Tuesday 4th of March

We had a disturbed night on Monday night as one of the smoke alarms went off. It first started beeping at about 4 a.m. and then stopped, but started again about 6 a.m. The only way to stop it seemed to be to disable it and then it would not work again. Ben put it out on to the balcony but we could still hear it and so could the neighbours. I eventually wrapped it in about 6 towels so the sound was muffled and couldn't be heard unless you were standing close to it. We contacted the owner first thing and she said she thought it was faulty so we were to disable it and put it in the dustbin, she would arrange for maintenance to replace it as like everything else it was brand new.

Let's call it 'Alli'

We had booked our first round of golf for today at Manatee golf course. It was quite windy but a lovely sunny day. We spotted our first alligater in a pond near the 1st tee.  We didn't seee anyy others as it is still a bit cold for them to be out of the water 'basking'.  We were buddied up with a girl, who was celebrating her 24th birthday, and her father. I think her golf was probably better than her father's. They only played 9 holes with us as they had started on the 10th and joined us on the first. Unfortunately I twisted my leg whilst hitting one shot so struggled for the rest of the round. I played much better on the second half when we were on our own but still wasn't able to hit the ball properly. Ben played better but was disappointed with some of his shots with too many 3 putts on greens much faster than ours!



Some big trees blown down
We saw a bit more of the destruction on the island when going to the golf course. It seems as if most of the area was flooded with 4 feet of water from the first hurricane. The second one wasn't as devastating but was within days of the first one. Hopefully if another hurricane comes next winter it will not be as bad for the island.  





President Trump with his Vice and Speaker of the House.


Ben watched the President's address to Congress, which was quite interesting.  It is so different from our Parliament, although the same dynamic of the gulf between the governing party and the opposition is very evident!  President Trump spoke for nearly 2 hours expaining what he had done in his first 43 days in Office.  He was clapped and cheered for every announcement by the Republicans, whilst the Democrats sat in stony silence.

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