Ready to go...

A piece of work required for my BHA Funeral Celebrant training is finished, so I can rest easy. 

We've decided to do it the hard way (the cheaper way) and travel into Manhattan by train.  The only time I went via JFK before the taxi took an age getting through Queens (that's the Borough, I mean) - it must have been over an hour.  At least the train doesn't have to compete with traffic.  We emerge at 42nd just outside Grand Central, which is as good first view of the Big Apple at street level as you could want.  And Bonnie will get her first glimpse of the Chrysler Building when she emerges from the subway.

Then it's a short (3 block) walk up to the hotel on 45th & Madison.

Remarkably, Bonnie has finished packing already and weighed her bags, and we've done the on-line check-in. So now I'm the one holding things up - just a few items to through in a bag and sufficient books to keep me occupied on the flight.  Landesman's "Skepticism: The Central Issues" is keeping my interest at the moment.

Dear old Laddie is off for a holiday of his own with Auntie Helen where he gets somewhat spoiled.  Well, spoiled enough that he sits at the door and waits to go in and doesn't come to see me off when I leave.  He's just been for his annual bath and groom, so he's flashier and smoother than usual.

Even I am getting quite excited now - I really love New York, and given my choice of anywhere in the world to live, the Upper West Side would be my first choice (with a holiday home in Jamaica!)