I just got home in time to watch the last few holes at the Memorial in Ohio and all I can say is, WOW! It’s really been that kind of weekend as I was privileged to be invited to attend Mark Victor Hansen’s Mega Book event in Orlando and then the final few holes of golf rounded it off nicely as Tiger Woods yet again showed what it takes to be No. 1.

Tiger overcame a 4 shot deficit to win Jack Nicklaus’ tournament for the fourth time and the shot he hit at the last hole effectively won it for him. It’s sort of the perfect reminder after listening to some great speakers that you have to persevere right to the end as success doesn’t come until you’ve gone right down the road.

There are no short cuts and it was revealing to hear Tiger say that it’s only recently that he has been able to practice at the end of a round. Now that’s dedication and it absolutely shows his commitment to win.

Earlier in the day I had watched Marshall Sylver literally give away money to people knowing full well it would come back. Marshall is a wealthy guy and doesn’t need the money so he started throwing it all over the room…no, I didn’t get any, but the frenzy it created was enlightening. A lot of people got his message…you have to pay it forward…in other words give and you will get back.

That set me thinking about what I could do to serve people better…and I think I have the answer. Tomorrow I’m going to do something I’ve never done before and a lot of people stand to gain…you’ll have to check back here in the morning though…as I’ve now got to finalise what I’m going to do. I’m in for a busy evening…but a nice glass of wine will help. See you tomorrow.

So, make sure you check back at this blog or on my Twitter page at http://twitter.com/FloridaLeisure and my Facebook at FloridaLeisure or Florida Leisure Vacation Homes.

I was a fortunate guy today as I got to meet three bright young ladies who will be, if not already, stars of the future.

Today they are achieving great things and anyone who has kids should rush out (adults can learn as well!) and buy a copy of “The Richest Kids in America” book and read some of the stories that are currently taking place for some of the brightest young entrepreneurial minds in the US today.

Olivia Bennett – www.OliviaBennett.com is a leukemia survivor and she credits her ordeal with helping her to find stength and understanding that she otherwise would not have developed at such a young age. She is 19 years old and she is a recognised art prodigy who found her artistic gift at the very young age of 5. Her work has been compared with Georgia O’Keeffe and Claude Monet. She has appeared on national TV including Oprah and the Today Show and in 2003 she was named “One of Twenty Teens Who Will Change the World” by Teen People Magazine.

Martina Butler – www.emogirltalk.com was the first teenager to recieve corporate sponsorship for a podcast. Nature’s Cure were the first to recognise her talents and she continues to get more exposure and requests from other major companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Kmart and Cover Girl Cosmetics. Her ambition is to become a national television host and she’s well on the way to achieving her goal.

Chelsea Eubank – www.FaithfulFish.com is the 21 year old CEO of Faithful Fish, a Christian based clothing line worth over $1 million. The company came into being after a series of tragic losses including the death of her father when she was just 17. Chelsea looked at the clothing market and decided that there was nothing that really appealed to her so she created her own line.

It’s truly fantastic to see such young folks having the ambition and drive to want to make something of their lives. I wish them all the best for the future.

Wow! What a day.

I’ve just got home from a thoroughly brilliant day with Mark Victor Hansen at his Mega Book event. For those that don’t know Mark, as soon as I say “Chicken Soup”…you’ll twig. The reason he now becomes familiar to you is that he wrote “Chicken Soup for the Soul”  with his partner Jack Canfield and in turn, they became the inspiration behind the “Chicken Soup” book series.

Apart from that amazing success, Mark is quite simply a brilliant and outstanding individual.  He is an amazing philanthropist and he is involved in so many charities that it is literally impossible to list them all; Habitat for Humanity, American Red Cross, Operation Smile, Oceana, March of Dimes and Childhelp USA are just a few.  

Spend some time with Mark and your attitude changes for the better as he absolutely infects you with his zest for life and reason to live. He has a real passion to help other people achieve their dreams and for them, in turn to help others. It’s simply fantastic to watch and you can’t help but want to get more deeply involved in making the world a better place for everyone to live.  

Thanks for a great day Mark.

Our cruise business, www.GoCruisePlanner.com has really taken off this year and we were having a chat about some of the funny things that happen in the cruise industry and some of the questions we get asked.

Here are a few humorous questions from passenger to onboard staff collected by Cruise Directors over the years (the answers are probably the ones in their heads and not on their lips).  But the questions are real:

Q. Does the crew sleep on board?
A. Of course not, late at night a water taxi picks them up and takes them home!

Q. Do these stairs go up OR down?
A. Yes!

Q. Does the ship make its own electricity?
A. No, don’t you see the long extension cord trailing behind the ship?

Q. Which is the sunny side of the ship?
A. The captain spins the ship around daily so everyone gets an even tan

Q. Which elevator takes me to the front of the ship?
A. Ask the elevator operator when you get on, he will take you anywhere you want to go.

Q. What do you do with the ice carvings after they melt?
A. We re-freeze the water and use it for frozen drinks.

Q. What time is the midnight buffet?
A. Usually around 11 PM or so. We tried doing it right after breakfast but most people weren’t real hungry.

Q. How do we know which pictures are ours?
A. The people who look totally clueless . . . . those are probably yours.

Q. Is this island totally surrounded by water?
A. No, part of it is surrounded by sand, but it’s all clearly marked

Plenty of reasons to get your vacation home booked for Orlando this Autumn as several Grammy-winning bands highlight the lineup of popular music acts during this year’s Epcot International Food & Wine Festival Sept. 25 to Nov. 8.

The Eat to the Beat! concert series will bring 17 acts – showcasing everything from rock to jazz, funk to pop – to the America Gardens Theatre stage during the 45-day festival. The lineup includes five performers playing the festival for the first time: Richard Marx, Better Than Ezra, Vanessa Carlton, John Waite and Billy Ocean.

Concerts, which are included with Epcot admission, begin at 5:15, 6:30 and 7:45 p.m. daily. The lineup (subject to change) includes:

Sept. 25 to 27 – Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (“You & Me & The Bottle Makes 3 Tonight (Baby)”)
Sept. 28 to 29 – Richard Marx (”Hold On to the Nights”)
Sept. 30 to Oct. 3 – Starship starring Mickey Thomas (“We Built This City”)
Oct. 4 to 6 – En Vogue (“Free Your Mind”)
Oct. 7 to 8 – Better Than Ezra (”Good”)
Oct. 9 to 11 – Sister Hazel (“All for You”)
Oct. 12 to 13 – Kool & The Gang (“Celebration”)
Oct. 14 to 16 – Spyro Gyra (“Morning Dance”)
Oct. 17 to 18 – Jon Secada (“Just Another Day”)
Oct. 19 to 20 – Sister Sledge (”We Are Family”)
Oct. 21 to 22 – Vanessa Carlton (”A Thousand Miles”)
Oct. 23 to 25 – Taylor Dayne (”Tell It to My Heart”)
Oct. 26 to 28 – Boyz II Men (“Motownphilly”)
Oct. 29 to 31 – John Waite (”Missing You”)
Nov. 1 to 2 – Night Ranger (“Sister Christian”)
Nov. 3 to 5 – Billy Ocean (”Caribbean Queen”)
Nov. 6 to 8 – Los Lobos (“La Bamba”)

Guests nibbling and sipping their way around World Showcase can see performers from many countries weave music, dance, acrobatics, comedy and other acts into the festivities.
A sampling of World Showcase entertainment includes:
• High-energy Celtic music of Off Kilter (Canada)
• The Arabic rhythms of Mo’Rockin (Morocco)
• Perfect harmony of Voices of Liberty (American Adventure rotunda)
• Infectious beat of internationally acclaimed Mariachi Cobre (Mexico)
• Retro British hits by The British Invasion (United Kingdom)
• Jaw-dropping stunts by Dragon Legend Acrobats (China)
• Hilarious antics of World Showcase Players (Italy and United Kingdom)

“IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth,” lights up World Showcase with lasers, music and fireworks, ending each festival evening.

Walt Disney World President Meg Crofton and Disneyland President Ed Grier are having some fun with their hometown teams making it to the NBA Finals. The two have made a friendly wager on the outcome of the best of seven series between the Orlando Magic and the Los Angeles Lakers.

Apparently, if the Magic win, Grier will walk down Disneyland’s Main Street wearing blue and white Mickey Mouse ears. If the Lakers win, Crofton will walk down Main Street in Disney World in purple and gold mouse ears!

Good for them… it’s nice to see that some executives can relax and enjoy some friendly banter… and I have no doubt that Disney will benefit with more sales of their merchandise.

It all starts again tonight. The Orlando Magic are in the NBA finals and instead of the Rockets it’s the Lakers that stand between them and immortality.

The last time…and the first time the Magic made it to the finals was in 1995 so I thought it would be fun to rewind the clock and see what happened back then.

1995 was the year that:

The World Trade Organization was established on January 1^st and Super Bowl XXIX saw the San Francisco 49ers become the first National Football League franchise to win 4 Super Bowls as they defeated the San Diego Chargers in Miami.

Also on 23 February the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 4,003.33…the first time ever it closed above 4,000 but in UK, Barrings Bank collapsed after rogue trader, Nick Leeson lost $1.4 billion by speculating on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile in March, Scott Amedure revealed on the Jenny Jones Show that he had a crush on his friend Jonathan Schmitz who promptly rewarded him by killing him a few days later.

March 24 was also a historical day in Belfast as for the first time in 26 years, no British soldiers patrolled the streets. April saw the US House of Representatives vote 246 to 188 to cut taxes for individuals and corporations but it was also the month that Timothy McVeigh and his accomplices set off the Oklahoma City bomb killing 168 people.

May saw Jacques Chirac elected as President of France and Finland somehow managed to win the ice hockey world championship. The America’s Cup was won by Team New Zealand in San Diego as they handed out a 5-0 whipping while a 7.6 magnitude earthquake hit Neftegorsk in Russia killing at least 2,000 people.

June saw US astronaut Norman Thagard setting a space endurance record of 14 days, 1 hour and 16 minutes aboard Russian space station MIR while OJ Simpson put on the pair of gloves that were worn by the person who presumably murdered his ex-wife and her friend Ron Goldman.  The Stanley Cup was won by the New Jersey Devils as they swept the heavily favored Detroit Red Wings and South Africa won the Rugby World Cup. On June 29 Space Shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian Mir space station for the first time while in July the Irag disarmament crisis reached boiling point as Iraq admitted for the first time that they had an offensive biological weapons program.

John Major also won his battle to remain the leader of the Conservative Party in UK and the NASDAQ Composite index closed above 1,000 mark for the first time on July 17. August saw Microsoft release Windows 95 and in September the DVD, an optical disc computer storage media format was announced.

In October ten people were convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in 1993 and OJ Simpson was found not guilty of the double murder of his former wife Nicole and her friend Ronald Goldman. On November 1^st, the US House of Representatives voted to ban partial birth abortions by a vote of 288 – 139 and on 21 November the Dow Jones Industrial closes at 5,023.55, its first close above 5,000 thus making 1995 the first year where the Dow surpasses 2 millennium marks in a single year.

On 22 November, Toy Story was released by Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Pictures…the first ever full length computer animated feature film and 5 days later President Bill Clinton signed the National Highway Designation Act which ended the federal 55 mph speed limit.

In December, France is paralyzed by strikes in the public sector but that doesn’t stp the Dayton Peace Agreement being signed in Paris on 14^th. On December 15^th the European Court of Justice rules that all EU football players have the right to a free transfer at the end of their contracts and this becomes known as the Bosman transfer in subsequent years.

1995 was also the year that the world population reached 5,674,380,000 with North America accounting for 299,438,000 while by far the biggest population was in Asia at a massive 3,430,052,000. The Metro Orlando Population was 1,410,877 (2008 – 2,103,480)

Notable deaths in 1995 were Peter Cook, Fred Perry, Murray Rothbard, Ron Luciano, Donald Pleasence, James Herriot, John Minton, Davie Cooper, Tony Lock, Kenny Everett, Art Fleming, Ginger Rogers, Al Sanders, Elizabeth Montgomery, Harold Wilson, Mickey Mantle, Alec Douglas-Home and Dean Martin.

So what will 2009 bring? Will it be the year of the Magic or will the Lakers take the title again?

It’s a MAGICal time to be in Orlando … the sky is blue, the sun is out and the Orlando Magic are in the NBA Finals.

To celebrate this great achievement we are going to let Dwight & Kobe help you pay for your next Florida Leisure vacation … that’s right … we are going to let these two superstars determine how much you should pay next time you stay in one of our superb vacation homes.

All you have to do is e-mail us at GoMagic@FloridaLeisure.com and tell us in how many games you think it will take the Magic to dispose of the Lakers. I pick 4 … but then I may be a shade biased. But this is no time to be modest … sure we’re facing the Mighty Lakers and their 15 Championships, 30 Conference Titles and 31 Divisional titles … but so what? They’ve been around for about 1000 years.

 

Kobe … You’re NEXT!!!!!!

  

 

Anyway, back to this great competition … e-mail me at GoMagic@FloridaLeisure.com and tell me how many games (Best of 7) you think the finals will go to … also let me know who will be the MVP for the series and 5 (that’s right … FIVE) lucky winning entrants will be drawn out of the hat and will receive 5% per game discount off of their next stay in a Florida Leisure vacation home … that’s a MINIMUM of 20% just for sending me an e-mail.

Make sure I get your entry before Game 4 which will take place on June 11, 2009 and remember GO MAGIC … let’s make Kobe and his gang BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

Just occasionally you get a reminder about why you have been put on this planet and why it is your duty to serve others. Yesterday we were looking through the submissions to our “Friends Don’t Let Friends” competition and we found the story I’m going to share with you below.

It’s the story of a family that still comes together to celebrate life and it’s revealing…

“We believe that our Father and our Mother though they’ve passed away, are in heaven looking at us as we move from day to day.

They would love this idea of us coming together once or twice a year, to eat meals together, laugh with each other, and if need be shed a tear.

If they were alive they would appreciate you for being so gracious, allowing us to use this house that is very, very spacious.

In this house on Cumbrian Lakes Drive we’ve reflected on times gone by.

We’ve eaten meals together, laughed with each other, and have sometimes shed a tear.

We are sending you a picture of us. You’ll see we’ve placed the bandanna on an empty chair. This is where our departed sister would be standing if GOD had chosen to allow her to be here.

Our time here was nearly perfect, nearly perfect you see. The only reason it isn’t so is that we are missing those three.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Nellie (JC), Helen, Jennette, FannieK (Jesse), Luther (Mary)”

Thanks for the reminder guys…it’s good for all of us to treasure the life we have and to use it to serve others. Your gift card is on the way.

If you’d like more information on how you can enter our competition, share your story and maybe win a $50 gift card, please visit http://www.friendsdontletfriendsstayinhotels.com

We’ll be more than happy to send you your own “Friends Don’t Let Friends” bandana.

After a hard day’s work I get home to find out that General Motors has filed for bankruptcy protection and that Obama’s Government is going to put another $30 billion into saving the flagging company that I’m now expected to help save.

This is positive proof that this country is governed by utter friggin’ morons…. has no-one….no-one thought to ask one simple question:

“How many f’in vehicles do you need to sell to recover this amount of money?”

MORONS.