Fire and Ice

I know it's been a bit slow around this blog lately but between the holidays, handovers, packing, shopping, and (mainly) not being in the office, I just haven't had a chance to update! So I haven't forgotten but I do know that from now on it will be a little harder to keep this up to date... so I apologize in advance. But know that I will be here as soon as I can to get all the latest rants up, to chat about any new Disney songs I stumble across, to document some of my runs and of course to update you on the new human that I'm working on right now. Until then, have a happy 2009 - may all your dreams come true! Catch you on the flipside...

Continuing on from my series on travels around the world (showcase) today we’re going to Italy ! In Epcot, the Italy pavilion isn’t one of my favourites, I must say. It IS one of the nicest to look at, in terms of architecture and styling, but once you’ve had a look at it, there isn’t much to actually do in there. Even the shops feel quite small and although they sell some gorgeous things, do not tend to make me linger. There isn’t a movie or attraction here and it is a shame because that, together with the open plan layout of the pavilion, make it likely that people will walk on by, as they can ‘see it all’ just by walking past on the promenade. To be fair, there are a number of shows and events at the pavilion, the ones I can remember are the ‘living statues’ and the ‘Renaissance players’ (is that what they are called?). I think there once was an Italian musical group performing there too but I’m not sure. In any case, I think that this pavilion could do with a bit

It's nice that Disney went to these great lengths to celebrate ME!! It's of course all a bit of fun - want your own?

Okay, another one of these 'games' that I generally ignore but this one was a little different. I'm not tagging anyone so if you fancy playing along, please do! 1. Put your iTunes on shuffle. 2. For each question, press the next button to get your answer. 3. YOU MUST WRITE THAT SONG NAME DOWN NO MATTER HOW SILLY IT SOUNDS! 4. Tag 10 friends who might enjoy doing the meme as well as the person you got the meme from. If someone says “is this okay” you say? Colors of the Wind – from Pocahontas Not a great start… this just doesn’t make sense! What would best describe your personality? Las chicas no tienen pilila – Los Inhumanos Not much sense here either (this means “girls don’t have…” you know!) but I guess it does describe me at least. What do you like in a guy/girl? El 7 de septiembre – Mecano While I do tend to like guys that have birthdays in September, I can’t make much sense out of this one either. How do you feel today? Cruela de Vil

About a month ago it was Mickey's birthday and today is Walt's - his 107th if he was still alive today. I'm sure lots of people out there will blog about Walt and what he did and do it so much better than I could. So I'll keep it short and celebrate Walt's birthday by sharing one of my favorite (and less known) quotes with you: "All your dreams can come true if you have the courage to pursue them." Walt Disney I hope that at least one of your dreams comes true today!

For a while now I have had an idea: why not contrast my experience of the countries in World Showcase with my experience of the real countries? I have visited enough of them to make this relatively interesting… and I even thought that this might make a good scrapbook album but it would make an even more interesting series of blog posts. So we start today, rather arbitrarily, with France . But first of all, some background into my experience with World Showcase as a whole. I seriously can’t remember the first time I went to EPCOT but it was fairly early on – it opened in 1981 and I do recall that we went in 1986 (to celebrate my 15 th birthday!) and I had already been before so let’s say I probably went through those turnstiles in 1983. I remember being dazzled by the architectural varieties as well as the unique shopping and even some of those movies. It definitely was love at first sight and EPCOT quickly became my favourite park. Some years later I applied and