I haven't updated my blog for a while, had a few technical problems logging on and been very lazy at times so I can only apologise, but i've almost brought you up to speedwith where I have been, so i'll let you know where we are now. After honky tonkying it up in Nashville, Tennessee, we took a twenty hour long coach journey from Memphis to Orlando. It's only when you leave the UK you realise what a brilliant mass transit system we have. I could hop on an express train from Runcorn to London in no time but many countries just don't have a train network and other transport options like bus or coach are limited to cities. In the USA they have the Greyhound coach service which runs from most cities and towns so we booked the journey for a hundred dollars each and waited at Memphis coach station for the first leg of our trip. It was like a scene from a film, having watched a programme the night before billing Memphis as the violent crime capital of the whole of America we were very aware that any of the shady looking people around us could be carrying anything from knives and guns (which as you know are legal here). There were people with significant tattoos connecting them to different gangs, and I overheard one girl talking to a friend on the phone about the number of people she knew who were in prison for murder! We didn't feel comfortable one little bit. When we arrived in Orlando I heard a security guard comment on the people who had just got off our coach saying they definitely weren't from Orlando - I hope we weren't included in the ghetto bunch ha ha. Steven's family have joined us in Florida for Christmas and New Year which is nice as we haven't seen anyone we know now for 11 months and we have both been missing our family. Luckily for us they have rented out a beautiful villa which is luxury compared to the Motel 6 joints we have been staying in across the US! The day they arrived Steven went to meet them at the airport (his mum, dad, sister and her boyfriend) on his own as I was in bed with the flu - I don't know whether everyone at home has been hit with it too but this was the worst i've felt since I can remember being sick as a child. And it is just our luck that just as I was getting over it Steven's dad got it followed by Steven and then his mum. Despite that though we have had a great time in Florida, it's a really surreal experience waking up to sunshine on Christmas Day and not having to wrap up warm when you leave the house. Last night was New Year's Eve so we spent the day at Universal Studios and stayed until midnight to watch the fireworks. After spending hours in queue's at Starbucks to get coffee to keep us awake we finally made it to ten to twelve and got in our position along the waterfront. I remember thinking as the fireworks went off that i'd seen much better ones at Spike Island when my dad used to take us there and just as we were rushing back to the car amongst crowds and crowds of other crazy people, I heard "You get better ones at Vicky Park". I couldn't believe it, out of all these hords of people I had managed to bump into someone from Widnes! That's probably the first person i've met who has ever heard of Widnes, never mind come from there! It's a small world after all...
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