It's Mermaid Parade time again. The 25th year it's been going but this will only be my 3rd visit. Last year was overcast, gloomy and threatened rain all day but spirits remained higher and people perkier than the average pastied breast on display.
This year is a whole bunch sunnier and I'm expecting a MUCH bigger crowd (elbows are being sharpened across much of New Jersey I'm sure)... this year also sees me heading out with Mike (who will enjoy the breasts) and K-Jizer (who will enjoy the sequins) so the whole thing should be enormous fun.
I have tickets for The Ball too - but with Velcro home alone I'm going to have to leave and be back here by about 5.30 otherwise I'm libel for prosecution (or something). I could drop her at DayCare but she's knackered from last week and could do with some 'alone time'
Of course Coney Island starts a huge redevelopment next year and I have a feeling that the sideshow freaks, the burlesque on the beach, the monster movies at midnight and general sense of fun will be pulled down with the fiarground and replaced with earnest bragging about real estate prices. I think that it's a shame. But then I visit twice a year - so what do I know?
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Ah - the Red Eye
So I got tickets for the 8pm plane and then started to sit out the delay. At 11.45 we boarded, I immediately fell asleep and woke up at about 1.15am as we came in to land in Chicago. Reaching up I see that all of the cold air vents are pointing at me and decide that either the guy in the next seat is an idiot, an asshole or was driven to pettiness by my slobbering and snoring.
Off the plane, through baggage and outside where a drunken "New Yoiker" is acting as though the idea of a taxi line is an idea revived from 1940s Hicksville and keeps trying to hail full cabs "New York Style"
We get into our cab where a barely awake and constantly veering taxi driver sets off for our hotel. Miles later and with signs for Memphis, TN everywhere we arrive at the Holiday Inn Express. It's the kind of hotel where the 'out of order' signs are rotated daily and the wallpaper us held up only by the tar from a million illicit cigarettes. Breakfast is eaten in silence but you can hear the 'how did my life come to this?' internal monologue going on everywhere.
If the windows opened I'd be heading out of them and into the carpark in an unholy plummet.
Still we're here despite recruiter issues, venue issues, flight issues, legal issues, more flight issues and a budget tighter than a post Denis Rodmann reconstructed Carmen Electra.
Here's to Chicago
Off the plane, through baggage and outside where a drunken "New Yoiker" is acting as though the idea of a taxi line is an idea revived from 1940s Hicksville and keeps trying to hail full cabs "New York Style"
We get into our cab where a barely awake and constantly veering taxi driver sets off for our hotel. Miles later and with signs for Memphis, TN everywhere we arrive at the Holiday Inn Express. It's the kind of hotel where the 'out of order' signs are rotated daily and the wallpaper us held up only by the tar from a million illicit cigarettes. Breakfast is eaten in silence but you can hear the 'how did my life come to this?' internal monologue going on everywhere.
If the windows opened I'd be heading out of them and into the carpark in an unholy plummet.
Still we're here despite recruiter issues, venue issues, flight issues, legal issues, more flight issues and a budget tighter than a post Denis Rodmann reconstructed Carmen Electra.
Here's to Chicago
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Delayed
So I arrive with my colleagues at La Guardia for out 8pm flight only to find the self check in machine insisting that my name is Murial. They all check in and it turns out that my flight is actually from Newark. Same time, same booking reference, different airport. Hmmmm.
Standby for the 7pm comes and goes. I smile, I flirt, I lisp, I mince, I pose, I simper and I generally act 'nice' and I get a boarding card for the 8pm. Which is delayed. Currently we're looking at 11.30pm but that plane hasn't arrived (ours has tech problems) and people are starting to go from tetchy to tired. Always a dangerous time - but a good one at which to take out the camera and see 'what's what'
Anyway somebody else's computer here so will sign off; fingers crossed we get out tonight
Standby for the 7pm comes and goes. I smile, I flirt, I lisp, I mince, I pose, I simper and I generally act 'nice' and I get a boarding card for the 8pm. Which is delayed. Currently we're looking at 11.30pm but that plane hasn't arrived (ours has tech problems) and people are starting to go from tetchy to tired. Always a dangerous time - but a good one at which to take out the camera and see 'what's what'
Anyway somebody else's computer here so will sign off; fingers crossed we get out tonight
Off to Chicago today
after a morning full of legal hiccups, last minute changes and general panic we finally managed to get everything sorted and make everyone happy.
Velcro is at Daycare, the cats have people popping in to say hello and the world's largest cockroach has been dispatched up the vacuum cleaner having been first sprayed and then beaten.
We tend to get one roach a year and I knew we had one this year because I saw the cats rush for the front door and start leaping around like 'things possessed'... low and behold a cat sized roach.
Much spraying later I can now be assured that any new stray roaches will be heading next door - I'm RAID protected - and feeling rather manly.
Velcro is at Daycare, the cats have people popping in to say hello and the world's largest cockroach has been dispatched up the vacuum cleaner having been first sprayed and then beaten.
We tend to get one roach a year and I knew we had one this year because I saw the cats rush for the front door and start leaping around like 'things possessed'... low and behold a cat sized roach.
Much spraying later I can now be assured that any new stray roaches will be heading next door - I'm RAID protected - and feeling rather manly.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
dullard of the year?
So I’ve been ‘home alone’ for a little more than two weeks now and things are starting to settle in to a routine. I’m exercising more, eating out less, watching more movies at home and seeing more of my friends. The animals are a little clingier and I’m allowing that to happen. The house is messier though no less clean. The credit cards are paid off, the savings are up and there’s money in the bank. It’s cheaper to live as a single on a single income it seems.
Really happy with the weight loss, less happy with the lack of sleep regulation. Getting very little sleep though I’m trying to fix that ASAP. Work about to ramp up from the nerve shredding to the flat out – ahead of my heading for Namibia. I’m actually much happier doing the work than I am planning it; so lesson learned – no more day to day planning for me. I’ll let the recruiters recruit, the room bookers book and the travel people send tickets,
Talked with Jude today who sounded happy but tired. It was late there and she had been doing a lot so I guess that I understand that note of weary satisfaction in her voice. Actually talked for a half hour – there goes the savings.
My listening habits have become resolutely ‘coffeehouse’ since Jude went. More radio. More whiney women. Said he listening to Sheryl Crowe on Satellite Radio’s Coffeehouse station.
I am SO looking forward to Namibia. If I was a little more certain of my long term survival chances I’d spend some time there checking out the adoption criteria. There have to be some babies that the celebrity ‘Womb Raiders’ haven’t picked up, doesn’t there? Of course with the Grim Reaper furiously tapping his watch and gesticulating at every turn that really isn’t practical. Last thing Jude needs is to be saddled with widowhood and a kid. That sounds morbid, it’s not. I don’t live my life thinking about imminent death. It certainly doesn’t play any part in the decisions we make. But when you’re looking long term it has to be a factor. The truth of the matter is that if cancer taught me anything (other than the fact that my head isn’t nearly as oddly shaped as I’d been led to believe) it’s to lighten up.
My photos are getting better too. I quite fancy a camera that takes great indoor shots in low lighting but I don’t really need it. Needs and wants are so easily confused. Mind I have so many things that I just wanted – and most make me happy. We’ll see.
This is a strange post, isn’t it? I do apologize,
So here’s a sample of my day. Up at 7.30 – latest I’ve been up all month. Get weighed (have an excel weight loss chart to fill in.) Feed the animals. Walk Velcro to coffee shop for breakfast. Come back and write a proposal for some work in Japan. Then some profiles for an exercise that we’re doing in Chicago on Tuesday. It’s 10.30 now and head for the gym. Many machines later I wander into the pet food store and pick up some dog food. Come home and arrange for Velcro to board at daycare while I’m in Chicago next week. Meet with a friend who’s looking to buy a house and wander through a sunny Williamsburg (33c) with him, his lovely gf and the dog. Tapas brunch at a new place, across the park to a 250 stall craft fair, then back through town and home with panting dog. Finish off ‘All the kings men’ (dull with poor diction) and then make some more food – salad and Quorn stuff. Talk to Jude. Return video and pop into bakery for more coffee then home, on to the computer and write this. Will catch up with some TV later and then read my (rather good) book and do a little pre-driving-written-test homework.
It’s not big or clever. It’s not exciting.
This weekend was a zombie movie, a greek meal, roller disco line, two movies, two sets of friends, two drinks, 1 brunch, 1 fair and a lot of walking.
But there are worse ways to live and I do feel great. Now – just what is on tonight?
Really happy with the weight loss, less happy with the lack of sleep regulation. Getting very little sleep though I’m trying to fix that ASAP. Work about to ramp up from the nerve shredding to the flat out – ahead of my heading for Namibia. I’m actually much happier doing the work than I am planning it; so lesson learned – no more day to day planning for me. I’ll let the recruiters recruit, the room bookers book and the travel people send tickets,
Talked with Jude today who sounded happy but tired. It was late there and she had been doing a lot so I guess that I understand that note of weary satisfaction in her voice. Actually talked for a half hour – there goes the savings.
My listening habits have become resolutely ‘coffeehouse’ since Jude went. More radio. More whiney women. Said he listening to Sheryl Crowe on Satellite Radio’s Coffeehouse station.
I am SO looking forward to Namibia. If I was a little more certain of my long term survival chances I’d spend some time there checking out the adoption criteria. There have to be some babies that the celebrity ‘Womb Raiders’ haven’t picked up, doesn’t there? Of course with the Grim Reaper furiously tapping his watch and gesticulating at every turn that really isn’t practical. Last thing Jude needs is to be saddled with widowhood and a kid. That sounds morbid, it’s not. I don’t live my life thinking about imminent death. It certainly doesn’t play any part in the decisions we make. But when you’re looking long term it has to be a factor. The truth of the matter is that if cancer taught me anything (other than the fact that my head isn’t nearly as oddly shaped as I’d been led to believe) it’s to lighten up.
My photos are getting better too. I quite fancy a camera that takes great indoor shots in low lighting but I don’t really need it. Needs and wants are so easily confused. Mind I have so many things that I just wanted – and most make me happy. We’ll see.
This is a strange post, isn’t it? I do apologize,
So here’s a sample of my day. Up at 7.30 – latest I’ve been up all month. Get weighed (have an excel weight loss chart to fill in.) Feed the animals. Walk Velcro to coffee shop for breakfast. Come back and write a proposal for some work in Japan. Then some profiles for an exercise that we’re doing in Chicago on Tuesday. It’s 10.30 now and head for the gym. Many machines later I wander into the pet food store and pick up some dog food. Come home and arrange for Velcro to board at daycare while I’m in Chicago next week. Meet with a friend who’s looking to buy a house and wander through a sunny Williamsburg (33c) with him, his lovely gf and the dog. Tapas brunch at a new place, across the park to a 250 stall craft fair, then back through town and home with panting dog. Finish off ‘All the kings men’ (dull with poor diction) and then make some more food – salad and Quorn stuff. Talk to Jude. Return video and pop into bakery for more coffee then home, on to the computer and write this. Will catch up with some TV later and then read my (rather good) book and do a little pre-driving-written-test homework.
It’s not big or clever. It’s not exciting.
This weekend was a zombie movie, a greek meal, roller disco line, two movies, two sets of friends, two drinks, 1 brunch, 1 fair and a lot of walking.
But there are worse ways to live and I do feel great. Now – just what is on tonight?
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