BigTidy

If you're there for that long I don't think it'll matter too much where you stay cos you'll be out and about every day so you'll end up going to most places. I stayed on 38th Street, really handy for the shopping on 34th street and 5th and 6th Avenues. Central Park, Empire State, Grand Central, Times Square are all really close. But we also spent a fair bit of time Downtown which is the area for WTC memorial, ferry to Staten Island, Brooklyn Bridge. Worth looking at a map and seeing where certain landmarks or tourist attractions are compared to where you're thinking of staying but chances are you won't be spending that much time in the hotel as there's so much to see and do.

The Air Train takes you to a subway stop, then you get the subway the rest of the way in. Air Train costs $5 then it's $2.50 for the subway. Worth looking at a map and seeing what you can do in the one area. For instance, if you're starting at Central Park you could walk down to Grand Central, then on to the ESB back up 5th Avenue for shopping and stop off at the Rockefeller which has the big Christmas tree. MSG is on 34th street, same as ESB. If you're coming out at the end of the basketball, walk up Broadway and through Times Square at night. it's so easy to navigate using the street grid system. I'd think about what building you want to go up. I think ESB is the most expensive but the viewing platform isn't that great. Everyone told me to do the Rockefeller instead. Ended up doing the One World Observatory, I think it's about the same price as the Rockefeller.

Just got back from NYC last week. Loved every minute of it. There's so much to see and do, I advise anyone to have a plan before they go. Airtrain and subway from JFK was really simple. You do a lot of walking as the subway is good for going North to South in Manhattan but isn't really like London where you can go skip across town that easily. As well as all the obvious first time visit things (Central Park, Grand Central, Broadway, 5th Avenue, Staten Island Ferry, Brooklyn Bridge etc) I would total recommend getting the cable car across to Roosevelt Island. You go from the hectic streets of Manhattan to a chilled out wee park over the river. There's good views from the cable car and from Roosevelt Island. I also went up the new One World Observatory, hadn't planned on it but there was no queue when we went past so nipped in. Great views of the city, it is extremely high up. Didn't bother going up Empire State or Rockefeller. The High Line was also a cool walk to do in the evening. One thing I noticed was we had to have a plan for where to eat in the evening. I had thought we could just wander about and come across a few places but it was never that easy. I think a lot of restaurants are part of hotels but you don't really see them as well if you're walking past. Could be we were just looking in the wrong places. Grabbing a bagel for breakfast and pizza slice for lunch was great though.

Heading to New York for 4 nights mid-September, partly as a 30th birthday celebration for my wife. I've been trawling this thread and other places for advice and think I've compiled a decent list of things to do. Time Square, Top of the Rock, Central Park, couple of museums, Grand Central, One World Trade, Brooklyn Bridge, Broadway, etc. Question is, what is something a bit different/special anyone could recommend? I was thinking maybe a night time boat cruise with bottle of champagne. Also think I'll be arranging for a car to do a transfer from airport to hotel. Anyone able to recommend a decent company?

Storm of Spoilers is good, although as the name suggests they do a lot of talking about what might happen in future episodes. Now the show is mostly past the books this is more guesswork than anything concrete. A cast of kings is also pretty good and just discusses the most recently aired episode.

It'd be a nice counterpoint to R+L=J. Tywin lies about Tyrion being his child to protect the family reputation. Ned lies about Jon being his out of loyalty to his sister at the risk of his own reputation and marriage.

I thought he was in the opening sequence. I also thought Peter Dinklage was first in Monday's opening sequence cos they do a mix of status and alphabetical order but I can't be bothered going back to check cos I'm not arguing against Kit Harington playing a big part this season.

Charles Dance was in the credits for the opening episode of Season 5 and he was just laying on a slab for a couple of minutes. I still think Jon will be back walking about before long.

You think you can keep it a secret until the birth? I'm sure I'd say something unintentionally, referring to the bump as he/she or something like that. I found boys names harder. First child we picked one quite early and stuck with it all the way through. Complicated labour ended up in theatre so when he was born they took him next door to do a couple of checks and I went with him. They asked me the name and obviously my wife wasn't there to confirm that he looks like a Calvin but I went with it and straight away all the doctors and nurses are calling him Calvin in every sentence so there was no going back. Not that my wife had changed her mind or anything but was still quite a pressure situation. Second child we had one girls name set in stone and three boys options. Much easier delivery so we were able to both decide on Felix when he was there. Although I'm sure my wife had already decided and was just humouring me with the other couple of choices. She was right though, it was definitely the right choice.

At least if they had her replacing a broken oven then they story would make sense.

Sounds like quite the sex scene.

Yeah, the league goes on through the internationals. The main leagues all do it through the 6 Nations as well. I don't know why but the system of having the top 4 compete by playoff kind of evens it out as you don't have to finish top to win. Not that I agree with either part of that set up.

I'm not that surprised about Paterson's call up. I'm sure he was part of 5 youngsters that Strachan brought in to a training camp last year. Not in the squad as such but they were around for the experience. I think Gauld and Armstrong were part of it too.

Producers saying there will likely be 7 or 8 seasons and they hounded Martin for a week regarding how to end it. http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/ustv/s151/game-of-thrones/news/a557069/game-of-thrones-producers-know-how-george-rr-martins-books-will-end.html That link doesn't say how many seasons but I read somewhere they were thinking 7 or 8.

Link to the film? I've seen a few requests for votes on my feed. Not liked a film enough to vote for one yet.

Book spoilers.

I think he's pretty funny but can def see why people would get bored of him. My twitter name is in my sig. I'm thinking of live tweeting Linlithgow marches on Tuesday, it's going to be very entertaining.