Day 2- Part 2 – Mad Eddie

Now feeling somewhat stuffed following the uber breakfast we had to find our way to the Bronx Zoo. Having looked at a map it looked like the easiest way to get there was via the subway. In fact all of the guide books had recommended that this was how you get there – sounded nice and easy and we knew where there was a subway we could use. Things were now on a roll.

Ok so we hit the station without issue and went to speak to the nice man in the ticket booth who told us how much it would cost and what trains we would need to get there. Again we were struck by the differences. We got the metor card (just like at home) to take us on the train – but unlike home you get one and pass it back so that the other person can use it. Try that on the London Underground and you will be in some bother. Having got onto the platform we realised how different it was inside. The station was a bit bare but it was clean and had a nice mural on the wall. It just felt a bit nicer than the ones at home.

Subway adventures

I had been a bit nervous about using the subway – you always hear bad things but you are never sure whether they are all true or not. Initially it all seemed good. So we managed to get on the right train – knowing that we were going to have to change later on. Now when the man had told us what trains to get we had written it down so we could remember – however we had not remembered it quite right and we could not remember where we had to change to get the next train – things were going down hill rapidly. There is a lesson here – write it down as you are told and then it is not going to be an issue!

Anyway we looked at the books and one of the maps and kind of worked out where we needed to get off. and change, We were back on track. It was odd – as you got away from a lot of the more popular areas you could see the quality of the housing degrading and the areas changing. There was no one thing that stood out but you could just see that as you moved away from Time Square and the tourist attractions you got to see some of the real New York. By this stage we were getting some strange looks as we must have looked confused, tired and a bit bemused by everything – but there were no issues. I mean I am sure our tourist nature was screaming at people and we just did not look like we fitted in.

We got off the subway at the Bronx having seen a sign for the Zoo an stumbled into the main office with not a clue as to where to go as all the signs seemed to have vanished. We very much looked the tourists I think as we were getting some very funny looks. We were going to queue to speak to a man in the booth to ask where to go when another gentleman who was on his way down to the platform stopped and asked (in a somewhat exasperated tone) where we were trying to go – our tourist look obviously shouting to all and sundry. We told him the zoo and we walked us over to the exit and directed us where to go. I guess he thought we looked like we were likely to get ourselves into trouble with just wondering around – and we were most greatfull for the help. Who said New Yorkers were not friendly!

Mad Eddie

Getting to the zoo was a 10 minute walk from the station but it was sunny so it was a nice walk. We were chatting as we approached the main gates of the zoo and not paying all that much attention to what was going on around us, when we noticed that there was a man walking toward us from the Zoo.

Now I know this will sound stupid but here goes – We both assumed that he must have worked for the Zoo because he was coming from that direction and he was dressed in green! - Ok so this was not one of our better moments. Anyway we smiled as he came over with a “Hi folks� and we stopped to say hello. As he got closer you could see that he did not work for the Zoo – he was mostly dressed in camo and had a few missing teeth – Oh dear me!

Anyway he started chatting to use asking where we were from and introducing himself as Eddie. Eddie's dad had fought with people from Scotland in World War 2 so he chatted about that. As we chatted it turned out that all was not well with Eddie. He had lived a hard life. He had been in the military for a number of years, had been dis-honourably discharged with mental illnesses and had spent 10 years in psychiatric hospitals. He was now looking after his nephew after the death of his sister. Eddie owned at least 2 guns. He had kept a revolver, but the police had taken that one away when he had tried to kill himself when his meds stopped working.

At this point we were feeling a littler nervous as his behaviour was becoming a little more erratic as he got more upset.

He currently had a .40 Callibur semi automatic which held 15 rounds (14 in the clip and one in the barrel) and he told us that he had considered going into a Police Station and shooting it – not to kill anyone but to get the Police to shoot him, He had not done it, but he had thought about it. The whole conversation was a but odd and very surreal – I mean there is not a lot that you can say to that really. Anyway 15 minutes later the chat finished and Eddie asked if we could give him some cash – we did and then made haste to the Zoo.

To this day I am not sure if he was genuine or not and I am 100% sure that he should not have been allowed anywhere near a gun (constitutional right to bear arms or no) – but it was a very strange experience when all was said and done

Day 2 – Part 1 Getting started – aka The Zoo and Mad Eddie

Ok so Sunday was our first real day in New York and we were anxious to get started  (I can almost hear the Black Eyed Peas Radio edit)

Challenge 1 – Decide what to do

With so many options this was never going to be easy.  There are so many things that we wanted to do – it was hard to pick any one thing.  This decision was harder than it sounds.  I mean we had planned out what we wanted but had not bothered to allocate out days  to anything.  This had been a deliberate decision as we had not wanted to be tied down to anything, but rather we could do what we wanted when we wanted to.

Now both Rob and I can be quite bad at making decisions – especially when  there are a lot of things that we want to do.  Last night we had talked about a bus tour to help us get our bearings – by us I mean Rob, as I have the homing instinct of a broken boomerang (that is to say none what so ever – I can get lost outside of my own house – but that is an entirely different story).  After some more discussion and some wrangling with the mobiles (which still did not work by the way) we decided to put off the bus tour and head out to the Bronx Zoo for the day.  We figured that the zoo would be quiet so we could take our time and not be to overwhelmed.

Ok so that is challenge number one met in record time (about 20 minutes) – result for us.

Challenge 2 – find some where for breakfast and then try and get to the zoo

Finding something to eat in New York is not hard – you think of a type of cuisine and they will have it somewhere. This means that finding something to eat is never really a problem – but deciding what takes your fancy can be a bit more involved. For once though this was not going to be a challenge for us – we had already decided that for day one we wanted to have a breakfast like you always see in the movies. We wanted pancakes, bacon, maple syrup – the works! We spent a while wondering around Time square looking for somewhere that looked like it would be good. Eventually we turned up a small cafe where we could get what we were looking for along with some smoothie and coffee (a pre- requisite to warn of the chill). It was great but there was just so much of it – I mean you expect the portions to be large but this was just mad. We managed to eat most of it an knew that would be be us set for most of the day.

Its the small things

Looking at breakfast though you could see some of the cultural differences in the way we look at food. In the US there seems to be a lot of focus on value for money for the amount that you get. Portion sizes are massive and reasonably priced as well. Anyway when breakfast came with the maple syrup – it came in little packets like you often get jam in. They were not branded other than to say Kraft (the manufactures name) and it made me smile. If you get maple syrup over here you pay a lot more and it comes in some fancy bottle of a small jug and you pay for that. In New York it is just standard. Its the small things like that which catch you out.

I think some of the strangeness comes from the fact that everyone speaks the same language and you have some familiarity with it because you have seen it on the television and at the pictures so you are nice and comfy – and then some of the small things are not what you expect - and you are thrown

Day 1 Continued - Getting to New York

We now take up with our story where we last left off. Rob and I were recovering from a nasty mocha while mooching round the duty free section in Heathrow........

Eventually we got a gate number and had to begin the hike to get to the departure gate. I am not exaggerating about the hike but either. There are gates in Heathrow that can take you 30 - 40 minutes to walk to from the departure bit where you have to wait. We were not too bad - it only took us about 15 minutes to get to ours. Check in was fast - just the usual questions, and they confirmed that they had our bags on board - another happy dance - and before you knew it we were boarding and still on schedule!

When we first stepped onto the plane I was really excited - there were individual seats with what looked like loads of leg room (just like the advert with James Gandolphini). Turns out that was first class and we were in cattle class further back with somewhat less room. Our Captain came on and told us all about the trip and that lunch would be served by the crew when we reached our cruising altitude of about 39,000 feet. Huzzar more food! By now we had been up for almost 7 hours and breakfast was wearing off.

When we got going the flight crew brought round the complimentary drinks, and followed them up shortly with lunch (Chicken with creamy sauce and coleslaw - I am still not sure what inspired the coleslaw as a side dish).  The food was pretty good  and there was pudding which was some sort of custard tart.  I was most impressed with the mini bottle of water that we got.  It was in a stubby wee bottle just like you see on the telly at the fights.  That had taken up at least an hour so now I had to find a way to occupy my time until we got there (only 7 hours left).  I spent some time watching the movies on the small screen that was in the back of the chair in front.  We had a choice between watermelon and the weatherman - they sucked - though the experience may well have been jaundiced by the fact that the passenger in front of me had decided to put her chair back as far as it could go from the minute we had gotten onto the plane. The flight was on the whole uneventful and we landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule - which has to be a good thing.

Oh and I almost forgot - before we landed they brought around 'snack packs' which made the whole thing a bit like a long school trip.  To be honest by this stage it was alla bit surreal - I had managed to doze for about an hour when we landed at 2pm (New York Time) which is the equivalent of about 7pm uk time.  Sleep was calling but it was being outweighed by the fact that we were excited.

Challenge 2 - Get through immigration and collect the bags

I had been worried from the start that our bags would not make it to New York with us.  You always hear about people luggage being lost and I had convinced myself that this would be the case for us as well.  Before we would even think of getting out bags we had to make it through immigration.  The people on the plane did not have copies of the forms that we would need to fill out so we had to go and do that when we landed.  They were fairly simple so that worked out ok.  Next came the queuing.  The shouty lady got us to stand in a queue where there was no server and then when we asked if we should still stand there she moved us to another queue (after checking we were sure that she had told us that.  Anyway after a while we got our photos taken, fingers scanned and we were off to collect the luggage!

When we got down to baggage reclaim there was no sign of the bags or any of the other people that had been on the flight so we wondered around looking for the case.  It is not easy to miss - being bright red.  Eventually we found it dumped in an area away from the belts where they leave unclaimed bags. Challenge 2 successfully completed - time to head to the Hotel

Heading to the hotel

We had pre-booked a shuttle bus thing that would drop us at the hotel so this was just a case of check in with the people and wait.  5 minutes later the mad man that would drive us to the hotel turned up and off we went.  The bus trip was our first look at New York.  My first impression - who knew you could do that much with concrete,  If there was a thing that could be covered with it, or made out of it, then that is what they used.  Now I know that it is a city and you expect some concrete, but this place was mad.  I think we saw 1 bit of green in the whole 1 hour trip.

Our hotel was on West 51st Street which us just off of Broadway and a max of 5 minutes from Time Square on foot,  The area- much to my amusement - is a part of Hells Kitchen.  For those that know about my love of comics may well see why this made me smile.  Come to New York and stay in a room that looks like it comes from an old Comic book and maybe you will see Daredevil (yes I know its not real - but it was fun).

The hotel was - well basic.  The room was very small, as was the bathroom.  It was a bit grubby but not too bad.  The ground floor was very swish but the rooms were not so much.  The staff were are really friendly, especially Ariel who carried our bags up to the room for us and offered to recommend places if we were interested.

We have ventured out to see Time Square and to get some dinner.  Man this place is just mental.  I know it is a Saturday night, but there are rickshaws, limo's, hummers, horse and carts, cabs and hundreds of people everywhere.   Man this place is just unbelievable.  What is even more astounding is the sheer number of LCD colour screens - they are everywhere.  You are continually surrounded by adverts and it is so bright - you would think it was the middle of tbe day

We had dinner at Maxies - a Jewish New York Deli. The food was great but the sheer size of the portion was gob smacking.  We both had burgers and did not manage to finish them, let alone everything that came with them. I was kinda bummed as the cheese cake looked top but I was too full to even think about it.

So far we have not really planned for tomorrow.  At the minute everything is just a bit odd and I am feeling a bit unsettled - I guess we will play it by ear and see what we feel like. As I scrawled this out it was 9pm - which made it 2am uk time.  That means I have been up for about 22 hours and I am starting to wilt - sleep calls and I think it is time to answer.

Day 1 - The adventure begins

Well today was the start of our big trans-atlantic trip (Henceforth referred to as our adventure)

Last night (Friday) we finished off the last minute chores (fish tank and cat box cleaning etc) and attempted to go to bed early.  What with one thing and another it was gone 11pm when we actually made it that far - this was mostly down to me fannying about.  Anyway we eventually made it to bed somewhat apprehensive and excited about the journey.

Operation NYC started at 4am on Saturday.  This is about when we managed to crawl out of bed to get ready to leave the house.  I can tell you now that 4am has no redeeming features - though the cats thought it was great and seemed firmly convinced that we were up just to play with them.  We had already organised house and animal sitters so off we went. 

Challenge 1 - Drive to the long stay car park, deposit the car and then  take the shuttle bus to the airport

This seemed fairly simple on the face of it all.  Take the address (which we had) plug into a sat nav system (which we have) and then follow the directions. 

What actually happened was take the address - try and find in the sat nav - and discover it is not there.  This called for an impromptue creation and execution of plan B.  Plan B turned out to be head to the airport and look for signs to the long stay car park.  See there was no need for panic of any kind.  On arrival at the airport we did a little happy dance - there were signs for the long stay car park!  Ok so it should now be a simple case of follow the signs  - which we duly did.  Only thing is it turns out that the car park we were booked into was not the one we had managed to find.  It was now 5am and I was close to a sense of humor failure.  Not a good sign when we have a whole day of travel still to go!

Our saving grace came in the form of the man who was working as the car park attendant.  I went to his office and asked if e could help.  He was good enough to write down a set of directions (after telling me we were miles away and putting my blood pressure up even higher than it was already).  It turns out that this car park was hidden away in an industrial site with no sign posts about 5 minutes from where we were.  The whole no sign post thing was really cool - oh no wait a minute - it wasn't.  Anyway looking on the positive side crisis one had now been averted and we were on the shuttle bus heading back to the airport. 

It was now 5.30am and checking had just opened.  We were one of the first ones there so there was no queuing needed (another happy dance performed - luckily the terminal was fairly empty so we did not get too many funny looks).  The nice lady told us that we were now checked in all the way through to New York and they would take care of the baggage for us.  This was excellent as it was one less thing to worry about in the grand scheme of it all.  She did seem somewhat bemused however when our response to how many bags would you like to check in was one. I am not sure why this was such a shock - I mean why take more than you need.

Having checked in we settled down for our first concentrated 'waiting period'.  Within about 2 minutes Robert was bored but Starbucks came to the rescue and we sat and drank tea for a while.  At about 6.40am we headed through security into the departures lounge ready to head off to Heathrow.  We were flying with BA and the plane boarded very quickly, only for the captain to come on and tell us that we had a 15 minute delay as there was some wind at Heathrow and they had decided we would have it on the tarmac at Glasgow.  This was no great shakes for us as we had a 3 hour wait at the other end anyway - and waiting on a plane is no worse than waiting in a departure lounge. 

The flight down was pretty smooth and stress free (all things considered).  I was massively impressed when the announcement came over the tanoy thing that they would be serving breakfast on the flight.  Now I have been on planes before but 9 times out of 10 it is with Cheepo airlines where you are lucky that they don't make you push the plane onto the runway yourself, let alone having free food.  How chuffed was I when they mentioned the food.  Rob warned me that the food was likely to be not that good - but you know what I was pretty impressed.  It was a cooked breakfast (sausage, bacon, egg, tomato, mushrooms, a roll, butter, jam and OJ)  The bacon was no great but the rest of it was pretty good.  I was really impressed with the mini sausage thing.

We landed in Heathrow bang on our planned time (before they added a 15 minute delay) as we had managed to make the time up on the flight down.  You know I have never been too sure quite how they manage that.  If the plane can fly faster then surely they can just make all of the journeys shorter.  Rob had slept though most of the journey but I could not - I was just too hyped.  Anyway it turned out that we had to get a bus over to Terminal 3 so it was back to queuing and waiting again - though this time only for 10 minutes or so.  Heathrow is surprising large and spread out.  I am told that it is the busiest airport in the world.  One of the weird things is that it has these massive corridors that you have to walkthrough but in the middle of them there are bits of moving walkway.  The walkway is not all like this - just bits of it.  It is almost like they had found some and spread it out all over the airport - it was all just a bit odd really. 

The departure lounge beckoned , so off we trotted.  It was full of the usual pap so we mooched a bit and then decided a coffee and danish was in order.  Here's a word of advice for you - If you are in Heathrow and have the same notion - DON'T, just step away from the idea.  We each had a mocha from one of the restaurants.  Well to be fair had a mocha  is a bit of an over statement.  We both had a mouthful of the drink that was masquerading as a mocha and then binned it due to its foul nature.  It neither tasted like coffee or chocolate - personally I figured it may have been left over jet fuel - but who can say.  On the up side the chocolate twistie was good.....TBC

Snow!!

Guess what

It snowed!!.

I know to some of you that will not be a big thing - but I really really like the snow. As we now live on the west coast we don’t get a lot of snow. Rain - yes tons of it, snow not so much so you can imagine just how chuffed I was that not only had it snowed but that the snow had staid. A couple of times this year it has started to snow but it has come to nothing so on Saturday night when it started I figured that this was just another of these occasions - Oh how wrong was I!

Sunday morning showed snow - and lots of it. In fact when we went out for a walk it was up to me knees. You know I cannot remember the last time that is snowed so much it was up to my knees. In fact I think the last time was at least 25 years ago - and my knees were much closer to the ground then.

Anyway - under the guise of going for a walk Rob and I went out and had a snowball fight and took some pictures (coming to this space some time in the future) and it was great. The snow is mostly gone now thanks in part to the rain, and I guess that is probably a good thing - when you consider the fact that every time we have weather in this country we seem to have to grind to a halt. You know the Trans Siberian railway can run all year round - Scotrail, not so much. Anyway I am not going to think about that just now because it will annoy me and I am feeling quite jolly thinking about the snow.

Full steam ahead

Well the New York trip is now on the horizon but I am not really getting a chance to be excited. It seems that there are 101 things that need to be done before we can head off on our big adventure. It is one of those cases where the more I seem to get done - the more I have to do. i guess this will just end up being a case of do what you can and then accept that the rest will have to wait. It is a shame that I find that nigh on impossible.

My lack of experience with trans Atlantic transatlantic travel is showing as I have no idea what to expect. A colleague has told me about how the planes are larger, how immigration works and how the toilets are different but other than that I guess it is just a case of wait and see. Shame that I am not so good with that either ;-)
Bummed

I am kind of bummed. I have had a couple of ideas buzzing round my head that I was going to write about, another book review and one of those blogs that I have been talking about sitting to go, but my head is absolutely louping tonight and yet again the pain killers do not seem to be working so I guess it will not be happening.

I am not sure what is causing the headache but it makes it hard(er) to write literate sentences. I think that it may have something to do with the power company calling at 1am in the morning and waking us up to ask if everything was ok as someone had reported a burning smell outside.

There was no burning anything (including smell) but following the call neither of us could sleep as we were all wound up. I know that they were only doing their job but, damn it was 1am and we thought something was wrong with our friends or family. Anyhow 2 hours later and I was still awake so come 6.30am and the alarm going off I was not happy bunny :-(
On top of this I have also had some ideas as to how I want to carry on one of the stories I had been working on and I just can't concentrate for long enough to get it to hang together which is driving me nuts. I am just going to try and be accepting of the fact I cannot do it and try and relax and chill out.

I am currently downloading some audio books so that I can chill out and listen to someone else reading. There is something quite nice about doing that, and it feeds my reading addiction when either me or my eyes are too tired to manage anymore. I think a part of why I find the audio books so relaxing is that it takes me back to when I was younger and I would have stories read to me. For me the stories were a great refuge from the world in general and I spent a lot of time chasing imaginary dragons or being some kind of superhero. Anyway I digress and I am now rambling even more than usual. So I am off to update the ipod, drink my tea and relax, and with any luck I should be able to shake the headache.