The House Husband

It was a mighty hot day today and, given that Mirinda was heading off to New Jersey in the afternoon, a lot of it was spent inside. Either in the cool air-conditioned room or on the Zephyr…which is also air-conditioned. But first, an early breakfast.

Down at Roxy’s Diner we were greeted like old friends. I love the way they do this in New York. There’s very little chance that they actually remembered us but that doesn’t stop them sounding like they do.

Mirinda decided to try oatmeal (which is just porridge) while I had my usual pancakes, bacon and maple syrup and a great cup of coffee. Actually, it’s not really ‘great’ as such but having it in a real diner goes a long way to making it great.

Breakied up, we wandered down to the South Street Seaport. This is a series of piers in front of the constantly busy South Street traffic viaduct that runs around the bottom of Manhattan.

The piers have been around since the 18th century back when big sailing ships plied their trade all around the globe. A couple of the ships are open to visitors, unless it’s a Monday, but you can wander around the piers just looking at them from onshore. The docks have a website here.

Mirinda wandering around the pier at South Street Seaport

We wandered to the end of the dock then back, figuring we’d go and see when we could actually get to see the ships, when we spotted a booth for New York harbour cruises. I figured this would be a great way to sightsee and stay cool at the same time.

The Zephyr was leaving in half an hour so we bought our tickets and headed down to the long queue of Japanese tourists already waiting.

I was beginning to worry about how long we’d be stuck standing in the sun when the Zephyr pulled alongside the dock. There was still an awful lot of people n front of us but then a miracle happened. We, apparently, were in the priority queue! We were like the fourth on the boat. This has NEVER happened to me before. We picked the seat we wanted and watched as the tour group stood outside looking totally jealous.

Eventually they were all on the boat and we set out on a tour of the harbour. Our first stop was Brooklyn Bridge.

Brooklyn Bridge from the East River

We heard all sorts of facts about the bridge, like how it was completed in 1883 and looked the same as it does now except without cars. It was built with an amazing lot of foresight because it works really well for the huge volume of cars that use it now when there was only horse drawn vehicles for the opening.

It took a few years before the first person jumped off it to his death. That ‘honour’ goes to Robert Emmet Odlum, who leapt to his death in 1885.

The Zephyr did a big u-turn and we headed out into the New York harbour. The woman giving us the tour repeatedly assured all the passengers that we would all be getting some wonderful views of the one thing we were all there to see. The Statue of Liberty. Apparently. It’s a bit of a shame if this is true because the harbour is lovely with lots of interesting history. But, as the ferry crept closer to the statue, the excitement on the boat was palpable.

Our favourite view, though, was the upside down building that Mirinda noticed. It seriously looks like someone has plonked it on the side of the river but the wrong way round. As Mirinda said, it is sitting on its head, kicking it’s legs in the air saying “turn me over!” It turned out to be an air vent for the tunnel that goes under the river. There is an identical one on the other side.

Upside down building in New Jersey

I popped upstairs as we came close to Lady Liberty and was fortunate to witness the madness that is the tourist photo op. Along the edges of the boat, Japanese tourists stood three deep, cameras ready, ignoring Ellis Island, with focus rings set for the statue.

On the top floor of the boat is a series of metal benches.

Upstairs on the Zephyr - Liberty on the left

As we drew closer to Liberty Island, the tourists started getting a bit edgy, climbing over each other, trying to reach higher for that special shot that no-one else has managed to get (yeah, sure). As the more desperate jumped onto the benches, a deck hand (with huge muscles) started to politely ask people to get off them.

I say he started politely…it didn’t take long before he was just dragging them off and throwing them around. None of this seemed to bother them as they simply stood up, shook themselves down and started climbing all over again. I spotted another deckhand downstairs, sitting at the bar, happy in his work. I guess they must draw straws for the top deck.

Of course, given that the tourists were all Japanese, I had no problem taking uninterrupted photos of the statue before turning around and returning to the air conditioned bliss downstairs.

Statue of Liberty

As I sat down opposite Mirinda, the boat turned and the statue loomed large in the window next to us. The women, who had been sitting sedately, suddenly went insane, squealing like middle aged teeny boppers at a Take That concert. It was seriously bizarre.

We then headed back to the seaport and the heat of the day. After disembarking we unsuccessfully tried to go to a cafe for a drink and the loo and, instead headed straight back to the hotel for lunch, ahead of Mirinda heading off to her conference.

After a few hours of essential heat recovery, we walked over to the WTC to catch the PATH train across the river to Exchange Place ($1.75 for a 4 minute train ride under the river) in order to deliver Mirinda to her conference.

We checked her into the Hyatt – two almost double beds and a view towards the Statue of Liberty as well as a strange noise coming from the room above which sounded very much like someone playing marbles on a wooden floor.

I am amazed that such an expensive hotel charges extra for wi-fi! I know I’ve said that before regarding other hotels but the hotel in Wall Street includes wi-fi and is about half the price. OK, there’s only one massive bed and no lounge suite but even so.

After a cup of tea we wandered across to the conference building where I left her to head back to Manhattan. I then changed to the subway and headed for Times Square.

The temperature was well over 30 degrees and the crowds were intense. I didn’t stay around too long. I’d spotted an ad on a brochure for a great bargain on a Canon EOS DSLR and went straight to the shop to assuage my need for better images. Starting from tomorrow, there should be a vast improvement in my photographs. I seriously hope so, anyway.

New camera in hand, I then went back to the hotel to cool off for an hour before venturing out for dinner.

So, the rain decided to give us a miss today. The sky was blue, the temperature up at about the 28 mark and not even a sniff of rain. At last. Fantastic.

Mum managed to dry her 24 loads of washing without any problem at all. I had two swims – the first with two very well behaved children and the second with some noisy Americans – and a lovely walk by the canal.

A lot of people had managed to squelch themselves out of their homes and were gallivanting around the park down by Double Bay beach. I even spotted a wedding going on near the cafe. Talk about lucky! One day earlier, the bride would be wearing a wetsuit. And they don’t look that good in white.

This morning we went into Caloundra again so we could change the slowly deflating airbed I’ve been sleeping on for one that remains inflated. It’s very odd on a queen size airbed because the two sides lift up as the air goes from the middle and you end up cocooned. There was no problem exchanging it. In fact, it must happen a lot because the girl on the check-out seemed to be expecting it.

Mum then drove off looking for photographs while I went to Sanity to buy our Christmas presents from mum & dad (a load of DVDs). After buying the shop out, I wandered over to the Coffee Club to wait for mum. She. meanwhile, had pulled into the car-park (it’s a very big, spread out car-park) and, coincidentally parked next to Trace.

Mum then went into K-Mart and texted Trace to see where she was. ‘In K-Mart’ came the reply. And there she was. So they both did whatever they had to do then came and joined me for a coffee. A lovely surprise.

Back at home (which is a duplex rather than an apartment!) we unpacked the shopping (including a few thousand Cherry Ripes for Dawn) then realised the Internet was finally on!

It took me a while, but I updated my blog and blips and FB, read and discarded most of my 300+ emails and downloaded The Archers episodes I’d missed. Mum went through her emails as well, getting rid of lots of rubbish. It always happens.

Because the sun was out, I managed to get some nice shots around mum & dad’s little community. Here’s one of the roads that leads to their place.

The road to mum & dad's

And here’s one of the canal just across the road. Down a few streets and through a small alley.

The canal separating Kawana Island from the rest of Queensland

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In the meanwhilst, Mirinda had to say goodbye to her mum as she left for Singapore this afternoon. In her words, she was ‘utterly miserable’. Completely understandable. She has been with Claire (and Bob, of course) for over two months now so it’s obviously going to be a wrench. For all of them. I hope she has a good time in Singapore over New Years.

And my best wishes to Claire (I’m assuming Bob will be reading this to her) and I hope the damned trachy is gone soon!

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In other medical news…dad is slowly getting stronger. The length of the hallway means he gets the equivalent exercise of an iron-man every time he moves from the bedroom to the lounge. We’ll get him on a surf board very, very soon.

He came for a ride with us in the car yesterday which was a big step.

There’s a lot of it about today. It is with some horror I realise that I am so acclimatised that this is nowhere near as bad as Sydney was when I lived there. Long nights lying atop the bedclothes, sweat constantly dripping from me. No, it’s not that bad here. However, it is still bad. Particularly on days like today when there’s the occasional cloud cover.

Being a Wednesday I journeyed into London for lunch with Mirinda. As I had some essential summer supplies with me, the plan was that I would go to the flat then walk to the office. Then, as I was about to leave the flat, my phone rang. The office had been plunged into the dark ages, the electricity having been somehow disconnected. We decided to meet at the flat and find somewhere nearby for lunch.

We ended up at Eat, not far from the flat, and then started walking up to Holborn. Gray’s Inn was lovely. An iron railing full of hollyhocks, all out and welcoming the summer sun, people sitting on the grass of what once may have been a jousting ground, a big marquee, advertising al fresco lunches (the Marquee in the Parkee, as I called it). It all looks so lovely and inviting in the summer.

Almost at Holborn, Mirinda decided she was feeling a bit ill so we walked back to the flat, where she would work for the rest of the day. Ideal, I said, mentioning the fact that the pool was just down the stairs and there may be a nice breeze on the roof terrace.

She’s off to the Barbican tonight to see a dance thing with Sarah from work, so I suggested she take it easy. The flat is very hot, though the fan I bought her yesterday should alleviate that a bit.

Being at the flat meant I could catch a bus back to Waterloo – always preferable to the Tube in summer – and I was soon on a train, putting gently through the Surrey countryside, the sun at bay behind the chill of the air conditioning that I just knew I’d regret once I arrived at Farnham.

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I spent the late afternoon pottering around the garden. I planted some pretty yellow flowers called Lady’s Slippers, I think and cut back another one which bled white gunk all over me. Naturally I watered everything.

As I watered, Carmen lay on the patio, watching intently. She isn’t that bothered by the hose while Day-z is intrigued and will often stick her nose into plants as I’m watering them.

Anyway, I was happily watering the beds near the back door when suddenly a sizeable frog jumped out of the bed and landed about four inches from Carmen’s nose. They both stared at each other for a bit, the frog blinking, Carmen’s head on one side, until Carmen put her paw out to see if it was real.

The frog jumped away from her, towards the bigger bed and Carmen was up and chasing, her tail wagging like an outboard motor on full throttle. She chased it up to the fence before I could grab her. Naturally, Day-z wanted to know what was going on so she joined in the frog chase as well.

I’m pretty sure it managed to escape though I did have to keep telling Carmen off for trampling the cosmos we planted last weekend!

Today was the hottest of the year so far. According to the weather station, at 5pm it was 40! It’s important to remember that the weather station thermometer is hit directly by the sun for most of the day, so it’s not really the temperature in the garden, as such. It’s actually more accurate if it’s cloudy. At the moment (11:14pm) it is 15 and a light breeze has sprung up, wafting wisteria scent through the house.

It was, indeed, quite warm today. To that end I mowed the lawn early and walked the dogs late, making sure I was in the house working on my dissertation proposal during the midday heat.

We also have an almost full moon. I just went for a wander up the back and it’s very bright and, fortunately, a lot cooler. So sleep should be easy.

Here’s what the park looked like this afternoon.

Farnham Park on the hottest day so far