An Early Reunion.

Well, the ol' fella was over from Thursday of last week until tonight so we got to enjoy some quality, father-son time over the weekend. Starting out on the Friday we meet up after work to go for some dinner with Gary, Carmel, her niece Róisín who had been staying in San Diego for a few months and Róisín's friend Ann-Marie who was visiting, in an Italian restaurant called Extra Virgin near Christopher street. It was a great night and was a pleasure seeing Carmel again, as usual. The girls were also very friendly and easy going which made for a relaxing night of Irish craic. Dad was staying with Carmel again for the night, so we made arrangements for the following day and went our separate ways.

John arrived early on the Saturday morning with his bag in tow to claim a place in the apartment and to try and cram the closet-full of orders from Sinéad into his wee little bag. With his stuff scattered all around my once immaculate room we made our way into NYC at about midday. It was a sweltering day outside as we made our way into town, without a plan, would you believe. On the way in, we decided to take a trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art since it came so strongly recommended. I must say, I am grateful for the shove back into Museums as I found the Met thoroughly enjoying and would have liked some more time there, but we had a previous engagement that cut our day at the Met short.

Offensive material removed to protect my innocent readers.




Don't you just love kids.








We left the Met and made our way towards the Port Authority Bus Terminal to get some tickets to the Meadowlands, we were off for some more FOOTBALL!! I had organised some tickets for the 3 of us (Gary, John and I) to go and see the New York Giants play the New York Jets. We arrived shortly before the game began and were there until about 11 or so. It was a good game, with some good plays. The pee-wees at half time provided for a lot of side-splitting laughter yet again, always entertaining, impressive too. Yet again, the team I backed lost with the Jets taking it 20-12, I don't think I'll become a betting man just yet.







Sunday morning was an early one in order to make our way into Hoboken for the Dublin – Kerry match, I wish I had stayed in bed =). They put up a valiant effort, but were just not consistent enough to overcome the strength of Kerry; Kerry 1-15 Dublin 0-16. We were served a delicious full Irish breakfast and had a great time, so it wasn't a complete loss. Time to put the jersey away for another year though, probably for the best, I don't want to miss our crowning.

After the game, we made our way into NYC for another organised outing. A quick bout of attempted shopping, interspersed with encounters with some overly-cheerful Kerrians Kerwegians dirty-stinkin'-boggers, saw us drawing closer to go-time, so we made our way towards Minskoff Theater for a 3pm showing of “The Lion King” but not before a quick pit-stop in Starbucks. The show itself was mind-blowing, and very true to the movie. The stage design, singing and props were all incredibly well executed and elaborate but I won't spoil anything on you. I think the first thing I'll recommend to someone coming to NYC from now on is a trip to Broadway, it's rare that you get to experience something like it back home and the execution and production, naturally, is of a significantly higher standard. We had a bit of a feed back in Hoboken after the show, returning to the Italian joint that we had been to when I was previously graced by my parents presence.



I was treated to a leviathan lump of lip-lickingly luscious steak in Frankie and Johnnies, Hoboken, after work on Monday. Once we had completed the 15 block walk to the steakhouse, it was a welcome feast and was treated to a warm, welcoming home in the bile of my gut, charming, I know.

Today was the last day of my dad's stay so in honour of the many Thursday nights that we have lost during my voyage, we went to Johnnie Rockets (The franchise that Eddie Rockets ripped off, almost identically) during my lunch break for a final goodbye, for now.

And after a weekend of trying, my dad finally managed to unblock our sink; hip-hip, Hurray!