h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For the first time in years, I am not going on holiday for Christmas. Several years in Pitlochry, one in Boston, four in Edinburgh, three in Maidstone, but this year there will be no family festive holiday- my grandma has now moved up to Warrington to be near the rest of us, so it'll be christmas at her house.

Which leaves me to seek alternative winter holiday arrangements. It's nice to get away at this time of year, and late next month I will be. Five nights in New York City, starting on the 27th Jan. I've only ever been to NYC in August and September previously (four Septembers and an August, between 2006 and 2010), but I fancied seeing it in winter, and this is my chance.

Having been so many times before, I'm on the look out for some new activities to mix in with the usual museums and bars. I do already have some plans for when I'm there. Staying in the Holiday Inn on 57th Street, I will definitely be going to Aimee Mann's gig at Carnegie Hall's Zankel Hall. http://www.carnegiehall.org/Event.aspx?id=4294979545

Also, it being winter, my normal new York staple sport of baseball is not in season. However, the basketball strike is off, and today I booked myself a ticket to the New York Knicks against the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden.

I also saw something interesting in the Times travel section recently about an "urban meadow" based on a disused elevated railway track in lower Manhattan, which I might the a look at: http://www.thehighline.org/

Bars that I may return to: Iggy's, Lower East Side. Bullmoose Saloon, Hell's Kitchen. Chevy's, Times Square.

I also have an acquaintance in Brooklyn who I have met up with the last few times I've been (once in a Cuban restaurant, once in Pianos nightclub in the LES, once in a bar called Union Hall in Park Slope, Brooklyn [a bar with two bocce alleys in it]), so I might meet up with her for a drink or meal somewhere as well.

I love it when a plan comes together.

I'm also probably heading to tallinn, Estonia for a long weekend sometime in March, London for the Olympics and possibly back to the US again in September (NYC again or New Orleans)

When I get fed up at work, I like to remind myself that this sort of stuff is what I'm working to pay for.

I bet that's far more motivating than sitting in the office daydreaming about the gas bill...

I guess so.