New York was awesome.  I went with Caleb after secretly watching for good deals and booking them when one came up.  Just over £500 included flights and accommodation for 7 days, and the living costs of food, travel, and activities mounted to all of 70p or something, thanks to the US dollar currently exchanging to the value of 3 used staples and a bit of belly button fluff (that's fluff sterling of course).  Seriously, it's the lowest the dollar has ever been to the pound in 26 years :-o  So if you're ever going to go, now is a great time.  The costs of eating out and such are lower their to begin with, but with such a favourable exchange you'd actually find it a challenge to go over budget (and oh how we tried).

So what did we do?  Well - all the things you have to - Empire state, Statue of Liberty, Central Park, Times Square, Matt's Bar & Grill... some of which I'd done before, but it was nice to do again.  What I didn't do last time was the UN Tour, and I very much recommend it.  They have a free area where they put on exhibitions and such (right now they seem largely occupied with 'water'), and then a guided tour for the cost of $14.  It's a great tour, the highest standard of professional guide and very inspirational subject matter.  You ecven get to sit in that big hall with all the chairs and translation ear piece beedoopers for all the nations.  Brilliant.  We didn't get to do the Intrepid which is a shame - it's something I missed last time too and we went looking for it specially, but it seems to have gone somewhere right now (this is the problem with making museums out of working vehicles I suppose)... maybe they're getting really short of air craft carriers in the gulf or something.

The accommodation was very basic but clean and convenient enough.  The highlight of the room would be the TV channels.  Basic Public US TV, which is mainly funded by donation and government ads - there's one channel in NY which just shows live CCTV from around the city while looping through public announcements like, 'If you have bulk items to dispose of, just put it out beside you regular trash can on collection day.  Remember, no more than 4 items at a time, so you may need to hold on to some items for another week.  If the item is over 40% metal, please call recycling services instead of regular disposal, and if the item contains CFC gas you'll need to arrange a council engineer to come over and drain it before you can throw it out.  Call 411 if you have any questions'.  It's a brilliant channel - I think CCTV and public information should be piped out by the local councils in the UK too - it's better than Big Brother.

Spending a day in NY can be easily thought of as travelling from a starting coffee shop, to the next, and the next, and so on, allowing yourself brief stops in between to see 'things of interest'.  Coffee shops are the units of time that break the day if you will, and it's not uncommon to drink several thousand cups of deliciously addictive dark smooth liquid in a 12 hour period.  The problem with this only presents itself when you realise your bladder will explode if you fail to find a restroom in next 5 minutes.  It is at this point you realise... there are no rest rooms.  No public conveniences at all, and even in stores you're fortunate to find even one, where a clientèle of a thousand people are present and also equally in need.  On the first day, we noted people coming into Starbucks and using the restrooms even though they didn't purchase anything and thought how rude they were, causing a queue in the shop in fact so paying customers had to wait in line as well.  By the third day, we had accepted the NY way of thinking, that as you buy so very much from coffee shops on a daily basis, you were entitled to use the bathrooms when you then came to need it.  Makes sense really.  even in Starbucks though, you'll find a single capacity restroom for men and women to use, or where separated genders are suggested, the areas are not effectively screened from the joining corridor and tend to be quite cozey should they provide for more than one person.
The UN incidentally, is international territory, and you feel the transition as you step over the line.  You're no longer in the US - and normal customs fill your being.  You choose tea over coffee, and the cafe feels less high strung.  You go to the bathroom and discover a dozen urinals adequately spaced and sufficiently partitioned.  Ah yes - civilisation.

Let's see... Sights... CCTV... Coffee.... Toilets.... I think that's about it.  There's the rudeness of NY'ers, and the OTT Security forces in omnipresent effect over the city.  The 'Hi there and how are you?' mask all service people use which is pretty funny.  It's pretty much a city that lives up to its stereotypes.

Anyway, I'm home now - woohoo!  Again, I really recommend if you have about £700 you could in any way eek out of your finances at all, now is a great time to go before the pound starts dropping or the dollar starts climbing (ok... prolly not the latter but you never know)  Go now!  And as for me... this might become an annual trip :) Oh right... the environment thing... well... hmm.. we'll see.
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Phil

Start spreading the news, I'm leaving today... I wanna be a part of it – New York New York!

Sorry this is a little bit short notice everyone, and sorry I haven't had time to let anyone know individually – I'm just hoping people who notice I've disappeared will come here for clues and read this :)

I'm going to NY with Caleb for a spontaneous (as in... booked it last night) adventure. 8 days in Manhattan, with no sane explanation that I can offer. Only this – We're living the dream.

Be good! Have fun! Read all about it when I get back! :-D
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Phil

You might think  I'm being a lazy blogger, having made 2 entries in a row that simply point to other blogs.  I know - it's bad, it's bad - but I'm working on a  rather large post you see and I'm sure as you look on its length in horror when it finally makes it up here, you'll feel I've done my blogging duty and then some.

For now, there's an interesting theme going on in my life, and that would be the theme of Prayer.  For starters, I've been doing some stuff with 24-7SA Prayer, which is very much a persistent reminder of your own prayer life and thoughts on prayer.  This was compounded at life group (he casually says as if he's been going for more then 2 weeks), an informal meeting of 5 or 6 people from a church to talk about how they're doing and look at Christian things), the subject of which was meditation, very much an act of prayer. 

Then Carlos posted an article on Prayer highlighting an old question with regards to the purpose of prayer, which my subject hungry brain welcomed as a tray of tasty nibbles, followed by the post of another friend, Mr Healey, on again, the subject of prayer.

I love it when it all links. :)  I dunno how many people reading this care about prayer at all or have any opinions, but if it floats your boat you might find these pieces stimulating to mull over and think about in context of your own experience of God.
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Phil

Carlos has made a little blog post plugging the show and I'm just echoing the recommendation to ya'll.  If you want more info on the show then go look at his post (http://carlonline.blogspot.com/2007/10/studio-60-on-sunset-strip.html).
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Phil

In case anyone at all has missed it, every should by The Orange Box.  It's 5 awesome titles from Valve, who are arguably the finest game engineers of all time (he says while on a HL2 high).

Portal is an amasing new concept that will challenge your brain and test your reflexes - well worth the cost of the orange box by itself.  I've been playing it for the last 2 days and my brain is on melt down.  You have little puzzles to complete - placing weights on buttons and turning on power sources and such, while hindered by insurmountable obstacles.  Your only tool is the portal gun, which allows you to open a hole on the wall, ceiling, or floor that isn't specially tiled.  Then you can place a second portal at any other point, and anything that goes through one portal will come out the other.  The complicated bit comes from gravity changes and slinging through multiple portals.    Like if you place a portal on the wall, and one on the floor, then jump into the one in the floor - you'll drop, feet first, out of a sideways portal and suddenly gravity changes direction for you.  Much fun in putting two portals on the floor - jumping one and you fly upside down up from the other... you get the idea.

It's for people for whom puzzle solving in 3D isn't tough enough - they need to add portalling to really screw up the rules.  All this and a surreal but very very funny 'plot line' going on around you - extremely well produced game.  It's exactly the kind of quality and innovation that gives Valve it's reputation.

     

You also get Half Life 2.  If you haven't played HL1... don't worry so much, though it's a complicated story so it wouldn't hurt to find a copy and run it through, or read up online or something.  To be honest, I never remembered the plot of the first one and I found the second enjoyable all the same. 
HL2 is Valve showing off their very very swish engine, Source, at it's most plot rich cinematic ultra realistic adventure style game.   It's actually a few years old now, but included in the Orange Box for those who missed it, and is still a more advanced game than most things that have come out since.

You are Dr Gordon Freeman, a scientist who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.  You sort of saved the world in the first game.. well... not really.... but you seemed to land a blow on the enemy and now the rebels look on you as a messiah of hope.  Since the end of HL1, you have been in a kind of stasis flux thing, and now some guy who seems to be using you as a pawn in an unknown plan, has placed you back into the world.  Over the time you've been gone, your name has been whispered from city to city and rumour of your deeds have grown and grown so far that even the mighty and evil Combine are convinced you are a great and powerful adversary.  In reality though - you aren't a great warrior or noble hero at all - you are just basically a scientist who managed to get into a cool suit, cos of the project he was working on, and found a weapon to fight back with when the invasion was all beginning.  You're really rather cluelessly taking on the bad guys only because they keep attacking you or causing grave danger to your life in some way... which they do because they think you're trying to stop them... which you do cos they're trying to kill you.  It's a pretty funny situation.
You start HL2 without the suit and weapons that made you so damn heroic in the first game and really feel quite vulnerable in the 1984 Orwellian atmosphere of City 17, trying to stay unrecognised by the all subjugating Combine forces.  The Combine are pretty damn scary when you're playing alone in a darkened room (I recommend that approach), but after a few hours of the game you'll be treasuring the levels they dominate as the ones you are least scared in.  Anyway - great game, packed with action, story, shooting, driving, explosives, puzzles, and so much more.  It really is an interactive film.

Also in the box - HL2 Episode 1.  This continues the story from HL2, and is more dominated by that 'I'm not a hero - I'm just running for my life' mentality that runs through the rest of the series.  You landed a massive blow to the Combine forces on earth, but you did it with a rather large explosion that is now going to kill everyone in the vicinity.  RUN AWAY!  RUN AWAY!

HL2: The Lost Coast.  This is just a 1 level 'show off' from Valve.  They're demonstrating how they've made their vastly superior to all game engine even more realistic for Episode 2.  Great if you're interested in the game from a design point of view, but a challenging little level too.

HL2: Episode 2.  The next instalment of the story, this one has only just come out this week and makes use of the even more cinematic engine.  Now you've disoriented Combine forces on earth, given the rebels a fighting chance, and somehow managed to survive... you've got a pretty high reputation to meet.  Episode 2 sees you picked up by the rebellion and helping them defend their endeavours as the fight to keep Earth from the Combines control for good is only just beginning.

     


And finally!  Team Fortress 2!  This is not related to HL2 or Portal at all - the look and feel is very different.  You play it online, and it's a team based first person shooter game, here each player picks a special type of team member to be, each with distinct roles and skills.  You usually play capture territory or intel games and is just a whole heap load of fun.  Very cartoony style and well balanced - Valve show they can make more than one franchise to their amasing quality standards.

     


The Orange Box!  Buy it now!

     

The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
The cake is a lie!
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Phil