How to get yourself banned from the Post Office

Happy St Patricks Day!!!

I am delighted to announce the snow seems to have gone and is a thing of the past! February was terrible in every way (hence no blog posts), the AVERAGE temperature was -9 degrees celsius, I couldn't ride my bicycle and our heating bill was extortionate. Needless to say I am pleased February has passed and I never want to hear mention of it again. The snow melting is a wonderful thing but does create a quirky little issue - it has been  sitting on the ground for  so long (around 3 months) that now it has disappeared all the rubbish or 'trash' which has been deposited in the snow over that 3 months has suddenly reappeared and everything looks disgusting, along every road there is piles of trash and as for the field next to our school - 3 months worth of frozen dog poo has suddenly magically appeared on the grass!!

I havn't taken any decent pictures for a while but as it is St Patricks day I thought I would include some pictures of  Amanda and myself in Dublin and some animals from the Dublin Zoo!

Animal at the zoo.

I have been off work for the last two days and have had a great time! Yesterday me and Amanda went out to the zoo and purchased for the brilliant price of $60 (about £40) a years long zoo membership, meaning we can now go to the zoo for free whenever we want instead of just on Mondays when it is free to local residents and as a result is extremely crowded! It gets so cold here in the winter time that they have to send a lot of the animals on a long  vacation down to Florida till the  weather warms up so sadly we didn't get to see any bears or Zebras but most of the animals were still hanging around including all the lemurs and my mums favourite Fossa (which eats lemurs). It always makes me chuckle that the fossa is in a cage right next to the lemurs and is completely oblivious to all that tasty food hiding just a thin wall away, god help them the day the zookeeper leaves the connecting door open!

The talking parrot, just look at his beedy eye!

In other news my mums big 21st birthday is coming up at a rate of knots and although this is exciting news I am going to have to have a little grumble. I am having terrible trouble posting her present! Yesterday I managed to get myself banned from the local  post office over a pathetic little matter in which I am completely blameless. On my way to town I decided to stop off at the post office quickly to post mums present, there was nowhere close  by to lock up my bicycle and as it  is new I decided to take it into the post office with me - as with most things in America the post office is large and there is a lot of space so this was and should not have been an issue at all. Well having placed my bicycle in the corner of the store away from everything I joined the queue only to hear the one lady behind the counter nagging at me that I am not allowed to leave my bicycle in the post office, it has to go outside. I gently protested but to no avail so I left the post office and cycled it around to the extremely large car park at the back  (it had about 50 spaces) only to discover that there was nowhere, not even a tree, to lock my bicycle to.

USPS take note - here is a cycle rack in Dublin.

This annoyed me so I took my bicycle back into the post office, cunningly left it behind a door where I thought the lady wouldn't see it and rejoined the queue. I ignored several calls of 'sir' before the pressure of everyone in the large queue looking at me was too much to take and I looked up. She informed me that I wouldn't be served while my bicycle was in the building as this is a federal building and it is a health and safety hazard. I asked where exactly was I supposed to put my bicycle and how can you ban bicycles form the building without providing so much as a simple post for me to lock it too? she reiterated the same thing she said before. I asked her about the pushchair that was currently blocking the exit, maybe the children should be left outside too? she reiterated the same thing again. Well the argument escalated and to cut a long story short I am now banned and was informed that if I did not immediately leave the post office the police would be called and I would be chased out the building by an angry mob as I had been holding up the queue for about 5 minutes. when I made my escape I still had mums birthday package in my hands.

A cute red panda smiling, unlike me at the USPS!

Well, today (next day) I decided to try again to post the package but this time in a different post office and armed with a car and not a bicycle! I parked in one of the ample spaces no problem and while entering the building noticed yet again the complete lack of any facility for a cyclist. however things went quickly downhill in this post office too. I picked out a padded envelope with  which to post the present only to slightly rip the top of the seal while putting the present inside, undeterred I carried on to the front of  the queue where I asked the guy if he had some tape I could borrow  to seal the package. Unfortunately apparently this is no longer possible at the USPS(at least  according to the guy at the Lakewood post  office), they will only give you tape if you send something by special or next day delivery, regardless of whether you are spending $20 on postage. He also said that in any case he didn't have any tape but I could buy some for $7. I refused to buy any  and asked him to  look a little harder for some tape. grinning, he refused again. I backed down (keen not to be banned from yet another post office) and suggested that if he could just price up the package I will take it home, tape it up and bring it back tomorrow. This he did and then proceeded to give me about 3 sheets of stamps to put on it. The stamps would clearly not all fit on the envelope so I asked him for a barcode sticker instead but of course there was an issue with this too, "I cant possibly give you a barcoded sticker if you take the package out of the store" at which point I yet again stormed out of the post office, I still had mums birthday package in my hands.

Another weird animal at the zoo.

It seems the gentleman from the Lakewood post office makes quite a habit of being as awkward as possible. Amanda recalled a time the same guy had refused to allow her to send chocolate to me as apparently you cannot send chocolate through the post (huh?!?) she took it to a different post office and posted the chocolate no problem. I have also had an issue with  the gentleman before, my Dad is a keen stamp collector and likes to have stamps (not a barcode) on the front of the package, I was informed by this guy about a year previously that it is in fact not possible to post an international letter with stamps on it. I took it to a different post office, asked for the same thing and posted it no problem. oh wait! was that the same guy who just gave me 3 sheets of stamps to put on an international package? why yes it was! argh!

I apologise for the rant however I am pleased to have gotten it off of my chest! On a happier not did you know that in Chicago on St Patricks day they dye the river green? it looks really cool!

link to watch the Chicago river turn green

P.S A big shout out to Nanny Hart, who has now reached the grand  old age of 90!!! Happy Birthday :)

Amandas Birthday!

2 posts in 2 days! I am spoiling you! We had a absolutely brilliant day yesterday for Amanda's Birthday! The Crawford Auto Museum was fantastic! It contains a lot more that just old cars (and of those it has plenty), the first thing to greet you as you enter the museum is a huge Chief Wahoo (the Cleveland Indians mascot) who used to stand at the top of the old municipal stadium before they pulled it down. just check out the size of it in these pictures! A lot of people think it is time for the Indians to retire chief Wahoo, it is seen as a very offensive mascot to many native American Indians and I have to say I agree, I just wish they could find a better replacement logo than the block 'C' which I think is to put it bluntly quite boring. A good idea I have heard is to possibly switch back to the teams original name from way back when - the Cleveland spiders, there would be some seriously cool logos to be had with a nickname like the Spiders!

Me by Chief Wahoo.

The new Indians logo

After you have been introduced to Chied Wahoo you'll embark on a incredible journey of Americana and nostalgia, including one of the most incredible collections of cars. Amanda had told me there was a lot of cars there (she said a basement full) but I was not  at all prepared for the scale of his collection, There must have been over 100 cars in the place dating back to the early 1900s, When many of the cars were made in Cleveland before Henry Ford and Fordism monopolised the market with the first mass produced car and caused the Cleveland car market to collapse overnight. My absolute favourite of the cars was the monstrous Lincoln Continental, This thing is painted in a beautiful chrome and is absolutely massive, as can be sen from the following pictures. I cannot think of anything better to drive around in, especially with the roof down in the summer, a lack of space certainly wouldn't be an issue, you could probably fit Amanda's little 2 door Toyota Yaris in the boot as a spare car in case the Lincoln brakes down!

The Lincoln Convertible

As you can see it is extremely Looooooooooong!

Amanda loved this green Cadillac!! Other highlights of the collection in my opinion included the Ferrari California simply because I seem to remember Chris Evans getting a lot of press for buying one for an insane amount of money, apparently there are only 8 of them in North America and 14 overall so it is an exceedingly rare and beautiful car. I also loved this old wreck from 1910 which incredibly drove around the world! considering the conditions of the roads and difficulties of the terrain and just thee sheer distance involved this is an incredible achievement for the little car!!

Ferrari California

The car that went around the world in 1910

Amanda's Cadillac from 1931

Just look at all those cars!!!

After seeing the cars we went on a little guided tour of the mansion where the collection is housed, the mansion is in fact 2 mansions joined together and is one of the very few surviving houses down the old Euclid Avenue or 'Millionaires row'. This used to be regarded as one of the most beautiful and extravagant streets in the world, stretching from downtown to University circle (several miles), you can just imagine the style and opulence on show down this tree lined boulevard. Unfortunately imagine is all you can do, as progress for progress' sake has to be made and Millionaires row now consists of burger kings, Mcdonalds, a couple of brutal 60's shopping centres and several decaying factories. It is such a shame as I for one would love to see how this street once looked. 

After our little history lesson it was off to the fair and to the Euclid Beach carousel, the museum contains a fully restored carousel from the old Euclid Beach amusement park which was by all accounts the place to be seen when Cleveland was the place to be seen back in the 20's and 30's. With your entrance to the museum you get 2 free rides on the beautifully restored carousel and it was a lot of fun :)

Amanda on the Carousel

The sun is in our eyes!

The museum was full of interesting exhibits on Cleveland's history including it's time hosting the Great Lakes Exposition in 1936 when a young son decided to write this nice little note to his parents. Cleveland also used to host the national air races, and the picture below shows a model of one of the winning planes and if you look closely you can see the actual aircraft hanging in the background! One of the pictures below also show a A Tiffany stained glass window which used to stand proud in a church on Euclid Avenue (Millionaires row). The window was saved from the wrecking ball and donated to the museum by some eagle eyed residents before the church got turned into either a Burger King or more likely a part of the ever more greedy Cleveland Clinic.

That pretty much concluded our trip to the museum which as you can see I thoroughly enjoyed!  Not half as much as I enjoyed my dinner in Little Italy afterwards however! Amanda only managed to eat half of her pasta so I am hopeful I may be able to get my sticky little fingers into it for my lunch today :)

There is supposed to be over 20 cm of snow today, so I am going to stay in the warm and possibly head out  to a superbowl party this evening. Personally I think that the Seattle Patriots shall win the game. Goodbye!

The worlds first traffic light that used to stand guard at the roundabout by the art gallery.

Brrrrrrrrrrr! Snow!

As you  have all been posting snow pictures on the computernet I thought I should join in and trump you all (except Cousin Angus in the Northern reaches of Ontario, Canada!) with some of my own :D

Some snow sculptures in public square

January is by far the worst month here, it has been staggeringly cold (-20) and there is a seemingly never ending conveyor of snow. Because the lake is so big when the prevailing Northerly wind comes down it picks up all the moisture off of the lake and dumps it on the first bit of land it comes too, which just so happens to be Cleveland! This phenomenon is called lake effect snow and it is in effect right now, over  the weekend we are supposed to have 12cm of snow, and still I won't get a 'snow day' :(

I think I may have been standing on the lake when I took this shot, it has frozen solid!

the Lake shore

I presume what has happened here is that the snow has fallen on the plants and then frozen, doesn't it look cool?!

In other very exciting news it is Amanda's birthday today! We're going to go  to the Crawford auto museum which houses lots of  old cars, aircraft, a restored carousel and other stuff and then to Little Italy for some tasty dinner and wine! Yummy Yummy! maybe I will blog about it!

Washington DC

Hello and a very Happy 2015 to you all! it is really really cold again here which is absolutely terrible in every way except the fact that it leaves me with nothing better to do than to write my blog! Recently I have been reading a lot of travel blogs online from all corners of the globe and have been inspired to try something a little similar myself, so here is my little travel blog for Washington DC.

Washington DC

As I am now working for a large hotel chain, one of the biggest perks is the travel discounts - you can stay in practically any Marriott property for peanuts which is fabulous especially considering how expensive several American cities can be to stay in (Pittsburgh and Cincinnati you know who you are!). Since moving to America I have found myself really enjoying the local sports scene and so I figured what better way to spend a weekend than to travel down to Washington to see the Cavaliers (Clevelands basketball team) play away. The Cavaliers or 'Cavs' for short have become a basketball powerhouse this year thanks to the homecoming of a certain Lebron James, his return has instantly made Cleveland the best team in their division but has also had some rather unfortunate consequences such as a huge demand for tickets at massively inflated prices which I for one don't really want to pay. Hence my little trip to Washington!!

I was staying at the Renaissance hotel on Pennsylvania avenue, a street which has a rather famous resident, just a five minute walk down the road was the white house where President Obama himself lives!! I'm afraid I did not get to meet him as he was busy presenting his executive actions on immigration reform when I was in town but thank you Mr. President (I know you are a secret fan of my blog!) for standing up to your congress and trying to sort out the mess that America finds itself in by getting this country moving forward and in the right direction!

Some window cleaners having fun down Pennsylvania avenue

Washington struck me as being a really nice place, huge tree lined boulevards and lots of greenery and parks to divert you attention from the never ending urban sprawl that is the modern day American city. In fact there are so many places and activities fighting for your attention that it is extremely difficult to decide what to do, this would explain my first day here, rushing around like a mad thing trying to see everything and failing. It was a nice sunny day so I walked down to the Mall to see the Franklin Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial and the 4th street bridge which were all pretty spectacular although this is a lot of monuments for one day. I also went to see the White house with which I was extremely disappointed, it really is pathetically small, I should imagine the average Texans house is bigger - surely the president deserves better?!

The rather pathetic White House

Lots of security - there are now 3 fences to jump - a little extreme if you ask me and it rather spoils the view!

Here are some nice pictures from my walk around!

The Jefferson Memorial

The Washington monument

A little squirrel

What is wrong with this sentence? or is it simply Olde English?

The Washington Monument

I am particularly proud of the pictures below and I'm very grateful to this couple for standing still for so long, I don't think they moved for about half an hour! In fact if any of you are planning to go to Washington in the next few years you'll be able to take a picture of them for yourself!

A nice couple admiring the view for 2 minutes

For 2 hours

For 2 days

For 2 years

After my walk around I was extremely tired as you can imagine so after I had a little nap I decided I had had enough culture for one day so instead I had quite possibly the greatest time it is possible to have  on your own - I ordered a huge Hawaiian pizza from the shop down the road, had it delivered to my room and feasted on it while watching some basketball on the television! yummy yummy yummy!

The next day was game day, this was also my last full day here so I had a lot  I wanted to see and do with number one on my list being the Newseum - a museum dedicated entirely to the news and how it is reported around the world. They have a really interesting room dedicated to the 9/11 terrorist attacks in New York with a piece of the towers in the centre and newspaper front pages from around the country and the rest of the world on the walls surrounding it. A lot of museums in Washington DC are free but alas this is not the case at the Newseum ($20ish entrance fee) so I decided my money would be better not spent and decided to take advantage of the free Smithsonian museums instead. In hindsight this was not such a good idea as several months later I still have a hankering to  see the Newseum and wish I had paid the entrance fee!

That does not mean that the Smithsonian museums are not magnificent in their own right, I particularly enjoyed the American History museum, which boasts as part of its collection an entire Chicago subway station, an exhibit from  the New York 1964 Worlds fair, a train, countless automobiles and Dorothy's ruby slippers from the wizard of oz. here are some cool shots from the museum!

A mustang from the Worlds Fair

An entire subway station

A piece of the Berlin wall

After the museums it was game time and time for me to witness a complete and utter shambles! Luckily Washington was a fun place because the game certainly wasn't, it turned  out to be a dreary one sided affair with the Cavaliers being dominated from start to finish, just my luck! Before you worry too much however (I know you all care so much about basketball) I am pleased to report that the Cavaliers have finally stepped it up a gear and I am sure they can go on to win  it all this year, Cleveland has not won a major championship of any sort since 1964 so it is most definitely time to change that! The city will explode when the duck is finally broken, and it'll be a great place to be :) 

The Washington Wizards stadium

The headline of the Washington post the next day

 So long, farewell and stay warm and I shall be in touch soon!!

A very Clevelandy Christmas to all :)

Hello and a Merry Christmas from a (comparitively!!) warm Cleveland, This time last year it was -20 degrees, I had no work permit and everything was going a little miserably for me, this year it is 20 degrees warmer, I have a work permit and a awesome job and everything seems to be working itself out :)

Amanda and I on the purple people bridge in Cincinnati on my birthday :)

It has been a rollercoaster of a year where a lot of fun has been had - I owe you all huge apologies for not sharing enough of these good times with you on my blog, but once the sun came out I found it a million times harder to write, I was always out and about and simply too busy it seemed!! However you'll be pleased to know that now the shadow of winter has returned I hope to make up for some lost blogging!! 2014 has also had some incredibly sad moments for me and Amanda with the passing of my brilliant and beautiful Nanny and also Amanda's lovely Granny Minute, you'll both be terribly missed, especially around Christmas but I know you shall both be here with us in spirit making sure we are behaving ourselves by not eating Indian takeaways in the living room or putting our feet up on that little wooden table which seemed to have been perfectly designed to put your feet on :)

my wonderful Nanny and Pompa enjoying a nice bacon sandwich in the sunshine in the summer of 2013

Me and Amanda have also been having terrible trouble this year with a noisy neighbour. Every single night we would hear him and his stupid booming music and parties at seemingly any time of the day or night. this music raised itself into a magnificent crescendo one night which ended in our annoying  and incredibly stupid neighbour calling the police claiming Amanda and  me were harassing him by banging on the wall over the loud music. This resulted in the police showing up, knocking on our door to find out why we were harassing our neighbour, hearing the insanely loud music, going over to his place to have a go at him for wasting police time and telling him to turn the music down! why or why if you have called the police would you continue to play your music really loud, even if you knew the police were on the way? Unfortunately even after he called the police on himself the loud music continued so we have now switched to a much bigger and quieter apartment, it is an old history classroom and still has the original blackboard on the wall! we also have much more space, 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms so if anybody wishes to come and stay you will have your own en suite :) :)

Me and Amandas christmas tree, it is a Norfolk island pine, one of the hardiest trees in the world so lets see how long it takes Amanda and me to finish it off! Kim, can you spot your acorn? :)

Well that will do for today, I hope to write again very soon and have every intention of keeping the blog up, at least through the winter! Here are some  pictures of the lovely gingerbread houses each department made at my work (i had absolutely no input into the construction of any of them!) which one is your favourite? The winning department gets a pizza party :)

Notice the sign  on the right!

A gingerbread pagoda

this is my favourite, a almost perfect model of our hotel!

Amanda and Greg x x