New York Update 2

I have done lots and lots of sightseeing. I went to the Statue of Liberty for the second time, went to Central Park for the 5th or 6th time I think, went up the Empire State Building at last, for the first time. The view was great. The view however, would have been better if it had been of hills and trees and lakes and things instead of big lanky manky buildings. Oh well.

My friend and I did lots and lots of walking. We saw alot of downtown Manhattan which is where Wall Street is and Ground Zero and Battery Park where you get the Circle Line Ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island where the Statue of Liberty is. There is also a bit called South Street Seaport which has old sea port buildings renovated and turned into shops and there is a big pier thing with restaurants and other food outlets.

We had a harrowing experience when we tried to find a collection of Medieval artefacts housed in a place called the Cloisters which is in Harlem. We were not at all prepared for Harlem!!! It was scary!!! It was really run down and everyone was speaking spanish and there were groups of men just hanging about staring at us. It was pretty frightening. It is the sort of place I feel that no tourist has ventured into before. There were no signs or anything to indicate where the cloisters was and none of the maps we had went up far enough. The fact that the place isn't even included in tourist maps pretty much says it all. Tourists AREN'T supposed to go there!!! Well, we didn't go there for very long. I suppose we walked about for around 20 mins before we decided to flee. We were so relieved to be in the subway and making our escape. People seem to think Belfast is a scary place. Belfast is like Bagpuss' Shop compared to Harlem.

I forgot to add that it was last monday that we went to find the Cloisters and when we got to Harlem, we read the guide book and discovered that the Cloisters isn't open on Monday although we decided to try to find it anyway.

We weren't very successful that day. After the horror of Harlem, we decided to go to an art gallery in Manhattan. We got out of the subway, walked for about 15 mins until we were nearly there and then on consultation with the guide book realised that it wasn't open on Mondays either.

I don't know what it is about Mondays and New York.

Anyway, I have lots more to tell, but that will have to wait until another time. It's raining now but still very warm. The hottest day so far was Saturday. It was 94 fahrenheit. I don't know what that is in celsius. Somewhere around 30 I think.

New York Update

Well, here I am in New York.

It's not too warm at the moment. There was a mad thunderstorm the other day. It was nice and bright and sunny and then suddenly it got really dark and the thunder started and everyone was running about trying to get indoors before it started pouring with rain. It was quite fun. We had to race to the house with the two strollers (buggies). My mum phoned in the middle of it all and I set the phone down to help my sister in law with the children and then forgot my mum was still on the phone. She was still there when we got inside, but I couldn't hear what she was saying because the rain was pelting down like mad, there was a train roaring past and the children were screaming.

I haven't actually left the house so far, apart from going round a few blocks with the babies. I decided to wait until my friend arrives before venturing into Manhattan. I'd rather not go there unless I have to really. The subway is unpleasant and Manhattan is full of noise, pollution and mad people.

My baby nephew is the most amazing little boy. He is looking more Indian now, but still has very striking blue eyes. It looks as if they are going to stay blue. He's beautiful!!!

Well, my friend shall be arriving in 5 hours or thereabouts. Hopefully the taxi from the airport will get her here ok.

I'm off now to have a lunch of Indian curry. Everyone eats Indian food in this house. It's proper Indian food, not like the stuff you get in the take-away or frozen from Tesco.

New York, here I come!!!

In 9 hours I shall be going into the sky in a big bit of metal.

I have more things for other people in my case, than I have for myself. I still don't know how exactly I'm going to get to my brother's when I get over there. I'm just planning to work it out when I land.

Anyway, this is my last post before I go away. I don't know if I will get much chance to update while I'm away. There be a computer but there will also be lots of people in the house so when I do get online, it may only be briefly.

Anyway, feel free to comment amongst yourselves. I shall be online to check email now and again and will pop into my blog as well.

Up, up and away!!!

Packing

Some people have to make a big fuss and drama about it.

My mum has taken over proceedings and it's become a military operation. There's no use trying to do it myself, I have given up. I shall find unusual and random items of clothing and food in my case when I open it in New York. When I am asked at check-in if I have packed the case myself and if anyone else may have interferred with it, I shall have restrain myself from saying "Yes, my mother."

Unexpected things I have found in my case have included bacon, soda bread, underwear I'd never seen before, chocolates, plates, men's underwear, pasta, cup-a-soups and clothes that I had expressly told her I didn't want to bring.

As long as she doesn't put in any type of explosives or firearms or illegal drugs.

Piano Lessons

The piano woman emailed back and I should be starting lessons in August. Yay!!

Very excited now!

For the past week, I've been waking up with a sore woolly head. I thought it was because of the bright sun early in the morning coming into my room and waking me up at ridiculous times and then me going to sleep again and getting woken up by it repeatedly.

Anyway, I have the headache again this morning and it was a dull morning so I don't think it was the sun.....hmmmmm........it's most annoying, I can't get rid of my woolly head unless I take aspirin or something and I don't like taking tablets unless I really need to.

Anyway, it may just be that I'm not sleeping well because I'm a wee bit stressed about going to America on my own.

Preparations

Well, it's not long until I'm off to New York now. A matter of days!!!

Today I got some more clothes and the all important sunblock. It's bloody expensive stuff!! It was £10.49 a bottle. Luckily Boots had a buy one get one free offer on it.

It's a pain having to bother with sunblock, not that I like getting sun, just that it's a pain having to put the stuff on all the time. But since I had that skin cancer thing, I have to avoid the big bad sun. I like being pale anyway. I've never seen the attraction of looking tanned. My cousin does, however, she puts the fake stuff on in layers. She's beginning to resemble Cilla from Coronation Street!! Hideous!!

Well I emailed a piano teacher about having some lessons. Been wanting to learn piano for ages. Making up tunes on my keyboard is no longer enough for me. I want to play proper stuff, especially as I've really got into classical music the last couple of years.

I want to buy a piano as well. The cost wouldn't be too much of a problem, but I would have nowhere to put it!! If I'm having lessons though, I'll need to be able to practise at home really. My keyboard is of a highly inferior size. It only has 3 octaves...............I think that's the right term for it.

Perhaps I could get a fold up piano.............or maybe not.

Alcohol

Inspired by Zak and Shadrach Dingle in Emmerdale ( never thought this was possible), I am considering giving up alcohol for a month.

The whole thing is quite pointless if you think about it - drinking alcohol. There's just no need for it really.

The problem with giving it up for a while though, is not that I might find it difficult to resist the urge to drink it ( I don't think I would crave it at all ), but that it would be difficult socially.

Not only would it make me look odd if I go to the pub with people and don't drink alcohol, but it would mean that I wouldn't be able to have wine with a meal and things and I'd be the odd one out all the time.

There really is too much of a drinking culture in Britain. Even if you don't want to drink alcohol, you end up doing it otherwise you feel out of place and boring. It was impossible not to drink almost every night at uni without people considering me as a freak.

As I am about to go to New York for 2 weeks, I think it would be a good time to avoid alcohol for a month. The relatives I will be staying with do not drink alcohol which will make it easy to avoid it.

Well, I haven't made any final decision, but I am considering this course of action quite seriously.

Laziness???

Ah, here I am with another day to do as I please and I choose to do nothing in particular.

What a waste!!! Or is it? The problem is that when I eventually get a day off work and can do lots of things, ipso facto I want to do nothing. It is logical, however that due to having had to do something for lots of days, that when a day comes along during which I don't have to do anything, I want to do nothing and enjoy doing nothing because all those other days I had to do something and in a day or so I will have to do something again. To summarise, I am making very good use of my day off.

Hope that made sense.

Got my Mojo Working

Mr Monkey has returned home.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4612905.stm

He seems to have had fun:

"The missing monkey was seen by residents capering through gardens and waving through windows during his week-long adventure. "

He never waved at me through my window!!

HERE IS A PIC OF ME THAT MY FRIEND VIX HAS ENTERED IN A PHOTO COMPETITION THING - It was taken on Aberdeen Beach last August. She has entitled it "Thoughts of Realisation"

Isle of Man visit

Well, at last I have got round to posting about the Isle of Man.

We left Donaghadee in Northern Ireland at about 10am. We thought it would take about an hour and a half to get to the Isle of Man. However, it was more like 3 hours.

So we arrived in Peel at about half one and then had to get a bus to the other side of the Island to Douglas. This took twenty minutes, so we were there around two. However we had to get the bus back to Peel at half four so we didn't really have much time.

There was a big marquee along the promenade and lots of rocky blues music coming from it which sounded very good. However mum and granny aren't into that sort of thing, so we didn't go in.

There were lots of bikers wandering about as it was just before the TT. On the way to Douglas, lots of motorbikes sped past us.

As it was sunday, most of the shops were closed, so we walked about Douglas a bit and went to some of the shops that were open and then we walked along the promenade which is lovely. It was pretty much time to go back by then.

I would have liked to stay longer there. In fact, I'm planning to go over for a holiday later in the year.

There are lots of banks in Douglas. I saw HSBC, Barclay's, Royal Bank of Scotland, Bank of Scotland and Ulster Bank as well as the Isle of Man bank. They have their own notes and coins there which is very cool and they accept any kind of sterling.

I've been trying to post a link to a website about the Isle of Man, but blogger is being an arse and not accepting the HTML code, even when it is the code it gave me. It keeps telling me there is no
Here are some pictures anyway.


Peel Harbour




Peel Castle



Peel again (taken from boat)



Clock thing in Douglas showing time we arrived in Douglas




Municipal Building in Douglas




Cliffy thing in Douglas




Seafront at Douglas




Castle thing out at sea at Douglas




A view of Douglas







Buildings on Douglas Promenade




Horse Tram at Douglas




Sea Terminal at Douglas (that's the building with the pointy bit)




View along Douglas promenade




Manx Flag




That castle thing again. It was quite fascinating




Douglas Promenade again




More Douglas




Our arrival back at Donaghadee, Northern Ireland




A view of Donaghadee




More arrival in Donaghadee




And a close up




The dulse I ate in the car on the way home




And finally.........another view of the dulse

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We would like you to come for an interview - in fact,no we wouldn't

I got a letter inviting me to attend a job interview on the 21st of June. However I'm going to New York on the 16th of June so I won't be here. The letter states "It is regretted that the interview date and time cannot be rearranged."

I phoned them up anyway but was told "Sorry we can't change it."

Do they want someone for the bloody job or not!!?? Grr!!

I waited a month to hear from them. If they were going to be stupid arses about what date you came for interview, they should have asked on the application form if there were dates you couldn't attend. Then they wouldn't have been wasting people's time.

It was only a crappy clerical job anyway and it was slightly less than I'm earning now so not a great loss really. It was a monday to friday 9-5 thing though which is what I'd like even if it is a bit less money.

Oh well, it's happened for a reason I think. I'm destined to get some other job.