On the move!

After nearly 6 weeks in Fairfield, I will be heading off to California on Tuesday. I thought that being English that I would be used to the rain, but I have never experienced so much as here. The plan is that I go to California for around 3 months, and then come back to Fairfield, by which time it will hopefully be warmer.

This weekend will be very busy as I need to pack and I also want to go shopping for some summer clothes. On Monday I am heading into New York again to meet my colleague Diana who will be over for her birthday.

I know you all like pictures, so here is a couple of La Quinta which my colleague took. It’s going to be tough!!!


OFFICE CAR PARK

Can you tell where I went yet?

This is now the 2nd day of brilliant sunshine. We’ve had so much bad weather recently that I thought the sun was never going to shine.

On Saturday I went to New York again. It was very nice as I didn’t do anything I had done a couple of weeks ago. We started by walking up 5th Avenue and went into Saks and Tiffany’s and saw the Trump Tower. After that we walked through Central Park. There was a live concert going on, but I’m not sure who was playing. We carried on through to Strawberry Fields and the ‘Imagine’ plaque and then on to the Dakota, where John Lennon used to live and was murdered in 1980. After that we walked past the Rockefeller Plaza then down to the Empire State Building. The queue was unbelievable and it took about 1½ hours to get to the top. When we got there it was well worth the wait as you could see for miles.

After the Empire State Building we went over to Staten Island on the ferry. From here you get the best views of the Statue of Liberty. We were so lucky and the sun was just setting. I have some great pictures of the sunset! When we got to the other side we had about an hour wait before the ferry back, so we just set on the island looking back to the lights of downtown Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridge. The view was absolutely amazing. After that was a walk through Times Square and then back home on the train. Today has been a day of rest, and a chance for my muscles to recover.

I have given you more pictures to view this time as there were so many to choose from, and I just couldn’t decide which ones to display. Don't forget to double click on them to enlarge them :-)

Month 2!!!

Yes, you read that heading correctly. I have now been here for 1 month and it has gone so quickly. To celebrate, after work I went shopping :-)

The weather has started to get a bit better. It is the first day for about a week where we’ve had no rain. Apparently it is going to be around 20c this weekend. One of my colleagues is coming over tomorrow and will be here all next week working. We plan to go to New York on Saturday. She is really looking forward to it, so it looks like I will have to do all the touristy things as it is her first time over here. I will try and get some nice pictures for you all as I know that makes you happy.

Will write more over the weekend, sobriety pending!!!

Rain, rain, oh and more rain!!!

There’s not really much to report from this weekend. Today I managed to miss another Formula 1 race due to no TV coverage. Instead I had to settle for watching a live lap time screen with a one line report per lap. Not very entertaining!

Today has just been constant torrential rain, high winds, and 4c temperature. One of my colleagues has gone to La Quinta to try and find somewhere to live, and told me that it was really really hot there. My Mum also informed me that she had been sunbathing in the back garden.

So I hope you are all making the most of the sunny weather in Europe. All I can say is roll on California :-)

Oh I also want to say congratulations to my old colleague Ula who got married today. Marijn, please send me some pictures soon.

Greetings to Zeeland!

I have just been chatting with my friend Frank, and he thought I should mention him on my website.

It is 2.30am and he has just got in from a night out drinking. I am very jealous of this. As he pointed out to me, I should be thankful as it meant I had someone to chat to at this hour of the evening. Frank also requested I put a photo up of him. For any of you who are unsure, Frank is the one in the middle in the pink t-shirt. If any of you ladies are interested then please let me know and I will pass on his email address.

Luckily Frank doesn't have to get up in the morning for work as he is currently 'between jobs'. If any of you think you can employ Frank in anyway then again, I can pass on his email address.

Frank is also available for weddings, funerals and bar mitzvahs!

Am I too late for the tea party?

First of all I have to start off with a bit of sad news. I got up at 1.30am on Saturday in the hope of watching the Formula 1 qualifying, and to my dismay it was not on. The same was true of the race on Sunday morning. You can imagine how unhappy this made me. Thankfully the rest of the weekend was much better.

Sunday I went off to Boston. It is 175 miles from where I am, which equates to about a 2.5 to 3 hour drive each way. You cover 3 states which are Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. One of my colleagues came with me which meant the journey went really quickly. Boston is one of the oldest cities in the US and is steeped with history, especially with the English. It is named after Boston in England from which several prominent colonists emigrated. Here is some interesting reading for the Historians among you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Boston. You may also want to read about the famous tea party of 1773 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party. Nowadays there is a very large Irish community there, which of course means lots of Irish bars J It is a beautiful city and far nicer than any other US city I have been to so far.

We started off in the Aquarium. This was really nice, although I would like to have seen more marine fish. They have a huge 150,000 gallon (567.811 litre) fish tank which stands in the middle of the aquarium. A spiral walkway goes right to the top so you can see all the fish, sharks and turtles. This is very impressive. If you double click on the pictures then you can see them in better detail.

After the aquarium we headed of to ‘Cheers’ for a beer. The bar is a lot smaller than I imagined, but I think this is because they have a souvenir shop in the middle. I sat at the end of the bar in Norm’s seat. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind though! For those of you who are a bit confused with what I am referring to, then ‘Cheers’ bar was the inspiration for a TV series which centred around a bar in Boston called ‘Cheers’. http://www.celebrateboston.com/attracts/cheersboston.htm

Finally we went on a Duck tour around the city. The ‘Duck’ is a guided tour in an amphibious vehicle which goes though the streets and then into the river. It was really good, but so cold. The temperature was about 2c, so it certainly wasn’t the time to be going in the water. Despite this is was still fun, and I would like to do it again when it is a bit warmer. http://www.bostonducktours.com/

A new addition to the female population :-)

HOORAY. This week Marianne finally had her baby. Phoebe Anna was born on Wednesday 4th. That’s all the information I know for the moment, but will post a picture when I get one. I am sad that I am not there to see her, but I will have plenty of opportunity when I get back. Daniel, please send me some pictures soon. Big kisses to all of you. I am also very pleased as I won my bet with Damian :-)

This week has been quite quiet. My colleague Edwin moved into his apartment, so I got to go shopping for TV’s with him. I was very happy helping someone else spend their money.

As I haven’t got much to say for myself today, I thought I would share a couple of strange American things with you.

- They have drive though cash point (ATM) machine’s
- You can turn right on a red light (unless sign says otherwise)
- If a school bus stops and puts it’s sign out, you must stop regardless of what side of the street you are on

I’m sure there are plenty more, but that’s all I can think of at the moment.

I’m going to finish now as I want to be up at 1.30am to watch the F1 qualifying. I’m not even sure I can watch it on the internet, but I found some forum where they said you can watch it on Chinese TV. Unfortunately I cannot read the TV guide, but I will try my luck and hope that they are showing it. If not then I will just have to watch the live timing screen and pretend I am watching. This is totally different than when I was in the Netherlands when I could see what was happening but not understand what they were saying (ha ha).

So good they named it twice!

So Saturday I headed off into the 'Big Apple'. This was my 2nd time there, but there are always new things to see and do. So for 5 hours I wandered around the city, and ended up going to exactly the same places as I had before. I went to Madison Square Gardens to see if there were any basketball matches going on, but unfortunately there was only a circus. The prospect of sitting with thousands of kids who had obviously over-dosed on Haribo's and fizzy drinks really didn't appeal to me, so I headed down to Battery Park. There were some street dancers there who were absolutely amazing. I'm just sorry I didn't get any pictures.

Later I headed back to 42nd street (Broadway) for dinner. I was hoping to see a show but the tickets are around $125. I did however manage to get tickets to the 'Laugh Factory' on the corner of 42nd and 8th, and saw some really great comedians. The tickets are usually $20 but there was a man on the street corner selling them for $10. If any of you are in New York at any time, then I would highly recommend it.

The rest of the weekend was very quiet.

I just want to say hello to my colleagues in the European offices. It looks like you had a great time and the company 'Blender'. I am really looking forward to hearing all the gossip!