Lazy days...

As we're still lapping up the sun on South Beach and enjoying some serious 24/7 quality time tonight's post will once again be short and sweet. 

Firstly, thanks so much for all the kind emails, texts and blog comments since we tied the knot and apologies for not getting back to you. Seeing as we pretty much spend our lives connected to some form of IT based communication device we decided to turn everything off for the duration of our trip and so have essentially been out of contact with the real world since getting on the plane in Heathrow. Having not ever missed a Sunday blog deadline though we thought we'd quickly boot up the laptop, check our emails and fire off a few short paragraphs just to say hi.

To cut a long story short we're having a brilliant time and Miami has more than lived up to its glamorous reputation. The sun has shone every day, our hotel is fantastic, we've swum and run every day, spent hours sleeping by the pool and/or sea and have indulged in ice cream / pizza / burger aplenty. The one downside however has been how expensive everything is, and I'm not talking New York, Venice or Rome expensive... this is a whole other level, to the point where you really do have to be careful what you order off the menu or which sun lounger you kip on. On our first day we were chilling by the roof top pool and H fancied a little kip in the shade so grabbed forty winks under a small cabana... turned out that although the sun loungers are free, the cabana's are $750 per day!!! Another close shave saw us go for dinner at the Setai hotel, we've had lunch at the pool side bar which wasn't that expensive (for round here) and chose to have dinner in their 'grill' as opposed to the main restaurant so figured we were on safe ground... looking at the menu H suggested I went for one of their famous Kobe beef steaks and at first glance I thought it said $30, not bad for a steak in a five star hotel, until I worked out that once you added the compulsory 18% gratuity, tax and resort tax that it would be $40, still not horrendous... then at the last minute realised that it was priced PER OUNCE!!!! Their fixed price three course menu did me fine in the end at $55 ;)

Anyway, before this turns into an epic... this week's photo is of us with our amazing friend Steve. Unfortunately he was unable to make it across the Atlantic on the 13th but did fly over from LA on Thursday in order to celebrate in style at one of the most amazing restaurants we've ever been to, Casa Tua. Steve is one of life's great 'believers' and although I won't repeat the details here (that's for him to tell you) sitting and listening to him explain his dreams and ambitions along with his five year goal was as always a lesson in living every day and truly reaching for the stars. What Steve would like to achieve is nothing short of 'Hollywood' but I have absolutely no doubt that he will get there, for two reasons and two reasons only... he has the BELIEF and the DESIRE. Those two things are pretty much all you need in life, unfortunately people are commonly lacking in both. It was wonderful to spend time with such a brilliant friend. 

That's about it for now, we'll be 'shutting down' as soon as this is posted but fly back on Tuesday night and will be back in blighty on Christmas Eve morning and can't wait to catch up with everyone as soon as possible.

Have a brilliant Christmas and we'll see you next week,

loads of love

T & H x