New York Day 3

Well, I think it's fair to say that New York Day 3 was probably my favourite. After (another) breakfast at Starbucks - but an early one this time - we managed to score a new (and much better) room which didn't have clanging pipes all through the night right next to the boiler room. So we were happy bunnies...

Day 3 was to consist of exploring 5th Ave and beyond. (I had a list of shops and places I had to cross off my 'To See' list.) Then we planned on finding somewhere yummy to have a late lunch as we had tickets to see Wicked! on Broadway at 7pm. So off we went on another adventure...

First stop was FAO Schwarz, the famous toystore which features in the movie 'Big' with Tom Hanks. (Yep - dancing on 'that' piano was top of my list.) It took us AGES to find it in the pouring rain but eventually we arrived and found the biggest Rice Krispie treat you have EVER seen!

There was SO much to see just in this one store, but we were on a mission to find the piano! And sure enough, there it was! Surprisingly with no one appearing to take interest in it. So we immediately hopped on and had some fun! It probably wasn't fun for the other shoppers though who had to endure the racket we made whilst sliding up and down it.

Once we were all piano-ed out, we left the store and set off in search of 5th Ave in all its glory! Whilst wandering down 5th Ave, we stumbled upon this little treasure...

We physically couldn't spend too long inside though because all of the gems were so sparkly and blinding we actually started go get goggle-eyed and headachey! We did catch a sneaky glimpse of THE Tiffany Diamond though! We also browsed in Bloomingdales (really not all its cracked up to be if I'm honest!) Victoria's Secret. H&M, Sephora (of course) and lots of other little American delights.

After a LOT of shopping, we headed to a restaurant we were both desperate to try. Owned by American Chef & TV personality Guy Fieri. You probably won't have heard of him unless you watch his show on Food Network. It was pouring with rain still and we were both in need of something hot and tasty to warm us up! 

We had a fantastic 3 course meal (complete with blueberry and strawberry & ginger mojitos.) Whilst we were eating we noticed the rain outside had quickly turned to snow (!) and felt all of a sudden rather festive. Not many people can say they experienced glorious sunshine AND snow whilst in New York for 6 days!

We browsed the gift shop and selected a few presents to take back to England and then headed back to the hotel to have a powernap, watch a bit of Spongebob (because, why not?!) and get ready for the evenings entertainment.

When we left to walk to the Theatre, it was STILL snowing (and sticking!) so by the time we arrived we looked like snowmen. We met up with some fellow Herefordian's whilst at the Theatre and headed straight to the bar for Wicked-themed cocktails!

As we pre-booked all of our tickets months in advance, our theatre seats were AWESOME. Third row! We had a fantastic view and the show itself was amazing. (So much so that I plan on seeing it again in Manchester in September) now I've been practicing all of the songs. 

When the show had finished, we decided to walk home in the snow (yes, it was still snowing!) And we stopped in Times Square to take some photos to remember the moment.

It wasn't long after that we were tucked up in bed after another day of magic and adventure, excited for the day that was to follow...

Apple & Blackberry Crumble

I will continue my NYC review once I have my Internet installed in't North some time next week, but just wanted to share the apple & blackberry crumble I made today. It was yummy!

New York Day 2

So after an awful nights' sleep due to the pipes in our hotel room making all sorts of noises, we were up, showered, with our outfits carefully selected to reflect being in The Big Apple, armed with our tour guide and decided to go off in search of breakfast! 

The obvious choice was Starbucks, but it's nothing like Starbucks in the UK. The menu of drinks is incredible and there was SO much yummy food to choose from! We walked into one of the 100's of Starbucks in Times Square and joined the queue whilst trying to decide which of the long list of drinks we were going to have. We both opted for a cinnamon dolce latte, and we shared a sweetbread and some sort of pastry (they were amazing.)

We had a busy day ahead and were on a strict schedule. We finished breakfast at around 9.30am and had to be at the Harry Potter exhibition (!) for 11.00. That gave us an hour and a half to do some SHOPPING! We marched straight over to Sephora (the beauty and make up Mecca.) I got incredibly excited and bought a LOT of make up. We ended up spending an entire hour in there before deciding to wander and try to find the exhibition.

The Harry Potter exhibition was AMAZING. We weren't actually allowed to take any photos inside the exhibition but I did sneak a couple before we went inside...

(Check out the size of that Sephora bag.) We had SO much fun inside the exhibition. We got to try on the Sorting Hat and were sorted into houses. (I was obviously a Griffindor.) And got to see all sorts of artifacts, sets and costumes from all 8 films. My favourite things were The Goblet of Fire, with all of the Champions pieces of paper with their names written on, the hand written sheet of all of the students signing up for Dumbledores Army, and Hermione's time turner which is in The Prisoner of Azkaban.

I had a lot of fun in the gift shop, spending rather a lot of money on my very own time turner necklace (which I love.) And a few gifts to take back home. It was approaching lunch time by the time we finished at the Harry Potter exhibition and we still had Central Park, lunch, and the Natural History Museum to conquer before the day was out!

We decided to attempt Central Park first and hoped to find lunch on the way. After a 25 minute walk we made it to the gates of the park and the sun was shining on a chilly November afternoon. We took lots of photos and took in the scenery whilst wandering in the general direction of the Natural History Museum. We saw the ice skating rink and lots of people walking their dogs (no horses though.)

After a couple of hours wandering around Central Park we realised we were actually pretty starving, so marched straight to the Museum cafe to fuel up before exploring the Museum. (And march I did!)

We had a great time at the Museum (mostly because we were pretending we were in various films.) And we even went to the Planetarium (from Friends) and saw one of the little nature movies there.

We decided to hit the shops (again) on the way home to get a few souvenirs as well as some tasty treats for ourselves. M&M's world was AWESOME, and so was the Hersheys store. We also visited Toys R'Us (complete with ferris wheel) and the Disney Store - where all the staff tell you to 'Have a magical day!' (Which obviously I couldn't get enough of.)

We called at Starbucks (obviously) on the way back to the hotel to get a cup of tea to keep us going whilst we reviewed our purchases for the day and got ready to go out for dinner! Tonight's restaurant of choice was going to be Bubba Gump's Shrimp Co.

The result of the first day of shopping!

Our dinner at Bubba Gump was AWESOME. The atmosphere was great and the view from the window looked right over into the heart of Times Square. I was still pretty full from my lunch so had a salad (I know!) And George had the 'Bucket O'Boat Trash.' It was pretty delicious. George also had an incredibly fun looking cocktail which had a mini bottle of Corona inside!

So with full tummies and giddy from our GIGANTIC drinks we headed back to the hotel and watched a bit of Spongebob before snuggling down for yet ANOTHER busy day ahead.

To be continued...

New York Day 1

So, here is the breakdown and a few snaps from the infamous trip to NYC! I can't believe we managed to cram so much sightseeing / trips / shopping into 6 days! How some people can go for just 3 or 4 days I'll never know. You need at least 2 weeks to be able to see just the basics! We did so much I think I'll have to break it down day by day.

So, we begin our journey with a stay at the Premier Inn at Manchester Airport on Sunday 4th November 2012. We ordered LOTS of room service and got our tour guide out and began planning our adventure in the big city.

We got a good night sleep and set our alarms for 6.30am the following morning in time for our taxi to the terminal. We checked out the following morning and after arriving at the airport we were greeted with a lovely 2 hour delay on our flight. Boo! Never mind, an extra 2 hours in duty free and time to get a nice breakfast...or so we thought. After several unsuccessful attempts to check in on our own, we discovered that my sisters ESTA (visa you need to enter the US) had expired. Argh! Blind panic struck and we ran to the nearest computer to reregister. Clearly luck wasn't on our side that morning as the computer sucked up all of our £1 coins and the internet page wouldn't load. So off we went to the helpdesk who managed to sort it out for us. Phew! So we checked in our bags and trundled off in search of breakfast. We found a nice cafe where we had a big pot of tea each and a yummy breakfast. I had a sausage ciabatta and George had eggs benedict. We had a little wander around the duty free and soon enough it was time to board our flight! We gave Mum and Dad a quick ring to say our final goodbyes before excitedly boarding the plane.

 After a loooooong and boring flight we touched down at JFK at 5.30pm. Feeling pretty groggy and in desperate need of a cocktail, we waited around for our transfer for an hour (!) In all honesty, when I go next time I will DEFINITELY be booking a private taxi. The transfers were horrid. About 13 of us crammed into a 10 seater mini bus. My sister and I were right at the very back and I felt so unbelievably car sick, particularly as the New York taxi drivers are RECKLESS and aggressive (just like the movies.) It was approaching dusk by the time we arrived in the city and as we drove over the bridge and I saw the New York skyline I felt like I was in an episode of Sex and the City. (I know.) Luckily we were the first to be dropped off so dashed into the hotel, got ready and headed straight out to explore Times Square (and order the biggest cocktail on the menu.)

The city was buzzing and the atmosphere was electric. We were torn as to which restaurant to try first and were shocked at the amount of Starbucks coffee houses on one street. We decided on The OIive Garden for dinner and hurried on in because by this time it was 8pm and we were STARVING. Obviously we ordered the most extravagant cocktails money could buy (frozen strawberry margaritas to be exact.)

We had a yummy dinner but decided to get an earlyish night because we had a jam packed day the following morning. We snuggled down in our double bed, full from our delicious Olive Garden dinner and a bit giddy from the tequila, feeling excited for the day ahead.

To be continued...

I'm back...

So, it's been precisely 4 months since my last post. And what an interesting 4 months its been! Probably easier to go through the events month by month.

So September saw me hit the big 2-4, where I had a fantastic night out with my friends (followed by spending my entire birthday sleeping in my onesie with a cracking headache...although we did get an Indian takeaway in the evening which made it better.

October saw me leave my job and up sticks back to the north for a promotion, so lots of stress at relocating with a few shed tears for my staff. In all honesty I miss it dearly but certain circumstances pushed me into aiming higher.

November saw my sister and I FINALLY jet off to NYC after 8 months of counting down the minutes. I will do a proper post on it but I can honestly say it was the most magical, beautiful place I have ever been and will be going back as soon as I can get a plane ticket!

December was a struggle with only a 2 day break over Christmas, and ring incredibly ill Christmas Day which kind of ruined it but it was still nice to have some family time.

It's now January, and no resolutions have been made, other than to continue chasing the dream and be happy. It's only 3 weeks into the new year and I've already landed a placement in the editorial office at comma press publishing. I start in July so fingers crossed! Hopefully it will lead to bigger things and more opportunities.

Still no Internet in the new place even after 2 months so making use of my iPhone and various cafes around town, hence the short post. So there you go, the last four months summed up.

I'll try to make sure I don't keep you waiting another 4 months until the next post!

xo

Yes!

Fun In The Sun

So today I went for a picnic and a long walk in the countryside with my lovely best friend Rosie. We bought loads of (healthy) snacks - even though I did sneak a milky way into the basket - and took my picnic rug in my big Cath Kidston bag and off we went. We did a five mile walk (over a scary bridge - not ideal when your friend is terrified of heights!) But she was brave and we went over it twice. It was SUCH a beautiful day today and the sun shone down all afternoon. We did a bit of sunbathing and I will say I'm glad the kids are back at school because it was so peaceful and quiet. With the exception of a few old couples with their dogs, we were the only people there. 

We watched clouds for a bit and made lots of shapes out of them then had a deep and meaningful talk about places we want to go on holiday! Rosie even went cricket hunting - and she caught one - twice! I don't know how she does it. She's like Dr Doolittle haha! Anyway I'm back at home now and looking forward to my second day off tomorrow - I've got a riding lesson so let's hope this sun sticks around because I miss riding outside!