Panthers, Pythons and Pirates

Hi All,


I write to you from Buenos Aires.  I just arrived here tonight back into the shock of winter - it's 5 degrees here tonight, and after a week in Florida and NY for that matter where the temp isn't getting below 22 degrees at night, it is a shock!


First on the agenda, is the answer to the mystery.  A big thank you to uncle Harry and uncle Chris on solving the little critter mystery - it is a Groundhog, otherwise known as a Woodchuck, otherwise known as a marmot, and finally otherwise known as a Land Beaver (so I wasn't too far off).  I saw a whole family of the little critters on a walk with Kelly.


So, onto Kelly's visit.  She came in for a very quick visit, Sunday to Wednesday, but we managed a very busy few days.  Monday was filled with shopping, and Tuesday too - you think I'm a shopaholic, I'm nothing compared with Kell! Monday night we went to a restaurant called La Esquina.  You enter a place that looks like an old fashioned diner and through a secret door, down some very dark stairs you arrive in a small, but very trendy Mexican restaurant. 

It was 'shared plate' style and like suckers we ordered way too much on the recommendation of the waitress - though the food rocked, particularly the corn (my fave vegetable and the best I've ever tasted!).  Here's Kel chowing down on hers.

  Seating, like with many NYC restaurants, is "cosy" and coincidentally we sat next to a couple of Aussie girls.  Also in the restaurant that night was Joe Jonas (of the Jonas brothers).  Although I didn't get a photo with him, I was the photographer of this shot of Fiona (blonde, who could very easily be mistaken as a relative of Kelly) and the other one, whose name I can't remember (how terrible of me!).

So besides shopping, we also walked and walked and walked.  We visited Eataly (Italian Deli / Market)...

....held birds in Bryant Park....

...saw people dealing with heat by sleeping on park benches...

... cooled off by the fountain in Madison Square....

....battled to get a taxi....

... enjoyed cocktails in SoHo

Tuesday night we went to Buddakhan restaurant.  This is the restaurant that Carrie and Big (Sex in the City) had their rehearsal dinner at in the first movie.  Again, another very trendy place in Meat Packing District, with sharing cuisine.  This time Kell and I were more wise and would not let the waiter influence us to order too much (much to his annoyance). 

Wednesday – July 4^th – saw Kelly leave New Jersey for Texas, and me with a day that should have been recovery.  I ended up walking 38,000 steps that day – for those of you who wear a pedometer you know that’s insane…. I did it by going for an hour long walk and then playing tennis, by myself, for an hour – in 37 degree heat – and then I walked the 16km round trip to Hoboken to watch the fireworks.  You could see the fireworks from my end of town but it would be looking down the river, whereas from where my friend Teena’s apartment is, we had front on view.  I doubt there were many places with a better view.  After the fizzle that were the NYC NYE fireworks that mum and I saw from the booze cruise, I was extremely impressed with this effort.  Here are some of my fave shots of the fireworks.

... and me sweating like crazy whilst watching them!  It was over 30 at 9pm.

So, back to work for two days then it was the weekend again.  I saw another two movies that week, and I only mention it because they were so awesome – the first was Ted.  Definitely not one for the little ones (it is very  important that I mention this given I suggested once upon a time that Tropic Thunder was not so bad for an 8 year old – Sylvana has never forgiven me, but her son Christopher loves me for it!).  It was extremely funny and more extremely inappropriate – think a mix of Family Guy and Wilfred.  I also saw Savages, this just came out in the States and is an Oliver Stone movie.  It involves a Mexican Drug Cartel, a bizarre love triangle and a really great ending.  This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time and I highly recommend it.

Sunday I set off to the Florida Keys – every time I say that I can’t help but sing Kokomo…  This is where the title comes in.  My driver from the airport to the resort (1 ½ hours) was very informative.  To get to the Keys (as the locals refer to it) you need to go past the Everglades and through true swamp land.  Not only are there Aligators in the swamp land, but Panthers and Pythons as well.  They recently built a fence to keep the panthers off the road.  I sure wouldn’t have liked the job to build that – you’d hope it came with some pretty good danger pay!  Down past the swamp and we came to the small town, creatively name Taverner, after the many Taverns that once upon were in the town.  Why so many Taverns I hear you ask?  Well, Taverner was founded by Pirates (there are many a Jolly Roger flag in town).  Taverner is very close to Key Largo (yes, from Kokomo chorus) where there is the most highly dived reef in the US, so Pirates being the opportunists they are settled themselves close by so they could pounce on the many ships that found themselves wrecked on the reef. 

So the week in the Keys was very busy from a work perspective, but they did put on some lovely dinners.  Here is me with a group of the ladies from across the Region (from left - me, Maggie, Lula, Anto, Emilia and Clara).

Work aside, I was able to enjoy a day to myself yesterday as it was easier to travel straight to Argentina from Miami rather than going home first.  Yesterday I kayaked in the sea, swam, read by the pool, slept by the pool (unintentionally), snorkeled and finished the day off with a delicious massage!  It was great - it reminded me so much of being in Thailand with Mum and Nicole (such great memories).   This shot is from the kayak – I managed to paddle out a bit further than I planned and the wind was so crazy yesterday, turning around proved to be somewhat of a challenge (don’t worry though, the water doesn’t get deeper than 3 foot for over a mile). 

Unfortunately, I roasted myself a bit too much and have some pretty severe sunburn on the front of my legs – let’s just say my lily white pegs hadn’t seen the light of day for a long, long time!

Well, it's now time for me to ship myself off to bed ready for another big week!  Finally, before signing off I want to wish a huge happy birthday to Natalie who turned the big 3-OH this week!  I hope you had a ball Nat.

Ciao!

Michele