Fantastic Florida

 The past few months have been hectic, so I am writing this retrospectively, so please forgive any muddles in the timeline or tense some things are written in. I am going to try and make it sound recent, but I was in Florida in August and it is now mid November.

Here goes...

After being  made redundant at the start of the year, I have spent the past few months trying to secure a job I am interested in. There have been some interesting options, which are all discussed over on my other blog at  www.snazy.co.uk.  But this is about what came next. Once I had secured the job of my dreams, it was time to hit the reset button HARD before starting my new job, and what better place to do that (in my books) than Florida.

Travelling in the school summer holidays is never cheap, so if you are going to spend good money, have a damn good time. For me the main pillar of any trip to Florida is the accomodation. Having stayed on Legacy Park last year when we got married in Florida, we were 100% sure we wanted to stay there again. A lovely little gated community, just off the US27, and within a short drive of almost anything you could want to do in the Orlando or surrounding area. This is further helped by the fact that the US27 around Davenport is a 5-10 min drive to reach the 192 or I4, so the world is your oyster.

Now just to find somewhere. A quick search on AirBnB brought up a few options, however this one really ticked all the boxes for me. Here is a link to it. https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/35381840

Let me start with a summary of it..... A beautiful corner plot with fantastic views of the estate from the upstairs windows. The sunrises and sunsets are absolutely stunning from by the pool, or from the master bedroom. Fully equipped with all the creature comforts, and beautifully kept. From the kitchen having plenty of cutlery and crockery, not to mention every kind of utensil you could want (not something I have found in other properties), to the games room for those moments you just want to relax, or the weather isn't behaving itself. 

One thing I will say that you don't usually find in peoples blogs or reviews about properties they have stayed in is, what it is like to be in during a tropical storm or hurricane. We were fortunate/unfortunate enough to be in Florida for Storm Debby, which made a nice pass over the house in the early hours. Being able to use the TV as a source of information, and receive up to date warnings of any tornado threats was helpful, and of course when the time came, the emergency broadcast system kicked in perfectly, on both the TV and our phones. Thankfully it was nothing more than some very heavy rain, and strong winds with some powerful gusts. My main point of writing this part is just to say, at no point did we feel at risk from what was happening outside. No leaks, no winds whistling into the house. Like the 3rd little Piggy, we were safe and sound. 

Back to the fun stuff though. Starting the day having breakfast by the pool, and a nice cool dip to get ready for the day was a delight. In the time we were there I think the pool guys were there twice for pool maintenance and a little lanai repair. As I say, this place is very well looked after. 

Speaking of being looked after, there were a couple of times we needed to contact the management about little trivial things, and both times we were treated with respect and courtesy. To the point of when they visited to do a little repair we ended up chatting for ages and got to know them really well. Definitely makes you feel comfortable highlighting any issues you might have, and very happy to help with any other enquiries about things to do around the area also. A great point of contact, and it just went to show how good the management and upkeep of the property is.  Which as I say, showed clearly in the property. 

For our stay it was just the two of us, so we only used the master bedroom, however the house is huge and perfect for a large family or a group of friends who want to stay together, but also like their own space. The lounge area has a great seating arrangement, and super for a get together to watch some TV, or just relax and unwind after a day out.

Then there is the dining room, perfect for a nice sit down, meal and chat. Strangely I don't think I have ever used a dining room in all the times I have stayed in Florida houses, but they are a welcome addition, especially for those who like to do things more formally at times, and be together as a family. Just off the dining room is another smaller lounge area, with sofas and a coffee table. Nice for just sitting down and getting some alone time in for a bit, or for different family members to do their own thing. For us, it was a good staging area to start the day in. Putting shoes on, gathering things we needed for out day out, or on the flip side, putting all the bags and bags of shopping down as we came in from trips to the malls.

The kitchen is huge and well equipped, with an island and breakfast bar which personally I loved sitting at with a coffee in the mornings before heading out to the pool and sunshine. Again the island is perfect for keeping stuff on, easy to grab for when you are heading out, or need to get something from the car etc. But obviously serves a practical purpose too, especially for larger groups, being able to have breakfast and meals in separate areas depending what suits. Side note, the stools for the breakfast bar are super heavy and well made, another indicator of the quality to expect in the property.

Speaking of the pool and the sunshine, the pool area gets sun all day round, from sunrise to sunset, there is a part of the pool area which will ensure you get the rays you went to Florida for. There is ample seating, a large table to sit around and an abundance of loungers too, all with good quality cushioning too, not a guaranteed thing at some houses as I have found. And again, the quality counts here too. After the rain a quick wipe is all they need to be usable again. Some places tend to have cheaper cushions which soak up the rain and are unusable for days after. 

The community itself is well kept, and groundskeeping staff are there almost every day keeping the grass cut, bushes trimmed, and carrying out any other maintenance that is needed. This is course is all separate to the house itself, but worth mentioning. I enjoyed morning sunrise walks and runs daily, both inside the gated area of the community, and sometimes heading out into the streets and other communities in Legacy Park. Occasionally venturing even further afield to the US27 for a few extra miles. 

Just outside Legacy Park there are plenty of places that you might find useful. From the Publix supermarket a mile up the road, to the Walmart a couple of miles down the road just past the 192 exit. Not to mention lots of places to eat, from the mainstream to the independents. There are of course the must haves like KFC and McDonalds for those who like to stick to what they know, as well as Chick-fil-A, Dominos, iHop, Applebee's.  Shopping is plentiful too locally, with Target, the aforementioned Walmart, as well as Dickies, Best Buy and much much more just up the road. Or if you feel a little more adventurous, a 10 min drive will put you on the I4 and you will be at Mall at Millenia in no time.

In the time we were fortunate enough to be staying at this beautiful house we ventured to many places both near and far, but it was always lovely to come through the gates, drive onto the driveway, and walk into a place which instantly felt like home to us. Feeling safe and secure, in an area I was happy to go out for walks and runs in the early hours in darkness to watch the sun rising. It is hard to convey how perfect it all felt. Regardless of what you felt like doing, you had a good base to start from. And even on days where we barely did a thing, being able to lay in bed and watch TV, not on a microscopic stamp on the wall sized TV,  but a decent one was lovely. 

Getting ready to go out was great too, having a choice of bathrooms to use is always a bonus. Laundry room upstairs, right where you need it, right by all the bedrooms. Plenty of towels available too, so one less thing to have to waste your precious luggage allowance on too. Definitely noteworthy!

I could carry on all day but will just finish up by saying. When you are looking for a place to stay, this is a definite contender. Regardless if you are a large family or just a couple, this is massive bang for the buck, and I am pretty sure you will never look at another properly again. Why settle for a little single storey cramped place, sandwiched between others, when you can have the luxury of a beautiful corner plot, loads of space to do your own thing, and everything in a house you could want for.

High speed internet, great selection of TV channels, even showing the F1 which was a nice bonus for me. A games room in the garage, ice machine in the huge fridge freezer in the kitchen, shower room just off the pool, leading back into the house, which also doubles as your downstairs WC. No more frantic drying off to go in to use the loo, or dripping walks to the bathroom to shower after a swim. 

Seriously, if you read my other blogs you will see that I complain and moan a lot, but there is none of that here, saying it as I see it, this is a stunning house which I will happily re-book to stay in again and again. As I write this I am eyeing up dates to book off work, and flights I can book to enjoy my next dose of the Sunshine State, and an amazing home from home. 

Massive thanks to the owners and management for an amazing stay, here's to many more.

PS there are plenty of genuine, as it really is, pictures on the AirBnB link, so I will refrain from posting anymore. 

PPS, for amazing slow mornings, may I recommend a stroll around Lake Rianhard with a breakfast pastry and coffee from the Starbucks which is at right there on the lakeside. 

Look up you **** !

 What is it with people today, not paying attention to where they are going, and when they finally realised that they are on a collision course with you, they just stare blankly at you, wondering what the **** you are doing there. How dare you be in THEIR way.

This isn't a new thing, and it certainly isn't limited to any particular demographic. In fact, it seems almost part of evolution. Years back a joke illustration was made of the evolution of the human race, showing it going from hunched, to stooped, to walking upright. With a new addition at the end of the human starting to stoop again to naturally be in a "staring at phone screen" position,

But here's the thing, it's not even just phone zombies now, nor the latest addition, hoodie wearing cybermen, as predicted by Doctor Who decades ago. Wherever you go, you are sure to find one of the varieties of the human race who are incapable of looking where they are going.

Coffee drinks away with the fairies, phone zombies fixated on their screens, school mums too busy chatting to acknowledge anyone else around them, regardless of the danger they pose. Headphone wearing day dreamers, or just plain ignorant ****s. There are many more, as well as combinations of the able, but lets keep this basic shall we. 

Every time I leave the house, for a walk, a dog walk, a run, a ride, or to drive somewhere I am guaranteed to encounter a number of them. Running along, balancing along the kerb so I don't have to run into traffic, but hey, you do you, why should you budge over just a tiny bit, how dare someone else need to use the pavement. 

Walking the dog, the phone zombies staggering down the road, I try to keep property side of the pavement, dog on my left to use myself as a barrier between the person and the dog. Here they come, swerving down the road like a drunk at 2am after kicking out time. Suddenly they reach me, looking up in shock and disgust. Confronted by a furry face who is now interested why they are so close to their human. But hey, my bad !!

It just goes on and on, scooter riders, as well as bike riders, just popping out of nowhere, then suddenly joining the road right in front of the car, but again, shocker, they are surprised there is a car on the road, imagine that.

The point I am getting to here is a simple one. Spacial awareness, it is something built into us as part of self preservation. Awareness of danger around us, avoiding coming into physical conflict with anything which poses a threat to our well-being. But alas, it's slowly being evolved out of us, and replaced by entitlement. 

The dirty looks you get from someone who just put themselves in mortal danger is a thing! Rather than shock, relief and maybe an apology, you now get confusion, aggression and an entitled rant. "You should have been looking out for me".... NO! YOU should look where you are going and be more aware of your surroundings. 

Phone snatchers thrive on this new mentality, do as you please without recourse.  Walk down the road in your own little world, completely unaware that there is an e-bike heading towards you with a rider in a balaclava, woosh, suddenly there is no more distraction, and your phone is gone, probably with all your credit cards etc too. If only you were move considerate and aware of what was happening around you. Rather than rudely barrelling through the streets expecting the world to part like the Red Sea.

Then we have pedestrians and cyclists who end up being hit by bicycles, mopeds, scooters and cars. Everyone else is to blame, it is never the person involved. The ability to take responsibility for our actions and occasional mistakes is gone. Replaced by... yup you guessed it, entitlement. Some scenarios and how they play out.

Pedestrian bumps into phone zombie... pedestrians fault.
Phone zombie walks into road and is hit by cyclist... cyclists fault.
Cyclist jumps red light and hits a car... cars fault.

The list goes on an on, but somehow, every time, the entitled arsehole somehow manages to blame the other party. 

And then you have cyclist mentality, which is a whole thing of its own. I recently saw an old clip on X which was of a cyclist running a red light and close passing a woman with a buggy. Alarmingly quite a few people went either with "didn't hit her, whats the problem" or, "shes was in the wrong for stopping when she saw him, she could have caused an accident". Unreal! Don't defend the indefensible, don't make yourself look stupid, and take some damn responsibility for your actions. 

If things carry on the way they are going, the world is doomed, and the human race, especially the western world, is done for. Sod climate change, attitude change is the thing that is most damaging to the existence of humans on this planet. And what makes it even worse, is the infrastructure and laws of the land are changing to support these arrogant entitled attitudes. 

That's better, now I don't have to think about writing this blog every time I go out and encounter these arseholes.

Thanks for reading.

Wiped out!

 Phew, what a roller-coaster the past dozen or so days have been. Dieting, exercising, counting calories, and trying to find a balance that fits me. Making sure I am getting enough food in to power the furnace, and making sure I don't over do the exercise and out the fire out. 

Yesterday was a busy old day, but before I get onto that, let me mention my highlights so far. 
Increased exercise load, or back to my old normal should I say (with exception to yesterday, but we will come to that)
Reduced food intake, more specifically reduced calorie intake. Ending most days with a 1500+ calorie deficit.

The result of which is a loss from between 14 and 19lbs, depending which starting weight you use. I will be conservative and call it 14lbs. But that is in 10 days, so I am not complaining at that. As usual all weigh-ins are dry. Post activity, post pee etc. Dropping from low 240s to high 220s in that time makes me happy.

I am of course mindful of a couple of things. Early days in weight loss are always productive, seeing a big drop off, then it tapers, but I am OK with that. Even OK with a couple of fluctuations along the way. I am not expecting the same from next week, and would guess at 224 by the end of next week, 222 would be amazing. 
I am also well aware that I carry a lot of muscle mass too, so getting anywhere near what some of the guides recommend. For example, after a weightloss program I did before, I was down to 196lbs. I was asked if I was seriously ill, and told I looked unwell.

So when you see the chart below, it is a bit of a concern. The 132-167 is normal range. 174-202 is overweight, then the next 2 are obese and severely obese. OK 278+ is a bit of a reach even for me, but if I was 174 I would have lost a lot of muscle mass and be wasting away, and somehow still be overweight. Another great reason to ignore science at times.

5 ft 10 in (70 in)	132–167 lb	174–202 lb	209–271 lb	278–376 lb

Next up is blood pressure, when it was tested at a job assessment recently it was quite high. Obviously stress of the situation wasn't helping, but on checking when I got home, it was indeed high. In 2 months I have brought that down to a much better place, and can feel the difference.

Also resting heart rate is a good measure for me, as the weight has gone on, the resting HR has risen. For my weekly average to be 45 or more is a sign I am not doing great, and that is roughly where it has been of late. However the last few weeks have seen that decrease too, and I am back around 40-41bpm average now. Again my body feels in rhythm and unstressed like this. 

However that brings me on to yesterday and today. Deciding to push myself a bit yesterday, I was off, the weather was nice and all that. I first did a 4.5 mile dog walk, then came home and went to the park to do 3 miles of running, including a 10 min benchmark run at high intensity. Then I came home, had a bowl od porridge, and went out for a 30 mile bike ride. The calorie deficit for yesterday was 3,300 by the end of the day, so massive!

I went to bed knowing sleep would not be great, and I was right. Lately my sleep score has been high 80s, last night, just 57. My resting HR was also up to 43, and I woke feeling lethargic. As expected really then. 

So today I need to take things a bit easier, nothing big planned, just a walk in a little while, then maybe a turbo session this afternoon just to loosen things up and keep things moving. Amazingly from all that, I have no aches and pains that I didn't before the day started, so that is nice.

Now if I can just wake up a bit, I can go for a little walk, stretch the legs, relax the mind, and get some fresh air. 

Thanks for reading.

A night shift with the Met

So last night....

I went for a ride along with a response unit from Lewisham Police to get a look behind the curtains of what the job takes.

Shakey start with the front desk not knowing about the arrangement but after one of the sergeants running about a bit I was assigned to 2 officers for the night.

Quiet start to the shift, leaving the station just before 11pm. A bit of a look around the patch, nothing much happening.

Just before 1am we got our first chance to run on blues to reports of a fight. After a 5 mile blue light run, with some absolute terrible driving by members of the public, we arrived with other units, to find it had been stood down as a play fight.

Shortly after assigned to another call, not i-grade. Encountered some more interesting driving along the way, with words of wisdom offered to them for their poor driving.

Just before 2am the officers suggested food at 2.30..

Obviously at 2.20 a car came onto our radar, and after a couple of short bursts of speed, and what seemed it was going to be a fail to stop, a car was stopped. Extra units called for, good quick show of numbers, resulting to one being taken into custody.

To complete the experience I was then permitted to go to custody to see how the processing of someone who has been arrested works. Having seen it all on TV, I was shocked to see just how much longer the process is. Not in a bad way, but it's really not like you see it on TV. Very thorough indeed.

Even seeing the evidential breathalyser machine being used is nowhere near as swift as they show on TV. Just the process of leading up to taking a sample takes a while.

Once the person was safely in a cell, it was time for the paperwork. That is where the real surprises came in. A large pool of hot desks for officers to do their "paperwork" at. A very detailed and long winded system to get everything on record in body cam footage.

Obviously I realise this is VERY important and needs to be done properly, but seeing so many officers at desks having to get all the paperwork done before returning to the streets really highlights how much time is spent on this process. To add insult to injury, after almost 2 hours of doing the report, inc time taken to grab some food, the system decided to crash and the whole report was lost.

As he started it all again, the sergeant came over and suggested it might be a good time to call it a night. I would be lying if I said I wasn't relieved.

It was a real eye opener, and something I would love to do again one day. I would genuinely recommend it to anyone, especially those who have questions about policing and how it works.

Huge thanks to the officers I spent the shift with for answering all my questions and giving me a genuine view of how the streets are policed. And the challenges the police face.