“Of Bears, Bull and Beagles!”

Simon & Alison's Wedding

It's taken me a while, but I have finally added the photos of my brother, Simon's wedding to the Photo Albums...

Christmas 2004

This year my cousin Lore and her husband David were visiting Europe on vacation from Australia, and in honour of their visit Mum & Dad hosted an Evans family reunion Christmas. It was a big Shindig with all the Evans flying in from Dublin. It was the first time we had all been together since my wedding in 1999 and for some of us cousins it was the first time we got to meet our new cousin-in-laws!

See the pictures in our Christmas 2004 photo album.

"Near, Far, Wherever you are........"

Sod's Law says that whenever disaster strikes it will be when you have friends coming to stay.

The other weekend Jenny and her better half came up to NYC to visit. Expecting them around lunchtime Mark and I got up in the morning with a list of chores to do in preparation. The list went out the window when Mark walked out of the bedroom and into the living area to find water coming half way up his feet. Water was everywhere.

Father Time

Well Father Time just won't let up and 32 has caught up with me already! I have to say I had a great birthday this year and I am determined to make 32 my best year yet!

As usual I was spoilt with great company, lots of treats and some fantastic gifts. I must have been a very good girl last year ;) We celebrated no less than three times! The festivities started on Saturday 22nd with a gathering of friends at our home, for an evening of fun and games (literally). We feasted on Tapas and nibbles, washed down with lots of Sangria, then embarrassed ourselves playing Cranium till the early hours. Anyone who wishes to hear the gory details should send cheques or money orders to me and I will happily oblige!

Anyone for Tennis?

We had the opportunity to watch the singles semi-final and the doubles final of the Chase Championships, in Globix's luxury corporate suite at Madison Square Garden.

The top 16 singles players and top 8 doubles teams based on the Sanex WTA Tour Championships Points at the end of the year qualify for the annual $2,000,000 CHASE CHAMPIONSHIPS. The 2000 Championships were held at Madison Square Garden November 13-19.

Ground Zero by Nancy Rogers

Dear Family & Friends.....I hardly slept the night before in anticipation of what lay ahead for Bob and I beginning at 8am on Wed. Sept. 26...we would be spending the next twelve hours in the "frozen zone"...one half block from "Ground Zero"...let me clarify "frozen zone"...it refers to the area around the WTC site restricted to military, rescue workers and support volunteers involved in the recovery efforts...this of course includes Saint Paul's Chapel which sits across the street from the where the twin towers stood...we will be working with other volunteers assisting Father Lyndon Harris and other clergy from Trinity in offering our support to many of the most courageous men and women we could ever meet...St. Paul's has been set up in the most amazing and organized way...it has been converted into a rescue operations area...serving 2000 hot meals every 24 hour period...offering professional counselling, supplies donated from! all over our vast country which include everything from Visine to Timberland work boots (the hot spots at Ground Zero still exceed 1700 degrees and the workers have to replace their foot gear often)...the food is prepared by New York City's finest hotels and restaurants and is supervised through City Harvest, The Red Cross and the Salvation Army...it is then brought to St. Paul's and served by volunteers who work 12 hour shifts...

9/11

Well, what can I say, the last 7 weeks have been a complete nightmare, but despite that we do realise that we are very very lucky.  This account of what we experienced on September 11th has taken me a long time to be able to write.  I've tried many times, but have been emotionally unable to until now...

The day started out beautiful in New York; It was clear and sunny the sort of day that (normally) makes everyone feel good.  The first thing I remember was Mark saying good-bye as he left for work.  I was having a well deserved lie in after staying up late the previous night revising for my first exam.  A few minutes later he came rushing back into the apartment yelling "Vic, come quick the WTC is on fire!".  In my groggy, half awake state I moaned "What?" and he repeated his exclamation.  With this I jumped up threw on the nearest clothes and we ran down to the little balcony at the end of our floor to see what was happening.  We stood there and watched as the fire just got worse and worse.  We had no idea what had caused the explosion, so headed back to our apartment to turn on the news.

Movers from Hell

We were scheduled to move on Saturday March 31st with a little help from our friends, but our new building double booked the freight elevators, so the move was postponed until Tuesday April 3rd. As we were now moving in the week we had no help, so decided we should hire professional movers, and the building management agreed to cover 60% of the cost as compensation for the elevator mix up. We had the elevators booked from 9-11am for the move out and 12-2pm for the move in, so Mark and I packed everything up and the morning of the move were up early to make sure everything was ready to go, when the movers turned up at 9am.

Hitch number one was the movers didn't show up until 11.15am. It supposedly took them 3 hours to do a 30 minute journey! As you can imagine Mark and I were not very impressed, but kept our displeasure to ourselves for fear of upsetting them and having them start throwing our stuff around carelessly. Luckily we only had to share the elevator with one other move. Everything went well and the movers cracked on with loading the van and seemed to be careful and professional. We began to calm down.

Helicopters & Limosines

The Elliott's came for Christmas and on one of the days we all did a special treat for each other making one fantastic never to be repeated day.

The day started with my brother, Simon, hiring a helicopter to take us on an early morning flight over Manhattan. It was a beautifully clear (but cold) day, and we had fantastic views. We took some photos but some are less clear because they were taken through the cockpit window.

View the photos here.

Dad had booked us for a very fine lunch at renowned French restaurant La Grenouille  But after a helicopter ride over manhattan and knowing how prestigeous the restaurant was, on this particular day, a cab or the subway just wasn't going to cut it. So Mark and I added the finishing touch to the day by hiring a limosine to take us to lunch. The look of surprise on Mum's face when the limo turned up at the hotel was priceless!

It was a very special day, full of firsts for everyone and a pistachio souffle I will remember for as long as I live!