It all started \u2018cause \u2018Nise was going to end the year just shy of status next year, and we were talking about where we could go to get her the last couple thousand miles she needed. \u00a0I\u2019d been saying for some years that Dawnise needed to visit NY around Christmas, but since we\u2019ve been \u201cover here\u201d around the holidays for the past several years we hadn\u2019t ever made it happen. \u00a0When to my surprise I found inexpensive tickets from London to JFK we overlooked – as in failed to even consider – the duration of the flights (aside: it\u2019s nearly as long from London to NY as it is from London to Seattle – spherical distance is weird) and booked tickets and a hotel in midtown. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We arrived mid-day on Friday and spent the weekend walking around NY. \u00a0Christmas markets, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Center, shop windows on 5th Ave – and even managed to meet up with friends for lunch. \u00a0Our Sunday afternoon departure got us back to London early Monday, and I was only slightly later than normal arriving at work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that seems a bit mad, well, it was – and at some point during the weekend we started toasting to \u201ccrazy schemes and questionable decisions.\u201d \u00a0Once said, it stuck, and we invoked it frequently while wandering the length and width of Manhattan in freezing cold (but dry) temperatures.
It was exhausting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And really good fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we had cooked up the idea for the NY trip, we had planned a weekend Christmas market getaway to Belgium (Bruges and Ghent) with good friends. \u00a0When the French rail strike caused Eurostar to cancel our train two days before the trip, we manage to redirect to a weekend in Bath and Oxford. \u00a0Props to Airbnb for graciously handling the refund, and to the grumpy but efficient woman at the national rail counter who got us confusing group rates tickets from London to Bath to Oxford to London. \u00a0The Bath downtown was Christmas market-tastic, and we did our best to drink enough gluhwein to pretend we were on the contingent. \u00a0The Oxford market was smaller but it, and the city, were lovely – and we got incredibly lucky with the weather – a cold dry weekend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The weather continued to cooperate, and Monday evening – far later than we would have normally – we had the experience of buying a Christmas tree and walking it home, over my shoulder, through central London. \u00a0The kilted fellow who sold it to us gave Dawnise a discount for taking a tree that had lost a bit of its crown in transit. \u00a0He likely thinks he got rid of an unwanted tree – Dawnise saw it as a way to get the charlie brown tree she wanted at a discount.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I love win-win situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That just about catches us up. \u00a0My sister, brother-in-law and niece arrived on Saturday, and we spent the first couple days wandering around the city. \u00a0Unfortunately the cold Dawnise had been trying to fight got the better of her, and much to her chagrin and frustration we skipped our traditional Christmas eve cocktails at the Ritz. \u00a0It was really only through the miracle of modern medicine (Dayquil) that Dawnise managed to help cook a proper Christmas lunch for 7.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Boxing day has been punctuated by bouts of heavy wind and rain, but that didn\u2019t stop our guests from wandering out in the mid afternoon to see more sights. \u00a0I imagine when they return it\u2019ll be time for a bit of tea and a reprise of Christmas dinner. \u00a0They head back to the states the morning of New Years eve – plans between now and then are sketchy, but I\u2019m confident a good time will be had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To everyone reading this – we hope your holidays are full of cheer and laughter, and we wish you the very best in the start of the new year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cheers.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last Friday, December 20th, marked half a year in the UK. \u00a0And the next day marked our 23 wedding anniversary. \u00a0We marked our anniversary on Friday evening with the always-excellent Beef Wellington for two in the dining room of the Goring hotel. \u00a0It was a brief moment of calm in an otherwise hectic December, and … Continue reading “Crazy Schemes and Questionable Decisions”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-london-calling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34\/revisions\/36"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.oubliette.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/IMG_6437.jpeg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n