We're goin' to the zoo, zoo, zoo...

And so we meet again.


This week was another good one in work, as a large portion of our office was moving to a new building that had been acquired just down the road, and so while there was a little disturbance, it was a slightly more relaxed week. So much so, that when support moved out of their area, no more than a few hours had passed before one of the guys had brought in his full-size ping-pong table. Well it didn't fit in his house so...

This is the same picture of last weeks night shot, only taken during the day... 'citing. This is also where we get the light-rail home.


We do seem to be settling in more and more ever week (as you do) but it does seem to be happening very fast as everyone is very welcoming and helpful. The work we are doing is actually enjoyable and going into good use and the weeks are going by much faster as we find our groove. I even find myself wanting to stay back for a while to get something to work... disgraceful indeed.

So all is going well on the work front, very well in fact.



During the week I went to a concert at Times Square; The Invaluable Darkness Tour for those of you who were wondering. It proved an entertaining break from the norm of weekly survival. Again, police presence at the concert, particularly afterwards, was very impressive. I spoke with some strangers, banged heads with some strangers, made most of my way home with some strangers and found out where the happenings happen.

Right after this picture was taken, these two went on a rampage; nobody survived. (The one on the left has a certain, "I'm putting serious thought to eating your wife" kind of look.)


On the Friday, Gary made his way out to the New Jersey Nets V Toronto Raptors game by way of some tickets given away in work. It seems that a great time was had and that I need to go into work on Monday and secure any further offers.



While we keep saying that we must plan what we want to do on the weekend during the week, it hasn't really happened that way so far. We woke up on Saturday without any real ideas but knew that we had to get out and do something. For the first part of the day we walked around the south side of Bayonne having a look around and seeing what else was available to us. We walked for an hour or so before heading into NYC to do...something.

We can't all afford sit around like this all day. Some of us have mouth-foaming fans to keep at bay.




On the way in, I remembered that they were showing "300" in the Imax theater here and that it would be getting axed soon as Spiderman 3 comes out. So I tossed that out as an idea, and Gary was supportive so off we trotted. Although we didn't know where it actually was so we just wandered around for a while asking people. We made it to the cinema a little after 4 with the next showing at seven so we booked tickets, got some food and then lounged around in Central Park for a bit watching some softball.

The Imax screens are Gigantic! It was great to see a Hollywood blockbuster on one of the screens surround by 12,000 watts of sound and we are thinking about arranging some sort of get together in work for Spiderman.





Making our way home, we became ever so slightly lost and weaved our way between streets and avenues, but eventually got home. Having spent 12 hours out and about, our legs were burning, despite not having accomplished all that much.



One of the ideas that we had been playing with on the Sunday was that of going to the Bronx Zoo, but since it closed fairly earlier, we figured it would be best to head out earlier in the morning and get the full days run at it and so that is what we did today. The zoo was a good laugh, not overly expensive and although the weather never did reach the heights that had been promised in the morning the day was still very comfortable. Pictures aren't great because it's hard to get a decent shot through the glass without the flash etc...





We also got a quick jaunt on some Camels, unfortunately there is no pixelated evidence of this and you will just have to take our word for it.

This was an odd gorilla in the Zoo that kept "regurgitating" it's food and re-eating it. And it wasn't just doing it once or twice, it was constant. You can hear other peoples reactions in one of the other videos I think.




He's coming for you little man.


Better start running.


Gorilla doing some random things


"Enrichment" program for Tigers.


Monumental battle between 3 tortoise. The odds are stacked, but the underdog manages to come through, narrowly avoiding certain death by being flipped turned upside-down.


Some lion noises.


On the way back we decided to show that warehousing joint who's boss and sign up for the year (it is $45 for the year, so between the two of us is quite reasonable), that'll teach 'em. We were not able to sign up right away, but were given a free token to one round of shopping (why was I not informed of this the last day?!) and so we took full advantage. Loading up on toilet-roll and kitchen roll; that was another entertaining walk home.

Arriving back after another twelve hour day, we collapsed in a heap of double velvet; it's not quite as comfortable as they make it seem on that ad where they are diving onto it from 4 stories up.

I guess we felt a little like these guys.


Next week it's meet the parents, but after that the weekends should pick up weather-wise and we should be able to better organise some things.

Weather permitting.

Your eyes do not deceive you, that is the sun. I had heard that they got their fair share of it over here, but I was beginning to doubt it; finally it reared it's beautiful head.

Previously, during the still miserable week, we finally obtained a second bed so we didn't have to swap the bed and couch any more, so here is my room for the next six months. You cannot see the junk/dirty clothes because I have a whole half-rooms worth of empty space behind me and a walk in closet! The rest of the week was generally quite quiet and we seem to be fitting in quite well in work.



With the weather as good as it was on the Saturday, I decided to go out and take a look at some parks. Some of Gary's family was down so he left to spend the day with them. First stop was the local park, 2 blocks walking distance from the house.







Not today my friend.






It was a lot bigger than I thought, with a ton of different activities. There was a full length running circuit (w/ long jump, discus etc...) , football field (soccer), basketball courts and baseball fields (at least 4). I was beginning to work up a sweat after the whole 10 or 15 minutes of walking I had put in, so sat down to watch the local kids take on Hoboken in some baseball.

The wind up.


The moment of truth.


It's gone. (Please ignore the minor detail that in the final shot of this "sequence" the batter is of a different ethnic background)


With that taken care of, I moved on toward the light-rail with NYC in mind. Half way there I saw some practice taking place in a usually abandoned (American) football field, so jumped out to see what was happening. It was some local teens practicing Lacrosse for a game they have on Monday. It seemed like a decent enough game, I had only heard and/or seen bits of it before.





And here is a long distance shot of the first thing immigrants used to see, although I don't think they saw it from that exact angle.


From here I made my way into NYC, and after a quick spot of shopping began to head in for Central Park. On my way I saw a couple of things, first was the Turkish protest although I am still not entirely sure what it was about, something to do with liars and injustice. The thing that struck me most about it was the huge police force even for something that was not drawing too much attention; perhaps the Gardi should take note for the next time protestants walked down O'Connell street.

After that I stumbled upon some Dance Project lark, not much dancing, and one inaudible girl in the background was singing. After a respite, I moved on.



I finally reached Central Park sometime in Midday, it really is an impressive beauty in the middle of a steaming pile of grey. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Purdy Flowers


It really is a huge contrast


Lot's of things going on.


And lots of people doing them.




Me giving it my best artistic attempt.


And again.


Nothing artistic about this one.


and to subdue my female contingent (or perhaps a certain red-headed friend, high-five if you're out there). (PS, don't fullstops look weird when put right after the bracket? Is there a rule about this? Perhaps I am just ill-versed in the way of bracket usage.


Roller-dancers. These are pretty impressive, but none more so than the older gen that are giving just as much gusto as the young-uns.


And now, the interlude. (I stopped recording right before they finished the song >.<)


Great drum rhythm band, and old-jiggling-man.


It seems that not even the players of games over here can help from getting bored, as I sat and watched a softball game, the players were downing beers and one guy was pretty wasted by the end of it. It was hilarious though, and there was a female pitcher on the other team so they were getting quite worked up as she was striking them out. And I think that was only about half of Central Park that I got through.

On my way out of the park, I saw a kid playing on one of the rocks and she seemed to be getting herself into a spot of bother as she tried to scale the cliff-face. With nobody around, I tried to keep an eye on her as I left, and sure enough, she slipped. Chest flat to the stone with no support, it was time for Captain Andrew to save the day. In true Hollywood-esq style I tossed my bag from my back and ripped my jacket from my arms as I ran (In retrospect, I still have no idea why I took off my jacket I wasn't exactly thinking about it at the time but it would hardly make he any faster. It did make me look cool though, and I guess that makes it worth it.). I reached the girl and guided her down, catching her on her final stumble back to earth, slightly bemused, she ran back to her friend who I think had called her Mam. I was thanked as I brushed off my jacket, Captain Andrew was done for the day. Unfortunately there was no mass-gathering and applause as there is in the movies, although I do think I had an audience of two, but I don't do this for the recognition, I do it for the kids.

The above passage may represent a story altered for dramatic effect

With my blood racing, there was only one place to go; Mc Donalds. After a quick eat, I began my journey home, although not without taking some night-time shots as I had previously promised.

I thought that was the day over and began to make my way home, but through a real moment of genius I thought "Why should I call it a night at 9pm, this is the city that never sleeps" and so I decided to get off at 14th street and see what was happening around that area. Well, it didn't take long before I was completely and utterly lost. I walked for at least an hour before finally making my way back to 33rd street to get home (33rd street is where I had started before I decided to stop off, and from 14th street I had headed south; where the numbers go lower). I did find where the expensive restaurants are, comedy clubs are, gay village is. So the night was not a complete waste.

Times Square by night.


Spider-man!! (and a very pissed off daughter :))


This one didn't turn out as well as I had hoped, but it's decent enough to warrant display.


My feet were on fire when I got home and it was straight to bed. I was slightly red, but that disappeared by morning.

Today started with a spot of shopping after another little walk around the local park. I thought I had stumbled across a goldmine in a wholesalers supermarket and so began to load up my trolley with all sorts of things "Why doesn't everyone shop here?" I proclaimed. Of course, when I got to the checkout my question was answered.

"Can I see your card sir?"

"Certainly." (As I handed them a debit card, assuming they just didn't take cash)

"Em, your members card sir"

"Oh, right, yeah, I don't have one of those"

*Cue awkward standing*

And I was already planning how I was going to spend all that saved money! Blast!

I bought a Basketball while I was out just to give me something to do instead of sit around so after some dinner I went out to the park at around 6. The place was jammers, so I sat on the bench, hoping not to be singled out for anything and just tried to blend in although even that was hard ( not because of skin colour, just general attire). Eventually a basket became vacant and I started messing about, but it was a short 5 minutes before players were amassing for a game, and I was caught in the cross-fire of team picking.

" "Big man" is on our team". Little did he know that was about all I had going for me.

I gave it my all, but when they realised how badly I sucked (and that didn't take long), the hazing began and it's dog eat dog. I was made the fool of numerous times, but hey, someone's got to be the new guy. And the laughs they had when I said "Fair enough" to the offer of another game. It was grand though and all in good fun, plus the younger guys were pointing out all my mistakes for me. I got home around 10 (and I can feel the blisters coming! I know, lovely) and now here I am.

Gary is with his family tonight, so I have to find something between now and whenever I sleep that will wake me up for work tomorrow.

Till we meet again,

Captain Andrew, over and out.

It's-a raining....rain. Boo.

Sorry for the delay again, I think I will make the blog a mostly weekly thing now as the weekdays are nothing too extraordinary for the most part as we settle into the whole living/survival thing. Here are some puppy-dog eyes to make up.



The week was another successful one, and once we had implemented our feature into the main program we were told that the program would be being demoed to a few firms this week and our feature would be one separating us from the opposition. That was interesting.

Myself and Gary went our separate ways on Friday as I headed back into Hoboken and Gary went around the corner to the local. Two very different nights were had, but two equally enjoyable ones, which ended up with me sleeping in the hallway after some slight confusion and lack of a second key. Gary kindly let me in when he arrived home.

We went grocery shopping on Saturday, exciting! Although we hadn't exactly planned ahead for the trip home and ended up hauling everything back. It was the 36 cans of Coke that really took their toll.

There was a huge storm today (6" of rain, 4th worst rain ever in New York, hurray?), lots of roads are closed off and all that nonsense; and there was us, smack in the middle of it getting soaked to the bone while we travelled to see Sinead. It was worth it though as we had a nice big burger in Hard Rock Cafe. It should be an interesting few days with this rain, I signed up to get away from this, but it should be better by the end of the week, hopefully, and then I will be able to go out and generate some more interesting blog content!

Mi casa, Su casa.

So we were up bright and early this Easter morning in order to move into our new "pad".

Arriving at around half ten, this is what we were greeted with.
Our house. In the middle of our street. (Again, you probably can't see, but it's snowing lightly and I had packed my jumpers >.<)


And the up and down of the street...




Here is a rough walk around.

Kitchen:


Free stuff in kitchen:


There is also dishes left behind, some cutlery and take-away menus. *thumbs up*

Bed number 1:


Free items in that room include double bed, matress, sheets + blankets.

Dancefloor:


Currently housing only our radio (on loan from Carmel).

Sitting room:


Gary and Carmel get cosy on the free love chair *cough*. Also included; sofa, computer table, coffee table, shelfing, other table type thing, plastic chair, lamp, cuddly toy (OK, that one is a lie).

Oh, and there is also this free 25" TV...


Also, plenty of net access around the area so I can finally blog in safety (you can relax now Mam).


Here is the other bed, empty atm but we can live with that.


Other side.


Walk-in closet.


View from bedroom window.


There is a bathroom too, but you hardly want to see that.

The apartment is great so far, everything we could have asked for and then some. It pretty huge (the pictures don't do it justice) and very spacious. The landlords are great and it seems that Ryan from work buttered them up a little as they said they would normal turn away six monthers just like everyone else had been. Ryan shall be receiving a keg or two sometime. Although we did discover these myterious machines towards the back of the house, we think they may be for seperating the alcohol from the crap in beer by way of centrifugal force, pretty clever, we should get some back home.



That's about it for now, gonna chillax for a bit then head out to meet up with Sinead. The Rydaer cup is on TV, so I will probably watch that with Gary.

I would like to take this moment to take everyone who has made it possible for us to get this far, we both appreciate it VERY much. Cheers.