AMERICA The 1st

Last few days in Santa Barbara were pretty relaxing, but sad as well. Before heading to LAX we had dinner at the place beside the beach. Had a late flight. I tried some sleeping tablets but all that did was make me feel sick on the way home. Felt Woozy as. I look forward to coming back. Hiopefully I do sooner rather than later. And later as well.

New York Day 2

This day jsut flew by. We started off heading down towards 5th Avenue. We walked quickly through a market - pretty crazy to think they could even shut down a street to run this, but they did. Sherry pointed out a bank that she sneakily got into by pretending to be tagging along with an old guy. Apparantly it was hard to get in anyway due to some parade. Sherry was almost Elaine in the Puorto Recan Day Parade episode of Seinfeld.

After seeing this famous street we decided to try our luck on teh subway and head North a bit. We got on the subway btu we headed way too far up, getting off somewhere on the Upper East side. It was a really quiet part of Manhattan Island and quiet honestly looked like a place where you would be lucky not to get shot if you were walking the streets at night.

I was anxious to find a cab so we could get out of the area, but the trouble was there weren't that many cabs driving about. When we finally did get one the driver was pertty confused 'What are you doing here?' he said. Geeez it was good to get out of there. He took us across town to teh West side which is a bit of a college student area. This are ais also the home of the Seinfeld Diner.

Sherry then looked in a North Face shop for a good winter jacket. I kind of hung out in the shop and also had a bit of a walk around outside. We were so far up Broadway Avenue. We got on the Subway again and made our way down towards Wall Street - as we wanted to catch the Stanton Island Ferry. We could sort of see Ground Zero from the transfer bus that took us to the Ferry stop. The Ferry was massive and it was a real fight for people to get good viewing spots of Manhattan Island (Statue of Liberty) and jsut the plain old city itself.

Once we got to Stanton Island we just went back where we came from.

After hopping off the ferry we walked down towards the docks area. Well not the docks as in rough and tumble docks, but somewhere where we could see Brooklyn Bridge. There were kids skating lines along here, also roller bladers. Sherry wasn't keen on walking along here as it was cold and she wasn't dressed for it. But the bridge looked magnificent.

Only a short walk away was Wall Street. You would think it would be a massive bustling financial street but its basically the size of Flinders lane. Federal Hall was cool. But we couldnt stay too long, It was freezing!!

We then went and ate at Ruby Fu's - a cool packed in Sushi Bar. But it was a happening spot. We were after somewhere a little more traditional like Red Emperor, but the Concierge at our hotel booked usw in here. In hindsight it was a great plafe to go. It was annoying that we had a booking but still had to wait ages. Sherry talked about how a lot of these waiters were probably actors. I think we both liked it here.

We then went back to the hotel room and got changed. We were heading up to the Rainbow Room, a bar at the top of the Rockafella Centre that Darryl had taken Sherry to the last time they were here. It was a long wait at the bottom, but we eventually took the elevator up to the top after about a 30 minute wait. Once up there we chilled out and drank the most expensive glasses of ordinary alcaholic beverages in the history of drinkingness. Haha - the waiter asked Sherry what she would like - Shery said 'oh what cocktails can you make?' - he replied ' I can make anything'. Hhaha - but he quickly returned saying he couldnt make everything because he didnt hae many ingredients. I can make you anything..as long as its a miller light on tap.

Sherry had a Cosmo, while i had a scotch and coke. All up it was about 60 bucks American. You're paying for the view though. Excuisate as you can see.

After our drinks we went back to our hotel. At Times Square a couple of Fire Engines pulled up. The guys in the truck loved the attention they were getting.

New York Day One

We left Boston really early in the morning, smart in hindsight as it gave us more time. The weather was a bit better in New York. Getting in a cab was really cool. They were exactly like you would expect. It's like you are meeting a celebrity. They have the glass dividing the back and front - the tv's. We drove msot of the way along the freeway - more or less passing Queens, and seeing Flushing Meadow. The freeway was very much like an Australian Freeway. We then turned off and went through Brooklyn.

Horns, sirens were constant. New York is the most famous city in the world and is a celebrity in itself. Our cabby didn't take us through Times Square, we hopped out a bit before that. Hahah - The stupid bag guy who took our bags up to our room. Here are the lights. This switch here turns the lights off and on. To go to the toilet you open your fly..... I mean you give him 5 bucks not for the bags but just to make him shut up and stop stating the obvious. Funny though looking back on it. And funny then too.

Our room was awesome though. It was not far from Times Square at all. 2 minutes walk if that.

After unpacking we headed to Times Square. Times Square isn't so much of a square for people to gather. Its more an intersection of about 4 streets. But geez in terms of advertising it is crazy. People were standing in queue for Broadway tickets. It started to rain so we quickly headed for cover. We thought we'd go to an authentic New York diner, The Comfort Diner. Sherry had either been to one or knew of one that was relatively close. We walked there, but buy god, I reckon it was around a dozen blocks. When we got there we had to wait because it was so busy, but it was sure worth the wait.

After that mini-feast we only had a short walk to Grand Central Station. It was friggin huge, but to the city's credit really clean. The corridors that led to all the different platforms were spacious, naturally bright and littered with cool shops. It was liek a mini market.

Gangsta

After leaving Grand Central we walked up to the NBA store. This was a massive doubls storey shop with hundreds of jersey's, and lots of knick-knacks all related to the NBA. I bought a Patrick Ewing Knicks Jersey and an NBA glasses case.

Leggo Garnett

After the NBA store we walked into the Museum of Modern Art. It would haev been cool to go through the whoole museum but the queue was just insane. The only other lines i have seen that big were in Times Square where people were lining up for Broadway tickets and also at 'The Buffet' in the Belagio. So we just preused the gift shop which had lots of cool stuff anyway.

We then headed to Cerntral Park which was really cool to see. It is just a massive park. Its so big it contains a zoo. We took a romantic ride around a small portion of the park.

There are many famous buildings in New York. The only ones I dont think i saw up close wree teh Empire State Building, The Ed Sullivan Theatre and Madison Square Garden.

We then walked back towards Times Square - and convenientally into the M&M shop - which you guessed it is filled with M&M's. If it only it had Eminem. But yeah - massive tubs with every possible colour and tonnes of gift packs as well.

We then headed to the Rockafella centre which is east of Times Square. This is the home of NBC studios and is where famous shows such as NBC Today, Conan O'brien are filmed. Around the other side is an ice-skating rink and our eventual dinner location. Someone even proposed on the rink while we were there.

ESPN - the NBA game-time shows are filmed up here.

Boston v Milwaukee

We went out for tea before the game and we thought we'd allowed enought time. Iut turened out the service was very ordinary and we arrived at the game only around 10 minutes before tip off. I'm not sure but for some rason i think Tommy Heinson has been to this place. Now this was a good moment. You could feel the history in Boston and this building was jumping. Phoenix felt like more of a SEABL game with good presentation, whereas this game felt like big league street ball. The crowds were rowdy. Even people in seats such as mine had a bit of attitude to them. Maybe that is where the name 'Fighting Irish' comes from?

When Andrew Bogut was warming up I yelled out to him.'C'mon Andrew. let's go mate! which caused him to glance over a bit. At the start of the game i reckon he was trying to show off. He got the ball on the block, spun baseline and then got blocked by Perkins as he went for the dunk. I feel in someway responsible for that embarrsment.

Richard Jefferson got off to an amazinf start, I think he had like 11 points in the first 6 minutes, He was pretty quite after that intiail burst.

Eddie House in the house. Got really close to the players when they were warming up at half time.

Are these things actually real?

Gino!! KG Loves Gino. Always watches the scoreboard when they have the dancing part and points up at Gino whenever he appears on screen.

Nice photo - Tony Alleng goes in for one.

They did it easy in the end.

What a photo - captures the history of one of the greatest sports franchises in world sport.