Ginger DJ Rob

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Its Easter Sunday and we'd always planned to see the Easter Bonnet Parade up at Fifth Avenue . With cash getting short we attempt to buy a cheap breakfast. It was an even harder challenge as we couldn't really find anywhere open until we came across PAX Wholesome Foods. With a name like that we expected something special however it was possibly the worse pre-packed breakfast yet with the majority being thrown in the bin and we were overcharged. We arrived at Fifth Avenue with crowds swelling around a number of posers with their bonnets. As we got deeper into the crowds the hats got better and more TV crews interviewing the owners. The guy (pictured) in the wedding dress within the slideshow below drew particular attention though I wouldn't say he was wearing a bonnet as such but his pet parrot. Judging from the activity on Flickr this guy is a regular at any public parade . Everyone was in high spirits and those wearing the bonnets we...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Saturday and the weather is wet. For breakfast we head uptown to Broadway for some breakfast by taxi. The Red Flame Diner was a favourite the last time we visited New York. being a weekend and raining it was busy but only for the more than 2 per party suckers so waltzed in for an instant table. Made the mistake of not having French Toast but went for the yoghurt and granola. The yoghurt had the consistency of whipped cream, not that pleasant. We wanted to see a Broadway show in the evening so poped along to a ticket agent, the Times Square Visitor Center. Nothing on at a bargain so bought seats for Phantom of the Opera at top price for our evening's entertainment. Before leaving, Kerry made the smart choice of buying our Guggenheim museum entry tickets. For the same price as on the door and no booking fee we overtook the round the block queue who were getting drenched in the rain (couldn't help laughing at that one). The Solomon R. Guggenhei...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr Breakfast took a little more time to hunt down. I really wanted another French Toast fatboy breakfast and eventually stumbled across a Belgian cafe called Markt down 6th Avenue. The waitress giggled to herself when we said 'cheers' as in thanking her for taking our order. Not ferry good views We didn't have that much planned apart from doing the Staten Island ferry crossing so headed downtown. Kerry prepared herself for the boatride with some motion sickness pills. Although it wasn't raining, yesterday's wind had taken a chillier turn and was bitingly cold especially as we exited the subway for the ferry terminal. Quite a few people were taking advantage of the Good Friday holiday and looked like the boat wouldn't be big enough for us. Still we all piled on with the majority onto the Statue of Liberty side with the ferry having a noticeable pitch to the side. The cold wind really made things uncomfortable plus the dull grey c...

Jetlag, don't you just hate it. We were up and had finished the slightly pricey Eventi hotel breakfast by 7:30am. The High Line With a gap of 5 years from the last visit, the High Line in Chelsea was a new tourist atttraction having only been around fully converted since June 2009. It was an old elevated railtrack used to transport industrial freight in the 1930's and hadn't been used since 1980. Luckily local residents saw the potential and added their own artist and horticultural charm. There's about 2 miles worth of relaxed walking (apart from the day's biting wind) away from the traffic. The over-the-road bridge had been turned into a small stage with a glazed window to view the underneath cars. Later was a recently added sound installation featuring a different sounding bell every minute from church to bicycle, school to peace bell, all sampled from New York. Shopping With our High Line visit over at about 10:30am we still had to wait for the shops to...

Image by Ginger DJ via Flickr It's Kerry's actual birthday today and we have an 8 hour flight to Newark, NJ for our second visit to New York . Last time it was 5 years ago for Kerry's 30th ! Purple Parking took their (bloody) time collecting and dropping us off at the terminal so didn't have that much time before the Virgin flight apart from treat the birthday girl to some champagne and oysters. Waiting lounge was full to the rafters and we also had a 40 minute delay. Luckily, being in Premium Economy rocked! Nice wide seats, having priority boarding and more champers to drink whilst waiting to take-off was luxury with a tantalsing view of Upper Class section and the bar. Didin't quite expect a screaming 2 year old sat adjacent to us though but at least the entertainment choice diverted our attention. We both watched ' The King's Speech ' (I loved it) and ' Black Swan ' (bit slow) with complete polarised opinions. Landing and immigration proc...

More f*cking rain in big dollops. Another museum, this time the American Natural History . Pain in the arse to find a subway station for the right line but at least it was straight there. First rock of the day was the museum's meteorite which was so heavy (100 tonnes) it needed its own deep foundations for support. Other big stuff was a huge real scale model of a blue whale , an Easter Island head plus lots of great tribal masks and interesting animal scenes. The weather had finally lifted with some clear skies so we ventured back to the top of 5th Avenue . More Tiffany shopping for Kerry and I managed to get my sky high view fix on top of another rock - Top of the Rock - the Rockafeller building. As well as the views, a Perspex lift roof added to the fun. Arrived at the airport to find the same Swindon couple we'd met originally who had the very same flight as us so we swopped stories whilst waiting for the delayed flight.

ESB very early in morning - in queue for 7:45am - lashing down with rain and cold with it! Met an Irish family who thought I was from NZ or Oz! Outside of the 86th floor was even colder, wetter and windier. The views were ok but I was kicking myself for missing the fine weather. I'd paid another $12 to see the 102nd floor. There was an old fashioned manual lift driven by the most New York bloke yet quoting 'How you doin?' and 'Let me tell you somethin' all with a friendly attitude but also with an edge (you cross wit' me I take you out! Capiche?). The persisting rain made us change to Plan B for the Metropolitan Art museum. We were really impressed by the Egyptian temple reconstructed the ancient Asian art and the modern art pieces resulting in the best value for money yet. Our feet and legs gave in to the luxury of a taxi for temporary stop at the hotel but were subjected to a whinging cab driver named Abdul about his stress and blood/sugar levels. After...

Weather was treating us good with bright warm sun. After another fatboy breakfast we headed straight over for our helicopter tour. Before we boarded we had to be cleared by the security guard who high-5'ed everyone. The flight was good but spoilt by our Grand Canyon tour we did 3 years ago. No commentary or cool soundtrack, just a quick buzz down over the Statue of Liberty then back up the Hudson to look at Central Park and back home in 12 minutes. Kerry didn't feel too good so I took the photos. Walked down to the World Trade Centre site. Found the best deli ever called Amish with the best sandwich and piggy-sized cookies. Site was crowded and gave a strange, spooky feeling. Although we were effectively looking at a building site you couldn't help think of that fateful day. One of the buildings next door was being dismantled from the inside brick by brick because everyone objected to hearing an explosion from demolition. Next to the site was the most over-rated shop ...

Nice leisurely getting up and breakfast then headed down to the Empire State Building . By the time we'd got organised it was about 12:15pm and queues seemed long. Kerry couldn't do the heights so went to Bloomingdales whilst I waited in the company of ticket selling pests looking to sell dual ESB and Sky Ride tickets. 10 minutes later I thought the 90 minute warnings were estimated too high looking forward to seeing the sights in no time. However after the security scan, a mass of people snaked their way through a huge room and the 90 minutes looked like hours. By 2:10pm I was at the head of the queue though conscious I had to meet Kerry for her birthday treat of the Sex and the City tour for 2:45pm. 10-15 minutes would be all I needed up there but after turning the corner to expect the lifts was another queue with an expected 30 minute wait again! Luckily the ticket could be used on another day so ran back to the pre-arranged meeting place. The S and TC tour was okay thou...

We had a false start down in Greenwich Village trying to find the cool shops. When we did they were shut until 12:30pm (lazy buggers) so wandered into the Washington Square where that mini-Arch de Triumph is from Friends. Back down to the subway then upto Central Park for a row boat hire - never done this so was a bit confusing with directions. Sun was reaching its peak of hotness so my forehead got a right grilling. Saw the Ghostbusters apartment then onto Tiffany's for Kerry shopping served by 1.5 armed man plus looked at the freaky dolls, oversized stuffed animals and walk-on piano in FAO Swartz. Avenue Q was a little bit disappointing - jokes had been done before or were aimed at easy-to-please Americans who laughed at anything. There were a few kids in the audience who kept looking up to their parents whenever the actors swore or the puppets had sex which was quite funny. On the whole I doubt it would work well in the UK. Proper look at Times Square - huge billboards an...

Saw Will Young with a female friend at Heathrow. Flight was packed with French exchange students and the leg/seat room ridiculous - entertianment crap compared to the Virgin flights we'd taken before. Approaching NY was great with clear skies showing Long Island 's long white beaches plus Manhattan looking like a model with spikes of rusty and glass for the skyscrappers. Our connecting bus had a couple from Swindon who did English civil war reinactments. Saw the flying saucers 2-towers monument and steel globe in Queens that was in Men in Black . Over the rickety steel bridge where Taxi credits are filmed then into neck creaking Manhattan. Hotel was a shiny mirror 'n' marbel affair with over-friendly staff. Receptionist summoned the porter using a 4 bar xylophone like Hi-De-Hi which cracked me up. Grand Central station was busy with wildlife sounds and grand ceiling. Went into the Chrysler building reception for the art-deco (not allowed elsewhere). UN building lo...

If anyone regular is reading this expecting something exciting or remotely insightful, you'll be asking for your money back. But as this is a free service - tough! Last night after work I went to the doctor for my arm injury from that karate tournament. Although I was glad to show off my bruise to impress the ladies, the nagging pain was making me wake up from sleep and painful whenever I stretched it. Not sure what the doc's name was but it sounded like Dr Umbongo who grabbed my arm and forced his fingers into my arm muscle. What didn't hurt as much before certainly did after and concluded it was a 'tennis elbow' injury. He recommended no fighting and after asking if I could still do the exercises in Karate he cut over me saying NO FIGHTING. Just spent over a fiver on some Ibu-profen gel which isn't doing much for me. With no karate that night I needed cheering up so Kerry drove me down to Hythe where the chippy is legendary. Shame it was closed so went to Hy...

Work is still grabbing my full attention like at gun-point, in the clutches a psycho girlfriend who refuses to give up on the relationship...but in a good way. So many seeds planted weeks ago are surfacing for my Spring career. The Marketing department has advertised a new job which almosts matches my profile and offers more money. It's the right thing to do but still enjoying my new found limelight. Since Saturday my rib injury and dead arm has impressed those who seen the bruising. Have tried taking a photo of the arm but haven't got one to do it justice for the yellow and purple to come out enough. This week has seen the ideas engine fire-up for our New York mini-holiday for Kerry's 30th birthday. Here's some things we hope to see:- Spam-alot is on Broadway before taking London theatre by storm. Basically it's Monty Python 's Holy Grail in musical form. Empire State Building has to done which has just opened its 102nd observatory floor. Looks ...