New York - Day Two

We headed Downtown on Day Two to have a look around the docks and the financial district.









After that we headed uptown to Times Square and The Ed Sullivan theatre, which was home to the CBS standard 'The Ed Sullivan Show' for a very very long time. It was where The Beatles made their first US TV appearance, and where Jim Morrison controversially sang 'girl we couldn't get much HIGHER!!'. It has been the home of The Late Show with David Letterman for a very long time now (a show I used to watch regularly while I was at Uni).



















We then headed back to the Tribeca area to meet up with Abi, who was in the US on business and decided to fly into NY to say hello and to have dinner.



For dinner we all met up with Shiong again with some of his old friends at Mai House, a great modern Vietnamese restaurant in Tribeca from the same owners of Nobu (Japanese global restaurant chain started by Robert De Niro).

Day 3 pics to follow!

New York New York, it's a hell of a town...

So with the arrival of my parents last weekend, we decided to take a quick trip across the pond 'sans Lucas' and spend a few days checking out The Big Apple.

Things started off badly with the British Airways in-flight entertainment failing on the way over (which meant that I didn't get to see the ending of 'The Flying Scotsman' the true story of Grahame O'Bree, who broke the world one hour cycling record in 1993 on a home made bike using bearings from his washing machine... good film BTW). The food was also abysmal.

Things picked up on our arrival in NY. Our immigration officer was a Eurasian guy who played cricket. He was opening batsman for his team. Then the customs official had a look at our passports, looked at Nat, and then asked me 'is she your daughter?'. Smiles all round.

We spent the afternoon walking around mid-town, and checking out Grand Central Station. As you'd expect, Manhattan is an incredibly busy, bustling and stressful place... yet Grand Central Station is one of the calmest and most serene public places I have ever been in. I guess it is the combination of the fantastic natural light and great stonework. We returned to Grand Central throughout the weekend whenever we felt the need to 'get away from it all'. We can recommend the burgers at the Michael Jordan Steakhouse there, they were good value.




After a quick dinner with Shiong at a lovely French Bistro in the meat-packing district, we decided to check out The Empire State Building (the queues were only 15 minutes at night-time, as opposed to 45+ during the day).

Lucas goes to Legoland

We took advantage of the good weather over the long weekend to take Lucas to Legoland in Windsor. The queues were typically English.. ie large and slow moving. Legoland is situated on a hill overlooking Windsor castle, and Heathrow. Lucas enjoyed spending the day underneath the flight path as he got to see lots of planes taking off. For those of you who don't know, Lucas has developed a love of planes since he was last in London. Whenever he hears one fly overhead.. no matter if we are inside the house or outside.. irrespective of whether or not he can see it... or what type it is.. he instantly points to the sky and exclaims 'Goh!'... (his ubiquitous word for anything in particular).



When I entered this store Nat gave me a stern look and said 'We aren't getting any mixed lollies!'. I quietly pointed out that the shelves were full of mixed Lego parts... not lollies.



They had special Lego rooms for toddlers feature normal and super-sized Duplo blocks (which were made out of foam). You'd think that having Lego blocks this size would make them safe for little kids.. ie remove any possibility of a choking hazard. It didn't stop Lucas from trying however...



We actually found Legoland a bit of a disapointment. The Lego shop wasn't that extensive (hardly any Star Wars collectors kits), the food was really expensive and there wasn't that much Lego around. Instead it was filled with B-grade fun-park rides with 40 minute queues ... not that we went on any as Lucas didn't pass the 0.90 metre height requirement.

What Lego displays they did have were stunning, but overall its like going to 'Dreamworld' or 'Disneyland' with a token amount of Lego. And its expensive, 35 quid per adult. Luckily we got a 2-for-1 voucher from Tesco. There is no way I'd ever recommend it to anyone at full price.

Anyway, enjoy the Lego galleries which were really something. The fact that they were the quietest and least-populated areas of the park says it all really.





Note the pitch invasian as the local sheep invade the village cricket pitch!