I've been busy the last few days but some highlights include: Another houseparty with lots of my cousin's friends from med school. Board games, alcohol and music - it was a good night! Brunch is a bit of an institution here and we indulged at the local diner. Apparently mimosas are par for the course but I only had a little as it seemed a bit early for booze! I spent a day walking round Brooklyn, tried to visit a very famous pizza parlour but was put off by the huge long queue. I'd walked across the Brooklyn Bridge which, as [View Full Entry]

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I can't believe I forgot about it, but the day I went to Central Park and FAO Schwarz I also visited The Cathedral Church of St John the Divine . It was amazing. It's a massive building, apparently the size of two american football pitches and the statue of liberty could comfortably fit under the done (without her pedestal). It's unfinished and looks like it won't be finished until 2050 due to various funding crises and a big fire but it is remarkable, not only for it's vastness but for the beautiful stained glass windows and peaceful mini chapels (my terminology [View Full Entry]

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You can’t help but wonder if you're actually welcome when you travel to the USA. We’ve been since 9/11, but the security just seems to keep stepping up and up. It starts with a series of questions at the check in desk. When did you pack your bags? Where have they been since you packed them? And so on. We didn’t get seated together. I wasn’t expecting to, having tried to check in online the night before and not being allowed to. Also, our travel agent seemed to have already pre-booked all of our seats on the other flights we took, [View Full Entry]

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Buffalo J'en avait pas assez du voyagement... Ajout d'un weekend de Football à Buffalo avec les boys (et girls)! Pour faire comme à l'autre bout du monde, j'ai essayé des choses inmangeables comme les ailes de poulet Buffalo avec sauce piquante ultra Nucléaire Nitro. Il faut signer une décharge pour en commander un plein panier. Comme on dirait, ca décape!!!!!!! La température était vraiement clémente pour faire le célebre tailgate dans le parking du stade. Oh et je crois que les Bills ont gagné!! lol [View Full Entry]

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Planning a trip to New York City to see the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree? The tree lighting ceremony is traditionally held on the first Wednesday after Thanksgiving. This year’s 2009 ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, December 2, 2009. There is so much to see in the city during the month of December even if you can’t make the actual lighting ceremony the tree is up throughout the month of December, the Rockefeller Ice Rink is always a hit and shop owners across the city have pulled out all the stops for their storefront displays. Hotel rooms are hard [View Full Entry]

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Back home in Brooklyn, NY, sitting at my kitchen table with a turkey in the oven, I can't help but feel more thankful than ever. Yes, it's three days after thanksgiving,...but what good does it do to show gratitude and thanx for everything we have, only one day a year? Even as I sort through my mail and the stacks of bills, wondering if can scrounge up enough $ to pay rent on the 1st, I feel blessed. Warm and cozy with the smell of turkey in the air, my wonderful friends due to arrive shortly, bringing more food to share, [View Full Entry]

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Here I am at work, or at least my body is here; my mind is a bazillion miles away as I go over my checklist of things to do before our journey begins on Tuesday morning. I'm sure I'll forget something or other, but hopefully it won't be something important like my wallet, my cell phone, the cat....Anyhow, it is with sincere thanks, appreciation, gratitude, etc. that I mention the overwhelming assistance of those I am fortunate enough to call friends. Since this is a public forum I won't get too detailed, but you know who you are PTS people! Roslyn [View Full Entry]

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Conditions are harsh in this part of the world, yet you'll never hear a New Yorker grumble about temperature extremes. The city certainly knows how to embrace a season with a celebratory twist. Summer brings free concerts in the park, picnic-rug delivered cupcakes and rooftop martinis. Fall worships reddish-golden maple leaves with gruesome pumpkin heads and sparkly skulls. Winter is all about Christmas trimmings on steroids, from the 250kg Swarovski crystal star topping the real-live pine Rockefeller Christmas Tree, to outdoor ice-skating rinks bathed in the glow of a billion fairylights. [View Full Entry]

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(A tip for using my blog site, whenever you see a word that is blue and underlined, it's a link. Click on it and a new window will open up with more information about that subject. I linked Rochester below as an example.) Friday, November 27th, 2009 Rochester, NY to Dublin, Ireland. So, a quick rundown of why Amanda was mucho stressed leading up to the trip (this paragraph will bore/stress you out): Pack house in case it sells; sell my car/that falls thru/put in storage; set up Mom's car so a friend could drive it/this fails a [View Full Entry]

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Doug and I both had a really great Thanksgiving break! We both visited with our families, even though mine ditched me for Texas, but met up in the evening to play games with Karen and Jonathan. All four of us got up bright and early and took the train from Milford into NYC. First, Karen and Jonathon took us to Bryant Park to walk around for the start of Jonathans food tour! Well it actually started at Grand Central, but Doug and I shared a delicious crepe, and a hot waffle with Doug's first try eating Nutella. After Bryant Park, we [View Full Entry]

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