271201, 2048hr, florida time.

reporting from daytona beach!

x'mas in disneyland turned out to be quite a disappointment. quite a variety of factors - bad weather, headache, and a crazy x'mas crowd. i'm not a big disney fan anyway, i agreed to celebrating x'mas at disney cos i know priya and tk will have lots of fun there, and because i wanted to see the x'mas parades and fireworks display.

the weather was really just against us though. it was so darn cold in the morning, started raining during the afternoon parade, and the rain didn't stop for the rest of the day. i had my fleece jacket with me, and it was kinda wet. by the time we saw the second parade at night, i was shivering into bits. hahaha...the funny thing is, the more i tried to stop shivering, the harder i shook. after the parade, my muscles got so strained as i tried to control the shivering, i actually cramped up in my thigh and hip muscles. bleah. what a terrible way to spend x'mas - cold and in pain. i'm not the worst off though, shuyi had a thinner jacket and is much less cold-tolerant. so tk very kindly forced his jacket upon her. i think that's the reason he's ill today though - eventually he only had a t-shirt, a vest and cloth bermudas on.

the "perfect" end to x'mas day was the power blackout at the chalet house. there was already a power trip in the morning when we left for disney, but we didn't bother with it, i assumed the power will come back on by the time we return. turns out our house was the only one that was affected, when we finally got home at about 11pm, the power was still out. we called the manager, but she couldn't contact the electrician, so we ended up spending the night in the house without heating. was looking forward to a nice hot shower, but it turned out to be impossible too, without electricity.

besides the weather though, everything else was good. the theme park was really crowded, because we're obviously not the only people to think of spending x'mas there, but i'm generally ok with queueing up for rides. tk was visibly disappointed with how the day was going, but the rest of us were reasonably upbeat. after all, even without the rides, even with the greyish disastrous weather, the magic kingdom is a beautiful theme park. very well constructed and beautifully decorated. even the house cold and electricity-less wasn't a big deal, since even without heating, the house is already significantly warmer than what we went through outside in the theme park. hahaha...besides, we had blankets, it was enough i guess. tk had the house decorated with these light sticks, i don't remember what they were called, but they were still going bright even after a day, and as we basically collapsed into the couches in the living room, we were surrounded by these pretty lights. things just didn't seem that bad - at least we're safe and sound and most importantly, together. i felt quite touched. before that, after the fireworks at disney, we gave one another big x'mas hugs. i can't think of spending my holiday with a nicer bunch of people.

disney's the most distinctive memory i have right now of orlando, just cos it's so bad. haha. we also went to universal studio and sea world, both of which were wonderful. i especially liked sea world, expectedly charmed by the dolphins, false killer whales, beluga whales, penguins, and other adorable animals.

more about daytona beach next time round! tired, and gotta wake up early tomorrow for the sunrise.