New Years' Eve

So there has been no snow and as I am sitting in the airport right now (17:10) there are no delays. Moo has just phoned to say she is off out for a New Years' Eve Party as soon as we get back, or sooner if she can get someone to sit with the boys for half an hour to an hour.

Huffle and I woke this morning with sore feet and weary ankles. We promised each other we would not walk much today. (Ha, ha, ha, ha) We didn't stray far for breakfast but had a huge plate of pancakes with syrup. Yum. A good start to the day. We went back to our room, packed our bags, and checked out. We also put our bags in 'Left Luggage' and got on the subway to Central Park. The idea being that we train it to the other end and walk slowly back towards the centre. Of course, this didn't happen. We ended up where we were the other day, about a third of the way from the beginning (Times Square End). One of the problems with our feet was from yesterday evening when we walked, unintentionally, from our Hotel all the way to Central Park - that's a long way!

Today, although there was snow and ice on the ground, it was a lovely clear, sunny day. We walked to Jacqueline Onassis Kennedy (or something like that) Reservoir where it boasted reflecting pools and beautiful views. The water was a little ripply for reflecting but it was nice. A huge reservoir that covered almost the whole width of Central Park. Unfortunately the buildings that were reflected were not the best ones.

 

However we found the Guggenheim Museum - I know I have seen a film recently which was filmed inside it but I can't remember which one it is - how annoying. Architecturally, the outside is great and Huffle thought it resembled a boat from one angle. The queue to get in was very long and we didn't really want to walk around it, though it did have a Picasso exhibition in there.

We carried on walking (yes more walking - OUCH) and ended up at The Met. We walked up the steps, went inside, saw the queues, asked our feet if they wanted to wander around the huge place and when they politely declined we sat outside and watched the people milling about.

We found a little Greek place for lunch, it was okay, it did a job. We got the train right to the end of the line and ended up at Brooklyn Bridge.

we decided to walk across it until we realised that a lot of it was boarded up so you couldnt see anything from the bridge. After a while we turned around and walked into the Financial District. We had a drink and some of Carlos' cake (once again very good 4/4). We got the train back to our hotel to get our bags. Once we recovered our luggage, we set off to the train station. It was absolutely packed. Even the police were amazed at the huge amount of revellers. We hoped they were all going to go in the opposite direction to us but they were going in every direction. We met a few drunks on the way, had some blowy things blown at us and finally got on the train in the direction of the airport. We knew we couldn't get all the way but were hoping we could get off nearby and then get a taxi in.

We ended up at Queens (Ugly Betty suburb). As we came out of the station we saw more people than near Times Square. I looked at Huffle and said "where are we?" We were under a huge bridge just like in Blues Brothers and various other films I have seen. Cars were honking, gridlocked, people milling about, more honkers and flashing glasses and sparkly hats. OMG, it's New Years Eve,the streets are packed and there wasn't a taxi in sight, except one whose driver was fast asleep. Huffle attempted to tap on his 'off duty' windscreen but in the end hailed a limo cab. He was lovely, took us straight to the airport, to the correct terminal and was thankful for the tip Huffle gave him. ahhhhhhh - sigh of relief that we are at the airport. There was a moment there when we wondered if we might have trouble getting there.

There weren't any major problems once in the small airport. Not too many people. Huffle wasn't allowed to check in via the machine for some reason and had to go to the check in desk. Huffle and I both had to go into the body scanner and hold a pose! We forgot we had left a can of coke in the rucksack so that was put through again. We were early so we sat in a cafe and had a bite and a drink. Moo rang us and we chatted to her about this evening. I blogged, Huffle caught up with Facebook and we waited for our flight to be called. Then we were called for our papers to be checked. We asked why and were told, it was just random!

All in all, a great mini break. Very busy. A very mad city. Amazing buildings and architecture. My favourite building by far is the Chrysler Building from close up and at night. We loved the Flat iron building. We both liked Central Park, especially when it snowed and we walked through the Rambling part and saw the wildlife. We especially liked the Alice in Wonderland Sculpture. 'Eataly' is the best place to eat, drink and shop - all at the same time. We found Times Square overwhelming. I expected it to be bigger and wider and not so compact. We have learnt how to be rap-lookalike-wannabe-hoodie-type-dudes after watching many on the subway. I have also taught Huffle many fashion names after constantly walking through the Fashion district.

I am ending today's post here as there was an incident at the airport of which I am too angry and upset to write about tonight. I don't trust myself in my angered state to write clearly, I am sure I will write more tomorrow when I am more calm.

Home now, gingerbread and cup of Yorkshire tea in my English mug. Bliss!

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR. ALL THE BEST FOR 2013

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Who wants to eat cake?

 

We did indeed get into the lobby of the Chrysler building. But only to be stopped by a sign that said CLOSED, and a humourless, speechless guard who just shrugged and said 'sign'. It will be open tomorrow morning but we will have our bags with us and it is quite a walk! We got to to see the gorgeous roof and almost a whole lift door. The small portion we did see was quite spectacular.

The ceiling of the Chrysler

On we walked to Grand Central Station. Another spectacular building, inside and out. Hundreds of people milling about. The architecture inside was fabulous. Then on to the Public Library. Big, huge staircases, a bit like the National Gallery. A few exhibitions in there which we briefly looked at. The queue to get out was bigger than the queue to get in, strangely! Next we walked around Bryant Park, where we briefly went the first day. Today we meandered around the little pop-up shops. Lots of lovely interesting expensive things. We bought a hat for Huffle from a street vendor and a couple of things to take home for the three chimps. After completely wearing out our shoe leather and hurting our ankles from too much stopping and starting (from the many (huffle edit - bloody stupid dawdling idiots ) pedestrians in front), we made our way back to the hotel. We stopped at the ticket desk to check if there were any tickets for ANY show tonight. Nothing tonight or tomorrow for ANYTHING.

We sat in our room, charged our phones, put up our feet and ate a Cannoli. Ummm, maybe Carlos' was worth the long wait. So far we have tried the Chocolate Fudge Brownie - beautiful icing, and the Cannoli, very good. Two out of two so far Buddy! We phoned home and spoke to everyone. The boys were very silly. Small had been out sledging with Cog.

Ummmmm - Cannoli's.

Off we walked to the Rockerfeller Centre to climb the Top of the Rock. It took ages as there were many many people. If tonight is this busy, imagine what tomorrow will be like. Glad we are not here then. We are starting to miss the calm and tranquility of country life. When we got to the Rockerfeller Centre we were in the wrong entrance and sent to another one. When we got to that entrance we were told it was a three hour wait. The next slot for climbing the tower would be 10:15pm. We decided to leave it and started looking for places to eat.

The closest we could get to the Ice Rink at the Rockerfeller - so busy!

The lit up Empire State Building. Always lit up at night, different coloured lights for different celebrations.

Huffle's favourite shop lights

Eventually we found a lovely little Pizzeria called Angelos. We had a bottle of red, a seventeen inch pizza and some bread. Now it's been a long time since Huffle and I had a bottle of wine between us. We were quite tipsy and silly by the time we left. The food was good. The wine was better.

We got the subway back. More interesting people. We popped into Macy's on the way back (still open at 10pm at night). Huffle tried on hats and we took some silly photos and posted them on Instagram. That's to prove how drunk we were.

We came back to our room after buying an expensive bottle of water and Huffle telling the shop keeper he was a Robbin' B@5t@rd and said 'here take this Mickey Mouse money!' Drunken bum! In our room we ate Carlos' Cake. 3/3 good stuff Buddy!

Tomorrow we need to vacate our room at 12. There are still flights being cancelled and snow on the way. We are hoping we will not be toasting the New Year in with a can of coke in the Airport!

 

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Can I have an Omelet with extra T and and E please?

Things are starting to disappear. Yesterday on the weather forecast, Monday wasn't there. Saturday, Tomorrow (Sunday) and then Tuesday. OMG - where is Monday. Thankfully, this morning it appeared again. Phew. This morning, while sitting in Andrews waiting for breakfast, we noticed some letters missing from the word Omelette. NY spell it like this OMELET. Where did you put the T and E?

My coffee at breakfast was awful (anyone would think I was really fussy!). It said it was a double Espresso made into an Americana. It certainly wasn't a double. Huffle sent it back. She put a further three in for me. It was disgusting. She couldn't get Huffle any other jam than Grape Jelly so she got no tip.

Off to the train station we went. We eventually found the right train and the only ticket selling machine which was operated by a NY policeman - waste of a policeman if you ask me! We got on the train, expecting to go across the water over a bridge but we stayed underground all the way to Hoboken New Jersey. It was very cold but the view was great. No misty clouds today, beautiful blue skies.

The tall building with the crane on too is the new World Trade Building. very tall!

After a small walk, plenty of photos and a cold blast of wind, we walked towards the Carlos' Bakery. There was a small queue outside so we decided to get in line. We were there for quite a while before we realised we were there for the long haul! We were finally given a ticket by a very nice man dressed in the Carlos Bakery Sweatshirt - ticket no 509. the number inside the shop said they were serving no81. WHAT! Families, couples, taxi filled people, kids all lined up waiting to visit the tiny bakery made famous by TLC. It was obvious the locals were not happy about the publicity brought to their little suburb.

I have no idea how long we queued, I only know that we were cold, our backs and knees hurt and once we were in the bakery, we still had to wait another long long time. It was so small and so crowded that you couldn't actually walk around in there. We just had to stand around. We would have left if we hadn't already wasted so much time queuing. I think we would have been mobbed by the crowd outside if we had come out with out cake.

We chose the famous Canoli, Chocolate and Pistachio Biscotti, Cream Puff and Red Velvet Cup Cake. (As I am writing this we are sitting in a coffee shop underneath the Chrysler Building - wifi yeah - we have our box of cakes but daren't eat them in here). Edit by Huffle, Famfa cracked and we sneaked a chocolate brownie between us which was bloomin nice.

As soon as we came out of the Bakery, we headed across the road to a warm pizza place and had a huge slice of pizza and a coke. Then we walked back to the train and got back to Manhattan. It was still very cold, Huffle lost his hat and yesterday he broke his zip on his coat.

We walked towards the Chrysler Building because I wanted to see it, Huffle says I can do anything I want seeing as he made me stand for hours and hours and hours for some cake we haven't even eaten yet! He really wanted to see Cousin Athony and throw a cake at him. The closest to a TV personality we saw was The young man who works with Cousin Anthony and Danny's daughter. PAH!

The Chrysler building is gorgeous. The guide books say it is best viewed from far away, I disagree. The architecture is out of the world. We are going to try and get inside because the lobby is supposed to be amazing and full of Art Deco'ness!

 

 

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'Its the city that never sleeps, the big A'*

SATURDAY 29th DECEMBER 2012

Huffle phoned home last night and we spoke to Small and Moo. All is well.

We managed to spend an hour in Macy's yesterday evening, trying to download the photos and post the blog, at the same time as following in the footsteps of ELF. We went right up to the ninth floor in the lift and then came down every escalator. Mostly wooden and becoming more modern the closer to the ground we got. We bought a Christmas decoration in the 70% sale and taught the checkout girls their that their tax is nothing compared to Toronto's. They thought the 8% tax in New York was the highest.

Walking towards Times Square at night is brighter than in the day. The billboards, the flashing videos, the constant advertisements lit up the place like a big moon. (Incidentally it was a full moon last night - oooowwwwww). There seemed to be even more people about. A lot of people dressed as Elmo, SpongeBob, Star Wars Characters, Pooh - all charging money to have their photos taken with them. It seems it is the thing to do.

We seemed to walk and walk and walk last night, my foot hurt lots and we were hungry. We went to Radio City and through Rockerfeller Centre - which were both heaving. We carried on to try and find something to eat and came across a bar that boasted burgers and beer. We went in. I had a lovely veggie burger, handmade, lots of lentils and beans and vegetables. It had a hot salsa and we shared sweet potato fries. Huffle had a Bison Burger. We sat for a while, read our guide book, tried the smallest Hot Fudge Sundae in the world, which in Huffle's words was just 'meh'. We walked back through Times Square - still busy.

Back to the hotel, tired, weary, watched a couple of episodes of friends and fell asleep in our tiny bed with our flat pillows, only to be woken by a hundred church bells in the early hours of the morning (don't actually know what time it was, but it seemed very early). We were surprised to wake up properly this morning at 8:30am. We thought the city would be alive, honking, screaming, shouting, singing already.

We got up, went out in search of breakfast and found a strange little place that gave us toast, butter and jelly (jam) and a tea and coffee (well they may have been done under the trade descriptions act as there was no actual tea or coffee in the water!). With the promise of 'proper' coffee later, we headed off to the subway and caught a train to Central Park. It was colder this morning than yesterday and we were bundled up in hats, gloves, scarves, coats, hoods.

Lincoln Square was our first port of call. We were aware that Wynton Marsalis was playing at the Dizzy Gillespie Jazz Club so we wanted to see if we could get tickets. The man at the ticket desk said he couldn't sell them as you had to contact the club upstairs. He gave us a telephone number and a wry smile as he said Good Luck. We managed to get up to the club but there was no-one there except for a man who was there to beg for tickets for his 17 year old son. Apparently all tickets were sold out except for a few tomorrow night but you had to give a donation of 'two fifty'. Now my silly husband said, "of course, no problem". I dragged Huffle away and whispered "he meant $250 you Wally". Knowing there was no way we would pay that and it would probably be each person. Like they would ask for $2.50 - it wouldn't even be worth their while to ask for that!!! We left and walked into Central Park. It was lovely.

Lots of trees, boulders, grassy parts. We could imagine it would be a lovely place to stroll around and have a picnic on in the Summer. However, we were freezing. We walked to the Alice in Wonderland Statue. Made of bronze, it was beautiful. The park reminded us of Hyde Park. I loved the fact that it wasn't all flat, you couldn't see much of it without walking round the winding tree lined paths. There were lots of horse and carriages and cycle pulled rickshaws.

We walked around a 'ramble' spot and saw lots of squirrels making their homes warmer and lots of lovely little birds. We saw a Cardinal and his lady friend and a bird of prey. Then it started snowing. Huge big flakes of snow, the size of 50 pence pieces. We started to walk towards a lake and saw a boathouse restaurant. We popped in for a warm and a coffee (not the best one - in a paper cup - hate paper cups).

We walked around some more. We saw John Lennon's Memorial Mosaic 'Imagine'. It carried on snowing but didn't really settle. We walked out of the park and looked at some buildings. Lots of people were crowded around at the front of a building, there was a guard at the front not letting people go anywhere near the building, not sure why it was so precious. It had two huge lit beacons on the front and lots of signs telling people not to go in!! We couldn't find it in the guide book, wonder what it was?

Next we got back on the subway - we have seen many 'interesting people' today - and went to the Financial District and saw the new tower they are building. We ended up in a queue for tickets to the Memorial Site of 9/11 but we would have had to wait around for at least two hours so we didn't bother. We tried to see the new site but it was all fenced off. Instead we had homemade soup and half a sandwich in a lovely little place.

We walked to the Staten Island Ferry and were just in time to run past the closing doors (Indiana Jones style). The ferry was free. It rained and rained and rained. The view of Manhattan could have been great but instead it was misty, wet and unclear. We passed by the Statue of Liberty which again could have been a great view except that it was rainy, misty and unclear. We met a couple from Birmingham, England who took a photo for us and we took one for them.

When we got to Staten Island, 70% of the passengers went straight back on the returning boat. Not us, we walked right along the bus terminal and right back again as we couldn't find anything to see or do, having then missed the returning ferry, we had to buy a packet of Rolo's and wait for 30 minutes watching the rain.

We sat inside the ferry on the way back. It was Captained by Nelson Mandella - it was his voice over the tannoy anyway! It was too cold and too wet to be outside. Although just as it came back to Manhattan, we quickly jumped outside and took a few photos. Back at the Financial District we looked for a decent coffee shop where we could also get a nice pastry. NOTHING OPEN! We walked back to the subway and found Andrews Coffee Shop near to our hotel. Huffle asked them if they could make me a freshly brewed cup of coffee. YES! Eight hours after I woke I finally get a decent coffee. I thought New Yorkers drank coffee! Where do they go? We had a piece of cake between us called 'outrage'. It was good.

Still raining, we dodged into Macy's to see if we could use their wifi to download today's photos but the connection wasn't fast enough. So, no photos today. At this point I also have no way of posting this blog.

Huffle and I came back to the hotel with one wet foot each. We phoned home and spoke to both boys and Moo. The boys are well behaved and eating well. It snowed a lot today there and they played in the garden. Smallest said they made a desert! Small asked if we saw The Statue of Liberty and was very pleased we had because he guessed we would. He also asked if we had eaten an apple. We hadn't! Smallest asked if our picture (we sent some home yesterday) of Huffle in a revolving door was yesterday, YES IT WAS - he was also pleased because he had guessed that too! I forgot to tell the boys that I jumped across a zebra crossing just like ELF, only on the white ones!

This evening we went back to 'Eataly' for some dinner. We queued to book a table and were told we would have to wait for 35 minutes. We were fine with that as we wanted to get a glass of red and walk around perusing the wonderful things for sale whilst smugly drinking our wine, knowing our table for dinner was just minutes away. We strolled around drunkenly, taking photos. We love the fact that people poddle around, glass in one hand, shopping trolley in the other. What a great way to shop. After a quick 35 minutes (not too quick for Huffle to down nearly a large glass of wine) we sat at a bar style table. Huffle had Papardelle Pasta with wild mushrooms and pancetta, he said it was beautiful and I had a Butternut and Amaretti Cookie Ravioli with Butter and Sage. Mine was the best pasta I have EVER eaten. They also had wifi available so I got to post a couple of photos onto Instagram (you can see our dinner on here - stuandsamhall) and sent some photos back home to the Boys and Moo. After we finished eating and drinking, we walked round the shop and stopped at the Espresso Bar where I had quick caffeine fix followed by an ice cream. I had Salted Caramel again and Huffle had a Raspberry Sorbet. gorgeous.

We left eventually, it was snowing again. We were right outside of the Flat Iron so we looked and photographed it and the went into Madison Square Park. It was really cold so we looked for a bar. We thought about going into a bar with live music but it looked a bit too trendy for Huffle. We walked a bit longer and ended up in a Sports bar. One drink later, we left and came back to the hotel. I forgot to say earlier that our room had not been cleaned or even entered! I had a shower and left a message on the mirror just in case any cleaners might come in.

There have been lots of flights cancelled from New York because of the weather. Some places had 12" of snow today. They are expecting some tonight. Hopefully not to much, and hopefully our flight will be fine on Monday. Tomorrow we are planning to get a train over to Hoboken NJ to see Cake Boss!

*a comment to no-one from a random security doorman standing in a doorway last night.

Edited later and photos added (Sunday)

 

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New York Baby!

I was awoken this morning by the radio singing 'Got to get up'. He he very funny. However, to me, 6:30am is not a laughing matter. Never have I been a fan of getting up early. We got ourselves together, crept into Smalls room and said goodbye. Smallest had already got up while we were getting ready. We crept up to Moo in the loft, woke her, said our goodbyes and drove away. It was -8 as we left. brrrr.

The roads weren't too bad. Although we did take a wrong turn twice but we left with plenty of time so it wasn't a problem. We parked the car (not too many spaces left, the car park was very very busy). We didn't need to check in as we had done it online. We needn't have bothered though as we had forgotten (or were not prompted) to fill in our Customs Form (useless piece of paper). We queued like children waiting for an exciting ride at Alton Towers, following the person in front like little ants. Eventually we got to the USA Immigration desk (still in Canada Airport). We answered the obligatory questions, gave up our fingerprints and had our photos taken (the immigration officer laughed when Huffle had his photo taken!) Then we carried on to baggage check. No problems there. No beeps, no checks, no bag checks.

Off to find somewhere for breakfast, the best thing there was a slightly warmed bagel and a coffee (someone might call it coffee!!). On to the plane. A teeny tiny plane. One aisle, two seats each side. The wings had to be de-iced before we could take off so there was a slight delay.

Up, up and away, through the lovely fluffy clouds. Perfect take-off. Two episodes of New Girl, half a can of coke and a couple of Murray Mints and we were there. We circled over New York and the view was amazing. We saw the Empire State Building, Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge (Huffle thinks we don't need to see them properly now - ha, we'll see!). We landed and as we came out of the plane tunnel, we were instantly inside the airport lounge. Through a door and we were outside of the airport. No waiting, no baggage collection, just out. Brilliant. We attempted to get a bus and decided to get a yellow cab instead. It was fast, it moved through the traffic like a hot knife in butter. A few beeps, but the driver stayed calm. He didn't actually speak to us all the way and wasn't overly friendly but we got to our Hotel in quick time.

Now, the Hotel. Huffle had already warned me it was very dated and needed decorating. Inside it seemed okay. Big. lots of people milling about, a huge queue for the check-in. We got our key and went up fifteen floors (did I mention Huffle doesn't like heights?). The door to our room was like something I would expect to see on a Nuclear Bunker (apparently it is a genuine vintage door from the 1900's ). Paint peeling from the bottom, I wondered if the room had any windows. We opened the door. We were met by a lovely smell. Like wet carpets not quite dried. (Huffle thinks it smells of feet)I tried to open the window and realised how high we were. Eeeeuuuuuu. Don't look Huffle!

We grabbed a few essentials and set off to view the sights. We were really hungry so we searched for food. We found a small Irish pub. We asked if there was a table and were lead right to the back. The place seemed to go back so far. We sat at a high corner squashed (but deceptively comfortable) table. We had dinner with a free pint of Coors Light (anyone who knows Huffle, knows he doesn't drink Beer - well apparently he does if it's free and he's thirsty). CHEERS.

Full of food and beer, we worked our way towards the Flat Iron. We passed the Empire State (the queue to go up it was enormous - 4 hours someone said - I did want to go up it but was not prepared to wait that long), Madison Square Park, some gorgeous buildings, a man with THE most eccentric moustache we have ever seen (and believe me, Rome used to have some great ones!), and then we saw the Flat Iron. A beautiful building. Amazing architecture. Now houses small businesses but once the tenants leave willingly, it will be made into a five star hotel. The sun was out, it was still cold but the sun glinting off the buildings was amazing.

We saw a place called 'Eataly'. It was an amazing place. (Sorry for all the amazings but.......). We had an Italian gelato. Huffle had Coconut and I had salted Caramel - ahhhhhhhhh. Then I had an Espresso. Then we walked around the place. Pasta being made. Bread and pizzas being created. People sitting and eating lovely food and drinking wine. People buying their groceries. There was everything from jams and honeys to pestos and tomatoes. It was huge. We ate Ice Cream in New York in December. Wow!

We found Macy's - free wifi. We posted a quick picture to Instagram and left. Too busy. We were going to attempt Skype but too noisy. We looked at the lovely window displays and made our way to Times Square.

Even in the day it is all lit up and lots of lights and videos and people. We were asked about five or six times if we wanted to see a comedy show. We didn't! Times Square was more than I had imagined.

Our boys' favourite film is Elf. When they heard we were coming to New York, they wanted to make sure that we did all the things Buddy did while he was there. We saw the tunnel he walked through. We went through the revolving doors (Huffle got some funny looks) We looked for gum on the railing but didn't find any. We still have to walk strangely up the escalators and press all the buttons on the Lift. (Although Huffle wanted to but I wouldn't let him).

Weary from all the walking, we stopped at The Bread Factory and had cake and coffee/coke. I blogged offline while Huffle watched a funny little hobo/man smooth out tin foil, steal napkins and keep going upto the counter, coming back with all sorts of things he didn't seem to be paying for.

We popped back into Macy's to see if we could SKYPE the boys and Moo but they weren't on. We walked back to our Hotel (incidentally our Hotel is right next to wifi free Macy's), rested our feet and worked out what we wanted to do for the evening.

 

Internet is hard to use and photos not loading well ...............

 

 

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There's snow way down

It snowed during the night. Quite a lot. We didn't realise how much until we had to clear the drive.

Our back garden and Cyril the Buddha

After breakfast, we all got changed and went and cleared the drive. Five of us shovelling and it was still really hard work.

Balaclava Boys, Moo and the height of fashion and Hy-Hope where we sledged.

Then we drove to a local farm where we sledged for a couple of hours. It was cold, especially on the face. There was hardly anyone there so we had the slope to ourselves. We had four different sledges. Two round tray ones, one plastic long one and a proper wooden sledge.

Huffle and Moo, Smallest and Moo and Moo with a face full of snow

Moo, Smallest and Huffle

Small was up and down and up and down. Occasionally coming to say hello, sometimes waving at us, but mainly just got on with it, having the time of his life.

Huffle, Me, Small and Smallest

Smallest stayed with us, sometimes sledging with Moo or Huffle but mainly by himself. No fear. That was until he almost hit someone. He was sledging, a boy was in his way, Smallest shouted, WATCH OUT, the boy ignored him so Smallest had to bail and I think it knocked his confidence a bit after that.

Beautiful view, Small and his choc coin, Smallest and his choc coin, Huffle

Moo was by far the oldest person there (and she was proud of that fact). She was up and down, falling over, landing in trees, rolling, loving every minute of it.

In a heap in the trees!

The only reason we stopped was because by the time we were thinking of leaving there were too many people and it was hard to avoid them.

Huffle, Smallest, Small and Moo

I am not a great fan of sledging, so I went up and down a few (maybe more) times. I fell off, I went down once with Moo, I tried each of the different sledges. The time Moo and I went down we laughed most if the way, we hurt our bums and we stopped at the bottom and took a photo. Then we got up and turned around as someone was about to career straight into us. Moo got out of the way but I went the wrong way and ended up sitting on the person (don't know if it was a boy or girl). I bruised my back but I'm sure his leg was properly squashed!!!

Me and Moo just after we crashed and just before we got ran over

Moo and me

Me wiping Moo's nose

All in all a very fun couple of hours. Especially when we stopped for Hot Chocllate, Hot Apple Cider and Coffee. Oh and the time we stopped for Chocolates.

Huffle and his hot choc, Smallest with his Hot Apple Cider, Small with his hot choc, Moo with her coffee and Me with my hot choc

Moo trying to catch a helicopter, Huffle walking back up the slope, smallest trying a short-cut but finding it too deep (he had to be rescued by Moo) and Small and Huffle climbing the hill

We came home, got warm and dry and had some lunch. Huffle sorted out travel stuff while the boys played on the Wii and Moo and I tidied up. The house was like a bomb site. We tidied and swept the lounge. Cleared up the kitchen and put all the coats and gloves,hats etc away.

Huffle and I started packing. Tomorrow we are off to New York. I have no idea whether we have wifi when we get there so if there is no blog for four days, you know why.

Moo got the boys some dinner while Huffle and I popped to the shop for essentials for our trip and potatoes for Moo and the Boys.

When we came back they watched TV. Moo got our dinner ready and we ate. The boys went to bed. We played cards and ate nice things.

 

 

 

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