Leaving on a jet plane (again) (again)

Despite having four huge bags of stuff (and a brace of umbrellas) checking in this morning was pretty pain free. Apart from the five dollar fee to use a luggage trolley, which rankles every time. Perhaps JFK has a big problem with people stealing luggage trolleys. Perhaps JFK has a big problem with not charging people for absolutely everything it can think of.

Whatever happened to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

Donatello qualified as a CPA in 1998; Raphael is a dental surgeon in Long Beach, and Michelangelo teaches at a liberal arts college in Conneticut. None of them have spoken to Leonardo, last seen sleeping rough in Brooklyn three years ago.

Leaving it behind

This morning I got up at seven, regretting drinking three pints of beer, and went off to run 12 miles.

Bowling Ball Lullaby

Last night we slept badly; in the room above us a bowling-ball party was taking place. At least that's the only reason I can think of for the intermittent clonking noises that started at four this morning and continued, at five minute intervals, until we left the hotel after nine o'clock. The Marcel on Gramercy might be many things, but luxuriantly soundproofed it is not.

Breaking down

In sympathy with the Blackberries in Britain that are all fomenting rebellion, my own handset has also turned evil, although in this particular case it's just that the screen has turned black and the light has turned on, like a miniature eye of Sauron glaring angrily out at the world. That wouldn't be so bad if it hadn't stored several days of my most intellectual gibbering, news that the World Must Hear or somesuch.

Or at least, this means that I may have lost the record of my unbroken blogging streak - almost up to two years now, managing to type out a few words in between getting married and other events.

Bronx Zoo

After going for a 4 mile run this morning, I took the train up to the Bronx Zoo, in, well, the Bronx.

A few museums in New York

The rains that were threatened for today never materialised: instead, the skies were blue and clear. And at ground level and below, the air was thick and damp, cloying, even. I would say it isn't as polluted as Hong Kong but the fumes from all the trucks, construction sites, frozen yogurt shops, illegal DVD hawkers and dog walkers have to go somewhere.

To JFK and beyond

JFK is a pretty poorly laid out airport. Perhaps it's unfair to compare it to modern terminals like Hong Kong or Heathrow's T5, but I'm sure it wasn't a mindbending epiphany in the 1990s that it might be more efficient to have departures and arrivals on different floors of the same building, rather than cram hundreds of people walking in opposite directions through the same concourse.