Holidays In The Sun
Things have been somewhat tight for my other half and I. Mainly due to her being a banker. Last year she changed her job, and landed a plumb one at a bank, which just happened to go bust because of the sub-prime loans scandal on the very day she started. Oops.

Fortunately they couldn't just turf her out (this being in Germany) and so she effectively got paid to find another job, which she did on the last day of her 6-month probation, and then had to suffer ANOTHER 6-month probation. This meant NO HOLIDAY for a year.

Finally her probation was up, and she was allowed to take holiday. This we duly did, flying off to Florida. In September. Last Year. At what seemed at the time to be ridiculously good exchange rates.

No, we didn't get hit by any one of the three hurricanes, but it did mean that we had good room rates and a choice. Some hotels practically begged us to stay. We sat on Pensacola Beach one dusky evening and watched Hurricane Ike in the distance, thundering into the bay of Mexico. Next day it got a little rough in Pensacola, but we'd departed to New Orleans, which had only just re-opened for business. OK we got a bit of horizontal rain, but it wasn't that bad. It was even warm.

Meanwhile, of course, the election is going on, and Sarah Palin and John McCain are doing their damned best to generate material for the Election party I'd been booked to do in November. Life was surprisingly good. We got to see Kennedy Space Centre AND see a shuttle on the launchpad (something I've wanted to do for my entire life), The CNN building, the Missisippi and even a jazz traffic jam in New Orleans (really)

Then, to cap it all.. on the way back to Atlanta, we stopped at Tuscaloosa. That night, we watched a) Batman Begins and b) the entire and complete collapse of the international banking system. Oops. A few days later we flew back to Germany.

Three Hurricanes and the collapse of Western Civilization.. Now that's what I call value for money from a holiday.
( Stevedix http://www.stevedix.de/blog, Thu 22 Jan 2009, 15:18, Reply)