Atishoo, atishoo

I was a little previous with my accusation of a hangover on Sunday. My little poppet has actually got the flu. He's a bit annoyed as he made it through the winter without getting it (when all about him were dropping like flies!), and now he gets it when we're in touching distance of Spring.

It being ManFlu it is potentially life-threatening and there has been a lot of mopping of fevered brows and making sympathy noises. He does seem to be on the mend a bit now. He's upright and ate pizza tonight, so I think we can say he's over the worst!! Although, he could just be on a high due to Rangers making it through to the next round of the UEFA cup...

It has been a bit quiet in work today. Not only am I missing my partner in crime and office-ex-husband, but my boss and the Ops Director were out today, as were quite a few of the BD team. You could tell management were out of the office...I looked up at about 5:30 and discovered that I was the only one in apart from the visitor sitting in the cube next to mine!! So, not only did I have the pleasure of switching on all the lights today, I also got to switch them all off!

It was fortunate it was quiet. Out of the blue this morning Alyssa called me to say she was in the area and did I want to meet up for coffee...which of course I did!! We had a good chinwag...I mean a REALLY good chinwag!! I was totally on a caffeine high when we'd done though as I'd only finished my early morning grande skinny latte when she called. Back to back lattes are not good for me!!

Spring Forward

Can I just say that I absolutely HATE changing the clocks? I am absolutely shattered! I feel jet lagged. The upside (if there is one) is that there is only a 4 hour time difference between us and the UK at the moment. The downside is that its pitch black again when the alarm goes off. My body knows that its only 5:15 when the alarm goes off no matter what the clock actually says, and its a major struggle to drag my weary body from the bed.

Oh, and the downside for my co-workers - I'm grumpy in the morning!

Another bite of the Big Apple

After a busy, busy morning in work, we skipped out of the office about 12:15 and jumped in a cab to the airport. We got checked in and headed down to security...and hit the line! Then proceeded to make it longer when they scanned our case - over and over and over. I don't know what was in there that they didn't like, but there was certainly something!!

We were loaded onto the plane in good time for the take-off slot. We taxied out. We switched off the engines.... There was rain at La Guardia and we had been delayed. For about 50 minutes. We eventually got away and landed in La Guardia only a few minutes after we were supposed to. They allow 1 1/2 hours on the schedule, for a 40 minute flight - probably so that the airlines can claim that it arrived on time!

We were staying at the Sheraton Manhattan, which claims to be just up from Times Square. I seem to remember when we've been to NYC previously that this hotel was about 2 miles from Times Square...but hey, it really was only just a couple of blocks! I guess that we've usually already walked about 40 miles by the time we pass it!!

The view from our room - overlooking Broadway and the Late Show with David Letterman.

After dumping our luggage, and stopping off to buy umbrellas (which we were really grateful for about 10 minutes later when the heavens opened!) we headed down to Times Square to the Marriott Marquis hotel for drinks in their 8th floor bar. It has a great view over Times Square - and given that small lakes were forming the the roadways, and cats and dogs were falling from the sky - inside was definitely the best place to be to see Times Square!! They have glass elevators which go at tremendous speed. Boy! Do these babies make you feel sick!!! We dropped like a stone for 8 floors! Who needs to go to Busch Gardens to experience terror rides!!

View from the bar


Stephen in the bar

After a quick dinner, we went to see Spamalot. It was HILARIOUS! I would recommend seeing it! Clay Aitken was starring in the show. He was apparently the second placed contestant on the second series of American Idol (he lost to Reuben), but no-one seemed to hold that against him!! After the show we again braved the totally torrential rain to hoof it back to the hotel...or rather to the bar next to the hotel! We only stayed for a couple as once we were sitting down out of the rain, we realised that we were both totally soaked from the thighs down, and I could have wrung out my trousers from about mid-calf downwards. After about 20 minutes I was just cold and wanting a bath to thaw out...

I had picked up a voicemail from Colin, so I called him back, and found out that he had quit his job. Honestly - I can't leave the office for a minute!! We had a good chat and I was relieved to hear that he seemed quite buoyant. After that we headed off for some breakfast and got the worst table (the tourist tables at the back), and the worlds stroppiest waitress... We actually had to ask for coffee refills! Normally they are so quick and plentiful with the pot to cup action that you end up with caffeine poisoning!! Thirsty and grumpy we headed off to the Museum of Modern Art, and joined the queue of people waiting on it opening. It was worth the waiting in line. There is a vast array of art treasures in there - rooms full of Picasso's, Kandinsky's, Warhol's - too many great artists to name. It was quite overwhelming really!

Stephen was getting quite indignant at one point. He was really getting the art, having discussions about how he appreciated that art had to change from the figurative art of previous centuries....then we got to the canvasses which were...well...white. We had an "I don't believe it. I've just paid $40 bucks and they couldn't be bothered to paint the canvas" moment!!!

Inside MOMA

One of several works by Jackson Pollock

Stephen's favourite installation!!

At least this one had colour!! Stephen approved!

We jumped into a cab round to the Metropolitan Museum as it was still raining, just not as heavily as the night before! The Met is fantastically well endowed with art treasures from all over the globe. It has a wealth of treasures. I have to admit that by mid-afternoon when we were tired and in need of refreshments and, ambling round I wandered into a gallery of Monet's, looked around and thought "Oh look. Another room full of Monet's"!! We were both absolutely all cultured out by this point!

The entrance hallway of the Metropolitan Museum

A tasteful setting for an ancient Egyptian temple

We jumped in another cab down to the shopping on 5th Avenue and wandered around for a bit. There was a really pretty electric waterfall at the Rockefeller Centre just above the ice rink. It was getting a bit blowy and we were getting a bit tired, so we headed off in the general direction of the hotel in search of Starbucks. Why is it, when you normally can't walk 100 yards without passing 3 Starbucks we couldn't find one? We ended up having a nondescript coffee in a deli which was definitely not hitting the spot like a Starbucks skinny latte would!!

At the Rock

Look at the rosy cheeks! Someone was feeling the cold!

Look at the horrible murky weather...

We went to Ruth's Chris for dinner. Its a US chain of steak restaurants (very posh!) and was just across from the hotel - which was good considering the rain and my straightened (quick to go curly) hair. We were debating whether this was the restaurant that I once got a waiter fired for squirting me with a soda syphon...but we thought probably not. We decided that it was probably the restaurant along the street...

Anyway dinner was lovely. Stephen was slightly miffed that they got our steaks the wrong way round so he ended up with the petite fillet. I would have swapped but the plates were about 500 degrees (honestly I got a suntan!) so I wasn't going to risk my other fingertips. One burny finger is enough!! We were headed over to the champagne bar a couple of blocks up when we got to the intersection of 52nd and 7th Avenue...and the howling ice cold wind hit us!! We could not get inside fast enough!! We made it to the bar next to the hotel for a drink or 6. They had live music and we stayed MUCH longer than we had planned, or was good for us!!!! Stephen had a weeny teeny hangover the next morning!!

The cold weather swept in with a vengeance. It was absolutely teeth chatteringly freezing on Sunday. We did venture out for a huge deli breakfast (to combat any residual hangover!) and to take a couple of photos, but it was so cold that we didn't stay out for long!! We just didn't have enough clothes on to cope with the cold. Neither of us had picked up hats or gloves, and we were just walking along chittering!!

Us propping up the bar!

An arty shot...

We had fun getting to the airport - lovely taxi driver, just a lunatic behind the wheel!! I was flinching at one point when we overtook the car next to us at high speed (only in NY can you do 60mph on a city street!) and missed him by inches. Then we got to La Guardia, into the terminal, and slap bang into the back of an enormous queue! They had lost power the night before and were relying on generators to run a few key pieces of equipment - ie the security scanners, so they were manually checking in the flights. The airlines were doing all that they could in order to get people onto the flights in good time, and it was actually going quite smoothly. We made the flight, the plane took off on time. Who could ask for more?

Sun-a-rise in the morning

There was a gorgeous sunrise this morning. It was as if someone had knitted the sky in broad stripes of pink and blue. Very pretty indeed! Our clocks go forwards at the weekend (so only a 4 hour time difference for a couple of weeks), which means we'll be back to getting up in the dark and watching the sunrise on the way to work. The good news is that it seems to be getting lighter earlier every morning, so we'll be back to it being light at 6am in no time at all.

The other, more exciting, news of this week is that my brother David's book was published on Monday and is available in all good bookstores (in the US anyway) and on Amazon. Its called "America's Rasputin: Walt Rostow and the Vietnam War". My signed first edition will be put somewhere for safekeeping as its bound to be worth a fortune some day! I'm hitting Barnes and Noble at the weekend to buy the one that I'll read.

The other excitement is that we're going to NYC for the weekend!! AND I have a name of a great Champagne and Chocolate bar....

Get your eyes off my....

I don't believe it! Stephen and I were in the elevator tonight and this guy got in and totally stared at the twins!! He was not subtle! He was actually crouching to get closer to their level!!!! Obviously the M&S purchases are having an effect!

Stephen made some comment to me about visiting Target on the way home - I thought he was making a point to the guy about the boobies being off limits and to stop staring. However it seems Stephen was unaware that we were sharing the lift with a booby ogler and was just making conversation!!!!!

Our week in Malvern

We were up fairly early and into work on Monday. I didn't sleep so very well - I can't sleep if I'm too hot, and there was a 400 tog duvet on the bed!! I was practically melted onto the sheets come the morning! We swapped for a summer weight one - much better! Less chance of total dehydration and heat exhaustion.


I had blagged a seat in my old office, and it turned out to be my old desk! (Recently vacated as Helen has moved onto an exciting new role). It was hilarious to watch people walking past, then doing a total double take when they realised it was me sitting there!! It was a recurring theme over the course of the week - either there was a double take, or people would walk in and ask me something as if I had never left!!!!


Ian was taking early retirement on Friday, and on Monday night there was a meal with members of the Spectrum management team which we were invited to join. It was a really nice evening, and a great chance to catch up with people, say the first of our farewells to Ian and also have a look at what used to be our local when we lived in Fruitlands (somewhat different since I was last there!). I had a black pudding and bacon salad (truly a dish made in heaven for any Scot!), followed by the most enormous fish pie I have come across! It was kind of like the ever-replenishing pie...I was eating and eating and I barely made a dent in it!!

The guest of honour is in the middle, flanked by Colin and Dave on one side and Dave and Richard on the other

Me, along with Steve (in the fetching new beard!), Graham and Gerry

A little later on...a view of the empties!

Mum, being the darling person that she is, got up and made us bacon sandwiches for breakfast on Tuesday. Heaven! I need this kind of attention more often!!!! We got into work just after 9am, which spoilt slightly my plan to be sitting in place at my desk in time for Andy (my lovely ex-boss) walking into the office. We were just going to pretend it was a time warp as Richard has moved back into the office too...it was like turning back the clock 3 years!

Stephen went out for a curry with some of the boys, and I spent Tuesday evening with Julie, Andy and Louise. Its only a few weeks until they come over and I was busy answering Louise's questions...and they were important ones! "Where is the nearest Ben & Jerry's?" was the one nearest to my heart! I was glad to be able to reassure her that it was only a 10 minute walk away... It was really fantastic to be able to catch up, have a chat and a glass of vino (okay, maybe two....three...). We're both looking forward to them coming over, and can't believe that they'll be here so soon! Time is flying by!!

As part of the ongoing social whirl, Wednesday night was spent with Kate. She picked me up (after a panic about losing her purse!) and we went into Worcester to Ask for dinner. For once, for us, we had a very restrained evening - one glass of wine each...not like our usual champagne guzzling evenings at all!! Dinner was pretty scrummy, and we had a good time catching up on the gossip and what had been going on in our lives.

I managed to catch up with Mandy too - its amazing how difficult it can be to catch up on gossip, even if you're sharing an office! We popped up to the canteen for coffee twice on Thursday! Once was with Andy T as well... He was actually there on the first visit too, but was with another woman (obviously I have fallen out of favour in his affections!). He did make amends with a delicious flapjack later though!

Stephen and I actually had a night together alone - I don't know what the heck happened with my social planning!! As we couldn't be bothered trawling round Waitrose we popped along to the Fox for some dins. I spent the week ticking off the foods that I miss. Tonight was fish and chips with mushy peas washed down by a glass of cider. Bliss!! I also indulged in the other thing I've not been able to do much of - I had a really good soak in the bath when I got home! The bath we have here isn't great for soaking. The ends of the bath doesn't slope, so its a bit neck breaking. Plus it's not very long - even I can only just stretch out! The bath we have in the UK is HUGE. I can almost swim in it!! I generally have to have a lifeguard on duty in case I get into difficulties.

It was quite a strange week for me. There were a lot of people finishing up work on Friday, and it was strange to be saying goodbye to a lot of familiar faces. It was strange going to the coffee shop on site as it was packed out with people (all week), having farewell lattes with their friends. Ian made his final exit...as he put it he handed in his badge and gun and rode for the hills...

After we had waved farewell to the office, we made a mad dash into Worcester to go to M&S. Bra shopping was an essential part of the trip home last week!! I'm sure I've mentioned the totally awful bra styling available in the department stores here...these monstrosities are straight out the 1950's!! Pointy cups, cross your heart and everything!! I'm not saying M&S was a shining beacon of pretty, delicate lingerie (lets face it, its always going to be slightly industrial in order to restrain the twins!), but it was a million miles better than the Howard Hughes/Jane Russell creations that Macy's sell!!! I had to spend some considerable time persuading Stephen (the perv!) that there wasn't some kind of girlie gropefest going on in the changing rooms every time someone went in with a bra to try on!!! If only he realised how fraught bra shopping really was!!!

We had a lovely evening with Richard and Justine on Friday. Chinese food has been somewhat lacking in our diet too (lots of Thai, but no Chinese restaurants in Old Town), so we went for a good scoff at the Star. We bumped into Jane and Matt too which was an added bonus. We always have a really good time with Richard and Justine, and Friday was no exception. I hit my stride in the cider drinking about halfway through the evening when I switched from halves to pints...which seem HUGE compared to pints over here. I was practically having to lift it with two hands, but I persevered!!

As I'm a totally dedicated employee I spent portions of Friday night and all Saturday morning producing the BD report in time for the BD meeting on Tuesday. I just about managed to get it finished before Baby Ben and his mummy and daddy arrived. There was a small overlap when I was working and they were feeding him...but thankfully the banana didn't make it too close to the laptop!! He certainly is a wee cutie! And very well behaved!! He was quite fascinated with Eve - especially with trying to grab her tongue when she was sticking it out at him!

We popped along to Malvern for a walk and look around in the afternoon. It was remarkably the same as when we left!!! Except that Cafe Nero was much more packed than I remembered it being! I think the whole of Malvern's under 20 population was in there when we popped in, plus a large proportion of the over 70's! I had to practically throw old ladies off the table we were eyeing, and then fight off the teenagers to make sure they didn't grab it!!

Eve amusing Ben

Mum made a really nice dinner of roast duck and roasties etc. That gets the back story out of the way...its important to set the scene for the drama of the evening! Hours after we had taken everything out of the oven, I began to wash up the roasting tins that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher. I picked a baking sheet up an realised that it was ever so slightly hot! I threw it into the sink and looked at the hob - the gas ring was on a low heat under the tray!! I bravely managed not to cry (until later!) and ran my hand under the cold tap whilst everyone went off to check the internet for advice on what to do for burns....which was run it under the cold tap, plus take painkillers (I needed them later!) and apply antiseptic cream. They were also able to tell me that blistering indicated a second degree burn...truly what I needed the night before I flew home!! Anyway, its all okay - the finger hasn't dropped off yet, and the blister is certainly a war wound!!! I may not want to eat duck again for a while though....

If you are squeamish DO NOT scroll down!!!!! There is a horrible photo of my poor burnt finger!!!

President's Day Photos - Catch up!

I promised you photos of the President's Day Parade, and here they are!!

The President's Day Parade in Old Town

With their muskets, fyfes and drums

And the llama's....!!!