New York, NY

I went to New York City for a workshop with the agency that I hope to volunteer with: ICEHA (International Centre for Equal Healthcare Access). For those of you who do not know, I am hoping to volunteer in Africa this year with a healthcare professional mentoring program that assists with AIDS education/treatment. I was introduced to this program by a colleague who also spoke at this workshop.
Martin addressing the workshop group

This workshop was a prerequisite prior to the next step of pairing me up with a country/program match.

I arrived in New York City for the third time in my life. I was fortunate to find a downtown reasonable-priced hotel....with the caveat that I share a bathroom with the other hotel guests. This hotel had character! It was like a neglected grand dame sitting among a party of social inferiors. After I checked in I was happy to find an old-fashioned elevator equipped with a metal sliding door, and, what I thought was a doorman. An elderly man was in the elevator when it arrived at my floor. Right away he said "Welcome to Hotel 31" and proceeded to grab my suitcase and asked for my roomkey. As we rode the elevator up I took a good look at him. He was wearing a pair of worn slippers and an old wool vest. Now, I know I may be Canadian, but I wasn't born yesterday. As he showed me my closet-sized room and pointed to the bathroom down the hall, it became apparent that he was a resident of this building looking for a little extra cash...my inauguration to NYC began.

Hotel Elevator

My hotel was in walking distance to so many attractions. Every morning and night I would walk past the Empire State Building.

I discovered the way to avoid lineups was to do all the touristy things late at night. Below is the lineup to go up the Empire State building at 10:30pm.

And this is the view from up top (with me gripping the side of the building as I point and shoot the camera in a random fashion).

I LOVED New York City at nighttime (and hated its dismal, dirty appearance in the daytime). I wandered through Broadway and Times Square on a Friday night and this city was ALIVE!

However, it was annoying to see an army recruitment station set up right in the middle of Times Square (desperate times means desperate measures)

As I meandered around the city I noticed some neat items such as this elevator parking lot...

......this underground conveyer belt (underground shipping area??)

....this gold-leafed building ediface.

.....the sheer number of Orthodox Jews.

....the BLADE RUNNER style subway plasma TV screen.

.....plasma TV screens inside every Taxi Cab.

Overall I had a great experience and I'd love to return again someday as I barely scratched the surface.

Ripley's Believe It Or Not!

I will let you in on a little secret about me. I LOVE Ripley's "Believe it or Not" cartoons. I love his strange bits of trivia and I especially love his museums. So, I HAD to go to the Ripley's museum in NY.

Leroy (Robert) Ripley was an artist and explorer born in 1890. He travelled the world seeking bizzare and unusual items to put into his international cartoon.

You tend to see the same stuff in every museum....but I still like the old classics. There are his shrunken head collections from South America. I found this one to be interesting because it is negroid and therefore was a poor African slave who had been unwillingly brought to that continent and then had the further misfortune of being beheaded by Indian natives.

Of course you must see the coiled-neck women and their X-rays which reveal that the "stretched" necks are only an illusion. It is the clavicle bone and ribs which have been forced in a downward position which gives the appearance of an elongated neck.

Of course no exhibit would be complete without the African exhibits of self-mutilation with the lip and ear pearcing. Of course, now it popular to see middle-aged women with tattoos and piercings which only goes to show that what is old is new again!

My Home Cooking

I have been trying to improve my home cooking now that my mentor, Kelly Peckham, is back in town. Tonight I tried to may homemade cookies...all on my own. The recipe stated to freeze the cookied and to eat directly from the freezer.

Dylan took one bite and out popped a tooth (which had not been loose prior to this event). I give up!

Matt's Visit to Toronto

Matt came to visit us for 5 days over the new year. We had a fun family ski day.
The boys took in a MARLIES hockey game.

We had several rousing games of Laserquest.

Over the holidays we rented both Star Wars trilogy DVD sets (approximately 14 hours of Star Wars viewing). As a result, we have created a new Star Wars GEEK --- Dylan. Matt was very patient while playing the Wii Lego Star Wars game over and over and over with Dylan.

New Years Eve

I was amazed to find a nurse willing to work my New Year's Eve shift and so I found myself available for (2) parties in our neighbourhood. We had the added bonus of picking up Matthew from the airport who arrived to spend one week with us.

Our hosts Bal and Sean provided entertainment until the Midnight countdown.

Afterwards, Dylan and I went to bed while Andrew and Matt left for party number 2 at Brad and Julie's house.

Their hosts just had a baby 4 weeks ago! However, they are committed to hosting the New Year celebration on an annual basis.
Brad and Julie
Andrew and Matt danced and sang until 4:00am!

Two Peas in a Pod I leave him alone for one minute.........
Belting out the Blues