Today we took the subway for the first time. The carriages are larger than the Underground but rather bland. The seats are hard plastic, meaning that if the subway stops or starts suddenly, the seated passengers are liable to slide into one another. The subway stations seemed to be functional, with no real attempt at decoration or elegance. NYC ( Read more... )

In the evening, after feasting on the generous remains of the Sunday potluck provided for the churchgoers, Brian, Candy, Maki and I headed for the Empire State Building, which is just a couple of blocks away. It kind of sneak up on you; the lower floors look like an other block at first, and the other buildings block your view of the tower from ( Read more... )

Sunday lunchtime Brian and I headed for Broadway to meet up with Candy, a Kiwi Star Wars fan who will be staying here this week, and her daughter who lives in NY. We were going to see Spamalot ! The show is in a small but nice theatre and we loved it. There are castle walls extending up either side of the proscenium arch, with alcoves in, and a ( Read more... )

This afternoon, Brian, Candy and I went first to the chirch next door, when Brian is the sexton. It burned in the 1870's or 80's and the obviously wealthy parishoners of the time contributed to the restoration. It's a very fine example of Victorian Gothic, but it mostly notable for the stained glass windows. The parishoners were able to choose ( Read more... )

Home alone at the moment while Maki and Brian are out shifting office stuff. The fools keep leaving me alone with a good internet connedxion ( Read more... )

Typing this rather late, and distracted by the penultimate episode of the last series of Dr Who running on the telly. Derek jacobi has just turned into John Simm ( Read more... )

My turn to sleep late this morning so Brian and I didn't set off until after noon. This time we went to the Metropolitan Museum, diverting to look at some sidewalk stalls. There was once that had lovely oriental paintings that I succumbed to. After a bit of bargaining, I got two for $50; one Chinese ink painting of a horse, and a picture of red ( Read more... )

Well, actually these are real canyons. Yesterday Ron and I took a loooong drive out into Colorado - out for about 12 hours in total.

We headed north from Farmington towards Durango, in Colorad (you may need a map to follow this). Then we turned east to Pagosa Springs and stopped to look at the hot springs there. They smelt of rotten eggs, as hot ( Read more... )

I haven't had that many chances to actually spend much money yet. Any eating out has generally been catered by La Fiesta Grande - Ron and Cathy's restaurant - so it hasn't cost anything ( Read more... )

Back at the cutting horse competition today, this time running a buffet lunch. Fabulous smoked brisket sandwiches with either potato chips or potato salad. Choclate or banana cake or a cookie, and a choice of sodas, bottled water or iced tea. I was looking after the drinks and cakes. The competition and our stall were indoors which meant we weren't ( Read more... )