123 days. That is how many I have to wait until I will finally get to go back to New York. After the week I've had at work I wish it wasn't so long. It's been absolutely horrendous, to the point where I even had to go to the MD because it had all got too much. Sometimes I just wish that I could do something to make it all better and so I enjoyed going to work again, but the atmosphere is so uncomfortable in my office now (it has even been described as like a morgue) that there's nothing I can think of to change it. I don't know how things will be when I go in on Monday morning - I'm nervous to see.
Anyway, back to my holiday. 123 days. It may be excessive to count down so far in advance, but I can't help it, I'm that excited. I am starting off with 5 nights/6 days in New York with a couple of friends, doing the "tourist" thing as neither of them has been before. It will be nice to take people and show them New York, but I'm hoping being able to do that means that it won't feel repetitive as the majority of it I will have done before. We shall be staying at the Affinia Manhattan during our time there, which should be a good base to do everything we want.
When my friends leave I will be heading down to Nashville, although I won't actually be spending that much time there - I have one full day (no travelling) and I'm spending it going to Lynchburg, TN to visit the Jack Daniels Distillery - I have wanted to go for the longest time, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity when it came about. That only leaves me the evening of the 25th and the morning/early afternoon of the 26th before I have to get the Greyhound to Memphis, where I will be spending four nights at the Hampton Inn & Suites Memphis - Beale Street, leaving in the evening of the 30th to go to New Orleans. When in New Orleans I will be staying at the Chateau Bourbon Wyndham Hotel, which is on the corner of Bourbon Street and I can't wait to explore. New Orleans has been one of the places I've always wanted to visit in the US, and now I'm ecstatic that I finally get to do it, plus, it means I get to spend Halloween there, so that should be a lot of messy fun! From New Orleans I'm going to Atlanta for three nights, staying at the Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Downtown before heading back to New York on the 5th for a further three nights at the Ravel Hotel in Long Island City (which for those of you who don't know is actually in Queens, not on Long Island), right over the Queensboro Bridge from Manhattan, before I head home, although whilst I'm in New York for the last three days I'm thinking of flying up to Vermont for the day to visit the Ben & Jerry's Factory. It all just depends on what I end up doing on the days I'm there.
I have had a bit of a nightmare with flights on this trip. I thought I'd done really well, getting all my transportation and accommodation booked well in advance, only to have two of my flights change on me. The first was my flight from LGA to BNA which was originally scheduled for 7pm, only to be changed to a 10pm flight. When I looked after the change the 7pm flight was still showing as available, so I phoned up American Airlines who promptly moved me back to the 7pm flight. This gets me in to Nashville at 8:35pm, which is a whole lot better than 11:20pm, which is the time I would have arrived had my flights remained the same. The other flight was my big flight from MAN to JFK, which I originally booked with Delta - a direct flight, which was then cancelled and they put me on a flight that would take me through Paris, involve a change of planes, and add an extra 3 hours+ on each leg of my journey. In the end, I had to cancel that flight and book on the American Airlines flight (direct and gets in to JFK a couple of hours earlier than the Delta one did and also earns me frequent flyer miles) which has cost me slightly over £100 more, but is the flight I wanted to go on originally anyway, and at least it's direct!
So that's my travel plans I have to look forward to. It's what keeps me going and gets me through the week when I'm having a hard time of it at work. I would be nothing without music and travel to keep me sane. I'm always planning and thinking about where I am going next, and my aim for the year is to have at least 10,000 songs on my iTunes (only 492 to go - I think it's doable). Just got to keep positive and aiming for that next thing =c)
I felt I had to write about all the negative comments aimed at the Leeds Rhinos fans for booing Sam Tomkins on Friday night at the England/Exiles game. It has really annoyed me how it can be called "disgraceful" by Jamie Peacock or "out-of-line" by Luke Robinson, amongst other things.
As fans, we are all entitled to our own opinion, and it just happens to be that we dislike Tomkins, and the way we express that is through booing. Now it's fair enough to say that as England fans we should support England (I think the fact we paid decent money to what can only be described as a 'friendly' can be considered support enough) but this game wasn't even a 'proper' international. If the game had been against the Australian or New Zealand (or any full international squad) side then perhaps the booing wouldn't have occurred, but as fans of clubs with players in both teams, we cheered on both sides.
There has been mention that it is because he plays for Wigan. If that was the case, then why weren't Sean O'Loughlin, Michael McIlorum, Pat Richards, George Carmont or Thomas Leuluai booed? They were all playing on Friday and all play for Wigan normally. The team he plays for has nothing to do with it. If there's going to be criticism of the fans booing him for playing for another team, surely there should be criticism for us cheering for a member of our own squad? It can surely be considered the same thing, singling out a player based on the club he plays for? Yet there were chants for 'Sir Kevin Sinfield' and nothing has been noted about that, but in my opinion you can't have it both ways.
Because of the nature of the game, the fans were cheering members from each side (both England and the Exiles) and as a Leeds fan, I cheered if Danny Buderus made a good play or Kylie Leuluai had a big hit. But I also cheered when the Exiles scored or made an impressive tackle or there was fancy footwork involved, whether it was a Leeds player involved or not. I did the same for the England squad (minus Sam Tomkins) because I was there to watch a good game of rugby and cheer/boo accordingly. And I wasn't the only one.
Now, I have a lot of time and respect for Jamie Peacock - he is one of England's true greats, and a deserved England captain - but what he said bothered me. "When you come to support England, you should support England no matter who is playing for them," said Peacock. "I'm England first and Leeds Rhinos second and some other people should get that mentality." (Quote from the link above). Now, before I start my little critique of this, let me say that I respect his opinion and the pride he has in his country, and I don't deny anyone their entitlement to it, but, it's alright saying that he is England first and Leeds second - who is there paying good money to support him week in and week out? Who was there willing him to come back from his knee injury because they wanted to see him back playing? Who is there paying his wages by buying tickets/merchandise/travel/etc through the Rhinos? It's certainly not the England fans, it's the Rhinos ones! Who is going to be there when he hangs up his international boots? The Leeds fans, that's who. And which club team is it that the majority of the fans who were there on Friday support? It's Leeds, that's who. Now granted, the game was at Headingley, making it easier for Leeds supporters to get to, but it's not like the other clubs are that far away - Wakefield and Castleford close by, and the remaining Yorkshire teams and the Lancashire ones are all basically just down the motorway, and I did notice some fans from other clubs there, yet no criticism is aimed at them, despite the fact that they too could have been booing.
In summary, leave the supporters alone. We have every right to show our dislike for a player, whether the organisers consider it an international game or not, and at the end of the day we have paid the money to go to the game and that entitles us to cheer or to boo. Nothing would have been said had it been an Exiles player we were booing, even though they too shouldn't be singled out on the basis of the comments made since. We went and we supported a game that has no real merit on the international scene. Now, perhaps it wasn't the right platform on which to do it, but I vehemently stand by my right to do so.
One last thing, Sam Tomkins tweeted this about the game - I do hope he's including himself as one of those idiots, especially the way he spells disappointing!
Rant over =c)
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