Another good bye...

A city so nice,
They named it twice...New York, New York...
Good bye Big Apple...And good bye Corina...Be good!!!
Tomorrow we are leaving for our trip to west coast: San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Simi Valley, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Grand Canyon, Sedona, Death Valley and Yosemite Park....It will be interesting, but sad... after that our staying in US will come to an end. In our way back to Bucharest we will stop in Dublin and that's all!!!
Why all good things come to an end to quickly?

Last weekend...

Good bye Long Island!!!
For the last time, yesterday, we went to Peacock residence, for the "Fig Festival", as everybody was joking around. We picked fresh figs from Billy's trees and ate them with Gorgonzola cheese and presuto. Yam! Afterwards we had dinner, Maureen's excellent side dishes and Billy's barbecued stakes. For the desert (tiramisu cake and rhubarb sauce) we went outside and gathered around a bonfire, it was perfect as the night was coming and the weather was a bit chilly. We reminisced about good old times, Kevin even sang a song from his boy scouts years, while we were roasting marshmallows. Nice company and friendly atmosphere..Excellent!!!
Unfortunately, the day came to an end and when we said our last good bye Billy had tears in his eyes...What a beautiful family!!!
He promised though, to come visit us in Bucharest along with Corina and Kevin, this coming Christmas....Maureen hates flying, so she said that she is waiting for us to come back, which I don't mind at all!!!
Today, we will meet with with our friends, we invited them over to us for a pizza and a good bye drink. Everything now is bitter-sweet...almost 20 years is not easy to leave behind...
PS: The ad-hoc party was fun, they brought a cake with a dedication "Adio...dar raman cu tine".
That's all she wrote! There is nothing else left to say...

To Vali

Another year....another birthday!!! Tot ce-ti doresti sa devina realitate si mult succes in noul an scolar si pe mai departe.
La Multi Ani! Noi, toti cei de aici

Patriot Day

Greenwich Village, Manhattan - Memorial for the attacks of September 11, 2001

Patriot Day occur on September 11 of each year, designated in the memory of almost 3000 casualties in the September 11, 2001 attack. President George W Bush sign the resolution into the law on December 2001. It is a discretionary day of remembrance. People call it Nine -Eleven, the day that changed America....
I remember, I was in the kitchen making some stuffed peppers when Corina called me from work and told me to turn on the TV, she didn't know much, actually nobody knew more than that a plane hit one of the twin towers. While watching the news , another plane came and hit the other tower. Now for everybody was clear - it wasn't an accident but a terrorist attack...

US Open

Drying the court after the first rain...

Last evening, again, we went to see some tennis and of course, Nadal was playing against Gonzales. We got some invitations from Cristi (Romanian Voice) so we had excellent seats in the Press box. Unfortunately, the weather was miserable, cold (67 degree F) and windy (25mph). On top of everything, after an hour into the game, it started to rain, and the game was stopped. After an wait of almost an hour, and an attempt to resume the game, the rain became heavier so they had to cancel everything... So much for my last day at the US Open!!!
PS: 1-Among the personalities present in the stands to see Nadal, besides Mayor Bloomberg, who is a regular, was Placido Domingo and Jennifer Aniston.
2- Update: Nadal lost badly, in the semifinals to Del Potro who moved on to beat Federer to become the new US Open champion....

Labor Day

It is the American May Day, a workers holiday which celebrates the labor movement and the strength of labor organisations. Labor Day was celebrated for the first time in 1882 in NYC. Forms of celebration include parades, art events, picnics or barbecues. It is the symbolic end of the summer and the last weekend before children return to school.
We had a nice weekend... first on Saturday morning we went to the beach in Coney Island then in the evening we met with Corina and Kevin and went to a movie (we've seen "Taking Woodstock" - warning: it's not a total waste of time, but it's not a lost if you don't see it!) and afterwords we stopped at a bar for desert and a couple of drinks.
On Sunday we were invited to a christening, Arthur and Dacia were the god parents. It was a big party around 120 people, very nice organised and we enjoyed ourselves very much.
The DJ played very nice music, including one of my all time favorite song, "Je t'aime... moi non plus".
Another note : plenty of people at the party were smoking hookah, I found out that is it legal and better than cigarettes. I didn't try nor I'm interested to!!!
Today, Monday there is a street fair right by our house, on Lexington Ave and maybe we'll go there for a while; the afternoon it's all reserved to tennis - I'm glad that Nadal is doing good....

US OPEN

Meadowland Park

Federer and Nadal

Hurricane Danny...

...it was a smaller one, so our week end wasn't a complete was out. It rained all Saturday morning, but in the afternoon the weather cleared up nicely so we went to US Open. Although the tournament will start on Monday, there are all kinds of activities, players in the qualifier rounds or the favorites practicing. Yesterday we got lucky and saw both Federer and Nadal. Federer exchanged a couple of balls with Haas on a practice court, but Nadal played on Louis Armstrong court, with Monaco an entire set, very strongly not at all like a practice session. We found seats right in the front row, next to Rafa and uncle Tony, who all the time was coaching him on how to improve his game. At the end of the game, Coni got an autograph from him.
I hope Nadal will win the tournament, but he still is not on top of his game....
Today, Sunday we intend to go to the beach in Coney Island....

PS: We went to the beach and had a good time, the weather was great, sun and not windy, but unfortunately because of dangerous rip currents entering in the water was ban.

Lincoln Center

I should rewrite yesterday's entry because it was a boring week end up to a point, in the afternoon at the last moment we decided to go and see a concert at Lincoln Center. It was a nice ending to a really great season of music and dancingas all part of summerstage in the City. Next Monday starts the US Open, sign that the fall is near...

Boring Sunday

Today we wanted to go to the beach. Unfortunately, hurricane Bill changed our plans, it's raining and the beaches are closed because of dangerous rip tides. We have things to do around the house but it's boring, boring, boring....

Happy Anniversary

August 21, I and Coni celebrated 33 years of marriage. I can't believe it but this is another story... Corina and Kevin surprised us with dinner and a Broadway show. We went to Tony's, a restaurant in Times Square and afterwards we went to "Jersey Boys" the play that I always wanted to see. We decided that our anniversary song to be "Can't Take My Eyes Off You", by Frankie Valli. It was a grate day, thank you Corina and Kevin!!!

Woodstock Pictures

The Spirit of Woodstock

Woodstock at 40

Woodstock turned the big 4-0 this week end and we were so lucky to be there, at Bethel Woods Centerfor the Arts. The festival's peace and love message was swallowed, like everything else now a days, by commercialism, but the legacy is not fading. The concert called "The Heroes of Woodstock", was great and so different than all others concerts that we've been to and we've seen plenty - only to name Bon Jovi. Here, the show was not only on the stage but outside too. The concert started and ended with Jimi Hendrix's "Star-Spangled Banner", and in between many of the bands from the original concert : Ten Years After, Jefferson Airplane, Sha Na Na, The Band etc. From 5pm to 1am, 8 hours of good music in an an 1969 atmosphere!
Outside, instead of skinny hippies sliding in mud, on older generation of hippies alongside their children and grandchildren, but all of them young at heart and in good spirits. It was fantastic! We enjoied every moment, and had a good time with our new friends....
To top everything, we were witnesses of a wedding on stage. In the middle the band Mountain' s performance, the music stopped and on the stage appeared a weeding procession: the groom , Leslie West , the leader of the group, around 65-70 years old and loaded and the bride 35-36 years old and pretty. After the priest finished the ceremony, as a weeding gift for the bride and for us, they started singing their signature song "Mississippi Queen". It was insane... lots of cheering and clapping, although was after midnight and the people were kind of tired, drunk or high (plenty of funny smells around us - to paraphrase Clinton, "I smoke but I didn't inhale" , I can say that I didn't smoke but I inhale!!!).
We arrived home around 5 in the morning..,
I will post pictures when I will have time to download them, now I am in a little bit of hurry, because the weather is excellent and we are going to the beach...

Alaska pictures

Those are a few of the pictures...more to come...

By train to Klondike in search of gold...

Tennis Tournament

On Saturday August 8th, the Romanian Medical Society of NY organised at Cedarbrook Club a tennis tournament. Coni and Cristi as friends of the organizer, Arthur, were invited to play too. It was a great day, life music, good food, lots of laughter and cheering and of course pretty good tennis...















The Champions!!!

Corina and Kevin returned from their Alaska cruise. They loved it very much, everything was new and interesting. They decided that the next adventure will be an African Safari.

I will post picture as soon as I will get them, they took around 1000 pictures, so I have plenty to chose from!!!

Another weekend....

On Saturday, I and Coni met with our friends and went to the beach ; the weather was OK, a little windy, but the water was great!
On Sunday, we went to an R&B concert with Joe, Ginuwine and Chico De Barge, in Central Park. Towards the end of concert it started raining and we got soaking wet...it was fun in a way, dancing and singing in the rain!!! If you are curious you could check all the three singers on You Tube. They are OK.
We ended the day by going to another concert, this time a jazz one, at MoMa (Museum of Modern Art). We listen to Dafnis Prieto Si O Si Quartet. It was really interesting, a combination of sounds of Cuba and New Orleans. They premiered the song "Bla Bla Bla" and the response "Bla Bla".
Both concerts are part of Summer Stage in NYC.
Unfortunately, I forgot the camera home and I don't have pictures...
Corina and Kevin left for their cruise to Alaska....

Appollo11

Today is the 40th anniversary of the first manned mission to land on the Moon -July 16, 1969.
"One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind " this is the famous phrase made part of history by Neil Armstrong, when he touched the lunar surface.
I remember vaguely, we were living in Targoviste at that time and I saw everything life on TV - I thing it was night time?!...

Bruno

This week end we went to see the movie "Bruno". Very daring and not politically correct at all... Sacha Baron Cohen, the same actor who played Borat, now is playing Bruno, a gay Austrian fashion devotee who goes to extremes to achieve celebrity in United States, exposing many odd things of the American society.

Summer Stage

Today, in Bryant Park has started the annual Broadway Festival. Five weeks, every Thursday will be presented performances from top Broadway shows: STOMP, The Phantom of the Opera, Chicago, Jersey Boys or Mama Mia, to name a few.
The first day was OK, plenty of people enjoying nice weather and good music...



















Scene from the musical "Avenue Q"

4th of July

Fireworks in NYC....unfortunately my pictures were not good at all, so I found those on line and I posted them as mine. I hope nobody will mind!!!

Waiting for fireworks to start. We are on the sun deck of the building....

Happy Independence Day

A little history lesson: on July 2, 1776 the 13 Colonies of North America overthrew the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain and rejected the British monarchy to become the sovereign United States of America. On July 4 was adopted the Declaration of Independence, date which now is celebrated as Independence Day. It is a national holiday marked by patriotic displays. People spend the day by going to parades, picnics and in the evening to see the fireworks.









Declaration of Independence, painting by John Trumbull - shows the five-man committee in charge of drafting the Declaration as it presents its work to the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

This year Corina and Kevin are the hosts of our 4th of July party. I will post pictures tomorrow...