When Holly Came To Stay - Part I

Holly landed late on Monday night.  My boss had taken me out for a lovely Thai meal for my birthday with my friend Amel so that I was able to stay in the city.  After this, and many 2 for 1 cocktails, it was time to make the journey to JFK to meet Holly at the departure gate. 

After taking two trains, and waiting for 45 minutes, and feeling like an idiot for approximately 90% of those minutes as I clutched in my hand a sign saying 'Holly "Vole" Patton', and making friends with a grand total of 4 drivers...  After all of that, Holly's tired little face came round the corner and we were back together again!

We got back to New Jersey at bout 2am and went straight to sleep. 

The next day, we got up fairly early, and decided not to waste the day!

First stop was Starbucks (of course) to pick up some coffee, and take photos with said Starbucks under the Empire State Building.

PS, doesn't Holly look like she was superimposed on this photo, like those lame "Put Yourself In the Picture" fake backgrounds you can get in photobooths?  I assure you she was actually there...

I then had some Mountbatten coursework to hand in, and as the Mountbatten office is right by Grand Central Station, we took a wander in there:

We eventually made it all the way up to Central Park.  I love Central Park and the way it changes throughout the year.  This day was cold, but bright and fresh.  The Mall looked like it would be ready for spring any second. 

Instead, it got us two losers haha:

We were heading for The Boathouse, which overlooks this lake (yes that is the same lake I did the rowing on back in September):

At The Boathouse, we had some lovely food overlooking that lovely view.  There is less rowing this time of year, but it's still beautiful.  I had the Seafood Salad, which was more seafood and less salad. And Holly had the Goat's Cheese Cake. Oh and I think we both had the Lobster Bisque as well. It was yummy.

After this we did some shopping on 5th avenue (this will become a re-occuring theme of this visit!) and as the sun looked like it was getting lower in the sky, we made our way to the Rockefeller Center.  If you are going to go up some sort of tall building in New York, that is the best time to do it in my opinion.

We got there and watched the skaters at the ice rink (yes, it's still there) and had a quick look at the neon fountainy thing that is where the tree goes at christmastime:

Then we made our way to the Top of the Rock.  I haven't been up the Empire State Building yet (I know, shocking!) but I think if you're just here for  short time and only want to go up one, I've been recommended to choose the Rockefeller.  I've now done it twice, and I'm sure the view is spectacular from the top of the Empire State, but when you're at the Top of the Rock, you get to have the Empire State in all your photos too! Bonus!  So without further ado, I present to you, Holly and Lj get ridiculous on Top of the Rock:

It started off all nice like:

And, well, here's what I mean about ridiculous.. I mean you really can't take us anywhere without us creating some kind of comedy drama for the sake of celluloid documentation, (a.k.a we pose a lot, and it makes people stare, but I love it haha).  In the following example we are "falling" of the tall building, and looking damned scared about it.  I mean, if there were some kind of photo oscars, I think we should win best comedy double act. Our abilities are second to none.  I impress even myself sometimes I really do haha!

Here we are looking hardcore in front of Central Park:

I probably should mention that while we were messing about and being silly, literally within yards of us, we think, we think two people were getting engaged... it was so cute, they were just off in a corner on their own, talking in low hushed voices, and the girl was crying, but like happy crying and she kept putting her hand over her mouth.  And me and Holly go and ruin it all with our "No, look more scared... like you're actually going to DIE!!" and shizzle.  You really can't take us anywhere.

But we take nice photos too:

As does New York, you won't catch her mucking about and being silly.  World's most professional poser:

Normal transmission will resume shortly..

...Promise!

Look basically, I have been, off, under, and generally away from the radar for the past week or so. This has been due to a number of things:

1) My birthday, which was last Wednesday

2) Mountbatten coursework deadlines. Yes... plural..

3) I have spent my time doing fun things like eating cupcakes at Magnolia with this trouble-maker for the last hair-short-of-seven days:

She might look all sweet and innocent, and lets face it greedy (oh no wait that's me) in this picture... but she's a troublemaker all right. You can trust me on that one.

Yes, my very good friend Holly came to visit last week.  And this was a bad thing because she rendered me incapable of keeping up with this here bloggy-wog.  Like most bad things it feels so good at the time... a bit like eating cake, or not going to the gym. 

But I figured out a way to cleanse my soul of such wrong-doings.  For I am going to be bringing you guys lots of posts in the next couple of days, documenting my activities with Holly!

Oh, and one more thing, I'd like to say... I'm very excited about my Aunty Jackie joining my small but very much loved readership community.  I love getting comments from her, and everyone, so keep doing it!! And stay tuned for lots more NY-Holly-Cupcake shenanigans!!

P.S. C.C., I hope this explains my absence from the crossword community! I'll be back with my thoughts this week, if I could just step away from those god-damn cupcakes!

Mama

"Never really knew it then but I'm not ashamed to say it now,

Everything you ever said or did was right for me

Had a lot of time to think about,

About the way I used to be.

Never had a sense of my responsibility.

Back then I didn't know why

Why you were misunderstood

But now I see through your eyes,

All that you did was love"

 

Happy (British) Mother's Day!!!

Especially to my mum.. who is the best mum ever. We spoke a bit about this a few weeks ago, and she has a selective memory so can't remember a time when we didn't get on haha! But there was a time when our relationship was tough when I was growing up. Maybe that was just from my perspective. There were times of tears, and anger and such and such.  

But now I can say that I wouldn't be half the person I am without my mum. It took a long time to fully appreciate that, and some people aren't so lucky, but I can truly say my mum is the best friend I will ever have. 

She's crazy, she dances like Stevie Wonder in the car, she always knows a person's life story after having barely a conversation with them, she's one of the cleverest people I know, but doesn't believe in herself as much as she should, she takes far too long to do her hair, she has a permanently confused look on her face, she can't read and take part in normal life at the same time.  She gets freaked out by the word 'succulent'. She loves Tom Cruise no matter how much I tell her he's gay, and she would do anything for her family. She smells like what safe is.

There was a time when I thought that the inevitable 'turning into your mother' would be the worst thing that could possibly happen.  The first time someone nagged me for being late, because I was doing my hair, reminded me of all those times I spent shouting at my mum that I'd be late for school because she hadn't perfected the speed-blow-dry. And I thought 'OH GOD, it's happening, I'm becoming my mother..argh!'

But now, it makes me smile.  Because if I'm going to 'turn into' anyone.  I can't think of anyone I'd rather be.

Miss you mum, and love you loads xxx

P.S. Normal non-cheese-core blogging will resume next week. Being away from home makes me overly sentimental these days! Oh and for those that were concerned: I did the presentation again. I rocked it ay! Peace out xx