My momma hates me

See anything funny about the above pic? The remisier is called "Annie Ho Ann Nee"! Good grief...

I was so bored with Tampa that I decided to take the 7am flight out of Tampa to NY instead of the 6+pm one as originally scheduled, in order to spend a day in NYC... which turned out to be a wonderful decision! But not without a few small problems - the corporate travel agent told me that there was a good chance my bags would get lost if I left them in the care of Continental / Newark airport for more than a couple of hours whilst waiting for the connecting flight, and there are no more left-luggage facilities in the airport, so I had to book the cheapest car possible at the airport to rent for a day to dump my bags in the meantime - I didnt even get to start the engine of the car until I got back in the evening, when I drove all of 80m just to return it...

Once that was done, it was really easy - NJ transit train to NY Penn station. Once you step out of the train station, it's Macy's! Not that I bought anything there.. but it's amazing that it's only my 3rd time in NYC, but I could remember the way to get to quite a lot of the places... went east, past H&M and the main Old Nacy store, then NY Public Library (and the park next to it), and to Grand Central Terminal where a finally managed to get a free map.

Ta-pao-ed lunch at Grand Central, and then walked to Central Park to sit on the grass for lunch and read the Sunday papers... had a squirrel eye my food from 2m away, but when I threw him some crumbs, he deigned it not sufficiently fit for his consumption...

And what else better to do after lunch then a nap? Walked to the Oval, sat down leaning against a tree, and I actually fell asleep for 90 min! That was a really surreal feeling, for I wasn't even planning to be in NYC up to just a few days before, and here I was wasting time sleeping, but yet at some of the nicest places possible... Plenty of Chinese-ethnic couples taking their wedding photos at Central Park - guess it's just 1 of those things us Chinese like to do...


View from lunch spot


1 of the 3 ice-skating rinks I saw - this was at the park next to NY Public Library, and the other 2 were at Rockefeller and Central Park.

Tampa - part 2

I stand corrected on the post below; the most exciting moment in the Tampa trip was when we a few of us who are involved in shipping matters visited our vessel which happened to be in port then - various parts of the vessel had calendars of nekkid / hard-core pictures, and it was hilarious seeing how, upon realising that 1 of the guests was an elegant looking lady whenever we entered a new area of the vessel, the crew there would try to stand in front of the calendars so as to block them from sight.

Tampa

I've never been to Tampa before, so was looking forward to our global legal team meeting there quite a bit. Unfortunately, I needed to be in India before the trip, and my admin person gave me a guilt trip about changing the flights and incurring extra charges because the fares have gone up since the ticket was booked, etc.

Turned out it was just as well, since the place was darned boring (unless I was prepared to take a car and drive to Orlando / the east coast for Disneyworld, the Kennedy Space Centre, etc. Tampa only has 2 malls worth talking about, and the other attractions (such as Ybor City) are just lame...

In fact, come to think of it, the highlight of the trip was Westin's Heavenly Bed, which I must say is amazing..


View from the hotel room


The CMI mall at Ybor City

Eeendia

Wow, it's been eons since i wrote something.. a little tired to write much, plus nothing much has happened apart from work...

But I leave you some photos! We usually stay at a nice hotel in the suburbs when we are in Mumbai, but this time, because group CEO was visiting, we got to stay in the main part of the city, and where else but at the Taj Mahal Palace...


View from the balcony of the room - feels like it could be somewhere in Europe, until you see the massive bird shits on the balcony walls, and the language being spoken from underneath you :D


Too lazy to rotate the photo... if you crane your neck to the right, that's the sigh from outside my room... she's a grand old lady alright...


Now crane your neck to the left...


This is where I get breakfast every morning... and good English afternoon tea, with the cut lemons for the tea wrapped in their individual "tea-bags" so that the seeds do not drop into the tea upon squeezing..


At Elephanta Island - guess someone really likes potato chips


If this ain't love, I don't know what is...