The Holiday

I was going to attemp to do a retrospective, day by day account of the holiday, but you know what, I just can't be bothered.  And while it was certainly interesting to us, I can't think of anyone else who would wade though 17 days of posts.  So - I've copied this account from a message I sent to a friend - it all just sort of tumbled out at the time, which means it's probably captured all the important bits.

Well, it was an amazing holiday! I hardly know where to start. The first week was really manic, visiting DC, Philly and New York. Washington was really nice - very open and all the buildings spread out with huge roads in between - although our hotel was out in a more residential area about 2 miles out of the city centre. Amazing to see the white house and capitol hill - and hard to take in that Obama lives behind those white pillars!! Saw Michelle's vegetable garden and bee hives that she keeps. Cheapest hotel we stayed in but best in terms of what you got for your money. Free buffet breakfast, free wi-fi (all the posher hotels made you pay extra for them - the only difference between the posh hotels is things are all in marble and leather rather than plastic and wood - and the service wasn't even better!). Anyway I digress!

New York was pretty much how I thought it would be. Ramshackled in some places and nicer in others. Did the Top of the Rock instead of Empire State and it was a fabulous view. It was raining when we got to the top and thought our visit would be wasted, but then this amazing rainbow appeared completely circling the building. My photos don't do it justice. Statue of Liberty was amazing and spent most part of the day there and around the area.  Highlight, of course, had to be meeting up with the NY Wasters & Associates on the Friday night.  Lowlight had to be the severe diarrhoea in the early hours of Friday morning. Thank goodness for Loperamide!

Philly I can take or leave, wasn't too impressed with it but glad I went nonetheless. Saw the Rocky statue and walked up the famous steps from the Rocky film.

Cape Cod was lovely and relaxing, we were right on an inlet which looked like a river which was at the bottom of the garden - lots of wildlife to see - baby rabbits in the garden and a huge marsh hawk that would fly by most mornings to say hello! Went to Marthas Vineyard - it was nice but the Isle of Wight is more picturesque and I think someone should mention that to the President when he's choosing his holiday destination for next year.  Also had a day whale watching off the Falmouth Coast and saw loads of whales - we were really lucky. Got some nice pics of their tales disappearing into the water and a few of them coming up for air and feeding.

Had a day in Boston and followed some of the Freedom Trail and saw Quincy's Market which was great. Visited the Cheers shop and got some souveniers for folks back home.

Then we went back to NY for the last 2 days which was more tiring and just did a walk around  Greenwich Village and saw the Flat Iron Building, and the biggest bookshop in the world (Barnes and Noble) - so that pleased Jenny.

All the train journeys went really smoothly, I'm really impressed with how organised they are with their transport systems - and how nice everyone was. America itself didnt seem as strange as I thought it would, I think because we're exposed to it so much on the telly over here, it was almost like visiting somewhere I already knew. I was surprised that the cars weren't all 59 Chevvy's mind you (too many old movies!) - loads of Japanese cars instead. Didn't see too many obese people either, but maybe they were all inside their homes!!!

Thorough enjoyed it though, but suffered terrible jet lag the past few days trying to readjust my sleeping patterns back again.

Well ...

today has been a constructive day. Had a good chat with my boss and I will definitely be leaving Gastro.  I'll be sad to leave the team -they've all been really great to work with and very supportive over the last year or so. I am however glad that I can stay at the hospital but move on to something new.  So I'm relieved and happy that there is a way forward.  I popped in to let the Gastro girls know my news and I'll make sure to stay in touch and pop back to see them often.

It was also Becky's Prom night tonight - so once I got home it was a quick turn around to get her up to Joanne's house where they were all being picked up by limo.  Becky had spent some of her hard earned cash on a bottle of champagne and a bottle of Bucks Fizz which we opened for them before the limo arrived. I'm not convinced any of them actually liked the taste of the champers, but it made for a nice photo and it was a nice gesture on Becky's behalf.

Times like this make me very proud of my girls. It does make me sit and reflect on how lucky we are to have two such lovely daughters.  I'm very proud of them both.  It does make me feel old though. It's incredible to think that Becky has finished school now and goes into 6th Form next year.  In 2 short years she will be zipping off to University and our little house will empty save for Simon and myself and how strange will that feel?

Here she is with her friends in all  their Prom glory.

Decisions!

Well I've organised a meeting with my boss for this afternoon.  I think I'm gonna see if I can be moved to a different department when I go back to work.  I got quite upset at a film last night, which was dealing with death and grieving, and I'm know I'm not going to handle going back into Gastro very well.  Hopefully we can come to some alternative arrangement otherwise it's gonna be back to the job centre for me :-(.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

3 flights

4 train journeys
1 Ferry

1 car hire
5 cities
1 Island

5 hotels

1 holiday home

And equal amounts of excitement and trepidation!




And incredibly - I am almost packed.  We don't leave until Saturday. Today's Tuesday yeah?
I'm usually throwing things in my case at the last minute the night before we go away.
What the heck am I gonna do for the rest of the week?

Pick of the bunch

Flowers from my neighbour's allotment

more pictures here