Row row row your boat

Gently in Central Park :) Lovely Saturday afternoon with fresh fruit, yummi cheese and wine at hand.
The winning team, Nath, D & T
Go go go go!
Shall I push him in the water, shall I not? Shall I?
My friend Kate and her friend Megan

Who needs music...

...to dance in the streets of New York city? :)

If I tell you I'll have to kill you

A secret bar in the dodgy part of New York city, by appointment only.

A heavy metal door and a buzzer.

Ring ring.

A brunette opens the door and leads us in.

Dark velvet curtains.

More dark velvet curtains.

And we get to the place.

A dark intimate atmosphere. The most soothing jazz music playing in the background. A bar tender from Australia who asks you what you "feel like" and just creates cocktails up for his guests. The optimum New York Experience. That was our Friday night. It felt like we were in a mafia movie - hehe, without the scary part and the stinky cigars smoke though. I would tell you the name of the place or give you the phone number, but I'll have to kill you if I do. However, KATE - you and Will would SO love this place, I'll just have to take you next time you are in New York!

Oh happiness!

Yes, it does not take very much :)

Libertad!

Friday we spent waiting in a nice long line...mmmm I mean, going to the Statue of Liberty -which felt nothing like Freedom, let me tell you. However, right after coming back from the statue, we went through Battery Park and saw children running around in the water fountain to beat the heat.


It put such a smile on my face to see them screaming their joy out. So much happiness from one of the small things in life, so much innocence. You should have heard the laughs of this little girl running away from her mum and getting her entire dress drenched in water. I sat down there for a while, enjoying the scene and trying to capture the moment with pics. Not quite happy with the results, but never mind - I'll give it another try, now that I know where to go on sunny hot days to see the real LIBERTAD :)

Nathalie's in town, trouble!

Indeed, this calls for cousin mischief :) Playing the tourist is something I had not really done in New York, so a nice change! New York here we come :)

And that's what we call a wet day!

Remember the "wet" canoe trip I mentioned a few weeks back with the Millers? Lindsay just sent me the pics.....just so you see I was not bluffing :) hehe. The rain getting back at me maybe for leaving Ireland? In any case, it made the adventure super fun.

Diving pics :)

Finally received the underwater pics from my diving course last month :) These are from dive 1. Sorry, no pics of the underwater helicopter. Alright, now it's time to see more fishies! :)

Alright alright, I am knew - so I am messing up the signs a bit hehe
Troels showing off doing a handstand in the back while poor Britteny is about to kick Harl in the face :)
Practicing some exercises underwater

Firefly-lit dinner

Tonight we spent some time in our park. Picked up some food at Valentina, grabbed a blanket and a couple books. Cuddle up together, it seemed like we could just lay there together and life would be nothing but perfect. Later on when we raised our heads, there were fireflies all around us and it felt like a Disney movie. I had never seen fireflies before. My lips are still smiling :) So in the city I am, and even though I am probably not fully enjoying everything that NY has to offer, hopefully I'll learn how to do this in a city that is so overwhelmingly fantastic.

When you are running around...

Last weekend one of my former good friends from college got married. I say former because somewhere along the road, her and I seem to have lost each other. Seeing all of our common friends travel to the wedding made me think back over what happened, and about friendship in general. I just wanted to find what went wrong on my end that I let go of such a great friend. I think that every now and then, I was just giving certain "future" things in my life too much focus, while forgetting about some of the Carpe Diem. The things that seemed important to me at the time may have make me seem distant and arrogant to some of my friends, and in some ways rather selfish. I just hope that I can learn from my lessons.

How can you not get used to this?

The last night in LA, T's company put us in the best hotel ever. The roof top is the most wonderful part of it, with a bar, nice pool, chill out lounges and the most beautiful view of LA (well, as beautiful as LA can get I guess - hehehe). I can see how people would quickly get used to this sort of luxury. I'll sure enjoy it while it last - but just feel like this is too good to be true.

Sea, Shamu and Sun! :)

5Shamu here we come! T and I spent the day in Sea World today. Not quite what I expected, my lord all the people there! I managed to survive the day without any sunburn - a miracle as many of you know-, by spreading a foot of sunscreen over my body every 10 minutes. Ok, maybe not this dramatic but it was HOT OUT THERE! Saw killer wales, dolphins, sharks, pinguins - all very cool, but my favorite remains the cute smiling black wales named Bubbles. She just made me happy by popping her head out to say hi :)
This one needed her back scratched. Volunteer anyone?
Oh the wonder wonderfulness of theme parks.......waiting in line.
Shamu splashing away!
My new friend Bubbles the Whale :) Can you see it smiling? :)
T & D waiting for the Dolphin show
The wonderful Shamu-glass this will take half of our appartment in Manhattan. Well done T :D

Californication

Troels in California for work, I tagged along to visit my old friend the sun :) LA and San Diego on the menu, I have to say that things don't look too bad. We've truly had a blast, enjoying the Pier in Los Angeles and going snorkling in San Diego. Nothing like watching fourth of July fireworks by the beach with my sweetheart holding me tight.

This has been a much-longer-than-anticipated vacation, and I am not too sure what to think of it. While I am really enjoying the time free, it's been a montth and I am still not too sure how I should handle it. This is the first time in maybe 10 years that I have so much time on my hands - and, go figure, most of it I spend thinking about the little and big ideas in my mind, without however making much progress on them, it seems like. Anybody has some thinking tricks for me so that I stop chasing my own tail?

Gambling our lives out at the Game Arcades. Hehehhe I rocked the hell out of the Deal or No Deal game. Bwahahahahahha.

Hawaiian music at LA piers.

Nuclear drinks at Bubba Gump. There was a light at the bottom of my glass making the drink change color. Pretty cool :)

The Cave at La Jolla. That's where we went snorklling. A LOT of fish in there! Pretty pretty!

T & D hilling in La Jolla :)

In Old San Diego. Love the feeling of the park, with all the little Mexican restaurants and old shops.

My other sister

You heard right :) I know, I know, her and I look like each other like a pizza and a cookie next to each other - I'll give you that. But we've had this connection since the very first day we met. It was 4 years ago during our orientation day for our Sony Pictures Summer Internship. And every time we can manage to spend together feels like the most precious of all.