Trip & Back to ol'blighty!

I imagine you're all wondering if I was ever going to finish this thing off!
Well here is the final submission.. (as well as I can remember it all)




The Trip

This was the single most amazing trip I have ever taken. Quite literally I saw hundreds of new things, met an incredible group of people (largely german, 1kiwi and 2 american bus drivers, oh and a few brits, including a particularly entertaining scottish trio). In short, I think I should have stayed a traveller for ever!


I travelled from New York to San Francisco, saw hot springs with baths,canyons with navajo tribes, deserts (plus an evil horse), forests with bears and taranchalas, mountains I climbed using only a chain not to mention vegas baby!Rollercoasters, neon-lights and all.

I biked the golden gate bridge, swam in rivers with turtles and saw a skunk chase an old lady up a hill.


There was a roadrunner a-top a surfboard and I camped in the open air on the edge of a cliff. Camp fires, circus shows and New Orleans jazz filled my days and I slept top-to-toe with an array travellers on a giant bus-bed.

I had a robot-dance-off with a bus driver in a San Francisco club, and discovered a secret room on the roof of a hostel filled with tequila.
I did shots with a kiwi and 3 germans in the back of a camper-van outside a chinese restaurant and learnt german rap songs whilst hiking a navajo trail. I was thrown from a horse in the arizona desert, and discovered oyster shots, 'hurricanes' and the horrors of mexican service.

There were bats, caves, underground rocks formations and hodoos resembling indiana jones movies. I jumped from sand dunes the size of mountains and competed in a 3-day connect4 championship.

There was shopping, hiking, swimming,sight-seeing,cycling,(in some cases running), jumping, bum-boarding, diving,falling and singing. There was a church with gospel singers, jazz bands, pink chevys and a wailing preist, there was much Corona and thus merriment. I travelled the smokey mountains by foot and found houses worthy of horror films. There was Kareoke in New Orleans, and culture in Texas, bruised noses in Vegas and a 70's hair-do nobody could explain. There were feather masks, inexplicable aprons and barbie t-shirts, outdoor cooking and 'have you ever...'
I saw the liberal side of america, showered in the open-air, took a boat across the mississippi and met a guy with a really big fish.
There was 'nearly naked monday,'push-ups for Obama,' and the joys of 'buddy check.' Phrases like 'the miracle,' 'where's brian????' and 'we win again' will always be a reminder.
In short it was awesome!



Back home, well New York first (it seems like home) - I met up with old housemates and had one last look around. I took 5 planes, 2 taxi's and a train back to ol'blighty where everything looks lovely. Everything is green and peaceful, central londonis like a quiet summers day (if it wasnt for the rain!) Red phone boxes, black cabs, british accents, queues!!!! Regular food once more, familiar faces and the weather - ok so i didnt miss everything.

I have friends in germany, new zealand, all across america, canada and almost every town in england! (sofa surfing opportunities galore!) Now all I have to do is stay in touch!

I leave you with some pictures to help you imagine the craziness....

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving toda.. er.. soonish

Dear all,

The last week has been chaotic. Not only was it my last week of work, and thus co-workers, it was also the last week of living in my lovely apt with that lovely view!! Oh and of course my last week in NYC!!

Therefore I had to drink a fair bit this week!Horay! But before that I had to pack! Booo... oh yes and collect and train my replacement before they would let me out!

So, Wenesday at the ungodly time of 7.15 and went to collect newbie from the Wolcott hotel (where I was once a newbie- aww.... pause for sentitmental moment). Newbie seemed happy enough, she was still there atleast! Newbie's name is laura and she's from the Wirral (I'm not sure if this an equal replacement for me - but enough norhtern rivalry..)
After going through all the basics of the illogical switchboard, co-workers etc etc.. she seemed prepped enough so I took her out for drinks in the evening to celebrate my leaving and her beginning!!! Many office folk came too and the night was indeed merry.
Toward the end of the evening I spotted Mayer and his work folk in the same bar and discovered he was also celebrating his levaing and his replacements taking over. We introduced our respective newbies to each other and then proceeded to drink the night away! Good times!

Thursday
Was my final day at work. This was sad. It was also painful due to the nigth before- but I soldiered on.(que music of 'soldiering on..') Newbie, Maryam (old-newbie) and I went for thai food at lunch time and then I said my goodbyes arounf the office. I got a nice card signed by the majority of folk and a starbucks mug (ah, how well they know me!) After the drawn out goodbyes, pics and hugging I finally left work later than most days, but atleast I knew I didnt have to answer the phone anymore!
The evening I met up with Nic, Ban & Justine who all left on friday. We visited a few of our most frequent bars for one last time then headed home around 3am to pack.

Friday was a hard day. We had to pack everything we owned & clean the entire apartment before 4.30 in a post-alcohol state. Thus, before any activity of this type could be attempted I went for brunch with Justine, nick & ban one last time, which was just as well as they were all in need of it too!
After the good byes AGAIN, I went back to pack, only to discover Suba and Vicky were both asleep and ahdnt achieved anything near packing. I packed, cleaned and went for coffee. Some time near 4.15 they both jumped up and began screaming like crazy people trying to clean and pack in time. hohoho....
Maryam met me after work and I headed to the Hostel on 118th where I am now waiting for my trip to begin. It's very new and lets me pass my time on the internet as you can see! I've one more night here, and then it's off to the bus!

The pics of this week are coming soon, keep reading for random en-route updates!
xx

The Kooks!!!

Theatres, Concerts & Dinners

This week was the leaving dinner at Battery Gardens. Dinner, drinks and of course the dreaded speeches. The view was nice even if the food was questionable. The open bar obv. helped with this issue over the course of the evening and generally it was a fun night! Michael Billet's (head of the programme) speech was entertaining, quite a lot of naming and shaming went on, and the slide show, kindly prepared by some of his chosen few also carried on this theme. Happily I only featured in one or two of these pics, mostly dressed up as various seasonal things such as a bumble bee. :)
The night went on and Nerys, Justine, Kaife, Satna and I enjoyed watching the 'committee' fall over and make fools of themselves..hoho..
The after party was in Chelsea, however the queues were LONG and I was tired so I decided to catch the train home with Rich. OF course when you go anywhere with Rich you never get there, and so we ended up in a bar in Hoboken until about 3.30am.

Thursday was a very painful morning for me. Having gone to bed around 4am and started work at 8.30am my body was in protest. Needless to say I didnt do much on Thursday Evening.

Saturday I met up with Banico and headed to Coney Island! For those not in the know this is an amusement park at the most southern point in Brookl;yn with one of the oldest (and most dodgy looking) wooden rollercoasters still in use.
Then it started to rain. Since Hurricane Gustav hit, we have been expecting some horrendous down pour and it chose to happen whilst I was at the wrong end of Brooklyn without an umbrella on a rollercoaster!
Needless to say, Ban & I grabbed corndogs (which are horrible I dont recommend them) and then literally sprinted to the nearest indoor place- an aquarium.
Not a bad one either. Giant Turtles, sharks, jellyfish and a fish that looked incredibly like Nemo.
We did some posing under a waterfall, and then decided to get back home ASAP due to impending storms. Gulp..

Sunday I met up with Maryam, who is currently observing Ramadan and is therefore always starving, and went to see Mary Poppins on Broadway. The effects were both brilliant, such as when Mary flew off into the audience guided only by an umbrella, and terrible when she pulled out her fold-away lampshade from her bag of tricks. Of course the americans loved it all and naturally as we have come to expect now there was a standing ovation because... well there doesnt seem to be a reason not to anymore. The half-arsed british accents were painful to listen to at times and Mary's "Speet spot' was cringe worthy, but all in all it was entertaining. Afterward it was dark enough outside for Maryam to eat, so we went for 24hr brunch at the Waverely at 9th street and ate omlette and drank tea. Yes it was 10pm.

Monday I received my certificates and bonus from the nice ol' folk at Mountbat! Horay!
Tuesday was the long awaited Stereophonics gig at Webster Hall, so Justine, Dan and I sprinted home from work in order to make the front-ish row for the concert at 7pm. Ok, so its impossible to make the ACTUAL front, but I was close enough to see them without leaping in the air or zooming - an achievement! All the classics from 'Mr Writer,' 'Have a nice day' and 'Las Vegas' were played- Awesome! (too american? ok REALLY GOOD!!) The venue was really small, and tickets cheap as most american folk have never heard of them- it's their loss really, we benefitted from the mass of british folk (The welsh in particular waving their flags) in a small confined space and a band who we couldnt afford to see on an intern wage in our home country! Bargain! The drinks flowed and the atmosphere was amazing!

Which brings me to tonight!Tonight is the final summer stage concert in central park. It also happens to be the Kooks who are playing it, and I just so happen to have tickets!!!! Horay! Pics will follow!
Laters x

So do we all like the new layout?

Dear readers,

I have gone all pink! Well, I thought I would try it out.. thoughts??

Anyway, news.

I took a few days off last week to gad about the city and do a few things I had yet to complete.

Thursday I shopped on 5th Ave, walked about, photographed and attended the absoulte final seminar, this time on jazz. It was suprisingly good for a MB seminar. Held in an old(er) building in the west village it was less formal than the microsoft building we have most of the classes in. The guy, named Bob, was as simple fellow. Armed with a Ipod and a record player he told us about the history of jazz in new york, Duke Ellignton and Louis Armstrong featured. We learnt the joys of a 12 bar rhythm and then I went for pizza with Justine, Nerys & Angela.

Friday was all about culture. I went to St Patricks Cathedral and watched the americans photgraph all the copied architecture from the cathedrals in Europe. There is always a service in progress here, so you can just stand at the back and watch. I video'd this of course in true tourist style!
Then I headed to the Museum of Tv & Radio. A marvellous place. As you walk in you are instructed this museum does not have any artifacts or exhibits and you will will spend most of the time by yourself in a room with headphones. This is the ideal place should you have a day off whilst everyone else is at work and you have nothing to do! I selected 2 films on the Duke Ellington (suprisingly) from the great reams of film, advertising and radio they have on file and was issued with a room, tv set and headphones. Here you can sit all day watching almost anything you can find!
I also watched a documentary on women in the work place and about an hour of family guy on repeat- there is an entire room devoted to family guy.
I left the museum arounf 7pm jsut in time for Banico to call and make plans for the evening. I emt Ban & Nick in Bar 13 at Union Square for drinks and from then we met up with Nic's Irish cousin & Flat mate in town for one night only, followed closely by a very drunk Justine & Jen- who were parading around warnings they had received for jumping the turnstiles at the subway station in their haste to reach the bar! No comment. I photgraphed the drunken fools and then sent them to the bar from which they never did return. The nigt went on and the rain came down. Unfortunately I didnt dress for the weathe rhaving been out all day, Thus around 5am on friday you would have seen, nic, banico and I running down broadway to the only subway stations still open, soaked through and slightly merry, Fun times.....




Saturday I slept. I interneted a bit and generally didnt do a lot. Oh Suba's friend arrived from England.
Sunday I met up with Nerys and we headed off the Cloisters. A collection of medieval art and arctitecture collected from around europe and gatehred in upper Manhatten for the NY's benefit. The artifacts ranged from tapestries, crockery, furniture to herb garden and several foutains. All very pretty, if a little disjointed as none of these things would ever have been together before now..
Set in a nice 10 acre park the trip did make a nice cahnge from the city.

On our way out we found a baby squirrel on the ground no bigger than a mouse, its eyes not even open yet. We concluded it must have falled out of a tree and at that very moment a woman came by and announced her husband ran a squirrel hospital uptown and began to call him. She then promtly went over what she should do with said squirrel with him and then popped baby squirrel into her bag and walked off! She assured us squirrel (whom we later named alfi) would be released into the wild once he was bigger enough to survive.

Afterward, we headed back to the West Village for frozen yogurt and were just settling down in a street park when a man with a piano and another with a drum kit strolled up and began playing rigth in front of us. It was a good show,mostly jazz and blues very entertaining.
As Nerys and I were heading back to the station we came across said legendary bar 'fat cats' and thought we should really pay it a visit. During the day it seems to be an underground gaming warehouse. We played pool beside a sleeping dog and then chess for about 3 hours. Yes I know this was an odd sunday.
Following our games we needed food again so grabbed a pizza slice at 'johns'- its on bleeker street its amazing.

Monday was labor day. I dont know exactly what this day is for but I didnt have to go into work and thus we celebrate it :) However, I mainly cleaned etc today. Ah well.

Tuesday I went back to my old friend the gym.

Wendesday is today and tonight is the leaving dinner at Battery Gardens. There are promises of free bars and various prizes, a Rap by none other than Billet himself and of course a year book. Tomorrow does not look to be a pleasant morning!
Pics coming soon xx

SO Art History is dull. No scrap that, Art History seminars are dull. I imagine the subject itself is probably quite interesting, but taughte by a tutor who doesnt speak in complete sentences and has trouble sticking to a point it becomes quickly annoying to learn.

There were somekind of prints of Marilyn Monroe on silk which gradually faded - good in them selves althought the explanation as to why we had to study them for 35 minutes is a mystery to me. The guy clearly loved his subject to the point he couldnt form coherent sentences without needing to start the next one- basically I have no idea what he was saying. ??

This week I also discovered I had passed the final Cambridge management module! Horay!

It was Tarnasia's last day at work on Friday and Maryam went to Florida for the weekend. What does this have to do with me I hear you cry? Well, with Maryam away I have to spend my entire day on the reception thus I was in need of a stif drink to recover from this immense boredom. Tarnasia's last day was the event which would allow this! Horay!

Sue, Erin, Tania and I headed to South Street Seapport for drinks, this went on for a while and then Erin and Tania left. Sue and I were on our way home when she got a call from her friend who had been set up with some bloke who was pretending to be british for no apparent reason. Sue thought it would be hilarious to bring me along to meet said guy and thus prove him an idiot. I agree his would be a fun practice. Stupid Americans...

We met up with her friend and said idiot who immediatley stopped being an idiot and looked stupid when I asked him where he 'thought' he was from. Anyone who replies 'er... britain' needs a good slap.
The night went on and we met with so more friends before heading to 'off the wagon' - MB hangout. Strangely there wernt any MB's to be found this evening - which is probably a good thing since I was out with the american folk... particularly in spite of the idiot one. Sue continued to think the whole situation was hilarious. I drank my free drinks quite happily whilst the idiot one kept trying to mimic every word I said. - I'm not sure why tis wasnt more annoying in hindsight... Anywho. Turned out to be a very random but fun ol' night- got in around 5.30am. Long day.!

Saturday I met up with Justine in Doriens, we had food then hit the Cinema to see Mama Mia!. This was very funny. Cheesy funny. I laughed alot.. apart from moment when Pierce Brosman tried to sing, then I, as did everyone else in the theater, winced in pain not unlike nails on a chalkboard. Ah well.

Sunday was mainly gyming, shopping, laundry and the like.
Next week I have a Jazz seminar so that should be much better than the weird Art History one.. and a 3 day week!!!! I'll keep you posted xx

This one is for my dad... (everyone else look away now)

It seems they too managed to escape the padded cells..