NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Okay, so a week in the beautiful town of Howth proved just what the doctor ordered. After boarding our wonderful flight to Abu Dhabi both Prince Charming and myself started having the inevitable sniffles that only airplane air-conditioning systems can bring. With the help of some wonderful days in Howth, Dublin CBD and a country outing into Wexford we were right as rain for a last leg of the journey to New York City. However before the inevitable farewells began we were treated to a true Irish shindig in celebration of our marraige. Wonderful people, delicious food and broadway musical renditions of some old favourites, the night was fantastic and one for the memory banks! A fond farewell was said to Ireland and an excited couple boarded the plane for the final leg of the journey to New York City!

WOW! Okay, you'll have to bare with me here for a while because there are very few words that can actually describe the pulse of a city like New York. Firstly, after landing we took our lives into our hands by getting into one of the famous (and infamous) NYC yellow cabs. With our small african country's worth of luggage we held our breath as we speedily weaved our way from JFK airport into Manhattan over 59th Street Bridge. Now there is nothing that quite prepares you for your first sight of New York City. It literally rises imposingly in front of you from out of no-where, looks you dead in the eye and quashes all preconceived ideas you may have had of it based on movies and your own personal imagination. Imagine for a moment being stared down by pack of hungry alaskan wolves. Now translate that into hundreds of highrise buildings all showcasing what they have to offer, where they are located in the city that nevers sleeps and how much taller and more imposing each one is to the other. Now put yourself in that picture... feels like being eaten by a pack of wolves. You are tiny, you are in the busiest, most franatic, continously moving city in the world. It smells like the busiest kitchen in the universe might smell if it was cooking with elbow grease, paprika, diesel and good old American enthusiam! It engulfs you, seeps into your pores, re-calibrates the beats within the core of your heart and then releases you to your own devices. You smile, you glow, you look up and continually asses your size, you spin yourself in circles trying to take everything in and then finally you realise: You're in New York City Baby!

It smells like childhood dreams, tastes like the last perfect bite of your favourite meal and feels like the hugs your grandfather used to give you when you came over to save him from gran and her bridge friends! It sings your favourite songs into your ears, tells you all the jokes that make you laugh and reminds you it's amazing to be alive. And the people... they move like the beat of a drum. They are the rythmn that flows between the forest of buildings like an electric current getting as quickly and efforlessly from point A to point B. They never stop. The city is always bright, there is never a permanent evening, only a beautiful evening glow the presides over the city like the gods suggesting it may be time to sleep but that's up to you! It's wonderful, amazing, far beyond expectations and nothing short of breathtaking. It's New York City Baby! 

New York, concrete jungle where dreams are made of
There’s nothing you can’t do
Now you’re in New York
These streets will make you feel brand new
Big lights will inspire you
Hear it for New York, New York, New York

LASTS AND A WEE BIT OF IRELAND

A lot has happened over the last few weeks; as i'm sure you can gather from the tardiness in my writing; and for this I must apologise.  Since real work has ended there seems to have been a hundred and one things to achieve that take an inordinate amount of time and I find myself looking at the clock at 10pm and wondering where exactly the day has disappeared to. Whilst I will not bore you with the inevitable doctors appointments are cheerful staff at both home affairs and the traffic department (please note the vast amount of sarcasm linked with that sentence), I do want to tell you about the wonderful "lasts" I have had over the past few weeks.

Firstly, (and I have managed to maintain this for a consecutive 3 days) I have officially had my last hangover on South African soil (and at this rate the planet's!). After the wonderfully special shindig the parents threw over the course of the weekend, Prince Charming and I found ourselves amongst a group of fantastic friends and a very good party ahead of us indeed. Roll around Sunday and the inevitable hangover in the post (express delivery I believe), we managed to equalize the evening of dancing with a day firmly ensconced on the couch. SA Hangover - done!

We got our final cultural fix too when we spent our final day on the actual soil of SA basking in the wonderful beauty and sunlight that is Kirstenbosch botanical gardens. Friends and family were there to bid us farewell in true picnic style with champagne, cheese and biscuits and fond stories of the past few years we had together. Jokes and smiles abounded as we try desperately to avoid the inevitable tears that came with sundown and goodbyes. As we left the wonderful mountain and friends behind us, Prince Charming and I couldn't help but smile with excitement at what lay ahead of us in the next 24 hours.... If we had known what was actually coming we may have been crying too :)

Cue (hopefully our last) 27 hours of travelling, an exorbitant fee for over weight luggage (yours truly of course) and some very grumpy plane passengers to begin our life  changing trip to New York. First port of call, Johannesburg - The City of Gold. Or in our case the city we had to sit in, on a crowded plane, for 2 hours while waiting for some... more passengers, more cheerful staff, Elvis... I still can't tell you which but I can report unfortunately no Elvis sighting! Needless to say, we finally left Egoli rammed to the rafters with passengers on the long and arduous trip to Abu Dhabi.  A brief 2 hour stop in Abu Dhabi where I can report that city to be full of lights and that's it! We landed at some ungodly hour of the morning where usually we would be awake dancing, however alas we were awake grumpy. Thankfully that stop over wne twithout a hitch and we got back onto the plne for our last and final haul in Dublin. And what a flight... half the plane was empty so the inevtable 6 hour long movie marathon was discarded in favour of a 6 hour long nap across the plane seats, whoohooo!

Finally we set foot on Irish soil, collected our bags (of which there were numerous) and filled our over full tummies with some real Irish Breakfast. For all of those who know, or don't know, what is included in an Irish breakfast, forgive me for a minute. Black Pudding, really??? Ugh. Prince Charming was rather amused with my facial expressions when said breakfast piece arrived and proceeded to tell me it tastes exactly like boerewors. Well, if that's the case, yum. NOT! It tastes nothing like boerewors and never will. And when you find out what's it's made of, it makes hagas taste like chocolate cake! 

A quick shower and the decision to sleep was quickly overruled in favour of a lovely amble around the beautiful sea side town of Howth. Now for any of you who have never been to Howth (of which I assume is numerous) the town looks a lot like Hout Bay minus the bergies and scary fishmen. What is does have is a beautiful harbour and pier, noisy seagulls and a lovely air of community. Some fresh air and Prince Charming and I were ready for a celebratory class of champers. Or 20! Yip, what Howth also has is a wonderful community of people who all know each other and were ready to celebrate with the newly married couple!  7 bottles of the delicious Italian Prosecco, and few pints at the local Pub and a delicious home cooked meal, we saw our first day in Ireland in true Irish Style!