Two Birthdays

There were two birthdays this week, mine and Australia's. I love my birthday and make sure everyone knows, well in advance. I find it a shame when people are quiet about their special day so I make a big deal and make it a great day for myself. I was spoilt as always and enjoyed a cracker of a day. It was my last week of work so it was always going to be a social week anyway. 

I took a tour of the Library of Congress over lunch which was excellent - will talk more later and then returned to enjoy not one, but TWO birthday cakes with my workmates. Wow, they were so lovely to me. I received a couple of parcels from home in the mail thanks to family and friends and now have a great stash of Aussie treats to enjoy for a while. Deb was in Los Angeles for the week with work to support G'Day USA so the dogs and I enjoyed take away for dinner and I cooked some Aussie treats for Australia Day in between phone calls to home. 

I made some lamingtons and tried my hand at vanilla slice. Wow, the vanilla slice turned out nicely and it was very popular at work. I grew up with pink icing on the slice but you would think I was from Mars as everybody frowned at that thought. Everyone was used to white icing. I couldn't find the red ingredients here to make pink icing anyway so ended up with white - it was lovely just the same and my artistic attempt at chocolate swirl would qualify me for Masterchef I'm sure ! The beautiful flowers were given to me on my last day with a card signed by everyone - I was surprised but very appreciative. I have enjoyed working with these people and they have made me feel incredibly welcome and been very helpful in getting my work done. I reminded them that I am not leaving forever and I'll be back regularly either when I drop in or on more short term work contracts.

 

Australia Day was a low key affair unfortunately. There was a morning tea held but there was no other fanfare. I wore my Australia t-shirt and my work area was excited to eat lamingtons and vanilla slice. Maybe next year I will try influence a bit more excitement like a bbq lunch, bit of cricket and some 4n20 pies. I smiled though because my Australia day was spent eating Yum Cha lunch with some wonderful Asian 'ladies' who spent a good chunk of time explaining the rules of NFL football to me. This broke all the norms of a traditional Australia day but I absolutely enjoyed the lunch and day with the people at work.

Library of Congress

Reading Room

So back to the Library of Congress. I have posted about this previously in July last year on a quick look inside but the tour provided more history and points of interest. Reading from the brochure...It's the world's largest repository of knowledge and creativity with 162 million items - books, photos, maps, sound recordings, sheet music, motion pictures..just wow. It is also home to the US Copyright Office. It was established in 1800 when President John Adams signed a bill transferring the seat of the US Government to Washington (from Philadelphia). The legislation described a library of 'such books' as may be necessary for the use of Congress. The initial 740 books and 3 maps collection was housed in the Capitol but the invading British burned the building, destroying the library. President Thomas Jefferson then retired and offered his personal library as a replacement. Congress purchased his 6487 books which laid the foundation for a great library. The Jefferson library collection is on view and it was just wonderful to see such prized books across many areas. Jefferson was a well read and intelligent man. Congress eventually approved the construction of a separate building for its library and in 1897 the Library of Congress was opened. Later in 1980, it was named for Thomas Jefferson in honour of his role in the library's history.

You may recognise the reading room which has appeared in movies such as All The Presidents Men (old classic about Nixon and Watergate) and more recently, one of the National Treasure movies.

The architecture is beautiful with marble and sculptures and a roof that reminds me of the Sicilian Chapel. Everything has a purpose and meaning and you only get this knowledge from taking a tour or researching. The Jefferson Library of books was inspiring. The age of the books, the variety of subjects and his passion for reading was easy to see. His library was in a circular form for ease of access and the books were catalogued in an interesting fashion. Many of the books were originals, some replicas after being destroyed by fire.

 

Librarian's Office

The librarian's office has recently been opened to the public. It's a beautiful room and has a large vault in there. Apparently, they opened the vault in recent years and found the contents of President Lincoln's pocket from the night he was assassinated. This included a Confederate $5 bill, his wallet and fob watch. They had been forgotten and luckily found when the vault was opened to have a look. 

My first day of being a free agent saw me taking Macey to the dentist for her root canals. They were sooooo lovely – really good people as most vets are. I had to be there at 8.30am  so it was an early start. They called through the day to say one of her top front top teeth was dead so it needed pulling out – more work and $$. They were running behind time so I couldn't pick her up until 5.30pm. I was the only one there, it’s a smallish surgery and you can hear most things. I could hear the breathing machine out back and yes, Macey was still under anaethestic – it was like listening to Darth Vader. They finished about 10mins later and the guy comes out to tell me that dogs normally start to howl and whine as they are coming out of anaethestic. He said not to worry, that’s normal and they are not in pain. It’s a kind of nice reaction. He said it could be about 30 mins before she wakes up fully. 

I'm glad he told me cause she was singing like Dame Nellie Melba. She was howling and humming and whining but in such a very cute way. I was giggling as she is a bit of a vocal dog at the best of times, I wish I could have recorded it. And she just went on and on and on for pretty much half an hour as he said. I had Cricket with me and he knew she was in there, he sat there on guard looking at the door the whole time. His ears were up and twitching and he clearly wanted to know what was going on with Macey. He eventually wandered into the back room as they left the doors open and were patting him - he’s such a charmer. He ran straight to the cage to say hello to Macey. So cute, such good friends. Anyway, the two root canals went well, all good and the tooth hole was stitched and will heal nicely. She was in pretty good shape actually despite just coming out of anaethestic. She was very groggy at Xmas after her teeth were cleaned so this was nice surprise. They presented me her tooth which I really didn't want to see or have. I left it for Deb to look at I would surely faint if Iooked at it. So after working a few months to save money for travel, the dentist bill was $3500 and looks like we might not be travelling too far for a while. She's feeling great today and has a bundle of tablets to take for a week.

Ollie the Bobcat escaped from the zoo on the weekend. While she's about twice the size of a domestic cat, I don't think I'd want to cross her. She may be wandering around the local forest area so I'll have to be on guard with the dogs. 

I'm back to being a lady of leisure again and have lots of things planned. The dogs will enjoy their longer walks again and listening to my guitar practice. I am keen to get back to cooking and baking experiments and I think everyone at work is keen for that too. Travel planning is also on the agenda.

We expect to see a little more snow over the coming weeks but I don't think there will be a snow blizzard like last year before we came. 

A snoozing dog shot to finish with and a look at Macey's tooth...I managed to stay upright taking the photo but wished they'd cleaned it first. 

 

Snow, Trump and Star Wars

For those avid readers of my blog, I have not disappeared in the cracks over here. We've been busy but not doing much of real excitement to post about. The last new year post is a big one to try and follow.

The absolute turning point of the week, or year, or even century was the inauguration of President Trump. We did not go to see this as we couldn't bring ourselves to be part of such a dreadful occasion. It was raining and wet and nowhere near the crowd size of either of Obama's inaugurations, despite Trump thinking the media are lying again and your eyes confirming for yourself. This guy continues to lie and blame everyone for everything. The Capitol looked beautiful both by day and night. The night shots were taken by a friend during the week. You may recall that Deb and I had our picture taken on the balcony where the middle flag hangs, back in October. It is a spectacular view to look from the balcony up towards Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial. 

But the day after was more noteworthy, the Women's March against Trump and everything he stands for. Wow, I could not believe my eyes. We did not attend this either but to see the massive turnout in every US state and countries overseas, it was definitely a big moment in democracy speaking out.  The march was planned for about 1pm and I was meeting a friend late afternoon in the city as we were seeing the 6pm showing of Star Wars Rogue One at the Smithsonian Air and Space museum IMAX theatre. We planned our meeting point and time to avoid the march as it should be well and truly clear by the time we meet. SO WE THOUGHT.

I took the metro and as I got closer to the city, I became a sardine as people were jamming into the metro. As i exited the station, I became a trout swimming upstream against the mass of people wanting to get into the metro. But, as I popped out onto the surface, I was met with loud chanting, signs, crowds and a real energetic buzz. The march was right in front of me on a different street to that planned. I'm not sure why or what, but I think they gained momentum after the initial march and decided to march again to the White House. I had to cross the street with this mass of people but, I had two hours so I hoped it would clear by then, and it did. But the city was full of people, mainly women - so many women with signs, pink beanies that looked like pussy cat ears and an absolute firm agenda to get their message out. The signs covered mainly womens rights, civil rights, human rights, abortion, equality and respect. There were some clever Putin signs and lots and lots of pink. It was peaceful and certainly gave me goosebumps. While I did not march, I certainly got the feeling of what it felt like to be on the edge of one of the biggest democracy movement marches since Vietnam I think. I enjoyed chatting with women who marched and many had come from far and wide to be here in DC. They say that 500,000 turn out in DC alone. I think 120,000 attended Obama's inauguration and probably about 40,000 attended Trump's. Don't quote me on that though.

This week was our first week of Speed Development Training for running. It's about 3 months long and is aimed at improving our pace over 10km. Deb and I are in different pace groups - she's quicker than me. 

Tuesday night is track night with interval workouts at a high school track. This is Deb on the far left and way up the back on the left is me, the little orange speck.  

On Saturday is the long run and we got to see a new location which was just beautiful. It's a big park area with picnic places and dog friendly. I worked out that I can ride my bike from home to there so I'll be checking that out in the summer. Running in cold weather is an adjustment. Canberra is cold but when it gets really bloody cold, it's about the right gear to run in. Not too much, not too little, and don't slip in the wet, snow and ice !!  

Last weekend we saw our first NBA (basketball) game. Each year the Emb organises tickets to a game and tries to pick when an Australian is playing. This year, we saw the Washington Wizards play the Philadelphia 76ers' because the Australian Ben Simmons was the NBA's number one draft and the 76ers got him. However, he broke his foot early in the season so he didn't end up playing. But it was a great night, we got to form the tunnel where the players run on and got down on the court before the game. We were supposed to throw shots after the game with the Wizards but that got cancelled sadly. I'm not a basketball fan but I enjoyed the game more than expected.

 

We saw the first snow fall for the year two weekends ago. It was beautiful. It snowed for several hours and it was bloody cold outside. It stopped in the afternoon and I decided to shovel the steps and driveway. I was worried it would snow again overnight and/or freeze making it hard to get the car in/out. It was quite easy to shovel the powder but it's not something I'd like to do a lot of.

The dogs didn't mind it at all. We went for a walk the next day and they ran around like it was normal. We have to be careful of their paws from both the cold and also the salt on the roads as it can burn and irritate their paws. We can buy little dog boots but I don't think either of them would like to wear little booties. 

We saw Hidden Figures at the movies. It was excellent. It's a true story about three women who were mathematicians at NASA when they were doing the Mercury program to get the first man into space. The women were African American so it was remarkable to see these women battle sexism and racism to be part of American space history. It's well worth viewing and more impressive to google these ladies after the movie to read more about their inspiring lives.

And I went with a friend to see Star Wars Rogue One as mentioned earlier. I was a bit lost with where the movie fits in the long Star Wars story but I still enjoyed the story as always. I'm always intrigued with the many characters and creatures and costumes. Seeing it in 3D at the air and space museum IMAX theatre was a total blast. 3D has come a long long way and it's quite impressive. The museum shows movies regularly so I'll keep an eye out for great movies to see on the huge screen.

A couple of snow pics to finish this week's post. This week will be my last week of work and I have some interesting things planned which I look forward to posting about next week.

 

New Year in New York

HAPPY NEW YEAR !! It certainly has been a year to remember and we finished it in style. The days after Christmas were sniffly and snotty with Deb’s cold getting heavier and me catching it also, as expected. We were devastated to hear George Michael had died soon followed by Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds. It was all quite shocking. George Michael was a huge part of our music youth and he was one of the true musical geniuses of the 80/90s and beyond.

Macey had a visit to the vet and got her teeth cleaned under anaesthetic. Her two top chewing teeth have fractures and the x-rays confirmed the roots are open and she will need root canal. We prefer that rather than pull them out as they are her main chewing teeth. So she will have to go to a dental specialist to get that soon. I can only imagine the $$ that will be. Poor Macey was bombed out that night and a bit wonky from the anaesthetic. Cricket was lonely all day and wouldn’t settle so they both crashed out in front the TV sound asleep.

 

 The highlight of our New Year week was meeting our wonderful friends from home (J&M) in New York. We were greeted with a massive box of Weetbix and several blocks of Cadbury chocolate. Oh god, we were thrilled – I am humming the tune…Aussie kids, are Weet-bix kids. Carrying a box that size in the suitcase all the way from down under is no mean feat so we were super grateful.

Great coffee, great breakfast !!

We arrived in NY in time for dinner and J&M had selected a fabulous Italian restaurant near the apartment. It was wonderful and the music was clearly a snapshot from my iPod (no, not the Barry Manilow stuff). The next day we headed off to explore the west village of lower Manhattan starting with breakfast at Fred’s Wife Freda. I would have to say it is probably the best breakfast I’ve had since being here. And the coffee was heaven – we had two each. A trendy little joint and I can only dream that my future café will be as bustling as that place.

We walked past the apartment block where Friends was filmed and then stopped by the Sex In the City house. We met a bunch of Australian women there too who provided some comic relief and directions to the nearby Magnolia Bakery which was made famous by Sex in The City who filmed an episode with SJP eating a cupcake out front. Nothing like instant celebrity endorsement. I must find a celebrity to eat something at my café one day…maybe Batman? The place was packed but we got our cupcake and scoffed it like champions.

Friends, live here.

The weather was cold and windy but we strolled outside along The Highline. It would be nice in better weather but we got a few good views and enjoyed chatting and catching up as we strolled along. Batman made an appearance but the wind was making cape control very hard. We wandered through the Chelsea Markets which was chockers !! Incredibly, we found a small shop that sold Australian pies and lamingtons. And yes, I bought a pie which was ok, too runny and too bloody hot to eat on the go but I endured the initial tounge burn and nibbled my way through it.

 

That night we went to the very famous Radio City to watch the Rockettes in their Christmas spectacular. I have always wanted to see the Rockettes so this was huge for me. Some history from wiki for you…

Radio City Music Hall is an entertainment venue located in Rockefeller Centre in New York City. Its nickname is the Showplace of the Nation, and it was for a time the leading tourist destination in the city. Its interior was declared a city landmark in 1978. Many famous entertainers have performed here. For almost a century, the Rockettes have been American icons. They have appeared at Radio City Music Hall in hundreds of stage spectaculars, and have participated in many historic and memorable events—like traveling abroad to entertain the troops and support wartime effort, and performing at the inauguration of the 43rd president of the United States, George W. Bush, in 2001.

The show was simply brilliant and full of glitter, dazzle and Christmas bling. The dancers were perfect and the Rockettes totally shit all over the Moulin Rouge in Paris (I found this pretty disappointing really). My favourite bit was the toy solider fall. They do this very military precision shuffle routine around the floor and finish off with a slow domino fall routine. It was really clever. Just fantastic.

 

 

We stopped by the Rockerfeller Christmas Tree on the walk home. This was another thing I’ve always wanted to see. It was huge and pretty and quite busy even at that hour of night. The ice skating rink was open and it really felt like Christmas. 

The next day was New Years Eve. We planned an easy day as we had a long party night ahead. We went up the Rockerfeller Tower (Top of The Rock) to enjoy the view of New York city. It is a superb view. I recommend both Empire and The Rock – they both offer unique views. We also visited another good coffee spot called Little Collins. I’ve been here before, it’s owned by two NZ and Aussie guys. It was busy as always but we squeezed in to enjoy a good shot of caffeine. Given it was NY Eve there was a very strong police presence by the NYPD with officers on each street corner – note there are lots of streets corners. They had been there since morning and as the afternoon passed, the streets began closing in preparation for the Times Square Ball Drop that night. It was quite frustrating as they were blocking cross streets so we had trouble getting from one side of the city to the other.

As much as seeing the ball drop in Times Square is exciting to see, it is very cold, cramped and lacks toilets. So it was not practical for a bunch of old birds like us. Instead we opted for the more civilized option of a dinner cruise on the Hudson River. We had a table next to the window so we had nice views of the city lights. It was a great night, lots of dancing and singing and mostly good music - quite a few George Michael hits which was awesome. All the boats stopped near the Statue of Liberty on midnight to count the seconds to midnight and watch the fireworks. We were very proud to say that Sydney NYE fireworks shit all over New York. It was a bit of an anti climax really, but at least there were fireworks. It is like comparing a candle flame to the Batmobile rocket engine flames. Absolutely no comparison – yay for Sydney.

 

 

The boat docked about 1am and it was freezing cold. It started to rain and snow as we walked to catch an Uber. We took the ‘scenic’ way home thanks to Deb getting her East and West Streets mixed up – resulting in us taking about 35 mins instead of 10mins to get home. The Uber guy was a good sport and listened to us being nutbags as we face-time’d our good friends at home (J&J) – hopefully they enjoyed the New York views we gave them from our car window!! Eventually we made it home but not before a stop for pepperoni pizza for one hungry person. It was a fantastic night and you can’t really beat NYE in New York city with wonderful friends.

Unfortunately we only had a few hours sleep before we woke early to get the train back to Washington. I think we all dozed on the way home except Deb who enjoyed taking photos of us asleep with our mouths open.

Back to DC......We took J&M to the famous Cheesecake Factory for dinner – the biggest menu in the world I think and the biggest selection of cheesecakes. It’s always a good feed. We may well have enjoyed a night on the lounge or early night to bed but instead, we headed out to the ice hockey to see the Washington Capitals (Caps) play the Ottawa Senators. I’ve not seen the Caps play yet and one of the girls had not seen an ice hockey game at all. This was my third game and I enjoy the hockey (not as much as baseball though). I bought my Caps beanie and we enjoyed watching a good night of biff, chants and bias that comes with home games. The Caps won which was good and I look forward to seeing more games this season.

J&M only had one day to explore Washington and sadly, the weather was not kind to them. It was cold and rainy. After a late’ish breakfast and start, we booked on a segway tour to show them the key sights of DC. It was pretty cold and we were rugged up heavily trying to stay dry. Thankfully there were no stacks and I managed to stay upright (unlike my previous Segway crash in Richmond, Virginia). It was disappointing weather but at least we got to see something without walking for hours.

It was nice to come home to a warm house, over excited dogs and a home cooked meal. I always love having family and friends stay and enjoy a meal at our table. I’m strange I know but it’s kinda like a family thing for me. It has been a fantastic week with J&M. We are praying they don’t catch our dreadful colds as they are heading off to Florida to do the Dopey Challenge = Disney World Marathon challenge including a 5k, 10k, half and full marathon over 4 days. Very fit chicks indeed and we wish them great weather, strong legs and a fun time in the days ahead.

Deb and I return to work now and I have 3 weeks left before I become a lady of leisure again. We are both tired after the week of adventure but we wouldn’t have it any other way. Welcome to 2017. We are going to make this another cracker year of fun, adventure and silly Batman antics as we continue on our journey to touch foot in all 50 states.

Here's a few other pics from the week. Cricket is on squirrel watch - he likes to sit and patrol for squirrels. One is the Statue of Liberty on NY Eve and the other is me enjoying a fabulous coffee at Little Collins.