Kia Ora-

The above is a US country song that I heard while listening to international internet radio. They were playing it in Scotland. Right now I'm listening to Contemporary Christian music from the Faroe Islands. I initially changed over from my usual New Zealand and Australia stations to find something playing in the Middle East. I did find a station coming out of the United Arab Emirates. Do you know what they were playing? Elvis Presley. He is the King.

'A little less conversation/A little more action...'

I stayed up pretty late last night, in part to watch VH-1's Driven featuring The Rock. I don't care if wrestling fans have a negative view of him, he's still got much love from me. And the special was pretty cool giving major props to High Chief Peter Maivia (the first and greatest Samoan wrestler and The Rock's grandfather) and Rocky Johnson (another amazing wrestling legend and The Rock's dad). Fa'a Samoa, bruddah!

So Diaryland has been screwing up my posts and losing the last few. I'm a bit annoyed because I had written a long one last night describing all the greatly missed in Orlando. The new pic on my site is the demolition of Horizons at EPCOT. Let me try and give a brief recap of things that are no longer:

*MYSTERY FUN HOUSE -- Cheezy yet so much fun. The whole real live funhouse thing, with a Chamber of Horrors, Mirror Maze, Funzone, Carni-type games, arcade, miniture golf, and lazer tag (with a trampoline floor), all for $12. It basically remained unchanged since the late 70s.

*FLORIDA FESTIVAL -- This was located across from Sea World. It was an amazing vast tent-like structure with shops and landscaped gardens within (all completely indoors). This was the first place I ever played a video-jukebox (and chose A Flock Of Seagulls' The More You Live, The More You Love and Culture Club's Mistake No. 3).

*HORIZONS (EPCOT) -- Such great memories on this ride... And you could choose your own ending (Space, Desert, or Sea).

*GOODING'S SUPERMARKET -- Technically there are still three stores (Lake Buena Vista, Mercado, and Celebration), but the best one was on 192 near Splendid China. It had a coy fish pond and an animatronic panda.

*ELVIS PRESLEY MUSEUM (OLD TOWN) -- Abu Dhabi, UAE, to Old Town, Kissimmee--the King reigns supreme!

*SCI-FI WORLD -- The most recent loss and an unexpected blow. This place was the greatest collection of sci-fi goods under one roof, much better than it's predecessors Intergalactic and Enterprise. GREATLY missed.

*CHURCH STREET STATION -- Another swing from left field. It's all just gone.

*ORLANDO ARENA -- Again, technically still there but as the T.D. Waterhouse Centre. There was a time when going to a Magic game meant you were heading to the O-rena, and that was such a stoke factor!

*IF YOU HAD WINGS (MAGIC KINGDOM) -- Old school Disney. The last link to the Magic Kingdom, Phase I.

*WORLD OF MOTION (EPCOT) -- '...it's fun to be free!!!' That song is still stuck in my head after all these years. What a great gone ride.

*NICKELODEON STUDIO TOURS (UNIVERSAL STUDIOS) -- Though you can still tour the Nick Studios (as Totally Nickelodeon), but gone is the great backlot tour. (Luckily, V and I got to sort of tour the backlot during our jaunt as balloon wranglers in December.)

*XANADU -- The Home of the Future. This foam dome home was brilliant, stark white with a central heat and air complex shaped like a tree. I always dreamed this would be my home one day.

*MOVIE RIDER -- One of the I-Never-Actually-Went-There-But-Intended-To rides. Now we'll never know...

(One missing from the list is the WEDway People Movers at the Magic Kingdom. This is another one of the 'technically still there' rides, but it still has a great deal of it's integrity. Even though it is now called the Tomorrowland Transit Authority.)

They and more are all sorely missed.

Heart,

-N.