October 31, 2003 [Friday]......Meet The Parents - Day 1
Anh made me clean up the apartment today in advance of my parents arrival. Took the best part of the day, and we have like one room. Took the subway out to JFK airport to meet them as they came in around 5pm. We all came back again on the subway and checked in to the hotel.

The big event on today is of course Halloween. The Greenwich Village Halloween parade is the big event in the city and runs up 6th Avenue just down from our apartment. We made our way through the crowd (they say 30,000) to a spot we could see from. The best thing about Halloween is that amost everyone dresses up and walks around, so it's very festive.

October 30, 2003 [Thursday]......general

Weather in NYC: High 15 Low 8 (clear)
Weekend weather is still forecast as good, 18 - 22 and sunny.

October 29, 2003 [Wednesday]......The Strokes
Anh & I went to see The Strokes tonight who played at The Theater which is part of MSG. The Strokes are New Yorkers and typical of a popular movement in music right now. The venue is below the MSG centre, or where the basketball & hockey are played. It is a mid-sized venue with a low roof but wide footprint and it feels like being in a large cave I thought. The Strokes were great and Anh picked up a t-shirt to send back to her sister Helen who is a fan.

Weather in NYC: High 12 Low 7 (rain)

October 28, 2003 [Tuesday]......It's a Fracture
Last Friday I had x-rays taken of my injured wrist that I busted in the last hockey game and the results came back, I had fractured the wrist. No wonder it still hurt after 2 months. Have to see an orthepedic doctor now to see what needs to be done. Still not able to play the drums, last time I tried in a music store it hurt too much to use a decent amount of pressure on it.

Took in a Rangers game tonight. They were playing last years Stanley Cup runners-up, Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, who were too good and won 3-1.

Weather in NYC: High 14 Low 9 (late showers)
Weekend weather is looking like it will be very good, around the 19 - 22 mark.

October 27, 2003 [Monday]......Old School Rock
Tonight I was up at Beacon Theater to see 3 old school rock bands. First up was Sebastian Bach, former singer from Skid Row, followed by Twisted Sister performing for the first time together in years. Alice Cooper was the headline act doing a bunch of his old hits and some new ones. The last 2 acts both had drum solos, which I haven't seen anyone do in years.

Weather in NYC: High 16 Low 9 (humid, lots of rain in afternoon)
Forecast for this weekend looks good.

October 26, 2003 [Sunday]......Volunteer Day
During October my company runs tonnes of volunteer activities across the globe. I chose to sign-up for one called On_dec (Our neighborhood digital education community) which is a program in Brooklyn where we supply laptops to one school and pc's for the kids at home. The school is Ditmas IS-62 and 96% of the kids come from families that are below the poverty line. After getting instructions in the school hall we then got on a bus that dropped us off near our houses. I was one of the installers and put in brand new pc's into 3 apartments. With me I had one of the 6th graders helping me as an assitant and he was pretty useful. We unpacked the pc from the boxes, assembled it, started it all up and then setup the internet connection. After a couple of hours we finished our 3 places and went back to the bus. During the ride we actually got a mini tour of Brooklyn which was interesting at the same time.

Weather in NYC: High 20 Low 14 (overcast, some drizzle)

October 25, 2003 [Saturday]......Anh Goes Shopping
This afternoon Anh & I went out to do some shopping for jackets. Fall has been cool and cold, feeling more like winter mostly. So it was time to get some warmer jackets. On the way we stopped by Union Square to have lunch at Republic Noodles, then swung by the Doggie Halloween party at the Union Square Park Dog Run. We were a little disappointed that more dogs didn't dress up, but one had a full cowboy outfit on that was quite a sight.

At night I went up to a Rangers hockey game at MSG. This was a happy ending as the Rangers beat the Detroit Red Wings 3 -1. I was excited to see the Red Wings as they have several players I have followed for many years.

Weather in NYC: High 13 Low 5 (cool & clear)

October 24, 2003 [Friday]......Matchbox 20
Went to see Matchbox Twenty tonight at the Garden. Never saw them when they had toured Australia in the past so I was happy to finally see them. M20 have a great live sound, many well known hits to choose from and an entertaining performance.

Weather in NYC: High 11 Low 6 (cool & clear)

October 23, 2003 [Thursday]......Weather
Weather in NYC: High 9 Low 2 (Chilly!)

October 22, 2003 [Wednesday]......Heating Restrictions
We had some unusually cold weather early this Fall. In New York there is a law that apartment buildings cannot turn on their heating until after a certain date in October. Earlier this month is was way cold and we tried to turn our heater on without knowing this and couldn't work out why nothing was happening.

Weather in NYC: High 12 Low 8 (mostly sunny, cool)

October 21, 2003 [Tuesday]......Rooney and Travis
Went up to Beacon Theater tonight where Travis were playing a concert. I actually really went to see the support band, Rooney, my favourite new group who were awesome. My new Rooney t-shirt is the bomb. Travis were good too.

Weather in NYC: High 16 Low 8

October 20, 2003 [Monday]......General
Weather in NYC: High 13 Low 7

October 19, 2003 [Sunday]......Philadelphia Eagles, finally
After many years of waiting, today I finally went to a Philadelphia Eagles NFL game. I bought a ticket to the Philly v NY Giants game a couple of days ago from some guy out in Queens. It was hard to pass up as I sat right on the 50 yard line, 2 rows from the field, directly behind the Giants bench, amazing spot.

The Eagles did not play well for most of the game and were down 10-7 with 1:16 left when miraculously they returned a punt 86 yards down the sideline, right past me for a touchdown that won the game. It was incredibly exciting. I was even sitting next to 2 other Philly fans that drove down from Philadelphia for the game so we were all very happy they won.

October 18, 2003 [Saturday]......Going to the World Series!
Big day today. Started by taking a short visit down to some of the Chelsea Art galleries. Looked at a couple of more traditional painting exhibitions before 2 more progressive ones. The David Zwirner gallery had the Meccatuna exhibition, sculptures including racks and racks of neon signs and a huge 4 walled structure made of over 1 million lego pieces. Next was a visit to The Kitchen which always has some offbeat stuff. Currently it is a immersive interactive 3-d computer game of Waco, Texas as you play as the cult leader.

Late afternoon I met up with Marty at 86th Street on our way to the World Series, Game 1. Yankees are playing the Florida Marlins. We got to the game early so we could visit Monument Park, an area inside the ballpark with tributes to all the old great Yankee players. There are monuments for some of the greats including Babe Ruth. We had a 45 minute wait until we got in, but it certainly was worth it and we took some photos while there.

For the game, we sat out in the left field stands and the crowd was excited. The game was close down to the final innings, Marlins ultimately winning 3-2 in a tight game. I then brought home my World Series souvenir pin and program to store away safely.

October 16, 2003 [Thursday]......One Week in One Night
This was a incredibly busy day. After work, I started off at the opening home game of the New York Rangers ice hockey over at MSG. Being opening night, everyone in attendance was given Rangers hats. Later, the section my season ticket is in was the lucky section of the night & all received a Rangers t-shirt. Nice. At 9 minutes to go in the last period, with the score tied at 0-0 I had to leave to meet Anh at Times Square. The game later finished a 0-0 tie in overtime.

I had to bolt over to 42nd street where Anh & I went to see Bret Michaels (from Poison) in concert at the BB King Blues Bar. We got a great location just in front of the stage. This was actually one of the shows that Anh was looking forward to most. I brought in the camera and had taken quite a few photos before the security took offence to it and tried (unsuccessfully) to haul me outside as cameras were banned. They actually did kick a few people out but it took 2 of them to get me and they gave up after awhile when it was clear I wasn't going nowhere.

The other big thing happening was Game 7 of Yankees v Red Sox. There was so much hype over this, winner take all game, all of New York is talking about it. During the Rangers game and even the concert they were actually giving score updates. We came out of the club and a sports store on the corner of 42nd Street had several tv's with the game on. It was around 11:30pm and we stood on the sidewalk with around 300 people watching the game on the tv in the store. It was kinda like a cross between a huge living room and how people must have done it when tv first came out and not many people had it. We watched the 9th innings in the street which was a fun experience. Yankees had been down 5-2 in the 8th innings but miraculously came back to tie it 5-5. After a scoreless 9th, the game went to overtime, it was cold out and we raced home to see the extra innings to decide who went to the World Series. (Although I watched half on our tv and half on the plasma tv of an apartment in the building across the street through the window, as their picture is so damn clear!)

The game ended on a Yankee home run in the 11th innings sending the Yankees to their 39th World Series, and me to my first, as I have tickets to Game 1. The World Series is 100 years old this year, and the Yankees have won 26 of them. The so called "bambino curse" of the Yankees over Boston is alive as it is famous that Boston have not been to the World Series since trading Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919, whilst that was when the Yankees success started. Yankee Stadium is also known as The House That Ruth Built. Many people considered the Yankees Red Sox series as the true World Series as the clubs have such tradition and rivallry.

October 15, 2003 [Wednesday]......Yankees v Red Sox Game 6
This afternoon I went back out to Yankee Stadium for Game 6 - Yankees only need 1 more win to make the World Series. The game again did not disappoint for excitement and action. It was the highest scoring game with the most number of hits I have seen. Yankees crumbled in the last couple of innings after leading most of the game and lost 9-6, so it now goes down to a final game 7.

October 14, 2003 [Tuesday]......The Day I Touched Shania Twain's Hand
Went to see Shania Twain at MSG tonight. It was a big show with an "in the round" style stage, I had a floor seat not far from the stage. Very enjoyable show, excellent sound and her band was good. 2 of the band members were from Australia and the bass player was actually from Adelaide, now living in Brooklyn, NY. Shania was constantly signing autographs for people around the stage while singing which I have never seen a singer do before. At these times plenty of people would rush the stage from their seats and the security guards got so overwhelmed they gave up at these times. Then I went to the front to take photos from only 2m or so from Shania.
Another time she sang a song from up in the audience, and afterwards she came back to the stage directly down the aisle I was sitting on, so everyone puts their hands out to touch her as she walks past, and I of course did the same. Guess that means I shouldn't wash it for awhile.

October 11, 2003 [Saturday]......Knicks Pre Season
OK, so here is how to go to an NBA game for $10. First pick a preseason game, today was the Knicks v Minnesota Timberwolves at MSG. The Knicks might suck this year, but Minnesota have a good team. Next, instead of sitting up in the nosebleed section where our $10 seats were, we moved ourselves down to the $67 seat section as there are so many people that don't turn up to preseason games. Even better, they were giving away tickets to a Knicks practice session on the following weekend, so we grabbed a few, more on that later.

October 10, 2003 [Friday]......Margaret Cho
Headed up to Beacon Theater on Broadway in the Upper West Side to see the comedian Margaret Cho. Beacon Theater is really interesting, one of those old style theatres from earlier last century with a lot of detail in the building itself. In the end, I liked the building more than the act as it just wasn't that funny. It was disappointing as we had seen her previous tour on dvd and that was very good. After we had dinner at a Cosi cafe where the cosi bread is just delicious.

October 9, 2003 [Thursday]......Yankees v Red Sox Game 2
The winner of the NY Yankees v Boston Red Sox series moves onto the world series. There is huge amount of media coverage and hype over the Yankees v Red Sox as they have been fierce rivals for over 80 years. Tonight I went to Game 2 at Yankee stadium and tickets were in high demand after the Yanks lost game 1. Crowds outside were very thick and the tight security was slowing everybody in getting inside. I sat between home plate and first base on the lower level, my best seat ever for a ball game, and the former mayor Rudy Guilani was directly in front of me, albeit 30 rows ahead and right in the first row, but I could see the back of his head. He does actually sit in the same seat that he is seen in during the movie Anger Management.

It was a great game, one of the best yet, and the Yankees kept the series alive by winning 6-2. A memorable 2 run homer was a highlight. The crowd was crazy again. They hate the Red Sox here. If the series goes to game 6, I have a ticket to that next week.

October 6, 2003 [Monday]......Stryper at Irving Plaza
There are plenty of rock bands who were big in the late 80's or early 90's that still tour around the US playing smaller club shows. Many disappeared for 5-10 years before returning to play these type of shows. Good news can be that it is a smaller show, you are much closer to the stage and it can be cheaper.
Tonight I saw Stryper who haven't toured in 10 years and are back now for a series of shows across the country. They looked a little older, some for the better, and the stage a little smaller but the show was very good and the sound great.

I walked home afterwards from down at Union Square as the cool night was very refreshing. I also learnt an important lesson....never use public pay phones. I happened to see how the homeless use payphones as a urinal late at night when the streets are empty. I guess its convenient, but I advise never to use those phones!

October 5, 2003 [Sunday]......Flugtag on Pier 45
A lovely day outside, perfect for the RedBull Flugtag 2003 event happening down at Pier 45 on the Hudson River. It is similar to the event that used to be down at Glenelg on Australia Day where people jump off the jetty using some kind of home-made craft. Here, you get 2 minutes for a skit and then you make the flight off a 25 foot high barge in between some piers.

There was some funny craft out today including a giant disco ball, flinstones car, huge 20 foot long paperplane, enormous lobster, you get the idea. Around 35,000 people were out to watch and it was hard to get to a spot to watch from. I ended up near the contestants area where someone that had already jumped was getting taken away on a stretcher wearing a neck brace.

As it was such a nice day out, I walked home from the hudson river park, stopping only to buy 2 cookies for a quarter each from some little kids who had set up a lemonade stand outside their apartment building. The cookies were fresh baked and still warm, very nice.

October 4, 2003 [Saturday]......Import Cars
There was an import car show on today over on west 34th street near the hudson river. I spent a couple of hours looking through the hall at all the cars, mostly owned by people woh had done them up and spent a tonne of money in the process. They are the sort of cars you see in The Fast & the Furious and used for street racing. They also had other entertainment, some dj's, rapping and breakdancing. Most cars had built in playstations or flat screen dvd's, while others had even tiled the car floor - one had wood floorboards.

October 3, 2003 [Friday]......Michelle Kwan Figure Skating
Tonight we attended the International Figure Skating Classic at MSG. It had many of the olympic skaters including Michelle Kwan and Sasha Cohen. It was a different sort of crowd that attend figure skating compared with basketball. Plus they serve champagne drinks instead of beer. The skating was good, although most skaters had at least one fall during their performance which surprised us.

October 2, 2003 [Thursday]......Let's Go Yankees
Post-season baseball has started and the New York Yankees are up against the Minnesota Twins in the Division Series playoffs. After they lost the first game, tonight was game 2. This is the 4th Yankee game I have been to and before tonight I had not seen them win yet. It was a complete sell-out, 58,000 or so. You have to be quick to get post-season Yankee tickets, I think tickets for the first 2 series of playoffs sold out in a few hours.

Surprisingly I had a good seat, down the first base line and not high up in the stands at all. This was also the first game out of 6 this year that I arrived before the game had started and got to see the first pitch etc. Luckily tonight the Yankees came through and won 4-1 to keep the series alive, and it was a great game. The crowd in Yankee Stadium are very loud and passionate. Every time the count was up to 2 strikes, the whole stadium were on their feet clapping and cheering for the last strike. From the 6th innings on I don't think I sat down, everyone stood the whole time and cheered. The weather has also taken a turn over the last few days so it is much cooler. The temperature was in the 50's tonight and felt like winter.