Britain, value your holiday!

I have been remiss and have failed to blog in the 7 days since I got back from home. But in my defence, I was floored by a combination of a nasty cold and particularly bad jetlag, so I've spent most of the last week either asleep or coughing up a lung. Anyway, as a result this is a long post, so I apologise in advance.


My ten days at home were awesome, although everything felt kind of like suspended reality. It's not like it didn't feel like home any more - when I walked past a pile of sick on my way to Passport Control in Heathrow, I knew I was back in England. I'm not sure it's that I felt I didn't belong there, either. It just didn't quite feel like it was really happening - and yet my new life in Orlando just felt like a dream as well. I felt a bit suspended between the two.

With my best friend Nic in the world's best chicken restaurant - Nandos!

Needless to say I basically ate and drank my way through the country. There was Nandos (and lots of it), there was curry, there was Pizza Express, there was roast lamb, and with it being St. Patricks Day while I was home, there was Guinness a-plenty. Free Guinness, actually - me and my best mate led the charge on collecting as many 'print this voucher, get a free Guinness at Pitcher & Piano' codes as possible and managed to get a 5-person round of the black stuff for nothing. 

Our free Guinness!

We would have got a second one too (we were literally setting up email addresses to get more codes), except we ran the Guinness taps dry!


I feel like I really made the most of my precious, precious ten days - shopping, eating, but most of all laughing hysterically with my family and friends. I could have stayed for another week had I had the funds.


Just when I thought I was going to experience an entire trip without travel drama, I had not reckoned with the supreme stupidity of American Airlines. It's not the fact that I had an allergic reaction to their in-flight food I have a problem with - hey, it happens - it's that, rather than offering me any assistance whatsoever, the cabin crew instead bollocked me for not ordering a special diet meal and then left me alone at 37,000ft to take an adrenaline shot and suffer a serious medical emergency. I was fine, but only after 4 hours of being unable to swallow, shakes, heart palpitations, stomach cramps and vomiting. Luckily the guy next to me was an understanding chap - and had been in the same nightclub as me the night before. Small world. And I'm fine now. It was just a bit bloody scary.


Since I got back to the States, I've had 3 job interviews and a major reality check. All the jobs are very low-paid, close to minimum wage, and yet for 2 of them I require multi-stage interviews - and for one, THREE interviews, including a panel with 3 directors. This is, by the way, for a job that involves standing in a hallway giving people directions. And they say the economy is recovering...


The biggest shock I have had is on benefits. The three-stage interview job has NO paid holiday at all for the first year - and then you earn one week. 


I would imagine most Americans reading this will probably be thinking, "Er, yeah, that's normal. So what?" I would also imagine that most Brits reading this are probably thinking, "What the [insert expletive here]?! That's completely insane!!" Which were exactly the words that came out of my mouth when I was out of the interview. Plus a few more that I can't really repeat.


I'm sure many people this side of the pond feel we're spoilt rotten, which in comparison we are. The statutory paid annual leave entitlement in the UK - that is, the amount of time off we are entitled to by law - is 28 days a year, so 5.6 weeks. A lot of people get more - civil servants get 6 weeks. Yes, we pay more tax, but believe me - right now I would happily pay 20% income tax to get those 28 days off. Whoever says Americans are lazy clearly doesn't know about vacation entitlements. And the reason there's a weight problem is probably cos everyone is so stressed out by working without a break that they either have no time to exercise or comfort eat. I've had a huge slap in the face from reality.


It may not seem like a big deal - but when your entire family lives in another country, it's a huge deal. Unless I get in to one of the major companies at a management level, I will not get a single day off outside of weekends for the next 12 months. No visiting my people. And days off take so to accrue that the adventures me and Jason were planning for the future may never happen. That hurts my heart, a lot. I knew I was going to get less - I just wasn't expecting none.


So the job hunt continues - cos a job with no holiday is still better than no job at all. I'm just feeling a lot less optimistic than I used to.

Tell the world.

Tomorrow I am going back to the UK for the first time in nearly 5 months.

In amongst the excitement and the warmth I feel in my heart at the prospect of setting foot on home soil (even if it is chuffing freezing on said soil), I'm actually quite nervous, and I've been trying to figure out why.

I think I got it narrowed down to the emotions I felt when I first left. I am happy here, and I love my husband very much, but I could be the happiest person on the planet and it still wouldn't change the fact that leaving my friends and family behind was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I actively avoid thinking about it, but soon I will have to do it again.

But I won't let the nerves get to me, and I just have to trust that I will be OK and that I am going to make the most of the time I will have with my favourite people (although, unfortunately the hubby will not be coming with me this time, but there is always next time...)

This is me out for 10 days. See you when I get back, assuming my blood hasn't assumed full Floridian consistency causing me to freeze to death...

My, my...manatees!

So on Wednesday it was Jason and I's 'dating' anniversary, celebrating 3 years since we started going out. By 'started going out', I mean I snogged him in my local bar and he didn't really have a choice in the matter, but he didn't seem to object either...

Anyway, as part of a rather marvellous weekend we had lined up - including lunch at a fancy restaurant and comp tickets to Cirque du Soleil - we drove up to Crystal River, about 90 minutes north of our house, to visit the manatee wildlife reserve.

(This was courtesy of Groupon, whose daily deal about 3 weeks ago was 50% off a manatee snorkel tour and equipment hire, saving us over 50 bucks...)

We donned some very fetching wetsuits at the dive shop and set out in a little boat into the reserve. First stop was a sanctuary area near the spring source, where you can't go in to swim with the manatees but can watch them from very nearby in the incredibly clear water.

There were lots of mums and babies in the water who were extremely adorable. I've never seen manatees in the wild before and I made two observations - firstly, they have lots of algae-type stuff growing on them (which you definitely don't see at Sea World!). Secondly, if they aren't interested in you, they can swim considerably faster than I can, despite their reputation for generally being slow-moving souls.

Our guide said that often, if they're feeling well-fed, the manatees will come up to you of their own volition and want to play. As it had been very cold and then very warm recently, our sea cow friends were more interested in sleeping and eating than getting to know us. Very warm, by the way, is all relative if you ask me - the water was pretty chilly and with a northerly wind blowing, J and I had the full-on shakes while we were sat on the boat!

We did, however, meet a girl manatee who, although not particularly interested in playing, didn't seem to mind having her back scratched while she was searching for breakfast.

For those who are wondering - it was like stroking an algae-covered rock. But still a wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime thing.

I did feel a bit concerned afterwards that we had been 'chasing' our manatee friend for an encounter, which I didn't want to do. But we watched the DVD of our adventure afterwards which showed her happily foraging in the silt for food while we scratched her - she couldn't care less, so long as we didn't get in the way of her food, so that made me feel better.

It was a wonderful, albeit a bit chilly, day, seeing a rare and amazing animal in its natural habitat. A perfect way to celebrate 3 years together :)

Have Your Say

I am attempting to register as an overseas voter. I get an overseas vote for the next 15 years or until I register to vote in the UK again, whichever comes sooner.

Anyway, I have to fill out this form and get a witness. This witness has to be another British Citizen, who is also living abroad, and who is not a parent, sibling, spouse, child, stepchild or grandchild.

Even in Orlando, known for having a decent (but not necessarily large) ex-pat population,  it's not like I can just nip next door to find one of these, is it?

Just a mini-rant there. My next post will be much chirpier, as I'll be telling you all about going swimming in a natural spring with some manatees. A demain.