on and the person who turns the key and starts the carousel turning, we shared the jobs this morning each taking a turn on each job. The time went very quickly too. I was called over to the gate at one point by a volunteer I had worked with previously and she asked me if I would like her to make me a skirt as she noticed I always wore skirts and not trousers.., how lovely is that, I await in anticipation the result.

Got back to the Villa about 1130 to find the ladies had just about finished packing, we then sat down to a lunch by the pool and a bit of sun chatting about all we had experienced together and some of the things that had made us laugh ... I am not allowed to tell you though or else Jane would have to kill me!!! I waved them off at 230 and actually don't think anything has been left behind,  good job as my case will be full with all the bits and bobs I have bought.

Now since writing the above, I have discovered that I do not know where my passport is, I have searched high and low, many times, feel sick and am at a loss to know what to do next. I know I have had it here at the villa,, even knew where I hid it but, it is no longer there - no safe unfortunately. seems I have got to go to a police station and report it missing and then find the British Embassy to get a temporary passport in order to fly home on Friday. Don't think I will get much sleep tonight!!

I did go to my shift tonight and was actually the longest standing volunteer there....showed new volunteers to the theatre to get their instructions and explained the role of the Riddler to those given that role... I was one of them again, third time for me so quite the expert!  A lovely moment was when a lady came up to me and said, ah Lorna, I have been looking for you. Let me explain, I had spoken to this mother on the telephone earlier this year as her son had been put forward for a wish and I was the wish visitor. Unfortunately I had to tell her that MAW were no longer granting wishes to Florida to swim with Dolphins but her son could go to Portugal to do this. It turned out that he only wanted to go to Florida so I did advise that there were two other charities that still did Florida and she applied to them and she let me know they were successful and would be going to GKTW in November at the

same time I was to be here. I told her this and we did say that we hope we would meet so it was so lovely to meet her for the first time and meet her son, they arrived yesterday and will be Swimming with Dolphins tomorrow. Hope to see more of them over the next few days unless of course I will be at the British Embassy.

It was another great evening that went very quickly again. Must admit to not being entirely happy being here home alone but it is a safe neighbourhood so will be fine and all everything is well locked up.  Any suggestions re passport would be gratefully received.

Forgot to add, I have managed turn  on the TV tonight and found something worth watching!

Night, another early start tomorrow, indeed for the next 4 mornings.

15th November

A lot less to say today as we have taken a day off from the Village, amazed at how tired we are! Did not escape the shopping though as needed a few groceries to keep me going until I leave next Friday so made our way to Tarrjay aka Target supermarket, it is so much classier than Walmart's as well.

Now I went to get the food bits while Jane and Viv went to look again in the Skechers shoe shop, when they found me in Tarrjays they had a trolley filled with shoe boxes - no word of a lie, six pairs today between them!  Seems a girl can never have too many shoes.

We are off for a meal out tonight to Longhorn Steak House, will make a change not having toast or chicken for dinner.

Went to Steakhouse via Tarrjay for a last minute bit of shopping by Jane as I won't have time in the morning before they leave for the airport.

Just returned from a lovely meal at Longhorn Steakhouse, the waitress who looked considerably older than us explained the tipping system, it seems they only get paid $3 per hour so tips are very important as they are taxed, not on what they get but on what they are expected to get...tipping is something we are not as used to, 10% for good service is usually what we give, maybe a little more if exceptional, why don't they pay their staff a better wage?

Funniest part of the evening was driving along the 192 we passed what looked like a night club, I casually said shall we go there after our meal and be dirty stop outs?  Viv said yes, it's called Capon......oh no said I, I've  had enough chicken to last me a lifetime ....Jane piped up, it's not Capon, you dummies, it's Capone, the "e" has just dropped off !!!  It did make us laugh.

I have another 5 days at the village but Jane and Viv return home tomorrow, early afternoon, thank you for yor company ladies and hope you have a great flight and don't get caught at customs!

I am doing two shifts a day until I leave, starting in the morning as a carousel operator, hope to be busy as it is one of the children's favourite things to do and it is lovely watching their faces as the go round, especially the one's in wheelchairs as they can ride in their chairs, something that is not always possible for them.

14th November:

Another very busy day today, a fairly early start as we were off to Epcot, courtesy of our lovely Steve, drove there and parked quite easily, walking distance in fact to the ticket office. Steve joined us for about an hour before he went off to work himself, thank you Steve xx

 We started off walking around the World, unfortunately the Food and Wine Festival had finished but it was an interesting walk round, GB was fish and chips and the pub naturally as that is what we do but it was explained to us what the countries produced and did for their own showpieces. For me the best ride we did was on Soarin..... a 50 minute queue though,  which was a bit tedious for a 5 minute, at the most, ride. The best bit of the ride was watching Jane's face, eyes shut and clenching the arms of the seat, then when it had finished she said how much she had enjoyed it!!! We enjoyed the visit as it was not too crowded, probably because the day started off damp and chilly, it did get better.

Tonight was the Pirates and Princess party, now last year Jane and I were Princesses, and were given thick velvet gowns to wear and it was so hot that this year I took my own outfit, Snow White in fact. For the past few days I have noticed an advert on the side of my FB page telling of auditions for Disney roles and the picture they used was of Snow White so tonight was my night to be discovered!

I must say my outfit went down well with the children and I was asked lots of times to be photographed with them, even the official photographer made a comment at the end of the evening about how many photos he had taken with me in it!!!

Jane and Viv looked lovely in their outfits too but were also quite cold by the end of the evening . We were on Treasure bags tonight where the children were given 'booty' bags which included candy (American), some tattoos and a bandana. The children could be face painted as Pirates or Princesses as well.  It was a lovely evening and we all enjoyed it.

Tomorrow we are taking a day off so tonight was Jane and Viv's last shift as they fly home on Sunday, I am here until next Friday so have another 10 shifts, must wear my Snow White outfit again!!

Highlights  today for me was the number of children that came up and grabbed my leg or should  I say Snow White's leg and the smiles on their faces. The other was a gentleman from Texas, a Granddad in fact who told me he had been looking for me all day as they were leaving tomorrow and he wanted my photograph. He gave me several hugs and genuine thanks too.

As volunteers we are all able to make the families stay more positive and memorable, something to be proud of.

13th November:

Up at the crack of dawn this morning as we were on the Gingerbread House shift again and this morning over 500 people come in for their breakfasts plus 60 take outs.  Jane and Viv were on trays, helping families carry their trays of food to the table, which did give them time to chat to the families also and some other volunteers. We came across Zorina a young girl we met last year who was then doing her community hours for school but who is now here just to volunteer, she was doing 3 shifts today as she lives over an hour away so gives up a day rather than make the journey three times! My role was as a runner, now do not snigger at that description of me as I was busy, busy, busy!!

My role was to keep the food that was being served topped up from another cabinet, sounds quite straight forward but I worked my butt off filling the sausages, the biscuits(like a scone), the gravy (like nothing I have seen before or really ever want to try), the fried potatoes, the scrambled egg (so solid you needed a knife to break it up), the pancakes (thousands of these) and all the different types of fresh fruit, melons, bananas, mandarins, yoghurt. I had to take the empty containers to the correct area in the kitchen, get special orders for families, replenish the fruit juices - two hours of non stop work but great volunteers today also.

We had quite a discussion at the end of the shift with two ladies who quizzed us about the Royal Family......is it true that Charles is not going to be King and that William is giving up his chance to be King so that Kate is not hounded like his mother. We had no answer as we said that we had read it in

Walmart's too so it must be true! They were fascinated by our Royal Family and asked loads of questions which we tried to answer...how old is the Queen, will she abdicate, what do we think of Camilla etc etc. They do love the Royal family and our accent!!

Had our daily fix of Walmart to get something for lunch and as Viv was starving we decided to put the oven on but guess what, it didn't work the whole oven and top had no power.   We searched for a switch that could have inadvertently been turn off but found nothing. Eventually got in touch with Sonya who came round bringing with her an electric fry pan in case she couldn't get oven to work but it was just a fuse gone so easily solved.

Tonight it was Christmas and what a great night, Jane and Viv put up their hands for the crafts and I opted to be an Elf, helping in Santa's Grotto. We were all busy all night, I didn't see Jane and Viv until the clearing up time when they were trying to escape from Nasta, the young lady in charge of the evening . It was funny as they were like two naughty school girls trying to escape but kept being caught out!!

My role in the Grotto was wonderful, the children all came in and Santa spoke to the children and had lots of photographs taken while I took the parent cameras/iPhones and took pictures for them. They then went off to receive their gift, fantastic gifts they were too.  A large corporate group arrived just as the last child had seen Santa and insisted on having their photographs taken with him and Mrs Claus, I did have the urge to do a 'Viv' and just add myself on to the end of their picture but thought better of it and took their picture for them instead..

Our highlight of the day was the lovely people we met and the lovely things they said about us. We feel humbled to be appreciated by so many people

An executive decision was made by us all tonight and that was to take ourselves off Saturday nights  shift and have a final meal out together, something we have not done and are quite looking forward to.

Tomorrow another busy day so night all xxx

13th November

Well a different format for today as Jane & Viv had decided to go to Magic Kingdom via public transport. I was unable to go today as I had the lovely Bud and Dava visiting me from Boynton Beach in Florida, a lovely couple we met on a cruise a few years ago and who have been to the UK and stayed with us. Last year they entertained us for a few days while we were touring.

I drove Jane and Viv up to the Highway 92 parking in Aldis where as we arrived we spotted a bus arriving, the girls made  a run for it and caught it immediately which was great as they only run every 30 minutes, that was at approximately 930 am and it is now 515 and no sign of them and we have a shift starting at 615! They will be shattered.

Bud and Dava arrived at about 12 and we went off for lunch at the Golden Corral as we did last year, lots of choice of everything from salads to hot food to desserts on as much as you can eat basis, not haute cuisine but incredibly good value and choices. We had lots of laughs and stories and managed to Skype Allan too when he got home from dinner AGAIN at Hanna's and going to see Evie swimming.

The air conditioning has broken down again, second time in as many days and the guy is here at the moment trying to fix it, not sure how he is doing but he had been here a while now, fitting a new thermostat and I think wiring it in to the electrics as well as it was on batteries before and they were flat. I just asked him how it was going and he replied so far so good so fingers crossed as it is a it on the warm side ...........sorry UK friends. Well it is now 1045 and have not long been back from Village Idol, a wonderful night again. Jane and Viv did not get back so having left them a note I went off to the village, I was so worried about them having been in an accident that when I arrived at GKTW I made them promise to come find me if they rang. They did ring and they did come and tell me, bless them, but it meant that I had to dash back to the villa to pick them up - it seems they saw me drive past them only a few minutes from the villa but I honestly didn't see them!  Jane will add to the blog about their day after I have finished but seems like they had a hair raising time too.

Village Idol tonight had about 18 acts and six of them were from Frozen - oh please Let it Go!! As we were not there for the doling out of jobs tonight we were to go recruit children to come along and do a performance of their choice but I got diverted to handprints as it Hollywood Walk of Fame, a good role as it gave me a chance to talk to the children and their parents, met up with a young MAW lad who actually was one of the performers tonight as a comedian, trouble was he had a broad  Scottish accent so very much doubt he was understood, they have enought trouble with our English accent!!

They were also looking for judges tonight and asked first Jane and then Viv who offered the position up to me...now there are three judges, usually children. There were crib sheets for the judges to read ... Like ' I thought I was in heaven, your voice was like an Angel' or ' Awesome' etc etc . all cliches but helps the children if they are judges. Now I was a judge so having checked that Americans knew who Simon Cowell was. I introduced myself as Lorna Cowell, Simon's much kinder sister. The children were fantastic and after their act they had to turn to the three judges to get their views, this was such fun and the children were so wonderful, truly!! I have never been so English, they love the accent it seems.

Well I am off to bed as we are on an early breakfast shift tomorrow so goodnight, cheerio and toodle pip xxx

Oh forgot to add that I saw a young volunteer this evening, Natalie that I recognised from last year, she seem so pleased to see us which was wonderful

12th November

Another early start today as we were in the Gingerbread House. This is where the families come for their breakfast and my goodness what a breakfast some of them have and what strange combinations there are as well.  My role started off by carrying trays for the families to their tables along with Jane, Viv thinks she got the short straw as was asked to put the silver ware on the trays, a job she didn't enjoy too much. I soon got promoted to serving the food, think it was my chefs hat that helped there! 

Well now the food, there was a healthy fruit bar selection which did look good but I was on hot food......scrambled egg, a little on the solid side, needed to break it up first, sausages, fried potatoes, grits, pancakes, salsa sauce and most unattractive looking cheese sauce. All fine perhaps individually but they have it all on the same plate with this horrible sauce over everything too. The families love it... there is also a waffle counter with muffins, toast, doughnuts, chocolate brownies etc, today this is the domain of John, whose claim to fame is the best waffles maker from England there is!

I have three more breakfast shifts to do and Jane and Viv one more. It is the cleaning at the end that is so funny, we all have to wipe down and sanitise everything and everywhere, vacuum and put all the chairs and tables back in there correct place, we watched one lady sanitise the same chair three times even though we had told her it had already been done, she is a regular. I love the fact that so many of the volunteers are really quite, elderly and this gives them so much interest .

We popped off to Walmart for a few necessities, yummy things for lunch for Jane, yes a few doughnuts or if we are speaking American again then it was donuts, she made Viv eat them too so she didn't  feel too guilty

Tonight we were back to the Surprise Mayor Clayton Birthday party, no I didn't do Chicken in my Pants again but I did volunteer the lady sitting next to me!! My job was wearing Rabbit Ears, with hoola hoops that the children had to throw on my ears. it was delightful and some very good shots too.

Lovely talks to the family's tonight that I really enjoyed looking at the faces of the children when they got their hoops on my bunny ears, so special

Jane and Viv were on birthday cards tonight, too creative for me but they really enjoyed it apart from the fact that the pens needed to be checked as so many had run out of ink, they even volunteered me to check them while I am here on my own,

My highlight tonight was sitting in the theatre at the beginning of the evening and Eric bounding in late to say...Lorna I watched  your Lorna's Leap and it was awrrsum, and where is Jane?.

Another lovely day xx

11th November

Firstly apologies to all my readers but I think this might be a short one tonight as I am absolutely cream crackered, have a banging head and my feet ache and that should tell you that we have had a great day!

An early start with a 6.15 alarm call to make sure I got chance to wash my hair before leaving for the village where we were lucky enough to be photographers assistants to characters from Disney. We were with Mickey Mouse in the Julie Safari Theatre and what a joy to see the families and children's face when he interacted with them and posed for the photographs. Our job was to offer to take pictures using the families cameras, mobiles, videos etc, a wide range in the quality of equipment to be truthful but there was also a 'real' photographer who did a great job as well. We know that the families get all the photographs that are taken of their time at GKTW on a disc when they leave but our photographs we were told were the ones they emailed to their family and friends or looked at on the plane home. They had a slick system going and it worked well, we were there for 2 1/2 hours and took lots of photos. After the families left we were permitted to have our own pictures taken with Mickey.

Jane and I went on stage first as Viv had popped out for something so when she got back we urged her to go on stage too ............. she did but unashamedly tagged herself on to a group of people that had come in to present the village with a cheque for funds they had raised for GKTW, she said she wasn't aware but we do doubt her I'm afraid, the business that the fundraisers represented will wonder who on earth their new employee was!

After we finished the shift we left for the unfinished business of yesterday, we returned to the Mall and got there in less than 20 minutes and parked relatively easily although some chap did cut me up in the car park quite rudely, I wanted to gesture to him using a digit on my hand but decided perhaps it was not the best idea so gave him my withering glare...made me feel a little better. Today we did visit all those shops mentioned, a few bargains to be had but nothng amazing. It was bright, clean, and not too crowded though which was good. On the way back to the villa we stopped off at Walmart's to pick up something for lunch or should I say an early evening meal ...yes it was a lovely salad again too.

Tonight it was back to Halloween Party, because the weather was a bit on the wet side with threat of thunderstorms, the party was held in the Castle of Dreams, actually we all felt is better in there. We had the same job as last week, trick or treating which we preferred to the other jobs that were on offer.

Best bits today

Viv: A little girl and her Mum came in to the party but was frightened of the loud noise of the balloons, Mum asked if it was possible for her daughter to have a balloon, Viv thought she couldn't get one but then watched the little girl on the  carousel with her Mum and went off in pursuit of a balloon for her from the man with the balloons. What shape would she like she was asked... answer a pig, this was a little too much for him so he made a little girl which Viv took out to the carousel for her. The delight was very heart warming both from the little girl but also from her Mum.

Jane and Lorna - was watching Viv go on the stage and gate crash a company photograph !!! Really true.

Going to bed now as this is much longer than I expected to write. Night xx

10th November

Well what on earth is happening, it is raining, has been all night and forecast to rain some more today and thunderstorms tomorrow! Didn't sign up for this.

Not a good nights sleep for me as I kept hearing rustling and scratching, sounded like an animal in the bedroom, freaked me out a little I have to say. I put on the light to investigate and the noise seemed to be coming from the window area, I decided to record the noise it by video to prove I wasn't imagining things. Outside the bedroom there is the pool cover so now wonder if a squirrel or racoon was trying to take shelter or nest in the cover. Still no idea what it was but don't think it will do me too much harm.

Our original plan was to return to the town of Celebration to visit the Farmers's Market we missed last week and to browse the area but as it was raining we thought we best try a Mall - Mawl in US language and headed off in search of one of the Premium Outlet Stores on Vineland Avenue. I know I should have listened to my Sat Nav as there was conflicting directions coming from the side and the back of me, turn left, no it's a right, carry on  just what was a girl to do? The amount of traffic was horrendous as I edged along as were the queues to get in the car parks. We saw all the big shops namely :- Fossil, Yves St Laurent, Burberry, Calvin Klein, DKNY, Dress Barn, Guess, Hugo Boss, Crew, Jones New York, Levi, MaxMara, Michael Kors, Polo Ralph Lauren, Prada, Talbots, Tommy

Hilfiger, Coach, Dooney & Bourke, Tag Heuer, OshKosh, Clarins, Elizabeth Arden, Lancôme and lots, lots more. An amazing selection, just a shame we couldn't find anywhere to park so we just turned around and drove back to the villa!!! we didn't even stop for something to eat so had to make our own lunch of Parmesan Coated Chicken with fries and a little salad. After lunch we sat around the table by the pool and cleaned our jewelry (US spelling) with some product that I was persuaded to purchase a couple of days ago, we now sparkle with all our bling.

Just got back from a wonderful evening at the village - Candyland, based on a popular Amercian board game. The three of us knew the job we wanted as Jane and I did it last year and it was a lot of fun, we were the Riddler's - now as the Riddler's we had three cards hanging around our neck with clues to Candy bars (American again) for example Sun Explosion = Starburst, A sign of affection= Kisses, Flotation Aid = Lifesaver, Galaxy = Milky Way, Red Planet = Mars Bar. Now Mars bar caused a lot of confusion as this is NOT a candy bar anymore in the US, for goodness sake it is pure American, owned by  the American Mars family who paid  Allan's wages for 25 years and now pay his pension, that was a real shock for me. The evening went by in a flash, there were lots of games, dancing, characters visiting including Ms Merry, Mayor Clayton, Gingerbread Man  and Princess Lolly.

A stop press extra from  last night and it refers to the hoola hoop, there is a star amongst us who really showed off her skill at this admirable art and even got applause from her adoring public.....yes it was Jane and yes she was pretty good!!! Did I tell you she told me to add that bit?

Highlights of the Day

Viv - Talking to all the families at the Candyland, the look on their faces, the atmosphere, the vibrancy and seeing faces you recognised and who recognised me.

Jane:- Seeing so many happy smiling faces, both the children and their Mums and Dads, their excitement of getting riddles correct, the parents especially. Also the number of fist bumps and high fives, many of them quite forceful.

Lorna :-

This mornings magical mystery tour and keeping my calm despite the amount of traffic. This evening was full of fun and laughter, goodness only knows how hyper the children will be tonight with all the candy they had, we shall see them all tomorrow and find out!

G'night, got an early start tomorrow!

9th November

Well no shopping today, hurray!  This was our first two shift day since starting starting in the ice cream parlour as per photographs. We arrived early to be trained but the previous volunteers just made a run for it as I think they were flying home to New Jersey today, there has been a largish group of them who come every year for a few days to volunteer, a lovely bunch of people even if they did sometimes put up their hands more quickly than us for a job we wanted to do!!

The ice cream parlour was fun, not overly busy but we did a good jarbb  - one of Jane's new expressions, she is delighted to be learning a new language while she is here in the US. It really is "arsesum" the way she is talking now. Target - no not the shopping one,  is to learn a new phrase a day while she is here. Viv was the Queen of the Milk Shakes, didn't do too bad a jarbb until we had the request of banana in the milk shake and with hot caramel sauce, both got stuck unfortunately but as Jane was the cleaning lady it all worked out. Jane was really trying to improve her language skills so kept mingling with the families on the pretence of trying to wipe the tables down - picture her smiling and moving her hand with a cloth in it back and forth, back and forth  even though there was no mess!!!!

We did a little extra in the parlour as our replacements didn't materialise so we had to ring the volunteer desk to be relieved, we got home at about 3.40pm and Viv was out of the car before I had taken my foot off the peddle, let alone put the hand break on and put the gear into parking mode. Seems that either she was desperate for the restroom or lunch was late (Jane told me the American for the loo). We did have a very nice salad lunch before returning to the village for our evening shift.

What was on this evening you ask - well it was called the Big Splash Bash Pool Party, have to say it was not our favourite? The weather was not in our favour tonight, I blame Nancy myself as she came in to see us in the Ice Cream Parlour and told us that this evening's meal was now going to be a BBQ, doesn't she know that saying that word BBQ brings on rain?? Nancy runs the Gingerbread House where the families get their breakfast and evening meals.

Tonight the volunteers outnumbered the families by approximately 4 to 1 so we all ended up playing the games ourselves  which we have to say were not that inspiring.. a fishing relay game, a musical hoola hoop game which Viv and I enjoyed as Jane was the first out and a young child chose her to have a water bomb burst on her head ! Now that was funny!! We danced around, we gave out prizes but it really was not that inspiring and we weren't sorry to leave about 8 pm.

The lessons in American have continued throughout this evening and we have all laughed out loud,

the sad think is that Jane believes she really can speak another language.

G'night

8th November

We all had a fairly lazy morning recovering from our hectic day yesterday which was fairly tiring, I woke up in the night feeling confused and disorientated but managed to check my blood levels and it was way too low. I staggered to the kitchen and gave myself a glucose injection which quickly did the trick - neither Jane or Viv were aware of any of this. I can save my own life after all Allan!!

Next bit of excitement today was that we tried a new supermarket......Target, a step up from Walmart's and we managed to get most of the items we required and checked out the prices of iPads for a friend of mine, seems a lot cheaper here, could save over £100 it seems, only trouble is getting it all through customs. We also found a Skechers Shoe Shop  which did have shoes at very good prices, Viv was looking for trainers but found two other pairs of shoes she liked, took them to the check out to see how much they were after the discount and was about to walk away saying she would have to think about it until we pointed out that they only came to £20 for the two pairs and the value in the UK was approx £100. No brainer we thought, she bought them and now wants to go back for more.

We had a late lunch of lovely salad ingredients only to have two visitors - Sonya who came to check on the air conditioning as we had let her know that it wasn't working, and then the guy from the air conditioning company who arrived about 5 minutes after she left, impressive. It seemed it was set at 80 degrees and stuck, it now works properly and is much more comfortable. The problem of the alarm on the door to get out to the pool was also sorted and it is so much better as we have unplugged it from the power supply, wish we had known that before, last year even!

Our shift at the village tonight was Ms Merry's Tea Party, held in the Castle of Dreams. It was an earlier start so we had planned to go out for dinner tonight to TGI Fridays for their ribs.

Jobs tonight:-

Jane and I were on tiara duty, got ourselves sorted in advance by punching holes in Tiara cut outs, cutting lengths of ribbons and tying them through the holes and laying out all the bits and bobs for the children to add.

Viv told us she was Sous Chef to Peggie at the tea party when in fact she was merely the tea lady and not even 'proper' tea at that but that blooming iced stuff.

All went well until we were rudely disturbed by Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers who arrived and jumped on to the carousel which is just outside the Castle of Dreams, the children seemed to prefer them to us! After they finished their carousel ride they came into the castle along with three princesses and Mayor Clayton and Ms Merry, the photographer was of course there capturing the children with the characters...... Julie, they were not a patch on you and your Maestro from last night!

Tonight was a fairly early finish as a group of pirates arrived and hijacked all our families to take them to a  pirate and princess party around the pool ................... we are doing that next week and I have my very special Snow White outfit to wear that I bought with me thinking. I had three of these shifts not just the one to do!

Off to TGI Fridays for our supper, had it all set up in the Sat Nav but missed the turn by a few yards so had to carry on down the 192 and do a sneaky U turn ( I am really good at these now!) to get back to the diner only to find there was a 30 minute wait for a table... I did try the 'do you know who we are'  routine and it worked we did get a table in 30 minutes..result. Our table waiter announced to us

that his wife pregnant is two months and that if we wanted to tip him more than 20% that would be fine, he is having a son it seems. Meal was okay although Viv did send her fries back as they were cold.

My proof reader has retired to bed so Allan can you correct typos please.

Night all x

6th November

An extremely busy day today but so much to tell you all and it is already 1030 pm!

This morning we were picked up by the lovely Julie and Colin, what a great couple they are. Colin picked us up from the villa and drove us to their villa which is about 30 minutes away, really lovely, very bright and open plan. We then went to Target supermarket to pick up some Christmas decorations for our shift tonight which was Winter Wonderland, very much a Christmas theme this is held every week at the village as sadly some of the children may not see Christmas.  After a successful shop we went off to Downtown Disney to stroll around and buy a few other necessities, okay Christmas presents!  The highlight of this trip was Bibbidi Bobbidi  Boutique were young girls were made into their favourite princesses, hair, makeup, clothes, glitter, sparkle,  the whole works, all for the cost  of $55 to $195 but boy or even girl did they look good. a real little girls dream.

After Downtown Disney we went to Universal Boardwalk where they were filming a TV show along the lines of Oprah, a black guy who is also a comedian. We walked around and Jane and Viv picked up a couple of bits but to be honest we were all beginning to flag there and had to get home to get ready for our evening shift. The three of us still do not know how we managed to go tonight as the thought of putting  one foot in front of the other was proving a challenge .

Okay this evening, well the best night so far......

Jane and Viv were on reindeer antlers, this involved making and decorating the antlers for the children, they think they did approx 70, must have been a herd of reindeers.

Worryingly I was on games again, not rubber chickens this time but rubber fish. This consisted of two target baskets, a springboard like contraption that they placed the fish on, jumped on to see if they could land it in the baskets. Not as easy as it sounds but plenty of children gave it a go.

I am worringly getting recognised by quite a few of the children as the person they threw chickens down my pants!!

Now the person I think had the best time this evening was Julie, she was photographer's assistant , a most important important job as she had to follow the photographer all evening and write down the villa number for all the photographs that were taken. Each family receive all their photographs and any videos taken during their stay so this was a seriously important job. A true professional now Julie.

To sum up, the day was brilliant, how lucky are we.

5th November

Well after all my excesses of exercise last night, catching chickens in my pants, I felt remarkably good this morning, might even volunteer for that again next week!

This morning I had a Skype chat with Allan, Lucy and Baby Martha, she did seem to know me on the screen, didn't cry anyway.

Carol and Ricky who are friends and neighbours of  a Make A Wish volunteer Carolyn came to see us this morning and we all went out for a soup and salad lunch, all you can eat for $7.99. Now I have yet to meet Carolyn but it was really her blog about her volunteering at GKTW on our MAW website that inspired me to come to Florida to do the same - thank you Carolyn, we must meet up soon!

We stopped off at Walmart's on the way home so Viv could replenish her red wine stock, the cellar was nearly empty!

Tonight we are off to Village Idol at the village, not sure what our jobs will be yet so will write more when we get back tonight

Back now from a great night again our jobs tonight:

Jane, Viv and Julie - celebrities hand prints.. the children  were given a certificate which was divided into two for a left and right hand print, they then chose the colour they wanted to use for their prints

and pressed on to the paper - their names being written on the certificate proved the first problem for the intrepid three, not easy to understand all the children or even their parents especially as one child had 13 letters in his name, not easy to write in a space for 6 letters!! problem too was writing the date...should be easy you would think but no because to save time the ladies started writing the dates on in advance - 5/11/14  .............. wrong, we are in America and not only do they drive on the wrong side of the road but they write their dates down in the wrong order too, so it should be 11/5/14 .... oh well only wasted a few!

My job in the first instance was to walk around the village recruiting prospective contestants and judges for the event, even needed to find a piano for a young lady who wished to play a piece she had written herself, she was a revisiting wish child,who had stayed at the village in 2008 so was lovely to see her back and yes I did get someone to find a keyboard for her!  In all there were 21 acts for the evening, 5 of them singing 'Let it Go'  from Frozen, we had all had a go at guessing how many times it would be sung as it is so much the favourite Disney film at the moment.

The acts tonight were singers, pianist, magician, break dancing and modern dancing. The judges gave their comment, most used word was Awesome!!!! The most important part of my job was holding up a sign telling the audience to clap or laugh...had to be sure I didn't hold up laugh when a child was singing though would have been a disaster. The children were really awesome and it was a delight to watch.  My last role in this wonderful event was to let off a glitter cannon at the end when all the contestants were announced as winner...there were two of us with this very important role and we had agreed to twist the canon on the count of three..... it nearly worked but being left handed I did twist the wrong way so was a second late but the effect worked !

One thing I forgot to add over the past few days is the television..... we had the trauma of it not working for the first couple of days and now we have the trauma of watching it. Sorry my US friends but it really is such a load of rubbish or garbage if you prefer!! The best programme so far was last night which was medical bodge jobs yes I did write bodge because I have never seen so many ugly people..... Botox , breast enlargements, even a new clitoris. Really!!!!!

Allan just what is happening in Emmerdale one??

4th November

Started off our day a little more slowly as we were not in a rush to go to Walmart's , it is true there is little or no class there and certainly no humour. When at the checkout I told the young lady how upset I was that she hadn't asked for any proof of my age to be buying Viv's red wine, she really didn't understand and certainly didn't crack a smile. Think most of us have had the emails of the bizarre people of Walmart and their dress code, it is true believe me.

Tonight was our first shift at the village, Halloween. Parking was a little more difficult so we made our way to the spot we used  last year but we had been warned this might be the case so it wasn't a problem. strange though to walk past what was the Volunteers Villa as it is now back to be used as a villa again since the refurb earlier this year. We stopped off to say hi to the lovely Mitzi who last year secretly left me a Ms Merry in my car door handle as a surprise after we had done tuck ins .....look up GKTW tuck ins on YouTube   They really are magical.

We then went to clock in for our shift and Shannon, who remembered us from last year gave us a big hug of welcome. We were a little early but made our way over to  Julie's Safari Theatre  to wait for the other volunteers to arrive, a large group who were attending a conference on Orland, we think it was an Orienteering conference. Jane and I were a little wiser this year having done it before not to put up our hands immediately for,  jobs that were being shared  out  - no wands, masks, makeovers or sticky back plastic this year we decided to be Trick or Treaters....10 people, including ourselves  had a big cauldron filled with different types of sweet for the children to come collect in their bags - lots of Mars products which was great as I had hoped they would be great supporters of the village and they were

People who arrived without costumes went over to the workshop area to choose a costume, I had gone as a cat as had Jane and Viv but they chose to add a black cloak to add a little Je Ne Sais Qoi.

Now the children arrived with their siblings and parents for all sorts of activities including our trick

or treating . There was mask making, wand making, dancing, mud pies and worms, mad scientist, The Sorceress with her magic ball and animals plus of course a visit from Ms Merry and Mayor Clayton, the village chiefs!

Highlights of the evening

1  The main one we think was a Daddy bringing a child over to Viv asking her to talk to the child...no he didn't want her to quote Shakespeare or anything like that, he just wanted to hear her accent as they thought she sounded like Mary Poppins.

2. I asked the children that if they wanted a treat then they had to do a trick, a few did including standing on one leg and hopping but my best was a young lady that sang Let it Go from Frozen.

3. Well not a highlight really but at the end of the evening we were all invited to stand in a circle and tell the other volunteers  our name, where we came from and the highlight of the evening , a bit too corporate for,us really but we did it.?

4. Met Phil, a fellow, Brit who was lives out in Florida now and volunteers a lot, a nice chap.

Well think that is it for tonight as getting tired

2nd November

A great nights sleep, woke at 645 or so I thought, forgot the clocks changed last night.......

Today, Steve a lovely Australian guy that Jane and I met last year on one of our volunteering shifts in the La Ti Dah Spa drove over to take three slightly older than him ladies out for the day, what a hero. We had the most fun day and want to thank you Steve so much  xx

Well guess you want to know what we did and where we went............

Steve works at Disney and his working day started at 430 am this morning but he was with us at our villa by 1015 and  we started off by going to the GKTW village to show Viv around and to reacquaint  ourselves and admire the changes after the big village makeover done earlier this year. Really lookng forward to our start tomorrow.

After we left the village Steve drove us over to the town of Celebration, built to resemble an old fashioned American town, it was beautiful. The houses, the streets, everything was spotless. We were all impressed with the place, it was totally unexpected although we do have one complaint Steve, no alligator as you promised. We dined in style at a corner cafe sitting outside, it was a little chilly as we were not in the sun but the lunch was excellent, Jane and I had burgers, Viv had a chicken sandwich which included one of her five a day... will describe the remainder of her healthy diet later. We had a stroll around after our lunch and took a drive around the Millionaire Street, large houses and
beautifully designed, think we might put an offer on one that was for sale!

Off next to take a look at one of the Disney's  Deluxe Resort Hotels, Animal Kingdom Lodge. This was quite large and had animals in the grounds - giraffes, warthogs, zebras, impalas, flamingos, ducks etc. The hotel had a strong African theme with several restaurants of a high standard too, I did look it up on Google to see how much it would cost to take the family there for a week, 6 adults and two children, $1,700 excluding tax, meals and tips, that is per night, not per week,  maybe not next year girls
Next stop was to drive to The Boardwalk, we did have some trouble parking even though Steve flashed his Disney management badge at Miss Frosty Knickers, our name given to the lady who told us we couldn't park there as she had a convention going on - not too impressed with her manner but hey ho, we could go elsewhere which we did, we tried the Swan and Dolphin resort next but when we saw the charge was $16 we drove out eventually found a free car park which was only a short walk to the Boardwalk. Tea time first as we sat overlooking a lake with Viv having another of her five a day,
a blueberry muffin, watching the world pass by, fascinating. The Boardwalk was a wooden walkway around a lake surrounded by hotels and shops. the sun was out and warm so we walked around the lake before returning to the car and our villa, what a great day.

Now Viv is so excited that she has managed a lot more that the recommended five a day......breakfast was grapes and banana, lunch had cranberries in the sandwich and a lettuce leaf , afternoon tea
a blueberry muffin, lime in the lager and four glasses of red wine , she is so healthy!!

Oh my goodness, I nearly forgot the most important happening of the day...the TV, we tried again following the instructions from Sonya last night but still no luck..then Steve arrived, oh I have this same set , two seconds later he had it working.and we have this evening been watching Bridesmaid, the only thing worth watching in the many thousand channels.

Tomorrow is the start of our volunteering but not until the evening and we can't wait.

Thank you Steve for a wonderful day xxx

1st November

Well sleep was not on my side last night, my small brain was in overdrive.... What was the villa's phone number, how do I turn my US mobile on, how do I insert my Sat Nav chip into my machine, can I remember how to drive on the wrong side of the road?? This latter point was my biggest worry I must confess, and it was probably that that kept me awake. At about 3 am I heard people talking, softly and thought that perhaps Jane and Viv were having a chat... It actually was the music system turning itself on in the lounge area, bizarre!

Problem 1. Was solved immediately as the number was there on the front of the information folder
Problem 2. Unsolved, think the fact that I hadn't used it for a year has knackered the battery, solution found... it was called the bin
Problem 3. Could not figure out how to get the chip into my Sat Nav so decided to take it to the the nice man in Walmart's and it took him 10 seconds, success
Problem 4. Driving..... Well all went well, a new Nissan Versa with only 3,000 miles on the clock. Got to Walmart's fine, turned off the engine but couldn't get the key out of the lock! Asked for help from Jane and Viv but they couldn't get the key out either... what  to do. Well being a woman I do know how to ask others for help so when a truck pulled up along side a a bloke got out, I said to him "Excuse me sir, but we are three rather helpless females, driving a hire car for the first time and we seem to be unable to extricate the key from out of the ignition, could you possibly be of assistance to us?" Now said gentleman had absolutely no idea how to get the key out either, think he was a redneck ( apologies to all rednecks ) and left us to get on with it. By this time, Jane, who I have to say is rather a smart cookie realised that the car was still in neutral and not in parking mode... Problem 4 solved.

Now to Walmart, Waitrose it is not, not even Lidl and those emails you get of the 'special' people shopping in their best clothes are not exaggerated, they walk amongst us. We did our shop spending lots of dollars and returned back to the villa, unpacked and had a delicious lunch outside by the pool. Idyllic but blooming cold, much colder than the UK in fact. Tonight we have decided to live the high life and stay in to enjoy scrambled egg or even poached egg and bacon, told you lunch was delicious. We may even watch a video, if we can get the damn thing to work!

Best line yet from Jane as Viv is attempting to get the TV or DVD player to work. " I watched this last year, never saw the ending"  this was the word 'LG no signal'  whirring around. Think we might play Monopoly  tonight. Now I have not yet worked out how to attach a photograph of this problem solving exercise so I will post that separately, bet they will love me for that.

We have come up with three solutions for this evening and I bet you can't wait to find out what they are......... we all go separately to our bedrooms and watch TV on our own or we all go to the biggest bed and watch together or Viv suggests she just gets pi---d!

Can't wait to start at GKTW, there is far too much excitement here.

Apologies for any mistakes but I am unable to scroll back to check

Friday 31st October 2014:

Well today we are off for our return visit to GKTW  in Kissimmee ...we being myself, Jane, my friend for the past 49 years and her friend Viv who was brave enough to join us as a volunteer at this wonderful village whose motto is " Where  Hope  Inspires Happiness". Not brave enough as in the village is a scary place but brave enough to join us!m!!

For those who didn't read my blog last year let me explain the reasons for this adventure.

For the past ten years I have been a volunteer for the wonderful charity Make A Wish UK, a charity that provides wishes for children aged between 3 and 17 years of age who are suffering from life threatening illnesses. These children are allowed one wish from the charity and incomes from one of the following categories 1. To go. 2. To be 3. To meet 4. To own  5. To experience. Take a look at www.makeawish.org.uk for more information about the charity where you can read of the wonderful work they do for not just the child who is poorly but for their whole family, providing cherished memories for them all.

The most popular wish was to visit Disney in Florida, approximately 80% in fact chose this and unfortunately from January this year the charity have had to stop the  Florida wishes so that they were able to grant even more wishes to who children that were put forward for a wish. Wishes to Disney are still granted but now they go to Disney, Paris instead and if it is a swim with dolphins wish the child can go to Portugal.

Give Kids The World was founded in 19?? by a Mr Henri Landwirth, a Austrian Jew who was himself a survivor of concentration camps during Hitlers reign of terror, including Autszwich . Henri arrived in the US on a cargo ship with $20 to his name and worked his way up the hospitality hotel business from the lowest menial job to eventually owning the hotels. At one point in his career he was asked to help fulfil a very ill child's dream to go to Disney, they were not quick enough and the child died before the wish could be granted. Henri swore then that he would do his best not to let that happen again as so GKTW came into existence. There is so much to write about this man and I would recommend reading his book The Gift of Life to find out more and to look at www.givekidstheworld.org. 

Now for those who know me, Allan, my husband since his retirement in 2003 has an annual adventure, a trek somewhere in the world which entails lots of 'roughing it', now being a 5* lady I decline to join in his trips - okay I also don't do tents or digging holes to go to the loo either so GKTW is my adventure and I love it.

Jane came with me last year for 2 weeks of my 3 and is not only back again but this year she has bought her friend Viv along too and we start our first shift on Monday so watch this space.

Now last year when we got on the plane, Jane asked the stewardess that as we had been friends for nearly 50 years could we please have a glass of champagne each, she very kindly obliged as did the lovely steward that I asked today but he has gone one better........we had our glass each before take off and having told him about GKTW and MAW he has just come over and given me a bottle of champagne as a token of his admiration of what we are doing ....what a lovely young man!!!

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