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Friday, 15 August 2014 - My first Caribbean island!

 
This was the view from my desk earlier this week of some pretty impressive and fast-moving clouds after New York and surrounds were flooded with a record-breaking downpour over a 24-hour period. But who cares.
 
Tomorrow we're going here, for a week! This is the Caribbean island of St Lucia, and just like with Mexico a couple months ago, our stay here will be split between a couple different accommodations and all of them will be 100% free (the perks of being married to a travel agent ;) This place here, Jade Mountain, is one of them. Needless to say, my new camera will be getting a work out!

Saturday, 23 August 2014 - Back from paradise

 
One day you're chilling in a Caribbean paradise staring at this, and the next you're back in your tiny Manhattan studio apartment hehe. Kristina and I arrived home today from our 168 hours (one week) in Saint Lucia. The infinity pool above made up part of our room, or "sanctuary" as they call them, at Jade Mountain where we spent the last two nights. Plenty more on that and everything else from my first Caribbean island to follow, when I get done processing all the photos (of which there are many).
 

Tuesday, 26 August 2014 - ALS Ice Bucket Challenge

 
Most people are probably aware of the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge by now, the aim of which is to raise funds and awareness of ALS - a little-known and little-understood degenerative disease (I certainly didn't know about it). I did a pretty good job of explaining it all in this video of me getting doused by Elmo in Times Square, so just enjoy :)
 

Saturday, 30 August 2014 - Kristina's turn!

 
I nominated her on Tuesday, and today had the joy of dousing her in Central Park :) Video here!
 

Monday, 1 September 2014 - New York, New York

 
How much crap can one table hold? It's Labor Day in the US today, so no work for us. Kristina and I got stuck into a lunchtime buffet that a local Indian restaurant round the corner does every day, which basically involves them bringing out numerous bowls of food and having nowhere to put them. After exhausting all the real estate on our table, they resorted to using the next table over. Needless to say we're pretty full right now, but I gotta go for a run tonight which may be interesting.
 
Meanwhile, after having a bucket of ice water dumped on my head by Elmo in Times Square last week, I was forwarded this today: 19 Things That Only Seem Normal to New Yorkers. It's pretty accurate :)

Tuesday, 2 September 2014 - The long New York summers

 
 
Where's the bus?
 
It's right in front of you.
 
The winters are horrible but the New York summers are long and hot! The temperature today and for at least the rest of the week is above 30C, and that's the way I like it! I'll take pouring sweat in minimal clothing over shivering under half a dozen layers any day!

Friday, 5 September 2014 - Saint Lucia

 
 
All the photos from our awesome week-long getaway in paradise are here :)

Sunday, 7 September 2014 - Deuce

 
For any Joan Rivers fans out there, her funeral was held in New York today. I knew about it, but didn't realise until skimming the news afterwards that it was held here on Fifth Avenue not far from our apartment. If I'd known I could have hung out and spotted some celebs. There were plenty of them too. News story here.
 
 
Also today is the women's final of the US Tennis Open and, believe it or not, Kristina was given free tickets for two from the Grand Cayman Tourism Board through her work for a corporate box! But, believe it or not, she couldn't go! She had already organized to set up a stand at this huge street fair along Third Avenue today and couldn't back out of it, and so gave the tickets to a friend. To rub salt in the wound, when she got down there this morning, there was no stand waiting for her due to a breakdown in communication somewhere and so we could have gone to the tennis after all! Bugger! I'd love to be over there watching them scream it out. Instead we've got a front row seat to watch it on TV.

Wednesday, 10 September 2014 - The definition of random

 
 
So I was cycling around Manhattan after work tonight as I often do (playing in the traffic and all) when I found this guy, pushing a shopping cart full of shit (for lack of a better word) down the middle of Sixth Avenue hahaha!
 
I don't know who he is, what he is, nor why he's wearing a bra, but you couldn't make this stuff up. A picture tells a thousand words, and this one tells a few more. Have a look at his website - it doesn't make much sense either.
 
After posing for me he continued through Greenwich Village, with a long line of cars stuck behind him all honking their horn hahaha! I love New York :)

Thursday, 11 September 2014 - Tribute in Light

 
13 years ago today on a beautiful and sunny Tuesday morning, this happened in Lower Manhattan.
 
The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center have since been replaced by the 9/11 Memorial, overlooked by the new One World Trade Center building on the left. It's height to the roof is exactly the same as its predecessor (417m / 1,368ft) but with a slighter taller antenna reaching a symbolic 1,776ft (541m) into the sky. Want to know what the views are like from that height? Then check this out! Right now it is the fourth-tallest skyscraper in the world. Shining brightly to the right is the Tribute in Light.

 
 
The Tribute in Light is an art installation in remembrance of the 9/11 attacks that has shone on their anniversary every year since 2003. I shot these from across the Hudson River in Jersey City, and it was quite an amazing sight!
 
Back in New York I went for a closer look. The installation consists of 88 searchlights (44 per 'tower') rated at 8,000 watts. They're plonked atop this parking building a short distance up the street from the World Trade Center site. Very cool, yet very sad at the same time. Given the enormity of what happened that day, and as gruesome as it may sound, I really do wish I had been here to witness it for myself. I no doubt would have skipped work, got as close as I could, and gone nuts with my camera.

Monday, 15 September 2014 - Next trip: Dubai!

 
Today next month, Kristina and I fly out for a week in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates! Kristina was able to get dirt-cheap airfares over there with Emirates that we couldn't pass up, so why not :) I don't know a whole lot about Dubai other than it has enough skyscrapers to rival New York, including the tallest in the world - the Burj Khalifa standing at a whopping 830-meters (2,722ft) high! So, should be interesting week, with plenty of photography fodder :)

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 - Bad Elmo!

 
I don't know if this is happening more often, or if we're just starting to hear about it more often, but Elmo has been arrested in Times Square again for "aggressive solicitation". While the characters are allowed to accept tips, they are not allowed to intimidate Times Square visitors into posing with them and demanding money. This time it was Rosa Sanchez in the suit (who looks like a midget), last time it was José Rodriguez, and prior to that it was some other Mexican. Just last weekend, two men dressed as Batman and Spider-Man got into a fight and were arrested, and about a week ago another Spider-Man punched a cop in the face hahaha! They're out of control!
 

Friday, 19 September 2014 - iCrazy

 
 
On my ride into work this morning along Fifth Avenue I passed thousands of people lining the sidewalk, many of who looked as though they'd been camped out there all night.
 
And this is where the line ended - the Apple Store hehe. Yes, all of these idiots spent a cold night on the side of the road to be some of the first people in the country (and I guess the world) to get their hands on the new iPhone 6.
 
Big deal. I'm still using my four-year-old iPhone 4 (with a four-year-old photo of Kristina on it hehe). I'll upgrade eventually. Meanwhile, check out this video of probably the first guy in the world to drop his iPhone 6, and on live TV hahaha!

Sunday, 21 September 2014 - King of (drinking) beers

 
Budweiser calls itself the King of Beers, and our neighbour is certainly the king of drinking them. This is a little area out the back of our apartment building for leaving your recyclables. Every time I go out with our week's worth of goods, there are always dozens of empty Bud bottles sitting around, without fail. It took me a while to figure out whose they were, but it's the guy just down the corridor from us who I shot a video of last year singing his ass off one night hahaha. Clearly you need a few Buds in you to sound this good :)
 

Tuesday, 23 September 2014 - Burning the sunset oil

 
Autumn equinox today here in the northern hemisphere, and the sun is setting noticeably earlier every day. At the moment it's around 7pm, and where it's setting in the sky gives me a perfect view from my desk. The problem is I don't really want to still be at work at that hour to enjoy it. The project I'm working on has kept me horrendously busy lately and working six days a week. I mentioned last week Kristina and I are off to Dubai next month for a week, and I can't bloody wait!
 

Wednesday, 24 September 2014 - Just another scary day

 
 
Within ten minutes of arriving at work around 9:30am this morning, I got a frantic phone call from Kristina. She manages this branch of Liberty Travel just a block down the street from our apartment, and as a rule there should be at least two staff members in the store at any given time for safety reasons. However, her co-worker had called in late this morning. The store often gets weirdoes walking in off the street; usually folk who aren't 100% in the head and have nothing better to do, and 99% of them are harmless. This guy in the red and grey hoodie however completely freaked Kristina out. Her story is he walked in, started asking really weird questions, rambled on, and was reluctant to leave. Kristina, all on her own, found him to be especially creepy, intimidating, and unnerving. She eventually managed to coerce him out of the store and locked the door. He then proceeded to stare at her through the windows, at which point she called me. My immediate response was that she hang up and call the police (there's not a lot I can do from three miles away). She did just that and so did I, so they would at least have one cohesive version of the story hehe. After hanging up from the 911 dispatcher, she called me back to say he was still staring at her intently from the sidewalk, at which point I said I'm on my way. Within ten minutes of leaping up from my desk and fetching my bike downstairs I was there, which in Manhattan must be some kind of a record given the traffic. Even the cops hadn't arrived yet. It just so happens the United Nations is meeting here all week and several thoroughfares have at least one lane coned off and kept clear to facilitate the movement of official vehicles, so I was absolutely burning rubber along these empty lanes hahaha! When I arrived he had apparently just left, but Kristina had managed snap a photo of him with her phone. His red hoodie was quite distinctive, and I spotted him now loitering just two doors down outside Dunkin' Donuts hehe. I approached him and said, "How ya doin', buddy?" Holding the very tip of a cigarette butt and with a very absent look on his face, all he said was, "I could use a home." He gave me the impression he was simply high as a kite, which many of these oddballs are. Right then I noticed the cops pulling up and we motioned them in his direction. Ten minutes later they came over to have a chat. Apparently this guy wasn't high as a kite at all, and in fact was quite lucid. He was just "down on his luck" and after a stern word they pointed him the direction of the nearest shelter, about ten blocks away. Be that as it may, and as unfortunate as his situation obviously is, it's no excuse to go around creeping women out.
 
So that was fine and we both went back to work. Fast forward two hours and this is now going on outside her store: some chick on rollerblades taking a piss between parked cars hahaha! New York man, you couldn't make this stuff up!

Thinking about it all later, I'd say red hoodie's actions, though inexcusable, were probably a cry for help. But Kristina, the least-judgmental person you're likely to meet but all on her own in a room with this guy, quite understandably just freaked out. She even admitted to the cops afterwards that she felt bad for him and felt bad for calling them, but they were quick to explain she did exactly the right thing. In this situation you don't know what the other person is capable of or what their intentions might be. In fact, the police were probably just the help he needed right now, and personal safety out-ranks bad feelings.

Saturday, 27 September 2014 - The High Line

 
 
8,000kms on the odometer (since arriving in New York)! For the Americans that's 5,000 miles, and in fact I'm just 120 miles away from clocking up a total of 10,000 miles (16,000kms) since buying the bike back in July 2009. This speedometer has counted every single one of them, and is looking a little sick of it hehe. Assuming Kristina and I leave New York next June (more on that in due course), I'm aiming to have reached 10,000kms in New York by then.
 
Anyway, after Kristina got off work tonight we took a ride out to see the third and final section of the High Line which just opened last weekend. I first mentioned the High Line almost two years ago when we first checked it out, but in a nutshell, it's a 1.5-mile linear park built on a section of the former elevated New York Central Railroad spur called the West Side Line, which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan.

 
This last section surrounds around the West Side Yard, used to store commuter trains operated by the Long Island Rail Road. Ten years from now in 2024, this whole area will look very different. A mammoth redevelopment project is underway that will see this area rezoned into a new neighbourhood called Hudson Yards, consisting of multiple office towers, residential towers, and extensive retail.

 
 
As with the existing sections of the High Line, some of the original rail tracks have been left as is.
 
New York may be the city that never sleeps, but it does like to nap on the sidewalk.

 
In 1847, the City of New York authorized street-level railroad tracks along Manhattan's West Side. Freight trains ran the route between 1851 and 1929. For safety, the railroads hired men called the "West Side Cowboys" to ride horses and wave flags in front of the trains (as seen in the photo on the left). However, so many accidents occurred between freight trains and other traffic that Tenth Avenue became known as "Death Avenue". Years of public debate about the hazard eventually lead to the development of the elevated High Line which first opened to trains in 1934, allowing trains to roll right up to and, in some cases, inside buildings to deliver milk, meat, produce and other goods. The growth of interstate trucking in the 1950s led to a drop in rail traffic throughout the nation, and eventually in 1980 the High Line was abandoned. It lay unused and in disrepair (and very overrun by nature) for the next three decades. In 1999, a non-profit organisation was formed and advocated for the line's preservation and reuse as public open space. Community support for the project grew, and in 2004 the New York City government committed $50 million to establish the proposed park. The first section of the High Line opened five years later in 2009, followed by a second section in 2011 (above-right), and now we have the third. It attracts around five million visitors annually, including us. Lovely :)

Wednesday, 1 October 2014 - Hubba hubba!

 
Not to be outdone by the FDNY (Fire Department of New York) and their annual calendar of fire-fighting hotties, a second calendar of the taxi drivers of New York has just been released for 2015 hahaha! More info and photos here - try to control yourself ladies! A portion of the proceeds are for charitable purposes, but even so, only in New York!

Thursday, 2 October 2014 - This time next month

 
In exactly one month I'll be busting out my second set of 42km / 26 miles in the New York City Marathon! I was granted entry six months ago by way of their lottery with odds of just 10% (or so I heard). Over the last few months I've been training up but have been hampered somewhat by persistent shin splints. Regardless, I'll be better prepared than I was for the Paris Marathon back in 2011 when I didn't train at all hehe, but still managed to finish with a time of 4:49. This time round I'm aiming for a challenging 3:30, but realistically will be happy with anything under four hours.

Friday, 3 October 2014 - Toitle!

 
This is our neighbour, Mike's, apartment across the hall. A little messier than ours, but that's because I'm a neat freak (thanks Mum). Note the tank on top of the dresser.
 
Mike is away for the weekend and asked us to feed his turtle, José. This little man is a five-year-old red-eared slider, apparently the most popular pet turtle in the US. He was certainly popular with Kristina, who put on this show for him before realising I was filming her hehe. Strange person.

Tuesday, 7 October 2014 - Ebola, jihad, bud stuff

 
If it's not Ebola that's all over the news then it's ISIS or al-Qaeda or Hamas, or some other group making life miserable for people in the Middle East and threatening us all over here. That's pretty much all we've been hearing about on the news for weeks now. I'm sure there's other stuff going on in the world - we just don't get told about it. Anyway, now some group calling itself the American Freedom Defense Initiative (or AFDI) is running ads such as this on the back of New York City buses hehe. Good for them I guess. I'm content just to get on with my day.
 

Thursday, 9 October 2014 - Big Bertha

 
 
This here is Kristina's bike that we bought about 14 months ago for all of $250 from Target. I named it Big Bertha. On the right we have what is probably Bertha's 14th puncture since being purchased those 14 months ago. She's a hard machine to love is Bertha. She periodically makes a variety of odd noises I've never heard from a bike before, I need to adjust her brakes and gears every couple of months because they seem to throw themselves out of whack, and every time Kristina does more than about ten miles on her in one go we wake up the next day to find at least one of her tires is flat hahaha! Currently they're both flat after our short ride to the High Line a couple weekends ago because I haven't had time to fix them, again. I was apprehensive about buying a $250 bike, but I figured that with me around to maintain it, and us leaving New York in the not-too-distant future anyway, how bad can it be? Well, I got my answer.
 
Meanwhile my $2,000-something beast (five years ago) with its 500 accessories has just clocked 10,000 punishing miles (16,000'ish km) since purchase, and gives me about as much trouble as the price of gasoline (minimal :) Moral of the story: you get what you pay for! Except with sushi - that stuff is just a ripoff.

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