Just another lazy day afternoon :)
Went out for lunch at this little Louisiana style cafe, that was lovely! Then came back and relaxed by the pool whilst getting soaked from the ever so attention seeking dogs.

out to Alice Coopers bar next before going to watch the basketball! New York Nicks vs Arizona Suns.

Post again later :)

FINAL FLIGHT:

Well, the eagle has landed! – so to speak. Yet, didn't get a chance to post anything before because of the rush; Due to being delayed an hour back in Manchester, got to Newark airport just in time. Although, thanks to their rubbish organisation of security, we got sent here there and everywhere, only to find out that, we were in the right place all along. As usual, dad got extremely stressed and ended up yelling about this and that, despite not being able to do anything about it; then again, everyone was in the same situation, although this one woman took matters into her own hands yelling in her true New Yorker accent 'I aint' waitin' in this queue, I'm gonna miss my flight!' and shoved to the front. Nicely done.

Fantasies of getting some real food soon came to an end when we realised we then had fifteen minutes to run through two terminals and 14 gates to get to gate 82 where our flight had already started boarding! So it was a good bye to the delightful hopes of receiving some, I say 'proper', food at Burger King and an express Chillis, and run onto the flight, starving, once again.

Although, we are meant to get a light snack on this last flight, no idea what it is though.. oh, I stand corrected, the food card just came back and guess what, it's some weird sandwiches covered in cheese -.- much to my delight. Even our chocolate stash is low! That is NEVER a good sign.

Four hours to go, hopefully just get our luggage and be able to breathe some real air for the first time in what will be twenty-one hours!

Two and a half hours to go, they came round with the iconic 'beef cheese burgers' which made me feel even more ill, and so I had to opt for the delightfully dry vegetarian salad as the only dressing it came with was vinegar, and wow, I hate vinegar. Call me fussy but If I don't like it, I will not be eating it, especially not on a plane where things taste ten times worse! The only decent thing about it was the packet of chocolate M&M's included, although, even them I couldn't eat due to having passed the extreme hunger stage far back. Yet, I can't say the thought of pizza when we get to Phoenix doesn't sound prosperous! We eat/talk about eating food too much. Well, that's the Brown's for you!

Due to the now, almost eight hours time difference, we were all a little tiered – to say the least. Made an attempt to stay up and try and beat the sun, so began to read my Ned Kelly book for English, but when the words start to turn into a swirly mess, you know you're beginning to hallucinate you're that tiered. So there you had it, all three of us on a row – fallen asleep, to where I incidentally ended up dreaming about Ned Kelly. Oh my.

With black bag ridden eyes and cramped ligaments, we now continue on our ridiculously slow plane journey, to Phoenix.








... continued:


Finally got to Phoenix, the city looks so pretty at night :) ! Annoyed that we were on the wrong side of the plane to see much of New York, but oh well, I think we all just wanted to get here really.

MIDDLE:

ground speed: 504mph.

altitude: 35009ft.

distance travelled: 1796 miles.

Distance to destination: 1652 miles.

Outside temperature  MINUS 78 degrees.

Time remaining?  3 hours 30 minutes.

Currently in the air, boarded around half past 11 (England time of course) and got up in the air just after.

Our plane is so small compared to normal standards! We're flying on a Boeing 767 – Continental. Expected the plane to be much bigger! But then again, it is a shorter flight this time.

Spent most of the flight watching in flight entertainment, started by watching 'The Blind Side' which was a lovely little film about a boy who gets adopted and becomes an star American football player, even if it was only for the Ravens. Followed by some food, which, wasn't actually that bad this time! Normally you can expect something horrific, probably involving bacon to my luck, for me to then ask if they have any vegetarian options (due to us forgetting to ask when booking!) although, normally, if they do – they're covered in cheese. And if you know me, you'll certainly know that I would not be eating that. And so, I braced myself for the in flight food in preparation before-hand and bought some tomato and basil soup from Soho Coffee, which was lovely! The meal, in all fairness, actually wasn't that bad. Although, I still couldn't really manage to eat much of it, flying always knocks my appetite – unless it's chocolate related of course ;)

Quite amazed that we've not managed to go through our excessive amount of chocolate stash we've brought on board with us yet, for dad especially! This flight has definitely got more of a relaxed feel to it, even if we did go through a patch of turbulence before! For the past four hours now, all you can see is clouds, upon clouds, upon clouds. Can't wait to get on our next flight at our exchange at Newark to go towards the sunny Arizona! Although, it will be dark when we land as because it's quite literally in the desert, the sun sets really quickly! Still hope to take Toby and Tia on a quick run out when we get home though for a quick stretch before probably collapsing into bed as it will be 3am the next day back in England!

More turbulence. My poor Mac is wobbling all over the place! It's not normally like this... I think it's because of the huge amount of clouds though really, probably going through a big cloud bank at something – well, it would figure, as everything outside is white and has a certain candy floss look to it.

Sat pretty much two rows in front of the wings and one of the engines; it's good to know that there is a huge 'Rolls Royce' sticker on the side of it, as dad assured me, if it's made by them, it's going to be very well made and we shouldn't have any problems! *touch wood*

This flight appears to be rather quiet... I love it when you're on a big plane, one of the jumbo-jets, people get on looking fairly decent, then around eleven hours in they all end up walking around and you go and join the big queue for the several bathrooms with the rest of the passengers who happen to be stood around with messy hair, red eyes and their slipper-socks on.

Did intend on reading, or, attempting to read, my Ned Kelly book for English on this flight, but it's sad to say that the 'Big Bang Theory' tempted me a big too much! Gave me some laughs anyway, I'll start to read my book on the next flight – she says.

Still got my ipod (which, I surprisingly haven't even switched on yet) and my Grazia to get through today! I'm just trying to make everything last as long as possible because I know that if I don't, I'm going to be mighty bored waiting for the next three hours or so to pass!

We just passed over Iceland, I felt like screaming a big 'HI EVERYONE!' to those currently on the trip there with college, but, I'm afraid, I didn't. I'm not quite so stupid that I could think they would be able to hear me! - also, I'm not really sure the other passengers would quite appreciate it!

As for the passengers this year, I can't really say much... this honestly is a quiet boring flight! Normally we would always have little stores to tell about people like 'Samba-boy' two years back, who, the entire flight – fell asleep listening to samba music on full blast then occasionally falling either onto my shoulder to drool some more, or onto my headphone and TV controls, so every four seconds or so my channel would change and the volume would either be so deafening it drowned out the sound of the ridiculously loud engines, or, it would be none existent. - in the end it resulted with me, with assistance from one of the lovely flight attendants, slowly removing his headphones from the socket and turning off his TV. Mission accomplished. He was highly confused when he woke up though! Yet, then came back the samba music for another three hours.

But this flight? Nothing. There was a baby crying at the start, but, can you blame them? And a guy who is in the seat behind me that sounds like he might possibly cough a bit too much and die any second now, but, lets hope not.

I'm sure I'll post again if something decent actually happens, but as this flight appears to be rather dire at the moment, I guess not.

Cannot wait until we land in NYC again!