Space Shuttles and Rocky

The past couple of months have been busy.  Busy with work and fun!

The middle of April saw the retirement of NASA's Space Shuttle Discovery.  It's new home is now the Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum located right next to where I work. 

Vicky, Mom and I visited the museum during it's first public showing.  Naturally the museum was packed and we had a LOT of fun.  The Museum is a very large hanger, and inside they must have 100+ airplanes, including a concorde!, and the Enola Gay.

A few days before the official unveiling, the Space Shuttle did a fly-over the city, and from my office building, I was able to take this photo:

I can vagely remember watching John Cravens Newsround in 1986 watching the Challenger shuttle explode.  And to see one of NASA's shuttle up close was a huge thrill for me:

Recently I visited the shop 'The British Pantry' and bought some proper bacon and black pudding:

Very expensive at $11 for 8-10 rashers of bacon, and $6 for tiny blood sausage.


At the end of April, I heard that a good friend of the family was going to be in Washington for a weekend stay during his holiday in America.  Friend Terry from the pub quiz I used to attend was staying in Washington for a couple of days before traveling to Chicago.  We were able to spend a couple of hours together catching up on our lives.  It was so good to see someone from home.

I've spent time with my cousin Andrea here, Terry, and oh, just the small matter of my DAD! visiting in a couple of weeks.  There will be a blog update all about that soon.

May the 26th marked my one year anniversary of emigrating.  We didn't have a big celebration about this, I just wanted to spend the time alone with my Wife.  The timing was perfect.  My Mother in Law took her Grandson, the eldest lad Ethan to New York for the weekend, meaning Vicky and I had the house to ourselves for a couple of days, I think there may have been champagne in the fridge too ...




June is going to be a busy month for Vicky and I.  As well as Dad visiting, Vicky and I are traveling north to Philadelphia to see Tenacious D in concert!  This is the actor Jack Blacks own band.  We won't be alone either, I'm meeting up with an online friend from years ago.  The 'Rocky Steps' are nearby, so expect a photo of me there, and I'll try out a Philly Cheesesteak too!

July the 4th Weekend, we're traveling down to stay with a friend in Tennessee, and we're hoping to visit DollyWood.

http://www.dollywood.com/

September seeing my return to New York!

Vicky recently won a free night in a hotel, and all she did was 'like' a news report about a hotel on the website Facebook.com

For those not familiar with Facebook.com, it's a website where you link with friends & business's, and whenever someone writes about anything, or shares a photograph, it appears on a 'newsfeed', where you can see what they shared with you, and you can also add a comment to their article.  See the photo above about Vicky winning the free stay in the hotel!

We have stayed at the hotel before.  It's located in New Jersey, and it's right outside a train station which is about a 40 minute ride to New York.


IF THE PHOTOGRAPHS APPEAR TOO SMALL, CLICK ON THEM TO MAKE THEM BIGGER

New Job

In December, after my 'temp' assignment ended in an office mailroom, I applied for the available position full-time, only to realise a few weeks later that the company were cutting costs and no job existed.

So, for the next three months I applied for various jobs, one being work in the mailroom of Hewlett Packard.  Sadly, this is a job I also did not get, despite being selected for second interview.

But, to my surprise, they rang me up out of the blue saying a position had opened up in their facilities department and if I was still interested.  Of course I was!, and I started there last Monday.  I have now have a full-time job.  It is closer to home, and it is also the workplace of my Wife.

My job is a bit of all sorts.  I have a desk in the mailroom, and I help out there, but I also work around the building, fixing paper jams in copiers, loading up printers with new ink etc.  So there is always something different to do.  What I do like, currently, is the uniform.  Jeans, trainers and a polo shirt.  I will miss the free cans of pop from the previous job.  But this is a full-time deal, and more money too.  I think I can live with that ...

This week my Wife and I have been left alone.  My Mother in Law (Mom) went on a cruise to the Bahamas, with a one day stop over at Disneyworld.  As awesome as that was, having the house to ourselves was SO nice.  She had a wonderful cruise, and I'll hear all about it in the next few days.

A nervous wreck

This week I've mostly been focusing on Sunday morning and the derby.  But I'm not going to write about it here, instead read my thoughts here:

http://www.sportposts.com/2012/03/newcastle-fan-in-exile/

This is my second time I have been 'published'.  Can I call it being published?  It's only online, not like it is in a newspaper or book.  Anyway, I think it is pretty cool.

I have more photographs to show you.  Here is the Valentines card Vicky got me.  Isn't it tiny:

Fellow expat Mark told me that Newcastle had brought out another limited edition ale, and Vicky was able to find it for me:

Mark has his own blog, http://americaletter.blogspot.com/ , and has a far better way with words than I.

This will be Newcastle's third limited edition ale I have found here, which is awesome.

A few days ago, I received a red cross parcel from Blighty:

Many thanks to my friend Steve Robson for these chocolates.

HINT:  Anytime you think of me, or miss me even.  Send me some Mars Bars or Ringtons tea bags.  Much appreciated!!  ;-)

Zombies and Beaches

Zombies and Beaches

Last Sunday saw the restart of a favourite tv show.  The Walking Dead.  The quality of the writing is superb, and the zombie make up and 'special effects' ie gore, is of the highest quality.  It is remarkable how a show like this is in the mainstream media.

And to celebrate the shows return, I saw it at the Cinema!

http://drafthouse.com/winchester

The tickets were free and on a first come first served basis.  They used the television channel feed so we got the adverts, but it was a thrill to see it on the big screen.

Wednesday I had a second interview with HP.  This time a telephone interview with three people.  It was all over within about 20 minutes and I think I did well.  I had over prepared the previous day and had numerous notes all laid out, but I did not need to refer to them.  I'll find out at some point if I've been successful or not.

The next day I spent the day at Vickys office as we were then on a road trip to Virginia Beach.

Click the link for a map: http://g.co/maps/r7hp4

Vicky wanted to meet up with an old school friend as they were moving back to California.  Originally the plan was to stay in two hotels.  The first one near to the court for Vickys juty, and the next hotel in the same area as her friend.  Fortunately the jury duty was cancelled, and she rebooked.  And the new hotel had a hot-tub!  $170 for three nights, thank you very much.

Being February, the place was almost a ghost town, but we managed to find good places to eat, thanks to meeting up with an old work friend of my Wifes.

This is the view from our room.  Looks just like Tynemouth!

On the Friday we went to the cinema, and I had my first IMAX experience.  Journey 2 was the film, and I was very impressed with the screen size and audio.

A little trip

Not much happening here at the moment, but on Wednesday, Vicky and I will be driving down south to the town of Norfolk, Virginia.  We are visiting a school friend of my Wifes, and they have not seen each other since High School.  Initially this was to be a weekend trip, but Vicky has been called for Jury duty for one day.  We were horrified when she received the letter, especially with the trip to Norfolk, but the place is somewhere half way between, so we've compromised with a hotel.  At the very least, we're both sharing a road trip, and we'll treat it like a mini-holiday.

More random recent pictures:

Pepper watching telly

Sunday mornings are just too much effort

Sushi should NOT be on my chair!

I enjoyed my first Blooming Onion at the Outback Steakhouse, and here we have a kit to make your own.  I did not buy it!

I found these Japanese imported kitkats!

I took this picture of Sushi one morning, one of my favourites so far

Random pictures

Here is another set of recent photographs from Facebook:

As always, click on the picture to enlarge them

This was seen in my Wifes work canteen.  I didn't try it ...

My drawer in the fridge!

On a recent trip to Martins supermarket, I found these strange items:

Icecream for dogs and a stuffed Turkey/Duck/Chicken 'thing'.  But look at its price!

FA Cup weekend!

Newcastle were on the telly here, showing live on Fox Soccer Channel.  With the five hour time difference, kick off was 12.15.

But for me, the day started much earlier.

Around 3am the dog did her usual 'I want to go outside' noises of wagging her tail against the bed and growling.  Back to bed and my alarm went off just after 6.

The first match I watched was online.  I've paid a subscription to Foxsoccer.tv, and at 7am I watched the first half of the Chelsea vs QPR match.

No dog for company, she had done the sensible thing by taking over my warm spot in the bed.  Breakfast was a cup of tea, and a bowl of cereal.

Second match today, on the television was Liverpool vs Manchester.  Followed by Derby vs Stoke.  All games were with English commentators.

I won't write my thoughts about Newcastle's game, but it was great to see live.


Sunday I watched the Arsenal vs Aston Villa game, and this time the house was full of people!  Vicky's Sister Liz, her partner, and the 4 children came over to watch the game.  They brought food too, and we played the board game 'Game of Life' afterwards.  I hadn't played this since I was little.  This was Vickys board game and it was Disney's 'Haunted Mansion' version.


Deadline Day

Every year, it's the same, sky sports news gets everyone sucked into being glued to the tv to be scared / excited about selling or signing players.  Last year was hell when the on/off shananigans about Andy Carroll resulted in him moving west to Liverpool.

The channel goes over the top, and even I know the presenters are pretending to read texts on their mobiles about signings.  But we all watch it.  Well, I do.

This year, I thought I could avoid it, but Fox Soccer Channel here in America showed it from half seven in the morning till 8pm at night.  They took a break half way through to show the Everton vs Manchester City game.


Later today is the Newcastle vs Blackburn game.  This isn't being shown on the telly, but on ESPN3.com, and is only available to me through the cable company we have our tv with.