Friday, October 25, 2013

WEEKENDERS


this weekend my brother and sister in law came to visit. it's times like this when i look on us living away as a positive...uninterrupted weekends together like the one just gone are so precious and having them stay at our home makes it feel like an fun sleepover! but, it does make the goodbyes all the harder. will and kate we miss you.





both will and kate had been to nyc before and so we wanted to make sure we showed them our nyc! so we started off in brooklyn heights, my favourite neighbourhood. 











we took them to smorsburg in williamsburg. this was also our first time and it did not disappoint. so much good food to try!









nick had an ice cream sandwich, which was basically ice cream sandwiched between two giant cookies. he loved it but was full for 2 days!





i had a smore (cinnamon crackers holding together a toasted marshmallow and melted chocolate). they're traditionally toasted on the bbq/camp fire, but in true nyc style these ones were blow torched! it was a taste sensation though!






will and kate chose teriyaki balls. not the best choice, especially after seeing the pulled pork sandwiches, but its all about the experience they kept reminding us after nick and i both felt sorry for them!




 






we grabbed a coffee in williamsburg in one of my favourite coffee shops. considering i'm not a massive coffee fanatic its obviously the decor that causes this place to rate so highly in my books!





in true boy fashion when we were meant to be 'resting' at home the guys got out their i pads to play games against each other!


on sunday we went bowling which i havent done for an age. we managed to capture some blurry bowling fun on camera too. 












we won't mention who won, but i can gloat that i beat nick (for once!).



Tuesday, October 22, 2013

CHANGES






















after nearly a year we're starting to notice the ways in which nyc is changing us, in the big and the small things. 
one of them being brussel sprouts. naturally. i've realised that brits do not do them justice. but americans on the other hand, they know exactly how to jazz up the mediocre sprout. i took a leaf out of their book and tried mine last night with bacon and honey. they were pretty delish.

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

MOUSEY MOUSEY


the last few days we have become truly inititated into new york living by the visitation of a tiny, furry friend....although i don't know why i say friend, he most definitely was not welcome in this house.

it all started on saturday morning when i discovered a small hole in a breakfast box that looked too suspicious to ignore. but it wasn't until saturday night when nick awoke to strange noises that he first caught sight of the little tike running under our fridge. and so, as you do in the early hours of the morning, nick grabbed his hockey stick and, attempted to stay awake, trying to lure it back out of hiding. but alas, i awoke 4 hours later to find nick asleep on the sofa, hugging the hockey stick to his chest and no sign of mousey.

next day after our night adventures we realise just how common an occurrence this is in the city. when i hear stories of two year infestations of cockroaches i start to feel grateful that we have just one tiny little mouse.

returning home on sunday evening i catch my first glimpse of mousey scurrying to take cover under the fridge. i'm ushered into the safety of the bedroom whilst nick, armed with his trusted hockey stick, tackles the poor frightened mouse from under the fridge. unfortunately he wasn't successful in his pursuit, but sherlock had figured out where the mouse came from and was hiding during the day. we have a sliding bathroom door and so the walls are hollow. we have also been having our roof replaced and live under the eaves, so we guessed this is how he had come to live within our bathroom walls!

that night we set our mouse traps but awoke to nothing the next morning. it wasn't until the early hours of this morning when our little adventure with mousey came to rather a dramatic end....

around 3am i woke to the sound of scurrying noises just outside our bedroom. i grabbed nick and he quietly got out of bed. he listened....there it was again and so he burst open the bedroom door and turned the light on, as if to stun the mouse. but he saw nothing...quite literally. where the mouse trap lay earlier in the evening, it was no longer. all i could hear from the bedroom was more scurrying and nick exclaiming 'oh no, oh no'. at this point i was wide awake and imagining the worst scenario...a sea of mice covering our apartment floor biting at nick's ankles!

but what had actually happened was that the mouse had got caught in the trap, (whoopee!) but still had full use of his legs and so during his final hours had decided to scurry, still attached to the trap, towards our bedroom, maybe to seek revenge, we will never know! so in the early hours of this morning the mouse rip'd and nick disposed of him so that i could wake to a pest free house. and so i just want to say, nick, you're my hero! thanks for diligently protecting me and our home from mousey, i love you!

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

WEEKENDERS...PHILLY

this weekend we were pretty geeky and finished our 'america history tour (check out boston here and washington here)' in philadelphia. and its a good job we did because now all the places we visited this weekend are not open due to the american government shutting down because of funding disagreements! 
i didn't really know what to expect from philly, but we loved the old town and all its history, it was crazy to think that america's story started here. nick and i were both blown away by the fact that america took a massively bold move when they declared independence. they had no way of knowing it would work and it was still seen as an act of treason to defy the king so for those that publically signed the declaration it was a massive risk.
anyway, aside from all that we had fun exploring the other parts of the city, including running up the rocky steps and enjoying good food at reading market.






this building reminded me a lot of the chrysler hence the number of photos it features in!






these chocolate noses, ears and teeth totally appealed to me

after lunch we both craved a chocolate bar and so stood in a  gas station shop looking at the choice for ages. nothing. there was just nothing worthy to satisfy our craving. so nick, for the first time ever, branched out of his comfort zone and chose something he'd never tried. turns out this was just a milky bar! 





they were setting up for a night of opera at the liberty hall during the day and so we checked it out that evening. thankfully for nick it was free, because unfortunately i only lasted half an hour! 



one of the many rooms where the declaration and the constitution were debated


benjamin franklin's house.