Monday 15th February

Our friends have joined us! Suzy and I have been friends since Primary school, and her three children get on famously with ours. Suzy's friend Angie from New Zealand has also joined the party. They're all staying in the apartment two doors down from us.

Now that there are ten of us we don't all fit in the minivan so several of us walked the mile to Walmart so that Suzy & co. could stock up. It was another opportunity to compare and contrast British and American supermarkets. Most things were more expensive at Walmart, with the exception of meat. I was interested to see that eggs had changed since my last visit to the US. One thing we found fun then was that American eggs are white, but this time we noticed that the regular barn (battery chicken) eggs were white, but all the free-range eggs were brown.

We went to McDonald's again. Grandma has now been to McDonald's twice (on consecutive days) in 77 years, so she's virtually a regular. At Walmart Grandma bought a hooded top for $3.50, and completely independently I bought the exact same one in a different colour. Obviously this means that Grandma dresses at the height of cutting-edge fashion. Or something.

Roderic came to collect the shopping and some of the shoppers, but Angie and I walked on to DollarTree. I do love a bargain shop, and DollarTree had some great deals. It's like Poundland, but cheaper, and with unusual and exotic stuff.

Holidays are my absolute favourite thing, and I tend to measure them in Perfect Moments. Today's was sitting on the patio with Hubby Dearest, eating corn dogs and chex mix for lunch, neither of which we can get at home.

In the evening the plan for us all to go to Golden Corral was somewhat scuppered by Peter falling ill, but on the plus side it meant that those who were able to go could fit in the minivan. Golden Corral is an all-you-can-eat buffet offering a range of cuisines. You pay on entry (about $10), and then just keep helping yourself until you explode.

I may have forgotten how very downmarket Golden Corral is, or maybe I've become a snob in the intervening years, but it's a great place to go if you're not feeling too good about yourself. Firstly, everyone there will be much fatter that you, and secondly they will all be much ruder. At one point the woman on the next table to us yelled at the waiter across the room, "Hey, we're thirsty here!" My British sensibilities quaked. I was thirsty too - those free refills are the only thing you have to rely on the waiter for - but the most I'd have considered is gently asking as he passed whether he wouldn't mind very much, if he wasn't too busy...

The décor is also pretty lacklustre, and the place is filthy, probably due to so many people wandering about carrying plastic plates piled high with greasy food. I may strike it off my list of places I have to visit every time I go to America. America can do great food (especially meat) but this isn't it.