African Bovine (makes Longhorns jealous!)

Sleepy Bengal

 Got up early in preparation for our big day on Safari. We have been wanting to do Disney’s Animal Kingdom for some time, and I recently discovered they have a special “backstage” tour that’s several hours long, where the group is limited to 12 and there are two guides who take you much more up close and personal with the animals. It’s a bit more expensive than just the entry fee, but we decided that since we only had the one day, we wanted the whole experience as much as possible. We were at the gates when it opened and managed to get on the last tour of the day, with only three other people! Fabulous! We spent the morning seeing many of the other sights, including taking a ride on the Himalayan roller coaster, during which I was reminded why I don’t like roller coasters, and after which I promised myself Never Again! I really just wanted to see the view from up top, but that was too short-lived to make it worth the queasiness afterward. Took a while for my stomach to settle down. We also took the rapids, saw the bird show, and walked most of the trails. Didn’t have time to take the train though, before we had to report in to the check in for the Africa Trek. What a blast that was! Under the supervision of two young female guides, the five of us trekkers got all outfitted with vests and zip lines hooks and even a souvenir water bottle, before heading out on the trail. After following a couple of the public trails (which Hubby and I had already toured), we finally headed into uncharted territory, heading along a narrow path that made it clear why there’s a weight limit (yes, we had to get weighed during the outfitting), as the trees were quite thick and close together. We came within yards of all the great critters; hippos, crocodiles, giraffes, wild bovines, a variety of deer, cheetah, even a lion king and his sister perched high on a rock. We saw so much more than we had when we went on the public tour, it was incredible! We even got to stop at a way station where they fed us lunch, a wide variety of a whole bunch of different kinds of foods. Hubby and I love ethnic food, and this was no exception, we thoroughly enjoyed it. There was one Englishwoman there who wasn’t at all adventurous when it came to food, wouldn’t touch a thing, and one of the tourguides eventually gave her a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I can’t understand that, there was nothing at all spicy or displeasingly tasteful about any of it, but c’est la vie, to each his own. Toward the end we were parked in one spot where we could see cheetahs, lions, rhinos, and three other types of African critters. Fantastic! Well worth every penny we spent. Finished up with just enough time to pick up a tropical drink before heading out of the park and back to the hotel for a few more before getting a much needed relaxing evening.

Hubby in “Africa”

 

After much discussion, Hubby and I decided that trying to leave on Monday, our planned scheduled departure, would be a missed opportunity. We had hoped to visit some sites over the weekend, but with Friday gone to a client, and today we were so bushed we could barely crawl out of bed, we decided to postpone our departure until Wednesday, which would give us time to recover and to go on a mini-vacation. After all, we had had six jobs in September, more than we’ve ever done before, and it was time to reward ourselves. I changed the hotel, car and flight to reflect this decision, then Hubby and I got into our bathing suits and headed down to the pool, which was both indoor and outdoor, and a rather rambunctious hot tub. We lazed around all afternoon, even napping a bit despite the heavy traffic pounding away next to us, till we couldn’t take it anymore. Then we headed up to the room and slept some more. Finally I heated up the leftovers and we enjoyed our Indian meal yet again, before once again crashing for the evening.

Rented the executive Boardroom in the Embassy and spent the afternoon working with our client there. It was a good session, and again he felt he got his money’s worth out of it. Afterward, now completely finished with work, we hit the bar in earnest. We’ll get back to teatotalling it when we get home, but for now, the booze is free! After a drink, we headed out to a nice little Indian restaurant we found, have a perfectly delightful meal, bringing home plenty of leftovers fro tomorrow. We even went back to the bar for a nightcap, even though it wasn’t free anymore. Another packed yet fun-filled day!

Had another productive day, everyone made great advanced and seemed pleased, apparently getting out of it what they had hoped to get. Tried some other things a bit differently, and they all worked great with this group. Might not with everyone, but certainly did with this group. At the end of the day, one of the attendees, who is about to go into court, asked us if we would consider spending some time with him tomorrow. We agreed on a rate and time, and set off to happy hour at the managers reception. Nice to get the work, but I was kind of ready to crash but work comes first, I can always crash later!

Reacquainted ourselves with our former students for the advanced workshop (though one had just been through the basic camp, not something we usually allow but had slipped through the cracks on the other end), and got to work. My friend Steve also came to the class, as he continues on his training to becoming a possible surrogate teacher eventually. Again, a very productive and energizing day. Had dinner with Steve and our seminar planner, though Hubby begged off, still tired from the recent trials. We ended up going to the Kobe Steakhouse, one of those Japanese Hibachi chef in your face places. It was enjoyable, though again, I kept my intake to a minimum. Figured maybe if I lost a few pounds as a result of last weeks food poisoning, I should try to keep it off! It was a good time anyway, sorry Hubby missed it.

Another good day in the workshop. We recently changed a few things about how it is conducted, which gives everyone a chance to get up twice, which has been about the only improvement that had been suggested by previous attendees, and it seemed to go over well. This time we did go out with our seminar planner to Uno’s across the street, and we both had small meals just to keep our systems straight. A good day, a good training camp.

Slept like a rock (though I had to put in earplugs to block out the traffic noise from I-4 right next door), woke up feeling better than I had in days. We went downstairs for the free hot breakfast, then went to work. It was an excellent class, with a very attentive and involved group, and I almost made it through the day unscathed, though in the last hour or so I was starting to flag. Usually I can boost myself up to a higher level when that starts to happen, but I just didn’t have the reserves this time. Nevertheless the group remained involved till the very end of the day. Hubby and I were both so exhausted, though, we had to postpone our usual dinner with our seminar planner, had another bowl of soup and were in bed even earlier.

Embassy Atrium

Packed up everything, had breakfast at the nearby Denny’s across from the Convention Center (where we had some of the best service we’ve experienced so far in Orlando!), then headed down to our new digs at the Embassy Suites on Jamaican Court. Before leaving the Rosen Plaza, I asked to speak with the manager regarding our food poisoning incident, and he was very unhelpful. First he chastised me for not telling him sooner “when he could have done something,” though what that would have been wasn’t clear, then when I told him about the tap water being added to the soup, he insinuated that Hubby didn’t actually see what he saw, that the water was probably going into “the steamer tray,” which was a ridiculous accusation, then again, indicated that I shouldn’t have waited so long to tell him, how it was too late. Well, I don’t know why it would be too late to fix what is apparently a systemic problem, but in his mind there was nothing he could or would do at this point. Very unhappy (angry actually) I left shaking my head. So despite decent rooms and service in other areas, I left the hotel extremely dissatisfied. Anyway, after breakfast we confirmed there was a microwave and refigerator in our room at the Embassy Suites, and headed out to Wal-mart to do some shopping. Checked into a typical Embassy room, which is very good by most standards and settled in. We had finally had a pretty good night sleep the night before, and our systems seemed to be just about purged, so we were beginning to feel better at last. Good thing, too, because it would be really hard to conduct an all-day workshop tomorrow if I wasn’t back to my normal energetic self! Had some soup (Healthy Choice microwaveable in the bowl) from Wal-mart with rice cakes, almost back to our regular diet, then was in bed by 9:00.

Worst Lighting Ever

Woke up still feeling lousy, but at the least the diarrhea seems to have gone away. I was determined to try to see more of the events today, so after a light breakfast, we headed over to the Convention Center where we watched the speeches of some of the candidates or their surrogates, and some didn’t even bother to send surrogates. The actual speakers were Rick Santorum, who did nothing but talk about himself (a losing strategy in our book), Newt Gingrich (who is always entertaining, but is still a bit vague about any actual plans or agenda other than the usual manta of lower taxes and private job creation), and Herman Cain, who frankly, ROCKED THE HOUSE!! He has a great no-nonsense style and a great message, with clear and easy to understand plans that might actually work, or at least start a dialogue that goes in the right direction toward something that might work. It would be great if he could get some traction here. He had a good performance on Thursday, albeit they didn’t give him much of a chance to speak because he’s not considered a top tier candidate, but he makes more sense than any of them in my book. And apparently not just my book, he impressed a lot of people here and ended up winning the straw poll by a HUGE margin!! It was incredibly exciting, because I don’t think anyone believed that anyone but them voted for Herman, so when the numbers came up there was as much disbelief at first as there was ecstasy later. He was impressive, and this should wake up the rest of the country to at least listen to him and judge for themselves, rather than having the media or the RNC pick them for us. Anyway, we were feeling just well enough afterwards to decide to have dinner at a restaurant in the Peabody on the walk back to our hotel, and enjoyed a nice but very slow meal there, which included some nice red meat for which we both had a craving. Our client happened by and spoke to us for a few minutes as well, so overall the day went as well as it could have done, even though neither of us were yet 100 percent. We were one our way, though! Just exhausted and weakened from the experience.