Well we can't believe a month has come and gone so quickly...... we made it home following enjoying a last couple of days in Santa Monica before the long flight home. Unfortunately we had no such luck as to be upgraded for that final and most crucial leg, so after enjoying the luxuries of business and premium economy seats you can well imagine our chargrin as we squeezed into our little seats like battery hens and suffered 14 hours (13 in the air plus 1 on the tarmac) of noise, cramps and restless interrupted sleep.....all we can say is thank God for noise cancelling headphones! We have just finished checking out how many frequent flyer points we need to geta premium economy flight to Asia.....we must be getting soft in our old age!
And so now we have finished unpacking, washing, balancing the bank books and bills etc and preparing to slot back into reality when we have to go to work tomorrow, it is time for a few short reflections of the month that was our trip in America.
As always - a review of lost and found:
Lost = Stacey won this category for the first time, Jeff was unusally fastidious in accounting for his belongings, as afar as we can see, lost items included, keys, a pad lock for the luggage and the money belt with travel documents, both of which diasappeared in the same hostel room moments asfter having them in our hand...that room was dubbed 'the Bemuda triangle' as our things seemed to randomly appear and disappear at will. The good news is as they all reappeared they can be counted in the 'found' category as well!
Other lost things - a pair of sunglasses, computer and ipod cables, and some jewellery (earings and necklace) bought as a present for Susan from the Navajo Indians, plus we returned with several partnerless socks. Just how does that happen? Socks seem to be particulary skilled at escaping!
Found = not sure if technically speaking purchases can be included as 'found' items......but given we have just visited the spiritual home of capitalism we felt it only appropriate to partake in consumerist activities. And some of our shopping did involve a bit of searching! We did find a piece of volcanic rock after taking a slight detour off the highway through paddocks (if the car rental company ask, we NEVER took the car off-road), finding our way out of some of the more dubious parts of San Fracisco with our lives intact was also a particular achievement! We found a shop in Vegas where you can hire a gun, and at the time we found that both amusing and strange- but after visiting San Fran we began to think that perhaps the idea had some merits. A bit of orienteering was involved in finding "Fruity Pebbles" (think fruit loops on drugs) to bring home for Mindy, especially as we were searching in hoity toity Santa Monica where all the grocery stores were 'organic Wholefood markets!'
Favourite Sayings:
We always like to pick up a few words or phrases of the local lingo, and America was no different - our number one favourite would have to be about 'rooting in the stands' at the baseball - it brought us many minutes of laughter! as did if we said 'thank you' we were often treated to a response of 'uhhh hu' - first truly experienced from the good folk of Tonapah. We quickly learnt to modify our own speech after we were greeted with a few blank expressions when we asked for 'the bill', or when Jeff mentioned something a bout a 'bloke' to a perplexed fellow in a clothes shop as they both waited for their respective spouses to try on more and more clothes and when Stacey requested 'wholemeal' bread. But we got into the spirit of things and found ourselves asking where the 'restrooms were' ordered 'cawfee', enjoyed a 'soda' and declined some 'cotton candy'.
Favourite TV Programs = Well America is the home of over 500 cable tv channels---- did you expect that we wouldn't watch any tv?? We limited ourselves to only quality programs - a documentary on Schappelle Corby, episodes of Jerry Springer and the spin off show hosted by his bodyguard Steve, Judge Joe Brown, and for most creative fiction our favourite show award goes to Fox News.
Oh well, it's not going to be as interesting as trying to understand the japanese and their crazy tv shows on our next trip!!
Hope you enjoyed the blog - apprently it is too boring and will be receiving a makeover so watch this space!
Cheers
Stacey and Jeff - happy to be home to the sleepy dog...7pm, must be bed time!
Sunday 9 August 2009
Tuesday 4 August 2009
The Mets of New York and other tales
Hello to you all...this blog is coming to you from the beginning of the end of our trip at JFK Airport NYC on our way back to LA for a couple of nights and a few days swimming and shopping with the bodies beautiful.
NYC is a magic place and way too big to cover in 4 days, we need another week to even touch on the things we wanted to do. The title of the blog is inspired by the themes of NYC...the subway (metro), the Met Museum and the NY Mets baseball team...not to forget the Met theatre off broadway.
Broadway was our introduction to NYC as we stepped off the train with heavy suitcases and it was the middle of the lunch hour...the place was busy and we never thought we would get to our hostel...the task of pushing 2 25 kilo bags through a crowd of pushy people at every corner was a difficult on. Our hostel was in a handy location just off Times Square and the last minute decision to switch to a private room was worth the few extra dollars.
The first Met that we experienced was the Subway....difficult to understand and navigate the first few times, b ut convenient a nd quick nonetheless. We headed to Little Italy for a bite to eat and thought we were about to see a few Carlton Blues jumpers around as it's very similar to Lygon Street. We passed up the opportunity of reflexology in nearby Chinatow n and walked up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Tip from Jeff is to watch out for cyclists in this part of town as you may - as he almost did, get knocked over if you don't pay attention. We wandered down to Wall Street and ran into a girl that had a puppy that was a sheltie cross and got talking to her and picked up a few tips on Manhattan (who knows if people in Manhattan get off the island to Jersey or the other boroughs? One gets the impression they may not!). We ended up on the river across from the Statue (you know the one with the girl in a big dress with a lit cigarette in her hand) and watched the sunset before walking back to the subway via the WTC. On the ride home we were ëntertained"by a group of breakdancers hustling for cash and also a few beggars...they're quite common on the trains from what we've seen.
As has been the theme of this trip we got up late the next day and as a result we only hit a few attractions like the continuous line at the Empire State Building...waste of time...lining up all day and not the best view anyway. More interesting in the afternoon was the visit to the Bodies exhibition where they had real cadavas on display and body parts in glass cases...it was an amazing experience, educational and thought provoking and didn't even feel weird to be so close to dead bodies in interesting poses, though you were n't allot to touch!! I think Stacey got a grope in somewhere..
We picked up tickets to a play - Mary Stuart - on thbe way home and hit broadway that night. The play was great and we were three rows back. Recommended, as are the shish kebabs that we had on the way home from there, bought from a street corner stand. According to the egyptian who sold them to us all the women in NYC are "b@tch@s because of the way they dress...hmmm tolerance is a wonderful thing!
Stace promised a trip to the Met the next day and I got all dressed up for the baseball. We walked through Central Park and she pronounced that we were there...no baseball in sight, just lots of artsy fartsy paintings and sculptures...lucky me. It was time for crisis talks. Sure her birthday was coming up but there was no need to play such games. As we walked through harlem we hired a few negotiators and ended up agreeing to hit the baseball that night. That and we better get outta there before dark hit.
And so on saturday night we went out to near the US Open stadium to Citi Field - the home of the NY mets, We had seats on the top of Pepsi Porch and enjoyed a great game...won by the Mets as a result of a "Grand Slam"by Angel Pagan (he had god and the devil on his side - how could he go wrong?)...The team song was going on about how we should root in the stand...but as it was our first time we decided not to, modesty! We filled up on hot dogs, soda and kettle korn. What a night.
On sunday we went out to Liberty island. It was a short trip - not too much exciting about a french gift to the US made of copper and holding a fag in her hand. That and it was puring down rain and jeff was angry at the deprivation of his liberties by security as they confiscated his grand canyon swiss army knife. Apparently it's a prohibited item....maybe he was going to stab the statue....only problem was the knife was no goood anyway...could never get it out!
Miss Maimse and her spoonbread delights in Harlem soon lifted the spirits! This place is a gem and thanks to Patrick for the tip. Jeff dined on Southern Meatloaf and Stacey the fried Chicken. Bill Clinton is a fan and we are now as well. Mind you the food was served in good size portions requiring a meander through and around central park to wear it off. Not to be put off, we still managed to go out for dinner to a cool brazilian place in Alpabet City (lower east side manhatten) where we indulged in cocktails as we enjoyed the entertainment.
We spent this morning exploring SOHO, with the plan to hit the shops for stacey's birthday. Unfortunately we didnt get to stay for long, as we needed to run the gauntlet back to the trains in ordr to get out to the airport.
We have been upgraded again (premium econonmy, but in business class seats- Qantas being nic e as it is stacey's birthday today) cant wait for the flight! hopefully we will get to post another blog entry before we head home where we are under no illusions that we will get another upgrade....we are sure the 13 hours in economy on the final flight will bring us back down to reality, but until then we will enjoy lliving the high life!
NYC is a magic place and way too big to cover in 4 days, we need another week to even touch on the things we wanted to do. The title of the blog is inspired by the themes of NYC...the subway (metro), the Met Museum and the NY Mets baseball team...not to forget the Met theatre off broadway.
Broadway was our introduction to NYC as we stepped off the train with heavy suitcases and it was the middle of the lunch hour...the place was busy and we never thought we would get to our hostel...the task of pushing 2 25 kilo bags through a crowd of pushy people at every corner was a difficult on. Our hostel was in a handy location just off Times Square and the last minute decision to switch to a private room was worth the few extra dollars.
The first Met that we experienced was the Subway....difficult to understand and navigate the first few times, b ut convenient a nd quick nonetheless. We headed to Little Italy for a bite to eat and thought we were about to see a few Carlton Blues jumpers around as it's very similar to Lygon Street. We passed up the opportunity of reflexology in nearby Chinatow n and walked up to the Brooklyn Bridge. Tip from Jeff is to watch out for cyclists in this part of town as you may - as he almost did, get knocked over if you don't pay attention. We wandered down to Wall Street and ran into a girl that had a puppy that was a sheltie cross and got talking to her and picked up a few tips on Manhattan (who knows if people in Manhattan get off the island to Jersey or the other boroughs? One gets the impression they may not!). We ended up on the river across from the Statue (you know the one with the girl in a big dress with a lit cigarette in her hand) and watched the sunset before walking back to the subway via the WTC. On the ride home we were ëntertained"by a group of breakdancers hustling for cash and also a few beggars...they're quite common on the trains from what we've seen.
As has been the theme of this trip we got up late the next day and as a result we only hit a few attractions like the continuous line at the Empire State Building...waste of time...lining up all day and not the best view anyway. More interesting in the afternoon was the visit to the Bodies exhibition where they had real cadavas on display and body parts in glass cases...it was an amazing experience, educational and thought provoking and didn't even feel weird to be so close to dead bodies in interesting poses, though you were n't allot to touch!! I think Stacey got a grope in somewhere..
We picked up tickets to a play - Mary Stuart - on thbe way home and hit broadway that night. The play was great and we were three rows back. Recommended, as are the shish kebabs that we had on the way home from there, bought from a street corner stand. According to the egyptian who sold them to us all the women in NYC are "b@tch@s because of the way they dress...hmmm tolerance is a wonderful thing!
Stace promised a trip to the Met the next day and I got all dressed up for the baseball. We walked through Central Park and she pronounced that we were there...no baseball in sight, just lots of artsy fartsy paintings and sculptures...lucky me. It was time for crisis talks. Sure her birthday was coming up but there was no need to play such games. As we walked through harlem we hired a few negotiators and ended up agreeing to hit the baseball that night. That and we better get outta there before dark hit.
And so on saturday night we went out to near the US Open stadium to Citi Field - the home of the NY mets, We had seats on the top of Pepsi Porch and enjoyed a great game...won by the Mets as a result of a "Grand Slam"by Angel Pagan (he had god and the devil on his side - how could he go wrong?)...The team song was going on about how we should root in the stand...but as it was our first time we decided not to, modesty! We filled up on hot dogs, soda and kettle korn. What a night.
On sunday we went out to Liberty island. It was a short trip - not too much exciting about a french gift to the US made of copper and holding a fag in her hand. That and it was puring down rain and jeff was angry at the deprivation of his liberties by security as they confiscated his grand canyon swiss army knife. Apparently it's a prohibited item....maybe he was going to stab the statue....only problem was the knife was no goood anyway...could never get it out!
Miss Maimse and her spoonbread delights in Harlem soon lifted the spirits! This place is a gem and thanks to Patrick for the tip. Jeff dined on Southern Meatloaf and Stacey the fried Chicken. Bill Clinton is a fan and we are now as well. Mind you the food was served in good size portions requiring a meander through and around central park to wear it off. Not to be put off, we still managed to go out for dinner to a cool brazilian place in Alpabet City (lower east side manhatten) where we indulged in cocktails as we enjoyed the entertainment.
We spent this morning exploring SOHO, with the plan to hit the shops for stacey's birthday. Unfortunately we didnt get to stay for long, as we needed to run the gauntlet back to the trains in ordr to get out to the airport.
We have been upgraded again (premium econonmy, but in business class seats- Qantas being nic e as it is stacey's birthday today) cant wait for the flight! hopefully we will get to post another blog entry before we head home where we are under no illusions that we will get another upgrade....we are sure the 13 hours in economy on the final flight will bring us back down to reality, but until then we will enjoy lliving the high life!
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