M&I / GBMINI

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Posted on January 5, 2016February 3, 2017 by Ian C.

With the introduction of the new 2016 MINI Clubman (and of course the cancellation of the old model a long time ago), there was a huge jump in Clubman sales for the last month of 2015:

Sadly, none of them were my new car which, according to the MINI USA Owner’s Lounge, remains “awaiting transport“! I find it very hard to believe that a newly built car has been sitting at the Southampton docks for more than two weeks, but there’s no other information available – even calling 1-866-ASK-MINI gave me nothing, since their computers were down today.
The VIN doesn’t show on the Wallenius Wilhelmsen tracking website which means either it IS still at the docks, or it’s sailing with a different company (like K Line) that doesn’t provide any tracking.

New Year 2016 at Magic Kingdom

Posted on January 1, 2016February 17, 2017 by Ian C.

We spent New Years Eve, evening, at Disney Magic Kingdom for their New Year fireworks show; very impressive!
The park felt much less packed than our last New Year trip (2011) but parking was very full and massive queues to leave so perhaps the design improvements around the castle just make it seem less crowded.
After the fireworks we were able to walk on, no lines at all, on Ariel, Small World, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. We has maybe 20 minute queue for Winnie the Pooh.

Here’s a video compilation from the evening:

Lake Apopka North Shore Drive

Posted on December 27, 2015February 17, 2017 by Ian C.

Margaret drove us today to look for alligators along the Lake Apopka North Shore Drive; the vehicle accessible part is a one way semi dirt road, along the edge of Lake Apopka where farmland has been eliminated to help with recovering the lake to be less polluted – and thus creating a nice wildlife area. Although we were looking for alligators, our first wildlife was a snake on the side of the road!