.

Saturday, June 24, 2006

Day 3 - Hangover number One!

This morning we all managed to sleep in and managed to surface at about 11 or 12. We got home after 4 last night and were all a little worse for wear. So much for taking it easy in New York, but you can honestly feel the energy in this city and it's contagious!

After going for a quality burger breakfast (see below) we went to meet a friend of a friend in a quiet little sports bar up town to watch some 'Soccer'. Big shouts go out to Mike Deedigan, Paul and friends as they made us feel very welcome. It was good to catch up with someone who had been in the city for a while to get a flavour of where was good to go and what we definetly had to see before leaving. Mike sends a big hi to JP. You know who you are!

To take it easy on our poor little heads, and since it was raining cats and dogs outside (typical eh!) we decided to pay a visit to the American Natural History Museum. It's a very large buidling and holds some of the best dinosaur and modern mammal records in the world. The dino bones were very impressive...

The aftermath of Shad's burger breakfast

Shad stalking some (already dead) Impala

A 20 foot wide stone coin - Wouldn't like to humf that bad boy about in my pocket

One impressive set of dentures. The dentists in New York are great!

I wet myself at this point (not a lot of people know that)

Gerard hasn't eaten since we got to the states

Tourists were also well represented in the gallery

And I thought I was horny (hee hee)

Our dear friend Bobby Ramjakoulibing

After a day of fun, lots more walking and more pouring rain we headed out to a nearby bar to really cure that hangover... by drinking more pints!

"Can you handle more pints?"

"Hmmmmm... of course we can!"

Friday, June 23, 2006

Day 2 continued - Piiintttttsssss!!!

After a tip off from an Irish friend we headed out for a night on the tiles New York style. Our taxi dropped us off in our 'destination' which left us a little worried... All the bars in the area seemed to have more than their fair share of 'open minded individuals' with rainbow flags in every window!! So, we quickly made our exit and headed to Off the Wagon for a wild night of drinking.

The lads all pollished up in Times Square

Glorious Stella Artois

Shad communicates with a local

And quickly mesmorizes her with 'The Routine'

Ozfest gains a new fan - Hey Julia

Day 2 - New York, New York

So we arrived safely in JFK International, New York and checked into our rather swish hotel in downtown manhattan. This place rocks! The hotel is in a central location, near to everything we need and only two blocks away from the Empire State Building, which was our first port of call...

The Empire State Building as seen on stained glass in the entrance hall

Taking a look from the top...

Manhattan... absolutely stunning

The boys at the top

Ok... who called the cops!?

"God, you never told me the Scots were in town!"

On the whole the Empire State Buiding was pretty impressive. The whole building is oozing of Art Deco (what the hell is that I hear you say) - basically lots of straight lines! The view is by far the most impressive feature with views all over Manhattan. You could hear the city buzzing far below us.

Next we took a quiet stroll down towards central park, by lots of very expensive clothing and jewellery stores. We came across a large crowd and a stage and were quickly whisked inside to join a whole load of people in the filming of a Phil Collins concert for Good Morning America... two days in and we're already on TV!!!

The concert was due to the launch of the Tarzan musical downtown.

The TV presenter getting the crowd worked up!

As you can see we got pretty close!

Macy Gray even did backing vocals*

"I love you Phil"

This guy was loving it!!

"Hi Mom, Hi Dad"

Phew, what a start to the day eh... what next. Pints? Well, maybe after a little stroll through Central Park. There's bound to be loads of bars down there. Well, after about two hours of walking in the baking heat through this enormous park we gave up!! It was nice tho.

View from the park

Central Park in the baking sun

And finally we got some pints!

*That's not Macy Gray!

Thursday, June 22, 2006

Day 1 - Goodbye Glasgow

Day one of our adventure was an emotional one.. with (wait for it) lots of pints...

Shad getting breakfast in at the airport

Look... I can see lots of pubs from up here (said he)

Shad having lunch en route to New York

Thursday, June 15, 2006

The last day of work... Lets get steemin!

It's Thursday the 15th and we're all finishing our jobs (woo hoo!!). So naturally it's time to go to the pub to get totally steemin! Here are some shots before the carnage...

Shad tucks into one HUGE pint!

Dan gets excited again...

That pint was goooooood!

Yes senior it was

"I'm gonna miss you Kev"

Monday, June 12, 2006

The main event! Leaving party at Behind the Wall

Finally the day of our leaving party arrived. We're all pretty excited about going now, not long to go! I'd just like to say a huge thanks to all who came. There must have been about 100 of you on the night which we were pretty blown away by.

Sorry if you're not in any of the photos below, there was a lot of socialising (drinking) to be done on the night.

Shouts out to Virgin Megastores, Arnold Clarke, Redeem plc, the stirling posse and of course the Denny crew!

Click on the thumnails below for enlarged images...