NYC Trip

Right, New York. It was pretty fun. A fairly laid-back trip too, as I'm sure we'll visit again - J. and I didn't feel compelled to race around, sightseeing frantically. We were blessed with fantastic weather - except for the evening we arrived, it was sunny and at least 20 degrees every day.

The museum we chose to visit this trip was the Met, which was very impressive - well on par with other great museums I've visited. The Tiffany exhibition was especially good. We spent time walking through Central Park, which was glorious - the growing season there is several weeks ahead of ours, so there were already leaves out on the trees and loads of flowers blooming. It was also cherry-blossom time, which was enchanting.

Took in a Broadway show, of course - went to the Shubert Theatre to see the Monty Python musical Spamalot. It was...ehhhh. A very mixed bag - the funny bits were hysterical, but there were several occasions where I really cringed.

There was lots of shopping, of course. J.'s friend (at whose home we stayed) took us one day to one of those huge outlet malls, about an hour's drive upstate. We also did a little shopping downtown, but overall, neither of us bought all that much, which was odd - we figured it would be a shopping paradise, but I guess we just weren't in the mood.

Spent an afternoon on a walking tour of Greenwich Village, then meandered around Soho and the Financial District as well. The last afternoon of our stay, we took the Staten Island Ferry across the harbour and back, which made for some great views.

We had two good evenings out. One was with S., a New Yorker I've been chatting with online for year or two now, so it was fun to finally meet her. She took us to a cool Russian-themed bar called Pravda, for food, drinks and chat. Then the last night of our stay, we had reservations at the famed Jean Georges, a posh fancypants resto (and you know how much we love posh fancypants restos) that was quite wonderful.

All in all, a fun trip. To be honest, I wasn't quite as bowled over by New York as I expected to be, but then, I've barely scratched the surface. I've posted a few pics from the trip over here, at Flickr.

François, You Wacky Funster

I'm in such a strange mood lately; the oddest things have me in stitches.

Read in the paper today that apparently, the former French president François Mitterand once referred to Margaret Thatcher as having "the eyes of Stalin, the voice of Marilyn Monroe."

I nearly busted a gut, I tell you.

New York, Newwww Yoooooork...

Off today (with J., bien sur) on a much-needed short holiday to New York City, on the proceeds of my teaching labours. I've never been to New York before and am really looking forward to it. We're staying with an old friend of J.'s who lives on Long Island - a 35 min. train ride from Manhattan, so that's saving us loads of dosh.

Unfortunately, poor J. has been sick the last few days with stomach flu. Her hub plied her with IV fluids yesterday to help her recover quicker, so she could make the trip. Hopefully she'll be back to normal by tomorrow - if not, we'll just take it easy for our first day.

I'm back on Sunday - report and photos after that, no doubt.

Kitty Playtime

Kitty cuteness continues to grow in leaps and bounds. The kittens are nearly three weeks old now. They can see quite well, and are learning to walk and climb. Interestingly, the runt of the litter was the first to walk, last week (though to be fair, the 'walking' at the moment consists of a few tottering steps, before falling over...hee).

They're also starting to play with each other, as well as us. Here's one responding to having its belly tickled. Too stinkin' cute...

Family Weekend

My mum was in town this weekend, for her annual Neptune musical visit. We had quite a nice day yesterday - some shopping, a trip to the Farmers' Market (where we ran into Stephane Dion, who was pressing the flesh with the electorate - how weird is that?!), and an afternoon spent watching Jane Eyre on DVD.

Went to dinner at Piccolo Mondo, which was excellent as always, then went on to Neptune. The show was...well, it was Beauty and the Beast. Capably produced and acted though, as always. We renewed our subscriptions for next year - the 2008 musical will be The Producers, which I'm quite excited to see.

Field Trip

This week, the project I coordinate has been hosting a training workshop in watershed management, for faculty members from our Asian partner universities. Six participants arrived from Vietnam and the Philippines last weekend, so I've been busy looking after them.

Yesterday, the group got out of the classroom and had a field trip. Luckily, we had an absolutely beautiful, sunny day to head down to the Annapolis Valley. The trainees visited a bunch of sites related to their work, like the tidal power plant in the Annapolis Basin, a farm using ecological drainage methods, and a couple of research test sites measuring water quality. But most of the day was spent at the offices of the Clean Annapolis River Project in Annapolis Royal. The trainees were all very interested, as the folks at the River Project are working on things like river water quality and the viability of the local clam fishery (which has been decimated in recent years by the opening of the tidal power plant).

All that was very well, but since I'm not an environmental scientist, I was far more interested in the building in which the River Project is housed. They're in the old train station in Annapolis Royal, which was restored by a private benefactor a few years ago to its original Arts & Crafts glory. The restoration job is fabulous (there's a short account of it, with a few pictures, here), and it's wonderful to see. Apparently, of the four showcase stations built around 1914 for tourism purposes in NS, Annapolis Royal's is the only one left standing - the others were in Yarmouth (for the ferry to Maine), Digby (for the ferry to New Brunswick and the Pines Resort) and Kentville (for the old rail hotel there). The director of the River Project told me that the woman who spearheaded the restoration spent about $300,000 of her own money, as a labour of love - and now rents the building to the River Project for a mere $500 per month!

Drama

Whooeee. Drama in the office today. Big, big drama.

I see resignations in the near future, I do. People are not happy, and I don't blame them one bit.

Dickens World?!?

Oh God. A new theme park is just about to open in the southeast of England. It's...wait for it...Dickens World. Jesus. I can see the baying packs of schoolchildren - not to mention busloads of waddling North Americans on package tours - now.

I know plenty of historic places have cheeseball tourist attractions (the Loire's Parc des Mini-Chateaux, anyone?), and I suppose they have their place - after all, people have to take their kids somewhere. But a Dickens theme park just seems wrong - especially given that it's sited somewhere out in the wastes of Kent, wedged between a shopping mall and a multiplex cinema. A journo from The Guardian, visiting the site last week, was suitably appalled:

Dickens World feels like Disney gone to the dark side. In place of the Magic Kingdom there is Newgate Prison; instead of talking animals there will be shady characters loitering in dark corners. Although the attractions are all faithfully Dickensian, the larks are very much 21st century. The centrepiece is a boat ride which, loosely speaking, is Great Expectations presented as a log flume.

Flume??!?! It's especially galling given that (in my opinion) no one in the world does a better job of interpreting and presenting heritage than the Brits. They're really letting themselves down with something as naff as Dickens World.

Lovely Spring Day

At lunchtime today, it was an unbelievable 21.7 degrees on the deck. I sat out, drank coffee and enjoyed the sunshine for the first time this year.

Had an inspection tour around the garden this afternoon. The snowdrops (below) seem to have survived the Easter Sunday snowstorm unscathed, and are still blooming. There are a few crocuses about to pop - maybe tomorrow? And the libanotica and daffodils are just on the verge - I imagine we'll see blooms from them in another week or two.

Kitten Update

The kittens are ten days old today. As you can see in the pic above (click to enlarge), their eyes began opening earlier this week. They're still a bit rheumy and bleary though - A. says their vision won't be very good for a while yet.

Happily, they all seem to be doing very well, as is Mother. They're still not very interactive, and don't do much other than sleep, nurse, and wobble about their little cage. I tried introducing one of them to the buns on Thursday, but there wasn't much response. Maybe in another few weeks...hehe.