Hello everybody!
It's been a long time since we last gave you all an update, the last couple of months have been very busy. We had an amazing holiday in Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, Lyn is pregnant, I've been working hard, Sam has started school and Max is growing up fast.
Lyn is now 13 weeks pregnant, and little Bollen number three is due in the middle of May. We're very excited and looking forward to meeting the next member of our family. The whole US medical thing is a bit scary, but we've found a nice midwife centre and hopefully will be able to have a midwife led delivery in the home-from-home section of the hospital. Lyn is now starting to bloom and we had a 12 week scan last week and everything seems to be going well. We'll be finding out whether it'll be a boy or a girl just after Christmas.
I'm sure you've probably already seen our Yellowstone and Grand Teton photos. If not, here is a link. It is an incredible place. We flew from New York to Salt Lake City and then drove to Grand Teton where we stayed for two nights in a lodge on Jackson Lake. In Teton we did a few hikes, watching out for bears, and hired a speed boat which Sam and Max drove round the beautiful lake with crystal clear reflections of the mountains. We then went on to Yellowstone, where we stayed at Lake Yellowstone Hotel, then log cabins in Mammouth and then Old Faithful. Every day was action packed and we saw bright coloured volcanic springs, bubbling pools, geysers, waterfalls, canyons, buffalo, elk, bears and an eagle. The only slight blot on the holiday was that Lyn fell over on the penultimate day and had to have 15 stitches in her knee. She's fine now and just has a very impressive scar to show for her pains, but it meant that she was immoblised for a few days, and in pain for a few weeks.
There were so many highlights and this would be a very long blog if we listed them all. Seeing the geysers erupt was amazing, as was watching two bears face off over a carcus. It was like watching a David Attenborough documentary. In fact the holiday was like being in a 7 day BBC nature extravaganza. I would strongly recommend it to everybody as somewhere to visit - the world's largest supervolcano and America's serengeti.
Sam started school just after we got back to New York. He is really enjoying it and it seems to have given him a real desire to be independent and more grown up. It's great when he comes home and tells us the things he has learnt and done, or sings American children's songs. It's a lovely sociable school, the children are gorgeous and Sam's teacher seems brilliant- very calm, experienced and warm. The children are allowed to play in the playground (the yard) for 15 minutes after school has finished which gives all the parents a chance to chat. Also, because of the vertical nature of Manhattan living, the geographical catchment area is very small. We live 15 minutes walk away from school and we are at the end of the catchment area. So we bump into Sam's classmates all the time. In fact, about a third of Sam's class live in our building. A lot of them have little brothers and sisters too. This all means that Sam, Max and I are broadening our social circle which was long overdue!
Ann, Doctor's Mum, came to stay for a week in September which was really nice. We did a lot of touristy things with her and she spent a lot of time playing with the boys which they really enjoyed.
Since then we've been enjoying Fall in New York. We went to Bronx zoo with Paul which was fun. The boys loved seeing the animals again. We went out to Long Island to Sam's friend's Khadeejah's birthday party, at her grandparents' house. It's always nice to get out of the city and they put a lot of effort in, with organized activities and farm animals in the garden. Sam and Max had a ride on a pony and we saw a huge preying mantis - very strange animals.
Two weekends ago we took the train upstate and went apple picking. It was fun, although the place was busy and we had to use a pole to get the only apples that were left, high up the trees. We got a big bag and have lots of apple puree in the freezer to make pies with. Also the fresh apple donuts that they make are delicious. The leaves had started to change colour and it was very beautiful.
Last weekend was Halloween, which is a lot bigger here than in the UK. On Thursday evening Sam and Max went to a party in the nursery at my work, while Lyn and I went out for dinner. On Saturday there were parties in the World Financial Center and the park. The boys dressed up, Sam as a fireman and Max as a gorilla! On Sunday we went trick or treating in our building complex and we bumped into a girl from Sam's class and did a bit with her. If you put your name on the "we welcome Trick or Treating list" you can get hundreds of kids visiting as they photocopy it and a six page document gets handed out to all the apartment blocks in the area. There were teenagers walking around with pillowcases full of sweets! You can also trick or treat in shops, fire stations, restaurants and the place goes candy-mad. One corridor in our building did a haunted house, with all the lights out, dead people lying all over the floor and others jumping up out of cardboard box coffins. Sam and Max were probably the least scared, as they had no clue what was going on! After the trick or treating we headed up to the Halloween parade in the West Village. The best bit is getting of the subway and seeing a platform full of people dressed up as everything, not only scary costumes, but also animals, superheros and drag. It showcases New York creativity and is very friendly and entertaining.
This weekend we went to the Bronx Botanical Gardens, which was inspired by Kew. It's another one of the things we can get into for free thanks to my work. The autumn colours were beautiful and the boys really enjoyed running around the trees and kicking the leaves.
The weather has been mostly good, although it's starting to get cold now. New York has a lot of blue sky days. When the clouds build up either the atlantic wind blows them away or there are big thunder storms, which are great to watch (see this photo on the bbc website).
We've put some more photos up on the site and here's a link.
Hope you are all well and planning your NY visits!
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max
Editor's note: Most of this was written by Tom. Some has been written by Lyn, and in these bits she talks about herself in the third person. The longer we've been away from England, the more she's turning into the Queen!
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Birthdays and Beaches
Hello everybody!
Hope that you are all well and had a great August. We did! The hot weather has continued and we have been making the most of New York's beaches. When we moved here I had no idea that there were so many really nice beaches. Earlier in the summer we had been to Coney Island a couple of times, Lyn and the boys had been to Rockaway beach, also on the tube, and we'd taken the boat to Sandy Hook on the Jersey Shore.
For my birthday (in case you hadn't guessed this is Tom typing) we had already decided to go back to Sandy Hook on the Sunday. We then had an invitation to go out to Long Island on the Saturday. Lyn's friend Ayako was staying at her parents-in-laws for the weekend and we went and met them there. After a train journey to Bay Shore we went to a splash park (a water park for little kids) where Sam and Max played with Brigid and Oscar. Then after lunch we drove out to Fire Island, which was an incredible beach with really lovely sea. The boys love the beach and like jumping the waves and building sandcastles. As the tide came in we had to build defences to protect our things from rogue waves, which was really fun.
The experience of Fire Island inspired us to try out the other beaches that are close to New York on Long Island. The next weekend we went to Long Beach, which is only just outside of the city. Closer to New York it was a bit busier, but also really nice. Then last weekend for Sam's birthday we went to Jones Beach, which is a State Park and equally beautiful. The south coast of Long Island has spit-like islands just off the coast which are connected at various places by bridges or bits of land. These beaches are on the spits. They are all about an hour and a half away on various train/bus/ferry combinations. Here is a map if I haven't described it very well.
On my birthday we got up slowly and after a delicious pancake breakfast Lyn and I dropped the kids off at the nursery. We then went to a French restaurant called Artisenal where they do a very good fondue. After lunch we went and played mini golf on Randall's Island and then went to Central Park with the boys. It was a fun day.
Sam's birthday was this weekend and after the beach on Saturday he had a great day on Sunday. We spent the morning opening and playing with his presents and then Paul came round. We had pizza, cake and ice cream for lunch and then went to Liberty Park, which is probably Sam's favourite place in New York. He did a lot of cycling on his brand new bike, played on the disused trains and went to the playground. We had a picnic in the park and then got the boat home at sunset.
Last night I went to the US Open tennis. They have floodlights and so have an evening session on the Arthur Ashe court. It's the biggest court in tennis, seating almost 24,000, bigger than a few grounds of recent Premier League teams and 50% bigger than Blackpool! Last night local favourite Andy Roddick went out in the second round to Janko Tipsarevic. It was quite an upset and a really good match. There were some cracking rallies and amazing shots. The surface is slower than Wimbledon's grass, so the points tend to last longer. Lyn is there tonight, watching Sharapova and Djokovic, which I'm currently watching on tv. People sitting near Lyn have just been kicked out for fighting in the stands! It couldn't really be more different from Wimbledon.
We've put some new photos of the the beaches and birthdays on our flickr site.
On Saturday we're off to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons for a week's holiday. Check back in a couple of weeks and we should have some photos of volcanic pools, geysers, mountains and wildlife.
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max
Hope that you are all well and had a great August. We did! The hot weather has continued and we have been making the most of New York's beaches. When we moved here I had no idea that there were so many really nice beaches. Earlier in the summer we had been to Coney Island a couple of times, Lyn and the boys had been to Rockaway beach, also on the tube, and we'd taken the boat to Sandy Hook on the Jersey Shore.
For my birthday (in case you hadn't guessed this is Tom typing) we had already decided to go back to Sandy Hook on the Sunday. We then had an invitation to go out to Long Island on the Saturday. Lyn's friend Ayako was staying at her parents-in-laws for the weekend and we went and met them there. After a train journey to Bay Shore we went to a splash park (a water park for little kids) where Sam and Max played with Brigid and Oscar. Then after lunch we drove out to Fire Island, which was an incredible beach with really lovely sea. The boys love the beach and like jumping the waves and building sandcastles. As the tide came in we had to build defences to protect our things from rogue waves, which was really fun.
The experience of Fire Island inspired us to try out the other beaches that are close to New York on Long Island. The next weekend we went to Long Beach, which is only just outside of the city. Closer to New York it was a bit busier, but also really nice. Then last weekend for Sam's birthday we went to Jones Beach, which is a State Park and equally beautiful. The south coast of Long Island has spit-like islands just off the coast which are connected at various places by bridges or bits of land. These beaches are on the spits. They are all about an hour and a half away on various train/bus/ferry combinations. Here is a map if I haven't described it very well.
On my birthday we got up slowly and after a delicious pancake breakfast Lyn and I dropped the kids off at the nursery. We then went to a French restaurant called Artisenal where they do a very good fondue. After lunch we went and played mini golf on Randall's Island and then went to Central Park with the boys. It was a fun day.
Sam's birthday was this weekend and after the beach on Saturday he had a great day on Sunday. We spent the morning opening and playing with his presents and then Paul came round. We had pizza, cake and ice cream for lunch and then went to Liberty Park, which is probably Sam's favourite place in New York. He did a lot of cycling on his brand new bike, played on the disused trains and went to the playground. We had a picnic in the park and then got the boat home at sunset.
Last night I went to the US Open tennis. They have floodlights and so have an evening session on the Arthur Ashe court. It's the biggest court in tennis, seating almost 24,000, bigger than a few grounds of recent Premier League teams and 50% bigger than Blackpool! Last night local favourite Andy Roddick went out in the second round to Janko Tipsarevic. It was quite an upset and a really good match. There were some cracking rallies and amazing shots. The surface is slower than Wimbledon's grass, so the points tend to last longer. Lyn is there tonight, watching Sharapova and Djokovic, which I'm currently watching on tv. People sitting near Lyn have just been kicked out for fighting in the stands! It couldn't really be more different from Wimbledon.
We've put some new photos of the the beaches and birthdays on our flickr site.
On Saturday we're off to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons for a week's holiday. Check back in a couple of weeks and we should have some photos of volcanic pools, geysers, mountains and wildlife.
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max
Sunday, July 25, 2010
A hot summer in New York
Hello everybody,
New York seems to be showing us its most extreme weather. After a bitterly cold winter which broke records we now have the hottest summer on record, reaching 39.5 degrees at it's peak. Can't complain though. Every weekend feels like a holiday.
The city really comes to life in the summer, with lots of free activities and a two month long River 2 River festival in downtown. There are lots of things for the children to do and they are really enjoying it.
On Lyn's birthday weekend we had the Red Bull Air Race on the river Hudson and from our window we could watch stunt airplanes looping upside down and weaving through obstacles. Later on Paul babysat while Lyn and I went on a wine-tasting sailing boat tour of the harbour. Sitting in the sun, with the wind in the sails and sipping wine was just lovely! We then went for a nice meal and had a lovely time. Thanks Paul!
The next week there was a family festival on the Saturday at the pedestrianised South Street Seaport with various activities for the kids including train rides, music and art workshops. It was another hot day and USA were playing in the World Cup last 16, so lots of bars had outdoor screens and it was a real party atmostphere. At dusk there were some good fireworks, which were Max's first. He liked them at first, but was getting tired as it was late.
That Sunday we went to see Prince Harry play in a Polo match on Governor's Island. It was free to get there and get in, but the catch was that the only drinks were $15 glasses of champagne. We'd taken a coolbag with beer, but had the beer confiscated. In all it was still good value, and quite fun. It made the news because Harry fell off his horse!
The next week Lyn's friend Sarah came to stay. I'll now hand the blogging baton over to Lyn for her to continue.
Hello - Lyn now. My main impression of New York summer is how unbelievably hot it's been. We've spent a lot of it preoccupied on finding somewhere cool. We've been darting from shade to shade, went paddling in some ice (that was glorious!) and have been tracking down air conditioned places. The air conditioning in our apartment is very inefficient and hugely expensive so we've not been using it.
It was so so lovely having Sarah over. She's like the sun - always bright and exudes warmth and energy - so it was a real treat to see her for 10 days. I don't think we've spent that long together since Sunderland. Great as it is over here, nothing quite compensates for being so far away from the people we love.
Despite the blistering heat, Sarah was keen to make the most of her time in the Big Apple and we went out and about seeing as much as possible. There is the added bonus of the subway being air conditioned which was blissful at times. We went to Coney Island which is a bit like Brixton by the sea but with a bit of Blackpool thrown in. The whole place has a definite edge and lots of tackiness - but it has to be seen because it's in so many films for one thing and there's a certain charm to the place. It has a very wierd side too. There's an attraction there called Shoot the freak. There's some poor chap in a pit with a shield in front of his face and the customers try and shoot him with a paint gun. We did learn the very useful art of planting our carosel in the sand in a secure manner. We sat watching other people's umbrellas fly at hurtling speed across the beach, feeling very grateful for our new found knowledge.
A couple of days later, we got a boat to Sandy Hook in Jersey Shore which was a much cleaner and altogether more civilised seaside destination. It was beautiful. It's a State park and nobody really lives there - but there are miles and miles of gorgeous unspoilt sandy beach with the Manhattan skyline on the horizon. We were quite a bit more relaxed there. We made sandcastles, played football and Max discovered the joy of jumping over waves.
Sarah was here for 4th July and I can confirm that the Americans can most definitely put on a firework show. It was very impressive. They are not frightened of a bit of flag waving either.
There are certain weekends we are entitled to free entry to various zoos and botannical gardens around the city through Tom's work. We went to Bronx zoo one Saturday. I think it is the best zoo I have ever been to. There is a little monorail that takes you high up near various animal enclosures which seemed less intrusive to them. Obviously they are all still in captivity, but it seemed better then other zoos I've been to. Also, the whole place is absolutely huge and felt better thought out. Max loved the baboons particularly and Sam was very relieved to see the crocodiles behind a thick pane of glass.
I had decided to try and go to as many different beaches as possible this summer as there are so many relatively close. Rockaway beach is very near to a subway stop in Queens. So, I'd arranged to take the boys and meet Paul (of Is this thing on? fame) there. It's about 1hr on the subway from our apartment. It doesn't feel at all like New york there. It feels a bit like an American version of off season Exmouth. Rain started lashing down while we were on the subway and the signal broke or something like that and we had to get the bus. I always plan to avoid buses on any New York excursion because they aren't very pushchair friendly. To my great relief, people didn't tut or shout at us on the bus as had been our previous New York bus experiences. Everyone was lovely and incredibly helpful. No-one even laughed as our carosel kept falling into the puddles. When we finally arrived at the beach, we were the only ones there except for scores of lifeguards huddled under their umbrellas as far as the eye could see. We had a great time though. Sam loves the rain, the seaside and Paul, so he couldn't have been happier. Paul was a real trooper - he's Californian and not so used to rainy windy beaches as us Brits! He managed to grin through it.
Hi, Tom here again for our next weekend when we went to stay with Uki and Suze, friends of my parents from Finsbury Park. They live in Virginia, just outside Washington DC, in a lovely house in proper American suburbia. It was like you see on the tv - wide roads with hardly any cars and individual houses, all different from each other. They were wonderful hosts and we were made to feel very welcome there. We spent the mornings with them doing countryside things in Virginia and the afternoons doing touristy things in DC. Washington felt more like Europe than anywhere else we've been in the US. There are no high rise buildings - nothing is allowed to be built higher than the dome of the capitol, a rule similar to the one in Florence. The Mall area was laid out by a French architect, and it shows. Parts of it reminded me of Paris, and parts of the garden in Versailles. The memorials are very grand and have a greco-roman feel to them. We also drove through Georgetown, now a district of Washington and the high street felt very English. It's a beautiful place and there's so much to see so it's definitely somewhere we'd like to visit again.
We've put up some new photos for you to see the summer so far on our flickr site. Hope you enjoy them. If you didn't see Sam's acting debut on Paul's online comedy show, scroll down for the link - it's very funny!
Finally, this made us laugh. Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z seemed like the theme tune to our first few months here, playing everywhere. Here's the Welsh version. Chips, cheese, curry make you feel brand new, washed down with Special Brew!
Lots of love from us all,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max xxx
New York seems to be showing us its most extreme weather. After a bitterly cold winter which broke records we now have the hottest summer on record, reaching 39.5 degrees at it's peak. Can't complain though. Every weekend feels like a holiday.
The city really comes to life in the summer, with lots of free activities and a two month long River 2 River festival in downtown. There are lots of things for the children to do and they are really enjoying it.
On Lyn's birthday weekend we had the Red Bull Air Race on the river Hudson and from our window we could watch stunt airplanes looping upside down and weaving through obstacles. Later on Paul babysat while Lyn and I went on a wine-tasting sailing boat tour of the harbour. Sitting in the sun, with the wind in the sails and sipping wine was just lovely! We then went for a nice meal and had a lovely time. Thanks Paul!
The next week there was a family festival on the Saturday at the pedestrianised South Street Seaport with various activities for the kids including train rides, music and art workshops. It was another hot day and USA were playing in the World Cup last 16, so lots of bars had outdoor screens and it was a real party atmostphere. At dusk there were some good fireworks, which were Max's first. He liked them at first, but was getting tired as it was late.
That Sunday we went to see Prince Harry play in a Polo match on Governor's Island. It was free to get there and get in, but the catch was that the only drinks were $15 glasses of champagne. We'd taken a coolbag with beer, but had the beer confiscated. In all it was still good value, and quite fun. It made the news because Harry fell off his horse!
The next week Lyn's friend Sarah came to stay. I'll now hand the blogging baton over to Lyn for her to continue.
Hello - Lyn now. My main impression of New York summer is how unbelievably hot it's been. We've spent a lot of it preoccupied on finding somewhere cool. We've been darting from shade to shade, went paddling in some ice (that was glorious!) and have been tracking down air conditioned places. The air conditioning in our apartment is very inefficient and hugely expensive so we've not been using it.
It was so so lovely having Sarah over. She's like the sun - always bright and exudes warmth and energy - so it was a real treat to see her for 10 days. I don't think we've spent that long together since Sunderland. Great as it is over here, nothing quite compensates for being so far away from the people we love.
Despite the blistering heat, Sarah was keen to make the most of her time in the Big Apple and we went out and about seeing as much as possible. There is the added bonus of the subway being air conditioned which was blissful at times. We went to Coney Island which is a bit like Brixton by the sea but with a bit of Blackpool thrown in. The whole place has a definite edge and lots of tackiness - but it has to be seen because it's in so many films for one thing and there's a certain charm to the place. It has a very wierd side too. There's an attraction there called Shoot the freak. There's some poor chap in a pit with a shield in front of his face and the customers try and shoot him with a paint gun. We did learn the very useful art of planting our carosel in the sand in a secure manner. We sat watching other people's umbrellas fly at hurtling speed across the beach, feeling very grateful for our new found knowledge.
A couple of days later, we got a boat to Sandy Hook in Jersey Shore which was a much cleaner and altogether more civilised seaside destination. It was beautiful. It's a State park and nobody really lives there - but there are miles and miles of gorgeous unspoilt sandy beach with the Manhattan skyline on the horizon. We were quite a bit more relaxed there. We made sandcastles, played football and Max discovered the joy of jumping over waves.
Sarah was here for 4th July and I can confirm that the Americans can most definitely put on a firework show. It was very impressive. They are not frightened of a bit of flag waving either.
There are certain weekends we are entitled to free entry to various zoos and botannical gardens around the city through Tom's work. We went to Bronx zoo one Saturday. I think it is the best zoo I have ever been to. There is a little monorail that takes you high up near various animal enclosures which seemed less intrusive to them. Obviously they are all still in captivity, but it seemed better then other zoos I've been to. Also, the whole place is absolutely huge and felt better thought out. Max loved the baboons particularly and Sam was very relieved to see the crocodiles behind a thick pane of glass.
I had decided to try and go to as many different beaches as possible this summer as there are so many relatively close. Rockaway beach is very near to a subway stop in Queens. So, I'd arranged to take the boys and meet Paul (of Is this thing on? fame) there. It's about 1hr on the subway from our apartment. It doesn't feel at all like New york there. It feels a bit like an American version of off season Exmouth. Rain started lashing down while we were on the subway and the signal broke or something like that and we had to get the bus. I always plan to avoid buses on any New York excursion because they aren't very pushchair friendly. To my great relief, people didn't tut or shout at us on the bus as had been our previous New York bus experiences. Everyone was lovely and incredibly helpful. No-one even laughed as our carosel kept falling into the puddles. When we finally arrived at the beach, we were the only ones there except for scores of lifeguards huddled under their umbrellas as far as the eye could see. We had a great time though. Sam loves the rain, the seaside and Paul, so he couldn't have been happier. Paul was a real trooper - he's Californian and not so used to rainy windy beaches as us Brits! He managed to grin through it.
Hi, Tom here again for our next weekend when we went to stay with Uki and Suze, friends of my parents from Finsbury Park. They live in Virginia, just outside Washington DC, in a lovely house in proper American suburbia. It was like you see on the tv - wide roads with hardly any cars and individual houses, all different from each other. They were wonderful hosts and we were made to feel very welcome there. We spent the mornings with them doing countryside things in Virginia and the afternoons doing touristy things in DC. Washington felt more like Europe than anywhere else we've been in the US. There are no high rise buildings - nothing is allowed to be built higher than the dome of the capitol, a rule similar to the one in Florence. The Mall area was laid out by a French architect, and it shows. Parts of it reminded me of Paris, and parts of the garden in Versailles. The memorials are very grand and have a greco-roman feel to them. We also drove through Georgetown, now a district of Washington and the high street felt very English. It's a beautiful place and there's so much to see so it's definitely somewhere we'd like to visit again.
We've put up some new photos for you to see the summer so far on our flickr site. Hope you enjoy them. If you didn't see Sam's acting debut on Paul's online comedy show, scroll down for the link - it's very funny!
Finally, this made us laugh. Empire State of Mind by Jay-Z seemed like the theme tune to our first few months here, playing everywhere. Here's the Welsh version. Chips, cheese, curry make you feel brand new, washed down with Special Brew!
Lots of love from us all,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max xxx
Thursday, July 15, 2010
England photos and Sam's acting debut
Hello everybody,
We had a great time in England! It was lovely to see you all. If we didn't manage to see you, sorry - it was a whistle stop tour, for me at least (Tom). Some days we took loads of lovely photos. Other days we either forgot the camera, or were too busy chatting to remember to take any!
Here are a selection of the photos on our website. Hope you enjoy them.
We've been doing lots of fun stuff since we've been back here in NYC, starting off with Lyn's birthday and this weekend we're off to Washington D.C. Got to pack now, so will try to post an update next week, with some stories and some new photos.
In the meantime have a laugh at this: Sam made his acting debut in Paul's online comedy show and you can watch the five minute episode here. The full series is at stonecomedy.blip.tv
Have a great weekend,
Tom
We had a great time in England! It was lovely to see you all. If we didn't manage to see you, sorry - it was a whistle stop tour, for me at least (Tom). Some days we took loads of lovely photos. Other days we either forgot the camera, or were too busy chatting to remember to take any!
Here are a selection of the photos on our website. Hope you enjoy them.
We've been doing lots of fun stuff since we've been back here in NYC, starting off with Lyn's birthday and this weekend we're off to Washington D.C. Got to pack now, so will try to post an update next week, with some stories and some new photos.
In the meantime have a laugh at this: Sam made his acting debut in Paul's online comedy show and you can watch the five minute episode here. The full series is at stonecomedy.blip.tv
Have a great weekend,
Tom
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunny spring weekends
Hi all,
The first weekend that the volcano scuppered our homecoming plans we just sat around, moping about the house being very miserable indeed. "Right now we'd be having lunch in a pub on the Thames with Bob and Sue...". "Just about now Charlie and Katya are saying Я беру ее себе в жены". "Now we'd be laughing at Ben's best man's speech". Etc. Not a very happy household... Going back into work on the Monday was pretty rubbish too.
The next weekend we decided to perk up a bit and enjoy New York. The weather was lovely and the Tribeca Film Festival had just started. They had erected a big screen in the harbour in front of our building and on the Friday we all went and watched Big. On the Saturday Sam went to a joint birthday party. Harley and Rocco go to Sam's school, but he denied all knowledge of them! We bought a fire engine book and a dinosaur book, about as gender specific presents as you could imagine, so no surprises when one turned out to be the girliest pinkest girl ever! Can you guess which one though? Afterwards Sam admitted they were both in his class and he played with them a lot!
That evening there was another free film - The Birth of Big Air - a documentary about Mat Hoffman, a BMX legend, produced and introduced by Johnny Knoxsville of Jackass fame. Max discovered a love for popcorn while we watched some amazing jumps and gruesome crashes. After the film some BMXers and skateboarders took to a newly erected half-pipe to do some amazing jumps and tricks, including Mat Hoffman himself (back from retirement) jumping over two skateboarders, themselves in mid-air. Sam enjoyed making some noise, and, to Lyn's horror, was suitably inspired that a few days later tried to ride his scooter down the slide in the playground!
We finished off the weekend with a trip to the Met (we've just found out that with my work id we can get into most of the main museums for free) followed by a Central Park playground and a Patsy's pizza. A fun weekend.
This weekend there was more free stuff, starting with the Tribeca Family Festival. Greenwich street was closed off and there were lots of stalls, music, story-telling, cheap massages and play areas. All the NY sports teams had attractions with Sam's favourite being the NY Jets bouncy-castle type assault course. Sam managed to score touchdown after touchdown. Instead of exiting he kept turning round, sidestepping the supervisor and running back for more. There was a different BMX show, with some crazy backflip jumps and other impressive stunts.
After that we took a tube down to Coney Island and the New York Aquarium, which had a free day for corporate members. My work also donates to the NY Wildlife Conservation Society, so every month there is a free day at one of the zoos. Although not as impressive as the London or Dubai aquariums, it was fun, and we really enjoyed the Sea Lion show. It's not very big, so we managed to see most of it and still leave time to have a play on the beach. Max and I had a good kickaround, while Sam and Lyn jumped over the waves. It had cooled down by then, but was a balmy 30 degree weekend. Coney Island had a cool feel and it was definitely party time. It's a very different demographic to where we live, and felt a bit more like home, or Brighton. There was a soundsystem on the beachside board-walk with lots of people dancing, so we stopped for the boys to finish of the picnic and Lyn and I to have a beer.
Yesterday we finished off the weekend by going to Cirque du Soleil in a big top on Randall's Island, which is a small lump of land between Harlem, the Bronx and Queens. We got the train to Harlem, which also had a very different feel to it from downtown Manhattan. Quite an edge, but not as much as Brixton at the end of a sunny bank holiday weekend! In the big top the circus was amazing. Max was a bit scared at first, but after a while both the boys were transfixed (both by the circus and the popcorn...). The show was Ovo, about insects that find an egg. The things they can do are amazing. From acrobatics, to tightrope, to diablo juggling, to trapeze. The finale was incredible with trampolines and a climbing wall, with great tumbling and people literally juggling themselves, dropping off the wall and bouncing back up again in unison, all to a backround of Brazilian music.
We've put lots of photos up on our flickr site. There's a whole new album of Christmas and the visits of Rachel, Heather and Pants and Laura. And we've also just started a spring album with views from our new apartment and some photos from the last two weekends.
Our UK trip is now re-booked. Lyn and the boys are staying for four weeks and I'm coming over this weekend for a few days, and then back on the 21st for the third and fourth weeks. If you haven't already, then let us know when would be good to see you. We're travelling around seeing family, and will be in London for most of the last week (after the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May). On Thursday 3rd June my Dad is babysitting, so we'll be meeting people in a bar somewhere in London. Put it in your diaries and we'll arrange a place soon and let you know. It'll probably be at a pub by the river, followed by a meal. We're really looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Lots of love,
Tom and family x
The first weekend that the volcano scuppered our homecoming plans we just sat around, moping about the house being very miserable indeed. "Right now we'd be having lunch in a pub on the Thames with Bob and Sue...". "Just about now Charlie and Katya are saying Я беру ее себе в жены". "Now we'd be laughing at Ben's best man's speech". Etc. Not a very happy household... Going back into work on the Monday was pretty rubbish too.
The next weekend we decided to perk up a bit and enjoy New York. The weather was lovely and the Tribeca Film Festival had just started. They had erected a big screen in the harbour in front of our building and on the Friday we all went and watched Big. On the Saturday Sam went to a joint birthday party. Harley and Rocco go to Sam's school, but he denied all knowledge of them! We bought a fire engine book and a dinosaur book, about as gender specific presents as you could imagine, so no surprises when one turned out to be the girliest pinkest girl ever! Can you guess which one though? Afterwards Sam admitted they were both in his class and he played with them a lot!
That evening there was another free film - The Birth of Big Air - a documentary about Mat Hoffman, a BMX legend, produced and introduced by Johnny Knoxsville of Jackass fame. Max discovered a love for popcorn while we watched some amazing jumps and gruesome crashes. After the film some BMXers and skateboarders took to a newly erected half-pipe to do some amazing jumps and tricks, including Mat Hoffman himself (back from retirement) jumping over two skateboarders, themselves in mid-air. Sam enjoyed making some noise, and, to Lyn's horror, was suitably inspired that a few days later tried to ride his scooter down the slide in the playground!
We finished off the weekend with a trip to the Met (we've just found out that with my work id we can get into most of the main museums for free) followed by a Central Park playground and a Patsy's pizza. A fun weekend.
This weekend there was more free stuff, starting with the Tribeca Family Festival. Greenwich street was closed off and there were lots of stalls, music, story-telling, cheap massages and play areas. All the NY sports teams had attractions with Sam's favourite being the NY Jets bouncy-castle type assault course. Sam managed to score touchdown after touchdown. Instead of exiting he kept turning round, sidestepping the supervisor and running back for more. There was a different BMX show, with some crazy backflip jumps and other impressive stunts.
After that we took a tube down to Coney Island and the New York Aquarium, which had a free day for corporate members. My work also donates to the NY Wildlife Conservation Society, so every month there is a free day at one of the zoos. Although not as impressive as the London or Dubai aquariums, it was fun, and we really enjoyed the Sea Lion show. It's not very big, so we managed to see most of it and still leave time to have a play on the beach. Max and I had a good kickaround, while Sam and Lyn jumped over the waves. It had cooled down by then, but was a balmy 30 degree weekend. Coney Island had a cool feel and it was definitely party time. It's a very different demographic to where we live, and felt a bit more like home, or Brighton. There was a soundsystem on the beachside board-walk with lots of people dancing, so we stopped for the boys to finish of the picnic and Lyn and I to have a beer.
Yesterday we finished off the weekend by going to Cirque du Soleil in a big top on Randall's Island, which is a small lump of land between Harlem, the Bronx and Queens. We got the train to Harlem, which also had a very different feel to it from downtown Manhattan. Quite an edge, but not as much as Brixton at the end of a sunny bank holiday weekend! In the big top the circus was amazing. Max was a bit scared at first, but after a while both the boys were transfixed (both by the circus and the popcorn...). The show was Ovo, about insects that find an egg. The things they can do are amazing. From acrobatics, to tightrope, to diablo juggling, to trapeze. The finale was incredible with trampolines and a climbing wall, with great tumbling and people literally juggling themselves, dropping off the wall and bouncing back up again in unison, all to a backround of Brazilian music.
We've put lots of photos up on our flickr site. There's a whole new album of Christmas and the visits of Rachel, Heather and Pants and Laura. And we've also just started a spring album with views from our new apartment and some photos from the last two weekends.
Our UK trip is now re-booked. Lyn and the boys are staying for four weeks and I'm coming over this weekend for a few days, and then back on the 21st for the third and fourth weeks. If you haven't already, then let us know when would be good to see you. We're travelling around seeing family, and will be in London for most of the last week (after the Bank Holiday weekend at the end of May). On Thursday 3rd June my Dad is babysitting, so we'll be meeting people in a bar somewhere in London. Put it in your diaries and we'll arrange a place soon and let you know. It'll probably be at a pub by the river, followed by a meal. We're really looking forward to seeing you all soon.
Lots of love,
Tom and family x
Sunday, April 25, 2010
We're staying in New York! (and thanks to the volcano our trip home is postponed)
Hi everybody,
Sorry for no updates for a couple of months. It's been a very busy time for us. The big news is that we're staying in New York! I was offered a job that is really interesting and will give me great experience, doing capital and balance sheet planning. After deciding to accept, life has been very hectic. We had to find an apartment, move house, clean the old place, buy lots of things (as our old apartment was completely furnished, including bedding, towels etc.), apply for schools for Sam and arrange to come back to England to see everybody and get more of our things.
Finding an apartment wasn't much fun. It's so expensive here and they have this concept of spliting rooms into two to give an extra bedroom, but meaning the living room has no windows/views. The estate agents are just like in the UK, not very honest, or just time wasters, taking you to places you can't afford. In the end though we found somewhere lovely, right by the river and playgrounds and with views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We wouldn't be able to afford it, but the previous tennant wanted to get out of his lease, so he has subsidised ours for a year. Sam and Max can now walk to a playground without having to cross a road, which is really nice. When it's cold, it's very cold, but when it's warm it feels like being on holiday.
The whole move was really difficult though. First when we tried to move in the previous tenant had gone to Miami for the weekend without moving his things out. We had to move most of our stuff, and then live out of a suitcase at the old place for two days. Then we went to Ikea and bought bedding, linen, towels and kitchen stuff, and took it to the new flat. When we weren't at the new place they came to get their things and took our Ikea shopping. They said they'd realised it was a mistake and asked the porter to bring it back but the porter said they'd told him to throw it away. £300 of shopping gone. So we had to go back and get it again. They hadn't cleaned the place either, so we had to get a cleaner in. It was a horrible first two weeks, but we're now through it and just waiting to see if our insurance will pay out.
We've also applied for Sam's schools. This September he'd be going into Pre-Kindergarten. It's not guaranteed though, and there aren't enough places for all kids, so it's a lottery whether he'll get in somewhere. Fingers crossed he gets into one of the two schools that are close to us. We're not sure what we'd do if he doesn't - we'd have to get him in somewhere, but it would be expensive.
Last weekend we were meant to be flying back to England for two weeks, to see family and friends, collect some of our things from Streatham and go to Charlie's wedding. On the morning of our flights I woke up and had emails from people about the volcano. Our flight was cancelled, but we were flying the following day instead, and would still make it for the wedding. Then conditions worsened and that was cancelled too. We missed Charlie's wedding, which was really sad. By the time the flights had started again the backlog was so big that we wouldn't be able to fly until this Tuesday - 12 days late - which would have given us four days in the UK. I can't move the holiday back at work as my boss had a holiday booked and a colleague is on maternity leave, so there would have been nobody there. It now looks like we'll be coming at the end of May, although Lyn and the boys will probably come for two weeks extra before then. We should have the details sorted in the next couple of days, so will let you know.
We've got some new photos to put up on our flickr site, and will get that done this week as well. We'll put up another post to say they're there.
Hope you are all well!
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max
Sorry for no updates for a couple of months. It's been a very busy time for us. The big news is that we're staying in New York! I was offered a job that is really interesting and will give me great experience, doing capital and balance sheet planning. After deciding to accept, life has been very hectic. We had to find an apartment, move house, clean the old place, buy lots of things (as our old apartment was completely furnished, including bedding, towels etc.), apply for schools for Sam and arrange to come back to England to see everybody and get more of our things.
Finding an apartment wasn't much fun. It's so expensive here and they have this concept of spliting rooms into two to give an extra bedroom, but meaning the living room has no windows/views. The estate agents are just like in the UK, not very honest, or just time wasters, taking you to places you can't afford. In the end though we found somewhere lovely, right by the river and playgrounds and with views of the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. We wouldn't be able to afford it, but the previous tennant wanted to get out of his lease, so he has subsidised ours for a year. Sam and Max can now walk to a playground without having to cross a road, which is really nice. When it's cold, it's very cold, but when it's warm it feels like being on holiday.
The whole move was really difficult though. First when we tried to move in the previous tenant had gone to Miami for the weekend without moving his things out. We had to move most of our stuff, and then live out of a suitcase at the old place for two days. Then we went to Ikea and bought bedding, linen, towels and kitchen stuff, and took it to the new flat. When we weren't at the new place they came to get their things and took our Ikea shopping. They said they'd realised it was a mistake and asked the porter to bring it back but the porter said they'd told him to throw it away. £300 of shopping gone. So we had to go back and get it again. They hadn't cleaned the place either, so we had to get a cleaner in. It was a horrible first two weeks, but we're now through it and just waiting to see if our insurance will pay out.
We've also applied for Sam's schools. This September he'd be going into Pre-Kindergarten. It's not guaranteed though, and there aren't enough places for all kids, so it's a lottery whether he'll get in somewhere. Fingers crossed he gets into one of the two schools that are close to us. We're not sure what we'd do if he doesn't - we'd have to get him in somewhere, but it would be expensive.
Last weekend we were meant to be flying back to England for two weeks, to see family and friends, collect some of our things from Streatham and go to Charlie's wedding. On the morning of our flights I woke up and had emails from people about the volcano. Our flight was cancelled, but we were flying the following day instead, and would still make it for the wedding. Then conditions worsened and that was cancelled too. We missed Charlie's wedding, which was really sad. By the time the flights had started again the backlog was so big that we wouldn't be able to fly until this Tuesday - 12 days late - which would have given us four days in the UK. I can't move the holiday back at work as my boss had a holiday booked and a colleague is on maternity leave, so there would have been nobody there. It now looks like we'll be coming at the end of May, although Lyn and the boys will probably come for two weeks extra before then. We should have the details sorted in the next couple of days, so will let you know.
We've got some new photos to put up on our flickr site, and will get that done this week as well. We'll put up another post to say they're there.
Hope you are all well!
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Rachel's visit and it looks like we're staying
Hello again.
Like London buses - no posts for ages and then two straight after each other.
It was really lovely having Rachel to stay in January. It was the longest time we had spent together since I was back at Mum's during university holidays. She stayed for just over two weeks, so was here for three weekends, and we did lots of things that Lyn and I hadn't yet done in New York.
Probably my favourite were the trips to the Natural History museum, the Guggenheim and the Design museum. We managed to take the boys to both, and on the whole they were good and enjoyed it. We had to do shifts of looking after them, but Max running around the sloped spiral floors in the Guggenheim was really funny. He managed to at first entertain the stewards and then make them earn their money, as he showed his like for Picasso. Mmmm Picasso... Yum yum!
We also did some fun stuff in the evenings, going to see some stand-up by Paul and his fellow comedians and having some nice meals out. One night we found a really good vegetarian restaurant, that had some really stunning and original dishes. The only other veggie restaurants I'd been to here were weird, with fake meat (and not nice stuff like quorn) in everything. Rachel also went out on her own some nights and saw some theatre and ballet, and Lyn and her went to see As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and Road to Perdition fame.
For the middle weekend that Rachel was here we also had Heather to stay. Heather got here late Thursday and hardly stopped until she left on the Monday. On the Friday the boys went to the childcare at my work, and I picked them up, so that Heather, Rachel and Lyn could have a sex in the city, girls about town day. They went window shopping, had a pub lunch, went to some fancy bars and then went to see Hair - one of the few Broadway musicals that hasn't yet made it to London. On the Saturday we all walked across Brooklyn Bridge, went for a pizza at Lombardi's and then went up the Empire State Building. Rachel's back was bad in the evening, so she stayed at home while Heather, Lyn and I went to our favourite West Village bar to play Beer Pong. Sunday was a sport filled day. Heather and I went to the big football pub to see Arrrsenal (as they pronounce it here) beat Bolton, then in the evening we watched the Jets win in the playoffs (on tv) and then went to Madison Square Gardens to watch some Ice Hockey. "Let's go Rangers!" was the chant of the day, as the NY Rangers came back from 2-0 to beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2. A late night beer pong win over some cocky Americans meant we finished the day with four wins and no losses! Heather flew back to London the next day having well and truly partied hard.
Lyn and the boys really enjoyed having Rachel here in the day as well. Max completely adores Rachel and whenever she was doing her back exercises he would throw himself at her! They did lots of swimming, went to lots of parks and went and looked at prospective areas for us to live in.
It now looks very likely that we'll be staying in New York after the six month rotation is up. My job is going well, and they want me to stay full time. It's quite high profile and from a career point of view, almost impossible to turn down. We are now looking at apartments and trying to work out what we can afford and where we want to live. We love it where we are, but can't afford to live here, so it's a case of what we can sacrifice - space, location or money really. It's not much fun looking around apartments. On Saturday it was really cold and we dragged the boys around about six or seven places, the estate agent taking us to places in the Financial District that either we couldn't afford, or we couldn't fit in. They've got this crazy idea in Manhattan of converting one bedroom apartments into two beds by putting a wall up in the living room. The problem is that there are then no windows in the new half-sized living room. The best thing about living in Manhattan is the massive windows and the views, so this seems to have completely missed the point and they just feel really claustrophobic. Quite a depressing day. On Sunday I went to see some in the Upper West Side and a new building in Brooklyn, but again, none really fit the bill. The one in Brooklyn was nice, but it is next to a really bad school. Schools are another big consideration of where we live. In September Sam would be going to Pre-K (pre-kindergarten, the equivalent of reception in the UK), but this isn't something that is seen as a necessity in NYC. This means that not all public schools have it, and Sam wouldn't be guaranteed a place. Lots of people seem to send there kids private for this year, but the preschool where Sam goes now for two afternoons a week would cost $18,000 a year full time. Crazy money.
It looks like we might have been lucky and found somewhere in Battery Park City, by the river, but it might only be until June, which is no good, and would mean spending some of our savings on rent every month, which isn't ideal. It's quite close to where we are though, which would be great as Lyn and Sam have both made some friends round here. It would also be nice for Sam to know some of the other kids when (if?) he starts school in September, so being close to his preschool makes that quite likely.
Anyway, lots of tricky decisions to come. We'll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Today New York was hit by massive snow storms. 6-12 inches apparently, although a lot of that didn't really settle, or turned straight into sludge. It's funny - it's the first year in my life that it has snowed more in London than in New York. Today's snow meant that I got to leave work early and saw the second half of Arsenal - Liverpool in the pub (I missed the first half as the first two pubs I went to had their satelite signals blocked by the snow). A good result for Arsenal, and with Chelsea losing and ManUre drawing maybe we are back in the title race. We shall see over the next few weeks.
Next week will be good as Pants and Laura are coming to stay. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with them here. Now that we are probably staying for longer means that you all have a much bigger window to come and stay with us! We love having visitors and our doors (and floors/sofas etc.) are always open.
Hope you're all having a great 2010 so far.
Love Tom x
Like London buses - no posts for ages and then two straight after each other.
It was really lovely having Rachel to stay in January. It was the longest time we had spent together since I was back at Mum's during university holidays. She stayed for just over two weeks, so was here for three weekends, and we did lots of things that Lyn and I hadn't yet done in New York.
Probably my favourite were the trips to the Natural History museum, the Guggenheim and the Design museum. We managed to take the boys to both, and on the whole they were good and enjoyed it. We had to do shifts of looking after them, but Max running around the sloped spiral floors in the Guggenheim was really funny. He managed to at first entertain the stewards and then make them earn their money, as he showed his like for Picasso. Mmmm Picasso... Yum yum!
We also did some fun stuff in the evenings, going to see some stand-up by Paul and his fellow comedians and having some nice meals out. One night we found a really good vegetarian restaurant, that had some really stunning and original dishes. The only other veggie restaurants I'd been to here were weird, with fake meat (and not nice stuff like quorn) in everything. Rachel also went out on her own some nights and saw some theatre and ballet, and Lyn and her went to see As You Like It, directed by Sam Mendes of American Beauty and Road to Perdition fame.
For the middle weekend that Rachel was here we also had Heather to stay. Heather got here late Thursday and hardly stopped until she left on the Monday. On the Friday the boys went to the childcare at my work, and I picked them up, so that Heather, Rachel and Lyn could have a sex in the city, girls about town day. They went window shopping, had a pub lunch, went to some fancy bars and then went to see Hair - one of the few Broadway musicals that hasn't yet made it to London. On the Saturday we all walked across Brooklyn Bridge, went for a pizza at Lombardi's and then went up the Empire State Building. Rachel's back was bad in the evening, so she stayed at home while Heather, Lyn and I went to our favourite West Village bar to play Beer Pong. Sunday was a sport filled day. Heather and I went to the big football pub to see Arrrsenal (as they pronounce it here) beat Bolton, then in the evening we watched the Jets win in the playoffs (on tv) and then went to Madison Square Gardens to watch some Ice Hockey. "Let's go Rangers!" was the chant of the day, as the NY Rangers came back from 2-0 to beat the Montreal Canadiens 6-2. A late night beer pong win over some cocky Americans meant we finished the day with four wins and no losses! Heather flew back to London the next day having well and truly partied hard.
Lyn and the boys really enjoyed having Rachel here in the day as well. Max completely adores Rachel and whenever she was doing her back exercises he would throw himself at her! They did lots of swimming, went to lots of parks and went and looked at prospective areas for us to live in.
It now looks very likely that we'll be staying in New York after the six month rotation is up. My job is going well, and they want me to stay full time. It's quite high profile and from a career point of view, almost impossible to turn down. We are now looking at apartments and trying to work out what we can afford and where we want to live. We love it where we are, but can't afford to live here, so it's a case of what we can sacrifice - space, location or money really. It's not much fun looking around apartments. On Saturday it was really cold and we dragged the boys around about six or seven places, the estate agent taking us to places in the Financial District that either we couldn't afford, or we couldn't fit in. They've got this crazy idea in Manhattan of converting one bedroom apartments into two beds by putting a wall up in the living room. The problem is that there are then no windows in the new half-sized living room. The best thing about living in Manhattan is the massive windows and the views, so this seems to have completely missed the point and they just feel really claustrophobic. Quite a depressing day. On Sunday I went to see some in the Upper West Side and a new building in Brooklyn, but again, none really fit the bill. The one in Brooklyn was nice, but it is next to a really bad school. Schools are another big consideration of where we live. In September Sam would be going to Pre-K (pre-kindergarten, the equivalent of reception in the UK), but this isn't something that is seen as a necessity in NYC. This means that not all public schools have it, and Sam wouldn't be guaranteed a place. Lots of people seem to send there kids private for this year, but the preschool where Sam goes now for two afternoons a week would cost $18,000 a year full time. Crazy money.
It looks like we might have been lucky and found somewhere in Battery Park City, by the river, but it might only be until June, which is no good, and would mean spending some of our savings on rent every month, which isn't ideal. It's quite close to where we are though, which would be great as Lyn and Sam have both made some friends round here. It would also be nice for Sam to know some of the other kids when (if?) he starts school in September, so being close to his preschool makes that quite likely.
Anyway, lots of tricky decisions to come. We'll keep you posted on how it all goes.
Today New York was hit by massive snow storms. 6-12 inches apparently, although a lot of that didn't really settle, or turned straight into sludge. It's funny - it's the first year in my life that it has snowed more in London than in New York. Today's snow meant that I got to leave work early and saw the second half of Arsenal - Liverpool in the pub (I missed the first half as the first two pubs I went to had their satelite signals blocked by the snow). A good result for Arsenal, and with Chelsea losing and ManUre drawing maybe we are back in the title race. We shall see over the next few weeks.
Next week will be good as Pants and Laura are coming to stay. I'm sure we'll have lots of fun with them here. Now that we are probably staying for longer means that you all have a much bigger window to come and stay with us! We love having visitors and our doors (and floors/sofas etc.) are always open.
Hope you're all having a great 2010 so far.
Love Tom x
Christmas and the New Year
Hi everybody,
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
The last month or so has been busy, so sorry to anybody who has checked back and seen no updates. We managed to send out lots of Christmas cards with the blog address on, and then didn't do any updates for ages.
We had an absolutely lovely Christmas. The boys really loved it. It was the first time that Sam really understood Christmas, and it was also the first time in eight years that Lyn and I had Christmas just the two of us. We've always had lovely times with my family or Lyn's, but to do it just our little family was nice - to start our own traditions etc.
We all got some lovely presents, so thanks to everybody who sent us them! Somehow the presents for the boys were all huge, so we'll definitely need to do some shipping when we come home (or sell lots of things on craigslist).
In the week after Christmas Lyn and I went to see Cirque du Soleil at Madison Square Gardens, which was really good. It was their Wintuk show, which was completely different to the show we had seen in London. Very urban, with bmx and skating tricks, as well as the more traditional tumbling, trapeze and acrobatics.
I also got to go to the last ever game at the Giants Stadium, to see the New York Jets against the Cincinatti Bengals. The Jets had to win to make the playoffs and they did, so it was a great atmosphere. The Jets then did exceptionally well, and almost made it to the superbowl, against all odds. It was bloody freezing though. I had my first tailgate party (there are no pubs near the grounds over here, as they are in the middle of nowhere, so people party in the carparks). We took lots of beer and snacks and drank out of the back of a hire car, in the -18 degree cold. Fortunately the guys next to us had a barbeque, which we warmed our hands up on. Out of the wind, in the stadium, it was only -12, so not too bad.... I have to say though that we gave Highbury a far better send off than they gave their place. It was named after their local rivals though, so I guess they didn't have too much love for it. Arsenal fans would no doubt burn the ground down if we had to play at "Totte*ham Stadium".
I'll probably leave it at that for now and try to write another blog in the next day or so. January has been great with Rachel staying for two weeks, and also a visit from Heather. The boys have got colds at the moment, and it's been pretty cold here (although the temperature for the American Football game was a rarity - it's often cold, but not usually worse than -5), so we've been swimming a lot, but not going out too much over the last few weeks.
Lyn is doing well, and the boys are lovely. Sam has almost completely mastered use of the toilet. It's been a long hard slog, but his success rate is nearly 100% now, so that's a big breakthrough, and means we have to do a lot less washing. Max is now bounding about and really enjoys chasing Sam, so that's quite a lot of fun!
Speak to you again soon,
Lots of love,
Tom
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