Our plans for this afternoon

Tet party

We went to a Tet (New Year) Party at the Cong Dong Nguoi Viet Ti Nan Manchester (Manchester Vietnamese Refugee Community Association). It was held at the World Irish Heritage Centre. It was a bit bizarre, 200+ Vietnamese partying in a remarkably kitsch Hibernian setting. At one end of the Hall was a bar made to look like an Irish cottage at the other end was the stage playing host to karaoke, magicians and beauty shows.

As one Vietnamese friend said, "Nice. There's a beauty show for the men." Most memorable of all, however, was the Magician. Described as, "No second one like him." He was so bad it kept us all amused.

I am told that there is some controversy. Last year it was suggested that the work "refugee" is dropped from the title, because the community no longer feel like refugees. They have made lives here, but the Association wants to keep the old struggle alive. Procedures even started with a prayer for a Free Vietnam. Lan is amused by this wish to reverse history, but then Lan left VN to be with me, not because she was discontent with the VN government.

New Years day, in the Vietnamese calendar is 29 January and it will be the Year of the Cho (dog).

Lan came up with an interesting expression the other day. Of a younger friend, she said, "She's the same age as me, I am just 12 years further on." I'll leave you to work that out for yourselves.

The Bonzo Dog band have formed and will be performing next Saturday. There are also details of Neil Innes 2006 tour at this site.

Torve

Here is the latest news from Edinburgh. It describes Line 1 as being postponed - not exactly correct - but it is true that the Line 2 which I worked on and have yet to escape from, remains as the core of the proposals. We are being asked very urgent questions as Edinburgh Council battle to keep the scheme alive and within a limited Government budget. Just like English tram schemes then.

Torve

I have finally finished this book. It is well written but it is a hard read.

Condolences

My condolences to Tom and Ann Zunder on their tragic loss. (Tom's blog)

Phillidelphia & NJ - 5 Jan

5 Jan - we caught a train to Pennsylvania. We say: the Liberty Bell; a reconstruction of the house Jefferson rented while he drafted the Declaration of Independence; the various halls used for Congress before Independence and the Federal buildings for the first 10 years of the US's history.
As symbols of American liberty, tourists are given more rigorous security checks. The only place we were tested more carefully was at Capitol House and flying out of the US.
Philadelphia is very proud of Benjamin Franklin. This is understandable, he was incredible. I recently read his biography. However, the claims were exaggerated. They claimed his soul never left Philadelphia. Well I think he enjoyed London and Paris and seriously considered settling down in both.
We rode on back to our friends in New Jersey.

6 Jan - shopping for tonight's meal, catching up with emails, and drafting this post.

Washington 2 Jan - 4 Jan

2 Jan - we went to Washington by Chinatown bus. Like in SE Asia, rival bus companies fought over us with promises about being just about to go, but the bus didn't leave until it was full.
I was less impressed with the cordination of bus, metro and rail in Washington. They have a through ticketing system, but neither the metro or rail could or would provide information on bus connections. At Union Station, the information desk handed us over to Travellers Aid. Travellers aid told us to catch a taxi to our hotel and investigate bus options once we were there.
Once we got to the hotel, we were able to rely on their free shuttle bus.

3 Jan - we visited Capital House, including sitting in the gallery of the House of Representatives, though it was too early for anything to be happening. The Senate wasn't even open at that time (12:00).
We then visited the US Botanic Garden.
We walked round the outside of the the White House. There was a protester outside. I gather from her website, that she has been there since 1981. She is protesting nuclear weapons and genocide weapons. I wish her all the best.
We moved on to the Vietnam memorials. Lan was not impressed by the memorial, but then it didn't mean a great deal to her either. She bears no malice against the soldiers, who described as invaders of South Vietnam by her government. Having been on the receiving end of B52s she feels more for the VN casualties. I asked Lan to complete the "Women in Vietnam" memorial.
Abraham Lincoln was covered in scaffolding.
Then we made the long walk across the Potomac to Arlington Cemetry and JFK's grave. Kennedy was the one historic name that meant anything to Lan on this visit to the US. Washington, Jefferson, Martin Luther King are not people she has heard of. The large but austere grave for JFK, Jacky and two of their infant children did touch her.

4 Jan - we visited the Bureau of Engraving & Printing to see dollars being printed.
Then we visited:
the American History Museum;
the Natural History Museum;
the 'Castle' (the first Smithsonian building);
the Freer Gallery; and
the African Art Museum.
All of these were very impressive with many beautiful exhibits, but my favourite is pictured here. From the exhibit on presidents in the American History Museum, is a filing cabinet badly damaged by a break in by Nixon's 'Plumbers' seeking the psychiatric records of Daniel Elsberg who had leaked Pentagon Papers revealing damaging facts about the American-Vietnam War. It was supposed to be a covert operation to gain information to discredit Elsberg, but was the first of a number of ham-fisted operations by Cuban exiles wanted to overthrow Castro rather than do Nixon's dirty work.

Follow this link for more of my Washington photos.

New Jersey & New York 26 Dec - 1 Jan

I am slowly adding photos to this posting, so do return to see more.

26 Dec - We had a late celebration of Christmas, to include Will, Penny and Laurence in the festivities. (See previous post for Christmas Eve & Christmas Day.)

27 Dec - we took a trip into New York. We walked uptown from Penn Station:
starting at Macy's where Lan bought me several excellent cotton shirts;
past the Empire State Building (the huge queue round the block deterred us from going to the top);
we admired the New York Public Library;
the Chrysler Tower lobby;
we ate at the food court of the Grand Central Terminal;
we dropped into St Barnabus who have a very impressive bookshop in the porch;
St Patrick's Cathedral was less commercial but full of tourists;
we watched the skaters at the Rockerfeller Center and later at Central Park too;
Lan crashed out in the massage chairs at a gadget shop;
before we finished the day at Central Park and a stroll back to the station.

28 December - another day trip to New York. This time we went downtown, mainly looking at shops, including:

a market in Union Square;
Little Italy; and
Chinatown.
We then walked further downtown, under Brooklyn Bridge on the way to South Street Seaport to see tall ships and then crosstown to Ground Zero. There was a very solemn atmosphere amongst the onlookers of this tragic site.
We walked back through Chinatown and Little Italy. Lan was looking for a Nail Supply shop, so I suggested she asked at the next Nail Shop. The Chinese staff were helpful in giving us directions to a shop on Broome St.
We found the Nail Supplier, run by a Vietnamese family. While Lan was stocking up on supplies for her Nail business, she mentioned to the shopkeeper, Jenny, that we were planning to spend a few days in NY but hadn't found a suitable hotel. Jenny recommended a hotel two doors down. Not only that, she shut up shop and came with us to negotiate a cheap rate for us. So we booked ourselves a room for two days later.
After a meal at the Wholefood deli cafe, we took a taxi back to the station.


29 Dec - In the morning I went to Princeton with the parents to see Princeton University art gallery. In the afternoon Lan shopped and cooked for the household.

30 Dec we set off for the hotel in New York (SoHotel, 351 Broome St, on the corner with The Bowery). It was well placed, on the edge of Chinatown and Little Italy and close to a delicious Vietnamese sandwich shop, Banh Mi So Mot. We got friendly with the owner who was give us some useful advice. When going to Washington don't use the expensive train or Greyhound bus, but the Chinatown buses.

31 Dec - We walked through Chinatown to the Battery and then caught the Staten Island Ferry which gave us great views of the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and NY.

We walked back amaking a slight detou to the Brooklyn Bridge. In the evening I insisted we go to Times Square to the largest New Year's party in the world. However, it was cordoned off from 6.30pm so we could only walk around the edges. In the end, we saw the New Year in back at the hotel.

1 Jan 2006 - we went to the Natural History Museum, which occupied most of the day.

Follow these links for more of my New York photos or photos of Lan in New York.