To your left is Hercules' villa. Next stop, the Pecs and Flex gift shop, where you can buy the great hero's new 30-minute workout scroll, "Buns of Bronze." - Tour Guide, from "Hercules"

Hi all,

Tan here.  Apologies for the lack of updates recently.  I was busily studying for my FINAL EXAM in my uni course.  That's right, after four years of going to class, writing assignments, studying for and sitting exams, I've finished!!

At least I hope I've finished.  Nothing is certain until I get my results, but I'm quite confident that I passed with flying colours.  Then I will be able to graduate, and not have to think about assignments for a long time.

Woo Hoo?

I will now also have more time to help Jennie with the wedding planning and of course, write blog entries!

I hope to have some help from my dog with future blogs (kinda looks like my dog, Merlin)

I think the Disney quote that I've used for the title of this blog entry captures what I am planning to do both short term and long term.

The, "Buns of Bronze", part of it is what I'm trying to accomplish short term so I can look great in a wedding dress, er I mean suit.  I am currently about eight kilos overweight since I haven't really exercised (or gotten out of my chair) since I started my course.

If I took a selfie right now, this is what it'd look like

That's me on the right (number 4).  I'm trying to be as active as I can!

Okay enough about my battle with books and flab.  The "shop", part is really what this entry is about.  Our last entry was about the places we like to eat when visiting Orlando.  This time, I'm writing about the places we like to shop at when in Orlando because let's face it...  I love to shop.  I blame my mother, who used to take me shopping every Friday after school as our family activity because we didn't live near anything fun.

I used to do this.  Jack still does it.

Up until early 2007, Jennie and I used to buy our clothes from Australia.  This was mainly because we live here.  We did this for all of our adult lives until we went to the US in 2007/08.  That's when we realised that clothes over in the US are about half the price of the EXACT SAME ITEM in Australia.

It costs a bit more in Australia (sorry about the formatting, the text was too small)

So now we don't bother buying any clothes in Australia (aside from the bare essentials and some bits and pieces here and there).  We prefer to wait until we're in the US or order stuff online.

There are three places we generally go to in the US.

1. The Orlando Premium Outlets (on Vineland) - This is where we get all of our clothes.  If you click on the link, you'll see the store listing.

My favourites are Nike (so much basketball gear, so little time), Adidas (I prefer their tracksuit pants), Burberry (last time Jennie picked up a beautiful coat for 10% of the ticketed price.  That's 90% off!!), Hugo Boss (so many suits, so little cost) and Coach (because we love getting people handbags).  The last time we were there, we had to buy additional suitcases just so we could carry home our purchases.

This is me outside the outlet malls

2. Walmart - Now our US based readers are probably reading this wondering why on earth we would list Walmart as a place of interest.  Well...

First and foremost, we don't have Walmart in Australia.  Secondly, it is very convenient.  It's a one-stop shop for everything from breakfast cereals to gaming consoles.  Whenever we're in the US and staying in a city for longer than a few days, we'll go there first to stock up on food and booze.  It's also very well priced as their business model is all about lean operations so they can pass on the savings to their customers (I wrote a paper on this and got a very good mark, so shut up).

Lastly, YOU CAN BUY FREAKING GUNS THERE!!  Us Australians aren't used to seeing guns apart from little handguns that our police carry around (and when I wear a sleeveless top).  Not that I condone firearms, it is more the novelty factor of being able to pick up some milk, cereal and a high powered rifle without having to move your vehicle.  VERY CONVENIENT!!

Two tickets to the gun show, baby!

Pampers? Check
Bread? Check
Shotgun...?

3. The Florida Mall - Okay, I'll admit it.  The only reason we decided to go here was because they have an M&M's shop there.  One of the fun things that Jennie and I like to do whenever we go overseas is get an M&M's dispenser.  It really is not practical given how fragile they are and how we need to be very careful when transporting them back home!  We've been quite lucky thus far - all of our dispensers are in tact!!

We love M&Ms.  This was taken in Vegas.
Jennie is trying to feed the poor M&M a packet of its friends.  That's really sick.

We quickly found that Florida Mall was more than just a place to get chocolate covered in a candy shell that melts in your mouth, not in your hand.  Florida Mall has more places to shop than the outlets and has more variety given that they're not trying to sell factory seconds.

It might be a little on the expensive side to our US readers, but the prices are still so much cheaper than that of Australia!

Jennie and I will be taking a day or two to go shopping when we're in Orlando in February and maybe (if time permits) after our wedding.

Speaking of our wedding, we've gone a little off-topic recently, but next week, we'll be writing about our latest trip to a bridal salon.  This time, it wasn't a complete fail!

Thanks for reading!!