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Wednesday, 24 April 2013 - A banking spanking

 
 
Nothing like a good protest. This one was a block over from my work this morning, evidently aimed at Citibank. Even grandma showed up for the event. The thing is though they were protesting in front of a Hilton - nowhere near a Citibank. I was going to ask one of them about this minor detail, but I was running late and honestly didn't want to get drawn into it.
 
Indeed.

Thursday, 25 April 2013 - Suspension is overrated

 
I occasionally go for random rides throughout Manhattan on the bike after work (mainly to enjoy the rush-hour traffic), and today I found this Lexus while moseying through the Village. I'm not sure what to make of this, but everyone walking past kept saying "Whoa, sweet ride!". In fact it's probably a bloody horrible ride hehe. The driver obviously has the suspension lift the car up off the floor before driving off, but I'm sure it would be pretty rigid so you'd feel every bump in the road, of which New York has plenty.
 
 
I can't even get my finger in under there hahaha - that's pretty awesome.

Friday, 26 April 2013 - Perpetual Target
So according to this BBC news article (though all the major news networks are reporting it), the two punks behind the Boston Marathon bombings "spontaneously" decided that New York City would be next. The only problem was the 26-year-old and 19-year-old Russian brothers had no way of getting themselves and their explosives down here, and hence they hijacked a car which is when it all fell apart for them. They realised the car was low on fuel and ordered the driver to stop at a nearby gas station, after allegedly revealing to him they were the marathon bombers. The driver managed to escape and immediately alerted police, who swooped on the brothers within minutes. A car chase ensued during which the bombs intended for the Big Apple were instead hurled at the pursuing police. Skip forward a bit and the police had the car stopped, and a good old fashioned shoot out in suburban Boston broke out. Both brothers were wounded - the eldest fatally, not helped by the fact the youngest got back in the car and ran him over while attempting to flee hehe. Somehow the youngest did manage to get away, but was in custody less than 24 hours later. While being interviewed by the FBI from his hospital bed, the prink revealed Times Square was the intended target for their next bombing. Had they succeeded, I likely would have heard it from my office, or may have even been cycling through there as I often do. It's hardly the first time Times Square has been targeted, for example (almost exactly three years ago), and for example. The whole city really is a perpetual target for a terrorist attack in some form or another.

Saturday, 27 April 2013 - 3,000kms, finally!

 
It took less than six months of cycling throughout New York City to reach 2,000kms (1,200 miles) on my odometer. The weather was hot and I was out in it virtually every day, especially during weekends scoping the city out. But since then it's taken almost five months just to put on another thousand, pretty much just from cycling to and from work - such was the utterly cold and crap weather over winter hehe. Anyway, while cycling home from work over the East River at 6am this morning after a 20-hour shift (busy day), I finally hit 3,000. Come on summer!

Wednesday, 1 May 2013 - We've all been there

 

Friday, 3 May 2013 - Have you ever...

How did you spend your Friday night? I spent mine filling out various pieces of paperwork for an upcoming application for permanent residency in the US. Exciting stuff. I do especially enjoy these sections of the application hehe. As you can see I've had a pretty exciting life so far - yes to everything! ;)

But wait, it gets better. Espionage, overthrowing the government, Communist Party - sure why not. I wasn't involved with the Nazis however, and I'm yet to be kicked out of the country. At least I've got that going for me.

They need a "Hell yeah!" checkbox for this one.

Saturday, 4 May 2013 - On ya bike!

 
 
This is the annual Bike Expo New York which was held yesterday and today down the bottom of Manhattan. I had to come here (along with 30,000 others) to pick up a number and so forth for the 40-mile Five Boro Bike Tour I'm doing tomorrow. I was intending on having a good look around but it was so bloody chaotic I instead collected my stuff and just got the hell outta here!

 
 
Some of the action outside included folk being catapulted up a ramp and doing cool stuff in the air...
 
And carnies on unicycles hehe.
 
I can't do that with my bike.

Sunday, 5 May 2013 - Five Boro Bike Tour

 
 
Two weekends in a row now I've seen the sunrise - that never happens!
 
30 minutes later I was down the bottom of Manhattan under One World Trade Center for the start of this - the Five Boro Bike Tour. Incidentally, the final section of the building's spire was erected during the week, making it now officially the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere.

 
Even at 7am the wind was kicking up and it was bloody cold! Virtually all of us were underdressed for it; this dork started doing push ups just to keep warm hehe.
 
At 7:45am we started on the 42-mile (68km) route touching all five of New York City's boroughs.

 
 
Borough #1: Manhattan. This is the 36th running of the bike tour, which takes place on the first Sunday of every May. Over 30,000 riders start the event, but not all of them make it to the end. Within the first ten minutes alone I saw two people fall hard. One simply wasn't paying attention and ploughed up the ass of the guy in front, but another got his thin wheel caught in a seam between the concrete slabs that make up Sixth Avenue here and went straight over. Ouch!

 
 
Events like this always attract an interesting bunch. This guy pedalled with his hands rather than his feet.
 
This guy brought his tricycle hahaha!
 
A different take on a tandem bike.

 
 
This chick had flowers all over her bike.
 
And this guy had a beer can on his helmet.
 
And there's me.

 
 
The Nesquik bunny - awesome!
 
After passing right by my work we continued north and entered Central Park, starting to warm up now in the sun.
 
From there we continued north into Harlem.

 
Then we hung a right, headed over the Harlem River and into...
 
Borough #2: The Bronx (aka da hood)! I've never cycled in The Bronx before, and I barely got a chance today either. We left the bridge...
 
 
...took a right, hit another bridge...
 
...and left The Bronx hehe - that was it, barely a mile.
 
 
Along the way there was various roadside entertainment. Everything from bongo drums to whole bands.

 
 
Back in Manhattan we started winding our way south again along the East River.
 
The NYPD, struggling up a small hill.
 
Just prior to entering this tunnel an ambulance officer was walking a stretcher in. Just round the corner we saw why.

 
 
Some poor bastard managed to get their wheel stuck in an expansion joint in the tunnel, and hit the floor hard!
 
Then it was over the Queensboro Bridge - the bridge I cross virtually every day but on the road this time. This is overlooking my neighbourhood of Astoria in borough #3: Queens.

 
Yup, home sweet home.
 
 
Astoria marked the half-way point after which we busted our balls up another bridge and into borough #4: Brooklyn.

 
 
We wound our way through Brooklyn, owning the road, and having a good old time when someone else managed to fall off their bike for no obvious reason hahaha! That was the fourth casualty I'd seen - out of the 30,000 starters I wonder how many hit the dirt before the day was over.

 
 
"All lanes closed, expect delays". No doubt.
 
Almost 40 miles after we started, we had one final hurdle to conquer before reaching the finishing festival in borough #5: Staten Island. This is the Verrazano Bridge, connecting Staten Island to Brooklyn. With a central span of 1,298 metres, the Verrazano was the longest suspension bridge in the world at the time of its completion in 1964, and is still the longest bridge span in the Americas. It was a hard slog hehe.

 
Overlooking Brooklyn back towards Manhattan in the distance from the bridge.
 
And with that we were more-or-less done (still had another couple miles to reach the ferry back to Manhattan).

 
 
A bit like the Bike Expo yesterday, it was pretty chaotic.
 
No sign of the Nesquik bunny - I must have beaten him ;)

 
 
I had never cycled through Staten Island either though I did go for a wander around here when I came to New York back in 2008. It's fairly quiet, residential, and largely uninteresting from a tourism perspective.
 
The Staten Island Ferry. By the time I made it back to Astoria I'd clocked up 60 miles (96km) for the day - not a bad effort :) While on the ferry I got an automated alert on my phone regarding a "medical incident" causing delays for the tour back on the Queensboro Bridge. Turns out a 51-year-old guy who had come in from Michigan for the tour had a heart attack on the bridge and was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Not nice.

Tuesday, 7 May 2013 - Crap photos for just $30

 
 
Throughout the bike tour on Sunday were road-side photographers, charging a whopping $30 for crap images such as these (which I've ripped from the website where they're posted). I should get in on this for next year!

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