And it’s 15 years!
I set up ajaydsouza.com as an experiment to test this new blogging software called WordPress exactly 15 years ago. I never thought the site would… Read More »And it’s 15 years!
New York – Views from the Top
I’m back in London and the week has been busier than busy catching up on work. It’s Saturday, so trying to find a time to finish this blog post. My New York diaries continued with meeting Sneha after nearly 10 years. She took me and Ashwina to ABC Kitchen which turned out to have some really good food in well-sized portions. Remains the best food I ate in New York.
After the failed attempt to view New York from Top of the Rock, we decided to try again. It seems like many others also had the same idea as we only got tickets for little over an hour later. We figured out getting some other things out of the way to kill time. Primarily taking a walk down 6th avenue to find our way to Grand Central Station.
St. Patrick’s Cathedral
At Grand Central Station, New York
The hustle and bustle of Grand Central Station, New York
Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island
If you’ve been following the last few blog posts, you’ll know that Ashwina and I are in New York and wandered around Times Square at the start of the week. It goes without saying that most tourists have the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island on the top of their places to see. And so did we. Let me tell you about our fun visit to see Lady Liberty.
Planning our trip
I spent a good deal of time researching where to buy the tickets – or more like what would get us the best sightseeing deal. We looked at the New York Pass which allows you access to several attractions, but the numbers just didn’t stack up. So, I decided to buy the tickets directly from Statue Cruises, who are the only authorized official provider of tickets to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. I realised that they were also the cheapest because I bought the Pedestal Reserve Ticket which gave us access to the pedestal on which the Statue sits.
We got lucky as there was no availability for these tickets for several days except Tuesday! Unfortunately, the Crown Reserve Ticket was sold out. People book these several months in advance.
It’s also recommended to do one of the earliest slots of the day as they tend to be less busy. We booked ours at 10 am, which is the time we needed to enter the Screening Facility. Battery Park is just a short walk from our apartment, so we set out around 9.30 am and found our way to the screening facility well ahead of schedule.
The screening facility is airport-style which means travelling right and light is recommended. We carried only bare essentials knowing that we could buy water on the island. The process went smoothly and we then queued in a completely unorderly fashion for the next ferry to take us to Liberty Island.
We picked the upper deck to get a seat and an open view of the water as well as the Manhattan skyline which was fully covered in fog. The upper deck also tends to be quite full with eager standing tourists during the short ride to Liberty Island. The best way to get your first photographs of The Statue of Liberty.
The Manhattan skyline covered in fog
The Statue of Liberty
Wandering around Times Square and Wall Street
Sunday, our 2nd day in New York was spent with Ashwina’s cousin and his wife in New Jersey. On Monday, we set out to explore the… Read More »Wandering around Times Square and Wall Street
New York calling!
This year has been a relatively eventful one when it comes to holidays… also expensive! I know I haven’t blogged much about personal life, but… Read More »New York calling!
Add to All v1.3.0
Add to All v1.3.0 is now available to download or upgrade from within your dashboard. This new version brings a few new options as well… Read More »Add to All v1.3.0
Better Search v2.2.0
I have released Better Search v2.2.0 which brings a new settings interface based on the Settings API. You can read the complete details of the… Read More »Better Search v2.2.0
Top 10 v2.5.6
I’ve released Top 10 v2.5.6 which adds a new tool under the Top 10 > Tools page which allows you to recreate the PRIMARY KEY… Read More »Top 10 v2.5.6
Happy New Year 2018!
As most good things come to an end, so must 2017. Browsing through my list of posts for the past two years, I realised that I completely missed out a Happy New Year post for 2017. Can’t miss that two years in a row now, can we?
2017 – A Year in Review
Life…
I began 2017 in India, more specifically being ill in Bangalore where I (as did Ashwina) spent a good portion of the holiday in bed recovering from bad allergy attacks. Apparently I can’t handle the pollen and pollution anymore!
At least it got better when I got back to Mumbai where we were soon well enough to attend a small extended family wedding before heading back to London. Life continued to be fun in February 2017 when Ashwina and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary by visiting a lovely National Trust cottage near Wadebridge, Cornwall called Overhaven.
Overhaven National Trust Cottage
The cottage turned out to be beautiful located in a place that was equally pristine. We managed to go for a nice long hike around the countryside in glorious sunshine despite being February.
2017 was also the first year when we (and by we, I mean Ashwina) decided to go watch something that wasn’t a movie. So, we went to the Royal Albert Hall to watch The Piano Guys. Most people I know haven’t heard of the Piano Guys, but I’d seen their videos on Facebook and completely enjoyed watching them perform.
Merry Christmas 2017
Merry Christmas to all my readers! May you have an excellent holiday if you’ve taken some time off and a Happy New Year! Ajay