Tag Archives: florida

We Are Going To Florida Next Week

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We are going to Florida next week to see my two daughters, which is the only chance I get to see them every year, and as usual I am beginning to panic slightly.

As well as wanting to make sure that everything goes perfectly, gone are the days when I used to travel regularly for work, knew exactly what I needed to take, what clothing to pack etc.  The older I get, the more forgetful I get, the more aware I am of having A.D.D., and the more I fret about forgetting something important.

As well as the obvious items like passports, flight and car rental bookings etc, it’s things like the cameras and MP3 Player, making sure that these are charged, clothing, making sure I pack the right things.

Silly to fret about some of these things I know, but with money being tight I can’t afford to buy replacement items while we are away, and I can feel myself really finding it harder to remember things the last 3 or 4 years, which is worrying.

Even though our trip coincides with the Olympics in London, Delta for some reason are not flying direct between London and Miami for the summer, and so we have to change planes in Atlanta on the way out and Detroit on the way back.  A change of flight time has already forced us to leave Miami two hours early on the way back, and now we will have 4 1/2 hours in Detroit, which we are not looking forward to, especially as it will be late evening.

My other worry is whether Debbie will get held up in Immigration.  She is usually ok unless it’s Miami, where she always gets pulled over, even though she now has a 10 year visa in her passport. It’s a long story, but an interesting one that you can read about HERE if you have time.

But hopefully all will go well, and we are staying at the same condo in Hollywood Beach that we stayed at last summer. I know Hollywood pretty well, and we know the condo too, so that makes me more confident that it will be a good trip.

I am really looking forward to seeing my daughters, and will tell you all about it when we return mid August. If you want to see where we are staying and to read about last year’s holiday, it’s all HERE.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Five

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This is the 5th part of our holiday in Florida, and covers a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo.  If you would like to read about our trip from the beginning, you can start HERE.

A Day At Miami Metro Zoo

Miami Metro Zoo LogoAlthough I had lived in South Florida for 4 years before returning to the UK, I had never been to Miami Metro Zoo, and despite living in Hollywood all their lives, neither had my daughters, so this seemed to be a good choice of location for a day out as a treat for their upcoming birthdays.

Much of southern Miami Dade County has been rebuilt since Hurricane Andrew hit the area in August 1992, the zoo being just one of the locations that suffered enormous damage.

Miami Metro Zoo lies well south and west of downtown Miami, over 40 miles from Hollywood, and if driving by car you do need to be aware that the toll sections of the Florida Turnpike in South Florida no longer accept cash, so you either have to have a Sunpass transponder, or face hefty fines.  We opted to take the old road, US1 from where I95 ends just south of downtown, and despite having to go through a number of red light intersections, the journey wasn’t too bad.

The first thing that is noticeable about the zoo is the sheer space that it occupies and the open layout.  The parking lot is enormous, and we were thankful that on the day we went there were few other visitors, since trying to walk around the zoo on a hot sticky day with 20,000 others is not my idea of a fun day out.

The other thing is that all the pathways and trails through the zoo are very wide, allowing for lots of visitors on foot, as well as for the 4-wheeled cycles that you can rent, albeit at a hefty price.  As well as walking around the zoo, you can take the road train, or the air-conditioned monorail.

On arriving at the zoo we could already see the dark storm clouds looming in the distance, and we knew that the storms had arrived early that day, and soon after going into the zoo we were almost certainly going to have to find shelter.

Reading a book at Miami Metro ZooWe were not wrong, as within 15 minutes of beginning out walk around the zoo, the rain began to fall, and it came down in torrents for a good hour, during which we sheltered at an excellent exhibit hall, which had a lot of hands-on items, as well as a children’s library that my youngest daughter took an interest in, reading several books while we waited in there for over an hour for the rain to stop.

Hands On Exhibits at Miami Metro ZooWell the rain kept on coming down in torrents, and fortunately there was enough in the building to keep the girls occupied, my eldest spending time doing some puzzles, while my youngest sat and read, and Debbie sat and waited.

Finally the rain slowed to a light drizzle, and we decided to venture forth into the outside, which by this time was very wet, but we managed ok, being optimistic and upbeat, while the drizzle just continued.

Siamang Gibbons at Miami Metro ZooBy the time we got around what I estimate to be about 1/3 of the zoo, we decided that it would be a good idea to try and find somewhere to eat lunch, since we were now soaked through, having neither rain wear or an umbrella with us.  However, the main restaurant was closed for remodelling, a second grill was not cooking anything because the grill was in the open and therefore exposed to the rain.  There was a third facility by the children’s zoo, which just sold well overpriced burgers, so we decided to make the best of it, to wander around what we could, and then made our way back to the car.

It must have rained for most of the 4 ½ hours that we were there at the zoo, and looking at the guide just now there is a lot that we missed, so maybe next time we are in Florida we will return to Miami Metro Zoo.

It would have been nice to just have a rain shower, since it kept many of the visitors away, and it was actually nice not being surrounded by hordes of screaming kids, however not being able to see everything and with so many sections closed, it was a bad choice for us to go there on the day that we did.

Miami Metro Zoo Tiger EnclosureThe zoo is highly rated though, and with the animals having for the most part a lot of space and no cages, it would make a good family day out provided that the weather co-operated.   In the event that it’s extremely hot, the zoo does have places where you can get misted with a fine spray of water, which does help to cool you down.  Nobody seems to mind getting wet on a hot day in Florida, however there are limits, and walking around the zoo in a downpour is never any fun.

Miami Metro Zoo The End

CLICK HERE for the Sixth and final part of our trip to Florida.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Four

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Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy reading about our vacation in Florida.  This is the 4th post about our trip.  If you would like to start at the beginning, just click HERE.

A Trip To The Nature Center

Anne Kolb Nature Reserve Broward County FloridaThe Anne Kolb Nature Center is situated just across the intra-coastal waterway from Hollywood Beach, and although it’s close to the beach and where I used to live, I had never been there.  We thought this might be a good place to take the girls as a change from the pool and the beach, and educational at the same time.

The center is located in the middle of a mangrove swamp, with walkways that allow visitors to walk out into the swamp and to explore the wildlife close up, which includes various species of mangroves, and land crabs that can be seen climbing trees as well.

As well as the walks, the center does have organised boat rides through the swamp and evening excursions to see the turtles hatching in the summer months, but the latter are fully booked about a year in advance.

Steamy Day at the Anne Kolb Nature Center Broward County FloridaThe only problem was that on the morning that we decided to visit, it was 95 degrees and extremely humid, in other words a typical summer day in South Florida, so by the time we had taken a walk we were all ready to cool off.

We followed up with a refreshing dip in the pool, dinner, and then in the evening a nice walk along the broadwalk, which was fairly quiet for a change.  Sometimes the beach area gets really busy, especially at the weekends, and where they rent cycles and carriages that you pedal, it can be a bit of a nightmare, since many of the users don’t keep to the lane that is set out for them.

Hollywood Beach Boardwalk FloridaWith the girls having been with us a few days now, time began to pass quicker, as it always does, and before we knew it, it was Thursday evening, and their Mom came to pick them up, as they had an Irish Dancing competition in Georgia at the weekend.

So while the girls spent the weekend being driven all the way to Georgia and back, Debbie and I prepared to see friends of ours in Deerfield Beach and to do some planned shopping, since many items are much cheaper to buy in the USA than in the UK, as well as there being a lot more choice.

Visiting Friends In Deerfield Beach

Before I moved back to the UK I spent 2 years living in Deer Creek, which is a development in Deerfield Beach, between Fort Lauderdale and Boca Raton.  We went back to see some friends there, and if you would like to see what it’s like, you can take a Walk Around Deer Creek on a Squidoo lens that I created before I moved.

It was good to see my landlord again, as well as some of the other people that we had become friendly with, including an elderly couple who had made sure that Debbie was ok when she came over to visit and I had to go to work.

We spent several hours by the pool, then had dinner with my landlord, and got an invitation to go out to dinner on Sunday at a typical Jewish New York Style Diner in Boca Raton to experience traditional Jewish food from New York.

A Day Of Shopping

With the girls away in Georgia, that left us free on Saturday to go shopping.  We usually stock up on things which are cheaper in the USA, or that we just can’t get in the UK.

The day began with a trip to one of our favourite breakfast places, Golden Corral.  It may not be everyone’s choice, and does attract the “Wal-Mart crowd” if you know what I mean, but the food is good and it’s excellent value.

Then a trip to Ross Dress For Less to see what they had in the way of bargains, and after that Kohls, a store that I have always liked, not only for their choice of items but their prices and special offers.  Kohls had special discounts this weekend for their store card holders, so we both purchased some items, including gifts for the kids.

Next off to Wal-Mart again to stock up on food etc, and back to the condo as the heavens decided to open.   It’s rather sad that we spent a nice day shopping and then when we would have liked to go in the pool it rained, but that’s summer in Florida for you.

Sunday we relaxed by the pool and then headed up to Deerfield Beach, firstly to see my landlord who has a shop at the Festival Flea Market and to get some cosmetics for Debbie as there are some discount stores there.

Dinner At A New York Style Jewish Restaurant

Our friends from Deerfield took us to Ben’s Kosher Deli in Boca Raton so that Debbie and I could experience some traditional New York Jewish food, and the place was buzzing, despite it raining.

Service was excellent, and as well as munching on pickles and trying pickled green tomatoes for the first time, we got to try Matzo Ball Soup and some real corned beef.

The meal was good, as was the company, and the atmosphere was wonderful too.  The walls of the restaurant are covered with humorous quotes, for example this one:

Moses led us through the desert for 40 years until we came to the only place in the Middle East without any oil.

It was good to see our friends again, and with them being in their 80’s, you never know what the next year may bring as far as health, so it was good to spend some time with them.

Exhausted after a long dayThen after dinner we rushed back to the beach condo, in time for the girls to be dropped off to us after their long trip to Georgia.   They didn’t get back until after 9:30pm, and I had promised them ice cream before bed, so of course having driven down from Georgia and had a late night, both were ready for a good sleep.

Coming Up Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Five and join us next time for a trip to the Miami Metro Zoo.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Three

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This is the third part of our vacation in Florida.  If you missed the previous parts, here are the links to parts ONE and TWO.

Shopping And Relaxing

Hollywood Beach CondoSince my daughters were not coming to stay with us until the evening, that allowed us to have a lie in after our first night in Florida, and to try and overcome some of the jet lag before they arrived, since adding an extra 5 hours to the day having flown from the UK and then going to bed late, catches up with you sooner or later.

Much of the day was already planned, and I had looked up the location of an IHOP restaurant for breakfast (Debbie’s choice) and also the nearest Super Wal-Mart, which is the cheapest and best place to shop.  Although I had lived in Florida for 4 years, the decent Wal-Mart stores that I know are all north of Fort Lauderdale and further away, so we had to do some exploring and make our way to Miami Gardens, not the best of locations, but the drive was simpler than it looked on the map, and made easier because the store was right next door to Dolphin Stadium.

We had an enjoyable breakfast at IHOP, stocked up on groceries at Wal-Mart, then relaxed around the pool until it was time for me to pick up my daughters.

My How They Have Grown

My how the girls have grownThe girls were so pleased to see me and I got some wonderful hugs and kisses from them.  it was really hard not being able to see them for 18 months, a combination of not having enough money for the trip and Debbie getting sick, and despite having seen them regularly on Skype, it’s only when you see them in the flesh that you realise just how much they have grown.

My eldest daughter will be 11 next week, and it won’t be long before she is as tall as I am.  Her younger sister, who will be 7 in a few weeks time, is not too far behind her either.

This trip was very special in another way, since it’s the first time that their Mom has allowed them to stay over with us, so the first time I have been able to tuck them into bed in 4 years, and it felt really good.  We brought some books over for them, both are excellent readers, and so before bed we managed to read some stories, which was nice.

The following day the girls woke up early, and I took them to the beach early, allowing Debbie to have a lie in and to get ready.

We spent the morning in the pool and then the afternoon at the beach, the girls having a great time playing in the ocean, something that they rarely get a chance to do, despite living only 20 minutes from the beach.

Topeekeegee Yugnee Park

The girls at Topeekeegee Yugnee Park in HollywoodBetter known locally as “TY Park”, this is a large park in Hollywood that I usually take the girls to, and which has a children’s playground, water park, a large lake, and lots of paths to walk.

We decided to go here the next day, to make a change from the pool and the beach, but as so often happens in Florida it was hot and humid and at times just too hot!

Fortunately there are shady patches in TY Park, and when you walk close to the lake it’s large enough for there to be a cooling breeze.  The City of Hollywood also provides plenty of drinking fountains with chilled water, as well as water misting stations to help cool you off.

The girls had a great time there, and we returned to the condo exhausted.

Birthday Time

The girls on Hollywood BeachThe next day, since the girl’s birthdays are coming up and we won’t be there to celebrate with them, we took them to the movies, to see Monte Carlo, starring Selena Gomez who they both like.  This was a fun teen movie, which they both enjoyed, and was followed by a surprise trip to Toys R Us where they were given an allowance each to spend on birthday pressies.   Then back to the condo for dinner, followed by an ice cream cake.

Coming Up Next

CLICK HERE for Part Four and join us for a trip to a Nature Reserve and to the Zoo.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part Two

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This is the second article about our trip to Florida, you can find the first part HERE.

The reason that we picked Hollywood Beach in Florida for our vacation is that I used to live there, and more importantly this is where my daughters live with their Mom, and returning toFlorida is the only way that I can see them.

On Arriving

We arrived on the Friday evening, rather later than expected due to the hold up in immigration, and although we were tired, we decided to head off to the beach and take a walk instead of going straight to bed.

Of course by the time we unpacked our bags and changed ready for a walk along the beach it was 8pm, which was 1am by our body clocks, but we still wanted to unwind and to stretch our legs a bit before heading off to bed.

Hollywood Beach

Hollywood Beach FloridaFor those who are not familiar with Hollywood Beach, it’s a long stretch of beach between Miami and Fort Lauderdale on the east coast of Florida, on a strip of land that is separated from the mainland by the intra-coastal waterway.

Hollywood Beach still consists of a number of older buildings, some of which date back to the art-deco period, as well as some newer high rise condominiums and hotels.  Many of the older buildings are apartments and motels that are rented out to tourists, and although some have been modernised, others definitely show their age.  Nevertheless,Hollywood Beach does provide a relatively cheap place for “snowbirds” to spend the winter, and during the winter season it’s heaving with French Canadians and New Yorkers.

However, the summer months, which are hot and humid, and often troubled by tropical storms, are the low season, where prices are cheaper, and if you are lucky it’s a fairly quiet place to spend a summer vacation.

Hollywood Beach BroadwalkAs part of the modernisation program undertaken by the City of Hollywood, the whole stretch of the Broardwalk that runs along the beach has now been rebuilt, with a nice promenade for walking, a lane for cyclists and skaters, the beach on one side and restaurants and gift shops on the other side.

For our first evening we decided to take a fairly short stroll along the broadwalk, and the smells from one of the restaurants made Debbie feel peckish, so we stopped for a bite to eat, Debbie having a Philly Cheesesteak while I had a Meatball Sub.   Many of the restaurants cater to the New Yorkers who come to visit, and so you do find a number of them selling New Yorks tyle pizza and other Italian foods.

Having satisfied our food cravings, we headed back to the condo, and settled down for a good sleep, in what fortunately turned out to be a really comfortable bed.

Coming Up Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Three, where we have a day to ourselves and go shopping and stock up on essentials ready for the arrival of my daughters the following evening.

Tony and Debbie’s Florida Vacation – Part One

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This is the story of our vacation in Hollywood, Florida, which was a trip to see my two daughters, who I had not seen for 18 months because we had to cancel our plans to travel last Christmas due to Debbie not being well.

The Outbound Journey

Since our flight left London Heathrow at 9:30am, we decided to stay overnight at one of the hotels close to the airport, and use their parking service, which worked out very reasonable as compared with the regular airport parking charges.

This allowed me to work the previous day, and to travel up to London in the evening, missing the horrendous rush hour traffic on the M25, and fortunately the traffic was fairly light on this occasion.

We had opted for a “Mystery Hotel”, since this was cheaper to book, and it turned out to be the Holiday Inn Ariel, which was well located, and serviced by the shuttle buses that take you to the terminals.

The hotel room was comfortable, and despite being on the north perimeter of the airport, we didn’t hear a single plane during the night, and managed to get a reasonable sleep, even though we still had to get up early to be on time for our flight.

Check in at the airport was fairly straightforward, and having passed through the scanners we headed off to find somewhere to eat breakfast.  Places to eat at Heathrow Terminal 4 were sadly fairly limited, and everything was horribly overpriced.  However we did manage to find somewhere that did a Full English Breakfast, and that set us up for our flight.

The flight with Delta left on time, and as usual the cabin crew were friendly and helpful.  We have usually tried to fly with American Airlines before, but since our air miles have now expired (due to cancelling our previous trip) and their prices were far more expensive this time, we opted for Delta, which had the best prices as well as the best flight options.  The other great thing with Delta is that unlike many other airlines, your air miles do NOT expire, so all the miles that I have built up with Northwest Airlines in the last 10 years are now carried forward and I won’t lose them.

The flight to Miami was fairly smooth, other than some moderate turbulence in mid-Atlantic, and we arrived early, however as usual for us, things do not always go smoothly on arrival.

Held Up In Immigration Again

Since I now have US Citizenship we opted to both enter through the US Citizen lane, and thought we were all clear, until the agent directed us to the holding area, where we sat for two hours before being allowed in.  It seems that Debbie is likely to get pulled aside every time she enters the USA now, even though she has a 10 year visa in her passport.  It’s a long story, one that you can read HERE if you wish, and it seems that her problems getting a visa are going to continue to trouble us, especially if we enter the USA via Miami.

So two hours later than expected, we picked up our baggage, took the shuttle to the car rental centre, a new centralised multi-level facility that will soon be connected to the airport terminals by monorail, picked up our car, and were off on our way.

Jeep Patriot from Dollar Car RentalIf you are travelling to the USA I highly recommend using Car Hire 3000, since the rental rates are less than half what I would have paid if I tried to rent directly in the USA.  The only condition is that you must have a non-US drivers licence and passport.  The rental company is a mystery until you purchase, but they use the main car rental companies, and in our case it was Dollar, who I have used a number of times in the past.

Since they were short of mid-sized cars we got a free upgrade to a Jeep Patriot, which I didn’t really want since it uses more fuel, however in the end it did turn out to be handy.

Off To Hollywood Beach

So off we set for Hollywood Beach and the condo that we had rented, several hours later than expected and in the middle of the Miami rush hour, which I had hoped to avoid.

Fortunately, having lived in South Florida for 4 years, I know the highways pretty well, which helped a lot, and it took us less than an hour to reach our destination.

Finding a place to rent in Hollywood is not easy, especially if you are on a tight budget.  There are always hotels and motels away from the beach, but some can be in bad neighbourhoods and not that well located for what we wanted.

Hollywood Beach Condo just feet from the pool and 100 yards from Hollywood BeachDebbie is an expert at finding great places to stay however, and she found a condo for us that was not only a reasonable price, but it had a pool and was also only 100 yards from Hollywood Beach.   Luckily the summer months are actually low season in South Florida, so not only were we able to find a good place to rent, many of the other condos were empty, so much of the time it was quiet and we had the pool to ourselves.

The pool was only 10 feet from the condo entrance, as you can see in the photo, and ours was only one of four condos that faced the pool, and these also had the only four parking spaces on the road as well.  Debbie really did find us a great place to stay.

Next Time

CLICK HERE for Part Two to see how things went with our vacation in Hollywood Beach.

 

Summer Is My Favourite Time Of Year

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When I look back at my life, it’s easy to see why I readily admit that Summer is my favourite time of year.

I grew up at the seaside, just outside of Bournemouth on the south coast of England, in a small village called Lilliput, right on the edge of Sandbanks, which is now one of the most expensive places to live in the world.

There we had a beach hut, and since my Mum didn’t work, up to the age of 15 I spent every fine day of the summer months at the beach.

Years later I spent some time in New Zealand, where I learned to Scuba Dive, and also spent a lot of time in the ocean, either diving, snorkeling or just enjoying the beach.

For 12 years I traveled extensively in the Caribbean for work, where I had the opportunity to snorkel and dive again, and more recently I spent 3 years living in South Florida, where of course the beach and ocean are right there close at hand.

It’s not just the beach life that I love of course, it’s the ability to be outside much of the time without freezing to death. 

Florida in particular gave me the opportunity to take up walking, and to work out get fit for once in my life.  

I never felt better than I did during my last 2 years in Florida, but sadly since returning to the UK the often inclement weather has limited my ability to go out and exercise as much as I would like.

So naturally I am excited about flying back to Florida tomorrow for two weeks, and look forward to enjoying some sunshine and heat, even if summer in Florida does mean frequent thunderstorms and high humidity.

This article was written on the subject of “Summer” for the blogging group GBE2.

Article Summary 13th September 2010

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This is a list of articles that I have written on Associated Content in the last week, I hope you will take a look at them and also enjoy them.

I write on a number of topics, usually it depends on what comes into my head on any given day, so it could be a travel story, memoirs from my life, something from the daily news, or even a poem inspired by something.

This is what I have published in the last week, enjoy:

If you enjoy my writings, poetry and photographs, why not register with Associated Content, and then you can get an email every time I publish something.

Now that I am back into writing I already have a number of additional articles published.  You can also Click Here to see my latest articles, rather than wait for the next summary posting.

Article Summary 30th August 2010

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This is a list of articles that I have written on Associated Content in the last week, I hope you will take a look at them and also enjoy them.

I write on a number of topics, usually it depends on what comes into my head on any given day, so it could be a travel story, memoirs from my life, something from the daily news, or even a poem inspired by something.

This is what I have published in the last week, enjoy:

  • When the drink driving restrictions were brought into the UK in the 1960′s, it changed the eating and drinking habits of much of the population.
  • There must be 20 or more Blue Tits that come to visit the bird feeders in our garden every day. These are just a few of them, enjoying stocking up on peanuts.
  • Whether it’s a headline in a tabloid newspaper or the subject of an article or web page, a catchy headline can often make you wonder just what the article is about. So what is this article about you might wonder?
  • For anyone interested in the exploration of Space, the Space Shuttle program or the International Space Station, a visit to the Kennedy Space Center is something that is literally out of this world.
  • This weeks edition of Offbeat News has some really weird stories, including a woman with a mortal fear of bananas, a boy with his head stuck in a toilet seat, a wizard brand of condoms, and a swarm of bees surrounding a police car.
  • Welcome aboard our tour of the Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. These are some photographs of rockets from the late 1950′s and early 1960′s, the Mercury and Gemini programs.
  • Why are there so many strange bird names I wonder. I can understand the Blackbird being called as it is, because it’s a Black Bird, but why is a Robin a Robin for example.
  • This is a poem about the wonderful fall colors, the orange, red, yellow and gold hues that the Maple leaves turn in the Midwest USA as Summer comes to an end.
  • One of the most interesting parts of the Rocket Garden was the various plaques that showed the development of new technologies in engines, launch pads etc, throughout the 1960′s and up to the first Moon Landing.
  • This is an entry for Karen’s Writing Challenge: Judy’s head had become cluttered and so she left her office and headed off to the local park
  • The Rocket Garden at the Kennedy Space Center has some really unique items from the Apollo program, like an Apollo Capsule, Service Arm and White Room.
  • The visitor center at Kennedy Space Center has some maps that show the layout of Cape Canaveral, the buildings, launch pads, and landing zone etc. There is so much more there than you would have imagined.
  • In this part of the tour of Kennedy Space Center we take a tour of the launch pads, and see some of the lesser known pads used to launch unmanned missions, and also the launch viewing area.

If you enjoy my writings, poetry and photographs, why not register with Associated Content, and then you can get an email every time I publish something.

Now that I am back into writing I already have a number of additional articles published.  You can also Click Here to see my latest articles, rather than wait for the next summary posting.

Article Summary 29th March 2010

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This is a list of articles that I have written on Associated Content in the last week.   If you enjoy Poetry, Photography and other written works, I hope you will take a look at what I have published:

If you enjoy my writings, poetry and photographs, why not register with Associated Content, and then you can get an email every time I publish something.