Off to London..

Spent the last couple of days in New York purchasing items required for our new apartment. Almost have everything organised now for us to move into a comfortable & well set up apartment on our return from Europe on July 12. Moved out of the Harvard Club on Thursday & stayed overnight at a hotel near the Airport. Up @ 3:30 for our early flight to London.
Arrived on time, got to our accommodation in Aldgate, met up with our niece Allison & had an Indian dinner in Brick Lane. Quiet day Sat. catching up on some badly needed rest then off to Moreton in  Essex to catch up with friends Tony, Jan & their family for lunch. Had a wonderful day & arrived home late after escorting their niece back to her accommodation in London.

Lunch with Tony, Jan & family

Joanne, Nathan & Stacey arrived on Monday. Picked them up at the airport, fed them & sent them to bed.

The Parker People at Heathrow

Spent Tuesday checking out some of the tourist spots in London & that evening met up with Melbourne friends Adam & Anna for dinner @ The Nahm.
More touristy things today including a tour of the Lords Cricket Ground & a trip up the Thames to Greenwich where Jo & the kids have gone to see "Glee" @ the O2. More London touring tomorrow then off to Paris on Friday.

"There's Big Ben again..."

Terry & Nat at Lords

O2 arena in Greenwich

US Golf Open at Bethesda, Maryland

Had a great time at the golf. Rory McIlroy an all the way winner. Jason Day runner up. Fantastic. Congessional a beautiful course with excellent facilities. Met some nice people and had seats saved for us during the final round. Sat in the grandstand overlooking both the 18^th green with the 10^th green in the background.

Stayed at The Bolger Conference Centre which ran shuttles to and from the golf course about 10 minutes away.

Caught a greyhound bus back to New York that took about an hour longer than it should have due to peak hour traffic but arrived back in time to go the first Bryant Park Summer Film session, an outdoor venue. Movie was “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, still a great movie after all these years. Would have been a crowd of about 10,000. Great atmosphere. Lots of cheering for the good guys.

Went to Lincoln Centre Tuesday evening to see an American Ballet Theatre production of “Cinderella” at The Metropolitan Opera. Enjoyable but not outstanding.

Only two days now before we fly to London. Have left our excess luggage at the apartment and will travel light for the next few weeks. Will move out of Harvard Club tomorrow and stay at a hotel close to the airport for our early departure on Friday.

Bryant Park Summer Film 1^st session


PS No photos of the golf, cameras not allowed on course


That's it for now
Pam & Terry

On The Move...

The week started quietly, a rest day at our hotel on Staten Island. Not a lot to do on Staten Island hard to believe it's only a 30 minute ferry ride from Manhattan but could be a world away.
Watched the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees at Yankee Stadium (baseball game), Terry was happy he's a Red Sox fan. Late night subway and ferry from Queens back to Staten Island.
Thursday left Staten Island for good, don't think we'll be back, booked into a hotel near Central Park. Very hot & humid day, well over 37C, Terry spent the day under a tree in Central Park watching our landlord from Chelsea play a baseball game, they lost by 1 run. Pam spent the day in the hotel, nice and cool.

Wandered around Brooklyn, a mix of grunge and upmarket places, found a great bar and a hip restaurant in one of the main streets near Prospect Park where the first free summer jazz concert was playing, thousands of people about.

Saturday was a big horse racing event, the Belmont Stakes, pity the weather had changed dramatically (quite like Melbourne) wet and cold. A big venue, a grass track and a dirt track but not the style of the Spring Carnival. Strange tote system however Pam was successful with 3 winners, but that was it, still came out in front. A roughie won the main event which was run on dirt, mud really, some other races were run on the grass couldn't work out the reason for the difference.

The annual Puerto Rican Parade went down 5th avenue on Sunday, we watched for a couple of hours it seemed to go on forever, loads of people and lots of noise as you can imagine.

A Big Apple BBQ was held in Madison Square park over the afternoon, great food.

That night was the 6th game of the NBA finals, Dallas 3 v Miami 2, big TV event, played in Miami. Dallas was the underdog but got the win first time ever, great game.

Monday we moved to another hotel, The Harvard Club. Great place very worldly, we were "sponsored" by the agent who found our apartment, she's a member so got us a room for a couple of nights but we pay. We attended a "Clambake" night with her and her husband and another friend at the Club - great food.

Today we've arrived in Washington DC by bus rather than train for the US Open Golf tournament which starts tomorrow (Thursday). We thought the train would be about $50 as we'd looked at tickets on the net before we left home however the Amtrak system is like an airline so unless you book way in advance the tickets are very expensive, to book and travel today would have cost $150 each! We took a bus for $35 each and it only took an extra hour. Booked a hotel near the golf course over the net from Melbourne and it's a winner - shuttle to the golf, great facilities and we've scored a suite.. We stay until Monday.

The apartment we've rented in New York is brand new in 42nd street on the 35th floor with great views over the Hudson River and back to the city. Great location and the timing is perfect - we move in July 12 after we get back from Europe.

Bye for now

Pam & Terry

An Interesting Week

The week started with Memorial Day for New Yorkers and a visit to the Carnegie Deli for the Freemans for a pastrami on rye, unbelievable! Strolled around Central Park on a humid, hot day.

Things got interesting on Tuesday, just about to sign off on the lease for the apartment when our agent informed us that the deal was off because the apartment was only available for 2 months not the 7 we needed. Nothing anyone could do so back to square 1!!
Not a good couple of days, Mets beaten by Pittsburg Pirates and new apartment search not going well. Had to repack a little earlier than planned as we had to move rooms within the Chelsea brownstone to help the landlord out as well, but on the upside we got a free nights accommodation.

"A Met's Fan!"

Come Saturday the apartment search improved dramatically. We had to change our parameters a little but we've found a brand new apartment in the right location. A bit of messing around to actually move in but it should all work out eventually.
We decided to get out of Manhattan for a few days and have come over to Staten Island, a 25 minute free ferry ride away from Manhattan, goes right past that statue. No wonder people catch the ferry to Staten Island and go straight back, but at least we can kick back for a few days.

Hope to have all the paperwork in place by the end of this week for the apartment.

Back to a Manhattan hotel on Thursday for a few days then we're off to Washington DC for the US Open Golf Championship.

Till next time

Pam & Terry