Category: Uncategorized

Disney Store on Times Square which plays Karaoke Disney Songs!

Maybe one of the most famous Toy stores in the world, quite likely Toys R Us own it now! This is the last one left but it isn’t where it used to be in Times Square any longer, back then it was used in the Tom Hanks movie ‘Big’. That building is now Toys R Us and this is next to the huge underground Apple Store by South East Central Park.

Not sure if Daisy or Adam found this store but it was rather a large place dedicated to anything that would horribly give a dentist nightmares, unless they considered the money they’d make on all those bad teeth!

I decided that the only way to get the right shot in Times Square was to actually sit in the road, it was quite fun having the traffic whiz past me really!

We had a totally lazy day where we went to just about nowhere near anywhere important. There we visited a Wal-Mart Super Center and a TJ Maxx which is the same as our TK Maxx only a lot further west than our stores. For midday meal we went to Cracker Barrel where I have been several times but Adam and Daisy hadn’t. It was lovely as always. It was a relaxing, no camera day so, sorry, nothing to show you.

Another visit to Manhattan only this time in much better weather!

It takes around 30 minutes to get from here to Battery Park, you can see the Freedom Tower over my right shoulder. This day was planned to perfection, get there really early, the subway to 34th St and the Empire State Building then onto the ‘Top of the Rock’ on 50th followed by a wander to FAO and Dylan’s then to Central Park Zoo, through the park and onto The History Museum followed by the subway south and home. Well, all went brilliantly, we got the ferry early, in Manhattan by just after 9 and then SHIT! We’d left the damn tickets back in the hotel! So, back on the next ferry, drive back to the hotel, back to Staten Island, get the next ferry, back to Manhattan by which time it’s now 11:30! The queue up the ESB is now 3 hours which would seriously screw up everything. So, we belted up to 50th to the Rockefeller Building ‘Top of the Rock’ and book a slot there for going up. A dash to FAO whilst in the area then back to go up to the 69th!

As you see, the weather was a lot better but we were still very behind schedule so we decided not to attempt ESB until after dark

Central Park is often thought of as a scary crime riddled place best avoided. It’s really not, it’s amazingly peaceful, beautiful even with so many contrasts, so many different things to look at. True, it may be a brave or foolish person who wanders through at night but, by daytime it seemed plenty safe enough to us.

The temptation to be just a little silly is quite powerful

We had a 35 block walk from here back down to the Empire State Building (ESB)

Yes, that’s a long way!

I don’t think my night shots were too bad considering everything looks blurred to me at the moment!

The wait time was a very long and sticky 3 hours + and we still had to walk the last 6 floors!

We were so relieved to get the Subway home from 33rd Penn St back to the Ferry and even more relieved to get the cool air of the ferry back! I think we had Chinese for dinner, it was HUGE!

End of Part 2

Northamptonshire Carers finally removed my details from the internet and stopped using my material. I despise the management and trustees for what they did to me, it was unfair and damn right wicked given there were so many other options open to them but, we live and learn.

Still, forget about that!

New York City

The breakfast at Buddies was awesome, as always. Fred did a brilliant job driving us to Heathrow where we arrived in plenty of time to lounge around, have Starbucks, not buy a pretzel at Pret A Manger (giggle) and started a game of Uno we were not to finish until the journey home! The plane landed on time around 8:20, all went smoothly. Got the train over to the car rental area, Adam didn’t die, he’s getting quite good on trains now. Had a choice of two cars, a Chevy or, something else I can’t remember, we chose the Chevy Equinox.

Amazingly, within 3 hours of landing we had already driven to our hotel, checked in, dumped the luggage and then driven over to Weehawken to get the image you see above of us all standing in front of Manhattan. This would have been made a lot easier has a total idiot not have left his tripod connector at home (me). Adam had the great idea of using the roof of the car which was the only sensible thing to do but also trial and error seeing as I couldn’t actually line up the shot or set focus manually meaning it took an age to get OK pictures! Poor Daisy was desperate for a pee too! Adam might possibly have been a little nervous with this being his first drive of a left hand drive car, being around the roads of New Jersey won’t have helped that at all but, he’s an amazingly good driver anyway so he did a great job.

Adam brought his little friend along, he was too precious to come to all the amazing sights we did (his little friend, not Adam), it would have been fun taking the pictures though.

Our second day, after a healthy breakfast of Sausages, bacon, egg, pancakes, syrup, cereal etc was spent shopping! I personally love shopping with Daisy and Adam, I can totally trust their opinions and they are good and patient with me. Adam may possibly have just spent a little more than anyone else hehe.

I’m not sure who got the record for the most visits to a changing room or time spent there, it’d be a close thing!

Obviously, no visit to the USA is complete without visiting their very own …

IKEA, for the record, is actually not built in the middle of the Interstate as the GPS seemed to think it was which made finding it a little difficult!

By the end of the day it was a damn good job we had a large car the amount of bags we had!

Actually, I can’t remember what day we did what for sure so, as it doesn’t matter to anyone now, I’ll make it up as I go along but Daisy or Adam, feel free to correct it in the comments section! I think shopping was Monday with NYC visit 1 on Tuesday

Anyway, to New York City (Manhattan)

We did some weather research and there was a 20% chance of very light (1-2mm) rain. Well, they fucked that up! Soon after arriving it pissed down hard nearly all day!

The total journey time from the hotel in New Jersey to Battery Park is around an hour. There is a toll to pay to get onto Staten Island (but not off) of $12 and the parking at the terminal is another $7 plus the cost of fuel which, despite how much they complain, isn’t expensive in the US. The ferry runs at least 1 every half hour and often a lot more regularly.

We tried to include some places tourists may not always bother with like movie locations but didn’t have time for many as it was a long walk of at least 8 miles. (in the rain)

One total waste of money but we thought, what the hell, give it a try was, The Museum of Sex, hardly anything in it, not good value for money at all though, some interesting pictures of penis’s on different species.

Obviously, we also had to take shots of the more familiar places too

I’d put my really expensive camera away by this point as the rain was too heavy to risk it.

Another detour over to another familiar building …

One store we missed last time but not this was ‘Original Penguin’ which was mainly remembered by the guy serving us going into an Australian accent to say goodbye because he, like many in NYC, thought we were Aussies!

Our final destination on this day was

Times Square is an amazingly vibrant place, worth the effort to get to and, if anyone is there and at a loss of a place to eat … this is where you go:

If you know the movie ‘Forest Gump’ you will totally understand and appreciate this restaurant, if you don’t know the movie, go anyway, the food is brilliant.

Whilst there we had to do the stores so a little Macy’s, some Disney Store, Toys R Us, M&M World not to forget, Yellow Rat Bastard, look it up on Google.

We did the New York Subway for the first time ever too, it was really not that scary, except when that bloke (with the gold writing on his shorts) came through the connecting doors as we were going along, that was a little scary and we brought our bags that bit closer!

Am going to stop here, will do another blog in a few days with more

Northamptonshire Carers finally removed my details from the internet and stopped using my material. I despise the management and trustees for what they did to me, it was unfair and damn right wicked given there were so many other options open to them but, we live and learn.

Still, forget about that!

New York City

The breakfast at Buddies was awesome, as always. Fred did a brilliant job driving us to Heathrow where we arrived in plenty of time to lounge around, have Starbucks, not buy a pretzel at Pret A Manger (giggle) and started a game of Uno we were not to finish until the journey home! The plane landed on time around 8:20, all went smoothly. Got the train over to the car rental area, Adam didn’t die, he’s getting quite good on trains now. Had a choice of two cars, a Chevy or, something else I can’t remember, we chose the Chevy Equinox.

Amazingly, within 3 hours of landing we had already driven to our hotel, checked in, dumped the luggage and then driven over to Weehawken to get the image you see above of us all standing in front of Manhattan. This would have been made a lot easier has a total idiot not have left his tripod connector at home (me). Adam had the great idea of using the roof of the car which was the only sensible thing to do but also trial and error seeing as I couldn’t actually line up the shot or set focus manually meaning it took an age to get OK pictures! Poor Daisy was desperate for a pee too! Adam might possibly have been a little nervous with this being his first drive of a left hand drive car, being around the roads of New Jersey won’t have helped that at all but, he’s an amazingly good driver anyway so he did a great job.

Adam brought his little friend along, he was too precious to come to all the amazing sights we did (his little friend, not Adam), it would have been fun taking the pictures though.

Our second day, after a healthy breakfast of Sausages, bacon, egg, pancakes, syrup, cereal etc was spent shopping! I personally love shopping with Daisy and Adam, I can totally trust their opinions and they are good and patient with me. Adam may possibly have just spent a little more than anyone else hehe.

I’m not sure who got the record for the most visits to a changing room or time spent there, it’d be a close thing!

Obviously, no visit to the USA is complete without visiting their very own …

IKEA, for the record, is actually not built in the middle of the Interstate as the GPS seemed to think it was which made finding it a little difficult!

By the end of the day it was a damn good job we had a large car the amount of bags we had!

Actually, I can’t remember what day we did what for sure so, as it doesn’t matter to anyone now, I’ll make it up as I go along but Daisy or Adam, feel free to correct it in the comments section! I think shopping was Monday with NYC visit 1 on Tuesday

Anyway, to New York City (Manhattan)

We did some weather research and there was a 20% chance of very light (1-2mm) rain. Well, they fucked that up! Soon after arriving it pissed down hard nearly all day!

The total journey time from the hotel in New Jersey to Battery Park is around an hour. There is a toll to pay to get onto Staten Island (but not off) of $12 and the parking at the terminal is another $7 plus the cost of fuel which, despite how much they complain, isn’t expensive in the US. The ferry runs at least 1 every half hour and often a lot more regularly.

We tried to include some places tourists may not always bother with like movie locations but didn’t have time for many as it was a long walk of at least 8 miles. (in the rain)

One total waste of money but we thought, what the hell, give it a try was, The Museum of Sex, hardly anything in it, not good value for money at all though, some interesting pictures of penis’s on different species.

Obviously, we also had to take shots of the more familiar places too

I’d put my really expensive camera away by this point as the rain was too heavy to risk it.

Another detour over to another familiar building …

One store we missed last time but not this was ‘Original Penguin’ which was mainly remembered by the guy serving us going into an Australian accent to say goodbye because he, like many in NYC, thought we were Aussies!

Our final destination on this day was

Times Square is an amazingly vibrant place, worth the effort to get to and, if anyone is there and at a loss of a place to eat … this is where you go:

If you know the movie ‘Forest Gump’ you will totally understand and appreciate this restaurant, if you don’t know the movie, go anyway, the food is brilliant.

Whilst there we had to do the stores so a little Macy’s, some Disney Store, Toys R Us, M&M World not to forget, Yellow Rat Bastard, look it up on Google.

We did the New York Subway for the first time ever too, it was really not that scary, except when that bloke (with the gold writing on his shorts) came through the connecting doors as we were going along, that was a little scary and we brought our bags that bit closer!

Am going to stop here, will do another blog in a few days with more

Link to the Letter Northamptonshire Carers sent to me

 

Basically, what that says is that I am sacked! What was my crime?

On my website ‘Wotalife’ I had one page which said that I was prepared to effectively take any pictures a client may want of an intimate nature. Those sort of pictures have thus far been either guys with soft willies or a female very pregnant and very tasteful. So, I had this page and thought nothing of it. However, there was a link to my website from the Northamptonshire Carers website and someone at the charity HQ noticed that page on my site and went to defcom 1. I received an email several days later telling me that I had to break all connection between the two sites, promise not to use the camera partly funded by them for anything of ‘that nature’ and to refuse to do any work on any Carers photographically. Further they told me they would not accept any charitable donations from my photographic work. Not only did they tell me this but they also insisted that when the hard copy of the letter arrived that I sign and return it to them within 14 days else there would be serious consequences!

I immediately contacted them and apologised for any perceived offence and that I would write ‘Wotalife’ again so as not to cause an issue and would also remove the links but would not be signing anything as to do so would be to agree to their assertion that any failure to do so ‘would’ harm the reputation of Northamptonshire Carers and ‘would’ lose them funding, as they decided ‘would’ happen.

They said they didn’t care what changes I made, I still had to sign that letter.

I then produced ample evidence by way of weblogs of visitors to Wotalife to prove that there simply cannot be any risk as the site just didn’t have the sort of visitor numbers to have proved problematic. The figures were very small indeed and only went into double figures after this staff member drew attention to it. I also explained at length how, now that the ‘offending’ page had been changed, it was impossible for it to be of any further risk even if we agreed with the assumption that it would have before. I explained in full and dumbed down technical detail just about every way I could that there simply wasn’t an issue here.

However, today I got a letter telling me I was effectively sacked.

To make matters worse, because they own the domain name, they’ve transferred it to their own server along with some of my content!

To make it doubly worse … they knew about this decision of theirs last Wednesday, they also knew that I had been asked to work by them on Friday and, I had also reminded them this was the case yet no one saw fit to tell me I wasn’t needed. I gave up 5+ hours of my time there and an hour or so editing pictures all for nothing!

At no time did they so much as ask for a face to face meeting to discuss anything, just a superior attitude that they were right, I was wrong, they didn’t need to prove anything, just treat me like a common pervert!

It would be fair to say it’s made me damn angry!

BUT

Oh, not the good news yet …

My phone died after less than 18 months. O2 says ‘not our problem’ but, HTC say, ‘sure, we’ll repair it under warranty as long as it is a fault and not damage’. That’s great news except that I think it is damage, not damage that I caused but a design issue which seems to have pulled the power switch apart when I opened the case because the phone froze. Anyway, they are coming out Thursday to collect it.

AND

I was so annoyed I bought myself a new phone anyway! No, I can’t really afford it but, it was either that or eat too much!

BUT

We are off on holiday this Sunday! I can’t afford that either but sod it, I am going anyway!

Get my hair done Friday which is brilliant because it’s really starting to piss me off!

Hopefully, will be trying out Squash with Adam on Friday morning

He’ll probably not thank me for mentioning this but, Robin is currently in hospital. He took a turn for the worse yesterday, chest pains. The hospital were not happy with blood test results and he’s now got to undergo some more tests … they are saying that in the best case, they will send him home not knowing what caused the pain, in the worst case, he could need heart surgery, hopefully more shall be known tomorrow. Please write me if you want more info, he seems to think they are keeping him there a few days at least.