Fresh fruit!

The Californian weather is very warm all year round, even now it is their 'colder' season they say the weathers not so good but to us it is glorious! It's cloudy and foggy in the morning and evening because of the ocean but then the sky becomes cloudless. We are staying at Redondo Beach, nearer orange county and southern California than LA.

It is normal to see parrots in the trees, and see fruits hanging.

Joy has a tangerine tree, a grapefruit tree, a lemon tree and an orange tree in her back garden, something that seemed rather foreign to us!




Rosina is going very brown, and I'm beginning to change from 'see through' to a very pale tan!


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Meet Corky!

This is Corky the chihuahua!




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California!

And we're settled in California, just about!

Coach journey went well, didn't seem to long stopped off in the desolate hill billy town of Barstow...not the best part of California! Arrived in LA, 5.30pm, met joy who were staying with and headed home, downtown into Orange County, by the beach, to be welcomed by Corky the schizophreniac chihuahua and ....Bonnie and clyde, two very fluffy cats. Rosina is really allergic to cats, and even though they had been promised that they would stay out of our room and she had dosed up on piriton, the first night Rosina had a full on cat attack, wheezing, sneezing, eyes watering!

The cat attack has subsided now but she's left with one hell of a chesty cough! Which she hopes will ease off soon!

Now LA and the surrounding cities are huge and everything is about an hour away fom everything, and it's all spaced out. Joy had said she would drive us everywhere but wanted to go an explore yesterday so we ventured onto the metro line! About an hour later we rocked up at Hollywood Vine station...onto the glamorous Hollywood walk of fame....well glamorous not so much!!! The stars are on the floor, but there is dirt, and rubbish and hobos scattering the 'walk of fame', we wernt surprised as this is what everyone says it is like! So we walked towards the hives of people, swarming the Kodak theatre and more central Hollywood. It was a reasonably nice day, so we decided to go on a jeep tour of 'Hollywood land', as Rosina wasn't feeling up to walking a lot so off we went on the tour. The perfect way to see all the sights! We headed into Beverly Hills to see all the mansions, 52roomed castles, 10ft high gates, we saw the homes of Christina Aguillera, Tom cruise, Michael Jackson, the Playboy mansion, Simon Cowell. These places are intense, the divide between rich and poor here is even more prominent that in New York. We continued our drive through the palm tree lined streets, to Rodeo drive, shopping centre to the intensely rich! Driving along through the traffic, at one point there was a Lamborghini on one side and a Porshe on the other, all the designer shops, restaurants and of course the Beverly hills housewives and there chiuahas! We then headed down Sunset Boulevard,being shown all the famous film sites as well as other sites like where Whitney Houston was found etc! The driver then took us up to the Hollywood Hills for us to get a photo of the Hollywood sign, wellas near as you can get! Which isn't so near! We then headed to mels diner for dinner before visiting the Edge to take class, with Adam parsons, an amazing teacher Rosina knows through kinisi! Joy came to meet us as it was a late class, and la is not so excitingb night and we headed home!

This morning were going for a walk down the beach and then onto a different studio and a different class thus afternoon. Weve got some plans for the weekend, going to see ABT and then a tap Jam with joy, then it's Disneyland time next week!

The Big Win!

Today we visited Shark Reef at Mandalay bay Hotel. This is a full size aquarium inside the resort, full if exotic fish and a massive tank of sharks!

We then headed back to our hotel to laze by the pool, do some swimming and chill in the amazing sunshine.

Tought we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner and then we went to the New York, New York game arcades, did some moves on the retro dance mat and the penny slot machines, to not much avail! On the way out we saw a Sex and the City slot machine in the casino and though $1 won't hurt, and we are in Vegas, so we have to say we'd done it! We got our free cocktail which you get if you play in the casino and sat down... Rosina only went and won $60 straght off! We quit whilst we were ahead and thought that that money can pay for our bus tickets tomorrow! (although there already booked, we can put it back in the bank!)

Califiornia, here we come!

The Big Win!

What we've been up to!

Found some wifi, in the Starbucks in the Hotel, yes the Hotel has a full size Starbucks inside!
Thought i'd upload some photos of our escapades in Vegas so far, right now we should have been on the train to LA, but were staying here an extra night and getting the bus tomorrow!

We visited the famous Las Vegas Sign!

This is the Venitian hotel, with a full sized replica of the Rialto Bridge, Capanile and Gondolas like in Venice!

Wedding Chapel!

This our hotel from the Pool!

This is the New York, New York hotel...It as you can see has replicas of the main sights in NY, including Statue of Liberty, Grand Central, Empire State and Chrysler. It also has the Roller coaster, similar to Coney Island! of course we went on that!

This is our Hotel, Monte Carlo!

Our Fishbowl drink on day 1, its called Shark Attack and has gummy sharks all around the bottom!

Las Vegas Boulevard!

We had a Aqua Massage!

Met the Coca Cola Polar Bear!

Watched the Bellagio Fountains!

Visited the Sphinx at Luxor Hotel!

and the Eiffel Tower at Paris Hotel!

This is the famous Caesars Palace hotel, i think it is actually bigger than Beachampton...! The Top picture is the Forum Shops, (Shopping centre to the World) where we went and window shopped and then had dinner, Sam is then in the Hotel Lobby, where the iconic scene from the Hangover is filmed (if you haven't seen that film, and you're over 18...watch it!).

We then had dinner, and cheesecake at the Cheesecake Factory!

Vegas!

We arrived in Vegas slightly earlier as the flight landed early, got a taxi to our hotel!

Driving from the hotel we began to realise how big everything was! From the airport you can see the famous Sphinx and the pyrmaids you also can see the other hotels. The driver didn't drive us down the strip so we entered the hotel from the back entrance. We are staying at Monte Carlo.

We spent the afternoon at the pool, headed down to the strip and found a restaurant, everything was calm, the sun was setting, dinner was great and then it hit us. After asking the waitress where the train station was , which she didn't know, we found out las Vegas Nevada doesn't have a station...but we have the train tickets for LA...from las Vegas New Mexico...three states away.

Panic struck!for weeks Rosina has been wondering why the train was going to take 20hours, especially as on the Hangover film they drive from Vegas to la in a morning. For some reason this was the one thing we didn't check and double check.

Thank goodness for the iPad! We found a coach that we could get to la, but we couldn't get hold of joy, the lady were staying with in la as we knew she was in vacation until the day we arrive (weds) so it was either get the coach which takes less time and attempt to find a hotel in la for the night, or travel weds and stay here another night. The rooms are great and the bed is amazing so we choose to stay here, some where we know and at least get a good nights sleep!

We had tickets to see cirque at 9.30pm, last night and had an hour to sort all this out, after getting back to the hotel, and the iPad, we then attempted to walk the strip to treasure island, it is so much longer than you would expect and so much longer than it looks, so had to jump in a taxi.

Cirque MYstere , was at treasure island hotel, the show was phenomenal. The tricks, and circus acts are so good, there are no safety harnesses at all , which kept us all on tenterhooks, but made spiderman look lame!!!

We then walkedback along the strip, went in the Venetian, caesars palace and the bellagio, caught the free casino tram back to our hotel!

Today we went site seeing, pictures to come as the wifi doesn't work to well



Off to dinner now at the cheesecake factory and watch the bellagio fountains!

An end of a chapter...

And so.... 6months in NY are over, of course another chapter will happen in NY but who knows when!

We went out for Breakfast at the diner, came back finished packing, and got our apartment checked! Spent the afternoon with packing extraordinaire Suwan (Singapore-London 10x) she knows how to tessellate, and we were lucky enough to get our cases down a few pounds each as they were on the heavy side, handing over things that we can get again cheaply to Suwan to use in NY.

Sam promised Rosina he'd pay for her to have her nails done for Vegas, so she went and had those done, whilst Sam and Suwan changed the 'coppers', totally a magnificent $1.59! And then we all headed downtown, saying goodbye to Suwan at 50th street, and continuing down to South street seaport for dinner, looking out over the Brooklyn Bridge, after dinner we strolled along the bridge and took a view last views of The Manhattan Skyline!

We're off to bed now for our 4.30am pickup for our Vegas flight!

Thankyou New York for being utterly Fabulous!

Penultimate day in NY!

So today was our last Friday in NY for a while! (Already planning ahead to the next time, NY will always draw us back)

Packing, cleaning, running, shopping, dancing, eating, drinking, chatting, laughing filled our day!

We headed to BDC in the afternoon to take our last class, of course you have guess it, Rosina did Chris Hale and Sam did Jermaine! Said our final 'see you soons' to our friends, and got the token picture....

We then met our original New Yorker Miss Mary for a coffee at Amy's bread!

The Last Supper!

It was our turn to organise the 'leaving meal' this time. Was definitely not the most organised thing we have organised! Rosina put it on facebook and accidentally invited all our friends in Manhattan, therefore the FB event had about 37 acceptees...however most of the people that came didn't even check there facebook events. We changed it from 7pm to 8pm for some people to be able come after class, as just sent a random little message to everyone, 'meeting at 8pm' ....which google translated wrongly for the Japanese!

All in all though, 12 people came a long to our gathering at the infamous Dallas BBQ's in Times sq, and after we headed into Times Sq (The weather and night felt like we were in Spain in August!) for our last evening all together!

Tonight we see Mary for drinks after class, and Tomorrow Sam and I are going to the Brooklyn Bridge at Dusk.

'Japan!'

Flowers from the lovely Breanna! 

The 'Bestie' Danielle Gallant, from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan , Canada!

and her double act, Breanna from Vancouver , Canada!

Token Texas size cocktails....when in Rome!

A picture to go with the 'Odd People' blog...

Odd people!

People watching in NY is addictive. There are a tremendous amount of weirdos.

Fully grown adults on micro scooters, People walking there cats, lots of people talking to themselves, people looking through bins, people collecting bottles/cans (although we have now realised that if you take a bottle to a drug store you get 5cents), people stretching out on the pavement (literally yoga), people changing clothes in public, people eating food off the floor, etc etc...

Down in Hudson river park today, there were two old folks, who had bought there deckchairs (very british looking camp chairs!) to sit and enjoy the sun, fair enough you'd think....but right next to them was the full on Highway, Riverside Parkway, similar to the M1... completely content they sat there all afternoon, unperturbed by the constant flow of traffic...they could have chosen anywhere in the park thats not by the road but no...!

What we also find weird, is the kids that never seem to be in school...in the UK its obvious when its half term...here not so much...! Either there are a lot of tourist kids, hanging around the Upper west side, or lots of truants, or school is only some days during the week, or random hours who knows.
Then of course there are the millions of Nannies and Opares that look after the the cities children...never do you see a baby in a pram look anything like the lady pushing it, to be honest I think this is quite sad, obviously people need childcare, but you see these children everywhere with there nannies, all weekend, in the evenings, at the park, at the supermarket, on there way to school, you do wonder what the parents actually do...!

Disco and Diva

We have gotten to know our neighbourhood friends....the local dogs!

Dog's are about Fashion here, cool mixed breed dogs, pedigree dogs, dogs in prada coats, its not so much about the personality, and boy we know a little dog with a lot of personality back home! But then there isn't much space for personality, when the only place you get to go off lead are the dog runs, you have to go in an elevator to get to you house and there aren't any back yards! You do not walk down the street for one minute without seeing a dog, either walking, being carried, in a bag, or even in a stroller.

Ok dogs around our area that we've seen a lot;

1. The old sheepdog that really does not want to go for a walk.

2. The overweight Pug that sprawls out on broadway whilst his own chats.

3. The Yogi Dreadlock dog that sits by its owner in central park, looking like its in Lotus.

4. The big fluffy teddy bear that struts around Hudson river park.

5. The Poodle with bracelets, black with little red wrist bands...!

6. Disco and Diva, the matching Dulux Dogs. These aren't there actually names,just what Rosina has named them, we think one is called Bugsby, but were not sure, we see these every day, one has a blue ponytail and one has a pink one! 

Marathon training!

Sam has run, since xmas,  155.1miles...!

With his little Nike Sports Band (best christmas present I have ever bought him!) he tracks his runs, (sometimes like today he goes twice in one day!) and maps out his lengths, sets goals, wins cyber trophies etc!

Every runner in NY has to say they've run in Central Park, although its not the quickest and easiest route for us to get to, like the Hudson river park, we decided to go today, I only run once a week, so having gone yesterday I sat in the 26degree sunshine in the park whilst Sam ran around the reservoir, only 2miles long though, so after 12minutes he was back....! We then relaxed in the park for a bit and headed home.

Not satisfied with his short run, and also because he has to finish 2 more runs in 2 days for his next trophy, he went running again this time down Hudson river, to 23rd street....98th-23rd....and then did his exercises!

Good job really as were going to ALL American Dallas BBQ'S tonight for dinner!!