It felt good to wake up in Florida again, and I took Jim and Sue to the Pelican Hotel for breakfast. It was still raining, but not as heavily as the previous night and with some gaps in the clouds which looked promising. We decided to wander round the local shops for the morning which was pleasant enough, and the rain held off most of the time. Late in the morning I had a call from Jim Eckells (the broker of my yacht) to say that the balance of the money had arrived in his account and we’re all set to close the deal, which we arranged for Saturday morning. Scary!
After lunch we headed back to the hotel, stopping to shelter from the occasional downpour in shop doorways, and retired to our rooms for a siesta. In fact I stayed up as I found a stray wireless signal in my room and got on the internet to book rooms for the rest of our trip.
That evening we popped into a local authentic 50’s-style diner for a quick meal then went to see Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy at the nearby Regal Cinema. It brought back memories of a fortnight ago when I was there with Reg to see a film in the Miami Gay & Lesbian Film Festival which turned out to be a pretty dismal affair. Reg was ranting and raving afterwards, saying it had been the worst film he’d ever seen, so I was hoping I wouldn’t be similarly disappointed this time.
Luckily the film was brilliant, with Stephen Fry being perfect in the role of the Voice Of The Book, and the original story pretty much intact. There were a few changes but all for the best, and the end result was very enjoyable indeed. There were very few people besides us to see it but those that were there seemed to be loving it. Let’s hope there’ll be more as I think there are at least 2 sequels to the original book.