New York New York

New York was bloody excellent!

We had a great time and we packed so much into our holiday that its left my head spinning!

We shopped, we went to Times Sq, Union Sq, 23rd St (Flatiron Building - ie the Daily Bugle in Spider-Man), Central Park & Bow Bridge, Dakota Building & Strawberry Fields (John Lennon was shot outside the Dakota Building), Bronx Zoo, Staten Island Ferry (to see Ms Liberty as we sailed by), Wall Street, Ground Zero, Madison Sq Garden, Natural History Museum, Hard Rock Cafe, saw Spider-Man 3 at cinema, Rockafella Centre (Much better than going up the Empire State.. coz you get a great view of the park, and of the Empire State building! Plus no queue to get in!!!!!), Grand Central Station, Algonquin Hotel (where all those literary chaps sat at the round table in the 20s, including Mrs Parker!), Chinatown, Little Italy (mmmm.. good pizza), Canal St markets, walked up Broadway, walked along 5th Ave....

and...

Shopped, shopped, shopped, shopped and shopped some more.

I was a bit disappointed that my favourite shoe shop, DSW, didn't have much that caught my interest. Grrr. Only came home with 4 pairs of shoes. Martin did really well and came home with about 15 t-shirts and 5 shirts. I did manage, however, to buy some men's lounge pants (basically pj bottoms!) with the Jack Daniels symbol splattered all over them. Also got some M&M ones, Duff Beer, Guinness, and DC Comics. They're really comfy and unlike the womens they are nice and long!

So, all in all, it was pretty good.

I had a really bad cold from Monday onwards though. It made me feel like absolute crap, but it didn't hold us back at all... except for Martin always telling me to walk faster. The three blisters that I gained didn't really help much either.

We also went out to dinner at Cafe Taci where they have opera singers belting out the classics during your (overpriced) meal. It was really nice though. We went with my parents on the Saturday night for Martin's birthday.

On the Sunday, Martin's actual birthday, we went to the Nat. Hist. Museum where I was shat on by a bird while waiting outside on the steps. Just my fucking luck eh. Some people say that being shat on is good luck... it came to fruition later that night when we wanted to see Spider-Man 3. It was all booked out in Times Square so we went up to 66th and queued. The board said it was sold out, but we queued up anyway. Just as we got to the front a nice looking couple asked us if we wanted tickets to the 7pm showing of Spider-Man. Turned out that the bird had bought the tickets online but her bf wanted to see if in Imax instead. As it was 6.55pm we thought it was pretty bloody good timing! So we got straight in to see Spider-Man 3!! The cinema was packed with noisy Americans that actually commented out loud with 'Ooo's and 'Ahhh's at all the revelations during the movie. Morons.

It was a hoot though.

The flight home sucked.

Not only did our tv screens on the plane not work (the only two screens that didn't work on the entire damn plane), but when we changed flights in Zurich (NY to Zurich to England... whose dumb idea was that!!) we had to go all the way out to the check in counter and check in the alcohol that we bought from NY. Fucken European Union making things difficult. We managed it though, even though Martin was swearing his head off and stressing me out. I managed to not shit in my pants. Hehehe.

When we got to Heathrow the weather of England was out to greet us. We caught the bus to the car park and just as we walked to the car the heavens opened up in a ridiculously heavy deluge of rain! We were fucking soaked!

At least when we got home we could relax. It turned out to be a great night...

EXCEPT!!!!......

The stupid workmen, who were supposed to have FINISHED the work on the house, had only just started and their crap was left all over the place. We got a very rude wake-up call the next morning. Sunday morning. At 9am. We were woken by the workmen COMING INTO OUR BEDROOM WHILE WE WERE SLEEPING!!!!!!!!

Needless to say I was not a happy camper!!

I managed to talk them into pissing off and coming back Monday, but we had already been woken and our desire for a sleep in was absolutely ruined.

That whole episode made me sleep in on Tuesday until 9.30am (the time I'm actually supposed to START work)... so I didn't make it in to work until about 11am. Not good.

All is pretty much ok now.

Saw Spider-Man 3 again last night. I love it.

Go Spidey Go!