Sending love from London

It's Valentine's Day, and while some of you are celebrating it and some of you are not, I'd like to dedicate this Valentine's Day to my amazing friends, because without all your love and support you have given me over the past year I would not be where I am now.

So while some of you are with your loved ones, some of you may find this day awful and may be feeling alone , I'd just like to say that I'm thinking of you all today. You have all kept me powering on though the good days and the bad, the ones i have spent laughing with you and the ones I have cried to you. With all the love you have showed me I am a stronger and happier person than I ever was before. I'm living in London thanks to all your support and love, I would not have lasted this long here if I didn't have you to keep me going. I only hope that one day I can show half the amount of friendship and support you have all shown me. I really couldn't wish for more beautiful friends.

So here I am sending you my love all the way from London.

Waitangi Day

Waitangi Day isn't something that really is celebrated in New Zealand.
I think it needs to be a day where us New Zealanders can have the day off and be proud to be a Kiwi, but it usually just ends up being a big fuss about how the land was 'stolen' or whatever each persons view might be.
Waitangi Day in London was most definitely an experience I'll never forget. It was really about us kiwi's over here in this big place all banding together and making a big statement from a small country! It was a day we're we could shout at the world and say we are kiwi's and we are proud! It was really what Waitangi Day should be about. And though I may have missed the haka at Parliament Square in Westminster but there were 7000 other kiwi's there to celebrate it.

Waitangi Day London style involves a Circle Line Pub Crawl, which starts at 10am and finishes at 3pm with the Haka. The pub crawl I didn't attend, but I did go along to the after party. The Waitangi after party boat that is, on the HMS President on The Thames. I also managed to bring along some great friends who aren't from New Zealand, but keen to join in with the celebrations. We all painted each others faces with the red Southern Cross stars off the flag, we we're dressed in black, I was wrapped in the New Zealand flag and ready to show them what a kiwi party is like! When we arrived at the boat we were greeted with K Bars and Speights, and the Speights went down a treat. Everyone on the boat was all dressed as a kiwi icon, there was the Mad Butcher, the 4 Square man, a girl dressed as a pavlova, Watties tomato sauce, there was lots of bumble bee's and even a kiwi to name a few.

There was live bands, a sausage sizzle, and an amazing atmosphere. I was so excited, it was great to be around some fellow New Zealanders and chat with those who had never been to this before and people who had. I did talk to a guy and this was his 6th year out in London for Waitangi Day. There we're plenty of non-kiwi's there too which was great to see. It was just an all round great night out, but then again I was just so excited about the whole situation.

As the night went on, so did the dancing, drinking and having fun, but that did soon have to come to an end so as the crowd slowly disappeared and the band packed up it was time to finish our drinks and head home. We'd all had an absolute blast! And it will definitely go down as a great night out in my book.
I'll be doing that again next year, and I plan to dress up as something amazing, though I'm not too sure what yet, I do have 363 days the think of a costume.

New York

It was meant to be Christmas and New Years in New York, however due to adverse weather conditions, a cancelled flight, a lot of tears and the new departure flight 5 days later than the original departure date, I finally made it to New York or as they say the city that never sleeps.

Flying into NY I'd never seen so many lights. It was amazing, like the world was glowing. I landed at Newark but due to all the snow that fell in New York the day before I arrived, the plane then just sat on the runway for three hours as there was no gate available. That was ok, I may have been six hours ahead of time, and just stepped off an eight our flight plus 3 hours extra of just sitting on a plane at the airport, but I was pumped and ready to go.

The last time I saw Steph was my 21st birthday, 5 years and 4 months earlier. So much had happened to us since then, including the American accent she seemed to have picked up since moving to NY. But we'd been best friends since 1996 so the 5 years of not seeing each other was not going to make a difference to our friendship. And being together in New York, Steph's new home town, well city, would prove that old friendship never dies and that you can still act the goat when your in your mid twenties!

So Steph and her husband Sergio met me at the airport, and as we trudged over the snow, bags and all, loaded up the car and made our way into Manhattan reality still had not set in! I was in this amazing city, one that never sleeps, that glows in the night and even the day, the city that's so full of hussle and bussle and everyone and anyone. And as we made it into Manhattan the decision was made that I would get a tourist drive through Times Square at 10.30 at night. It may have been 10.30pm but shops were open, there were people out and about and it was so bright it felt like the middle of the day and then of course there was the typical city traffic. But after the scenic route to Steph and Sergio's house, quickly dropped off my bags and we were out again, headed for a local restaurant just around the corner. Now anywhere else in the world going out for dinner after 11pm would be a tad strange, but here it was like no one actually ever cared what time it was, so this restaurant was packed! And this is when I think I actually quoted "this city really doesn't sleep". But though this may have been the city that never sleeps it was home to bed for me, I needed to get a good nights sleep so I was ready for the action packed day of touristy sight seeing that was about to begin.

So after waking up fairly early, half due to the fact that I was still in London timezone, Steph, Sergio and I were planning the action packed day that was ahead. But you don't start the morning with about bagels with cream cheese and jam and a coffee with half and half.
So dressed in my warmest clothes and heading out the front door we were on our way to Grand Central Station. Being at Grand Central was unreal, it was exactly how it is on TV and in movies yet being there it was so different I guess it was just all so surreal. Then after walking through this amazingly huge train station, we were off, walking towards the Rockefella Centre we past the New York Library, then before I knew it right infront of me was the tallest building I'd ever seen, and surrounded around the Rockefella Centre was the most amazing Christmas decorations, lights and of course the massive Christmas tree which is right out the front of the building. It was so wonderful, the snow, the ice skating, the lights, the big angels and toy soldiers that were all around. It was time to carry on walking, though this was not the last time I would be at the Rockefella Centre. Right around the corner was Radio City Music Hall, then around the corner from that was Central Park. Nothing could have prepared me for how huge Central Park really is, and also how pretty it is. Thought it was winter and there were no leaves on the tree's nor flowers in the gardens, I got one better, I got snow! The most amazing looking snow I'd ever seen! And frozen ponds and lakes! It was amazing. All the snowmen that people had made, the little paw prints on the smoothest of white from the squirrels, everything was just so picturesque. That was when I feel in love with Central Park.

After Central Park we were on our way to Time Square, and though it didn't have quite the same effect in the day as it did in the night it was still great fun! We went to the Hershey's shop, where they had the biggest bottles of chocolate sauce I'd ever seen! We went to Toys'R'Us which was so huge it had a massive Ferris wheel in the middle of the store, and a giant Statue of Liberty made out of Lego. Big is an understatement for Toys'R'Us. Just outside the toy store was a NYPD officer, who I absolutely had to have my photo taken with. So I plucked up the courage and put of my politest of kiwi accents and went up to the cop and kindly said "can I please have my photo with you", he replied "yeah" in a tone that clearly said that this must be about the millionth time he'd been asked that question. Then after our Times Square adventure it was down to the New York Subway, back home to put up our feet before heading out for a few drinks, some dancing a lot of laughter and a whole lot of fun.

Cafe Wah! one of the best bars I've ever been to! I was with great friends, there was a great band, playing great music and a great atmosphere! Cafe Wah! was just amazing! And if anyone is in New York I definitely recommend it. The band was a cover band, but they weren't the typical cover band they played the biggest variety of songs some of them even sung better than the original act. So we ended our night there, and boy did we go out with an absolute bang!

The next day, after a very big sleep in we were out again, this time off to see Ground Zero. I could never imagine what it must have been like when the Twin Towers came down, nor could I ever imagine the true scale of the actual event. And even after seeing where the Twin Towers were and the damage it caused to the surrounding buildings, the magnitude was still far greater than what I could ever imagine. And though now it is mostly covered in construction for the new memorial they are building for were the Twin Towers once stood, I still got to see the huge hole in the ground, the hole in the ground from which those two buildings once stood over. An event that still haunts all the residents of Lower Manhattan and New York.

After seeing Ground Zero and stocking up on Starbucks we went for a lovely walk along the bottom of Lower Manhattan and up towards the Brooklyn Bridge. We walked past Liberty Island with a perfect sunset in the background, We walked past Wall Street and of course that called for the typical tourist moment in which I yelled out "hang on, I need to take a photo of the street sign!". We made it to the Brooklyn Bridge and in the blistery freezing cold wind quickly had my photo taken before I turned into an ice block. Then just for a bit more walking we walked back to Times Square to catch the train home, but not before we got some night snaps of the square. And there was the New Years ball all the way up the top of one of the buildings ready for New Years Eve the following night. Underneath was a small crowd gathering, and out of interest we thought we'd go and see what was going on, then blown me down right in front of me was Jenny McCarthy and then about ten minutes later there was Ryan Seacrest! Ryan started walking through the crowd, but I wasn't going to let him get away as quickly as Jenny so I yelled out his name and then he shook my had and i think someone could have knocked me over with a feather, I just shook hands with Ryan Seacrest! So after my star studded night it was back home to bed.

It was New Years eve and we didn't have much planned for the day, Steph had to call into work that afternoon so that meant browsing around the mall for an hour or so. Then it was home to get ready to head into Times Square for our New Years eve celebrations and what a celebration it was going to be, NKOTBSB were playing live!! For those of you who don't share my passion for cheesy pop music the above stands for New Kids On The Block and Backstreet Boys. And for those of you who have somehow missed this, BSB are my favourite band of all time. So this New Years eve was going to be brilliant. However there was a downside to a Times Square New Years, and that was that over one million people turn up to cram into the Square. So we turned up around 5pm walked a serious amount of blocks, so many I actually lost count, to try and get in. The police shut all the ends of the streets so the only way in is a cornered off street that has a security check point. So we finally found a check point and started heading in only to come across another check point which we had to go through! After making it through the second check point we then got as close to Times Square as we possibly could. Now it was about 6pm when we found our spot about 7 blocks away from Time's Square, if you want to get into Time's Square you need to get there first thing in the morning. So standing there at 6pm with 6 hours to go until midnight, we knew it would be a long wait, but what made the situation very bad was we couldn't hear anything! Nothing! Just the sound of the crowd we were standing in, personally I thought that if they knew so many people would be there that they would put speakers up all the streets but no, all you could see in the distance was the New Years Ball and that was it. so after waiting until 7pm and then realising that this would possibly be the longest 5 hour wait we'd ever had to go through we left. We went to a bar had some dinner, drank some beer then went home drunk some more and watched the NKOTBSB and the ball drop via the good ol' television. Still goes down in my book as the best New Years Eve! I spent it in New York!!

New Years day pretty much consisted of sleeping in followed by shopping. Shopping in New York is amazing, I would go back there just to shop till I drop and I'd have no problem doing it!
The following day Steph and I spent at the Natural History Museum, and we had a lot of fun there. It was massive, so much to do and see that I think walking around that museum topped all the walking we'd done around NY the previous days. But it was great fun to wonder around this huge museum with my bestie. Just taking it all in, and of course with a little bit of acting the goat!
After the museum it was across the road to go to Strawberry Fields, the John Lennon memorial. That was really nice to see. I never knew it was there in Central Park, so it was nice to see.

Before I knew it, it was my last day in New York and the next morning I'd be up before the sun heading to the airport. So my last day was spend doing some final running around shopping and heading back to the Rockefella Centre to do Top Of The Rock. That's right I was going to head up the second tallest building after the Empire State. Now I'm not usually scared of heights but I must admit I was definitely feeling a bit nervous about heading to the Top of the Rock, but hey I had to do it right! So there I was in the lift going up at some crazy speed and before I knew it I was 70 stories in the air looking over New York. The view was just amazing, there was so much to see up there! And the view of the Empire State building was great! What a way to end my holiday in New York. Here I was on top of the world so to speak, reminiscing over all that I had seen and done the past week. Time had gone far too fast, a week felt like a few days, but I did see and do all that I had set out to do and I got to see Steph and have her and Sergio take me around. So though New York was just amazing and I didn't want to leave my friends, I was ready to head back to London, my present home.

I must say though, that New York, I will be seeing you again.