Fourth in a series of catch-up blogs...
One of the best things about joining the sailing club is it's a family membership, and the clubhouse is open to all the family. At the end of the summer and throughout Autumn we went out to the clubhouse a lot. The clubhouse ("William Wall") is a two story floating bar moored between Ellis Island and Liberty park. When it's open the launch boat leaves every 30mins from North Cove out to the boat. Sam, Max and Leo love going out there. The launch captain knows them and salutes them and they salute him back, and then we speed out across the harbour for a few drinks, snacks and maybe a bedtime story, before taking the boat back and putting the boys to sleep. The view looking back to Manhattan is fabulous and it's a great place to watch the sunset over Jersey.
Sam turned 6 at the end of August and loves his new bike. He also managed to make $100 by painting and selling stones and used the money to buy a second hand blackberry playbook from one of my colleagues. He uses his playbook to play angry birds and tetris, take photos and videos, check the weather and has read emails. At the beginning of September we had his birthday party in the local park with 20+ six year old boys running around like nutters. It was hard to control at times, but a lot of fun and he got some great presents from his friends.
In September his football league started and for his age group the team are named after Premier League teams. I had managed to persuade the league coordinator to give us Arsenal and I coached the team along with my friend Victor who is also an Arsenal season ticket holder abroad. Seeing Sam score on his Arsenal debut was a very proud day for me! We weren't the best team in the league but Sam scored a lot of goals and it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately the Hurricane damaged the football pitches and brought an early end to the season. We have now started up an indoor six a side team at Chelsea piers, where they have indoor astroturf pitches.
Another highlight of my year was seeing Andy Murray win the US Open. When rain on Saturday meant the final would be moved to Monday I managed to buy tickets for about £50 and I went to the game with Caroline. It was an incredible match which lasted five hours. The first set tie break alone lasted 25 minutes, the same time as Serena took to win the first set of her quarter-final. It was the first men's British grand slam win for 76 years and being there to watch British tennis history was great.
In October Lyn and I got a chance to sail on the club's flagship America II, which had sailed in the Americas Cup 25 years ago. It was a lot of fun and completely different sailing - the sail is so big that you have to use a grinder and gears to pull it across the boat to tack. We also got a babysitter a different day and were able to sail together on the normal club boats (J24s) and were lucky with the weather getting a windy day with glorious blue skies.
Hurricane Sandy hit New York pretty badly. We were in the evacuation zone but decided to stay put as we decided we were high enough we wouldn't get flooded and a storm with a 400 mile radius wasn't really worth running from. The basement of our building flooded and we lost power and running water for five days, but we couldn't really complain. The devastation for many people was terrible and probably half of the world's population live without power and running water. We were pretty well prepared with torches, jugs, bottles and pots full of drinking water and the bath full to use to flush toilets. After a few days things got a bit grim but fortunately our area wasn't badly hit - we are on a different grid from the rest of Downtown Manhattan so most buildings had power - and once our friends came back from evacuation they invited us round for food and showers. There is already quite a strong community feeling where we live, and Sandy really strengthened it, with buildings close by having food and drink in their lobbies for neighbours without power.
My mum has come to stay with us in December for Christmas and she was also here for Max's birthday which was really nice for them both. He had a lovely day and a great party, which we had in our apartment and was a lot calmer than Sam's. Max was so tired at the end of the day that he had taken himself to bed before 7pm! I had to work really hard in December doing the capital stress testing for the Government and this year they greatly increased the scope and number of variables, so until this weekend I didn't see my mum much, or Lyn and the boys. It is now so nice us just all relaxing at home and enjoying each other's company. We are having a lovely Christmas break and the boys are really looking forward to tomorrow. Merry Christmas everybody!
Photos from the autumn and winter are here, and here's a link to our Christmas video.
Best wishes for a wonderful Christmas from all of us to all of you!
Love from Tom, Lyn, Sam, Max and Leo. XXXXX
Tuesday, December 25, 2012
Family, friends, weddings, rain and the olympics
Hi everyone,
This is the third 2012 blog. This one is about our trip to UK from end of June to the beginning of August. We went to 2 weddings, saw the Olympics and saw lots of friends and family. It was definitely my favourite trip yet, despite a quite staggering amount of rain!
We flew into Heathrow in the morning of the 29th June, met Bob and Sue, had a wonderful well missed greasy spoon breakfast with proper tea and then to the park and played in the freezing rain. The we drive down to Exeter ready for Ben and Teren's wedding the next day. It was a beautiful, gloriously happy wedding and we met loads of Tom's friends from University that we had not seen for ages. We were still pretty jet lagged which luckily worked in our favour. The boys were still dancing the night away at 2 in the morning.
Next, we drove to Stroud, Tom flew back to New York and the boys and I spent a relaxing few days with Tom's Mum, Margaret. Then, the boys and I drove up to Lower Wallop farm, Shropshire where my sister Mandy lives with her partner and children. Sam and Ben were so so so excited to see each other and were inseparable pretty much the whole time we were in Wallop as well as getting up to all kinds of mischief together. Sam went to Ben's school for a week which he enjoyed. It must have been such a different experience for him compared to his school in Lower Manhattan.
It rained every day at least once while we were there. It made the farm look so green, luscious and beautiful. The leaves on the trees glistened and twinkled. My boys love mud, rain, rural pusuits and playing with their cousins. It was great for me to spend so much time with my sister. We had a brilliant time. They loved the cows, climbing trees, collecting sticks and stones, eating grains, playing with the dog, playing in castles, playing on the trampoline... Sam went pony riding for the first time and Leo started walking! One dryish day we even went to the beach in Aberdovey and had a wonderful day. Also, my friends Olivia and Anna came to stay with us for a few days with was lovely. One weekend, my family all came up to Wallop for a lovely family barbequeue. It was wonderful to see everyone and I was very touched that people made so much effort to cook, put up gazebos and travel long distances so that we could all spend such a great time together.
We spent a few lovely days in Birmingham with Mum, Joe and Joanne, despite the rain! Mum is very resourceful in finding ways to entertain little boys whatever the weather.
The first sunny day of our trip without any rain at all was the day before my brother James's wedding. Tom flew back from New York. It was a beautiful lovely fun wedding - all in Baggies colours! It was great getting to spend time with family, see relatives I hadn't seen for years and see my little brother get married to a wonderful woman. James and Claire had organised a bouncy castle that the kids played on for hours and hours!
Then we drove down to Stroud and the sun shone. We had a lovely few days going for walks, playing in the stream and generally enjoying ourselves. From Stroud, we drove down to Surrey, saw our Olympians zoom past us in the Olympic road race and spent some time with Emily and her family.
Finally, we drove down to Kent. We'd rented a house for a week big enough for people to stay with us and near to my brother's family. Tom's sister and Dad stayed with us for the whole week and various other friends came for a 1 or 2 nights in the week. I still felt that I got a chance to spend quite a bit of time with my brother's family. It was a fun week. One day, Rachel, Anna, Tom and I went up to Olympic Park to watch the 10m syncronised men's diving and women's water polo. It was really impressive and I felt very proud to be British. Another day a huge group of us took the little steam train to Dungeness. It felt a bit like we were puffing along to the end of the world. We met my brother's family when we got there. I love it there. The light is amazing and the wind reminds me that I'm alive!
We had an amazing trip. It was wonderful getting a chance to spend so much time with people that we love.
Here are some of our photos of the trip. Don't feel you need to look at them all - I got a bit carried away!
This is the third 2012 blog. This one is about our trip to UK from end of June to the beginning of August. We went to 2 weddings, saw the Olympics and saw lots of friends and family. It was definitely my favourite trip yet, despite a quite staggering amount of rain!
We flew into Heathrow in the morning of the 29th June, met Bob and Sue, had a wonderful well missed greasy spoon breakfast with proper tea and then to the park and played in the freezing rain. The we drive down to Exeter ready for Ben and Teren's wedding the next day. It was a beautiful, gloriously happy wedding and we met loads of Tom's friends from University that we had not seen for ages. We were still pretty jet lagged which luckily worked in our favour. The boys were still dancing the night away at 2 in the morning.
Next, we drove to Stroud, Tom flew back to New York and the boys and I spent a relaxing few days with Tom's Mum, Margaret. Then, the boys and I drove up to Lower Wallop farm, Shropshire where my sister Mandy lives with her partner and children. Sam and Ben were so so so excited to see each other and were inseparable pretty much the whole time we were in Wallop as well as getting up to all kinds of mischief together. Sam went to Ben's school for a week which he enjoyed. It must have been such a different experience for him compared to his school in Lower Manhattan.
It rained every day at least once while we were there. It made the farm look so green, luscious and beautiful. The leaves on the trees glistened and twinkled. My boys love mud, rain, rural pusuits and playing with their cousins. It was great for me to spend so much time with my sister. We had a brilliant time. They loved the cows, climbing trees, collecting sticks and stones, eating grains, playing with the dog, playing in castles, playing on the trampoline... Sam went pony riding for the first time and Leo started walking! One dryish day we even went to the beach in Aberdovey and had a wonderful day. Also, my friends Olivia and Anna came to stay with us for a few days with was lovely. One weekend, my family all came up to Wallop for a lovely family barbequeue. It was wonderful to see everyone and I was very touched that people made so much effort to cook, put up gazebos and travel long distances so that we could all spend such a great time together.
We spent a few lovely days in Birmingham with Mum, Joe and Joanne, despite the rain! Mum is very resourceful in finding ways to entertain little boys whatever the weather.
The first sunny day of our trip without any rain at all was the day before my brother James's wedding. Tom flew back from New York. It was a beautiful lovely fun wedding - all in Baggies colours! It was great getting to spend time with family, see relatives I hadn't seen for years and see my little brother get married to a wonderful woman. James and Claire had organised a bouncy castle that the kids played on for hours and hours!
Then we drove down to Stroud and the sun shone. We had a lovely few days going for walks, playing in the stream and generally enjoying ourselves. From Stroud, we drove down to Surrey, saw our Olympians zoom past us in the Olympic road race and spent some time with Emily and her family.
Finally, we drove down to Kent. We'd rented a house for a week big enough for people to stay with us and near to my brother's family. Tom's sister and Dad stayed with us for the whole week and various other friends came for a 1 or 2 nights in the week. I still felt that I got a chance to spend quite a bit of time with my brother's family. It was a fun week. One day, Rachel, Anna, Tom and I went up to Olympic Park to watch the 10m syncronised men's diving and women's water polo. It was really impressive and I felt very proud to be British. Another day a huge group of us took the little steam train to Dungeness. It felt a bit like we were puffing along to the end of the world. We met my brother's family when we got there. I love it there. The light is amazing and the wind reminds me that I'm alive!
We had an amazing trip. It was wonderful getting a chance to spend so much time with people that we love.
Here are some of our photos of the trip. Don't feel you need to look at them all - I got a bit carried away!
Monday, December 24, 2012
Spring 2012 in New York
The second in a series of catch-up blogs...
When we got back from Florida Bob came to stay for a couple of weeks. It was lovely to see him. He really enjoyed making pottery at the community centre with Max, reading a book to Sam's class at school and playing with Leo. One day he took Sam across to Liberty Park and to the Jersey science museum. Sam loved showing him the trains at Liberty Park and climbing them. Bob also took Max to Prospect Park Zoo. They really enjoyed watching the sealions together as they jumped up, caught fish and swam around.
Bob was also here for the start of Sam's first baseball season. Sam had really good coaches and learnt a lot. He opened the batting and scored the first run for his team, and really enjoyed the season. The were some really good kids on the team and the Downtown Athletics won most of their matches. At the end of the baseball season there was a league night out at Citi Field for a NY Mets game, and before the game started Sam got to walk around the pitch with the other kids in the league.
We visited Boston for Memorial Day bank holiday weekend. It was our first visit to Boston (my second as I had been when I was five). We did a lot of tourist stuff, walking round Harvard campus, walking along the Freedom trail to see the sights, and finding playgrounds along the way. On the Saturday night I went to see the Boston Celtics in a home playoff game. The Celtics have always been the basketball team I support and I have seen them in London, New York and Jersey, but never been to a home game. It was the 7th game in a best of seven playoff series, so the atmosphere was great and the Celtics won in a noisy Boston garden.
We also went to the Boston science museum, which is really good. We watched the lightening generating machine, which made big bolts of lightening jump between pillars. There was also a kids section with lots of games and activities for the boys, including one where you could test how fast you run, which Sam and Max loved. After the museum we had dinner at the Cheers bar, which was a definite highlight for Lyn. We left Boston on Monday and broke the journey up by stopping at Mystic (of Mystic Pizza film fame) and watched their memorial day parade.
This year we joined the Manhattan sailing club, which is based in North Cove, about five minutes walk from our front door. We had wanted to for a while and finally took the plunge this year. It has been amazing. I have sailed before and Lyn did the weekend long learn to sail course and got her ASA qualification. Most weekends Lyn and I would take it in turns to look after the boys while the other had a three hour break sailing on the river Hudson and in the NYC harbour. The boats are for 3-6 people and you just put your name on the list and go and sail with a club skipper. It's a great way to wind down as it's relaxing, but you have to be aware the whole time, so it takes your mind off everything else. And it's the first time that Lyn and I have really met people as ourselves, rather than as parents or as a colleague, since we've been in New York. It's so nice going out, improving a skill, and chatting to new and interesting people. I am now on the mentor program to become a club skipper and then I'd be able to take a boat out whenever I like. Hopefully I'll pass the test in May/June next year, so come and stay and I can take you sailing past the Statue of Liberty!
Another exciting thing in the Spring was when the NASA space shuttle Enterprise came to New York. It arrived on the back of a 747 and despite it flying right past our window Sam was the only one of us who saw it as he was on a field trip in the park. A week later it sailed up the river on a barge and Lyn and the boys all saw it.
Here are some photos of our spring.
Lots of love,
Tom x
When we got back from Florida Bob came to stay for a couple of weeks. It was lovely to see him. He really enjoyed making pottery at the community centre with Max, reading a book to Sam's class at school and playing with Leo. One day he took Sam across to Liberty Park and to the Jersey science museum. Sam loved showing him the trains at Liberty Park and climbing them. Bob also took Max to Prospect Park Zoo. They really enjoyed watching the sealions together as they jumped up, caught fish and swam around.
Bob was also here for the start of Sam's first baseball season. Sam had really good coaches and learnt a lot. He opened the batting and scored the first run for his team, and really enjoyed the season. The were some really good kids on the team and the Downtown Athletics won most of their matches. At the end of the baseball season there was a league night out at Citi Field for a NY Mets game, and before the game started Sam got to walk around the pitch with the other kids in the league.
We visited Boston for Memorial Day bank holiday weekend. It was our first visit to Boston (my second as I had been when I was five). We did a lot of tourist stuff, walking round Harvard campus, walking along the Freedom trail to see the sights, and finding playgrounds along the way. On the Saturday night I went to see the Boston Celtics in a home playoff game. The Celtics have always been the basketball team I support and I have seen them in London, New York and Jersey, but never been to a home game. It was the 7th game in a best of seven playoff series, so the atmosphere was great and the Celtics won in a noisy Boston garden.
We also went to the Boston science museum, which is really good. We watched the lightening generating machine, which made big bolts of lightening jump between pillars. There was also a kids section with lots of games and activities for the boys, including one where you could test how fast you run, which Sam and Max loved. After the museum we had dinner at the Cheers bar, which was a definite highlight for Lyn. We left Boston on Monday and broke the journey up by stopping at Mystic (of Mystic Pizza film fame) and watched their memorial day parade.
This year we joined the Manhattan sailing club, which is based in North Cove, about five minutes walk from our front door. We had wanted to for a while and finally took the plunge this year. It has been amazing. I have sailed before and Lyn did the weekend long learn to sail course and got her ASA qualification. Most weekends Lyn and I would take it in turns to look after the boys while the other had a three hour break sailing on the river Hudson and in the NYC harbour. The boats are for 3-6 people and you just put your name on the list and go and sail with a club skipper. It's a great way to wind down as it's relaxing, but you have to be aware the whole time, so it takes your mind off everything else. And it's the first time that Lyn and I have really met people as ourselves, rather than as parents or as a colleague, since we've been in New York. It's so nice going out, improving a skill, and chatting to new and interesting people. I am now on the mentor program to become a club skipper and then I'd be able to take a boat out whenever I like. Hopefully I'll pass the test in May/June next year, so come and stay and I can take you sailing past the Statue of Liberty!
Another exciting thing in the Spring was when the NASA space shuttle Enterprise came to New York. It arrived on the back of a 747 and despite it flying right past our window Sam was the only one of us who saw it as he was on a field trip in the park. A week later it sailed up the river on a barge and Lyn and the boys all saw it.
Here are some photos of our spring.
Lots of love,
Tom x
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Easter in Florida
The first in a series of catch-up blogs...
We went to Florida at Easter. It was a really nice holiday and a lot of fun. Lyn's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Garry who live in Canada have a timeshare there and they had us to stay, which was just fantastic. It was lovely to see them as we hadn't seen them for three years since our trip to Canada, and so kind of them to let us use one of their condos. The resort was beautiful, with a few pools, water slides and mini golf (as well as a proper golf course through the apartments for us to laugh at people hitting it into the water). We spent the first couple of days winding down, relaxing in the pool and catching up with Ruth and Garry. Ruth cooked us some lovely food and the boys were big fans of her cakes!
It was just outside Orlando and quite close to Disney. Lyn had been to Disney before and so wasn't that bothered and we decided that Max and Leo were too young, especially as Max doesn't really like rides. So Sam and I got a combo ticket for one day at the Magic Kingdom and one day at Universal. When I was a kid a lot of my friends went to Disney and I had been jealous. It was great fun and I felt like a kid again (which to be honest, is frequent feeling!). Sam was really brave and had been growing taller especially to be able to go on Space Mountain in the complete darkness. We went straight there when the gates opened and then spent 13 hours in the park to watch the fireworks. Sam really like Splash Mountain and we got soaked a number of times through the day!
After a couple more days relaxing at the resort with Ruth and her family she looked after Leo while Lyn, Sam, Max and I went on an airboat over the everglades. It was great speeding over water and reeds and then stopping to see interesting birds and alligators. Sam fished some giant snail shells out of the water and Max tried to catch some fish. There's a link to a short video on the airboat below.
The next day Sam and I went to Universal Islands of Adventures, with Ruth, Abe, Dinah and Autumn, who was Sam's age. Our favourite ride was Spiderman which a 3d cartoon rollercoaster. I think we went on it more than 10 times. Sam enjoyed going on the Dr Suess rides with Autumn and we got soaked again on the water rides. Ruth also looked after Sam and Autumn for a bit while Abe, Dinah and I went on the huge roller coasters which were pretty amazing.
From Orlando we also went to Cape Canavaral to spend a day with the astronauts. Unfortunately the shuttle program has recently been closed down but it was really interesting to spend a day there and see the launch pads, mission controls and a shuttle in the distance.
After another couple of days at the pool we drove down to Fort Myers and stayed for a couple of nights on the beach. We had found a nice hotel on the beachfront and played on the beach but we were swimming in the sea when we saw loads of stingray swimming close by. Thanks to Octonauts the boys know more about sea creatures than we do, and apparently they have a bad sting, so we had to stop swimming! Instead we went to Sanibel island the next day which is a nature reserve and had beautiful water. Fort Myers is on the west coast so it's the Bay of Mexico which meant the water was calm and warm. Max swam in the sea for the first time and loved it.
After Fort Myers we headed to the Everglades National Park. The National Parks are probably our favourite thing about America. This one is completely different to others, but still organized really well and made brilliantly accessible. On the first day we rented a boat and drove it out through the mangroves to a tiny island called Indian Key. It had a curved sandy spit and lots of mangrove trees. When we arrived there were two other boats there but later in the day we were the only people on the island. It was amazing to beach the boat on an island and explore and play on it. We had a lovely day, and for the boys it was a real adventure. In the everglades we also went to Shark Valley to see some great wildlife - more gators, beautiful birds and turtles, but no sharks. The terrain there was meadowlands as it was the end of the dry season. As florida has become more populated there is a water shortage and less flows into the swamps and down through the peninsula. The National Park is at the southern end and they are starting a lot of projects to protect the natural environment there.
The Everglades are such a beautiful and diverse area, and with different wildlife to elsewhere in the US. After a couple of days in the National Park we headed to Miami for a night at the Savoy hotel on South Beach. We decided to treat ourselves and had a pool side room two minutes walk from the beach. We swam in the sea once but spent most of the time playing in the swimming pools at the hotel. We also had a fun night out people watching on the beautiful art deco strip, eating a nice meal while Lyn and the boys watched me drink cocktails bigger than my head. After another day at the pool we drove back to Orlando in the evening.
Back at Ruth's we had one last day with her, Gary, Rebecca and James before getting an early flight back home to NYC. A great big thanks to Ruth and her family for having us to stay and giving us the chance of a wonderful holiday in Florida!
Here are some photos and the video from the airboat.
Tom x
We went to Florida at Easter. It was a really nice holiday and a lot of fun. Lyn's Aunt Ruth and Uncle Garry who live in Canada have a timeshare there and they had us to stay, which was just fantastic. It was lovely to see them as we hadn't seen them for three years since our trip to Canada, and so kind of them to let us use one of their condos. The resort was beautiful, with a few pools, water slides and mini golf (as well as a proper golf course through the apartments for us to laugh at people hitting it into the water). We spent the first couple of days winding down, relaxing in the pool and catching up with Ruth and Garry. Ruth cooked us some lovely food and the boys were big fans of her cakes!
It was just outside Orlando and quite close to Disney. Lyn had been to Disney before and so wasn't that bothered and we decided that Max and Leo were too young, especially as Max doesn't really like rides. So Sam and I got a combo ticket for one day at the Magic Kingdom and one day at Universal. When I was a kid a lot of my friends went to Disney and I had been jealous. It was great fun and I felt like a kid again (which to be honest, is frequent feeling!). Sam was really brave and had been growing taller especially to be able to go on Space Mountain in the complete darkness. We went straight there when the gates opened and then spent 13 hours in the park to watch the fireworks. Sam really like Splash Mountain and we got soaked a number of times through the day!
After a couple more days relaxing at the resort with Ruth and her family she looked after Leo while Lyn, Sam, Max and I went on an airboat over the everglades. It was great speeding over water and reeds and then stopping to see interesting birds and alligators. Sam fished some giant snail shells out of the water and Max tried to catch some fish. There's a link to a short video on the airboat below.
The next day Sam and I went to Universal Islands of Adventures, with Ruth, Abe, Dinah and Autumn, who was Sam's age. Our favourite ride was Spiderman which a 3d cartoon rollercoaster. I think we went on it more than 10 times. Sam enjoyed going on the Dr Suess rides with Autumn and we got soaked again on the water rides. Ruth also looked after Sam and Autumn for a bit while Abe, Dinah and I went on the huge roller coasters which were pretty amazing.
From Orlando we also went to Cape Canavaral to spend a day with the astronauts. Unfortunately the shuttle program has recently been closed down but it was really interesting to spend a day there and see the launch pads, mission controls and a shuttle in the distance.
After another couple of days at the pool we drove down to Fort Myers and stayed for a couple of nights on the beach. We had found a nice hotel on the beachfront and played on the beach but we were swimming in the sea when we saw loads of stingray swimming close by. Thanks to Octonauts the boys know more about sea creatures than we do, and apparently they have a bad sting, so we had to stop swimming! Instead we went to Sanibel island the next day which is a nature reserve and had beautiful water. Fort Myers is on the west coast so it's the Bay of Mexico which meant the water was calm and warm. Max swam in the sea for the first time and loved it.
After Fort Myers we headed to the Everglades National Park. The National Parks are probably our favourite thing about America. This one is completely different to others, but still organized really well and made brilliantly accessible. On the first day we rented a boat and drove it out through the mangroves to a tiny island called Indian Key. It had a curved sandy spit and lots of mangrove trees. When we arrived there were two other boats there but later in the day we were the only people on the island. It was amazing to beach the boat on an island and explore and play on it. We had a lovely day, and for the boys it was a real adventure. In the everglades we also went to Shark Valley to see some great wildlife - more gators, beautiful birds and turtles, but no sharks. The terrain there was meadowlands as it was the end of the dry season. As florida has become more populated there is a water shortage and less flows into the swamps and down through the peninsula. The National Park is at the southern end and they are starting a lot of projects to protect the natural environment there.
The Everglades are such a beautiful and diverse area, and with different wildlife to elsewhere in the US. After a couple of days in the National Park we headed to Miami for a night at the Savoy hotel on South Beach. We decided to treat ourselves and had a pool side room two minutes walk from the beach. We swam in the sea once but spent most of the time playing in the swimming pools at the hotel. We also had a fun night out people watching on the beautiful art deco strip, eating a nice meal while Lyn and the boys watched me drink cocktails bigger than my head. After another day at the pool we drove back to Orlando in the evening.
Back at Ruth's we had one last day with her, Gary, Rebecca and James before getting an early flight back home to NYC. A great big thanks to Ruth and her family for having us to stay and giving us the chance of a wonderful holiday in Florida!
Here are some photos and the video from the airboat.
Tom x
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Early 2012
Hi everybody!
Hope you are all having a good 2012. We have been enjoying ourselves since our last blog. We had a very nice Christmas. Thanks for all the presents! It was really nice to have some time at home together. Lyn and I also celebrated being together for 10 years with a day out on the town - walking around the city, drinking a glass of Champagne, going to the cinema and having a nice meal.
Sam is now really settled into school and really enjoying it. Max has grown up a lot recently and is making friends and tearing around the playgrounds. And Leo is now crawling around and hardly ever stops smiling.
This winter was by far the mildest since we've been here. It's only snowed three times and one of those was back in October. We've been joined in New York by Caroline (one of my Sussex Uni friends) and her boyfriend Nicholas. It's really nice having them here and Lyn and I have both enjoyed nights out with them. We also all went to the circus which was great. Leo really loved the lights and music.
We also had Lyn's sister Joanne and her boyfriend Dave staying with us. It was great having them here and they crammed an enormous amount into their 9 days! We went to museums, ice skating in central park, a broadway play, an ice hockey match as well as numerous playgrounds. The boys loved playing Angry Birds and Cut the Rope with them in the mornings and they enjoyed the NYC nightlife (and beer pong)!
We've put some photos of early 2012 up on our flickr site here
You probably saw Lyn's appearance in the New York Times. She had a photographer following her around for a couple of hours and you can see a selection of the photos here
Finally here are a couple of videos on youtube:
Lots of love, Tom, Lyn, Sam, Max and Leo xxxxx
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
A long overdue blog
Hi everyone,
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It's been ages since our last blog. This having 3 little boys lark is proving to be pretty time consuming and exhausting as well as obviously a complete joy. Leo's 6 months now and is sitting up, playing, swimming and being very very cute. Sam has started Kindergarton and is doing very well. Max is growing up fast. He's now 3 and has really embraced his role as a big brother. It's so lovely to see. We're used to Max being the little one and here he is looking after Leo.
We'll give you a summary of the last 6 months and then you can look at the photos. If you click on 'show info' on the slideshow, you can see a caption explaining the photo.
We've had loads of lovely visitors, I had my 40th birthday, we went to England, came back and had more lovely visitors, the boys have been growing up and Tom and I have been very tired. Poor Tom has been working extremely hard at work as well as doing all the home stuff.
After Leo was born, we were very lucky to have a stream of lovely visitors who came to help out. Rachel came for 3 weeks to look after the boys while I was in labour, then my Mum(Sybil) and Joe came and then Tom's Mum came and spent my birthday with us. Anna was in new york for that time as well. Then just before we came to England, my old colleagues Lynne and Brendan came for the night. It all seems like a bit of dream looking back but a very happy one. It was so nice having so many loved ones around as we were all getting used to having an extra family member and not much sleep.
My 40th birthday was lovely. Tom compiled a happy birthday video with little films from lots of people I love. I've watched it about 200 times. It's wonderful. Thanks ever so much to everyone who contributed to it. After watching my video and opening my presents, we played mini golf. I had a great day.
Photos of the summer, which you may have already seen, are here
We went to UK at the end of July. We had a fantastic time. It was great seeing people, although I wished it was for longer. It was prolonged by a couple of days, thanks to Tropical Storm Irene blowing its way through New York. It meant that Sam got the chance to spend his 5th birthday with his Granny, Grandad and Rachel, as well as having a birthday party with all his cousins a couple of days before. This made up for the fact that on his birthday most of his presents were the other side of the Atlantic! He got them a few days late when we finally got home, and then had a birthday party in New York with his friends. He managed to keep his birthday going for weeks!
Photos of our three weeks in England are here
Shortly after returning from Blighty, Doctor and Kim came to see us. It was really nice to see them and they were here for quite a historic event - the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Living a block away from the World Trade Center site means that a lot of our neighbours were extremely affected by 9/11. It obviously had a big effect on so many people and so it was an emotional time here. People were pleased that the memorial was opened and they now have somewhere to focus their grief. The security was like we've never experienced before - all the roads and pavements were closed and we weren't allowed out without proof of residence (which Doctor and Kim didn't have). There was also a warship parked outside our back garden. Never let it be said that New York don't take their policing seriously.
Sam started Kindergarten, which was a big step for him, as last year he was only at school in the afternoons. Now he's in proper school with lunch in the hall, playing in the playground and full days. He knew a few kids in his class from last year, but they split them up across the four classes, so he now has lots of new friends. There are 100 kids in his year at school and he seems to know them all! It took him a couple of weeks to settle in but now he loves it. His teacher Dahlia is really lovely and enthusiatic and they've been on four trips already, including to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I helped on. It was lovely going on a school trip not as a teacher. We went on a proper yellow Simpsons type school bus - very exciting. The education system is a lot less academic here than in UK and I do wish that Sam was stretched more - but there's a big emphasis on community and respecting others which is more important. It would be great if they could do both though. Unfortunately he's starting to get a bit of an American accent, so it might be time to move on...!
Sam has also enjoyed his first season in the Downtown Soccer League and has been scoring goals for fun. The league is really well organised with over 100 kids in his age group. The play little five a side games, although sometime some of the kids are on the sidelines so it's 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3. Tom has been looking forward to this since Sam was born and is so proud seeing him run up the wing and put the ball in the back of the net. He has been coaching the kids alongside the professional coaches and has also played a couple of 11 a side coaches' games.
At the end of September we went to stay with for a weekend with our friends in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Daniel was in Sam's class last year and Lyn is friends with his mum Denise. They moved out of the city in the summer. It was really nice to see them and we had a lovely weekend in surburban America playing in the garden, having a barbeque and going to a theme park. Sam and Max enjoyed driving Daniel and Emma's little electric cars and both Lyn and I really enjoyed taking Sam on his first proper rollercoaster ride.
Photos of the first half of Autumn are here
Occupy Wall Street has been really interesting, especially as it was just up our street and Tom passed every day on the way to work. As far as I am aware, from talking to various people, New Yorkers don't really go in for mass protests, especially about anything American. From my perspective, New Yorkers seem far too positive, stoic and patriotic to ever complain. Also they all work so hard, I can't imagine they ever really have time. I think Occupy Wall St was a very positive step that normal New Yorkers were taking a stand. A lot of the protesters went to work every day and then came back to protest. The movement seemed very popular and teachers took kids there for school trips.
There was probably about 200 or so permanent protesters with their tents and banners and about 1000 police and several whirring police and media helicopters hovering above all day. It felt like a very peaceful community. My only real complaint was that there was such a myriad of issues being raised there was no single argument. I think that let the powers that be off the hook. The camp was eventually broken up by the police because of disruption to local residents. The only thing that disrupted us was being kept awake all night by police helicopters when they decided to evict them at 2am.
Leo is now seven months and is able to play with toys and entertain himself for a bit longer now, which is nice. He is a lovely little boy and adores his big brothers. If he could just start sleeping through the night we might be able to recover some of our sleep debt! Lyn and I are so tired at the moment that it's really hard to keep up with housework and everything else that needs doing (that's our excuse and we're sticking to it!)
Last Friday was Max's third birthday and we had a nice time. It was also family friday at Sam's school, so we got up, opened presents and then all went to Sam's classroom to be shown the fruits of their term long apple project. It's always great to go into Sam's school, which seems his own little world. Later his friend Liam came round and they had cupcakes. Lyn put candles in Max's and he freaked out - "Why did you give me the one that's on fire!" He then blew them out and felt like a heroic fireman saving us all. On Saturday Paul came round and we celebrated Max's birthday (and this time he was ready for the candles...) It's amazing to think he's now as old as Sam was when we moved here. He loves his presents, so a big thank you to those of you who sent things for him.
Photos of the second half of Autumn are here
Christmas is nearly here and we have two very excited boys. I'm really looking forward to 10 days off work and it's going to be really nice to just all be together. Sorry we didn't get around to Christmas cards this year. If you haven't already seen it we've sung you a Christmas message - the link's at the top of this blog. Also sorry that we haven't really been in touch with most of you during the last six months. Please look out for us on Skype over Christmas, it would be lovely to talk to you all.
As well as all the photos, we've also uploaded a few cute videos of the boys to youtube. They are all less than 30 seconds so won't take long to download:
Max blowing out his birthday candles last weekend
Sam and Max driving a Police Car
Leo playing peepo
Sam and Max rollerblading and scooting by the River Hudson
Max is Buzz Lightyear
Batman and Buzz at Halloween
Max loves techno and dances like his dad
Sam learnt to ride his bike on Governor's Island this year
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and lots of love from us all!
Tom, Lyn, Sam, Max and Leo xxxxx
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It's been ages since our last blog. This having 3 little boys lark is proving to be pretty time consuming and exhausting as well as obviously a complete joy. Leo's 6 months now and is sitting up, playing, swimming and being very very cute. Sam has started Kindergarton and is doing very well. Max is growing up fast. He's now 3 and has really embraced his role as a big brother. It's so lovely to see. We're used to Max being the little one and here he is looking after Leo.
We'll give you a summary of the last 6 months and then you can look at the photos. If you click on 'show info' on the slideshow, you can see a caption explaining the photo.
We've had loads of lovely visitors, I had my 40th birthday, we went to England, came back and had more lovely visitors, the boys have been growing up and Tom and I have been very tired. Poor Tom has been working extremely hard at work as well as doing all the home stuff.
After Leo was born, we were very lucky to have a stream of lovely visitors who came to help out. Rachel came for 3 weeks to look after the boys while I was in labour, then my Mum(Sybil) and Joe came and then Tom's Mum came and spent my birthday with us. Anna was in new york for that time as well. Then just before we came to England, my old colleagues Lynne and Brendan came for the night. It all seems like a bit of dream looking back but a very happy one. It was so nice having so many loved ones around as we were all getting used to having an extra family member and not much sleep.
My 40th birthday was lovely. Tom compiled a happy birthday video with little films from lots of people I love. I've watched it about 200 times. It's wonderful. Thanks ever so much to everyone who contributed to it. After watching my video and opening my presents, we played mini golf. I had a great day.
Photos of the summer, which you may have already seen, are here
We went to UK at the end of July. We had a fantastic time. It was great seeing people, although I wished it was for longer. It was prolonged by a couple of days, thanks to Tropical Storm Irene blowing its way through New York. It meant that Sam got the chance to spend his 5th birthday with his Granny, Grandad and Rachel, as well as having a birthday party with all his cousins a couple of days before. This made up for the fact that on his birthday most of his presents were the other side of the Atlantic! He got them a few days late when we finally got home, and then had a birthday party in New York with his friends. He managed to keep his birthday going for weeks!
Photos of our three weeks in England are here
Shortly after returning from Blighty, Doctor and Kim came to see us. It was really nice to see them and they were here for quite a historic event - the 10th anniversary of 9/11. Living a block away from the World Trade Center site means that a lot of our neighbours were extremely affected by 9/11. It obviously had a big effect on so many people and so it was an emotional time here. People were pleased that the memorial was opened and they now have somewhere to focus their grief. The security was like we've never experienced before - all the roads and pavements were closed and we weren't allowed out without proof of residence (which Doctor and Kim didn't have). There was also a warship parked outside our back garden. Never let it be said that New York don't take their policing seriously.
Sam started Kindergarten, which was a big step for him, as last year he was only at school in the afternoons. Now he's in proper school with lunch in the hall, playing in the playground and full days. He knew a few kids in his class from last year, but they split them up across the four classes, so he now has lots of new friends. There are 100 kids in his year at school and he seems to know them all! It took him a couple of weeks to settle in but now he loves it. His teacher Dahlia is really lovely and enthusiatic and they've been on four trips already, including to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I helped on. It was lovely going on a school trip not as a teacher. We went on a proper yellow Simpsons type school bus - very exciting. The education system is a lot less academic here than in UK and I do wish that Sam was stretched more - but there's a big emphasis on community and respecting others which is more important. It would be great if they could do both though. Unfortunately he's starting to get a bit of an American accent, so it might be time to move on...!
Sam has also enjoyed his first season in the Downtown Soccer League and has been scoring goals for fun. The league is really well organised with over 100 kids in his age group. The play little five a side games, although sometime some of the kids are on the sidelines so it's 1v1, 2v2 or 3v3. Tom has been looking forward to this since Sam was born and is so proud seeing him run up the wing and put the ball in the back of the net. He has been coaching the kids alongside the professional coaches and has also played a couple of 11 a side coaches' games.
At the end of September we went to stay with for a weekend with our friends in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Daniel was in Sam's class last year and Lyn is friends with his mum Denise. They moved out of the city in the summer. It was really nice to see them and we had a lovely weekend in surburban America playing in the garden, having a barbeque and going to a theme park. Sam and Max enjoyed driving Daniel and Emma's little electric cars and both Lyn and I really enjoyed taking Sam on his first proper rollercoaster ride.
Photos of the first half of Autumn are here
Occupy Wall Street has been really interesting, especially as it was just up our street and Tom passed every day on the way to work. As far as I am aware, from talking to various people, New Yorkers don't really go in for mass protests, especially about anything American. From my perspective, New Yorkers seem far too positive, stoic and patriotic to ever complain. Also they all work so hard, I can't imagine they ever really have time. I think Occupy Wall St was a very positive step that normal New Yorkers were taking a stand. A lot of the protesters went to work every day and then came back to protest. The movement seemed very popular and teachers took kids there for school trips.
There was probably about 200 or so permanent protesters with their tents and banners and about 1000 police and several whirring police and media helicopters hovering above all day. It felt like a very peaceful community. My only real complaint was that there was such a myriad of issues being raised there was no single argument. I think that let the powers that be off the hook. The camp was eventually broken up by the police because of disruption to local residents. The only thing that disrupted us was being kept awake all night by police helicopters when they decided to evict them at 2am.
Leo is now seven months and is able to play with toys and entertain himself for a bit longer now, which is nice. He is a lovely little boy and adores his big brothers. If he could just start sleeping through the night we might be able to recover some of our sleep debt! Lyn and I are so tired at the moment that it's really hard to keep up with housework and everything else that needs doing (that's our excuse and we're sticking to it!)
Last Friday was Max's third birthday and we had a nice time. It was also family friday at Sam's school, so we got up, opened presents and then all went to Sam's classroom to be shown the fruits of their term long apple project. It's always great to go into Sam's school, which seems his own little world. Later his friend Liam came round and they had cupcakes. Lyn put candles in Max's and he freaked out - "Why did you give me the one that's on fire!" He then blew them out and felt like a heroic fireman saving us all. On Saturday Paul came round and we celebrated Max's birthday (and this time he was ready for the candles...) It's amazing to think he's now as old as Sam was when we moved here. He loves his presents, so a big thank you to those of you who sent things for him.
Photos of the second half of Autumn are here
Christmas is nearly here and we have two very excited boys. I'm really looking forward to 10 days off work and it's going to be really nice to just all be together. Sorry we didn't get around to Christmas cards this year. If you haven't already seen it we've sung you a Christmas message - the link's at the top of this blog. Also sorry that we haven't really been in touch with most of you during the last six months. Please look out for us on Skype over Christmas, it would be lovely to talk to you all.
As well as all the photos, we've also uploaded a few cute videos of the boys to youtube. They are all less than 30 seconds so won't take long to download:
Max blowing out his birthday candles last weekend
Sam and Max driving a Police Car
Leo playing peepo
Sam and Max rollerblading and scooting by the River Hudson
Max is Buzz Lightyear
Batman and Buzz at Halloween
Max loves techno and dances like his dad
Sam learnt to ride his bike on Governor's Island this year
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and lots of love from us all!
Tom, Lyn, Sam, Max and Leo xxxxx
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Leo Bollen
Leo Bollen was born on Thursday 19th May at 17:10 (22:10 GMT). He weighs 8lbs 13oz and is 21 1/4" tall (what's that in cm?).
Mum and baby are both doing well. Leo has met his big brothers and they are very cute together.
There are some photos on our flickr site and we'll get some more up there soon. www.flickr.com/lyntom
Mum and baby are both doing well. Leo has met his big brothers and they are very cute together.
There are some photos on our flickr site and we'll get some more up there soon. www.flickr.com/lyntom
Friday, May 13, 2011
Spring in New York
Hello everybody,
Rachel is here and we are waiting for Leo's arrival. The due date is today, but so far there have been no signs of him making his debut appearance in the world. When he comes we will try to text you all, but keep checking back here and we'll get some stats and photos up as soon as possible. On the right you can sign up as a follower of the blog, and then you'll get an instant email when there's any news.
We've been enjoying the last few weeks as spring finally arrived. Spring here seems to last only a few weeks, it's cold/snowy/rainy and then suddenly the flowers come out and the temperature shoots up into the 20s. Last year it came a lot earlier, so we thought that was the norm.
We had a nice Easter, with three easter egg hunts for the boys - one at Sam's school, one here, and one put on by Maria, our lovely teenage neighbour and babysitter. We also got some free tickets to go and watch a New York Mets baseball game with Paul. We got on the big screen twice, the boys got a baseball each from one of the coaches, and Sam and Max met Mr Met.
We had a lot of fun at the Tribeca family festival watching some BMX tricks, playing with bubbles, bouncy castles and baseballs, and seeing some wonderful acrobats.
Rachel has arrived and it is lovely having her here. Sam and Max are really excited and have been showing off their swimming, puzzle making and climbing. Since we got back from Mexico Sam's swimming has really taken off. It's amazing how fast he learns. Three months ago he didn't have the confidence to swim more than two metres, and now he's swimming six feet down to get rings from the bottom of the deep end. Rachel has an underwater camera so we have some amazing photos.
Here's the link to look at pictures from our last couple of months. Check back soon for some photos of baby Leo.
Hope to speak to you soon,
Tom x
Friday, April 22, 2011
Super Sam and Magic Max go Bananas!
A story by Sam Bollen
Super Sam and Magic Max were in their bedroom sleeping. Morning came and they woke up and went to school. After school they had ice cream and as they were eating it Sam’s hand started to vibrate.
“Hello, Super Sam and Magic Max, how can we help you?”
A strange voice said, “It's bananas! Every time we pick a banana fire comes out of the banana”.
Super Sam said, “Ok. We’re coming to help”.
Super Sam and Magic Max flew through the sky until they saw people picking bananas. As they were flying over they saw a big fire. They flew down to the burning bananas and they said, “Give all the bananas to us please”.
And then they brushed and combed the bananas and the fire stuck to the Magic Max’s magic hairbrush so they weren’t dangerous anymore. Super Sam and Magic Max gave the bananas back to the people and the fire didn’t come out of them anymore, so they could all eat the bananas happily.
The people said thank you to Super Sam and Magic Max. Super Sam and Magic Max said, “That’s no problem. Can we please take some bananas for our monkey friends?”
Super Sam and Magic Max flew to Mexico and gave bananas to all the monkeys in Mexico. They flew so fast around Mexico that they were faster than a plane. In fact they were even faster than Father Christmas delivering his presents. They dropped one banana to every monkey and then all the monkeys met together and played catch with the bananas.
Super Sam and Magic Max took the last two bananas back to New York to eat with their ice cream. But when they got back to New York mummy had eaten all of their ice cream. Mummy got them a new ice cream and they sat in the sun eating it all up!
Thursday, March 31, 2011
David Rocastle remembered
Today marks the 10 year anniversary of the death of David Rocastle, my all time favourite Arsenal player. He played on the right wing, so when we were attacking the Clock End he was always right in front of where I would stand in the Junior Gunners section. I can clearly remember being a twelve year old there for Arsenal vs. Middlesbrough in 1988. I was right on the touchline and Rocky got the ball in front of me, before beating about seven players and scoring off the post. One of my favourite ever goals. He was my idol and I would spend hours trying to copy his tricks. My favourite was the stepover dragback that he did time and again in front of me, always fooling the defender.
The real reason he was loved so much was his relationship with the fans. The success never went to his head and he always went out of his way to give back to the supporters. When I used to wait in front of the marble halls for autographs he would sign every last one, and chat while doing so. One half term at Arsenal Soccer School we had a trip to the training ground and met the players, and he talked to every single kid. He was a lovely man, and a great player.
Oh Rocky, Rocky! Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocastle!
Depending on your settings you might not see the full screen, so here's a link to the video on youtube.
The real reason he was loved so much was his relationship with the fans. The success never went to his head and he always went out of his way to give back to the supporters. When I used to wait in front of the marble halls for autographs he would sign every last one, and chat while doing so. One half term at Arsenal Soccer School we had a trip to the training ground and met the players, and he talked to every single kid. He was a lovely man, and a great player.
Oh Rocky, Rocky! Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocky, Rocastle!
Depending on your settings you might not see the full screen, so here's a link to the video on youtube.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Mexico
Hello everybody,
We had a lovely holiday in Mexico. It was great to get away from the New York winter and warm up a bit. New York is very cold in the winter and our apartment isn't very insulated. The cold wind comes straight off the river and right through the windows. Going away seemed to mark the end of winter and it was noticably less cold when we returned. March is a strange month here though. Last year the weather forecast oscilated between warm, snowy and floods. This year has been much the same. Last friday it was 25 degrees, but then on Wednesday it snowed!
With the new baby coming along in May we had decided it would be a perfect time for a beach holiday. Little babies and beaches don't mix particularly well, but Sam and Max love the sand, the waves and swimming pools too. We were considering a trip to Mexico, or at least somewhere warm, and then a great deal popped into my inbox and we bought it as our Christmas present to each other.
We went to Cancun for 10 days to a hotel right on the beach. It had beautiful swimming pools, gorgeous looking sea and was right at the bottom of the cancun strip, so far enough away from the really touristy part. We spent most days swimming, lazing around and playing on the beach. It was warm, but not too hot, and there was always a wind coming in off the sea to cool us down. Sam loved the whirlpools, Max loved swimming after his football in the pool, and Lyn and I just loved spending lots of time all together, relaxing. We hadn't had a relaxing beach holiday in about seven years. All of our recent holidays have been exploring interesting places and have had either a lot of time on public transport (pre-kids) or in a car (post-kids). We've seen some amazing places, but it was really nice to just chill out for once.
Having said that we did hire a car for a few days. I had wanted to visit Mayan pyramids for a long time, and the trip to Chichen Itza was amazing. It is such a beautiful, perfect pyramid. I find it incredible that people on either sides of the world decided to make pyramids in days apparently before world travel. Both the Mayan and the Egyptian pyramids are beautiful, and very clever (mathematically, astronomically and logistically) but they are also very different. The settings are different - desert (on the edge of one of the world's biggest cities) vs. cleared jungle miles from anywhere, the purposes are different, the theology is different and the designs are different. But I could sit and stare at them for ages, not alone in finding beauty in perfect geometry.
On another day we drove to Coba, which was one of the biggest Mayan cities in its day. Most of the ruins are today lost in the jungle, but the largest parts remain, spread out over several kilometres. Coba had two large pyramids, one of which at 42 metres high is taller than Chichen Itza's. Although not as well preserved as Chichen Itza you are allowed to climb to the top. It was not an easy climb, especially for Max (although Sam raced ahead), but getting to the top was amazing. From the top you could see for miles around, looking out over the jungle. While we were there we had a drink, watched the iguanas and witnessed a marriage proposal. The climb back down was even harder, especially for a pregnant Lyn in her flip-flops and dress that kept blowing up in the wind! Fortunately we had hired a tricycle to take us back the two kilometres to the car park, stopping off along the way to look at some other smaller ruins. The Mayans played a ball game that seemed to be a cross between football and basketball (except the losers were sacrificed, or the winners, depending on which historian you believe) and we saw some courts, as well as a beautiful observatory.
After leaving the site we found a really nice roadside cafe where we had some of the nicest food of the holiday and then relaxed in their hammocks. On the way back we stopped off at Tulum and saw the Mayan ruins on the cliffs above the sea. This is where I would have lived if I had been a Mayan king. Right on the coast, with my temple looking out over the waves...
Our other great day out was a visit to a crocodile farm and spider monkey sanctuary. We held young crocodiles, stroked snakes and fed wild monkeys. Spider monkeys are the monkeys with big stong tails which are almost like a fifth arm. They have always been Lyn and my favourites at London Zoo and these were free in the wild, hanging out at the sanctuary. We had a small bag of bananas and carrots to feed them, and they would follow us around for a while. At one point I was carrying Max and a monkey took his hat off his head! This gave Max his favourite story, and you will no doubt hear him say 'the monkey took my at'!
After catching a bus back to downtown Cancun we went to a party restaurant with live music, dancers and loads of skeletons. The waiters carried everything on their heads and juggled the condiments. Every so often there was a little skit and one time Sam was invited to chase a burglar around the restaurant and bash him with a stick! Sam is really into bad guys at the moment so he threw himself into the part. We all danced the tequila song and Sam got a dance from a beautiful waitress. On the way back to the bus we crossed a square where they were renting miniature cars to local kids and the boys had a drive - Sam on a dune buggy and Max in a convertable mini. Sam drove really well and even managed to reverse park. Max thought he was driving, but I had a remote control!
We spent the rest of the time at and around the hotel. At the beginning of our stay Lyn was recognised by the lady who did her make-up at our wedding. This was very impressive as they'd only met twice, over two years ago. It was a really nice surprise to meet people from London. Ronit had a daughter who was Sam's age and they played a lot together. Most nights we all went to dinner together and the kids entertained themselves. They both went to the hotel kids club as well, so Sam was very happy. His first holiday romance!
We had a lovely holiday and Mexico is definitely somewhere we'd go back to. The people were really friendly, the food was good, the setting was beautiful and the weather was great.
Here are some photos for you to enjoy.
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max x
We had a lovely holiday in Mexico. It was great to get away from the New York winter and warm up a bit. New York is very cold in the winter and our apartment isn't very insulated. The cold wind comes straight off the river and right through the windows. Going away seemed to mark the end of winter and it was noticably less cold when we returned. March is a strange month here though. Last year the weather forecast oscilated between warm, snowy and floods. This year has been much the same. Last friday it was 25 degrees, but then on Wednesday it snowed!
With the new baby coming along in May we had decided it would be a perfect time for a beach holiday. Little babies and beaches don't mix particularly well, but Sam and Max love the sand, the waves and swimming pools too. We were considering a trip to Mexico, or at least somewhere warm, and then a great deal popped into my inbox and we bought it as our Christmas present to each other.
We went to Cancun for 10 days to a hotel right on the beach. It had beautiful swimming pools, gorgeous looking sea and was right at the bottom of the cancun strip, so far enough away from the really touristy part. We spent most days swimming, lazing around and playing on the beach. It was warm, but not too hot, and there was always a wind coming in off the sea to cool us down. Sam loved the whirlpools, Max loved swimming after his football in the pool, and Lyn and I just loved spending lots of time all together, relaxing. We hadn't had a relaxing beach holiday in about seven years. All of our recent holidays have been exploring interesting places and have had either a lot of time on public transport (pre-kids) or in a car (post-kids). We've seen some amazing places, but it was really nice to just chill out for once.
Having said that we did hire a car for a few days. I had wanted to visit Mayan pyramids for a long time, and the trip to Chichen Itza was amazing. It is such a beautiful, perfect pyramid. I find it incredible that people on either sides of the world decided to make pyramids in days apparently before world travel. Both the Mayan and the Egyptian pyramids are beautiful, and very clever (mathematically, astronomically and logistically) but they are also very different. The settings are different - desert (on the edge of one of the world's biggest cities) vs. cleared jungle miles from anywhere, the purposes are different, the theology is different and the designs are different. But I could sit and stare at them for ages, not alone in finding beauty in perfect geometry.
On another day we drove to Coba, which was one of the biggest Mayan cities in its day. Most of the ruins are today lost in the jungle, but the largest parts remain, spread out over several kilometres. Coba had two large pyramids, one of which at 42 metres high is taller than Chichen Itza's. Although not as well preserved as Chichen Itza you are allowed to climb to the top. It was not an easy climb, especially for Max (although Sam raced ahead), but getting to the top was amazing. From the top you could see for miles around, looking out over the jungle. While we were there we had a drink, watched the iguanas and witnessed a marriage proposal. The climb back down was even harder, especially for a pregnant Lyn in her flip-flops and dress that kept blowing up in the wind! Fortunately we had hired a tricycle to take us back the two kilometres to the car park, stopping off along the way to look at some other smaller ruins. The Mayans played a ball game that seemed to be a cross between football and basketball (except the losers were sacrificed, or the winners, depending on which historian you believe) and we saw some courts, as well as a beautiful observatory.
After leaving the site we found a really nice roadside cafe where we had some of the nicest food of the holiday and then relaxed in their hammocks. On the way back we stopped off at Tulum and saw the Mayan ruins on the cliffs above the sea. This is where I would have lived if I had been a Mayan king. Right on the coast, with my temple looking out over the waves...
Our other great day out was a visit to a crocodile farm and spider monkey sanctuary. We held young crocodiles, stroked snakes and fed wild monkeys. Spider monkeys are the monkeys with big stong tails which are almost like a fifth arm. They have always been Lyn and my favourites at London Zoo and these were free in the wild, hanging out at the sanctuary. We had a small bag of bananas and carrots to feed them, and they would follow us around for a while. At one point I was carrying Max and a monkey took his hat off his head! This gave Max his favourite story, and you will no doubt hear him say 'the monkey took my at'!
After catching a bus back to downtown Cancun we went to a party restaurant with live music, dancers and loads of skeletons. The waiters carried everything on their heads and juggled the condiments. Every so often there was a little skit and one time Sam was invited to chase a burglar around the restaurant and bash him with a stick! Sam is really into bad guys at the moment so he threw himself into the part. We all danced the tequila song and Sam got a dance from a beautiful waitress. On the way back to the bus we crossed a square where they were renting miniature cars to local kids and the boys had a drive - Sam on a dune buggy and Max in a convertable mini. Sam drove really well and even managed to reverse park. Max thought he was driving, but I had a remote control!
We spent the rest of the time at and around the hotel. At the beginning of our stay Lyn was recognised by the lady who did her make-up at our wedding. This was very impressive as they'd only met twice, over two years ago. It was a really nice surprise to meet people from London. Ronit had a daughter who was Sam's age and they played a lot together. Most nights we all went to dinner together and the kids entertained themselves. They both went to the hotel kids club as well, so Sam was very happy. His first holiday romance!
We had a lovely holiday and Mexico is definitely somewhere we'd go back to. The people were really friendly, the food was good, the setting was beautiful and the weather was great.
Here are some photos for you to enjoy.
Lots of love,
Tom, Lyn, Sam and Max x
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Hi everyone,
It's been ages since we last did a post. We've had visitors, Max's birthday, Christmas, loads and loads of snow, hail, ice and wind since then.
Bob, Tom's dad, came to stay in November. It was great. He went to various New York sporting events with Tom, went to see Gil Scott Heron with me and we all went to museums together. It was lovely spending time with him and watching him playing with the boys. We all really missed him when he left.
My lovely friend Olivia came for the week before Christmas. Unfortunately, her visit coincided with when New York's winter weather started and the snottiest stage of the boys' colds. They weren't at their most beautiful. Inevitably, she got a cold too and spent most of her visit apartment bound - although she did help me with Christmas shopping the day before Christmas Eve in a mall in New Jersey. It was so fantastic to see her. It felt like when she used to come and stay with us in London. I'd really missed her warmth and sense of humour. The thing I still can't get used to about being over here is being so far away from all our amazing friends and family.
Max's birthday was fun, if a little stressful in preparation. I organised my first indoor children's party not in a school. We had 8 nearly 2 year olds and 4 year olds and their parents. I think a good time was had by all - but it was pretty manic.
Christmas was really civilised. The boys woke up at a very respectable 8 o'clock. Sam woke up first and then woke Max up and gave him his stocking. They made present opening last all day. They opened a present, played together with it for an hour and then went for the next one. I know it's not always going to be that peaceful. It was really lovely - just too far away from everyone.
Winter here has been pretty brutal and relentless in its coldness. It was warmer than England for the first part of December. Then on Boxing Day, it snowed all day and night along with with really strong winds. We took the boys out to play in it, but only lasted 7 minutes. Max got blown over and it was no fun at all. It was really beautiful to watch from inside though. The next day it finally settled and Sam and I went out to play Antarctic explorers. He stepped onto a pavement that no-one had walked on and the snow came up to Sam's chest. It still hasn't melted. There are big grey dirty icy piles of the stuff everywhere with dog poo and litter hiding in it which are irresistable to Sam and his friends. We've had 2 snowfalls of more than 20" and lots of this New York phenomenon called 'Wintry Mix' which consists of hail, wind, rain, snow and everything cold and nasty. There was a snow day one day which was lovely. We met up with some children from Sam's class and did sledging and made snowmen and it was great fun. Everywhere we went there were jubilant children and teenagers free for a day.
Winter has been especially hard for the children, because it has been hard to go out and play as much as they would like. We have had loads and loads of play dates with children who live in our building in each other's apartments. Also, Bob very kindly bought us all a year's membership for Brooklyn's Children's Museum which also gets us into other museums and sights around America. We've already used loads including to visit the Intrepid which is a massive aircraft carrier that was bombed by Kamikaze planes in World War 2. We joined a community centre and have gone swimming loads. About 2 weeks ago, Sam discarded his float and noodle and started swimming on his own. It was ever so impressive. We were so proud, I had tears in my eyes.
Tom and Sam went skiing with one of Sam's friends and his Dad for the day at a ski resort 2 hours drive away. Everyone had loads of fun, despite lots of falling over!
Something we forgot to mention in our autumn post was the US Open tennis. Both Tom and I went to an evening session, Tom with some friends from work and me with Karen. Tom saw home favourite Andy Roddick lose in the second round and the next night I saw Novak Djokovic win. During the match, a block away from where I was sitting there was a fight in the seats. It was unbelievable with play stopping as the two rolled down the stands. Here is a video. It changes from an arguement to a fight 1min in. Needless to say the US Open is very different from Wimbledon...
Here are a collection of our winter photos.
Hope you are all well. Roll on Spring!!! We'll be back soon with a post and photos from our holiday to Mexico.
It's been ages since we last did a post. We've had visitors, Max's birthday, Christmas, loads and loads of snow, hail, ice and wind since then.
Bob, Tom's dad, came to stay in November. It was great. He went to various New York sporting events with Tom, went to see Gil Scott Heron with me and we all went to museums together. It was lovely spending time with him and watching him playing with the boys. We all really missed him when he left.
My lovely friend Olivia came for the week before Christmas. Unfortunately, her visit coincided with when New York's winter weather started and the snottiest stage of the boys' colds. They weren't at their most beautiful. Inevitably, she got a cold too and spent most of her visit apartment bound - although she did help me with Christmas shopping the day before Christmas Eve in a mall in New Jersey. It was so fantastic to see her. It felt like when she used to come and stay with us in London. I'd really missed her warmth and sense of humour. The thing I still can't get used to about being over here is being so far away from all our amazing friends and family.
Max's birthday was fun, if a little stressful in preparation. I organised my first indoor children's party not in a school. We had 8 nearly 2 year olds and 4 year olds and their parents. I think a good time was had by all - but it was pretty manic.
Christmas was really civilised. The boys woke up at a very respectable 8 o'clock. Sam woke up first and then woke Max up and gave him his stocking. They made present opening last all day. They opened a present, played together with it for an hour and then went for the next one. I know it's not always going to be that peaceful. It was really lovely - just too far away from everyone.
Winter here has been pretty brutal and relentless in its coldness. It was warmer than England for the first part of December. Then on Boxing Day, it snowed all day and night along with with really strong winds. We took the boys out to play in it, but only lasted 7 minutes. Max got blown over and it was no fun at all. It was really beautiful to watch from inside though. The next day it finally settled and Sam and I went out to play Antarctic explorers. He stepped onto a pavement that no-one had walked on and the snow came up to Sam's chest. It still hasn't melted. There are big grey dirty icy piles of the stuff everywhere with dog poo and litter hiding in it which are irresistable to Sam and his friends. We've had 2 snowfalls of more than 20" and lots of this New York phenomenon called 'Wintry Mix' which consists of hail, wind, rain, snow and everything cold and nasty. There was a snow day one day which was lovely. We met up with some children from Sam's class and did sledging and made snowmen and it was great fun. Everywhere we went there were jubilant children and teenagers free for a day.
Winter has been especially hard for the children, because it has been hard to go out and play as much as they would like. We have had loads and loads of play dates with children who live in our building in each other's apartments. Also, Bob very kindly bought us all a year's membership for Brooklyn's Children's Museum which also gets us into other museums and sights around America. We've already used loads including to visit the Intrepid which is a massive aircraft carrier that was bombed by Kamikaze planes in World War 2. We joined a community centre and have gone swimming loads. About 2 weeks ago, Sam discarded his float and noodle and started swimming on his own. It was ever so impressive. We were so proud, I had tears in my eyes.
Tom and Sam went skiing with one of Sam's friends and his Dad for the day at a ski resort 2 hours drive away. Everyone had loads of fun, despite lots of falling over!
Something we forgot to mention in our autumn post was the US Open tennis. Both Tom and I went to an evening session, Tom with some friends from work and me with Karen. Tom saw home favourite Andy Roddick lose in the second round and the next night I saw Novak Djokovic win. During the match, a block away from where I was sitting there was a fight in the seats. It was unbelievable with play stopping as the two rolled down the stands. Here is a video. It changes from an arguement to a fight 1min in. Needless to say the US Open is very different from Wimbledon...
Here are a collection of our winter photos.
Hope you are all well. Roll on Spring!!! We'll be back soon with a post and photos from our holiday to Mexico.
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Yellowstone and Autumn
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!
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!
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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