Miami Musings - Saturday 16 December

1. Miami drivers are very tetchy with one another, but wonderfully polite to pedestrians. The nanosecond rule between traffic light turning green and the first car in the queue being blasted for not moving is standard.  Car horn is applied liberally to any situation which the driver feels does, or may, cause inconvenience.  However, drivers slow, wave on, flash lights to indicate okay to cross - in almost every road crossing today. I had no intention of crossing with a car approaching and was just waiting for a gap. Amazing. 

2. SO chatty! I had the real life experience of the (get to know you) elevator pitch this morning. A lady joined me at Floor 8.  She said hello, where are you from? Before alighting at Floor 12 I learned: she has just come from Canada. She is in Miami to join a cruise. The cruise leaves today.  She gets seasick, but hopes she won't despite the obvious wind and storms. Her favourite TV program is 60 Minutes Australia. Her favourite presenter on this is the blonde one, you know, the one with the short bob; she is so good.  Do you watch it? Isn't she amazing?

3. I had a bearable coffee at the hotel before setting off in hope of a good one. Australians really are the worst coffee snobs. Having not had enough of aircraft yet, I stopped at the nearby Sky Coffee for coffee and croissant thinking the Buenos Aires signage was a good sign. It was not.  Search for coffee will continue. 

Novotel Brickell Lobby

 

4. Very wet and windy all day. I managed to go for a walk to find lunch and avoided most of the rain, though my hair may remain standing on end for days due to the blustery conditions.

From rooftop pool and bar this morning

Grey day

Seen on my walk

5. I'm reminded of 3 things I know for certain, yet manage to forget.  The readily available food here is not great and there's few healthy options.  It will cost you at least 3 times what you expect for daily food and tips!  People are loud, and yet most are unfailingly polite and helpful.

6.  Looks like I am rained in for the rest of the day, so I will probably risk a "salad" here at the hotel and have another early night.  I leave for BA tomorrow on 9.15pm flight. Hopefully the forecast 'light' thunderstorms don't interfere.  I have access to my hotel room all day, so anticipate another day of lounging about in PJs and bathrobe, and a leisurely re-packing of bags.

This afternoon's outlook