Sixteenth Day – in Transit: Florida to Washington, D.C. – I have a girl for a father and a man for a mother.

 

I always assume that nothing interesting will happen on days of transit and I can use the time on the plane to write about things that I have forgotten to mention or haven’t emphasised enough, but I should’ve learnt by now to never assume anything when you’re travelling. The flight from Vancouver to Minneapolis a week ago was one of the most turbulent I’ve ever been on – the force was enough to make the whole plane gasp and for us to almost hit our heads, but that was nothing compared to the flight today which proved to be so turbulent that the flight attendants could not leave their seats for about 90% of the journey, and after my little experience feeling airsick last time I tried to blog on a turbulent flight – I thought it wise not to try again.

But I know a lot of you are reading this for an answer to the title, well my Dad has been going into every single outlet shop possible… and find’s the one rack that isn’t on sale and buys almost everything. In the past sixteen days he’s gotten: 2 pairs of shoes, 4 pairs of jeans, 6 shirts and golfing gear… remembering we are travelling using pack-size suitcases. When I mentioned to him that his blue fleece from Whistler made his eyes look bluer he answered “That’s why I got it!” and I then realized he was wearing a very metro purple shirt underneath and the realization hit… I have a girl for a father.

Don’t worry though, everything’s straightened out. I have a man for a mum (American translation: mom). For those who don’t know her, here she is:

 

For those of you who don’t know her, here are some fun facts: my mother has absolutely no sense of direction at all (even from the ski hire place back to our hotel), absolutely no idea on her lefts and rights, she is often mistaken for being Asian when we travel in Asia or sometimes Greek when in Greece, and trust me – you do NOT want to get on her bad side. She’s scary when she’s mad – even if it’s not at you. But something my mother hasn’t started doing until lately is getting the male and female toilets confused. She did it over a week ago in Vancouver airport and left in hilarious laughter, originally confused why the female toilets had urinals but she managed to do it again today – luckily again, nobody was using it. If you ever see her photo and a notice prohibiting her entry into your country – that will be why.

Now I have a chance to talk about something that didn’t bother me until we left Disneyworld and returned to the real world – and that is Disney itself, particularly Disney princesses. Forget Barbie giving children false ideas – have you seen the stories recently? Someone needs to apologize to children watching Snow White, when she sings “One Day My Prince Will Come” and tell them that’s not exactly how real life works and that a kiss on the lips will not awake you from poison. And I’m sorry, but no man is going to fly out to your balcony on a carpet and take you to a Whole New World. The rest are all the same, and Cinderella should tell girls it’s not so easy to walk in glass slippers:

  

People complain about Barbies being too thin but have you had a look at Disney Princesses lately? And I know Disney said that I’m most like Cinderella but let’s face it… I’m much more like the Fairy Godmother.

The other thing that makes me think I’m a bit Disney-ed out is the fact that everywhere I look and every time I blink – I see Mickey Mouse’s head, or occasionally Pluto or Daisy Duck. It’s like I’m hung-over or something. But I mean I loved Disneyworld, but I think I’ve had enough for now… there are a lot of crying children there, and it doesn’t matter if they’re English, Chinese or French – all kids cry in the same language, and it’s loud.

But the highlight of my day was definitely sitting in this restaurant:

And I just loved the things they served. I ate “Kookaburra” (which was really chicken) and Mum had a “Queensland Salad”, I wasn’t aware we had our own salad and as far as I can tell… it’s just a garden salad. I will upload the rest of the photos to Facebook eventually, but I’ll leave you with some of my favourites now:

(The menu said “Aussie Chips” because Americans call them “fries”)

(They got it wrong! We don’t call it “shrimp” we call it “prawns”)

  (Love that they use the word “lolly” it means “candy/sweet”)

Ah… no need to feel homesick at all. I just love how they try so hard but it’s still mostly all so wrong.

And lastly, something to leave you on…

I love that we apparently surf in the outback.