It's 23.05 on Thursday 19th March. Today has been or first full day in Boston. I think pretty much all of our nights were a little disturbed last night, as often they are in a new place. Because of this, I didn't wake properly this morning until 9.55. I attempted to rouse the others but they were having none if it, so I headed down on my own to catch the last 5 minutes of the free breakfast the hostel offers every morning. After filling up on bread and cereal I headed back upstairs to find the others still in bed, but at least awake. For the next few hours we slowly got ready to head out, trained and played a little pool in the common area. Once everyone was showered and suitably layered out we ... read more

It's 14.56 on Wednesday the 18th of March. Currently I'm sitting on the bus between NYC and Boston. In this blog I'll write about the 16th & 17th, then maybe write up our day today either later tonight or tomorrow morning. So Monday morning we were up latish and got ready on the last full day we had in the apartment. We had arranged the day before to meet George, a friend of ours from Worthing, outside High St. sub station in Brooklyn. The fact that we actually met him there was a minor miracle itself as neither of us had wifi or 3G, there were several exits and we were both 20 minutes later than the arranged meeting time. The 5 of us then wandered into Downtown Brooklyn and sat and chatted in a Starbucks ... read more

It's 22.06 on Friday the 13th, and our fifth night in the Pacific Loft Apartments. The last 24 hours has done little to give us any more faith in the flat, but I'll get on to that later. We woke relatively late this morning - at around 9 - and I headed over to the park for a morning skip. It was clear and cold this morning, and remained that was the rest of the day. When I returned I was told by a cowering Rosie that Kate needed help in our bedroom, where she was sitting holding a Margherita cup to the wall. Under it, I was told, was a large centipede type bug that took Matt, Kate and I about 15 minutes to pluck up the courage to actually trap and get rid of. ... read more

I'm writing at 22.01 on our 3rd night in New York. Have had a fantastic day today exploring Lower Manhattan. I'll start at the beginning. The morning started a lot like yesterday morning. Up at a reasonable time, had some breakfast, did some training and got ready to go out. We left the flat at around 11.30 and headed to Brooklyn Bridge which, we soon discovered, was far more scenic and open air than Manhattan Bridge - where the pathway ran under the bridge alongside the subway track. Across the bridge we picked up a pretzel and found a Starbucks to get the first coffee of the day. Still trying in vain to get Rosie to enjoy coffee... Our next stop was the 9/11 memorial plaza, and we walked down in glorious 15•C sunshine. We stumbled ... read more

It's 10.22am on the 1st day we have in New York. Yesterday the travelling was long and tiring - but surprisingly hassle free. We were quickly through the immigration without any complications then stopped in a diner just outside the airport to share some fries and discuss the almost incomprehensible instructions to get to the hostel left for us from our hosts. Actually, when it came down to it it was not too complicated after all, plus we managed to swing getting two trains and a bus for $7.50 each. However, by this point it was getting late (around 10 by our body clocks), we'd been up early, and the bags were beginning to feel very very heavy. The entrance to the 'hostel' was a non-descript door in the middle of a residential street with a ... read more