His books are hilarious, with the most bizarre and motley cast of characters! This from his website: Carl Hiaasen was born and raised in a bizarre place called Florida, where he still lives. His books have been described as savagely funny,riotous, and cathartic. Oddly, they are beloved even by readers who’ve never set foot in the Sunshine State.

We have been telling people all these things for as long as I have been a member of BE, and probably longer.

Regarding living v visiting, we usually add that vacation time is so much longer in the UK than for many jobs in the US, that people may actually have more time to visit the theme parks if they live in the UK and visit Orlando, than if they actually live in Orlando area.

Made me chuckle, all true!

To respond to another my wife went to Target last week 'for a few bits', and charged $ 700 on the CC. She isn't very disciplined though

OHM target. I miss target. Read an interesting bit on customer shopping the other day that the reason we spend so much at Target is based on the 'Gruen effect'. Basically create a confusing and hard to navigate store layout, throw in a bit of dollar discount treasure hunting right at the front when you enter to rev up your spending machine and wham...you have $70o in impulse buys from Targ-gey. So blame Gruen instead! https://bestlifeonline.com/target-effect/

Hmm I’ve visited Target several times, never remotely seen anything I wanted to buy there. Now, John Lewis and Marks & Spencer, I could spend money in there ..

We're never quite sure what the fascination is with Target. Mrs P very rarely ever shops there, and I don't think I have ever purchased anything in Target. It seems to me that Target is for people who think they are too posh to shop at Walmart and who can afford to pay the "Target tax" on their shopping - paying a higher price for the same thing so they don't have to risk being seen shopping in Walmart.

I haven't been into a Target store for several years, probably at least five years, but something I did notice, a pattern, when visiting Target stores (with Mrs P), that once inside I fairly quickly, within 5-10 minutes, develop a noticeable headache. I rarely get headaches, and I believe that it is the intense red colour of the stores' walls and signage that affects me.

When I go "recreational shopping" it is to Lowe's.

We are big Walmart customers. Their online offering is really strong - and no shipping charges. In store, their seeds, gardening, general outdoor stuff is a better selection than other stores. I bought a nice tower fan there the other day (we don’t have air conditioning.) But, their clothing offering is crap, so that’s their major downside.

I agree Walmart's clothing is probably junk, but I can't speak from actual experience as I don't think I have bought anything, other than jeans and a couple of bespoke suits, from any brick and mortar shop in probably 30 years, because all the sleeves are ¾ length, the body lengths are "crop-top", and the trousers are almost capri-length, on me at least.

Can we see a pic of a crop top on you?!

I don't think you really want to, and I know I really don't want to!

My one major clothing purchase from Walmart was a standard pair of Wrangler blue jeans, many years ago. They fit nice, looked fine. I washed them, the fabric totally unraveled in several places. I know, people say that even major national brands supply inferior products to Walmart, and my Wrangler experience seemed to confirm that.

I’m lucky, standard size clothes fit me. I bought a suit in M&S when I was in England, for our son’s wedding in Los Angeles. Fit perfectly. Cost £130, pretty sure a similar suit in the US would’ve been $400.

I have the same story about M + S suits. Was staggered by the low cost and good quality. Over hear would have been much more. The strong dollar also helped!

Where did you over hear that? Have you been snooping on Robin?

It is too late for me to even edit... My stupidity will be immortalized hear again, fourever more...

I probably was talking to myself in that Marks & Spencer changing room. As in, surely that’s not really my waist measurement now?? Or, never mind the quality, feel the width?