Glad to hear you're back safe and well. The boys are back in Australia to their real lives with a thud. The morning they left Keiran said that he had just had the best two weeks of his life, at least what he could remember of the previous two weeks. He got home on Friday morning at 10.00am and they had to leave for the airport at four and he still hadn't bought anything for his girlfriend so we made a quick trip to Macys for that, both very hungover. I got totally plastered on the Thursday night and arrived home around 5.00am (so I'm told). Ron and I were in a state of exhaustion for 2 days after they left. The earliest they came home in the whole 2 weeks was 2.30 am and most of the time it was between 7 and 9 am and three times they brought extra people home to sleep off the night before (they were friends of ours who we had introduced them to). Some of the stories from their trip will have to be censored but I think they should write a book. They both want to return and Keiran is already making enquiries about playing rugby over here next year and Marck hooked up with one of my neighbours and had a little holiday romance.

My dear friend Sylvia has twin 12-year-old boys. I think in a couple of years I'm going to suggest she send them to you guys for a while. You really know how to raise kids!!! You know, I hadn't realized how you spelled Marck until now. Gotta be a little different, eh?

I'm embarrassed how bad I am at posting photos. It's just been so busy here, and it might be noticed if I sat here with my camera connected, posting photos. I'll do it soon, I promise. Maybe we'll see the KMs pictures of Italy, too.

Big Hugs!

I so know how you feel Oracle. That work thing just gets in the way. I need to be working on my orange sale tally for After Prom, and having all those orange slips of paper on my desk would totally let everyone know what I was doing. Will stay late to do it, but have to be home for Amazing Race!

Marea, I remember you saying something about taking after your Mom in the unusual name spelling dept when you mentioned Marck's name some time ago. Until you wrote that, I had always thought your name was pronounced with a long A sound for the e, and a short a sound following. I still catch myself sometimes reading it that way.

Envy you girls the weather. It was the dryest February on record here. March is our snowiest month, hope it holds true. It looks like something is blowing in from the mountains as I write. Much darker than at lunch which found me exploring the new neighborhood my office is in. Found a really nice shop selling local art of all kinds. Stay warm.

Yes we like to be a bit different with the names and/or the spelling. I think my mother originally wanted my name pronounced the way you mentioned Salsa and some people do pronounce it that way, especially here in the US but in country Australia it was just too hard. We have names in the family like, Edeline, Verlie, Levina, Greville and Marck's son is Kyton so I guess I got off lightly.

Glad to read, Cozz, that you only did a spot of light shopping at Maycs....

Having said that....how could you only do light shopping? The place is a mecca! It gets my vte every time!

where are the pictures from the river cafe??

Ah, to answer your comment ES, I returned to Macys with a vengeance!

After arriving back from Woodbury Common I legged it to the hotel and had a shower. After unpacking all of my bags and getting the room tidied for Mums imminent arival, I got ready to meet O and Jen at the Union Theater. I then got a phone call from the front desk demanding to know why I hadn't been down to change rooms. I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and was about to leave for downtown for the theater. I had to pack my bags and move to another room and still try to arrive at the theater on time. I packed and the bellman was sent up. He moved me to a room that had one double bed. Not an ideal situation when sharing with your mother. (The bellman told me he still slept with his mother, even though she had been dead for several years!!! I was too stressed to follow up on that comment, how stupid can a person be!). I made a bit of a fuss at the front desk, left my bags with the Adams Family member and headed downtown.
Finally got to meet O an Jen. We duely headed over to the nearest bar for cocktails. I had my first Cosmo, which was leathal!
O gave me the T-shirt and chocs from the 2 KM's, thanks again guys for that, it was so nice of you to think of little old me! Hopefully you will be in the same continent next time I come for a visit.
After downing our cocktails, we rolled over to see the Slava Snowshow, which wasn't half bad. The snow storm and big balls were a hoot and all in all, I enjoyed the show. I think the cocktail made it slightly bearable for O, though she did enjoy the big balls!!!
We then headed over to the Carnegie Deli. The sandwiches are ridiculous. I am very impressed that no-one has dropped dead from a coronary while eating one!!! They were delicious though, as was the cheesecake. I will definately be going back there on my next visit. I was covered in Slava Snow and O kept make comments to intrigued passers by like "Don't say anything, she gets very embarrased" and "Lisa dear, there's a little something on your shoulder"!!! It was hysterical!!!
We went uptown by bus and after being left alone and starving (NOT!) by O and Jen, got off the bus a couple of blocks before my stop to walk back in the snow.
Mum and co arrived safely and I went up to the room to find the double had been replaced by 2 singles, which was very good of the hotel staff.
Monday morning we had breakfast at the Key West Diner which was pretty good. Then I headed off to Sephora after pointing Mum and Co in the right direction. They were a pretty snooty lot in Sephora, so I decided to head downtown for a wander. Walked in the snow past the Library and as far as the Flatiron building which was sadly covered in scaffolding. Had a really good capaccino in the coffee shop opposite and then made my way back up to ES's Mecca!
Popped into Jerry Ohlingers first though for photo's of Snoop Dog and TuPac for my son. He is so pleased with them!
Had my face done by a lovely lady at the Prescriptives counter and then met up with Mum to do some more shopping.
Made my way back to the hotel, after dealing with an incident in Macys, then threw on some clothes and did a mad dash down to the River Cafe to meet up with the gang. I was late, sorry again! But the meal, company and food was amazing. O bought me a brilliant book, thanks again O. I can definately recommend going to the River Cafe, it is truly an experience not to be missed. The food was divine, it truly was. And the view....words can't describe that view. One in a million.
O and Jen dropped me off at my hotel, I was knackered as the jetlag had finally caught up with me. I was in bed before Mum got back from the theater (she saw the Phantom and really enjoyed it, though most of the kids fell asleep as they were so tired and the boys hated it)

Right, off to make dinner. Next instalment when I have time!


Was once van Mullem, am now just Cozz!

The bellman slept with his mother? His dead mother ? Now that's a whole new thread in itself!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know, and I am still kicking myself for not going in on the statement. It is so unlike me to have let something like that ride! Like I said, I was stressed, rushed and p'ed off at the time or I would have been interogating and taking notes!

Was once van Mullem, am now just Cozz!

Anyway, back to my trip report.
Tuesday saw another breakfast at the Key West Diner. We went by bus through Central Park and I left Mum and Co at the Met. I carried down to the Frick Collection. Good place to go to if you want to see how the other half lived way back when. The library was my favourite room. There are loads of old books but was told off for squatting by one of the security guards! How else are we supposed to read the titles of the books?! I said that pulling out a couple of books to read was probably not allowed either and he went into a long and lengthy explanation about why this was not allowed and where I could read these title.....sarcasm was lost on the man.
After the Frick Collection, I headed over to Serendipity. Make sure you make a reservation, they only accept a certain amount and only by phone. I had the famous frozen hot chocolate, which was immense, they should really do half sizes for people on their own. I also had the meatloaf which was really delicious. The queue when I arrived was long, but when I left it was just ridiculous.
Just up the road from Serendipity was the Roosevelt Island cable car. It was in the first Spiderman film, so I went on there as I had time to spare. You can use your Metrocard, so it won't cost you anything extra. The views were great and using the cable car for a return trip took around 40 minutes.
I then headed back to the Met to meet up with Mum and the kids. We went into the park and the kids had time to take photos of and draw The Gates. I took O's advice and accosted a ball stick guy and got a handfull of swatches for the kids, they were impressed
After they had finished we headed down to Chinatown for a spot of shopping. I got a hand painted name board for my daughter. It's about 30 cm wide and a good meter in length and is a really nice present for a kid. It only cost $10 including a cardboard frame which kept it nice and flat for the trip home. Then I had a mad dash back to Times Square with a group of kids in tow, to waive to ES, Karen and hubby. As the kids were slow (I thought they were full of energy at this age), I arrived 5 minutes or so late to find a whopping great big Dutch bloke hogging the camera! The messages I had written on a book were illegable so Karen and ES had no idea which one was me! Jen waived as well (she was the one in the white coat, I was the one in the grey).
I then met up with Mum again and we legged it all over Times Square and got our faces on the HSBC bill board. Here is my link, it should work till the end of March: [us.hsbc.com]. Click on the "view video" link and then type in 112469342 in the bottom left hand corner and then click "Go".
After visiting Herscheys and picking up a group of the kids, we went back to the hotel and then went to the Garage in the Village. The NYC Jazz Orchestra was playing and they were awesome. The food as usual, was excellent. I cannot recommend this place enough! We had offered to take the kids to the cinema after the Garage but they were too tired (light weights!) and so we made our way back to the hotel.
Somewhere during the last few days, I also went to the Toys R Us store and got some bits, the NBC store and also visited FAO Schwartz. FAO was depressing. It is all high tech and none of the cuteness has remained. I won't be going back there.
Will write another installment later.

Was once van Mullem, am now just Cozz!

That chap in front of you at Times Square was there for ages! His phone bill would be a whoppa that's for sure. I could see you had sometning written, but couldn't make out what it was. Have saved the picture though! I've just tried the link for the HSBC but it's unavailable...will try later.

I hope it was! I tried to get him to move in 2 languages but he just didn't care. I think he was on a booty call.

Was once van Mullem, am now just Cozz!