Christmas Customer Service

OK, it's Christmas shopping time and like many people, I've opted for the on-line options, as an ICT teacher it sort of makes sense anyway.

Now the majority of the presents have been ordered without any hassle and assuming that the companies all keep to their word, they should arrive in time. I had to ensure that I stayed away from the rather big company that let me down last year. February is no time for company to still be delivering Christmas presents!

All the presents, with one exception have been pretty standard this year with the online equivalent of high street shops stocking them all. The exception was a frame and mount for some tea-cards / cigarette cards that formed part of a bigger present. The frame and the mount would need to be ordered from a specialist. Not a problem, the internet would do the trick again here, and so it did. A quick search came up with what looked like a good professional company. It was late, so a phone call the next day would sort it out.

Monday came and I phone up. The order done by Christmas would be difficult, but not necessarily impossible. I should e-mail the details of what I needed and they would give me a quote back. Fine, again not a problem, e-mail sent. Next day, no contact, so I phone, again. Apparently I'd get a call the next day as the chap who does the quotes was coming in late and would have something sorted by the next day. By now I'm starting to get a little twitchy. We're looking at Wednesday before I even get a quote, and two days earlier was 'difficult' for Christmas.

Wednesday came and went and still nothing. Thursday I'm phoning up again and this time there's no reply. Even though it's office hours the phone isn't being answered. This is not good.

So here's my issue. These people know I'm looking for something in time for Christmas and yet they are willing to let me wait and wait and wait, with the likelihood that it would lead to the present being spoilt by the fact a main part of it won't be delivered in time. A simple call to say it wouldn't be possible to do the work in time would give me enough time to see if other companies would be able to. I appreciate that it's a competitive world out there, but especially at this time of year, some sense of generosity of spirit would be appreciated.

Additionally, in this day and age of the blog and electronic media, the company is shooting itself in the foot somewhat by acting so badly towards its customers. Maybe they feel that they have so many orders they can get away with treating potential customers badly. I for one won't be using them and won't be recommending them to anyone else. And if they e-mail me with a quote, well...

The good news at the end of this story is that later on the Thursday I managed to get in contact with another supplier and the frame and mount had arrived by Saturday! That's the sort of customer service that should be provided.

Day 6 – Curtain Call

So my final day had arrived. Very little of it would be spent on American soil, and even less in New York. I was flying out of Newark airport and while that is considered one of New York’s three airports, it’s actually in New Jersey, a totally different state. Just like flying out, it was another early start, about 4.30am again. What may be surprising to some is that although I set two alarms on my mobile phone, I actually didn’t need either of them and woke in good time to be able to turn the alarms off, without waking so early that I should have slept any longer. I’ve no idea if anyone else does it. It may be that everyone does and no-one has told me this, but I find it very useful. I’ve even managed to catch late night sporting events by waking up in time for them to start.

There wasn’t much to do in terms of packing. I’d done that the day before, though I’d had to do some rearranging so that the new suitcase for all the stuff I’d bought didn’t too overly full. Packed away the last few bits and pieces that I had to and headed to the subway station. It was a fairly cold morning, but nothing unbearable and the subway was always going to be relatively warm. That it is open 24 hours a day means that it is a bit of a home to the homeless at night, especially in the winter. They don’t cause a hassle. They just sit or lay on the benches and go to sleep. There’s no campaign to chuck them onto the streets where they would freeze to death. Some sleep on benches that are right next to the help desks that are staffed the majority of the day, and are normally still staffed when the homeless settle down for the night.

I didn’t see above ground again until I arrived at the AirTrain connection. To my surprise, when stepping out of the train onto the platform, there was about half an inch of snow, with more falling. It was time to regret my luck for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, this was nothing to do with snow at the airport and the possible consequences of that. I genuinely didn’t care about that at all. What I was regretting was that the snow had come a day too late for me. The photos of Central Park covered in snow would have rounded off the trip quite nicely in relation to the photos I’d been taking. Still, can’t have everything, and I’m sure there would be another opportunity.

Airports in the early morning are normally quite boring affairs, and Newark is no different in that respect. Before security and check in there’s a few shops and cafes. Afterwards, well that’s a different story entirely! When dropping off my bags at the check-in one of the assistants was providing passengers with information for after they had checked in. One of the comments being that there was ‘dining opportunities once through security’. Well it wasn’t a lie. However a lot would depend on what you classed as a dining opportunity. If you can count what would be considered a newsagents (selling the usual chocolates and sweets), and what appeared to be a portable table and cold stand offering sandwiches, bagels and chilled fruit selections, then yes there were dining opportunities. I won’t moan about the shops after security being shut, it was, after all early in the morning. Sorry, that’s a typo there. That should read shop. All there was, apart from the ‘newsagent’ and the ‘sandwich bar’ was a duty free shop, and not a large one from the looks of it either (baring Tardis like capability). Given that Newark is an international airport there is a distinct lack of facilities. Even Luton and Stanstead have far more to offer once through security. So I sat, created the bagel with cream cheese that I’d bought (yes, had to buy and apply the cream cheese myself), and watched the snow continue to fall. Gradually the Empire State Building, clearly visible at first through the murk disappear, and then the rest of the Manhattan skyline. Eventually even the turnpike to the airport had vanished in the grey.

I did wonder if the snow would create problems. I was needed at work on the Monday morning and not being there wouldn’t be appreciated. Boarding started more or less on time, so everything seemed to be ok. Planes were being towed out to the runway, but it was nothing major. Everyone’s on board in good time and we’re even congratulated by the captain for managing to get to the airport and onto the plane despite the weather. However that was as far as we were going to go for a while. The plane needed de-icing. Now part of me had this image of someone out there scraping the windows of the cockpit down with a credit card. Sadly out of my window a credit card never came into view. I assume they had all been used up on the sales a few days earlier. However they did have what was, in effect, a massive spay can of de-icer. It actually didn’t take long to spray the plane down. Unfortunately they had missed a bit, and by the time this was noticed by the ground crew, it was on another plane, so we had to wait a bit longer. Eventually the spray can on wheels came back and got the job complete. Another quick check and it was all systems go, ninety minutes late. It didn’t matter too much. The winds up at altitude were such that we caught up an hours worth of flight (about 6 hours rather than 7) while in the air.

Landing at Gatwick a little late was ok. Given how rocky the flight had been, fast tail winds come with a cost, we were down safely in one piece and happy to be on terra firma. Sadly delays were going to be a bit of a theme for the day. Already we’d been delayed taking off. Now we’d have trouble getting to the stand. There was a plane in the way. It should have left, but they had a problem. They had a passenger who was a fool. Well, they should have had a passenger who was a fool. The problem was the fool wasn’t on board. You can probably see why I think they were a fool. Eventually the plane left without them and after half an hour on the tarmac, we got our stand. Everyone on the plane was just relieved that this other person didn’t have any hold luggage to take off. If we’d passed him in the terminal complaining about the plan leaving I suspect he might not have survived the verbal mauling from my fellow passengers.

Home was calling for me and I was eager to be heading that way, but fate decided to deal me one more blow in the form of another delay. The conveyor belt in baggage reclaim broke. I could see the luggage on the ramp; I just couldn’t get to it. Thankfully this was the shortest of the day’s delays. Soon I was reunited with all my luggage. Customs was a little bit of a worry given how the day had been going, but they didn’t seem to care how large the suitcases from the US were, the place was more or less deserted. Maybe they realised what we’d been through and were taking pity on us.

An hour later I was home and clearing out the junk mail from the doorstep. Sad to be back in many respects, but knowing that there was far more I could do back in New York and that I would in all likelihood be heading back there at some point in the future.

Day 5 - Once And Again

Once more I find myself enjoying a walk through Central Park early in the morning and once again I'm heading for the apple shop. Sadly, and it’s a sign that my time here is nearly at an end, I need to check in and book my seat on tomorrows flight. It's a warm and welcoming building as the weather is starting to get cold and the wind is dropping it below 0°.

As convenient a seat as I can manage is booked. 2 hours into on-line booking and there are no extra legroom seats left. Not best pleased but nothing I can do about it. I'll have to go for a seat where no one is behind me so I can put the seat back as far as it can go. It'll be some consolation on an eight hour flight.

My next stop is Macys. I have some stuff to get people and they have both a sale on and I can get my 11% international shopper discount. I hadn't realised how different things would be at the weekend, something that would be a repeating pattern as the day went on. Apart from the shopping there was another reason for my return. Christmas shop windows. For Macys these are works of art and adventure (for children), and a photographic must. Six in all but with everything that goes on in each window a lot more than six photos are needed.

I was determined that today was not going to be a day when I spent most of it on my feet. The last 4 days I had covered (according to the gadget on the phone) over 70 miles and a more relaxing time was warranted. To a degree, I got it, though as resting the feet goes, there are probably better ways. It was time for an official boat tour. Unlike the Staten Island ferry, this would have a commentary, the lot. The boat even had a reasonably priced bar, especially given the captive nature of its clientele. So, it was out on deck to listen to the guide and to snap photos a plenty. It was a sunny day so that the views were wonderful. The problem, a bit like yesterday, was going to be the wind. While it wasn’t blowing a gale to the degree that the boat was rocking all over the place, the wind that was blowing was bitterly cold. It wasn’t long before my hands were residing in coat pockets when photos weren’t being taken and changing lens was not to be undertaken lightly. Eventually enough was enough an I was going to have to head inside. This was despite wearing one of the warmest North Face jackets on the market. It took me most of the rest of the trip to warm up sitting next to one of the radiators rubbing my hands against it. Hopefully the remaining photos weren’t going to show up the dirt on the window. The guide was quite a knowledgeable chap and very easy to listen to. A native New Yorker who had clearly seen lots of changes. It was very clear which ones he approved of and which he wasn’t so keen on. It wasn’t quite political, but probably as political as he could get without getting complaints from either the republicans or the democrats (or probably both given way American politics works!

So, slightly warmer than I’d been, but still in need of finding warmth there was only one route back to the centre of town for some more Broadway tickets. The bus. No I assume that it’s because a lot of the edge of Manhattan island on the west side is reclaimed land, but there are no subway lines that run even close to the piers which the tours start and end from. So the choices will always be either the bus or the taxi. Given I’d got my metro card, the bus was going to be free, so the more sensible option, it was also likely to be no slower than a taxi either. For getting across town, the buses are unbeatable. The subway main runs in a north south direction with some, but only a limited, amount of connection across. The island. The buses on the other hand have regular routes that go across the island, so when used together there is a good combination. (Buses do go north and south but will never match the tube for speed). Fortunately there was a bus ready and waiting for us as we got off the boat (almost as if they knew) and I was able to quickly move into another warm environment. Like the rest of the transport system, the buses are clean and run to good time. What was interesting was the stop facility was several strips of tape, clearly with some computerised component in them, that you pressed to get the bus to stop. These ran down between the windows allowing young and old, short and tall to easily stop the bus when they needed their stop. There was, however, a problem I could see with such a system. If you’re in the wrong seat and nodding off and leaning against the tape would lead to the bus stopping for no one to get off. This must infuriate the drivers and I wondered how it would look in court. ‘Am I to believe that you shot the victim because he fell asleep on your bus’. Still it’s America, there have been sillier things happen there.

My favourite American court case would be one that would happen in California. I can’t remember the city, but there is one in that fine state that has passed a law where they will fine you the princely sum of $500 if you are caught, within the city limits, letting off a thermo-nuclear device. Now part of me thinks, well, $500 isn’t that much! How would they charge me afterwards, plus, what witnesses would remain! Could be quite terminal for me though, so maybe I should stick to getting fined for walking across the road on my hands instead!

Weekends in New York City are very different to weekdays. I suppose that is true of most places, but it is particularly notable there. Whereas until now I could easily work my way through the crowds (or around them if the traffic permitted, that was not going to be much of an option. I suspect that every bit of pavement was being used, possibly by more than one person at a time! The difference affected far more than the people on the streets, it was everywhere. From the ticket queue (none on the Friday to a queue that would be half way round the block the next day, to the waiting time for a meal, nearly 2 hours for the Hard Rock Café. Personally I didn’t have that much time after getting the tickets so I would have to settle for some junk food. However, first things first, I needed my show tickets.

Typically the show I had intended to see, Grease, had nothing available, so after a bit of a natter with another lady in the queue I opted for Mama Mia! In fact from what I could make out, me and the lady in the queue were going to be swapping shows. I’d seen Chicago the night before and she was intended to see it tonight. She’s seen Mama Mia! the night before and it was she that convinced me to plump for that rather than Rent. I was not to be disappointed. What’s more, somehow I had a front row seat. Slightly to the side, but still, front row on Broadway and I’d paid well under £50!

Tickets purchased, it was time for dinner. As mentioned it was going to have to be a less healthy option if I was to get everything done on time. Now

It was time to be heading back to base to drop off the stuff that I had purchased earlier. I did, though, have one more compulsory shop. The Hershey shop. Now I know that they are not to everyone’s tastes, but I like them. There was though one problem. It was Saturday and I’ve already said what Saturday does to Times Square. The Hershey shop was no different. It had a queue. A chocolate shop had a queue outside it! Now I know that I’m English and we’re renowned for queuing, but even I have my limits, or do I! It is after all chocolate, and it is Hersheys. Well the queue was too long even for my liking, I’d come back later when fewer kids would be around. It wasn’t a mistake, but the queue was still there (even it was a little shorter). To be fair to Hershey, they aren’t over the top about their shop. It’s a chocolate shop and doesn’t purport to be anything else. M&Ms would be a different case. They don’t have a shop. They have a lounge! I think I’ll leave the comment about that left unsaid.

Strolling back to return my latest purchases to my room I was finally around Central Park for their Christmas market. So far I’d left far too early for it to be open and hadn’t returned until long after it had shut (such was the nature of having a subway system that runs 24/7). In reality I hadn’t missed much. Some of the stalls were novel, but there were the usual stall selling African tribal masks and melted bottles as novelty place mats or decoration. With nothing to buy it was a short visit, and besides, I had a show to go and see.

The show was not a disappointment, and I’d recommend the show to anyone if they get a chance to see it. There is actually quite a good and funny plot to it, and the Abba music is fitted in around it. It does mean that occasionally things are a little contrived, but the show doesn’t take itself too seriously, so it doesn’t matter that much. All in all it was a good way to finish off the holiday (in relation to what I was doing in New York), and I let the cast members doing a charity collection on the doors afterwards know that. Sadly due to the early start, after the show it was straight to bed, though I strongly suspect that Abba will be on the MP3 player on the way home.

Day 4 - Further Than I've Gone Before

Slightly later start to today than before but then I had gone to bed at a time when most of my friends were getting up for work the next day.

Subway before coffee today and I'm heading further south on the island than I've been before. In fact after today I will only head this far south again when I leave and I'll be the other side of the Hudson. The reason for the subway first is partly to get on the move quickly due to the later start but also due to the fact that the Ground Zero tours are only once a day and I have no intention of missing it.

Turns out that the tours aren't as advertised. And that's a good thing. The Internet told me that I needed to be there for 11.30 for the tour. Not so. Just before 11 I joined the queue; however I was in the wrong place. Like all Americans I've encountered I was politely informed that the queue was for people who had signed up. It wasn't a problem they told me, I could just go inside and sign up inside. This I did and found out that it was half the price of that on the internet, though the internet price was advertised via another company. I'll leave it up to you to draw your own conclusions about that internet company.

The tour was hard going emotionally. The museum itself had loads of quotes from people on the wall and even pieces of plane and tower wreckage. The tour was given by one of the surviving retired fire-fighters who was part of the rescue attempts. I'm not going to talk more about the tour here. I think each one is personal to the tour guide and the anecdotes to long and too many to detail. There is a lot of work going on at the site now and the final designs look impressive. Even now though, 6 years on buildings are still having to come down and another has recently been declared unsafe. That part of the Manhattan skyline will be changing for a number of years to come.

The Staten Island ferry is a must for any tourist to New York. One of the main reasons is that it is free! According to one of the staff onboard the reason is that Guliani had nearly all the voters on the island and it was a way of getting them included in the mayoral elections. For a free ride it’s a good way of seeing the island of Manhattan, Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. For photos you will need a long lens (which I fortunately had with me). I went outside for the photos but a cold wind was starting to come up so I didn't stay outside long. I do feel slightly sorry for Staten Island. I'm sure they have loads of things over there but the majority of people simply turn straight around and come back on the same ferry they went out on. You do have to get off at each end, but with no tickets and only a couple of hundred yards to walk you would have to be extremely slow not to make it.

Once back on Manhattan Island, my next objective was to get off the island again. This time on foot. The Brooklyn Bridge is one of the few ways of walking off the island, assuming you include walking round and round on the Staten Island ferry. I was rather surprised to find that the walkway was right down the middle of the bridge. It’s not quite as dangerous as it sounds. The walkway is probably 10 feet above the traffic. It’s actually quite a busy walkway as it offers excellent views and photo opportunities. The only problem was that now it was getting to sunset (the best time to get photos); it was also getting very cold. The shrill wind had not died down and the bridge walkway was extremely exposed.

I was more than happy to be heading back to Times Square in the warmth of the subway. My current mission, to get a ticket for one of the evening shows. I'd left it a bit late in the day with the booth opening at 3 and it now being well past 5. However it was not a problem and a few minutes later I had a ticket for Chicago for less than $50.

After a couple of hours of detour I ended up in Century21. This shop is billed as 'America's best kept secret'. If that is still meant to be the case I've news for them. Someone's been splitting on them. It’s more like a bullpit and being able to use your elbows is essential. That said, it is incredibly cheap for designer labels and a useful place to buy a suitcase for the extra stuff I'd bought during my stay.

The evening finished with the show and another late meal. I comforted myself that it was really breakfast time at home.

Day 3 - Up And Down And Around And Around

Today I managed the bagel and coffee in the park. It’s odd though that despite seeing that happen all the time in TV shows, it’s not something I've seen others doing.

So today was going to be an easier day. A museum day. I was silly. This is America. The museums are big as well. In just under five hours I was only able to give a cursory walk through to most sections. I took a bit more time in a few sections that held a bit more interest, but I could easily have spent far more time in there. A number of school groups in various sections busy filling in their school worksheets. Took me back to my school days.

After that mammoth trip to the museum (no pun but I should point out that it was the Natural History Museum) I decided it was time for a walk to the Guggenheim museum. A bit of a walk from the other museum, but the place is iconic and I wanted a photo. So about thirty minutes later I get there...and it is covered in scaffolding for exterior refurbishment. Great. Was this going to be how my day worked out?

I strolled back down through Central Park, alongside the reservoir and then the Great Lawn. A quick look at the map told me I had a couple of photo opportunities on the way back down. En route in the south east corner was Central Park Zoo. Now this is a place I had seen in the films and I wanted to see how it matched up. Ok so the film was Madagascar but I figure that still counts. I knew the place was going to be small. I'd already been in that corner of the park and not noticed it. I would need to follow the map carefully. Well I found it ok, but was slightly disappointed to not have any lions, giraffes or zebras. In fact the only animals at the zoo that were in the film were the penguins. It wasn't until now that I realised that what I had thought was a cartoon was in fact a documentary and that the penguins had either been caught or replaced.

So it was onto the apple shop to 'borrow' their wi-fi connection. I didn't have to be subtle about this as I thought I might. I was fully expecting to have to be sneaky and hide the pda while connecting. Nothing needed to be further from the truth. People were walking in with their Macbooks and simply logging on. There was almost what you could describe as an official area you could do this. Somewhat different to UK airports where the wi-fi connections there are a competitive industry that seems to have agreed a price.

E-mail checked and other internet stuff done it was time to check out the Christmas tree at the Rockerfeller Centre Plaza. After a small diversion to pick up some camera equipment I found the place. Unfortunately coming out some of the area was roped off for a private function. What a time and place to organise that. Didn't they know there were tourists (well me) getting hopelessly confused about getting where I needed to go? Typically I came out the wrong exit and had to walk at least halfway round the block to get to it. To be fair it is done very well, the whole plaza that is, including the ice skating rink.

This, I say like any writer claiming they have everything planned out, leads me onto one of my must do events. Ice skating in Central Park. I was slightly caught out when the didn't take my shoes off of me when I got my skates and had to go back and get a locker. The rink itself is small but coming from Brighton a rink the size of a puddle if no issue. In reality it’s easily big enough to skate round without having to take sharp corners. By the end of the two hours I was surprisingly not dizzy, and possibly more surprisingly given I hadn't skated for too many years to remember, I hadn't taken a tumble.

This didn't mean that I had escaped unscathed. My feet and back were letting me know they weren't happy. In fact it still felt as if I was wearing skates. Therefore it was a slow walk for dinner at Planet Hollywood in Times Square via the subway. I've never been to the franchise before but with the exchange rate it was more than affordable and there were plenty of opportunities to take photos of film memorabilia. Next some photos of the neon signs. It’s telling that the shutter speed on the camera was still quite high despite it being gone midnight. Rather wearily I made my way home. Tomorrow was going to be more sober with a visit to Ground Zero.

Day 2 - Highs & More Highs

A little noisy at night but only a couple of people coming back late. However I suspect that I'll be coming back at those times over the next few nights now I won't be having 22 hour days. Woke a little early but nothing major and with a bit of luck, and a doze after waking I may have avoided the jetlag. Only one thing to do first thing in the morning with where I'm staying. Bagel and coffee while walking through Central Park.

OK so I didn't manage both. The coffee was easy. The gag in Shrek 2 when they run from one Starbucks across the street into another one is pretty close to the truth. You can easily pass two or three others before you have finished your drink. It wasn't till I got to the centre of town before I got to have the bagel but at least it was authentic. By then I'd made my first subway mistake. Waiting on a platform for a train that was never going to come. I just hadn't paid attention to the fact that I needed to go down another level to a lower platform. It took me two trains to pull in for me to realises, but didn't disrupt me much.

So far today I've had a quick look at Madison Square Garden which is really just a concrete circle with things attached to give it an odd shape. However oddity is something that is the norm here. (As an aside I think that I'm starting to sound, in my head, like the woman Sarah Jessica Parker plays in Sex and the City, at least when I ask questions or make statements like the one above). Something that I have noticed here is a propensity for people who have mp3 players to be walking along holding them out and up. I keep mine in my pocket and really can't see why I'd want to have it on display as they do.

So with a small shopping detour its off to look at Grand Central Station. I think a quote from the film Madagascar is in order here. (Not the monkey one.) It's grand and it's central. Grand really doesn't do it justice. It's almost got it's own shopping mall all to itself. The place is lavish in it's lighting and absolutely spotless, (even without a cleaner or bin in sight). Actually the whole of New York is extremely clean, from the streets to the subway. There's a few cities in England that could learn a thing or two!

While there it was the chance to take some photos of the Chrysler Building before heading to the even taller Empire State Building. (Where I am writing this). Now I wanted to be here for sunset for obvious reasons and all the info supplied had warned about lots of queuing. Queue for security, queue for tickets, queue to go to the top. With this in mind and the need to leave in good time for the ice hockey game tonight that I have a ticket for I arrived early. And promptly had to queue for nothing. So now I'm up above New York with 3 hours to kill. I've taken photos (probably about 60) and feel the need to take the weight of my feet. Having walked 16+ miles yesterday, and having already done nearly 9 today (its not even 3pm yet) all I can say is that I'm glad I'm wearing comfortable shoes. The fact that I've managed to find somewhere to sit is a minor miracle. Up on the 86th floor (where most people go as the 102nd is an extra $15 and you're stuck indoors) there are only two benches, each with room for 4 people. I actually asked one of the staff who worked at the gift shop on floor 86 if there was anything up the extra 14 floors but to my amazement he told me that he'd never been up there. Now I would have thought that in his training or whatever they get they would get to go up there so they could answer questions like mine. In the end I found out from one of the security guys. It wasn't worth it so I stayed put. That means I've been hogging this for quite a while now and had several neighbours come and go, but I doubt the staff will say anything. So the question now is 'How long till sunset?' To be fair it's no hardship up here. The views are wonderful and its a clear blue sky with 25 miles of visibility so I guess I'll just take it all in again. One of the things that is quite fun while up there is catching bits of other peoples conversations. I think the funniest bit was someone describing Central Park as 'that treey bit you can see the other side'.

Sunset arrived and with as much haste as I dared I took my photos with the lights of New York on. They seemed to come out well from the look of the on the camera's screen. Will have to look at them on the computer to really know.

With a bit of a power walk and the reliability and frequency of the subway that I was starting to rightly rely upon I was easily able to dump my rucksack and make it back to the Penn train station in ample time to go out of state for the first time. (The other will be when I leave and head for Newark airport).

It's said that New Yorkers are the friendliest people around and I have to say that so far I can't fault the statement. Whether it's the accent that shows me up to being a tourist I don't know. Certainly I've not had anyone comment on it in the way that I've had on previous visits, but I suspect most of that is the number of tourists over here. I've found myself being surprised by the number of English accents I'm hearing, though so far I've avoided saying 'You're from England? Where about in England are you from?'

So why do I feel New Yorkers are friendly? Well it would have to be due to the journey to the evenings ice hockey game. Now I'm off to New Jersey for a couple of reasons. One is availability. Trying to get a ticket for one of the two New York Rangers matches happening while I'm here seems to have been a task to challenge the keenest intellect. Matches were marked as sold out. Second was the price of tickets changing second hand. On e-bay the usual price was in the hundreds, no matter where you were sitting. Madison Square Gardens will have to wait to have its interior seen by me on another day.

I had 3 conversations that evening. One on the train, a nice chap who was on his way across the width of the states from the sound of how far he had to go, to try to see if they could have a future together. I wished him well. The second was on the way to the stadium. One thing I have noticed is that if you mention England in a sporting conversation then two words automatically follow from an American. Manchester United! I'm not a fan. I'm more rugby than football anyway but I suspect the owners will be delighted at this news. The final chat of the evening was the father and daughter sitting next to me for the game. After the now traditional Manchester United greeting we settle down to a real exchange during breaks. I've bought one of the cheaper tops so that may have endeared me to him a little. As things turn out, he's from Romania. No idea how long he'd been over here but he genuinely seemed happy to be a local, having a family over here, with his other daughter now at university.

During the game I decided to do the traditional American thing. Hotdog and beer. The quality was good on both counts and I went back for more during the break. I soon found myself cheering on the home team, living out each near miss as much as the people around me. Hi-fives where shared when goals were scored, groans when disaster struck or a near miss. In the end we won. We being a team I've only seen once and in all likelihood won't see them play again. I don't think my allegiances are that fickle, but they were the first major sporting event I've attended so I will be keeping track of how they progress.

The journey home was pretty uneventful until I decided to stop off at Times Square. There had been a Broadway strike on and it had been 'crippling' the local economy. I think that by local economy they mean the street vendors. I came out of the subway station and there was an addition to all the neon. The glare of television cameras recording at night. I quickly surmised that they weren't waiting for me. Shame, I've been waiting to break into the big time ever since being the star of a Horlicks television commercial at the ripe old age of 6 months. Maybe when opportunity knocked I was out or had the music too loud! Interviews a plenty were afoot with an 'agreement' over the stage hand strike having been reached. The street vendors were delighted, and had covered another 16 miles and needed to rest my feet for the night.

Day 1 - Coming To America

OK so it was an early start with the alarm going off at 4.30am but such is life when you are on an early flight from Heathrow and you live nearer to Gatwick! Still journey to the airport went smoothly as did the check in etc. The same couldn't be said of the chap next to me who was being told he couldn't take his birthday present from his mum in his hand luggage. It was a saw. Oddly, rather than put it in his suitcase he told them to bin it!!! No idea why, it wouldn't have taken a couple of seconds and he was there much longer messing around the way he did.

This leads me onto possibly one of the oddest thing I can remember happening on a flight. Two people who had checked in 'were not willing to comply with the security arrangements and had decided not to fly. No other explanation offered so just left wondering what could have caused such a decision.
Rest of flight was uneventful, so that just left the dreaded immigration process. In relation to what everyone else has said I was expecting to be waiting ages to be served and in reality I was done and out of the area ready to go to get the subway within 30mins. I have no idea what others say to these guys but it clearly isn't the right thing.

So I'm now officially in America! I get to the hotel a bit early and have to go for a walk. With Central Park on my doorstep its the obvious choice. The colours are wonderful with so many different trees that the autumn leaf colour change give a wonderful spectrum. Hopefully some of the photos will bring this out.

Time has now passed and I'm ready to check-in. I'm moved to a single bed room, which is fine as it saves a bit of money. Unfortunately the keycard won't work. Actually that's not strictly true. It's not the keycard, it's the actual lock as several keycards won't work. It's a room change but that's fine. The room is small but functional. The view is of roof tops and other skyscrapers, but both of them are fine as I'm only sleeping and leaving my bags there.

I don't now if New Yorkers realise the type of place they live in. It's easy to spot the tourists as (like me) they are all looking up as they walk. New Yorkers don't do that, and I suspect it is because they have seen them all before. I think it's ashame because the sense of awe is great for a first timer and it would be great if that could be kept.

By this time I'm starting to get a little hungry. I don't want to eat much as I've eaten twice on the plane. So there's only one small nibble I can have. It's a Hershey bar. So a bit of a restock on energy and I'm off again.

My original thoughts when looking at the subway maps was that I was never going to be able to follow it. In reality it's fairly easy, esp if you've been on the London tube. The trick to it is knowing if you are heading up and down town, or towards Queens or Manhattan, and then knowing the street/avenue intersection that you need to get off at. The express trains have been very useful for where I am for quickly getting into the hub of town.

Now New York is a city of surprises. As I come out of the subway rather than be greeted by a skyscraper infront of me is a pleasant looking church. It makes a refreshing change. Truth be told New York has loads of them, all with wonderful architecture. They are just a little bit smaller than, well just about every other building, even if some of them are big for a church.

So I'm off on a shopping hunt, or rather a shop hunt. Bloomingdales! I was wondering if I was going to miss it. No fear of that given the season. There in the distance is a building with lights streaming down it's front. Though this won't help me get any freebies, I wasn't very impressed with the shop itself. Just didn't really have anything that appealed to me. Next stop Macys.

What a difference! Both in terms of goods on offer and price. Much more like it and much less strain on the wallet. The other stunning thing is the Christmas windows. Mini rollercoasters, the lot! So its time for a bit of shopping.

Purchases made, it's closing in on 9pm and I've been on the go for about 22 hours after about 6 hours of sleep the night before. Unsurprisingly I'm starting to flag. So it's back to base to get some sleep and hope that by keeping going till a decent time to turn in for the day I won't suffer too much from jetlag. Night.

American Blog

Right, I'm going to publish my New York travel blog over the next few days.

While I know the trip is now over, I'll only post one days worth of blog each day so that it's all in the right order (and to give a little bit of excitement as to what will happen next!).

So here we go with day 1

Holiday Blues

OK, so why is it, just as I'm about to go away on holiday I start to feel ill.

It's not that it's a one off, but something that seems to happen far to regularly.

So now I'm sitting here, due to go away in a few hours and I feel like anything but that. In fact all I feel like doing is sleeping (which I'll do after I've finished this). I'm sure I'll enjoy the trip and have some wonderful memories, it just takes away the positive feelings that I feel I should be having about going somewhere for the first time.

Anyway, sleep ahead.

Blog about the visit as and when I can over there, if not then when I get back.

Maybe I'm Missing Something

OK, maybe it's just me, but I get the feeling that there's something missing from the information that we're being given about the missing 25 million child benefit records.

It's emerged today that one of the problems was that it was going to cost too much to provide the NAO with just the information from the database they wanted, so the whole lot was sent (and lost) instead.

Now, in my simple, Pooh Bear like brain, I'm thinking like this. Now as an ICT teacher, I've got loads of students who have to create databases (in MS Access for their and my sins). Now occasionally they will make a mistake and will need to import data from other database tables into their ones. It takes 'not a lot of time', though I will concede they are not dealing with 25m records. However, are we expect to believe that the database that the HMRC are using doesn't have this ability and is therefore inferior to MS Access (try not to laugh at this point). Alternatively how long would it have taken to make a copy of this database (they clearly had time to do this twice!) and delete the unnecessary fields in one go (seconds in MS Access regardless of how many records), so that they only had the ones that the NAO needed.

So, am I missing something, or is government so caught up in it's own methods to see the obvious.

Please, anyone, feel free to enlighten me!

Getting back on-track (or is that on-line?)

OK, it's been over 6 months, but I'm determined not to have a blog that never gets used as the vast majority seem not to once set up.

I'm heading to New York for the first time in a few days time, so I figure that it's as good an opportunity to start kick this thing off again and to recount my time there as a newbie.

I've been the the states twice before. Both trips with family and both to recognised tourist traps (Florida and Vegas). This time will be slightly different as I'm on my own. Should be a laugh and be nice to run to my own timetable. Have loads of things planned and will be taking the camera with me, so plan to have a load of photos as well.

The previous trips I've never felt like I've got to 'know' America. I don't know if I will this time, but at least, while NY is a tourist destination, it's also a working destination as well, in ways that are very different to the Disney belt of Florida and the extremeness of Vegas. There, everyone you meet is really a tourist, whereas I have a feeling (I could be wrong) that in NY there will be more 'real' people if you get my drift.

Right, I've got to go and get ready, but hopefully there will be a lot more appearing here in the near future.

Long Time - No Blog!

OK, so it's been absolutely ages since I've bogged recently.

Several reasons.

1) Been quite ill recently. Not the sort that keeps you off work, but enough to stop me doing a load of other stuff. Bloging, understandably, not at the top of the list of things that need to be done got pushed to the sideline.

2) Quite a lot of work stuff to do. Easter is always busy with school work coz the year 11 stuff has to be preped for being sent off to the examiners. That means getting it all marked etc. Having my work colleague off on maternity leave also means I've an extra group to do. (That's not a winge, just a fact).

3) The weather has been rather good over the hols. Given that we've had two weeks of lovely weather I've been determined not to spend the whole time indoors. I've done school work in the evening when the sun has gone down, but during the day I've been a right Alan Titchmarsh. Stuff I have done in the garden over 2 weeks (minus 2 weekends as I've spent them both away).

Sprayed both inside and outside of a new garden shed.
Constructed garden shed (on my own!)
Built a 'mini' greenhouse.
Cut the grass a couple of times.
Done some edging round the lawn.
Weeded the garden
Prepared a vegtable patch
Done a load of planting/replanting
Serious plant maintance
Planted a pair tree
Put up two hanging baskets
Painted two outside doors
Built a new garden gate
Sprayed said garden gate
Put up garden gate
Built a freestanding hammock
Started to 'create' some new lawn

So as you can see, I've been busy. Hence no blog.

Things might get back to normal shortly. Year 11 leave in 4 weeks time so that should give me some more free time as well.

Up for Sale

Mum's been selling the house for a while, nearly a year now, 3 people have agreed to buy it, but have pulled out for various reasons (some reasonable some not) having gone quite a way down the process.

However today (just coz I was talking about houses being for sale with a friend of mine who had her home valued) I looked for it on-line.

In many respects it didn't seem odd looking at it on-line for the first time. Looking back an hour later (have closed that window) and it feels slightly odd.

Am not sure whether it's odd coz its something I've known for 30 plus years being on the internet or whether it's coz I'm not sure some of the photo's do it justice.

When I sold my own place a couple of years ago it didn't seem so odd (possibly because I saw it for real every day). I'd spent nearly as much time in that place as I had at the family home, so I can't see it as being a time thing.

In many respects I will be sorry when it sells (no way I could ever afford it), but at the same time I know that these things happen, it's only property and there will be the stuff inside that will be passed onto my sister and myself, which are more of the emotional connections.