Vegas Baby!

Plane fatigue had certainly set in by the time we reached Las Vegas. The flight from Palm Springs was one of the roughest we have ever experienced. Beads of sweat developed and then began to run down the gentleman's head sat in font of us. Reassuring looks and words came from the flight assistant who was to make the trip a further 3 times before hopefully calling it a day and finding a less nerve wrecking career. Em now reflects on it as the plane of death and the memories of reaching for the sick bag still linger.


We loved Vegas as soon as we landed and were swept away to our hotel in a taxi by a native New Yorker. A former salesman now fulfilling a childhood dream to drive a cab for a living. He informed us the MGM Grand was currently the biggest hotel on the strip with over 5000 rooms, I forget the exact number. Our lodging on the 27th floor impressed immediately. We deserved a good view after the disappointments of San Francisco and L.A. The heat outside was still intense, the air conditioning working overtime to create a fake climate inside the hotels, keeping everybody cool. Everything you could need was inside, there was no real need to venture outside apart from to walk down the building site that is the Las Vegas strip to view the other hotels. New hotels are being built to replace the middle aged ones that don't fit the image anymore. We did a bit of gambling on the slot machines and to Emma's' annoyance managed to win more than I put in.


The main reason for our stop in Vegas was to use it as a base to take a trip to the Grand Canyon. Booked on a trip scheduled to leave at 4am we were startled to receive a phone call at 3.30 informing us to be in the lobby in 5 minutes or be left behind. We made it and took the looks and scowls from the fellow passengers who must have had some inside information regarding the pick up time. A smooth flight out over the Hoover Dam and parts of the Canyon in what appeared to be a bus with wings provided some stunning landscapes as the sun rose in the distance.


I'm trying to recollect the feeling I had of viewing the canyon for the first time up close and personal. Obviously the scale of the place and the colours strike me first, but I was also surprised by how green it was. Vast planes of trees stretching out along the tops of the canyon. The coach tour was a rushed affair with little time to really sit back and take it all in. We could have spent the whole day watching the shadows change as the sun moved to the west. The flight back to Vegas was an experience we're trying to forget. The pilot looked like he was having fun, we on the other hand struggled to hold onto our breakfast.



Cheers.

Palm Springs

I'm sure we will never visit the Greyhound station in downtown L.A. again in our lives. The guide book didn't lie when it said the area was a little seedy. The journey to Palm Springs was eventful, two major looking crashes on the outskirts of Los Angeles followed by the baggage doors of the bus opening thirteen miles from our destination. Thankfully no bags were left scattered over the highway and after some makeshift repairs the bus dropped us off in the searing heat of the desert. Unknown to us, the Greyhound station in Palm Springs closed the week before. The new drop off point was in a small car park next to a row of small stores miles from anywhere. Well that's how it felt and looked. Luckily the payphone had a yellow pages enabling us to call a cab. The heat was like nothing we had ever experienced, the closest thing I can think of is when you open the oven door and get that blast of heat. Only here it was constant, we were in the oven.

Relieved to be at our hotel we just relaxed, waited for the sun to go down a little before venturing out. It was Thursday and the main street closed and became a market full of fresh fruit and vegetables, art & crafts and the odd eccentric musician performing on his electric double bass. A fan blowing his receding blond hair from his shinny tanned face. We didn't get up to much in Palm Springs, abandoning our plans to the Joshua Tree National Park due to the heat. We'll try that again one winter time in the future, for now though we just relaxed recharged our batteries and swam in the pool. A nice change after the hectic times in the cities and in preparation for Las Vegas.

Cheers.

Los Angeles

If you can recall the post for San Francisco you’ll remember that getting down to LA from Monterey was a pretty stressful experience involving a mixture of mini buses, coaches and a train. We arrived at Union Station and it’s beautiful central lobby around 9:45pm. I didn’t take any pictures due to fatigue and a desire to get a taxi as quick as possible so we could settle down at the hotel.

We were tired and hungry and needed some food so we tentatively headed out onto the crazy streets of Hollywood. We made our way through the mix of fellow tourists, street performers, bums, degenerates and muggers to the McDonald's over the road. Not a choice we would usually settle on but we were tired and not in an adventurous mood. The characters inside were just as, if not more crazy and unsavoury as those on the streets with the odd family and tourists thrown in. A Big Mac and some Chicken Selects was followed by a brisk walk back to the hotel to witness a couple of arrests of the perviously mentioned muggers. Lovely place this Hollywood.

We only had one full day in Hollywood and didn’t have much planned. Look at the stars on the sidewalk, the hands and footprints. The Chinese Theatre, Sunset Strip and the shops on Melrose, maybe a hot dog at Pinks. Through the day LA turned out to be quite a pleasant place, I’ve always wanted to see The Chinese Theatre since Star Wars had it’s premier there in 1977. Melrose featured some superb paintings on the side of stores and shops, Pinks was sadly too busy but we found a nice little New York Pizzeria full of Godfather and Sopranos posters and pictures of famous customers from Ray Liotta to Jennifer Love Hewitt.

In the evening we took in the atmosphere of Hollywood Boulevard from a safe distance, looking down from the balcony of the Highland shopping Mall as a street performer entertained the passing crowds below. I wish we could have stayed longer, travelled round and experienced more but we had to move on the following day. The Greyhound bus to Palm Springs was next.

Cheers.

Pacific Grove, Monterey

We are currently relaxing in the desert preparing for our penultimate trip to Las Vegas. It's 111 degrees outside so we're lounging in our room until it cools a little, which gives me a chance to fill you in on the trip from San Francisco to Monterey.

Sunday 24th June.
This was the day we were kind of dreading. The journey to Monterey required us to catch a bus from downtown San Francisco to the train station in Oakland. Trains aren’t good enough for San Francisco unfortunately. The train in Oakland would be coming all the way from Seattle, part of it’s two day journey to Los Angeles and would drop us off at Salinas where we would then catch a mini bus which would take us to Monterey. To say it was a stressful journey would be an understatement and I’m not going to remind myself by writing about it any further. So lets just say we arrived at our hotel safely situated two blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Our lodgings were a little unusual and the welcome a little tepid but we’re two blocks from the Ocean. We had nothing planned but to chill out and relax for the rest of the day and the following before we headed to Los Angeles. We enjoyed a meal at a nice european restaurant. I actually took a risk and had a bit of salmon from Alaska. Not much of a fish eater I actually enjoyed it. The service was good but deteriorated slightly once we ordered a $25 bottle of wine. The wine list was forty pages thick and we showed our dissatisfaction of the waiters snobbery with our tip. As we walked back to the hotel the sun was setting so headed on down to the beach for a better view. This seemed to be the thing to do as a scattering of cars and people sat and watched as the sun disappeared in the distance.

Monday 25th June.
Nothing much to tell you about today really, we walked down the beach, visited Cannery Row in Monterey bought some gifts and tat and walked back up the beach. The pictures can describe the day better than I ever could.





Cheers, Los Angeles next.

San Francisco

I’m currently typing this entry on the train to Los Angeles. It’s been an interesting day. We left Pacific Grove, Monterey this morning and caught the shuttle bus to the desert town of Salinas to catch the train to Los Angeles. A nine hour journey. A good chance I thought to catch up on documenting our travels. Things on the road don’t always go to plan. Our train has been delayed by six hours due to a derailment, pushing the Los Angeles arrival time back to about two, three o’clock in the morning. Not ideal in our book, we were a bit scared about arriving at 9 pm never mind 3 in the morning. Luckily we had a chat with Donna at the ticket desk who helped us out and booked us on a different train scheduled to arrive in LA at 9:45 pm. Good enough. After a 3 hour bus ride through the vineyards of California we are finally on a train heading to Los Angeles. So I need to jump back a few days before all this happened and San Francisco.

Our two year old guide book informed us it was more convenient to fly into Oakland than San Francisco. Enabling us to catch the Air Bart and connecting Bart train at the Oakland Coliseum which would have us in downtown San Francisco in 15 minutes. Of course San Francisco had now updated it’s transport system from the airport and it would now be more convenient to land there and commute into downtown. After a squashed ride on the Air Bart and the help of a presumed homeless lady to buy a couple of tickets to get downtown we arrived at our hotel. Thankfully only half way up one of the notoriously steep hills of San Francisco. In our room we are greeted by a nice view of a brick wall and the fire escape. We’re only on the third floor so cant see past the next building. The first night we just had our usual walk round to find our bearings and check out the local neighbourhood, find a place to eat.

Friday 22nd June.
Our two year old guide book did help us out this time, following it’s advice to book tickets for Alcatraz in advance. The tours were sold out for the next few days so we were pretty relieved to have followed it’s guidance this time. It’ was only a ten minute boat ride to the island so not long enough for Emma to get sick but the boat rocking from side to side did it’s best to unsettle her. Alcatraz was simply great, a fantastic experience and quite beautiful in parts. Outside that is, not the cells which were cold and small. The audio tour allowed us to wander at our own pace and informed us about the prisons history and the attempted escapes. We continued to walk around the viewable areas of the island, keeping our eyes open for the bird crap. It’s a bird sanctuary now after all.

Saturday 23rd June.
The other place we wanted to see in San Francisco was the Golden Gate Bridge. Morbidly it’s one of the most popular places to commit suicide, we didn’t see any jumpers, well only a couple of knitted ones. It was a beautiful clear day, we walked to the middle taking pictures as we went. By the half way point we decided to turn round and returned to buy some souvenirs in the gift shop. We hung around took a few more pictures of the impressive structure then headed back downtown, saving our legs on the old cable car which took the strain on the steep ascents of the San Francisco neighbourhoods.

In the afternoon we took a trip down to the Castro district which turned out to be completely bonkers as Em put it. It was gay pride weekend, so this predominantly gay neighbourhood with bustling and made it difficult for us to find our way round to some of the really nice cafes and gift shops. An experience non the less. Returning to downtown we went for a drink at ‘Cafe Zoetrope’ located within the Sentinel Building, home to Francis Ford Coppola’s production company. The cafe features memento’s from Coppola’s career. We sampled a glass of Francis’ own wine served to us by bartender Peter who let us stand behind the bar. With his rose tinted glasses he was a real throwback to the seventies and looked like he had just walked from the set of The Godfather. Great wine by the way.

Cheers for reading, next up Monterey.

Seattle, part 2

June 21st
Breakfast on the roof deck of the hotel is a great way to start your day. The staff in the Starbucks in the lobby are possibly the friendliest we’ve ever known. The same could be said about Seattle in general from our short experience.

First tourist activity of the day is to visit the O Deck of the Space Needle for some views of the city and the surrounding mountain ranges in the distance. A little hazy to have a really clear view but you could see all of downtown, the harbour and Puget Sound. Beneath the Space Needle is an area called the Seattle Centre, home of the Sci-fi and Science museums. A fun park which had a very 70’s look and feel to it. Possibly not updated since then which maybe the explanation.

We later made our way downtown on the Monorail. A quick three minute journey, cutting through the buildings and above the streets. Wish it went on for longer and through more of the city. Yesterday down at Pikes Place Market we found a groovy looking cafe/store which made it’s own cheese. Never ones to turn down a unique cheese toasty (grilled cheese) this was to be our lunch time destination. Sat on a couple of milk churns, enjoying our toasties within the busy market place. A couple of stores down stands the first ever Starbucks featuring the old logo, store front and interior.

Our afternoon plan was to take one of the harbour cruises. Whilst waiting for the boat we looked round some of the stores on the pier, that was until we entering one of the stores our presence setting off the alarm. Following a polite interrogation we were told we couldn’t look around the cheap store full of nik-naks and other bits of souvenir tat. Once on the boat we received some great views of the city skyline, the public announcer and guide pointed out landmarks and places of interest. It was pretty interesting but a little overpriced for the experience.

For the evening we had read about this place called Bruno’s. we checked it out and thought we should have dinner there. It was a strange, old fashioned, italian, mexican place. full of character which was probably the attraction. We think Bruno himself served us and frankly as weird as the place was we couldn’t complain about the food or the price. 12” pizza and 2 beers for $18. That’s about £9 in real money. It’s a shame we only had two days, loads more places to go and see. I think we’ll be back in Seattle some time in the Future.

Cheers, San Francisico next.

Seattle, part 1

The flight to Seattle turned out to be pretty smooth, the kids kept quiet and our ipods provided the soundtrack to the journey. We arrived around 9.30pm waited for our bags anticipating one of the sleepless children to loose an arm on the baggage claim.

Seattle looked absolutely beautiful from the taxi, the car travelling alongside the skyline with the harbour to our left. We checked in around 10.30pm, dropped off our bags and headed to the roof deck for a panoramic view of the city. The Space Needle illuminated and standing tall. It was wonderful to be finally hear. Both being followers of the Seattle Music scene in the early nineties it’s a place we have always wanted to visit.

Number one place to visit in the guide books is Pikes Place Market. A huge market place full of fresh food stalls, mainly seafood. The most famous being the Pikes Place Fish Market where they throw your order from the front and wrap it up for you. It’s a bit of a show. All through the market are small stalls selling homemade arts and crafts. I bought a really nice journal, sketchbook made from hand made recycled paper with a leather cover. There’s just tons of stuff and a great views of the harbour.

We went to one of Seattle's micro breweries and had a couple of really good beers. Shame the food wasn’t up to much. Cheap burgers at double the price, not a great day for food. Spent the evening at a ball game and introduced ourselves to garlic fries which were superb and put the obligatory hot dog to shame. The Seattle Mariners stadium was a work of art with a retractable roof so none of the games can be rained off. Tonight it was sun all the way. We had seats on the top tier behind home plate. The stadium was about half full, great family atmosphere. Later in the game we moved round the side so we could see the city skyline and the sun go down. Sadly the Mariners lost despite the crowds best efforts.

I thinks that’s enough for now, I’ll try and write some more tomorrow.

Cheers.

Momma, Momma,

Come on, come on. Come here, look at this, look at that. I want this, I want a donut. Momma, Momma, come on come on.
We want to make sure kids are sat nowhere near us. Benadryl is Emma's suggestion.

Airports are always fun, currently we are sat at gate C29 waiting for the flight to Seattle (or we were when we wrote this). A good view of the runway to our left. Two irritating kids to our right. You have to feel for the mother, she has to live with them. Our prnultimate night in Boston was spent firstly on the banks of the Charles river. Sorry to interrupt but the kids have got donuts now, looking forward to when the sugar kicks in! Anyway back to last night. After our lovely picnic, why we haven't done that before we don't know. We thought it would be rude not to have a drink at Woody's, make that three, which is a heavy night for us two. Good conversation with our friends behind the bar. Sadly watching the Yankees beating the Mets. The Red Sox won earlier so they haven't gained any ground which is good. So a good night was had and we managed to get rid of our TV. Great.

The sugar's kicking in now! Looking forward to Seattle, it's going to be a long flight. The ipods in for a heavy shift. Hope there's a good movie on or we can get absorbed in our books.

We'll get back to you later.

Montreal

What can we say about Montréal apart from you are one crazy city, and very French. Which I'm not saying is a bad thing. It's more a reflection on ourselves and the feeling that I personally wish I had paid more attention at school to learn the language. The second largest French speaking city in the western world after Paris. In fact I thought we were in France, not a two hour drive north of the American border. We we're staying in a nice little hotel in the gay district of the city. Not too far from the places you need to see, just off Saint Catherine, one of the main downtown streets. To say the area was a bit of a culture shock would be an understatement. Surrounded by the neon lights, graffiti and numerous sex shops, it took us a while to climatize and feel comfortable. We did take one left turn from the busy streets to find ourselves in the middle of a run down residential area which jangled the nerves slightly but we took it in our stride.

Old Montréal was a much cleaner and comfortable area to walk round, sure it was the main tourist area but for good reason. Streets of old architecture and old shop fronts, outdoor café bars, street performers and portrait artists. Also within Old Montréal stands Notre-Dame de Montréal Basilica which from the outside I found nothing too spectacular to look at. However step inside and the place is a complete masterpiece. Possibly the highlight of the weekend.

We took the trip with Carrie a native Canadian and a nurse who helped Emma settle at the hospital in Boston. Carrie's step sister also lives in Montréal and met up with us on Saturday evening for a trip to Mount Royal which provides views looking over the city and the local raccoons. We certainly saw more of the city with our two excellent guides, introducing us to other neighbourhoods and a good restaurant for some Persian food.

I would say Montréal didn't meet my expectations when we first arrived but grew on me and Emma over the following day. It's certainly an interesting vibrant city with an acquired taste in certain areas. The only thing missing from the trip for Emma was to see a Canadian Mountie. We did see a young Moose on the journey up, jogging casually across the highway. Not a common sight we're told, so we felt pretty fortunate. Unlike the various bits of road kill lying on the side of the road.

We're into our final 2 weeks living in Boston, we fly to Seattle on the 18th June to start our journey down the west coast by train, plane and automobile. Well a bus actually. So there will no doubt be more to follow.

Cheers for reading.

North Bridge

The North Bridge situated in the Minuteman National Park just north of Concord is an absolutely beautiful, scenic place. There's a true sense of history in the surroundings. The park being one of the sites from the beginning of the American revolution and “the shot heard ‘round the world.” A standoff between advancing British troops and American militia, with the militia standing firm and pushing the British back to Boston. It was a little strange being there, felt a little like the enemy.

After our walk round the Park we took in the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery which lies just to the east of the centre of Concord. Not to be confused with the old Dutch burial ground, famous for The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and the headless horseman of upstate New York. Within this Sleepy Hollow Cemetery lies Louisa May Alcott, the author of Little Women, We dropped a couple of pennies on her gravestone which seemed to be the thing to do. Em believes it's because she died very poor, so people drop money on her grave for her to take into the afterlife.

We're heading to Montreal this weekend, our first trip there and into Canada, which is a little exciting. Will post some pictures and stuff when we return.

Cheers.

Fourteen boxes should be enough

This packing lark has been pretty tough this week, we're up to fourteen boxes. We only came over with seven. Granted those boxes were bigger than the ones we have bought this time for the return journey back to England. It's quite funny if a little frustrating to be packing up the odd thing that has not been moved or touched since we unpacked it 22 months ago. Back then of course we didn't know if we would be coming back, staying a little longer or for good. The apartments been in a mess all week which has been a constant irritation. We had a good tidy up yesterday, my art desk is no more and has been replaced by a nice tidy pile of boxes. The trusty desk which has served me well over the past year and a half was placed next to the recycling bins waiting for a new owner to take it home. It wasn't there this morning.

After the disappointment of last Saturdays FA Cup final we had high hopes that the Champions League Final would deliver some quality sports entertainment. To get a better atmosphere we planned to watch the game in a local Irish bar, but to our disappointment they had a $20 door charge, each. With food and a drink or two we would easily have spent $80 or more. So it was back to the apartment with a slice of pizza and a coke to watch the game for free. Thought Liverpool should have won but I guess it was sweet revenge for Milan and another final that failed to live up to expectations. I guess a repeat of the 2005 final was never on the cards, and will probably never be repeated. Maybe next year.

Friday night we went to the Pavilion to watch Keane, the last band we would be seeing out here. Well actually that's a lie because it was Earthfest on Saturday with KT Tunstall performing among others, but that doesn't really count because we were stood to the side and couldn't really see. Plus the sound was pretty terrible. Earthfest's an annual free concert and gathering taking place on the esplanade. Lots of eco conscious promotions and things for you to take in, however it was just too busy to actually get close and take anything in. So back to Keane on a lovely Friday night, the temperature had been in the 90's all day and steadied around the 70's for the evenings entertainment. They we're pretty good, the crowd loved them and sang along, but did they make our top 5. Last week it was films, this week bands.

Emma's

Much like the film she stared in Emma has put Madonna in 'a league of her own' and beyond comparison with any other artist she's witnessed. Em waited 20 years to see her, and to then get seats 10 feet from the stage puts her beyond the following list.

1. Coldplay (Verizon Arena, Manchester NH)
2. Snow Patrol (Bank of America Pavilion, Boston)
3. Gomez (Avalon, Boston)
4. Keane (Bank of America Pavilion, Boston)
5. Illinois (supporting The Kooks. Paradise Rock Club, Boston)

Mark's
1. Coldplay (Verizon Arena, Manchester NH)
2. Madonna (TD Banknorth Garden, Boston)
3. Pearl Jam (TD Banknorth Garden, Boston)
4. The Black Keys (Avalon, Boston)
5. Supergrass (Paradise Rock Club)

Cheers.

3,124 hours later.

Em's completed her hours and is unemployed. Yah.

We're currently surrounded by boxes, boxes everywhere. Sorting through all our things, deciding which things we want to send home and which things we can live without and take to the charity shop. The apartments a bit of a mess, piles of things cluttering the floor. It's a bit of a nightmare for somebody who like to keep things a little tidy. Soon have everything packed up and sent home. We leave for Seattle four weeks today and will be back in England in Six.

I was gutted at missing last years FA Cup final because I was too tight to pay the $25 pay per view fee. Of course it turned out be one of the best finals in years and made $25 seem cheap for 2 hours plus of quality entertainment. Wasn't going to miss this years. But wouldn't you know it, this year it was pretty much a waste of money and time, wouldn't have been as bad if United had won I guess. You win some and lose some, I feel like we lost twice. Gutted again.

A poll released last week put Boston at number 3, behind New York and Miami for road rage. We haven't driven while we have been here so they can't blame us. We've witnessed some shocking driving in our time here, I'm still confused by the turn on red sign, allowing drivers to turn right even if the lights red. That's got nothing to do with road rage though but you need to keep your wits about you as a pedestrian. Especially if your still not used to them driving on the other side of the road.

With us entering our final weeks we thought it would be good to do a few lists of our favourite things experiences while we have lived in Boston and the big U.S. of A. First up, fav five films.

Emma's
1, The Departed.
2, Blood Diamond.
3, United 93.
4, Blades of Glory,
5, Devil Wears Prada.

Mark's
1, The Departed.
2, Munich,
3, United 93
4, Wallace & Gromit Curse of the Were Rabbit
5, Stranger Than Fiction

Cheers.

Bumper stickers

They do of course like to share their opinions over here and bumper stickers is one way of doing just that. Saw this car when we went to Harvard the other week which took it to the extreme.

Well it's nearly the end, Emma has one week left at work. 5 weeks later we'll set off on our west coast trip, 2 weeks after that we'll be returning from New England to the old England, with a new Prime Minister to greet us. The closer we get to coming home the more sad we are to be leaving. We've filled out and sent off our re-entry permits, so if Gordon Brown doesn't look after us we'll hopefully be allowed back into the U.S. of A.

Colour has made a welcome return, spring has definitely sprung. In fact it's been more like summer this week and allowed us to get out for a few walks and enjoy the sun. Although I've come down with some kind of hay-fever/cold thing which has knocked me off my stride for the past couple of weeks. Never suffered from hay-fever back in England and didn't get as many colds because I rode my bike once or twice a week, kept me a bit fitter. Looking forward to getting back on the bike when I return. Will need to buy one first though.

We're not the only ones planning to leave over the next month or so. All the local universities and colleges are rapping up for the summer and graduating students returning home. Should be allot quieter round here when they've moved on, until the next lot arrive in August. We of course wont be here by then, if we were staying. I doubt we would be staying in the apartment building. It's become more like a halls of residence while we've been here, watching the families move out and the students move in, musical instruments and small dogs in tow. There's still 'Smoky Joe' that's not his real name but one Em gave him. He's still around, resuscitating himself each morning after his walk. He's just one of the many characters we've come across out here. Going to miss them all. Going to miss Boston.

Cheerio.

My Head Hurts

That's what happens when you go to the IRS website, trying to learn about things we need to do before we return home.
Apologies for not writing anything last week. The Virginia Tech shootings/Massacre consumed everything last week and I just didn't feel like writing about that or anything else. So took a week off. Not really too much to talk about this week either regarding life in the wild west. Or should I say east of the wild west. So sorry if this turns into some pointless waffle about pancakes and french toast or something. Mmmmmm French Toast.

So should we extend our green cards is the question? I know we're coming home in a couple of months but surely it's wise to keep our options open. Applying for 'Reentry Permits' would no doubt save loads of time and money if we a year or so down the road decided the wild west was really for us and a sausage dog. Personally I think we both want to settle down again, buy a house, lay down some roots, be around and closer to family and friends, sit in a garden.

We're not too happy about the £ vs $ at the moment either, good if your coming over here this summer, bad if your moving back east across the atlantic. Cut our (When I say our I mean Em's) savings in half. Damn you incredibly strong pound and puny dollar. Hopefully things will balance out a little better for us by July.

Emma will have 10 shifts left to work after today, which is great news. 10 more to go then she'll be free. Not that it's been a prison sentence. I guess it's like a really long day at work. It's nearly 5.30 and time for home.

Bye until next Friday.

Opening Day

Hello.

How’s your week been? good we hope. As promised last week I made my way down to Fenway Park to take some pictures of the Red Sox home opening game. We didn’t have tickets for the game but it’s just a great atmosphere round the park and just wanted to be there. We wont be able to do it next year. It was great hearing the crowd cheer as each players name was announced. Then there was the usual flyover by four fighter planes which was pretty impressive. They always manage to fly over the stadium just as the national anthem comes to a finish. The Sox won 14 - 3 against the Seattle Mariners. The game started at 2pm, so loads of people took the day off work, many I suspect pulling a sicky. I didn’t hang around for too long after then cause I wanted to get back and watch Man U thump Roma. Which they did. A good day all round.


It’s the marathon on Monday and unfortunately we’re expecting some pretty crap New England weather for it. It’s definitely going to rain, maybe a bit of snow. It’s going to be cold no matter what. The finish lines just down the road so may make an attempt to get down there. We’ll see how bad it is. Really tired of the cold weather, would hate to be running 26 miles through it.

Em’s got the weekend off, we haven’t really planned anything for it as yet other than buying boxes to start packing some things up. Em’s gone through her wardrobe, pulling out all the stuff she doesn’t wear or doesn’t fit. Who would have thought moving to America would make us thinner. Walking off all those burgers and pizza you see.

Cheerio.

Can you believe it's April?

Hello all.

How's your week been? Ours has been okay nothing special to natter about really. The main thing for us, especially Emma is that it's April. Em can now say she finishes work and fulfils the contract next month, which is like lifting a huge weight off her shoulders. As much as we're enjoying ourselves, being tied down by a contract has put a bit of a downer on things. More than we realised. But there's light at the end of the tunnel and we're looking forward to moving onto the next chapters in our lives. That was a little deep to start with so onto something lighter. Well actually it's not but I'm amused by it.

As mentioned last week violence in parts of Boston has escalated lately. The Mayor & Governor got together to make plans on how to curb the violence. One is to only allow people to buy one gun per month, what a brilliant idea. I just laughed, does that include bullets? Sure that will make all the difference on the black market, "Sorry dude you've already bought a gun this month". I should reiterate that we feel safe and happy in Boston. Every city has it's dodgy areas and neighbourhoods, we know where they are and stay clear. Not seen a Guardian Angel yet, which is a good thing I would be worried if we did.

Now onto lighter matters. Baseball, the season has started and the Red Sox new star, Japanese pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka has settled in well. Playing his first competitive game yesterday, he struck out 10 of the Kansas City Royals and impressed the Red Sox nation into believing he maybe is worth the $100+ million he cost. Red Sox first home game is on Tuesday so will do our best to get down to Fenway Park and take some pictures for next weeks entry.

Last thing to say is Happy 30th Birthday to Clare.

Cheerio.

May the force be with you.

Hello all,

I'll start with something many may find a little sad and not the feeling blue kind of sad. Basically one of the highlights of my week was to find an R2-D2 post box, out on the streets to mark the 30th anniversary of Star Wars. There are supposed to be about 400 across America, we've now seen 2 in Boston, the one pictured above is at the bottom of our street outside the Boston Symphony. The postal service also plan to release a set of stamps, not sure if I'm going to be sad enough to buy the set however just yet.

Wednesday night we saw Snow Patrol at the Boston University Arena which was pretty good and Em enjoyed singing along to all the songs, cause she can't do that in the apartment. Well actually she could, everybody else does. We've got a few singers on our floor including a couple of tenors who may work at the Symphony. They're pretty good too, better than the bloke who has started playing saxophone on the corner of the street, who makes the most irritating noise imaginable. Makes you wish for some crap weather to make him go home and bother somebody else.

We managed to have a bit of a tourist day today, breakfast by the Charles river followed by a walk downtown to look for some summer clothes. Had a dodgy sandwich near Faneuil Hall, well mine was okay, Em's was a little rubbery. We spent the rest of the afternoon sat at the other side of the harbour, looking back at the city, watching the ships coming in and going out again.

Boston's gone a little crazy of late, shootings, stabbing's and kids taking guns to school. Usual happenings but on a more escalated scale at present. All in the usual areas, so we're kind of used to it I guess. We know not to head that way and obviously don't plan to, unlike the Guardian Angels who've ventured up from New York to try and help stop the violence. We feel safe, like I say we know where not to go, that's one thing we do thank Roland, the O'Grady Peyton meet and greeter for. Remember him. He took us through those areas in our first week nearly making us change our minds and head straight home. Maybe he was educating us.

Have a good weekend, hopefully the dodgy sandwich won't ruin ours.

Cheers.

Last Friday

It snowed.

Sorry nothing much to talk about, we'll think of something for next week. Hope you like the pictures Em took. 'The film we saw last week 'The Zodiac' was really good by the way.

Cheers.