New York: The Holiday of No Sleep

My long absence from the blog was caused by a 4 day jaunt to New York followed by 4 days trying to get over the jetlag. The brain-child of Scoland's answer to Carrie Bradshaw, we flew out of Stanstead and into JFK and out of dreary olf England into 72 degree NYC. The limo drive (yes, darlings, we ARE that middle class) from the airport to the hotel gave us some spectacular views and what was to come; it also gave Mrs Paton a spectacular view of her own ... a certain Torquay hotel owner. The hotel was wonderfully modern and, some might say, heavenly.

The thing about New York was its size; you constantly look upwards and you soon realise how many areas of New York you think you know. Everything is just huge; the shops, the meals, the service charges ... and I was very impressed, with one notable exception, ow polite everybody was.

The moment of the holiday for me was a certain young lady finding out that Spamalot was a musical; but still, she had her own way of dealing with it.

The event of the holiday was the view from the "Top of the Rock"; an amazing 360 degree view of the City - thank god for digital cameras because I still dozens of shots.

Obvious moment of the holiday was the carriage ride through Central Park - and I would have seen some vaguely famous building but somebody stuck their head in the way.

Sad moment, for me, was Ground Zero. I have to say that this was one the reasons I wanted to visit, before anything is built. But I was disappointed to find it a building site with no memorial in site. But worse (I mean, what else did I expect?) was the commercialisation of the site. People seling postcards and books of the attacks; the cry of $1 bottles of water - I couldn't help thinking that this was what happens when capitalism meets disaster. There were so many people around, it must have been on obvious place to set up stall.

Queue of the holiday was the 2-3 hour wait for the boat to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island; we didn't even both so instead some of our party took to molesting another State of Liberty (photo evidence to come) - or was it the other way around???

Gasp of the holiday was the exhibition in the Guggenheim Museum. We were disappointed to find the actual building covered in scaffolding, but the main exhibition that went up through the central hall was astonishing; 8 white cars in different poses of a flip, with a neon explosion coming from each; you have to see it to believe it.

Arguement of the holiday; in the case of Paton versus the United States, I find in favour of Paton.

It was an amazing holiday (actually our first without the kids - thanks Mum!) and I am very much in love with the City; not just the shopping and the architecture but the buzz it gives you. From the mass of yellow cabs to the hotdogs on street corners. From my lovely new iPod to our breakfast bagels; a fantastic time.

We've now gone from Centre Parcs to Central Park; where next year I wonder?

The Garden of England

We're back after a whistlestop visit to friends in Kent and we were lucky to have glorious weather for our time there. I have always loved that area of the country and we were lucky to be able to see the best of the county with the kids. Next couple of days will mean getting ready for school next year and catching up on council work and party stuff. Tonight I am going to a Norfolk Conservative Campaign Meeting and tomorrow at a Norfolk & Suffolk one. I also have the Norwich South Exec next week - for a party that is committed to slashing bureaucracy, I wish we'd start with ourselves!

Returning home...

We got back from our family holiday in France late last night - a wonderful time had by all, though particularly by Emily as she had sheep on hand to talk to day and night. The gite was advertised as "real France" and boy that was an apt name - very rural, very France.

By this morning my head was starting to clear from all the travel and driving but my brain was going to explode - with all the e-mails and mail I had. A fortnight back copies of the EDP and EEN to read! All the council gumpf too - it doesn't matter that it's August they still pump it out! So many people to catch up with. I have spent the whole day working and have only just caught up, and that's on admin and paperwork alone. I haven't even started with e-mail, facebook or this blog!

There is an adage in teaching that there is no point taking a day off work because the crap sits on your desk waiting for you to return. I have, only today, realise that elected politics is the same!

The secret of a successful blog is to update it regularly

... which I haven't been able to manage myself. Anyway, after last week's sheer amadness and a brief but very enjoyable holiday in North Norfolk I am back into the blog.

I learnt with some sadness of the demise of LibDem Voice today - a kind of poor man's ConservativeHome. I think all parties need these sort of sites but I have said before that LDV was too-loyal and spouted a lot of the cheery LibDem optimism that the rest of us hate - we're the real opposition, blah, blah, we actually won the 2007 election but nobody noticed, blah, blah, we're not sinking in the polls at all, blah, blah ... I advised that it started to really debate the issues in their party and people would accept a broad church at work rather than try to exploit divisions (rather like CH.com does rather well). Anyway, whatever its merits it will be missed even by rampant Tories like me!