Catherine Robson Home - Vereeniging

Hello All

We are collecting much needed goodies for kids at the Catherine Robson Children's home in Vereeniging. There are 5 houses which house 75 kids between the ages of 2-17 years old. The home rescues abandoned and abused children

If you would like to donate money to the home, which we will use to purchase some of the things mentioned below, I could provide you with banking details.

If you are in the Vereeniging area, you can donate things to

1 JOUBERT STREET, VEREENIGING, GAUTENG, ZA

These are some of the things the home needs.

-          any kind of food (fresh, tinned, frozen)

-          any clothing and shoes for children aged 3 – 18 years

-          table cloths, cutlery and utensils, glasses, cups

-          any linen and curtains

-          shower curtains

-          bathroom rugs (pink, orange and blue)

-          gift wrap for school books and presents

-          any toiletries and toilet paper

-          cleaning products

-          dust bins for boys rooms (10)

-          stationary

-          paint

-          school bags

-          sport bags

-          any paintings for children’s rooms

-          toasters and toasted sandwich maker

-          vacuum cleaners

-          dusters and dust cloths, brooms

-          any bord games and puzzles

You can email me for more information.

info@mahreenchenia.co.za

Absolute Decadence

Now I was always taught to never go to a party empty handed.

And being me I'm always late or unprepared...but thanks to this easy and delectable chocolate dessert , 10 minutes and I am sorted.

Ingredients:

250 ml Fresh Cream
4 Tablespoons Icing Sugar
1 Medium Carton Custard
5-6 Tablespoons Chocolate Nesquick (Some people use the Chocolate Custard instead of the mix)
1 Chocolate Sponge cake (which can be bought at any bakery.  If you can't find one the Snowflake Creations is fantastic Add, mix, bake and you done! add extra 20 Min though)
Some Chopped up nuts
Flake

Method:

Beat the cream and icing sugar together until stiff. Then mix the custard and nesquick together. Cut the Sponge cake in half and chop up some nuts for flavour.

Try use a glass bowl so you can see the different layers of the dessert. It makes it look pretty fancy!

Add some of the custard mixture at the bottom of the bowl and place the 1 half of the cake on top. Then follow with the cream and add some nuts for taste. It might be useful and much neater to pipe the cream onto the sides and just fill the middle. Make sure that you can see the different layers through the bowl. Place the 2nd cake layer and top with the custard mix and cream and break the flake pieces on top. You can add nuts if you like.

Refrigerate for a bit... And you are ready to go!!!

Let me know how it goes.

New York Yankees

According to the American's they are the most free place on earth but they are also the most unfriendly and miserable. Thats howTuesday began.

After a very pricey breakfast at the hotel... we weren't expecting that for the little that was provided. We wanted to visit the Bronx.

After a asking a number of unfriendly New Yorkers which subway to take we finally resorted to walking back to the hotel for directions. Got out subway cars and was told by the assistant through the window to find the platform our selves its clearly marked. So Ok, we did. Hopped onto the subway... very dirty and smelly. Did you know that there are double the amount of rats than people in NY. Well, back to subject at hand. Very lovely lady on the train could see us quite lost and very nicely helped us find our way. There are good people in the NY then.

Off to Yankee Stadium it was. Bad timing as the Season was on and we were not allowed in. But managed to get a few souvenirs from the store.

 Then it was back to times square for tickets for "CHICAGO". I have been wanting to see the production forever. And it lived up to all expectation. It was Fantastic!

Screaming Freedom

Times square is exactly what you see in movies... Awesome! And 24 hours day it is buzzing with life! Lots of lights billboards and people!

All the Major stores are in Times Square. A Lot of Wanna-be artists are performing all around. But just the idea of being in Times Square in New York City is what got me.

Spent the day walking around, visited the Hershey's store and yes i bought the worlds biggest Hershey's chocolate bar.

Every Tourist has to visit the Statue of Liberty. So we took Miss Liberty (our ferry) to Ellis Island and then to Liberty Island. The entire trip was spent telling us about how America is the epitome of Freedom and that is what the country is founded on. Great!

But I must admit that Miss Liberty (the statue) is quite something. From ground to torch is 93 some odd meters and weight 225 tons. She is quite a sight. Unfortunately we couldn't up, bookings have to be done 2 months prior for security purposes. and that is another thing. Anywhere you go you have to pass through a rigid security check. Paranoid much?


From the Island there is a beautiful view of Manhattan... The pictures say it all.

Close to the port where you get the ferry is the financial disctirct. IN which the UN presides. Unfortunately no access to the UN as Genial Assembly was busy at work. But we did get to see the famous bull... Ever heard of the saying a Bull or Bare market... its after this famous guy....

 Then is was off to the famous 5th Avenue where all the big boys do there shopping. The infamous Trump Towers are also on 5th Venue with Armani, D&G, Gucci, and the most beautiful and most expensive jewelry....

SOHO

Sunday started off with our usual breakfast at StarBucks: yogurt with granola, breakfast Sandwiches and tea. Then went exploring in SOHO. South housten or SOHO is part of the fashion district where big brands with little boutiques ate scattered around in between little food delis, bistros and coffee shops. 

My Kinda place!

We visited Dean and Deluca a stunning deli with every food source you can think of. They had over 6 kinds of mushrooms- that says alot. 

Beautiful part of NYC with a real bohemian feel. Enjoyed the day shopping. Visited the Dash store, since my Kardashian mad cousins insisted I see what the rave was about- such an anti-climax! The store is full of very little clothes with huge price tags. Nothing out of the ordinary. 

The cost of living for an average American is rather cheap. Clothes are priced within the 20-80 dollar range ( which is like a shirt for about R50-R160) but because of the weakend rand everything including taxis are crazy expensive (7.50 per dollar) so a mere $20 is 140...

Quick rest sesh at the hotel and a plan of itineray

And then it's Times Square.. But first Grand Central Station

24 September 2011

5am start as jet lag kicked in...Finally caught the re-run of the UN general assembly.
Already America did not leave a great impression on me...

We stayed at the Manhattan Club on 56th street between Broadway and 7th Avenue. Loved it because it was so central. 7 blocks to time square, opposite Carnegie Hall and a few blocks from 5th Avenue


We had breakfast at Starbucks (which eventually became our daily routine). There is a real conveyor belt system going on there because people are constantly in a rush. and if you take more than 10 sec to place your order people serious start getting agro. Anyways after that enjoyed a breakfast sandwich and a granola yoghurt mix. Yum!

The plan of the day was to get a sense of our area and where all the places we wanted to visit were.  Maybe i should have explained before we stayed in Manhattan, Midtown New York. This is the theatre district.

Found a GAP around the corner and already did my first bit of New York Shopping. Blessed!

We decided to try the NY sight sight seeing tour to, again, familiarise ourselves with the city. Now the story of my life is that Murphy follows me wherever I go. We had the worst tour guide ever. Half of the questions i asked he couldn't give me an answer. He was crazy he would sit down and start swearing (silently) and pointing fingers. CRAZY i tell you!

We traveld around saw all the tourist sites like the Empire State Building, Ground Zero, Freedom Tower, Chrysler Building etc all from the bus. We stopped at Rockafellar Plaza. Awesome place. Finally got to eat an all american pretzel from Auntie Annies. I had the almond mom had the Jalepeno . Heaven Sent!

We then went to TOP OF THE ROCK (top of Rockefellar center). The centre started during the great depression. It grew and grew and grew and now houses one of America's largest media stations -NBC. The centre has some big name stores with an ice rink which is the place to be during the winter time. If you look at American movies each place is set at the Rockefellar centre. Beautiful View from the top... panoramic splendor of the "concrete Jungle".

Tomorrow is another day in the City

PS. Now I understand why American's are obese. Ordered a small meal from MCD's and it is equivalent to our large.

Arrival

Left The Abu dhabi airport at 10am went through like three security checks having to take off shoes, jewelry etc. The Whole world has to be paranoid with the Americans! 

Took a very long 14 hour flight to NYC. Not much sleep at all.

Arrived at JFK at 4pm NY time (gained a few hours since we travelled from east to west) . We hear so much about JFK but let me tell you it has nothing on OR Tambo international. Its huge i give it that (then again everything is over-sized in the US). It actually looks so deary and grey...Just like the rainy weather we were welcomed with

Finally got through immigration and customs and then had to wait  for over 45 minutes for a taxi. Yes in NY there were no taxi's- not a great start.

And if you thought Johannesburg traffic was bad... It took us forever to get to the hotel to top it all mom and I were both terribly nauseous. 

The drive in to the city is through queens and a few other 

areas. Not the most appealing sight but its great that we got to see another part of America that's what we seem to miss in the movies.

Finally checked in settled in a bit went to bed at 9 am but was up from 5am because of jet lag...