Grand Central and some toys...

After the Intrepid, we made a quick visit to Grand Central, very impressive train station and completed the day in FAO Schwartz before eating at Bubba Gump's Shrimp company.
Then it was off to FAO Schwartz, the (very) exclusive toy shop. Insanely expensive toys for the child who needs to be seriously spoiled. Here's Ellie with the Lego Hagrid.
Lego Chewie...
Lego Vader.
The flight simulator "toy". That small rectangular sign in the bottom left hand corner of the picture is the price tag... $330,000. We're getting two.
Then a play on the ($250,000) revamped "BIG" piano. We'll take two of those also.

Back to NYC... Day #1: Saturday

...not physically, way too tired for that. Here are a few snaps from our trip in August. We started off on the USS Intrepid, the air and space museum which is located on an aircraft carrier and was conveniently at the end of 42nd Street where our hotel was...
Thomas had a go in a fighter plane cockpit.
So did Ellie!
Thomas with Kevin Costner...

Wet night out...

After weeks of anticipation and lovely sunny weather, we went to see the Rolling Stones last night on Halifax Commons (or Mud Bath as it has now become). We arrived at about 3pm in spitting rain and 'enjoyed' 8 hours of progressively wetter weather. It's fortunate that MC and I bought rain coats this week otherwise I suspect it would have been a extra miserable affair.
Support started at 4pm with Sloan followed by Alice Copper and then Kanye West before the main event at 8:30pm, they were excellent if a little slower about the stage, Ronnie Wood didn't think much of the rain, Keith Richard seemed barely able to stand for most of the show, Charlie sat and smiled under his dry drumming canope and Mick charged about in a variety peculiar sequinned outfits performing the sort of dance that would get him laughed out of "So you think you can dance?"
Highlights for me were Paint it Black, Sympathy for the Devil and Satisfaction, oh Alice Cooper and his snake. We got back to the car at about 11pm, scoffed a MacDonald's and came home to investigate if there was any part of us that wasn't wet... As it turned out the new coats had done their job pretty well, pity we didn't invested in rain trousers too!
Next time maybe - oh, no, there isn't going to be a next time unless it's REM... I'm too old to stand in mud for 8 hours.

One year on...

So we landed one year ago yesterday so I'm a day late writing my yearly review (or maybe three weeks early if we take into account the trip to the UK last November). Anyway we were talking about all that has happened in the last twelve months and it's been a busy year...
Moved house twice, first to the rental in Beechville then to Mineville... Finally sold the place in Brighton too, so that's a weight off...
Ellie started school today, after a brief stint at Pre-School before christmas. She had a great time all in all, her new teacher is known by all the area and is rated as brilliant by everyone so I'm happy she's going to have a great year.
Start out with three vehicles, a green one, a red one and a silver one. Finished with three, a green one, a red one and silver one... The green one (came in a container from England), the red one is different (Jeep TJ replaced derelict Clio), as is the silver one (Dodge Caravan replaced Renault Laguna). All in all an improvement...
We've travelled; back to the UK last November, Quebec for Christmas, down to Florida in May and down to New York...
A busy year, I hope we never have another on like it, but it's certainly been worth it...
Back to the New York pics next post.
BTW we're watching the Soprano's at the moment, Series 3, Episode 11: Pine Barrens, it's genius, exceptionally funny. Big thumbs up!

Lost in Maine....

The last road trip of the year... MC and I both concluded that after Disney and camping in Pictou and finally selling the house in England it was time to go on holiday for us. So we settled on to a road trip to New York.
Easy you would think, we did it on the way to Florida three months ago, I-95 from Bangor in Maine... My problem was getting to the I-95, within 10 miles of the the border I was lost, not only was I lost, everyone else in the car was asleep and, more importantly, I didn't know I was lost. So on we went and the road got narrower and narrower and bumpier and bumpier until all we got were signs saying 169... It was 2am, not that it mattered, there were no houses, no people, no nothing, who would we ask anyway?
So I read a lot of Stephen King and John Connolly, both of whom have all the freaks in the world living in the vicinity - good job it's all rubbish!
So eventually, we arrive in Springfield (every cloud etc, didn't see Homer though), so I cost us an hour on the journey and we sill made NYC at 8:30...
Oh - weather was rubbish, thus so were the pictures...