Living the American dream....

I'm baaaaaaaaaaacccccckkkkk! (Oh how I wish you could give words on a blog a sound - that would have been said in a creepy chucky voice!)

Yip - back in the city of red buses, dirty trains and Paralympics!  And it sure feels good to be back, sitting on the couch, writing my blog and feeling the cool evening bite at my bare arms - yip, Autumn is well and truly here peeps!

But anyways - I am tanned, I am happy, I am fighting hectic jetlag and I am LUVIN it!  America was amazeballs.  Absolutely enjoyed every moment of my trip (even when I was frustrated by rude Americans)...honestly, have not enjoyed wandering around and experiencing new cities like that in a long time.

Now let's start at the very beginning - a very good place to start!  I got to hold an Olympic Gold Medal on my plane over to JFK.  Peter Reed - the UK rower - was on the plane and seen as BA sponsor him, he was wondering around the plane chatting and allowing photos with the medal. It was spectacular!  I was in my element and never ever in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would hold an Olympic Gold Medal from the games that were in MY city in the year I loved in LONDON!  Insane!  Here is the proof!

I have ALWAYS wanted to do to NYC.  Like since forever.  If you asked me at school where I wanted to visit - NYC, Canada and Hawaai (farkin obscure group of places when I look back now - but hey, I was young and idealistic!)  Never mind!  So having made the move to London, when I was told I needed to do my first trip to NYC I was beside myself...so much of excited!  Visa in hand, business class ticket purchased and off I went.  And I loved NYC - it was alive and fascinating and a sensory mind-f*&%.  That was September 2011.  Little did I know I would go again (February 2012) and again (July 2012) and then again (August 2012).  Yes - completely insane, totally nuts and utterly mad!  But this last trip was pure holiday with my friend Agnes from Cape Town.  And we had a great time doing many of the things I had not done (on purpose) in the many trips that had gone before, so that she and I could experience new things together.  We stayed in Brooklyn, we ate local on one of the days (mmmm - Peaches Dinner - divine!), we went up the Rickefeller center, we walked Fifth Avenue flat, we went into Saks (Agnes is Christian Louboutin befok - so she tried them on and I smiled sweetly at the shop assistant knowing full well she was not going to be purchasing $800 shoes!), we drank Starbucks, we went to the 9/11 memorial (stunningly solemn and so worthwhile), we got rained on (royally!), Grand Central Terminal called our name, we went on a Sex and the CIty Tour (I loved it - totes fun!), we went on a boat around the whole of Manhattan island, we drove in taxis, we waxed the subway.  And we loved out suburb - in the heart of Brooklyn over a weekend the cheer and laughter and music and sunshine and smiles just abound and are shared so willingly.  I saw the Lion King for the 3rd time...Jhb, London, NYC - I am going global (slowly!!), I bought myself a stunning new Michael Kors watch for half the price of London. We walked the Highline, had delicious food at the Green Table in Chelsea Market, saw the staircase in the NY Public Library where Carrie ran away from Big at their wedding and went to the Guggenheim, Central Park, the Met and Columbus Circle.  I had the honour of meeting the Macster - my old uni mates little boy.  Margs and I had not seen each other since 1998 - but it felt like yesterday - stunning! And fan my brow - I walked 32 kms in 5 days.  Yes - 32 kms!

Then it was off to Washington.  And this is where the story continues.  I mentioned my love affair with NYC.  Well, in Washington, I felt compelled to cheat on my NYC love.  Washington is my city.  It is amazing there.  I just do not have the words.  It is friendly and fun and interesting and vibey and has great food and its fair share of nutters.  I fitted right in.  I would go back there this minute.  NO questions asked.  It was an absolutely fantastic 2 days there.  So much more to see and do there - I will be back...and something tells me quite soon too!  I LOVE DC.  Love, love, love.  And this is just a quick shot of how idyllic it is...and SO clean..

And I got to see Chaddles there too - had been about 12 years.  And 'Cher' - 8 years of memories caught up in one bagel and an iced tea!  Special times.  Georgetown is a suburb with an attitude.  The university is magical, the people so friendly.  I went to the American History museum - awesome to see so much of the American history dating back through the ages.  Everything from the first ever American flag (ENORMOUS!) to Kermit the (original) frog to Dorothy's red shoes from the Wizard of Oz film to Julia Childs bequeathed kitchen laid out as it was in the film.  And then came the 'First Ladies" room.  Dresses from across the ages that all the first ladies had worn at the Inauguration dinners of their husbands.  And then I met Betsy - the historian in the Presidential exhibition.  She gave the grand tour.  I was the only person in her tour.  I got GREAT service and amazing attention - thanks Betsy!  I never ever realised how much of America's story I never knew - it was inspiring.  Then it was on to the Hope Diamond, a zoot around the Natural History museum, a ping through the live Butterfly exhibition (you go in a giant enclosure with hundreds of them) and onto the Capitol.  No time for a tour - next time!  I ate crab cakes at Georgia Brown and had devilled eggs for the first time - mmm - jury is still out on those!  On my final morning I did the walk from the memorials - Lincoln to Martin Luther King to Roosevelt to Jefferson - the entire perimeter of the tidal basin.  In 36 degree heat.  No point in 'fanning my brow' by this stage - I need a mop and a bucket for the sweat!  And then with one final flick of my index finger it was a cab to the Library of Congress, a quick peak at the Gutenberg Bible (one dad was proclaiming - 'come son, let's go and see the Guggenheim bible' - have you ever!) and then a mad dash to the apartment and a hurtle in a shuttle to Dulles for a flight to Boston!

And once I touched down in Boston it was all smiles again. Gweez fetched me at the airport - I have known him and his family since forever.  I went home and met his lovely wife and gorgeous new arrival.  His mom was there from Bots.  And we laughed.  And laughed.  And told stories.  And laughed some more.  What a fantastic evening!  Talking about old times is such a bonding experience - love it!  Then it was off to my BnB for the night.  And Saturday morning brought the first taste of the Bostonian friendliness - NOT!  Fark - it's official.  Bostonians have to be the most unhelpful, unengaging Americans I have yet to meet.  The do not give a FIG about tourists coming to their city (in fact some of them make you feel like they want to chase you OUT of their city).  Anyway - as always, I gave the unfriendliness the middle finger and went on my merry way.  The Boston Common is spectacular and the public gardens just mesmerising.  So pretty!  I trundled Newbury Street (think the Bostonian version of 5th Avenue).  I saw the Trinity Church, the Old State House, I walked part of the Freedom trail, I had shrimp at Faneuil Hall, I watched a mad-ass magician in amongst the crowds (he tied himself up in a strait jacket, had the crowd hang him upside down from a beam and then managed to get himself out of the strait jacket and down the beam and right side up) - well done him!  And I got to spend the afternoon with Mrs Mazwi - my old English teacher from high school.  She was one of 'those' teachers.  Encouraging you to be a free thinker, toleraant, patient, bright, articulate.  I loved being taught by her.  And I saw her.  For the first time in 17 years.  And we spent the most special afternoon together - talking about our lives back in Africa, our families.  She had brought me pictures of 2 of her sons weddings - they are a clever bunch that Mazwi family.  Two doctors and a PhD in Chemistry between the 3 boys - wow!  And Dianne (I still felt funny calling her that after all these years) - she was humorous and fun and as full of life as I remember her.  She is coming to London in June 2013 - I look forward to her visit!  And then I did something that the 'academic' in me has always wanted - I went to Harvard.  Yes - Harvard.  Top uni.  Place of brains.  I went there.  And it was just like you imagine.  Traditional, historic and epic.  And it was the labor day weekend when every comes back to school, so it was HEAVINGLY busy!  From there it was a little whizz through the MIT campus (a nostalgic one - I had wanted to go there to work with one of the Change management masters - Peter Senge - but I was only shortlisted for the Fulbright Scholarship that would have made that possible..it was not meant to be!)

And then - in one flash of a taxi cab $40 bill it was all over.  I was back at Boston airport.  Being loaded into the sardine can for the trip home. The flight was not without its antics...people got aggressive, one man shouted.  The police were waiting for him at Heathrow - welcome to London MR!  I was befriended on the plane by a little 1.5 year old boy called Freddy.  He was about 6 rows ahead of me - but he just kept on making his way back to me.  Like a moth to a flame.  Freddy and I had SUCH fun on that plane home - we laughed, I made funny sounds, I tickled him.  And he confirmed it for me - I am 100% convinced my sister is having a boy.  I have always thought it - but Freddy just solidified it for me.

I lived the American dream for 10 days. It was fun and vibey and all together more than I hoped for and everything I wished for...see you soon Washington!

xoxo Gossip Girl!