New Jersey/York by Day

Monster day shopping in Hoboken with super deals on CK jeans at Macy's and found my favourite online shoe store (Journey's) had an actual shop which I promptly lost my shit at.

Walking back to Casey's post-shop we experienced the giddy highs of molesting a toy soldier in a pseudo beach. This is probably the only time i will say South Bank does it better. the simple fact Newport Beach had snow on top of its sand didn't really help its cause. Although, unlike South Bank, there were no used nappies discarded in the garden, which was rather pleasant.

Headed into New York in the early afternoon. The sky's were fairly clear so we headed to the Empire State Building (Although, like true knowledgable tourists, we kept confusing each other by referring to it as the Eiffel Tower - fortunately we didn't ask for directions).
After queuing in a queue outside for 20 minutes we got into the building then joined queue after queue until eventually, 2 hours later we were on the observatory floor on the 86th level. A spectacular view to say the least, but it was now night time (Bloody Northern hemisphere winters) so the lights were twinkling gorgeously away. We were on the last side of our observatory circumference when all of the sudden some malicious force from above switched on an icicle-ridden version of the Dyson power hand dryer and just about blew Casey, myself and the other minuscule amoebas off the roof. With fingers and teeth (exposed during smiling) chilled to the marrow we returned inside.

After we returned to the ground (probably best not to ever say Ground Zero here) we hunted for somewhere to eat. We decided on Scotty's Diner where we proceeded to consume our own weight in cholesterol. Our waiter made Basil Fawlty look like a cool, calm individual and insisted on having kittens and working himself into quite a state. Understandably he was working by himself but I think neither customer nor service were present in his vocabulary as he turned everything into a personal attack. It must be nice not having to work for a tip in NY seeing as clientele are expected to pay an absolute bottom-of-the-gutter minimum of 10%.

Stopped for one brew before heading home. Keen for an early one if I'm to stay up til ungodly o'clock tomorrow!

Yeeeeeeeow!! Happy New Year!! (Yet one more thing America is behind with!)

1st Night in New York

Arrived in NY in sweet time with no (real) delays, despite threats of blizzardous snow.

Was in a state of torpidity for most the journey, including three micro sleeps before takeoff... After which I proceeded to induce myself into a coma for majority of the flight (woke once for an orange juice), probably spent majority of the journey drooling and grinding my teeth on the poor girl beside me. But maybe she enjoyed it because when we landed at JFK she wouldn't make eye contact. Probably true love.

Casey met me at the airport. It was fortunate he did because it was a hectic trip from JFK to Hoboken including 3 poorly signed trains. Although it turned out to be a rather lovely journey as it had just started to snow.
After reaching Casey's place, I removed and discarded my sopping, sole-cracked Volleys, and demanding he promise to take me shopping the next day for Cond and Vans.
Changed from track pants into my Lorna Jane and Black Milk leggings, chucked on my super cute boots and hit the mean streets of Hoboken for 20 hot chicken wings ($4) and Black n Blue pints (Half Guinness and half Blue Moon Wheat beer)
Checked out a few other bars, then walked through the lightly snow-
coated grass down to the river where you can see Manhattan Island in all it's glory lit up for the world. Picked up a couple of 24oz tins of Coors (after assuring and reassuring the shop owner countless times that we would be able to survive without his "Hoboken renowned" tacos (meat undisclosed)) and headed back to the warmth of Casey's apartment in an attempt to plan the remainder of our trip.

Transit in LA

After successfully "passing" my customs exam, my first couple of hours in the US were spent mostly in a blind frenzy with blank blinking from the airports ground staff. I'm unsure if it's the rapid pace at which I speak or the simpleton questions I asked, but given the other lost travelers from my flight, I'm fairly certain it's the former.
Landing in (what I can only assume to have been) Terminal 3 LAX, I was promptly informed to go through customs, collect my check-in luggage then re-check my luggage on... Only to find out I'm flying from Terminal 4. No drama, it's only a 5minute walk, which I'm grateful for after 13hours of statutory bum. But do all the bags meet up at some magical place underground where all the jockeys are frantically organizing luggage into which flight when? Sense tells me not. The AA lady at T4 however tells me "If that's what you were told, then it should reach you destination". Terribly non committal. Whence woman, whence?!

T-3 Days

I'll be jet setting off around the globe in 3days time for a duration of three months. Due to my somewhat shoddy ability to respond to emails in an acceptable time and fear of over-cluttering everyone's Facebook walls with status updates of all the awesome things I'm doing, I've decided to give blogging a shot.

Having recently discovered that I've got my techno skills from my mothers genetics (use of an abacus over calculator) I'm fairly frighteningly excited about embarking on this cyber adventure... So do come along for the ride. 

Adventure shall be from New York to Boston to Chicago to Raleigh to Tennessee to Texas to New Orleans to Miami to Rio to Anaheim to Vegas to Yosemite to San Fran to Monterey to Santa Barbara to Santa Monica to San Diego to London to York to Sheffield to Nottingham back to York to London to Dallas to Brisbane... This includes 70hours of flying thus infinity hours of transit time, thus plenty of time to get online and inform all my beloved family, friends and spider monkeys of my ridiculous escapades! 

Wooo!