Monday, April 5, 2010

Got a Yarn in Ye?

Sadly, there is little to report on the writing front. At least not writing by me. My mum cooked Easter supper for us on Saturday and we returned home on Sunday. I spent a bit of time wandering through a junk yard, wrecked autos mostly, that friends of our owns 'round the bay. It was a bit of research to accompany a short story idea that's been in my head for a few weeks.

I think first, though, I will have to come up with a suitable yarn to submit to the lovely Laurita Miller over at Brain Droppings. She announced Saturday that all can now submit to her first "Brain Droppings Writers and Readers Contest". The gist of it is that she is looking for 500 word max. stories with an ocean-side theme. I'm putting aside the junk-yard thing to dwell on the sea-side thing for a spell. I have some notes in my 'idea file' that might be appropriate for this event. You can link to Laurita's blog here for all the information. I know there's a few of you who comment here regularly with no shortage of things to say.
500 words...phfft...not a problem for you! And you know how you are!

I'll attach a few photos of the Manhattan leg of our holiday. For those of you on Facebook and so bloody bored that you have nothing better to do than look at Al's holiday pics, I will work on putting more photos of New York and the cruise in general on my Facebook page. As I noted a couple of weeks ago, this three day part of the vacation was excellent and I would go back to New York in a heart beat. If only I had more time...and money.


This was the view from our hotel (13 floor, Red Roof Inn) looking down at cisterns.

Sean and Myself in front of the decommissioned USS Intrepid, now a floating museum.

A cool billboard.

Brooklyn Bridge, taken from the South Street Seaport.

Flat Iron Building from top of double decker bus (tour).

Sean hanging with the cops in Times Square.

Empire State Building

Headstone in St. Paul's churchyard. Notice skeleton head at top. Dated 1743.

Statue of Liberty as taken from the cruise ship.

17 comments:

Aaron Polson said...

Beautiful photos. I'm jealous of the trip...such fodder for fertile imaginations, I'm sure.

Cathy Olliffe-Webster said...

Me too, Aaron.
What a cutie your son is, hangin' with the coppers.

Danielle Birch said...

Love the headstone.

Fox Lee said...

I love the Dalai Llama billboard!

Alan W. Davidson said...

Aaron- I'm hoping that it's fodder for years to come as we can't afford another holiday until about 2015...

Cathy- Thanks, I won't tell him you said that.

Danielle- I thought you might like it.

Natalie- I liked the Dalai Llama billboard as well. FYI, our hotel was in the 2 block stretch known as 'Koreatown'. Sadly, we didn't eat in any of the restaurants there.

Kat said...

Wow. What fun! Thanks for sharing your pics, Alan. I'm so jealous! Always wanted to see Lady Liberty...

Laura Eno said...

Thanks for sharing more photos! Times Square looks much cleaner than the way I last remember it...

Laurita said...

Great pics! Manhattan is the kind of place you see through your camera lens. So much to capture. I really like the first one, and the one of you and your boy.

Thanks for spreading the word. :)

Cate Gardner said...

I love the Flatiron Building - I have an artsy photo up of it on my office wall.

Katey said...

New York really is a picturesque city in a lot of ways. Love the place. Not sure I could live there without going batty, but perfect for holidays and perhaps undergrads. Great photos!

DEZMOND said...

What a positively romantic view from your hotel room :PPP

Alan W. Davidson said...

Kat- I'm sure that you'll get there one day.

Laura- I have nothing to compare to, but I have heard others say they have really cleaned up their act since 2001.

Laurita- You're welcome, I hope you get a good selection of stories. There were so many images in Manhattan to take in. I'm sure we'll get back some day.

Cate- It sort of lends itself to "Artsy" if pictured from the right angle. I understand it has quite a history to it.

Katey- I'm thinking exactly the same thing about it being a great place to visit but...

I've always felt the same way about Toronto. Big cities are fun in small doses.

Dez- That was only a couple of cisterns, in the distance there were at least 15 more we could see on roofs of other buildings. Sigh, more romance...

Karen from Mentor said...

Sean has such a manly stance. He certainly wouldn't go over in a gale.

Did you teach him that?

[asks a totally irrelevant thing since others already said what she would have about the photos.....]

Oh and I already entered Laurita's contest but I have NO HOPE of winning since I might have, kind of, oh hell....I did...completely disrespect the ocean with my story.
:0)

Michael Solender said...

Looks like you had a great holiday. NYC is unlike anywhere on the planet, great you could do it up with your son.

BlackLOG said...

A big fan of the Flat Iron building my favourite in New York, along with the Chrysler building. great shot with the cops the ones in the UK have gone all camera shy and get a bit sniffy if you try and take pictures of them.....

kathryn said...

Lovely photos! I knew what each one was until you got to St. Paul's...then you stumped me. Aren't New Yorkers just the friendliest bunch? (Wink, wink)

Alan W. Davidson said...

Karen, I've tried to teach the boy all of my better moves. Except he drools a lot. I think that's from my wife's side of the family...

Michael, If only I could bottle some of that place's atmosphere and bring it back here.

BlackLOG, When our son was a baby we went back to the UK on a visit and our car got a flat outside of Middlesborough. I called the police on a 'call box' and two constables were there in minutes and actually changed the tire for us. Service from the Durham Police like I've never seen anywhere else. Then again, I didn't try to take there photo while they were changing the tire...

Kathryn, I said nice things about NYC specifically because I knew you'd be reading it of course! [winks back...]