Here we go again!

I hope everyone had an awesome Christmas and New Year, mine were very close to perfect, if a little hectic, so I'm really looking forward to the next three months of chilling out.

I'm sending you this from the snowy streets of New York where I begin the second leg of my travels. I arrived on Friday in a snowstorm outside my pre-booked hostel to find a Chinese Dumpling shop standing suspiciously where my bed for the night should have been, but thanks to a very kind man on the street who took pity on me I not only managed to locate the entrance, but also acquired a very nice pair of leather gloves, so that was a successful start to my journey!

'That best portion of a good man's life, His little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and of love.' Wordsworth

As everyone is, I'm sure, already familiar with what NY has to offer I wont bore you with details, I've seen all the sights (albeit from the outside due to the cost - I'm not in SE Asia anymore, gulp!) and to save a little money on the subway fees I have walked the city end to end.

Whilst wandering to the Staten Island ferry yesterday I managed to spot a firetruck outside a large supermarket, and, like the responsible traveller I am, detoured over immediately to see if they needed my firefighting skills at all, or just, you know, someone to cheer them on. Unfortunately they were just out to get their weekly shopping, and sadly even heroic, handsome young firemen lose their appeal when you witness them arguing over who's turn it is to buy the milk. I did manage to purchase a 'Slim Jim' though which I was extremely excited about so it wasn't a completely wasted journey!

Whilst wandering home tonight I saw a rowdy mass of noisy youths with placards and banners in the middle of a nearby park, so naturally I routed out the camera and wandered over to have a nosey. As I got closer I could hear a gleeful chant that went something like this "I say no, you say pants, no PANTS, no PANTS".
Now having a slightly elderly boyfriend means I'm a little out of touch with my own generation, and although I'm not 'down wid da kids' I did manage to gather that this particular bunch of youths had a strong aversion to wearing clothes on their lower halves, and had decided to demonstrate it in the most obvious way possible. The exact reason as to why this was remains a mystery to me but I dutifully followed the surge for several blocks, shivering in the icy chill and marvelling at their strength of will and determination to create the pant-less society they dreamed of. When they stormed a local supermarket and began crowd surfing it all got a little too much for a very small, stooped, old woman innocently out to do her weekly shopping in Walgreen's, who found herself crotch to face with hundreds of rowdy, half-naked young men. I'll let you imagine the rest but its safe to say I haven't laughed so hard in ages!

I must say I found myself getting a little carried away in the excitement and took more pictures than was perhaps sociably acceptable, especially as my own pants were still firmly hugging my waist. I hung around until the pressure to explore this new fashion for myself became too great, and also by then the police had arrived so I, in typical New York dialect, "hauled ass!"

Anyway, think I'll go for a little wander around Harlem tonight....Only joking mum.... I already did that last night... and then its off to Mexico for me in the morning. I'll email again next week, so for now, adios amigos!
Loadsa love
Rhiannon Stevie
xxxxx