Glee Live - What A Great Concert (For ms D)

Unbelievable that we are able to see the cast of Glee perform live at the O2 arena. T was a bit worried that the concert will be filled with young teenage girls and that we will be the oldest there but...hey, much to our surprise, many adults are Gleeks too!! We were on our feet most of the night because you just want to sing and dance to the music of Glee. Even the Warblers were there! My fav is Kurt...he is just such an amazing actor!! T, who's a non-Gleek, was turned into an instant Gleek during the concert.....Join the club man :):)

End with a video from our camera (does not do the concert justice but yes a small taste of what we experienced)

Wimbledon - The Longest Day!

Yes, I'm a big tennis fan....but no, I do no think i'm a big enough fan to wait 9 hours in The Queue to get a ticket to enter Wimbledon, but I did....thanks to my other half, T. Wimbledon is probably the only tennis even in the world where you have to queue to get a chance to buy a ticket!! But if you're lucky, you would have won the "tennis lottery" the previous year for a ticket to enter Wimbledon (1 in 10 chance apparently).

The gates open at 9.30am, and we arrived at 9.00am, half an hour early I thought, but NO...we are number 10,656 in the line. Yes, that's 10 THOUSAND people in front of us in line...See my sad face with our queue number !!

So yes, finally managed to get into Wimbledon at 5ish pm after 9 hours of waiting ....and manage to see a few more hours of good tennis being played. Saw some pretty good players such as .... and we saw Roger Federer live, but not of him playing :)

Australia's next rising star! J Kubler

Some famour lady!

Roger!

Think our 9 hour wait is crazy??? Well, not as crazy as these CRAZY CRAZY people who started lining up on Friday / Saturday to get tickets for the Monday matches!!!! 2 days camping out in the field just to see some people hitting a yellow ball around!!!!! That's the REAL Wimbledon experience for you.

Staying with Presidents at 'The New York Helmsley'

New York...a big city with many tall buildings and known for its pricy Manhattan hotels

We stayed at 'The New York Helmsley' hotel in New York....a hotel which I had booked more than 6 months in advance and which I got at a reasonable price for a 3.5-4 star hotel right in Manhattan (212 East 42nd Street). For the price we paid, the only equivalent hotel that would compare was a trendy hostel called 'The Pod Hotel New York'...a place for those who just need a room with shared facilities...so yes I got a great deal!

Anyway we checked it and got treated well.....they put us on the 40th FLOOR and gave us a part-view of the Chrysler Building and some of the NY skyline....

Anyway the real surprise was the next day of our stay..... on the 2nd night when we came back to the hotel and went up to our floor....we say men dressed in suits (wearing ear pieces) standing in the corridors of the 40th floor....our floor!!! As we walked by these men we asked what they were doing there and their response was they were protecting people!!! Over the days we got a little more info from them and confirmed they were secret service protecting some head (and his entourage) from an African country that were attending a high level meeting on AIDS......I even tried asking one of them whether we could take a photo with them but was politely declined.....

But here are two blurry pictures of them standing in our corridor (taken discretely of course with my iphone) from our room door.

It was nice that the hotel felt that we were safe enough to stay and share a floor with the important leaders of our world.....indirectly were were royalty guarded 24x7 during our stay by the mysterious secret service...... what an experience!

Some other sights of Manhattan in NY

New york is a big city with a dirty subway that links the 5 boroughs.....our 7 day trip was focused on the major attractions and some other places we could cover in the manhattan area....yes we truly believe that New York is a big MUST SEE city with many things to do....but somehow it lacked a little soul.....many places in Europe and London seem to have a little more magic about it.....maybe it is due to its big tall buildings....

Chrysler Building

New York's third tallest building.....its regarded as one of Americas finest and favourite looking building in the city/USA.....the only reason why the Empire state building is more famous is because it is now the tallest building in NY and hsa an observation deck for the public to go up to....

Brooklyn Bridge
The bridge links manhattan to brooklyn borough.....when we go New York again we will explore Brooklyn borough....

Grand Central Station

Our hotel was very near grand central which made it really easy to get around manhattan.....this iconic station has always been a place to visit. Don't forget to try some of the NY cheesecakes offered in bakeries located inside the station.

Trump Tower
Another tall tower with a famous name.....Mr Trump wasn't aound while we were there :)

United Nations

No visit to NY should go without visiting the United Nations....this is where all the important UN forums and events happen.......but try not go visit NY when a major event is happening....

Wall Street

Apart from the statue of liberty, there is one iconic icon that symbolise the consumerism culture and greed of society.......you can't not take a picture with the ICONIC bull...

Central Park

Its pretty weird to see this big park right in the center of all these tall buildings....but houses around Central Park are extremely expensive!!! This place holds concerts and is a place where New Yorkers love to go to just chill out....