Wednesday, December 31, 2008

NEW YORK CITY (Sarah's blog)

Hi everyone,

This is my first blog so I hope I do ok! We spent Xmas in New York this year and it was a pretty amazing time to be there. We arrived at around 10pm Xmas Eve and we got straight into sightseeing.

We walked to midtown to see the Rockefella Centre first. This is where everyone goes at Xmas to see the amazing Xmas tree and the light displays.



We stumbled across the world famous Macy's store on the way there! I wanted to shop but the boss wouldn't allow it.

They have awesome window displays there... I'm not quite sure what the theme was behind these, but they looked cool!


We also stumbled across Times Square (well sort of... it's pretty hard to miss!).
It was huge! These photo's really don't do it justice. You can see the lights from a mile away!


Kim also took a video. Excuse the terrible camera skills (I tell him to stop turning it but he doesn't listen to me). I hope this works...

OKAY I TRIED UPLOADING IT BUT IT'S TAKING TOO LONG SORRY. Next!

Xmas morning we woke up to a beautiful sunny day and decided it was a good idea to go for a stroll through Central Park. This park is huge and I can imagine it would be really beautiful in summer/spring when there are leaves on the trees!






The lake's in the park were completely frozen! You could see clumps of snow all over it from where people were trying to break through the ice... they were all unsuccessful.


If you look closely you'll see these ducks aren't paddling in the water... they're waddling on the ice!


We weren't the only ones there. There were heaps of people out for a stroll or a skate!


After a while we just sat back in the sun and relaxed. It was a really nice way to spend Xmas day.


Anyway, all this blogging is making me hungry. Stay tuned for more New York fun.
Love Sarah

Saturday, December 20, 2008

Snowmageddon!

Yesterday we had a furious snow storm! It snowed hard all day and there is about 20cms covering everything! It kicked off at about 730 on Friday morning, and was pelting down.

I took these photos at about 830am, when it was just kicking off and you can see how much snow had fallen already.
It was really pelting down and blowing in your face, the visability was so low.
It kept snowing all day while I was at work and actually for a few hours over lunch it was so heavy you couldn't even see across the street. Everyone at work left early because their trains were being cancelled, it was chaos.

I left work at 4, it was still snowing quite a bit but nothing like earlier in the day.
Not too many cars about, you couldn't even see the road.
This is not a back street either, its Bay St, one of the major roads through the city! And the financial district st. Like Toronto's wall st.
The good thing was that it was coming down so hard it didn't have a chance to get dirty and slushy. Everything looked nice and white and clean.

I don't know what this guy was thinking that morning.
This one shows how heavy it was coming down.
I was really having a great time in the snow, I think I was the only one though, I was snapping photos the whole way home on the tram.
This dog was keen.
This is our street, its under there somewhere.
And the burrow to our doorway.
Thats the worst thing about the snow, every few hours you gotta get out on the street and shovel! Its your responsibility to keep your part of the footpath clear, otherwise you get fined. We got out and had a go last night when it had calmed down a bit.
Sarah was pretty pleased with herself.
After she got the hang of it.
Then it was my turn. You can see how much snow had fallen in a day.
This was the aftermath, when the snow stopped falling.
Its now Saturday morning, and the sun is out and shining! Don't let that fool you though, here is the current forecast.
Its going to be a good day!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Still cold!

Hey all, Been a bit slack with the blogging lately but to be honest we haven't been doing anything interesting. Its been freezing cold here so we don't go outside much and we are saving our pennies for our next trip, we are spending Christmas in New York!

We have been having plenty of snow though! It snows a few times a week, but it still melts away pretty quick and goes all icy and slippery. This was from last Saturday!
It snowed pretty heavy all afternoon.
And was still snowing when we went out to the bar for dinner.
I decided to get a bit creative.

I know its bad taste, but I couldn't resist. Had to do it once

This is what greeted me monday morning as I got up for work, check the bottom left corner of the screen.

I also took some shots from the windows at work, this is the old city hall.
They set up a public ice skating rink in the square out the front.
The city is all lit up at night for christmas!

See ya!

Sunday, November 30, 2008

Freezing Cold!

Thats what we have been greeted with since our return from Mexico! We went from 26 degree Caribbean sun to 0 degree Canadian Autumn! (winter doesn't officially start until December 20).

The one good thing has been seeing the beginning of a North American Christmas, Toronto has a huge Santa Claus parade every year. It started just around the corner from our house so we went up for a look.
The streets were packed with kids.
Then the parade started with a few marching bands and these guys on horses.
Followed by these guys with the worst job of the parade
Then came the floats, and there were heaps of them, interspersed with marching bands and other people in costume.

Sarah could hardly contain her excitement!
These little kids had a bit of a pile up just up the street, they had to get the safety car out for them.
The parade was going great and all the kids (big and small) were having a great time!



Until the weather took a turn and it started to snow, it was freezing!
This photo shows how hard it was coming down, its also funny cause the cinema there is a porno theatre and its surrounded by kids and families watching Santa.
By the time Mr. Potatohead came past it was too cold for us,
We escaped to the closest pub.


The snow didn't hang around for long which was good, but we didn't have to wait long, last week we were bucketed with snow. Here is the view out the window it had only been snowing for about 4 hours at that point. If you make the pic bigger you can see how hard the snow is coming down.

And this is what it was like when I got up for work the next morning.



Its all melted away now, but its still cold, it hasn't been over 5 degrees all week and some days last week it never got out of minus temperatures. It didn't stop this guy up the street from being the first one to put the Christmas lights.