My birthday and my four year anniversary with John. We were up late after a late night last night but my sister Julie and son Aidan phoned to wish me a happy birthday. John made pancakes and we tuned into our favourite radio show the Rhythm Review. We had planned to have dinner at one of the Bay restaurants but it was a very hot and humid day and I developed a bad headache. I had to take a knockout pill so dinner was out! We watched some TV and went to bed early!
Sunday July 19th
Today we caught up on some chores and walked by the beach and then later we ate at Yiasou's, a Greek restaurant on the bay. We sat outside and had a delicious meal. Later it turned cooler so we had a walk by the water and watched the boats for a while before heading home in a beautiful sunset.
Later we watched TV. The health debate is dominating the news this week. There are 47 millions Americans with no health coverage. President Obama points out that this has a hidden cost to the taxpayer and if these people could have affordable coverage overall costs could be reduced. The Republicans are complaining that it would cost too much. It seems that there is a lot of wastage and over servicing and overcharging which should be investigated. This week John received a $500 bill for a test which his doctor recommended. He was not told that this test was not covered by his insurance. To me this seems very unjust. People should know what charges they will be liable for
July 20th Today was the first really wet day we've had so we decided to go to a movie. The funniest movie around right now is `The hangover' so we decided we needed a good laugh. The movie is about four friends who drive to Vegas two days before one of them Doug, is to be married. The next morning they wake up to find Doug missing, a tiger in their bathroom, a baby in the closet and other strange things. They have to try to piece together what happened and find Doug. Well worth seeing!
July 21st.
Today was warm and sunny again so we set off for Manhattan and wandered around Battery Park and Seaport. We found a cool new hat for John (see photo) and wandered around enjoying the street dancers and checking out the market stalls and shops. We ate some Delicious clam chowder and were planning to get pizza on the way home at Spumone Gardens but the queue was so long we had to forget it.
July 22nd
Most mornings this week we've watched the Tour de France live.France is 5 hours ahead of us here on the East Coast so it usually works out that we watch the last hour or two which is the most exciting. Many American are watching it this year because of 7 time winner Lance Armstrong competing. At present Lance is in overall third place so we are following his progress and becoming more familiar with some of the other competitors. We had been looking forward to seeing Gladys Knight and the O Jays at an open air concert at Coney Island but unfortunately the weather turned bad. There was a very heavy downpour. Last week we watched Robert Cray in the rain but it started well into the concert when we already had seats. We weren't even sure if the concert would go ahead so reluctantly stayed home and watched `American gangster'.
July 23rd
The weather changed for the better again today so we went down to Prospect Park to see the Holmes Brothers and Buckwheat Zydeco. I saw the Holmes brothers in Adelaide two years ago and thought they were great. They are a trio who sing amazing harmonies and their repertoire includes some great gospel, country, blues and R & B tunes. They did a great job of warming up the audience for Buckwheat Zydeco. It was the first Zydeco band I've ever seen live and now I want more! Buckwheat was incredible. He was backed by a six piece band with two hot guitar players, bass, drums, organ/washboard and trumpet. They worked their way through some well known and lesser known tunes, some originals including the title track from their new album `Lay your burden down' and some covers like `Walkin' to New Orleans' and `Hey good lookin'. They finished with `Peace love and happiness' and had the whole audience joining in and yelling for more but they had played for over one and a half hours so there were no encores. This band really made the audience feel good and this is why they are in huge demand for festivals and concerts. The sky turned cloudy and there was lightning during the concer but thankfully this time no rain! We met up with Ricky, John's friend, and after the concert we headed to a nearby bar for a drink before catching the subway home.
RWI
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