Things I've learnt

So a few things I've noticed over the last couple of weeks:

Drivers around New York do not use their signals. This seems to be so much worse than back home. The worst is on the expressways with three or four lanes and cars just flying from lane to lane all over the place. With everyone driving so close too it's like a cycling peloton, everything is fine as long as nobody hits the brakes or goes down.
For the couple of times we've been on those roads going back and forth to the airports I've already seen a smashed up car in an accident on one of the expressway exits.

 

That the reason the roads through town are three or four lanes wide is that they need one lane to park in beside the kerb and another lane to double park in! You know, when you're just nipping into shops, delivering stuff, etc and then you've got the other lane(s) to move into when those vehicles pulls out (without signalling).

A sunny cold light breezy 10˚ morning temperature is not the same as a 10˚sunny cold light breezy 10˚ morning temperature back in Aberdeen!! I certainly don't miss that North-East wind when going for a morning run. Although I now realise I've not to put so much clothing on.

If I do ANY form of exercise that is not "normal" for me I ache for the next few days (well, I already knew this). Goalkeeping has left me with some strained chest muscles and achy wrists, triceps and quads. It's not old age, I'm just sensitive!

I miss the radio on in the background during the day. For mostly (new) music but also for news. I rarely read the news online but might have to as the limited tv channels we have are either rarely on or are purely centered on New York news only.  It's very easy to avoid all football results (if I stay off twitter) and I've manged to watch the highlights on Match of the Day2 three days after the games were played without knowing the scores! I even woke up at 7am on Wednesday morning (after getting to bed at 1.30am) in order to watch the Barcelona/Chelsea highlights as we were out the previous day when it was on.

I'm glad we have cats. One was crouching down beside the oven. We pulled the oven back and a tiny mouse ran back under the oven. Tis truly a different world I'm in now. A few spiders were the most I had to deal with previously.

That it really is a small world. We went out with Byron on his last day and were having lunch in a small cafe in SoHo. Just as we left he bumped into a friend who was just coming into the same place. The friend was also from Portland and she was just here with work for a few days! What are the chances that two people from nearly 3000 miles away would bump into each other in a city of over 8M people. When you think of factors like going to the bathroom before leaving or her cab getting lost on the way there meaning we just happened to be literally exiting the place as she walked in. Pretty amazing I think.

That I do enjoy the wide availability of cherry flavoured diet soda drinks such as Diet Pepsi Cherry and Diet Dr Pepper Cherry.

 That even though this could've been a stupid comment from anywhere in the world it didn't help dispel the American stereotype of not knowing what goes on outside your country. At the baseball in the row behind us some guys were chatting non-stop (loudly), as is the deal here. Then a guy called Ronaldo from Brazil and another friend turned up, so they began quizzing Ronaldo on various things. This included asking Ronaldo "do you guys get YouTube in Brazil" and "Is Facebook big in Brazil". Classic! One step short of asking if they get the internet in Brazil.

Is it a bird.....

This morning, the Space Shuttle Enterprise was flown on the back of the NASA jumbo jet from DC up to JFK in New York before it goes onto the deck of the Intrepid on the Hudson in a few weeks as an exhibit at their air & space museum.

The flight timetable given was a bit approx so rather than travelling and hanging around lower Manhattan we decided just to follow the news on twitter instead. As it was supposed to come back around for a second loop we climbed the fire escape up onto our roof.

Literally as we stood up and said how long will we wait (it is pretty cold and windy today) I said well what's that there?

Ha ha, it was right there flying past the Statue of Liberty and back up the Hudson.

Heather's 18x camera zoom in effect again (click the pics to see the detail):

Meet the Mets

Just a few pics from out and about on Tuesday. Heather's brothers last day so we wandered Soho, looked through a tiny door in a bigger door, oh, a cemetery!

Outside

Inside

Still doing our touristy stuff but it makes for long days. Out of the house for breakfast, into the city, few hours of walking, some random street sightings

some random shopping sights

then lunch. Then more walking, revisited the Highline - the elevated old railway line gardens

 

then all the way up to Central Park to visit Strawberry Fields the John Lennon memorial

back to Columbus Circle for a quick pitstop. The Tribeca film festival is on so there's a few events dotted about the city and we happened to see them waiting for some celebs or something.

 Couldn't wait as it was out to Queens for a Mets baseball game.

Get that marching band out there

Heather's camera has a good zoom!

CitiField stadium is superb and the pulled pork buns and frites are a shade better than the usual food on offer at a football game back in the UK. Unfortunately I don't have much luck seeing high scoring baseball games and despite a decent 8th inning Mets comeback win, I've seen two 2-1's and a 4-3 that took 15 innings to get to that score.

It's Mr Met, it's Mr Met.....

Thanks for coming

Then as we were coming back through Manhattan at about 11pm we stepped out for some street cart halal food then back home and asleep just after 1am. Then I woke up at 7am to watch the Champions League highlights! Knackered again. Should be getting back to normal now though after we took Byron to the airport on Wednesday morning.

The Monday after the day before

Had a relaxing wander about lower Manhattan today with Heather and her brother.

Diner brunch followed by a bit of sweet shopping and some local sights.

Flower on a museum

And into Tokyo Toys, I might start a collection of homies.

my homies

And some typical New York humour.

nice

Finished the day with the tastiest steamed buns I've ever eaten (I've eaten Japanese food once before I think) and some duck and some ramen. And my first taste of sake ever, it was alright actually.

I've drunk more alcohol in the last four days than I have in the last four years!

The Big Day

So the anticipated rainstorm arrived during the night but it was just drizzle in the morning.

Byron & Tom met up to visit the Brooklyn Museum but I thought it would be tight for time so instead I enjoyed a 37min run to get rid of last nights double cheeseburger.

But.... I then picked up the Monte Crisco from the bagel shop on my way back:

Yummmmmmm

But hey, I only ate half cause my new wedding shirt is a slim fit :-) That's one way to watch what you eat.

Heather met up with Sheryl for their own run around the park then later, being a modern man I helped arrange Heather's flowers for her while Sheryl did her hair.

Plumeria

Then we headed across to take shelter in the local coffee shop across from the park while we waited for everyone. Of course Byron & Tom were late back mainly because they don't know the area, Heather just about maintained her cool but I was just glad I didn't go with them!

By this time the rain was hammering it down, the good thing being the park was now empty.

We had our lovely little ceremony under a tree. I think we will find it even more memorable because of the weather and the way my new friends gathered around under their umbrellas.

Our paparazzi

 

Plus I guess we can both look forward to going through the park and running past "our" tree every once in a while.

I do!

The ceremony was really nice & personal, the Judge did a great little speech about love and marriage which was so good and we both just had to say our "I do's" do the kiss

and then a quick march over the road to the bar where the first task was to sign the marriage licence.

Sign it!

then more friends showed up and we had our drinks and food and cake!

The Double Windsor

One of the waitresses at the restaurant came and read a surprise email from Murdo, Anne and Steve, very sneaky but clever. And a stranger at the bar who got married two weeks ago wanted to share his joy and bought us both drinks too.

In true New York style our reception contained people with backgrounds from Scotland, England, various US states, Brazil, Colombia, Taiwan, China and probably more. Three Scots, a total of five Brits along with some typical UK weather helped make me feel at home!

Pablo was official photographer so there will be heaps of pics to follow soon.

Smile!

Too much sun

While my future wife spent time with her friend Sheryl, the boys went off for some tourist stuff.

The intended plan was to do the Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island but the line was crazy long so we decided to head to the World Trade Centre memorial instead.

Then the sun came out and it got super hot and especially with the concrete all around I ended up getting sunburnt!! Jeez, I am sooooo white.

South Pool

Then we headed through the quietest mall in New York complete with recycled plastic chandelier and up the West Side greenway.

And then beginning to sound like some little kids..... we saw a statue

and some big boats

The Norwegian Jewel

and some boats with guns

The coastguard +

Then we met up, had some Shake Shack burgers & fries. Then Some Momofuku salted pistachio soft serve (ice cream type thingy) and back to Sheryl & Tom's hotel roof top patio for a couple of drinks.

Sheryl & Tom

Byron

Early riser

Today Heather's friends arrived at JFK from Portland and we hired a Zipcar to go pick them up. This meant being up at 5.30am, yawn.

(Motorway) Sunrise

But it did mean I got to see another part of Brooklyn that I've only seen in darkness before, when I've previously been heading to and from the airport.

Verrarzano Bridge

We had an hour left on the car so used the opportunity to head to Costco and I got to experience the amazing escalators that take the carts up and down to the next floor.

Woo hoo - Costco

Then later we did a little touristy stuff and walked the Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge

The view

A quick visit near the Supreme Court for people interested in Law & Order... the tv show.

Supreme Court - Manhattan

Now off back in another hired car to pick up Heather's brother from JFK!