On Monday the air con at work decided not to work to full capacity, which made the afteroon unbearable, especially since the temperatures rose to 100 degrees in Long Island. Wasn't fun. The rest of the week was better since they cranked up the A/C. Tuesday was really busy as I was organising a training session for some senior people in the company. Breakfast for 40, lunch for 70 and supplying the training materials. Oh yes.... and making 70 fricking name tags for all the participants. As I had a ton of stuff to do, I was still working at 6.10pm, had to run into the city to get to my lecture at 6.30, which in itself was a nightmare because I couldn't find the stoopid building!! Afterwards we then found that the PATH we usually take was off due to a fire, so we had to get a subway to the World Trade Centre and get a PATH from there back to NJ. I had dinner and sat up till 1am cutting out aforementioned tags.
Set my alarm for 5am, on Wednesday, slept through it, Miss J woke me up at 6 and I bounded out of bed in a panic. Still made it to 5th Avenue for 7.15am and got everything set up. Majorly tired by the end of the day. The only thing that kept me going was snaffling all the cookies from the buffet that I had ordered. Ah the perks.. Still didn't finish till 6.
Thursday was quieter. Went into work at twenty past nine instead of my usual twenty to in protest of Wednesday (ooh I'm a rebel) and then sorted out the remainder of the mess from the training rooms. Had to travel back to the 666 building on 5th Avenue to remove all the trash and carry 9 table cloths back to the conference centre on 53rd and Lexington Ave. All on the subway. I'm just glad I have an unlimited subway pass! It's all glamour here... :)
Had full intentions of going to the gym after work, but was waylaid by Mr M in front of Ole Ole Ole, the local Mexican restaurant/bar, on the way back from the PATH station and was persuaded to partake in some frozen margaritas and complimentary tortilla chips. Due to that, I later ended up in someone's flat ordering Domino's. Which completely cancelled out any good deeds I had planned on doing in the gym. But was good fun none the less.
Friday went quickly, had lunch outside in the park, was lovely sitting in the sun and it made it feel less like work. All the interns were coming outside in their droves to sit on the grass, whereas all the New Yorkers were heading inside, clearly bored with this sunny weather. Pah...
Did my gym bunny thing on friday night, felt very virtuous. Even with the muscle bound weightlifters loooking scornfully at me with my puny 5lb weights... I'm starting small guys! I'm out of practice! Spent the rest of the night doing laundry and watching tv with Miss J.
I had my architecture tour as part of my course on Saturday. We met up outside City Hall for the start of the tour and then we set off. Walked up towards the Manhattan side of the first tower. The view from there was amazing, if a little hazy from the heat. Our tour guide gave us an explanation about how the bridge was constructed which was really interesting. We wandered to the Brooklyn Tower and had further information given to us. By this time the sun was really beating down, so the walk down into Brooklyn from the bridge was quite brutal. The tour consisted of a few more stops in Brooklyn Heights and then we were left to fend for ourseselves. As there was a group of more than 20 of us, we decided to split up into smaller groups and head for some lunch.
My lot ended up in a wee diner, which thankfully had air conditioning!! I had the breakfast, or brunch I guess, that I had been dying for since I arrived in the states. Pancakes, bacon and eggs.... drowned in maple syrup.... numnumnum!! And all for $7!! I got many a look off my fellow diners, mainly disbelief and disgust that I was actually going to eat all of it myself. And was I? Damn straight! But then I am a pie and you all know that, shame will come later :)
Walking off our brunch, we headed back down towards the beginning of the bridge, with the intention of walking back across it into Manhattan. Mr G came up with the suggestion of getting some ice cream from the previously recommended 'Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory'. It was situated down on the docks beside the bride. Also spotted what looked like a giant telescope emerging from the ground... looked very strange. Upon further inspection, it transpired to be an interactive video showing people in Tower Bridge in London looking back at us!! You walked up to the screen, looked in and saw people waving back at you! One of us stuck their UK Driving licence up on the screen and the London peeps started giving us the thumbs up, heheh. Mr G then riposted with a gentlemanly 2 finger salute as we scuttled off...we never saw the reply to that one.
The ice cream idea was still tempting, so we joined the queue, imagining that it wouldn't be long before we were eating some world famous ice cream... WRONG!! It took half an hour before we reached the front of the building, losing 2 of the group in the process. Once we finally got the ice cream it was extremely disappointing, I would have preferred Mackies!! Definetly not worth waiting that long in the scorching heat for!! Naturally, once we got outside, the sun had gone and the first rumbling of thunder had begun. Crap... all 6 of us started scarpering towards the nearest subway station only to find that there were no trains going towards Manhattan and we would have to change at another station. Of course the trains were stowed and it took a lot of shoving just to get on the train.
We had intended on going to Central Park for a concert that evening, but with the rain we decided to just head back to NJ. The rain on that side 'forced' the girls into the mall where we whiled away the rest of the evening. Once the rain stopped Miss S and I hurried back to the apartment block before it started again. I was halfway up in the lift before I realised that I had forgotten to buy cereal and milk for the next morning. Changed out of my shorts and sandals (clearly thinking this was smart... so I could make a run for it if it started to rain??) and into jeans and trainers, grabbed a raincoat just incase and ran back out the door to the wee shop just doon the road. Ten minutes later I emerged from the shop to fnd the sky had turned black and the rain was tipping it down, causing rivlets to run across the streets. Dumb-ass . Needless to say, I arrived back at my flat looking like a drowned rat and squelched my way upstairs and into my room. I actually wouldn't have minded getting soaked if i had kept my shorts and flip flops on, would have been less washing!! And the rain was warm, so it was actually quite pleasant. Felt like being back in Florida again!
Today was a lazy day, apart from hitting the gym this morning. Go me, Sunday morning and I was exercising! Went back to the mall with Miss J and then took a walk round Newport as it was so warm. I think work will be getting busier this week, so I am going to switch off the TV and head to bed me thinks. Have a tutorial tomorrow, so won't get in till after 9. The joys!!
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