Well Hi everyone, here goes Captain Slog, the intrepid traveller, setting out on yet another voyage into the deep unknown! 

Well, not exactly unknown...... not exactly deep either but definitely a bit different this time.

There was a touch of deja vu yesterday as my lovely Wendy drove me so safely to Heathrow. She is such a good driver, bless her. I was to stay the night at the T5 Travelodge, which is the cheapest hotel by miles in the area. I paid £19 for my room and the bed was really comfortable too. Wendy and Nick stayed for a meal and then drove home, leaving me to watch the smallest flat screen tv in the world! I never knew they made them that tiny! I gave up after about half an hour and decided to get my head down.

This morning was a lovely day, threatening sunshine and quite mild. No sign of the awful wind and rain of the previous few days. I had prepaid for my breakfast but didn't actually eat much as it was too early. We retirees don't usually get up very early, so breakfast at 7am was a bit of a shock! 

So there I was outside waiting for the Heathrow Hoppa bus when I was invited to share a taxi with another girl which was very nice of her and which got me to T5 in no time. I had upgraded to Premium Economy just before I left home and managed to get myself an exit bulkhead seat next to a window for a change. There was no queue at the bag drop and security was pretty painless too.

The plane left on time and my seat was brilliant, loads of room to get past my neighbour who was a very nice man, a doctor of biology. He was really jealous of my impending trip as his wife refuses to fly anywhere.

This had to be the first time that I had ever travelled on a scheduled flight and not had a single alcoholic drink. I didn't eat the meal either, just didn't fancy it much. It was fillet steak with red wine sauce but, hey ho!

So once again, here I am in Florida, Miami to be precise, at the Doubletree Hilton by the airport. No sense in wandering too far into the metropolis as I am back on another plane tomorrow afternoon. I like Doubletree, the rooms are a good size and then there's the free cookie! It's hot here, in the mid 20s but tomorrow night I'll be shivering again in the low teens.

I have just checked in with American Airlines for tomorrow's flight and it seems that you even get to pick your meal in advance, if you want to - beef stew and yellow rice. Not very enticing but the other option was some weird shrimp thing or pasta which airlines always manage to turn into rubber.

The hotel is adjacent to a shopping mall which I have just visited. What a load of crap!!

Most of the shops are empty, of the occupied ones, l would guess 85% are s***ty jewellery and the rest are s***ty clothes, so pretty s***ty all round!! Just as well really because my holdall is full to bursting and think of the money I've saved!

Right, I'm off to find something to eat that's not a burger and fries. This may take a while ........

Well, I visited the posh hotel restaurant and it was a typical pretentious hotel restaurant, all airs and graces but no style or manners. It styled itself as a Spanish tapas restaurant. I ordered a Spanish charcuterie to start - olives, roasted peppers, manchego, chorizo and serrano ham. I was assured that this was not a huge plateful, so I also ordered angel hair pasta with a tomato and basil sauce and sliced grilled chicken - note the lack of cheese in the description.

The charcuterie was huge and when I was only half way through it, out comes the waiter with my pasta and he started to try to move things around on the table so he could set it down. I just looked at him and asked him if I looked as though I was ready for my main course? He just stood there and gaped at me! So I called over the head honcho and asked him why my meal had arrived before I had finished my previous course, told him that I didn't appreciate being rushed, especially as there were only three tables occupied in the whole place and that I could probably understand why business was slack when their customers were rushed through their meals. I told him that in England it is considered the height of bad manners to bring out the next course before the previous one had been cleared away, let alone not even finished. There followed much fawning and obsequious bowing and scraping!!

A good 15 minutes later I looked up and allowed them to take my plate away and bring me my pasta. It was not a great bowl of pasta and I was only given a fork and a teaspoon to eat it with. Once again, enter head honcho stage left....... fetch me some decent cutlery my man.... You have to educate these people! I left most of the pasta as it was soggy and the chicken was coated in the dreaded cheese. Why does everything have to be smothered in cheese?

To add insult to injury, they tried to short change me, left me a dollar short - cheeky b*****s! So gonna have to find somewhere better for brekkie!