On Thursday 28th Sept, my university (the University of East Anglia) was having a pub reunion day. So in every city throughout the world where there were Alums, people arranged to get together. The New York one was very small, about 12 people as well as 2 development people from UEA, and was held upstairs in a Midtown Irish bar.
Now, I graduated in 1977, which as explained earlier isn't that long ago in my opinion, but everyone else had silly graduation dates like 2001 - there was even one that had 2007. Really, 2007? Anyway I digress (see earlier post). It was quite strange in that I remember a small almost intimate university with about 3,000 students but the current UEA is a very different beast, and realistically one much more suited for today. The University system has evolved into something much more like the current American system, with fees, league tables and competition for any and all students. There are many more universities now and as in the US there are good ones and less good ones.
UEA is in the top 10 of the league table, has about 13,000 fulltime students and has the biggest....., well I'm not sure what it has the biggest of because I stopped listening because someone bought me a drink. It has added a medical school, a business school, a pharmacy school, a nursing school, a law school and many more. It also has a large art collection and state of the art museum. Defintiely not the place I remember which had 5 schools covering the basics including CMP (Computing Studies, my school which still exists) a library, a sports complex and a bar. To be fair that was my world but there may have been more.
Anyway I was very pleased to have gone to the event. I am looking forward to next year's event and I expect the letters asking me for money to start at any time. The price of progress I suppose.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Chickens
There was part of my sister's visit that I forgot to mention. I don't know how I could have forgotten but... (see earliers posts).
It seems that as a team Jill and I are in the top 1% in New York City when it comes to chicken trivia.
Let me explain. On Saturday (or Sunday, whatever) mornings the local TV station runs a quiz which you watch on the TV and answer over the internet. You get points for correctness and speed of answer. This particular quiz was about chickens and we got 9 out of 10 correct and came in 20th out of almost 3,000 people taking part.
That's finger lickin' good!!!
It seems that as a team Jill and I are in the top 1% in New York City when it comes to chicken trivia.
Let me explain. On Saturday (or Sunday, whatever) mornings the local TV station runs a quiz which you watch on the TV and answer over the internet. You get points for correctness and speed of answer. This particular quiz was about chickens and we got 9 out of 10 correct and came in 20th out of almost 3,000 people taking part.
That's finger lickin' good!!!
Saturday, October 1, 2011
Been & Gone
Well, my sister has been and gone. A short trip, especially when she came from Australia, but a nice one nevertheless. It is funny how a visitor, no matter how welcome and accommodating, can throw you off schedule, which is my way of apologizing for the tardiness of this posting. It is also quite interesting that Friday seems a long time ago and the day seems an indistinct blur. Oh well life often seems like that to me.
The visit started with us picking her up from JFK on Thursday, her plane being about 3 hours late, bad enough at any time but when it finishes of a 24 hours flight from the other side of the world, no fun at all.
Friday was a quiet day for all (I think - see above) and in the evening my daughter and her boyfriend came over to see the visitor. After that they went to a french restaurant around the corner and we (sister, wife and me) went to the Meatball Shop, a place visited a couple of weeks ago. So we got to the restaurant at about 7:30 and had to wait about 20-25 minutes, not bad for such a fun place. The good news is that the food was as good as ever (in fact it may have been better as the specials were very much to my liking), the bad news is that it is really LOUD at that time of the evening. Now it turns out that old people and Australians like meatballs but don't like loud. So in the spirit of the blog take old people to the Meatball Shop before it gets loud.
Saturday was quite a normal day, grocery store, wave to the Statue of Liberty and then home. In the afternoon we went into town to show off the WTC (World Trade Center) saw the building, it's coming along. On the way back noticed a lot of police presence and later learned it was to do with the Wall Street demonstrations and in fact we were right behind the police van containing an arrestee who was all over the news. That evening we went to St Anselms (again) and we were waited upon by the same lady as the very first time and she remembered us and we her. It was a very touching moment. The food was great as always and the highlight of the evening was the table behind us ordering a 64oz steak.(almost 2kg for those metric among you). It looked like something Fred Flintstone might eat.
Sunday, we went to the Coffee Shop in Union Square for brunch (don't go there!!). Shopping was performed and reading was done by me (i try not to go shopping). In the evening we took Claire (and would have taken Seth but he wasn't felling well) to Eataly where we had a lovely meal at the Birreria paid for by my Mum (Claire's granny :-) ). Thanks Mum - we were very restrained.
Monday was Jill's big meeting day - dropped her into midtown and came home. She was quite pleased with it and believes that the funding for her next project took a major step forward.
Next day, Tuesday, she was on her way home. A short but very nice time was had by all. It was very nice to see her and catch up with her news. Always good to hear about Mum, Bob, Jessi (niece), Saffie (cat) and Bailey (dog). Hope to see you all soon.
The visit started with us picking her up from JFK on Thursday, her plane being about 3 hours late, bad enough at any time but when it finishes of a 24 hours flight from the other side of the world, no fun at all.
Friday was a quiet day for all (I think - see above) and in the evening my daughter and her boyfriend came over to see the visitor. After that they went to a french restaurant around the corner and we (sister, wife and me) went to the Meatball Shop, a place visited a couple of weeks ago. So we got to the restaurant at about 7:30 and had to wait about 20-25 minutes, not bad for such a fun place. The good news is that the food was as good as ever (in fact it may have been better as the specials were very much to my liking), the bad news is that it is really LOUD at that time of the evening. Now it turns out that old people and Australians like meatballs but don't like loud. So in the spirit of the blog take old people to the Meatball Shop before it gets loud.
Saturday was quite a normal day, grocery store, wave to the Statue of Liberty and then home. In the afternoon we went into town to show off the WTC (World Trade Center) saw the building, it's coming along. On the way back noticed a lot of police presence and later learned it was to do with the Wall Street demonstrations and in fact we were right behind the police van containing an arrestee who was all over the news. That evening we went to St Anselms (again) and we were waited upon by the same lady as the very first time and she remembered us and we her. It was a very touching moment. The food was great as always and the highlight of the evening was the table behind us ordering a 64oz steak.(almost 2kg for those metric among you). It looked like something Fred Flintstone might eat.
Sunday, we went to the Coffee Shop in Union Square for brunch (don't go there!!). Shopping was performed and reading was done by me (i try not to go shopping). In the evening we took Claire (and would have taken Seth but he wasn't felling well) to Eataly where we had a lovely meal at the Birreria paid for by my Mum (Claire's granny :-) ). Thanks Mum - we were very restrained.
Monday was Jill's big meeting day - dropped her into midtown and came home. She was quite pleased with it and believes that the funding for her next project took a major step forward.
Next day, Tuesday, she was on her way home. A short but very nice time was had by all. It was very nice to see her and catch up with her news. Always good to hear about Mum, Bob, Jessi (niece), Saffie (cat) and Bailey (dog). Hope to see you all soon.
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