It's shocking that my first post here in 2013 takes place in April. It is a blog I write primarily to let people know about what our family is doing. I suppose in recent months I have preferred the easier approach of relying on shared photographs. That's not to say that photography is easy - it's just the way I do photography that is easy. Since technology now allows us to take dozens of shots there is a fair chance that even someone as clueless as I am, can snatch an interesting shot. That's before we even get to Instragram filters!
Our year began with the visit of Sarah. We have been fortunate enough to see Sarah several times in New York but it is never enough. I really enjoyed planning some interesting night outs - since J was ill I took the chance to visit Brooklyn with her and show her a real New York institution: the Hipster. It was a bar full of 1970s and 80s arcade games with some interesting local beers. Everyone was trying to look like they were teenagers transported from the aforementioned eras: for what reason I couldn't possibly say.
There was alas no repeat of my favorite Sarah moment when the ice-cream seller at the Bronx zoo completely failed to understand a single word she said.
Once Sarah left I too was soon off to India. It was a difficult journey (which I blogged about on my personal blog) but a beautiful time of year to visit Mumbai.
To reset J's I-94 we travelled to Bermuda again in February. It was a few weeks earlier than last year and a good bit colder. There was no chance of swimming in the sea but we managed to swim in the pool even in the rain. The cooler weather meant that we got off the beach and explored more of the island. We explored the park adjacent to the resort and took the bus to the Aquarium and the capital city.
Returning again to the US was another unpleasant experience because of the bigotry of the border staff. We were admitted once we saw a supervisor who knows the rules. She admitted that ths is a regular occurrence and was genuinely nice. Our hope is that this is the year DOMA is struck down and we can have some hope of being treated decently.
For Harriet's birthday my mother, father, sister and brother-in-law travelled from Scotland. Her birthday party at the bowling alley near Times Square was a great success. The day after we all flew to Florida (including Pippin of course) to stay in a villa for a week.
We took Harriet to Magic Kingdom but the biggest success was the water park: Typhoon Lagoon. It was a warm day and Harriet loved the giant crashing waves that knocked everyone off their feet periodically.
Our next visitor was Karen whom I hadn't seen since we moved to the US. Even J and Hatty had only seen her briefly on their trips back to the UK. Karen had been keenly researching her trip (as anyone who saw her Facebook page would know). You get a loyalty card at the goat's milk ice-cream place in the Village and Karen though here only for a week made sure she got all her stamps!
I had a new night-time NY tour to plan and I think it's fair to say we had a great time at a variety of bars: from local neighborhood Irish pub to roof-top bar near the Empire State and of course the gay cowboy bar!
Now (and the reason I have finally got around to blogging) we are driving an RV to Phoenix. We are in Illinois at the moment and I will fly back to New York to return to work tomorrow while the family continues westwards.
As you can see -quite a lot in a few months. I must try harder to keep up!
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