Robyn's Wanderings

Frosty, where is all the snow this Christmas in Canada?

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and all of that! It’s that time of the year when the weather gets cold and the hearts get warm! 

Our wanderer, Nicola Arnold, has spent her holidays traveling around New York. Rockefeller centre, taxis, Harry Potter…it’s a wonderful world of holidays:

Advent calendar chocolates are few & far between, presents are wrapped, cookies are baked, turkeys are defrosted, families are gathering far & wide to celebrate with joy. It’s Christmastime and we all know it! This year, I cannot say “I’ll be home for Christmas” – I’m not in Bermuda, nor am I celebrating with family in England, Croatia or South Africa as in previous years. This Christmas I am in my adopted home – Canada - and there isn’t even snow in this supposedly “Great White North”.

But here’s a little secret: I already celebrated Christmas

Unbeknownst to many (especially my mother, who I surprised), I spent a short & sweet weekend in NYC with my parents, to kick off Christmas.

New York City.

Or…

Broadway Baby.
The Big Apple.
Manhattan.
Gotham City.
The city that never sleeps.
Concrete jungle where dreams are made of (Thanks, Alicia Keys)

Yellow cabs, American flags... hello New York City!

NYC is our old stomping ground, and the main goal for getaway weekends to New York City is “How many musicals can we cram into our time here?” And at Christmastime, the excitement in the city is multiplied – New York is a magical mayhem of movement, madness… and musicals! Have you ever been to New York City? Around Christmas? Well, I will borrow the “You know you have visited New York City when” style of points and tell you a bit about the weird & wonderful experiences that can probably only take place in New York City.

Nicola’s Yuletide Celebration aka NYC: 

* You feel like you are in Star Wars, swerving through groups, bypassing window-shoppers and avoiding throngs of tourists. Toronto and Boston feel like a ghost-own compared to NYC! The yellow taxis are different, it’s more of a boxy-style cab honking its way down Broadway now.

* The guys selling stuff in Time Square choose you as a victim to give their CD, because they are trying to make it big and get on MTV. Here’s how it went down:

CD guy: Listen to this, you’ll love it.
Me: Okay, thanks.
CD guy: Would you like to give a small donation? It’s Christmastime!
Me: Ask my dad, he’s got the money!
CD guy: I’ll even sign your CD, what’s your name?
Me: Nicky.
CD guy: Okay, I’ll make it out to N-Sexy!

You cannot 'Trump' NYC for excitement on every street corner

* You rush from the wintery windows of Macy’s to the holiday windows of Sak’s Fifth Avenue to compare notes, styles and creativity points.

* You are moseying around Bergdorf Goodman (the swanky department store where mink coats actually cost $23,700), and you run into your high school French teacher who is also in New York City on a pre-holiday trip with her children from Bermuda. It’s a small world!

* You have some big decisions to make: You must decide if you will re-watch an already-seen-it-but-I-want-to-see-it-one-more-time musical (such as Lion King, Mamma Mia, Phantom of the Opera, or Rent), or if you will branch out and try another new show. Which Hollywood stars are you going to rush to see on stage? Adam Pascal? Alan Rickman? Daniel Radcliffe? Bernadette Peters? Hugh Jackman? Samuel L. Jackson? Kim Catrall? Or your very own Bermudian starlet, Rebecca Faulkenberry, in Spiderman?

Dear old Harry Potter on Broadway? Magical!

* You try to have dinner on Saturday evening around 6pm near Time Square and there is, quite literally, “no room at the inn”. All your favourite restaurants are busy with the pre-show patrons. Ellen’s Stardust Diner has a line snaking outside. The Pig ‘N’ Whistleis chock-a-block. You finally resort to an Irish pub on Restaurant Row, delighted to much on burger sliders, French fries & beer. Mission accomplished.

* You see not one but 3 Tim Hortons shops in central Manhattan and you, almost, feel like you are a Canadian in America when your heart skips a beat. But then you run off to indulge in a sweet treat at Dunkin’ Donut or Au Bon Pain instead.

* You remember everywhere that Kevin goes in NYC in “Home Alone 2″? The same famous “AAAHHHH!!!!!” face of Macaulay Culkin, set at Christmas, in New York City. Although you do not see the bizarre bird lady in Central Park, nor does the Plaza Hotel exist – it has now turned into apartment buildings, and a friend of your friend is a bartender there! You go to Rockerfeller center and see the ice-skaters and remember that it is the spot where Kevin reunites with his mom.

Rockefeller Center, ice skating and Home Alone flashbacks

* You are hop & skip from one fancy drink location to another – first the Marriott Marquis in Time Square for a pre-show drink (at the former revolving bar which no longer revolves), and then at the Peninsula Hotel to warm up after browsing the shops on Fifth Avenue… you decided that queuing to get into FAO Shwarz to see the toys was just not gonna happen… instead, time for an Irish coffee & biscotti!

* The best thing about being in Time Square is seeing the “Coke” ad in all it’s fluorescent glory, which at Christmastime is the Holiday Coca-Cola ad with the polar bears and penguins. In fact, all the lights and advertising and flashy marketing has you looking left, right and center in dizziness.

The 12 Days of Christmas, Citi bank style

* You are invited to two Christmas holiday parties by your friend & host: one for an acting studio, and the other for a tea salon. The first is in the basement of the studios, rooms filed with cookies, cheese, biscuits and wine. The second party is in a martini bar (complimentary martinis!) with BBQ style food and a dessert table. And you are not at all “crashing” the parties… you are warmly welcomed!

* You realized that while you are wandering the streets of NYC, you occasionally burst into any of the following NYC-themed songs:

New York State of Mind – Billy Joel
New York Minute – Don Henley
New York, New York – Frank Sinatra
Downtown – Petula Clark
Take the “A” Train – Ella Fitzgerald
Living for the City – Stevie Wonder
New York City Boys – Pet Shop Boys……. or one of many, many others!

But please, don’t take my word for it. If you have never been (or have not been in awhile), go to New York. It is worth your while to see/hear/smell/taste/touch/feel the magic of Manhattan for yourself. Especially at Christmastime… Happy holidays!

So I have traded airplane seats for office seats for a little while and one thing that comes with an office….a commute. It’s true.

I have nothing against my new job, let me preface. It’s a great place to be and I am working on things that matter – healthcare.

What I could trade? My commute. Yesterday as I sat behind the smog-spewing car that would lead me to Bermuda’s capital, Hamilton and my new seat, I couldn’t help but think of….well all the other ridiculous and crazy commutes I have witnessed.

Like this ridiculous video straight from the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh! Honestly, I have never seen such ridiculous traffic in all of my life. Try and cross the road! Near impossible…I had to play “chicken” with the SUV’s!

I mean do you see the motorbike do a U-turn when he is about to be squashed?

Sure Phnom Penh’s traffic was life-endangering, but in Laos it was cow-filled. Witness the scene below with this pink-hewed cow grazing on the side of the road on the way to waterfall! Where do you see that? Certainly not on my commute in Bermuda?

For the next bit of insanity, I bring you to heads as helmets scenario that is all the rage in Cambodia. How about the parents who also stick their toddlers in front of them as pillows? Well, Bermuda often has parents who place their children in front of them, but at least they have helmets on their children; they give them a fighting chance!

This dad below….well…..I crossed my fingers after this photo:

Or what about moving house on a motorbike? I’m not entirely sure what this guy was carrying on his motorbike, but I’m glad that I was not riding beside him! I now feel better riding my own motorbike into work and only having to concern myself with the fuming car!

Moving house?

Or how about how to move your motorbike? Well, in Bermuda we have ferries that will transport motorbikes very comfortably on their bows (front).

In Laos? Oh come on!!!! Who would actually ride their bike? Or put it on the back of the van? A commuter bus, that I had just exited to use the toilet, was far more practical!

How else do you transport you bike?

And when you’re not dragging your bike along with you? Well you have to fill it with gas, of course. But how are going to do that?

Well in Thailand, you ask a woman standing in a shack to start pumping and pour out the blue, red or green gas sitting in tubs!

technical fill-ups

I had never seen this before and I thank my lucky stars, now, when I see my gas gauge going low I can nip into the gas station, whip-out my credit card and head-out on my way…even in rush hour….even with slow attendants (not much in Bermuda moves quickly…I’m Bermudian, I can say that.)

And finally what am I getting at? Well let’s at least, while we sit in the mountains of traffic for Christmas-time commutes remember, we could have been caught in an elephant parade!

elephant parade

From Bermuda to......

We have to say: “Welcome Back!” to our wanderer Emily Ross. She’s been busy getting back into school so….we can cut her slack! 

I’m so glad she touched this topic….Bermudians around the world. For such a small island, we manage to get around…..the world. Emily we’re happy to have you back!

I am a disgrace. Apologies, bloggers. I should stop get off of http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/ and type my blog that I’ve been planning for weeks.

Wherever you go, you will find a Bermudian. Or someone who knows a Bermudian. Or someone who’s been to Bermuda. Used to work in Bermuda. Their brother married a Bermudian. They like the rum.

We are everywhere. Bristol (where I’m studying at the moment) is overrun with Bermudians. I’ll never forget that day in first year where I ran into three Bermudians in the space of 20 minutes – one in the library, one outside the library and one in the gym (which is next to the library). We all have stories like that – you’re on holiday, escaping the rock…and BAM. Bermudian.

For an island filled with 64,000 Bermudians, we can be found all around the world

Even studying in Hong Kong, another Bermudian (a very good friend from high school) also was on exchange there at the same time!

In the middle of Times Square in New York, we ran into my mother’s violin student.

In a mall in Hong Kong, a friend’s parents (who used to live in Bermuda) happened to stroll past and spot us in line for the movie theatre.

In Johannesburg airport, of all places!

In the middle of Waterloo Station in London I ran into a family from home who were going to see Rebecca Faulkenberry (another Bermudian, of course!) in a West End show! The friend I was with was not only amazed that out of all the people in London we ran into some Bermudians I knew, but also that we were name-dropping other Bermudians!

Bermuda's beautiful hibiscus!

So I asked my readers: Where have you unexpectedly run into a Bermudian whilst travelling?

Jenny 

- In London, outside of the Palladium

- In malls in Toronto

- ‘Sitting on Primrose Hill last summer, a man came up to me with a cassava assuming my friends and I wouldn’t know what it was and I was all like “that’s a cassava.” And it turns out after some chat and bafflement that he was Bermudian’

- ‘On my birthday in New Zealand I ran into this guy who’d spent like four summers in Bermuda and knew all of the people who I hang out with…And he was like really close with my brother back in the day.’

Sarah

- On the stairs at South Kensington tube station

- When a Bermudian friend visited ‘we went to a nightclub near my house and when she was holding out her ID some guy behind us in the queue shouted “BERMUDA BERMUUUUUDAAAA”. Turns out he used to work over there.’

- ‘My brother James was running the Chicago marathon in his Bermuda vest and some girl screamed “WOOOOOOO BERMUDA! I’M A BERMUDIAN!” and they high fived as he ran past.’

- ‘My mum ran into some Bermudians in a Pyramid in Egypt.’

Bermuda's sunset!

Chelsea P

-  In a hospital room in Baltimore

Paige

                – ‘I was serving a woman in the cafe in Highgate woods, and at the end of her meal she saw my surname on the bill and asked me if I knew Paige Hallett, to which I replied, “quite well, actually” [She is Paige Hallett] and we had a nice little chat; apparently she spends half her year in Bermuda and the other in London, and she knows my sister quite well.’

                – ‘Have had quite a few Bermudian kids in the cafe. One little boy even dared to tell me that MSA was better than BHS! Needless to say he got a very pathetic scoop of ice cream that day.’

                – ‘In accent and dialect classes in LIPA [The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts] I found a Bermudian accent recording on IDEA (an accent database) and played it for the class…Imagine my surprise when I actually listened to the recording. Halfway through the recording I yelled, “THAT’S DEVAUNE!”

Adrienne

                - In a market in Florence – ‘Turned out she lived right by the villa we were renting!’

Nicholas L

                – ‘In La Paz, Bolivia whilst mountain biking down death road.’

Euan

                - Llunenberg, Canada in a shopping mall. ‘He may have been the only other living person in that town, it was empty.’

Miriam

                -‘One of my favourite customers in the underground, and some random Bermudians I didn’t actually know but got talking to on a bus in New York…’

Nadia

                – ‘Coming out of a chocolate shop in Berne, Switzerland and bumped into one of my sister’s former classmates. It’s the timing that astounds me. We had only stopped to have lunch and to keep on travelling to Beaune in France.’

                – ‘Another time was in that venerated establishment, Mickey-D’s, in the wee hours of the morning in Leicester Square, London – when the guy in front of me ordered his meal there was no mistaking the accent. I hadn’t been home in ages at that point and it was music to my ears. We chatted briefly. It was very amusing because he was gobsmacked I recognised the accent as I sounded English to him.’

Fishing in Bermuda, but they could be in.......

Robyn

                – ‘In a bar on the side of a mountain in Zermatt, Switzerland! And, to top it off, she was a colleague!’

Chelsea M

                – ‘In the Vatican!’

                – ‘Tube stations in London, of course.’

Jack

                - In JJB Sports in Manchester

                -Disneyland!

Karriem

- Eaton Centre in Toronto

- In a Guelph nightclub and at a Guelph bus station – ‘That was super random, being that I only went to Guelph once.’

Nicholas H

                – At the Olympics in Greece

                – At the Commonwealth Games in Italy

                – In a variety of pubs in Manchester, Edinburgh

Ben

                – At an optician’s in London

                – At a pub in Euston

                – ‘There’s one in my uni course in the year below me. I didn’t realise until a guy from the course came down to Bermuda and I recognised him…and thus discovered a fellow Bermudian law student at Kings.’

Kyle

                – In the Topman shop at Westfield

Rebecca

                – UB40 concert in Southampton

Matthew

                – Eaton Centre and Yonge Street in Toronto.

                – University of Toronto campus

                – In the crowd at a parade in Toronto

Johnny

                – In the Ramada Hotel in Atlanta. ‘Doorman, slight accent, called him out on it.’