23rd December, 2006

Made our way to New York City today. Got up at 5am to wash up and then started driving to Boston at 6am. It was raining rather heavily along the way, but still managed to make it in time for the 8am coach to NYC from South Station. In the middle of the 4-hr journey, they made a stop for a break and we bought this McGriddles to eat... (something not available in Spore - cheese, egg n bacon sandwiched in between 2 pieces of pancakes)

Reached Chinatown at abt 1230pm n we figured our way to our hotel, which is located at the 45th street 8th avenue (the theatre district). And along the way..........

After checking into the hotel, we headed out to explore the city after we equipped ourselves with the necessary warm wear...

Walked to the Rockafella Center to capture the Xmas tree and also the rink where ppl ice-skate..

And also the radio city nearby...

Within a short walking distance, we arrived at the largest cathedral of New York City - St. Patricks Cathedral...

My panda then brought me to the Grand Central Station. And on the way, we passed by the public library of New York City...

The Grand Central Station....... where millions of passengers meet everyday...

And we were just in time for the show...

Changing images casted on the walls, accompanied by music

We then made our way back to Timesquare, where it's full of ppl, be it day or night..

M&Ms retail store...

Colourful M&Ms... ...

Hersheys n Reese retail store...

Radiocity and Xmas tree at nite...

Little Italy... nothing much but juz Italian restaurants ALL OVER... ...

Wanted to walk to Brooklyn Bridge, but guess it was juz TOO COLD... ... bbrrr

NYC is indeed a vibrant city...

22nd December, 2006

One week in Portsmouth... ...

My panda has been staying at home during this one week as i went to work. On this Monday, he gave me a surprise, by baking something for me (his FIRST time baking...) and gave them to me when i went home to fetch him out for lunch with Weilin :)

i am really touched... really...

lunch with Weilin at a Chinese restaurant

As Low's gf was here as well (which happened to be our HSA colleague), we had dinner together at Muddy River and then headed to their home after that for a drink :p

On Wednesday night, I brought my panda to Uno Chicago Grill for some deep-dish pizza...

Weilin played a good host as she gave us a treat at Warrens (at Kittery) before she invited us to her house for a visit...

And on Friday, we had our pathetic steamboat by the stove at home as it was 冬至, where we had 汤圆 and also YY's co-worker - Dewey :)

And see what my supervisor gave me for Xmas :p

18th December 2006

My panda arrived on the 14th Dec, after a much long wait of abt half a year... As i saw him walked out of the arrival gate, i cried. Always thought that I wouldn’t behave this way.. But…. guess I juz missed him too much… :p

Arranged for a weekend getaway at the White Mountains from Fri to Sun and has reserved a car for traveling, but they could not gimme the car that I wanted when we reached there. Was abt to search for other car rental when they said someone has dropped off an SUV at the other location. I hesitated as it was so much bigger n I have nv driven an SUV before, furthermore, dunno if that would be more expensive. After assuring us that the rental price remained the same, my panda encouraged me to go for it. And there we headed off to North Conway in this SUV – named Rendevous… … *giggle giggle*

This is the B&B we stayed in at North Conway of White Mountains. It has a horse stable and there were a couple of families there as well when we were there.





See this!!! Hee……. we came for this as well :p Jacuzzi in the room, facing the magnificent view of the mountains. Romantic hor…. :p Dipped till skin also wrinkled but still dun wanna get out, cos very COMFY and RELAXING!!! :p

Rick, Charlene and Us...

Us and Lucy... ...

As recommended by Charlene, we headed off for a 4hr drive around White Mountain – taking the Kancamagus Highway and then to Mount Washington hotel… Beautiful scenery along the way, and of course, lovely companion also :)

Mount Washington Hotel

Happy as I might that my panda is here with me and we spent a wonderful getaway over the weekends at White Mountains, but at the same time, something happened as well… My car was rammed by another car when my housemate was fetching another TAP trainee n her friend from Manchester airport (luckily they were alright)… In the end, my car got towed away and we were stranded without a car to go work n also to bring my panda around. Hence I extended my car rental as I exchanged for a smaller car.. In the end, they gave me this :p

More photos to come... ...