currently 11:03pm Friday 5th September, 2008 (NYC, New York)
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December 2001 archives
The following are all the entries published for the month of December 2001. it's getting cold
Sunday 30 December, 2001 at 6:25PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (1)
New Years Eve tomorrow! We will not be heading to Times Square for this one - just too much risk of terrorism in our view. The police are actually going to be carrying geiger counters to detect radiation, which only points to one thing - they have an idea that there may be some sort of radioactive bomb set off there. With around one million people predicted to be gathered there on New Years Eve, it's a terrorist's wet dream. Frightening. If I dont post sooner, see ya next year. action, adventure and real groovy things
Saturday 29 December, 2001 at 10:44PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0)
We were leaning out the window of our apartment having a cigarette about 9.30 - 9.45pm (yes, the temperature is below zero celcius but we prefer the apartment not to smell too much of cigarettes) and we see this person walking around below looking a bit suspicious. IceQueen finishes her cigarette and sits down, while I keep watching for a little while because I had a feeling this person was up to no good. The guy disappears out of sight and then reappears on a sort of balcony area at the side of the building next to us, along with one other person. I keep watching them as they try opening one window, then another, and then a third window (all next to each other so it could be part of the same apartment). One of them has a flashlight and I'm getting very suspicious at this point and tell IceQueen I think they are trying to break in. Finally they get the window open and one climbs in. Up to this point we were thinking that maybe they locked themselves out of their apartment (or the lock had broken as had happened to us shortly after we moved in), but when the second person starts to climb in I thought, 'why doesn't the first one just open the front door and let the other in the normal way' so I yell out "OI!" to the second person who is still half in the window. He stops and looks around and then climbs in anyway - it didn't cross his mind to look up, despite there being an apartment building right next to him (what a dumbass), so IceQueen calls down to the doorman on the intercom and tells him what's going on. He says he'll check it out. After a while of watching nothing happen, I get really cold and close the window and sit down with IceQueen on the couch. It's worth mentioning at this point that the lights did not come on in the apartment after they got in, unless they had really thick curtains or something. I look out again a bit later and nothing continues to happen - no sign of the doorman from our building either. After a little while longer, I have another look out the window and hello, there's a couple of cops down below (one uniformed, one not) with our building supervisor, and another guy leaning out the window of the apartment in question (lights are now on) and at first I think maybe it was just the owner having locked himself out, then I overhear them saying they weren't sure who called the doorman and that the apartment in question had been ransacked. I yell down to the cops that it was us who called the doorman so they come on up to our apartment (one uniform and one plainclothes cop) to thank us as the apartment owner was away in another state for the holidays, and tell us they caught the two guys red-handed in the apartment going through the drawers! They ask for a brief description just to confirm it was the same guys (it was) and take my name and details in case they need any further info, and that's it. That was about half an hour ago. Fun huh? Merry Christmas ya thieving pricks. Another day in New York City for two super-weasels. I hope this doesn't mean we have to start wearing our underwear on the outside of our pants or anything. merry christmas!
Tuesday 25 December, 2001 at 11:54PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (3)
IceQueen and I spent the day at home together which was all funky and kewl (IceQueen is still suffering from a pretty nasty bug) and that is about all the news I have, believe it or not. IceQueen has been sitting her GRE exams so she can then go back to NYU to do her Masters Degree, and the results she has so far are excellent. We have not been very active for this reason, combined with the fact IceQueen has been sick, hence not a lot of news. Up to now the weather has been way warmer than normal for this time of year (we didn't get a white Christmas either), but that is all about to change by the look of things. The weather forecast for the next five days consists of highs of slightly above 0°celcius every day, and lows down to -8°celcius. Fortunately the central heating here is awesome - t-shirts and shorts kind of awesome. I am fully expecting to see some snow in the next few days, providing there is some moisture in the air to create it, as most days here are cloudless. Hey how's this? They work on Boxing Day here! In fact, I don't think Boxing Day even exists in NYC. For those of you (not in NZ) who don't realize it, Boxing Day is the day after Christmas, and is also a national holiday (at least in NZ). Here's some info about it: Boxing Day derives from the tradition of opening alms boxes placed in churches over the Christmas season. The contents were distributed amongst the poor of the parish. December 26 is also known as the Feast of St Stephen. It is often a day of outdoor sports and horse racing and hunting. Only in the last century however has it become a holiday. By having Christmas Day and Boxing Day as holidays this allowed many people to take trips but also rejoin family members, which may have encouraged the tradition of families getting together at Christmas time. I have also read somewhere than Boxing Day evolved in England, and was basically for all the servants who got to open all their boxes of presents the day after as they were too busy serving their employers on Christmas Day. Right that's about it for now. Hope everyone is having a great Christmas, and Michelle, Yvonne and Pete, I will write soon, honest. Like... yeah, sometime before next year.. heh. Best wishes and Happy New Year to all. times square
Saturday 15 December, 2001 at 11:03PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (0) We went to Times Square! Not what I expected at all, except all the buildings around are huge, but the 'square' was apparently under construction behind a big blue eight foot tall wooden fence, and it's actually a triangle. I always thought it was a large open concrete area kind of thing - maybe it is, I just couldn't see it. The sidewalks were packed with people, or at least I thought they were. Apparently it wasn't overly busy, so I'd hate to see what a busy day was like. It was an experience for sure, my first visit to Times Square. Now I can say "been there, done that". The weather is still unseasonably warm but I'm happy about that. It feels like NZ in early spring - not freezing cold, just 'crisp'. Enough for now. fire
Wednesday 12 December, 2001 at 11:16PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (2) Last night there was a fire in our apartment building, just down the corridor from us as it happens. It was around 1.30am and I smelt something not so nice, and it wasn't my feet this time. I checked around in the dining area. Nope. In the kitchen. Nope. Opened the front door. Bingo. There was a fair bit of smoke in the corridor and I was thinking, 'uh-oh, this isn't good' while having a rapid flash of the Towering Inferno movie flick through my mind. I alerted IceQueen and we started weaseling down the corridor and to the stairs to see if it was on other floors, but no, it was our floor alright, and it stunk. I got IceQueen to call the doorman from the intercom in our apartment while I looked around some more, and then IceQueen joined me as we tried to sniff it out (the doorman came up and left a minute later to ring the fire department). We figured out which apartment the smoke was coming from but nobody was answering the door, and within a minute or two a bunch of fully geared-up firemen came charging up the stairs and knew straight away that it was a food fire by the smell. We guided them to which apartment we thought it was, and after a minute of banging at the door very loudly, they just went and broke the door down completely ...smoke came pouring out into the corridor and you couldn't see very far at all (like, a few feet). We heard the sound of fire extinguishers shortly after ...and the fire was out. Looks like the guy who lives there went out with his dinner still on the stove, and he hadn't returned. He has a dog so maybe he was taking it for a walk, I dunno, but he hadn't returned an hour later. The corridor still reeks nearly a day later, as does our apartment to some extent, and I'd imagine the dude has a lot of smoke damage in his apartment, not to mention a smashed-in door. Life in NYC huh ...groovy. happy birthday amber
Wednesday 5 December, 2001 at 2:04PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (2) Wow it feels strange not being there with you. Sad. I hope you have a great day. I miss you. the boston trip
Saturday 1 December, 2001 at 2:06PM (Nereus) :: permalink :: comments (2) We just got back late Friday night from Boston - well, Marlborough actually, a little way out of Boston. We were there because IceQueen had a work-sponsored programming course which was really tough apparently, so it was a tiring week for her. It was real hard for me too, having to dial '53' for room service and having to cruise around the thriving metropolis of Marlborough during the day. Ok, let me tell you a bit about this amazing town... ' - ' ...that's about it. Not a lot happening in Marlborough. To be fair, we were about seven miles from the center of Marlborough so I guess we couldn't expect much, and if you were a person who didn't expect much, then this place would not disappoint you. We stayed at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel, and yes, it was just as impressive as the name makes it out to be - in fact it's the largest hotel in Massachusetts outside of Boston. The hotel itself was pretty awesome, it's just that there is bugger-all to do around there. They have a pool and gym which is great, and there's a shopping center within easy walking distance, but other than that, zip. I will run through how our week went anyway. Sunday 25 November So we're at the air terminal and go to the check in desk. We have cut our baggage down to one small carry-on bag each in order to avoid having to wait for our bags at the other end. Good idea, right? Wrong. The tosser makes us check our bags in anyway to go in the cargo hold - apparently it would have normally been ok, but this day was 'special' (yes, I raised an eyebrow at that one too), not that he expanded on exactly what was so special about it. We soon realized just how special it was when we had to wait half an hour in a queue to go through the security checkpoint into the departure lounge. I didn't mind the wait at all, I'd rather be safe than sorry, but what really annoyed me was the fact that people in front and behind us in the queue had carry-on bags about the same size as ours that they were allowed to take on! What the hell is up with that? I was pretty pissed off about that for a few minutes. We get to the front of the queue and put our coats etc through the x-ray machine and walk through the big metal detector thingy, and it starts beeping away at IceQueen. I stand there looking suspiciously at IceQueen as she is frisked by a police officer (female) and another check is done with a hand scanner. Bad little weasel. Turns out it was probably the metal in her bra that set it off (a good argument why women shouldn't wear bras, some might say).
Monday 26 November Tuesday 27 November Wednesday 28 November Thursday 29 November Friday 30 November That's pretty much the week. The flight back was groovy - it was a night flight so we got to see the lights of NYC as we flew in. It's now December.. already! We were going to go to the Bronx Zoo and / or Metro Art Museum today, but it's a crappy day and we are both just wanting to relax so it's all good just staying at home and being together. |
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It's getting real cold here. It's 26°fahrenheit (-3°celcius) outside right now and will probably get a bit colder as the evening goes on, although still no snow. The other evening when I was walking to the subway to meet IceQueen, a few flakes of snow came down but not enough to accumulate on the ground. IceQueen tells me that in Russia where she lived (Ryazan), it would get down to -35°celcius or worse on the coldest days of winter! Why would anyone want to live in that sort of climate? Actually, by the sound of it, most people there would rather live elsewhere. Hardly surprising.
Action, adventure and real groovy things! We just caught some criminals! Well, we didn't physically catch them, but we were responsible for them getting caught. Ok, here's the story.
Hello and Merry Christmas! Managed to eventually get through on the phone to most of my family in New Zealand to wish them Merry Christmas last night (they're 18 hours ahead of New York), although I didn't manage to get through to Amber which is pretty upsetting, although I left messages on their home and cellular answer services for her. *sneef*
The flight is uneventful, with the obligatory crackers and cheese and something to suck on for the descent so your ears don't freak out at the pressure drop with the change in altitude. When I say something to suck on, I meant a boiled lolly... *weasellook*. I have flown in hundreds of planes, but admittedly I was a bit nervous for the first few minutes of this flight in light of recent events, but soon settled down. We landed safely in Boston and then waited another half hour for our 'baggage' (this prompted another outburst of annoyance at the tosser in NYC again, but it passed quickly enough) and we went outside and hailed a taxi. Guess what? The driver was Russian (this is the 'plot thickens' bit I referred to earlier, so you can stop holding your breath now). I think I have met more Russians than Americans in the US. Go figure. We hop in the taxi for an hour long ride from Boston to the hotel in Marlborough, during which IceQueen and the driver talk to each other for most of the trip, which in itself was fine, except they spoke in Russian so it made it impossible for me to join in the conversation. I stuck my bottom lip out for a few minutes but it had no effect, so I just looked out the window for the most part of the journey.
Last day here, it warmed back up but still misty and raining all day. IceQueen finished the course around midday and we get the same Russian driver taking us back to Boston airport, although this time we both doze off in the back of the taxi all the way. We arrive at the airport way too early so we eat some food and buy a couple of books and generally weasel around. The books? Two of them - The Black House by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and the other book is The Darwin Awards II - very amusing book. If you have never heard of the Darwin Awards, check them out at