Hi Steve, Have finally found some time to get onto your site - and work out how it all works. The ECDL certificate did not equip me for this.
Anyway, just to say on this entry, really like your pics and, on some of the others (I've been working backwards), that one of my most indelible memories of The States is the way they ask you what you think of their country, expecting you to say 'wonderful'. It's quite difficult thinking what to say in response.
re NY I found it all quite difficult tho I think the States as a whole makes you re-think your assumptions and views about life etc as Americans are so open about expressing extreme views.
Hope you make it to Boston (remember the Chinese bus) and Cape Cod. I much preferred both those but then Lara loved NY.
green card Mr Rooke,
Seems like you are having a great time and I'm quite jealous! I was if you remember on unpaid leave this summer & spent 3 weeks in California and I found Americans very friendly but a bit strange!!! They probably think the same of you come to think of it. Seems like you quite like NY but you are not going to be going out of your way to find a Britney, Mary-Beth or Courtney to settle down with and get your green card. Actually talking of marriage, me and McFee have a great idea; remember your World Cup sweepstake, well we are using the same teams and offering tickets at £5 pound a go to see where you will bring a bride back from. This is the only time is a World Cup sweepstake that someone is happy to get South Korea! hehehe!
Keep up the blog as I will indulge in the soap opera of your travels each day at tea break time, so get writing, as you know I have a lot of tea breaks. Unfortunately now without goodies of chockies, crisps, tins of herrings etc ets since you vacated SEN. I might even be forced in going to Tescos.
Mr Hodges
The value of Greenbacks... Hiya Wooster!
Excellent to read your blog. Looks like you're settling in just fine to way of things in NY - I totally agree - you can get anything for almost any amount of money in NY: You want big 'n' cheap?.......Here it is!! You want small and expensive - here it is (It'll still be big). I think a dollar's worth about 55p at the moment - but you might find the cost of things becomes a bit less bizarre once you start to move away from NY.
Old people in the states: Worry not - they all live in Florida...and at the last conflab we had, I didn't think you were going Mickey's way, so you should miss out on the barrage of Crumper vehicles that snake their way round the attractions down there.....
I forgot to mention to you last week in the Russian (or was it the week before now) that Yellowstone NP pretty much shuts down from the end of Sept and the roads start to close very soon after that as the weather at 7,000ft starts to get pretty drastic from that time of the year. Seasons arrive suddenly in the States, so you'll probably wake up one morning and find 3ft of orange leaves on your doorstep. They call it The Fall for a reason.
Anyways - keep 'em coming...and have a big 'ole Pretzel for me (the one's you buy off the street sellers) and be sure to get a sachet of Mustard and squidge it on each mouthful you're about to take. Be sure to chug about 20 gallons of drink afterwards as they're totally salty (but tasty)
Witty
Hotel Security I've never heard of that and never had any problems when I was there.
However maybe I was just lucky and you've drawn a short straw. Is it worth asking at reception if there is something going on?
Phones & Stuff Tri-Band just means that your phone can work on three frequency bands, so one of the frequencies that your phone receives is one of the ones that the US uses, so all is good and as it's meant to be.
WiFi on the other hand should "just work" without of any that multi-band fluff that phones go through.
Sounds a bit like a nice day out in Southend-on-Sea! Except perhaps for the 'Shoot the Freak' part. Not sure we'd be allowed to get away with the word 'Freak' over here, some people really do take political correctness to the extreme! :)
By keep saying 'I live in the greatest country in the world!' just sounds like they keep trying to convince themselves. Probably a phrase that has been drummed into them since kindergarten though.
I think you're brave to eat so many hot dogs from the street vendors in New York. Please don't develop a taste for them though, or there's a chance upon your return to England that you'll be insisting on eating burgers from the vendors in Romford Market...urghhhh!
I think with the car park the car drives backwards onto a pallet and it rises up from the ground. A new pallet beneath it emerges from underground ready for the next car. Presumably when someone wants their car back from the top the cars below disappear underground so that the car at the top can get to ground level. Sort of clever but sort of mightily complicated and prone to mechanical errors. Not sure if it's genius or deranged!
So will you be leaving New York weighing in at 20 stone then after all those super-size portions? So, socks and sandals eh? I know one person that would love to go back to that style, even though it took me ages, while living at home, to convince him that it was not a good look (I think you know who I mean ;)).Whatever you do, definitely DO NOT open your door any time of the day or night to anyone. Good that you have a bolt and chain, but I'm not surprised it makes you feel uneasy, it was disturbing for Me and Frances too. Thankfully they seem to be opportunists though, and if they don't get an open door after one or two knocks they disappear. Perhaps you could ask someone at the hotel whether other guests have mentioned it too?
Did you say 'cellphone' in your earlier comment? Man you're picking up the local lingo fast! Next you'll be saying 'candy' instead of chocolate, and 'sneakers' instead of trainers. Just make sure you don't do any 'jaywalking' off the 'sidewalk'! xx ;)
I love the town car park! How on earth do they do that? Clearly their cars are far more technically advanced than ours! The bronze figures are very interesting I agree. You can see how high the water gets by the marks on the wall. Bit sad when the water comes right up and covers the figure hanging down over the wall though, bet he gets right fed-up!
Huggability I was worried there would be too many fights in the I Team about their huggability ratings if I didn't leave when I did, so in the interests of health and safety, I went during the summer hols. Should anyone still wish to obtain a rating, I am available again on February 28th 2011.:)
My phone is working fine, even though it'snot supposed to because US is on tri-band and UK is on duo-band. Strangely my laptop is not picking up wi-fi, presumably for the same reason. Maybe because Vodafone is American my mobile (sorry, cellphone) works fine.
hello! Hi Steve -
We're missing you but not getting through as many hankies as when I first discovered you had left during the schools holidays to avoid the trauma of saying goodbye to all the iTeam - or having to scale their huggability!
Have a wonderful time. Enjoy every moment, enjoy the freedom and have fun.
Love Sue x
Glad you're feeling better Walking around NY is really rather cool, there's lots to see and it's a good way to take in the place, so if you're feeling up to it I can certainly recommend it. Check out the last minute ticket booth in Times Square too as you can get some bargains if you're willing to go right off to a show.
arriving Steve, I think arriving somewhere new is almost always a bit crap . . but well done to you and Laura for improving things! Move to Manhattan -maybe Greenwich village or East Village. At least you might get a moreinteresting view out of your hotel window!
Looking forward to hearing more.
Re: One Day to the Off Hiya Wooster - Just checking in to wish you farewell, Bon Voyage and all that!
I'll be watching and reading with interest......
Up the.........YANKS!
Ian F
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Hotel door
Wimp