I've had the time of my life...

Can you guess what I've been up to from the title of this post?

Think: Johnny, Baby, Patrick Swayze, Jennifer Grey...

If you still haven't guessed I presume you were never a teenage girl post 1987...


Yep - I've been to Dirty Dancing, the musical with my friend Karen. This show debuted in Australia and at least two of the main characters are Aussies. It is very close to the original movie - even down to the appearence of the cast, whose singing and dancing was brilliant. There have been some extra scenes added and some of the music that they couldn't get rights to for the movie is actually used in the show.

We had a great night out along with all the ladies reliving their childhood dreams :) There was dead silence as Johnny delivered his famous line "Nobody puts Baby in the corner" and then a rousing cheer from the captivated audience!

Well recommended for all those fans of the movie and or really for anyone that wants a fun night out.

He's behind you!!

The Christmas pantomime is a well established tradition here in London. I'm sure all of you have heard of this theatre style - it is usually a show for kids based around a popular fairytale, but with another whole level of crude/political/topical jokes for adults. There is lots of audience participation - most commonly the screaming of "He's behind you!!!" or the old favourite "Oh no I didn't" "Oh yes you did" "Oh no I didn't" "Oh yes you did!"...

Last year, you may remember we saw Peter Pan starring Henry Winkler (aka The Fonz). The ensuing hilarity made us keen to start our own tradition of annual trips to the pantomime, so last night we went to the latest pantomime showing at our local theatre - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

The show was a real hoot with reknowned comic Bobby Davro intermixing a standup routine in the course of events, and former Eastenders star Ross Kemp playing the dashing darsardly sidekick to the evil queen, Rae Baker. It even had a complete outfit of real dwarfs led by Warwick Davis of Willow fame. They were so much fun that you couldn't stop yourself from singing along with them to Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's off to work we go...

Phil and I were accompanied by my friend Karen from INPS (my previous workplace) and her mother, Linda. We had a great time cheering and jeering along with the rest of the crowd. Part of the entertainment is definitely watching the reactions of the kids in the audience (but before anyone gets worried - we were still perfectly happy to leave them behind when the show was over!).

Roll on Pantomime Xmas 2008!!!

MINUS 6 degrees!

This morning we exchanged our walking shoes for a hire car and drove out of the city into the countryside up the Hudson Valley.

It is soooooo cold!! Having lived in London for three winters now, we are used to low temperatures and consider anything above about 7 degrees to be relatively warm. However, the wind chill factor makes a huge difference wherever you are, and it isn't usually a problem in London. In New York though, the wind comes whipping in bringing snow and freezing temperatures, so today, at MINUS 6 degrees + wind chill, we found that even rugged up in our ski jackets making the run from the car to the shop we'd parked in front of and back again meant we'd frozen to ice and had to turn up the heat in the car for five minutes to de-thaw. It is the sort of bright clear freezing weather where you don't want to talk because it hurts your teeth to open your mouth. I guess my friends living in Seattle are used to it by now, but Phil and I still need some practice!


We really enjoyed our drive out into the countryside where the snow was thick on the ground, houses, trees, cars, etc, the rivers were partly frozen over and everyone still had their homes and front yards decorated for Christmas. We think it would be gorgeous to drive through during autumn when the tree leaves put on their colourful display, so that has been added to the "holidays to do" list.

This time round we hired a GPS with the car - and we're so glad we did, as getting out of and into the city would have been... "interesting"! This excellent gadget takes most of the stress out of driving in chaotic foreign places leaving you free to enjoy the journey (and concentrate on avoiding all the crazy New York drivers who drive at speed, bumper to bumper, on roads like tangled spaghetti!).

One thing we have noticed is that Dunkin Donut stores are more popular than McDonalds in New York. You don't have to drive more than 10 minutes without a Boston Creme or Chocolate Glazed delight if needs be!

Anyway, we fly out early tomorrow morning for London - our Xmas adventure over for another year. In an earlier entry I said I was disappointed in New York and that it was overrated. I think perhaps I was a little harsh particularly since I know that we are probably at our fill of big cities for the moment. New York is a shopper's paradise (which isn't really us), the food is fantastic (which is more our line!) and the Broadway shows and museums are great. I think that living in New York for a while and seeing some of the hidden treasures of the city would enable me to see its particular charms, as has been the case with London. Perhaps another visit is in order... we'll see...

Songs playing over and over in my head

Whew! What a day! As it was our last day of sightseeing in New York, we've packed in lots of activities.

We started with a delicious snack on the Dining Concourse at Grand Central Station, followed by a visit to the New York public library. It is an amazing complex of beautifully decorated rooms filled with lots of gorgeous old books (obviously) mixed with heaps of computer terminals keeping it up with the modern age of internet information. The walls of the massive reading room are lined floor to ceiling with bookshelves, but the central area was all desks with people working at their laptops!

Next stop was the Rockefeller Plaza to get tickets for the Top of the Rock later that day. We were pleasantly surprised to find that there was no queue despite all the tourists in the area.

I wanted to visit the MoMA - the Museum of Modern Art - because the building is supposed to be pretty cool. However, modern art is definitely not Phil's thing, so we split up and he went off shoes and jeans shopping. Unfortunately when I reached the MoMA I found the queue that had been missing at the Rockefeller. It was going to be at least a 45 minute wait just to get in, so I did my own MoMA shop tour instead (it actually contains some fascinating gadgets itself!), then I strolled up 6th Avenue into Central Park to watch the horse and carriage rides.

We had timed our visit to the Top of the Rock (on top of the Rockefeller Centre) to catch the sunset over the city... and we were well rewarded with a fiery red display. As well as stunning it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING, so once darkness had descended and we'd seen the city lights from above we raced back to the hotel to warm up.


Ages ago, I had booked tickets to see the musical Rent while we were in New York. Just after I booked we found out that a remixed version of the show was to debut in London, so we went to see that in November and it whetted our appetite for the Broadway production. Tonight was show night... and it was great - very different from the remixed version, much more like the movie Rent that starred the original Broadway cast. I think this is one of my favourite musicals because it has a strong emotional story with some brilliant songs.

We've got an early(ish) start tomorrow, so I'm off to bed with those songs playing over and over in my head!

New Year's Eve

Quick update - last night we went left the hotel at 11pm and headed down to Times Square for the New Year's Eve giant ball drop. From the news on the TV we knew that we probably we wouldn't make it into the actual square, but we were looking forward to getting out for some New York New Years cheer.

We managed to get past the first police blockade around the Square which was about four blocks out, but the inner blockade at two blocks away was much stronger. Luckily there was a huge crowd gathered there, so we ushered in the new year with them. It was great actually - we could see the billboards in Times Square, hear the countdown and be part of the festive spirit without having to stand out in the cold for hours beforehand!

Yep - I got "String in a can-ned"!