Negril, Jamaica

Last weekend Tracy and I escaped the cold of NYC and headed down to Negril, Jamaica. I'm not sure why but when I think of the Caribbean this place sounds about as exotic as it gets. It was a four hour flight to Montego Bay and then a hour and a half taxi to Negril. We were staying at a small B&B called Aqua Negril which we found on Trip Advisor. When we arrived I think we almost immediately concluded that we had found a small piece of paradise. The place is fully decked and located right on the beach on the best part of Negril. You walk out onto some grass and then you're straight on the beach and the crystal clear waters of the Caribbean. Other highlights of the place included a wicked spa on the upper deck and a beachfront bar that served the best pina colada's I'd ever had.


We spent three blissful days on the sand and generally chilling like you do on a beach holiday. The water was amazingly clear and clean and a security guard made sure nobody disturbed you on the beach. There is a constant stream of tourists and people trying to sell stuff so makes for some interesting people watching. Nothing better than getting freshly cooked lobster for lunch for a lazy eight dollars. 


We did go on one adventure up to the cliffs area to check out a BBQ place called 3Dives. Jamaicans are big on their jerk chicken and BBQs and I'm a massive fan. On Saturday I had lobster both for lunch and dinner. Tough. Our only other culinary trip was to try some chicken patties from a place called Sonia's. We were both pretty disappointed with these. Oh I should not forget the awesome breakfasts that Aqua brewed up each morning. Crab cakes to start the day was sensational. 


Another highlight occurred on Saturday night. There was a live reggae concert at a venue next to where we were staying. I'm not a huge fan of Reggae but don't mind it every now and then. Tracy and I pulled up a couch out the front of where we were staying and spent a couple of hours listening to the sounds of some guy called Tinga Stewart. It was one of those surreal moments where I thought how random it was to end up in the mothership of reggae listening to it live on the beach.


Negril in general was an interesting place and I'm sure not for everyone. It's loud and the constant wafts of pot are enough to give you almost constant munchies. It's full of overweight, obnoxious tourists and there are people constantly trying to sell you things. If you can put all that aside (totally possible if at Aqua) then the place is a real treat.


Anyway enough banter and some pics from the trip below.

Out the front of Aqua looking at their bar.

Looking down the beach

Tough waking up to this each morning

You can just spot Tracy on the left of this pic. Check out how clear the water is.

Nice lady. Shame the mango's were out of season and pretty average. That basket was seriously heavy.

Tunes on the beach

Fresh lobster. Ya mon.

Tracy with a chicken patty

BBQ Lobster. Delicious.

Seats for the day.

I finally got to drink a Red Stripe in Jamaica.

See bottom? You should have seen the pouch on the front.

Sunset over Negril

Lunch.

Carn the Cats.

Can I breathe out yet?

First Snow of the Year

It's been a really mild winter so far in NYC. I'll probably jinx it now by saying that but compared to last year it's a real picnic. Maybe I'm now just seasoned to the arctic conditions that are winter?


Last weekend we had our first serious snow for the winter. Well at least an inch anyway. It did snow back in October for only the fourth time ever in that month but since then it's been quiet.  The novelty factor was there for about 30 minutes but then it all turned to slush and the New York grime got the better or it.


Dasha seemed to like it more than last year and he did his best to paint the town yellow.

Dasha sporting his dapper new jacket.

Boston

Last weekend was a long weekend for Martin Luther King day so we jumped on the train and headed up to Boston. It was a bit of an early start on Saturday as we were leaving Penn Station at 7am. The train took about 4 hours but it was still way better than flying. 


I'll run through the trip by commenting on the photos below but we had a fantastic time. It was quite possibly the coldest place I had ever been but it was bright and sunny during the day. At one point it got down to minus 15 degrees. Overall a great city to wander round and explore. We really liked the North End which is the Italian part of the city. 

Tracy about to get educated at Harvard University

My attempt at an intellectual pose

Tracy was in heaven. 15 minutes later she was knee deep in a chicken katsu curry

A random old building on the Freedom Trail

Cause one is not enough. Quincy Market

Steamed Tracy

Doing the Gary Ablett

This Lobster roll was in contention for the best one I had ever had. At a place called Neptune Oyster. Sensational.

On the brewery tour at the Samual Adams brewery. David bet you cannot guess what you're getting for Christmas?

Random street market

Boston Common

Inside the Liberty Hotel. It's an old jail that had been converted to a hotel. 

Random house

And another reason I Love NYC

Seeing the majority of my massive subscriber base has had the pleasure of coming to NYC, then you'd be aware of the joys of the Laundromat over the road. For the 2.5 people who havent then read on.


I've always wanted to get a cleaner but I think I've found something that's a bit more of a treat. It's getting your washing done for you. Let me present the evidence. Below is about 16 pounds of laundry. No idea what that is in kilos but it's about a weeks worth of dirty jocks and socks. There are also about half a dozen shirts. It's a bit like watching David Copperfield. One moment it's dirty, the next, well actually 24 hours later it's clean, folded and ironed. Voila. They even wash Dasha's crap. No idea how I'm going to survive once I get back to Oz.

Before

After

2012 and a bit of 2011

We wound up 2011 with a rather subdued Christmas at our place. It was a notch down in pace from last year when we had quite a few visitors but nevertheless was still enjoyable. We spent the morning openning up lots of little presents and then cooked up a delicious roast. Matt came over for lunch and late in the afternoon we went and saw a movie.


New years was also reasonably subdued. We had a late booking at a restaurant down the road and had a few randoms come over for some pre dinner drinks. The weather this year has been very pleasant and if there was ever a good night to hit up Times Square for NYE it would have been this year.


What else has been happening? One of Tracy's friends had her birthday over here and had booked the private room at this place called Tao. It really was an amazing night and we're both very sorry it was during the week (although our heads are not so much). 


We've been madly walking Dasha all over the place and getting up to Central Park a bit. This time last year there was snow everywhere from the blizzard. We also ended up hitting Madison Square Garden for a Knicks game now that the NBA has started again. We've now been to very major league code over here which is quite cool.

We felt quite popular with all the cards we got.

Dasha was not left out and got lots of gifts as well.

Well done Space.

Just a bit of food for three people.

Christmas 2011

It is really quite sad seeing our tree on the side walk waiting to be picked up. This was about 8 seconds before Dasha whizzed on it.

NYE 2011 @ Market Table

Look at the two hot dogs.

Knicks versus Toronto