New York, New York...Part 4

Monday turned out to be another early morning, which was probably good because we needed to pack before another breakfast at Cranberry Cafe. The weather forecast once again wasn't great so we set off for the Rockefeller Centre and an indoor tour of NBC studios. There wasn't much to the tour, a history of NBC, a visit to the Nightly News studio next door to MSNBC and a make up room. We'd already toured the gift shop as we had an hour to kill before the tour started so we set off for Carnegie Hall for the second tour of the day, collecting Sal's now incredibly sparkly ring from Tiffany's on the way.

We collected tickets at Carnegie Hall but had time to go for lunch before it was due to start. We had a lovely lady called Sheila Weinstein show us round, the tour was changed slightly as they would normally spend time looking round the auditorium but the Minnesota Orchestra were practicing for their performance that evening so we were able to sit and listen to them practise for a while. After the tour it was back out into the rain and back again to the Cranberry Cafe to satisfy my craving for hot chocolate. We stayed for two cups as the rain was worse and it didn't seem worthwhile doing the last thing on the list which was to go to Central Park so we'll wait for a better time of year and go back for that one in the sun.

It was soon time to collect our bags from the hotel and head to the bus station to get the bus back to the airport. The whole check in experience this time being much smoother and faster than 3 days earlier leaving time for a little shopping at the airport. I don't remember the flight back much, I was asleep before we even took off. I woke up after an hour as the food was coming round so had something to eat and watched He's Just Not That Into You and then fell asleep again, woke up for a croissant for breakfast and then again in time for landing.

So now it's back to work and planning for when I can go again!

New York, New York...Part 3

It pretty much rained all of Sunday. After our usual start to the day with breakfast in the Cranberry Cafe we took the subway to the end of the line at South Ferry and took the ferry from Battery Park over to Ellis Island. We'd decided not to bother with getting off at Liberty Island, having taken all the pictures of the Statue the day before and as it was pouring down we just stayed on the ferry to its second stop at Ellis Island Immigration Museum. As we didn't have any ancestors to look for in the records we just looked round the exhibits instead, downstairs are the statistic based exhibits with all the facts and figures. Upstairs in the Great Hall there isn't much to see but the hall itself is an amazing looking room. Off one end deceptively hidden by what we thought was a mirror and ignored it the first time, was a trail of rooms following the experience of the immigrants when they came to Ellis Island - medical tests, legal questions, mental tests etc.

After leaving the ferry back in Battery Park we walked in the rain up to the World Trade Centre and to ground zero. From seeing the view of the skyline you can see where the twin towers are missing from the picture and it's amazing seeing the space on the ground that two huge towers stood there, there doesn't seem to be enough room somehow. We walked through alongside ground zero to the Winter Garden at the World Financial Centre, and after a bit of shopping stopped for a bit of chinese for a late lunch. My learning point for the day was always go for what you want off the menu, I thought it was a shame to all order the same main course so I went for angel hair pasta and veg which was a bit bland and then had to steal some Lemon sweet and sour pork from both Mum and Sal's plates.

We got the subway back uptown for a bit of shopping in Bloomingdales, take Sal's ring into Tiffany's for a clean, and a quick look at St Patrick's Cathedral and Grand Central Station and then back to the hotel for a rest. By 9pm Sal and I were very settled in the room and ready for staying in for the night but Mum persuaded us to get up as planned and we walked over to Rockefeller Centre to go to the Top of the Rock. We'd decided to see the city from here at night so that we could see the Empire State lit up, this was only half successful as the fog covered the top of the Empire State so we could only see as far as the band of lights. The view of the city was great though and we were pleased that Mum had insisted that we get out of bed!

New York, New York...Part 2

Saturday was another early start. I blame Sally for saying that she always wakes up at 5am the first morning in America, and so we did. Kept awake early by the marching band that made it's way down Broadway at 7am and set up camp in Times Square just outside the hotel so we eventually got up and made our way over towards Planet Hollywood to collect our New York Passes. This was made slightly more difficult by the 40,000 people gathering to take part in the Revlon 5k Run/Walk for Women that was setting off from Times Square at 9am. We found a very cheap little cafe for breakfast with pancakes and french toast that we went back to all weekend and by the time we got back to Broadway all the runners had set off but the roads were still closed to traffic so we took advantage of being able to walk down the middle of the road and take lots of pictures.

We then made our way to the Empire State Building, the weather forecast suggested that it wouldn't be quite as wet on Saturday as it would be all the other days that we were there, so we planned a trip to the top to see the sights. The rain didn't quite hold off so we did have to shelter inside for a little bit but we still saw the view from all sides while listening to Tony's Audio Tour. The weather started to brighten as we got back to ground floor so we went over to Pier 83 for the Circle Line Tours, rather than waiting over an hour to get the 2 hour cruise we decided if we were going to wait an hour we might as well be seeing more of the views so we had a shorter wait and got on the 3 hours cruise for a round trip of Manhattan Island. The sun finally came out for a while so the pictures look great for that afternoon and we got to see all the main sights so it was worth spending the extra hour on the boat.

We got back to Times Square and went straight for dinner and then to our second show - The Little Mermaid. Completely different to 9to5 but still another great performance. I never thought there would ever be a good use of 'wheelie' shoes but it turns out it gives a good swimming effect for all the mermaids! It was just a shame that Mum and I were both so tired by then that we were really struggling to stay awake throughout. It was absolutely no reflection on the performance at all, but we had to spend the second half nudging each other throughout to keep awake. Next time we come I think we'll need to factor in a bit more sleeping time for the second day....

New York, New York...Part 1

Friday started a little earlier than usual as Mum & I set off to Manchester Airport to meet Sal for our flight. We both panicked a bit about making sure that we got there on time, having to travel round Manchester during morning rush hour traffic. Turns out there was no need to be so over cautious and after 1.5 hours we were parked and ready to get on the bus to the terminal. In fact we were in the queue to check our bags in while Sal was still at Nikki's house where she'd stayed over night. Sal arrived and we'd moved about 4 places in the queue as the Continental crew checked all the passports of people in the line, asked all the security questions and then still took ages to actually check bags in and give us boarding passes. Having checked in online on Thursday night most of the process seemed quite pointless as we'd had to put all the passport details, accommodation etc in online already so why they needed to ask for it again I have no idea.

Anyway after that the flight was fairly smooth, a bit of turbulence but nothing too worrying. I watched Benjamin Button, about 1 minute before Sal so if I'd missed anything on screen I could just look across to hers and catch up on it! I didn't want to watch another film so I went for a couple of episodes of House instead and fell asleep for a while.

We knew that the weather wasn't going to be so good for the weekend and the drive to the hotel started off a little grey but by the time we pulled up at the hotel it was pouring down so it was a quick jump out of the car, pull the bags from the boot and run instead - and we still got soaked. After finding our way all the way up to the 50th Floor we found our room and the fantastic views from being so high. It had been a fairly long day already so we lay down and closed our eyes for a bit before braving the rain again for some dinner and out to the Marquis Theatre to see 9 to 5. It was a great show, being very new (just a month of preview performances and the opening night) we didn't know what to expect but it was really good. The songs, cast and set were all fantastic. Sadly one of the most exciting things (I thought) was that I forgot in America that the programmes -Playbill - and they are free!

More West Wing....

I recently spent about 5.5 weeks watching all 7 series of The West Wing, morning, noon and night.  It was an obsession, I'd watch as soon as I got in from work, all evening, on the cross trainer, in bed - fall asleep watching it, rewind what I'd missed by being asleep and watch it while drying my hair in the morning, eating breakfast.... You get the idea.

Anyway this morning I linked through from another blog to Sam Allberry's blog because I was intrigued about a reference to a West Wing episode and Shibboleth that was mentioned and I found this post about West Wing episodes.  You need to read through the comments as well, I found it really amusing - and for the references that I couldn't quite remember I think it's time to start from Series 1 Episode 1 again....

Aches and Pains

I thought having a cross trainer was supposed to be doing me some good.  I can't say I've been keeping up with it as regularly as the good intentions that I started out with but considering the aches in my legs after my walk today it can't be doing me much good at all!

I walked into York from home with Ruth, we wandered round the shops a while, stopped for a drink and then walked home.  I've calculated it to be about 6.5 miles.  Considering that the regular walk to and from work that I was doing before Christmas was 5 miles then I don't think this should have been too difficult.

I was wrong, I spent last night stretching my legs out because they ached, in particular my right knee and all day at work today remembering how to walk properly after I'd been sat down for a while.  Exercise is not good for me!

No further questions

I got a letter a few weeks ago asking whether I would take part in a MORI poll about my recent experience with the criminal system. I quickly realised that it wasn't suggesting that I had committed a crime but it was referring to me being a victim of crime. It then took me a bit longer to realise what it was actually talking about because I didn't remember being a victim of crime. A little bit longer and I remembered, although I wasn't the one that reported the crime, I did end up having the longest witness statement and pretty much all of the evidence relating to a case at work that I had to investigate for disciplinary action into a fraud.

I had no idea whether the phone number I had given at the time was my old work phone or my own personal number so I thought I'd just wait and see whether anyone one rang. And they did, this evening. There I was with nothing much to do but watch TV and the phone rang and rather than saying I was too busy, I thought it would be quite interesting to see what they wanted to know so I was quite looking forward to spending the 15 mins required taking part in the poll.

First question - was I involved in the case because I am a police officer, expert witness, member of a legal body or the victim? Victim

Second question - is the status of the case still ongoing, closed with outcome or closed with no outcome? Closed with outcome.

Third question - am I over 18? Yes

Fourth question - what was the nature of the crime that was reported? Fraud / Theft

At that point the guy says because it was a fraud then that's it, no more questions! I was so disappointed, I wanted to give my comments about what happened and how rubbish I thought they had been. How even though I had a huge statement, and the police were very helpful at the start, I was never told of the date that the case was in court, or of the outcome. Instead I found out along with everyone else when it was on the front page of the local paper.

I guess I won't be a statistic this time.