New York 2006

Today america celebrates its 230th day of indepence. Zicar planned to go the financial district but we realized that it makes no sense since everything will be closed on this day. Instead we did kind of nothing. I played some virtual pool with Mark and Zicar did some laundry and kind of just hang around. We wanted to see the fireworks but due to various reasons it became kind of late and we decided to only walk to central park. Which is kind of the wrong place to see anything. The fireworks are held on 3 barges in the eastriver and the view on that section of the sky is kind of blocked from central park by a lot of very high buildings. We could only hear the fireworks and see some glowing of the night sky and that was it.
I got in a conversation with a retired jewish guy from Sweden which was kind of nice but he rattled on and on so I was glad when Zicar started to just leave so I could convince the man we had to go.

Since today is our flying day we don't have much time to do any stuff. So with this entry the blog is almost at his end. I will post a final entry tomorrow when we have returned home again. At that point I will also be able to fix the problem with the photo site and I will upload the last set of photos.

The plan for today is Interepid for Zicar...working for Mark and well something for me. At 8 we are meeting Mindy who will take us to a Malasyan restaurant in Chinatown. Afterwards the plan is to hit some clubs with live rockbands which we goodn't do on saturday since Mark was feeling sick. So around 12 Zicar was out on his own. Mark was still working and I decided to go play some pool by myself to practice.
When I came back about an hour later Mark was taking the afternoon Nap and I followed his example. Around 5 Zicar came home again and both Mark and me slowly woke up again. We met Mindy at 8:30pm near the restaurant. I couldn't decide what to get so to speed things up Mindy just rattled some Mandrin at the waitress and we ended up with a lot of delicious food on the table (Mark and Zicar did the ordering themselves it was just me who good decide what to eat). Thank you Mindy for taking us there the food was indeed fabulous.
While walking in the directions of the clubs Mark slowly started to realize that most clubs would be closed on this very quite monday night just before the 4th of july. We played some pool for an hour at Soho billiards, which went quite well for me for a change. We found 'the' T-shirt shop where there were supposed to be RHCP T-shirts to be closed and we decided to head home and call it a night.
We chatted a little bid and while Mark and me went to bed Zicar played this video game he got recently until very late or rather very early in the morning.

Sunday we went on a little shopping tour in Midtown. Mark needed some A-strings for his guitars. And Zicar is still looking for a T-shirt of a certain rockband. So we went back to 48th street this time we walked to it through the park. We passed carnegiehall and several other nice buildings. On the way back we walked passed broadway but didn't stop at the expensive dinner for another Tiramisu (see entry Hunting down a camera). However we did stop at Colony's music store where Zicar saw some interesting guitar books but he didn't want to buy them the first time because he didn't want to spent all is money on the first weekend. Since the trip is almost over he now felt save to buy not less than 7 books which can take a lifetime to study completely.
Further up we payed a visit to CompUSA near Colombus. While walking up towards Lincon Center we were discussing the difference between a Harley and a BMW when we got a comment from someboy on the street: "Fuck the Harley get a rice burner (ninja bike)".
Our final shopping stop was Barns&Nobles near Lincoln Center for some SciFi books. Back in the appartment we jammed all night playing on various rock and jazz tunes. I played along with my sax. Since Mark had to go working on Monday we didn't make it to late

Yesterday we finally rented some bicycles to do some 'fietsen in het park' Central park to be precise. Now that we knew where to get the bikes it was easy to find. It was nice to finally see the northpart of the park for a change. It was a lot of fun. After one lap Zicar wanted to take some more pictures so he and Mark took a second lap while enjoyed some leisure laying down in the grass.
The cycling took some 2 hours and afterwards both me and Mark needed a little nap. Unfortunately after the nap Mark didn't feel so good and we had to cancel the planned bar hopping in the village. That was sad. So we played video games instead.

Yesterday it was beautifull weather. Since as usueal, we had kind of a slow day we decided it would be a good day to walk through river side park. It turned out they have extended the park to the south and build a big pier into the river. Mark had never seen this part so we explored it a bit. Riverside park is a nice park that is mainly used by local people from the neighbourhood. Today it was really quit so there wasn't much going on but you could get a feel for it anyway.
After the long walk that took about 3 hours in total we were just kind of out of it so all we played was video games for the rest of the night.
Unfortunately it seems my photo site is down. It may take a few days to get it up again, that depends on how quick my sister is able to visit my house :).

Today I rented a car to ride to Orange County Choppers. On the way back we are going to pickup some stuff of Mark that he has lent to his friend Steve. But first the car. We were right on schedule at the rental shop (Avis) and after some shopping for food and drinks we got out of the city over the George Washington bridge. The first stop would be Bear Mountain which is a great lookout spot over de Hudson valley. Actually we did stop on a lookout spot a bit closer to home but that was across the tip of Manhattan Island and was a very short stop. The weather was nice and sunny but also very hazy so we couldn't see anything of New York from the Bear Mountain. But we had a great view over the Hudson. Next stop OCC. We found the shop quickly and it was very much worth the trip. Inside were about 30 bikes they build during the American Chopper show on Discovery. In real life these bikes look absolutely gorgeous. We took lots of pictures and bought a few T-shirts. See the photo side for all the great pictures we took (because it was all inside and flash kind of ruins the pictures because of the reflections most are a bit unsharp but you will get the idea.
After leaving OCC again we were on our way to Jersey where Mark's friend lives. He has some beautifull guitars which just had to be looked at and played on for a while. Mark invited everybody for dinner so Steve suggested we all drove in one car. But I asked if we maybe could have a look at the porche first since Zicar's father was so full of the porche he wrote a few weeks ago I wanted Zicar to see one up close. Sure no problem set Steve. We have to get it out of the garage. Ok Zi...backup slowly..yes that is good...Since that cat was out of the bag now...Zi and Steve road the porche to the restaurant where we had some really delicious food. The most tender filet mignot ever. Back at Steve's house it was time to say goodbye again. Maybe we will hookup again before we leave for Holland. Back home we chatted some more uploaded the pictures and had a very quite evening (what was left of it).

Today Zicar and I went to the MET or as it is officially known The Metropolian Museum of Art. It is located in Central Park on the east side. So to get there we took a nice walk through the park. We passed an area called the Ramble which is kind of wild and full of small roadways. In the museum we went to the egyptian temple that is inside and to the Arms and Armors exihibition. There was also a special exhibition on Tibetian Armor. It was very nice. Next we wanted to the special Musical Instruments unfortunately this section was closed. Cause it was running late already we decided to spent the last half hour in the shop where they have a very large collection of books on various subjects related to the museum.
In the evening we went out for dinner in the village and afterwards for some pool. First however Mark let us to St Mark's street with 2nd and 3rd where we found some interesting shops to buy more souvenirs. And Tim that's streets had the very first New York Gamesworkshop.
We made sure that we got home on time so we didn't go to bed to late, cause today I rented a car to go to the Orange County Choppers Showroom. But that is a story for another day.

Oh I almost forgot. Since I now to have a camera there are ofcourse much more pictures to see.
Go to Amerika 2006 foto's. You will find a link to both photoalbums. Have fun !!

Hi everybody. Yesterday Zicar went out on his own. So you should read his own blog for details. He went to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Ground Zero. That took him the whole afternoon. He didn't came back until 8pm. In the mean time I went to the B&H shop again to get a nice camera like Zicar has for my own. Was I suprised it turned out to be 50 dollars more expensive in only a week time???
Anyway all the late night chats got a hold of me and I slept the rest of the afternoon catching up. That about sums up the day. We had some virtual pool in the evening and went to bed early.

As you can expect everyday from now on not only updates on the blog but also updates on the picutres. Again look at http://photos.fam-vanaalderen.nl/nyc2006 for all the pictures

Hoi allemaal op speciaal verzoek vandaag eens een verhaaltje in het nederlands.
Eerst even een kleine samenvatting van de belevenissen tot nu toe. De vlucht was goed, maar duurde wel lang. De taxi rit was ook traag maar vooral ook omdat de taxi een slechte route had genomen. Het eerste weekend was rustig. We zijn eigenlijk alleen door central park gelopen en hebben pool gespeeld. Hetgeen erg is aangeslagen bij Zicar. 's Maandags zijn we op een camera voor Zicar uitgeweest in een hele grote winkel die vol stond met alle soorten elektronica. Er was bij iederschap zowat een winkelbediende om je uitleg te geven. En achter de kassa stonden ook 3 man, 1 om de rekening te maken, 1 om de spullen te pakken. en 1 om ze in een mandje te stoppen die ze over een systeem van banden naar de afhaal plek achter de kassa bracht. Daarna moest je als je verder klaar was met winkelen naar de kassa met de bon om te betalen. Dan kon je tenslotte je spullen afhalen. Dan had je ook nog de mensen bij de ingang en uitgang die de deur voor je openhielden. Dus alles bij elkaar zijn er 8 verschillende mensen met ons bezig geweest om 1 camera te verkopen. Volgens mij waren er in die winkel meer winkelbediendes dan klanten.
De 21ste zijn we naar het Empire State Building geweest. Prachtig mooi uitzicht het was die dag er zonnig en hoewel je niet zo enorm ver kon zien omdat het erg heiig was, was Manhattan zelf in zijn geheel te zien en stukken van Brooklyn en Queens. Zicar heeft veel foto's gemaakt. Daarna hebben we nog wat rond gelopen en zijn we naar Grand Central Station geweest. Het oudste treinstation van New York en het ligt geheel ondergronds. Enkele jaren geleden is het compleet gerenoveerd en weer in zijn oude glorie hersteld.
Tussendoor hebben we veel late avond gesprekken met Mark gehad over van alles en nog wat. Mark heeft enkele keren gekookt hetgeen meestal resulteert in pas om 10 uur 's avonds eten. En de gesprekken werden vaak ook erg laat zodat de volgende dag weer lang moesten uitslapen. Maar het draagt wel allemaal bij aan de lol.
Afgelopen weekend hebben we dan de Mermaid Parade gehad. Omdat Mark op een pakje moest wachten kon hij niet mee. Maar Zicar heeft een paar honderd foto's gemaakt en ondanks dat het een beetje regende was het allemaal prachtig om te zien. Helaas was de de fair van Coney Island in de regen wat minder leuk en toen het harder begon te regenen zijn we maar weer naar huis gegaan.
Gisteren was het plan Statue of LIberty maar in tegenstelling tot de weerberichten regende het de hele dag dus zijn we maar naar Chinatown gegaan. Waar Zicar zich heeft uitgeleeft met het kopen van souveniers. We hebben nog een kleine zijsprong gemaakt om de brooklyn bridge te fotograferen vanaf de kant en langs City Hall park te lopen. Waar Zicar weer een paar leuke plaatjes kon schieten.
Voor vandaag is het weerbericht zeer aardig dus misschien gaat Zicar nog een tweede poging wagen voor het Statue of Liberty. Voor de rest van de week; donderdag en vrijdag heeft Mark vrijgenomen. Donderdag is het plan om een auto te huren en naar de OCC showroom te gaan om enkele van de motoren te bekijken die in de show American Choppers op TV zijn gemaakt. Op de terugweg gaan we dan nog even bij een vriend van Mark langs. Vrijdag is het plan dat Zicar en Mark gaan fietsen in Central Park. En voor de rest zien we nog wel. Er staat nog veel op het programma. We willen nog naar de MET, Staten Island, Intrepid, SOHO om wat shows af te lopen in de plaatselijke horeca. En tussendoor is er nog veel tijd voor Pool, en jamming bij Mark thuis.

It took some time but I found a cool program to use for putting all the pictures Zicar took on the net. You can find them on this URL: NYC Photo Album

Have a look there are a lot of pictures and but there are some really cool ones there.

Today is the day...The first weekend of summer is traditionally the time for the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island (see here). It is one of those nice traditions that not that many tourists now about. As they say it themselves: "The Mermaid Parade celebrates the sand, the sea, the salt air and the beginning of summer, as well as the history and mythology of Coney Island, Coney Island pride, and artistic self-expression." which sums it up quite nicely. Unfortunately Mark had to stay home because he expected a very important package that he didn't trust his neighbours with.
Just when the parade was about to start Zicar noticed that the batteries for his camera where dying. So I rushed of the boardwalk to the local shops hunting for batteries. Luckely I found one and rushed back. On the way I hooked up with Frank, Mark's friend who always goes to the mermaid parade to make beautifull pictures. But I was in a hurry so I rushed back to Zicar just in time for the Parade to start his camera was working again. He took lots and lots of pictures of which I only show a few here.

After the Mermaid Parade I tried to call Mark cause he was supposed to come later so we can spent some time in Coney Island which is famous for the Cyclone, worlds first and now oldest rollercoaster. Unfortunately it was raining and it wasn't running.
Anyway I never got a hold of Mark thinking he must be one his way, but after almost 2 hours waiting for him and Frank had already split cause of the rain. We decided it was time to go home. And guess what....Mark was sound asleep never heard the 3 calls and the messages I left on his machine..:(
We got some burgers for dinner since nobody was feeling like going out in the rain again. And we discussed everything from next week plans to world politics until 4:30 at which point we decided if we didn't get some sleep now there wasn't much going to happen on sunday.


Which ofcourse it still didn't since it is now already 16:30 and we have only had some breakfast.

PS all pictures in this blog are made by Zicarlo with his new digital camera

Today Zicar and I went on an exploration tour to the Village. First we followed 14th street towards unionsquare looking for a belt. But the shop seem to have been somewhere else cause we didn't see much nice shops. Anyway on Unionsquare there was a huge Virgin records shop which Zicar was dying to explore. He found his 3 missing Red Hot Chilly Pepper albums and I was lost in the large Jazz section where I bought to many CD's. Next stop Forbidden planet. Unfortunately they had no Babylon 5 comics available so we just stared at the incredible fine detailed WWII action figures. Next we saw Blackboard Billiards or something. Where you can buy a $ 7500 pool cue...yes that is no typo. And we saw some beautifull pool tables in various states of being.
After walking Bleekerstreet for a bid it turned out it wasn't bleekerstreet at all. Which ofcourse would explain the lack of stores. But when we did find Bleekerstreet we saw some very cute stores like the Pussy cat store (18+ only). After a few hours of walking in the heat we decided to return to the house and see if Mark was up to anything.
After some little nap we setup the Virtual pool game again with some patches that should allow 3 people to play. Not that we did cause by now Zicar was following our example of taking an afternoon nap. So only me and Mark played. Which meant that the cooking didn't start until 9 which ofcourse meant a very late night dinner again. Mark let Zicar do most of the cooking. Well done Zicar it was a nice chicken with corn dinner. Mark ended up being ass kicked twice in virtual pool first by me and later by Zicar.

Tomorrow is going to be a real fun day with the Mermaid parade. Only drawback is that it might rain heavily. But we will see about that.

As expected after staying up til 3 on the 21st. The 22nd was a really slow day. Zicar didn't get up until noon and I was to tired to do anything. By 3 PM I finally got some breakfast and by 5 PM convinced Zicar that looking for things to do was not very usefull at 5 PM. So we went out for pool and hopefully some dinner. Unfortunately Mark had to fight with an ancient DOS program to print something for his neighbour and couldn't join us. After playing 9-ball for 2 hours Zicar was to hungry to continue and we went for a nice dinner in Utopia.
Today is the 23rd and I have no idea what we are going to do. The weather is cloudy but mainly dry with temperatures below 80 so not so bad.

Yesterday it was the first day of summer. We forgot to get up in the middle of the night and go to Eastriver Park to see the druides welcome the summer solstice at dawn. Well atleast we got a good night sleep :). Anyway it was a beautifull day and we had already decided that today should be the day to go to the Empire state building. Before we could go however Zicar wanted a sandwich so we sat down in the little park before the subway entrance in 73rd street to eat our brunch. Just as we were about to finish a local fucking bird shit all over my shirt. Since we were so close to home and it was really bad. We went back and I changed my shirt. Finally we arrived at the south entrance of the ESB on 33rd street. We were very lucky because there was no line to speak off. There was only a minute before the security check and about 10 minutes before the ticketoffice. After the office the potential line could have been more than an hour just to get on the elevator but there was nobody there so we could walk straight into the elevator. Could thing we didn't pay the extra 40 bucks to skip this line !!!!.
Once on top we had an amazing view. It was a bit hazy but it was could enough to have a could look at Manhattan. Hopefully Zicar will post a view pics on his blog. He was very pleased we bought the camera with the extra big zoom option which was indeed quite impressive has these pictures show you.
After the ESB we had up to the Complete Strategist. A store completely focused on wargames (board and card versions). It has a ton of books about armies and game strategies. And a reasonable collection of Magic cards. And Zicar could not resist to buy a few sets. We continued our trip after having a small sandwich at a local delli walking along fifth avenue towards Bryson Park where there is a beautifull building housing the Public Library. But we want to go east on 42nd street towards the famous Grand Central Station.
Which as you see on the outside is completely packed by these huge skyscrapers but on the inside is a world of space and grandeur. Where some people are obviously more in a hury than others.

Finally we took the the shuttle to Times Square and headed home. Since we were now smack in the middle of rushhour. Zicar could see how packed a subway can be....and it wasn't even a busy day.
We had some take-out chicken with a greek salad for dinner and jammed a bit afterwards. This time I tried to get in there with my sax with took some time to get started cause I haven't really played in about a year. But we managed to spill out some notes in harmony together. That was sure fun even though half the time I was missing the cords and was completely out of key. We kept chatting until about 2 AM. So it is quite understandable that today at 10 AM I am the only one out of bed. It will be a slow starting day. No real plans just enjoy the day as it comes.

Today it is the first day of summer. But the blog ends on June 19th, so I ow you another day. Not that there is much to say about this day. Tuesday the 20th, I sent Zicar to the Museum of Natural History on his own with an added erron to get some bagels at H&H on 81st and broadway. So if you wanna know what went on you must read Zicar's blog.

I had a day of relaxing in the appartement and beside a bit of shopping I was working on setting up a new family genealogy website (no links cause it ain't finished yet).

Later that evening Mark good a simple pasta dinner which became more like a late night dinner cause it wasn't ready until 10PM. In the meantime Mark learned Zicar how to restring a guitar and tune it from the ground-up. Unfortunately it took to long to do any jamming afterwards with it. But Zicar learned something I think.

Well that is about it. Today we are looking at a sunny bright day, the only one this week so today we are going to the Empire State Building and look over New York and New Jersey. So keep watching for the next update

Oh if you are wondering about the second pool night...read Zicar's blog.

Like I said today we needed to hunt for a good camera. Zicar really wanted to make cool pictures and my camera just didn't cut it. So we went to midtown ready with several shop adresses to go look for a camera and some music stores that should be really cool. That meant Zicar got his first experience of the New York subway. It was only 2 stops downtown on the express so after a few minutes walking we found the first store that should give us a good change to find a camera. Zicar did the web research so he kind of knew what he wanted. But let me tell you about the shop first. It was really weard. Like all shops in NYC there is ofcourse thight security. But having 1 employee on every 2 customers most of them helping customers does sound a but overdone even for New York standards. So first you look around in the store and with every shelve of stuff there was indeed one man that could explain all the details to you. Then you go to the checkout counter where you ordered the stuff you wanted. Ofcourse like any good salesman you end up with a lot more than that cause of the usual. Would you like the special case with that it's only 12 dollars? And how about a memory card we have a 2 gig card....You want .... and so on. Than the items are picked by another guy and put in a basket and send in an elaborate net of rolling bands over our heads to the pickup section just behind the registry. At the registry ofcourse there is a fourth person helping you. And finally there is the guy at the pickup counter. That is 4 people total spending a total of about 15 minutes just helping one customer. And that is not counting the man holding open the door when you enter, the men holding open the door when you leave. The various people just looking that customers only take out what they payed for and now doubt the various people looking at all the other people making sure they actually do some work. How the hell a store like that can make any money at all is completely beyond me. I suspect labour must be very very cheap here. And one more detail...it seemed that half the jewish population of New York worked at that one store, but that probably was just my perception.

All in all.. we did get our camera and it seemed we got a very decent deal on it. So after a short rest in a Starbucks where Zicar had some icetea and I was stuck with just water. (cause I don't like coffee and don't drink tea nor any childrens drink like milk or stuff like that.) But atleast Zicar did sit in a real Starbuck. The original american coffeeshop. Now you guess why Amsterdam is the only major city in Europe where this worldwide amercian coffee equivalent of McDonalds doesn't have a coffeeshop.

The rest of the afternoon we spent drewling over very expensive guitars in various shops on 48th street like Manny's. The shop where every respectable and mainly famous guitar player played on the shop's 'you must test on this guitar' Ol' Yellow which is on display in the center of the shop like it is the world's most precious diamond. It looks like shit but then what would you look like if you where played and abused by thousands of different people in several decades of the shops long history. It is a good thing they named the guitar Old Yellow. Otherwhise you would never have guessed that that was its original color.

After that we took a rest in a fancy diner on the corner where Zicar for the first time was defeated by a plate of Tiramisu. I quote "This is the first Tiramisu I ever had that I will not finish". But it did taste very good just like my ceasar salad which together with the lovely waitress was a very good thing because we ended up paying 30 dollars for only a salad, 2 drinks and that large tiramisu.

On the way back just before we got off the subway we just heard the starting of the sad story of the homeless lady in the sub that plead for help since she had nothing and no one to help her.

So while me and Zicar are enjoying an Italian hero and Mark is counting up his hours so he can sent his bill. Zicar is playing more virtual pool and wants to go back to Amsterdam Billiards again and I am finishing up this entry for the blog....guess what the next one will be about ......

Hi everybody...Yesterday was a busy day...after the long walk we rested a bit and had a chinese take-out dinner. Zicar wanted to play some more pool, so Mark gave him the book and the game (virtual pool 3). Zicar spent a few hours on the game to improve his aim. And that really payed of. In the pool hall it became quite clear to Mark and Me that Zicar didn't need any more instructions and no special handling...He was on a roll.....We started with some straight pool and Zicar quickly took a lead of 5 to 1 to 0 (Zicar, Mark, Me). And after about an hour of play that score more or less hold with various ups and downs on all sides. We ended on 3,3,1 and then Mark had to leave cause he needs to work today. Zicar and myself played continued the straight pool game for a while. But than I had a second wind I found my aim again and after another hour we ended the straight game with a score of 8 to 5 in my favor. Then we switched to 9-ball. This became a bit frustrating for Zicar. Although he sink a lot of balls. I always seemed to manage to sink the 9-ball first. Which resulted after about an hour of play in the score 5-0 again in my favor. Finally we swichted to 8-ball. This time Zicar manage to catch up on my quick start and he was the first to have a shot at the 8-ball. First time he failed to sink it. But I still had my own balls to pot. So he got a second change and.......missed it completely....and that by the rules of the BCA means he lost ....again (atleast that is what I thought at the time)

For anyone interested in the rules of Pool look at :

BCA rules

Zicar took his time waking up today...even Mark was up before him. But after some discussion we decided that it was almost noon so we should get some brunch. The choice fell on eating a sandwich in the park. So we went to Central Park with our sandwiches and sat down to have lunch. Under the sound of a not particullary good jazz band we enjoyed our sandwiched. Mark needed more time for coffee and a shower so it didn't come along. We called him and asked if he would meet us in the park. But his neighbour stew has some major excel trouble so we had to just go along and Mark would be joining us later.
Zicar had his mind set on a bicycle ride in the park but because of a slight misunderstanding we ended up at the wrong place to rent one since he didn't mean a bicycle taxi where you just sit on your butt and let somebody else do the cycling in the rather hot sun for you. So we had to call Mark were the shop was were we could rent a bicycle to ride ourselves. On Columbus circle next to the building they are renovating near broadway?...Well we just happend to be there....only we didn't find the shop. Meaning we had to walk back again. Ah well.. we enjoyed a beautifull played version of Summertime on the klarinet. And just after we walked past the entrance of the Central Park Zoo we found a very good accordeon player. Exausted from the heat we decided to walk back to the appartement where Zicar wanted to investigate some digital camera's and I wanted to play some saxofoon, being inspired by all the music today....Damn what a long way two blocks is in the burning sun. Halleluja for the nice airco Mark bought yesterday :)

Oh yes we took this view on Columbus circle from the big glas skyscraper

We started the vacation easy.. Mark wanted us to help him do some shopping. But he stayed up until 4 playing video games so he didn't get up until 11. Zicar and I were early because of the jet lag. But we waisted the morning on getting settled on the computers and talk to people and write stuff.
The shopping was ok. We ended up taking a taxi to get 2 airconditioners (Thank you Mark I slept like a baby in that cool room). And we did groceries do make sure that there is plenty to drink and eat.
In the evening Mark finally had some time to jam with Zicar. That went very well. Despite what Zicar thinks he is playing very well. Especially considering that he only plays for about a year now. (atleast I think it is only one year, maybe two). Unfortunately they started quite late so I didn't get my sax in the game yet. Didn't want to piss of the neighbours. But today I plan to practice a bit of sax and maybe later we can jam all together.
The rest of the day I have no idea what Zicar wants to do he is still sleeping. But we won't wait for Mark and will probably just go out for a walk around the neighbourhood.

Hey everybody, today is the day...we fly to New York again and visit my friend Mark. The flight was boring and uneventfull. The taxi ride was bad as useual big traffic jam at the Triborough bridge and a very slow pace inside manhattan. Although that last part was mainly due to very bad route choice of the taxidriver. But we got there and now we are setting up our net connection to inform everybody we are here again and were to find this blog.


After we exchanged all the gifts we got for Mark...we chilled a little before going on a nice walk through central park down to columbus circle and back up broadway. We had dinner at the famous Utopia restaurant. Zicar and I were getting really tired by now. If it wasn't for the loud disturbens of a strange man crawling through the door shouting very loudly ow ow ow...my back I heart my bag...ow ow ow....the dinner would have been quite uneventfull. But it quickly became quite again when a customer told the men if he was ok he shouldn't shout so loudly and just sit quitely or leave. After the dinner we went to the poolhall were Zicar got his first lesson in pool. He managed to sink a few balls and even win a game of 9-ball so we can savely say he passed the first test with honours.

And now we are in our 24th hour of the day...so it being midnight here in NYC is a very good time to get some sleep.

Hi everybody...this summer I will visit New York again with my nephew...no not Tim but Zicar my other nephew. Because of the great succes I will keep you all informed in this blog about the adventures we will have in New York. Since many of Mark's friends also looked at the blog I'll write it in english this time so everybody can follow it.

If you want to read about the my previous New York visit go to http://vanaalderen.blogspot.com/