The gift of Ginger

Monday 2^nd April                                                                                                             

My alarm was set for 7am but clearly i was too tired to take any notice and then woke up with a start at 7.40am. Thanks to getting everything ready the night before i was able to get up have breakfast, pack away the last few oddments, get my suitcase stored and check out the hostel by 8.20! I had decided to take the T as it’s cheaper and quicker than taking a cab, so hopped down there, i got asked by a guy selling papers where i’d got my krispy kreme donuts from, i didn’t know before but you can’t get them in Boston, i’d got mine in New York as a indulgent purchase whilst waiting for the train :)

I accidently missed my stop on the T but did get to visit the first 7-11 that i’d seen since arriving in the United States, i considered getting a slurpee but 8.52 in the morning isn’t quite the time lol so i just got dr pepper and ice (never too early in that form hehe)

I then opted for taking the T back instead of walking to the stop that i should have got off at, was a thrill to see the banner proclaiming Ginger's Century exhibition again, i checked my watch as i walked into the Frost room 9.10 wasn't bad going all things considered!

I spent the next 2 and a half hours taking photos and dodging tours, there seemed to be far more today than there had been on Friday..

This is the best reason to take plenty of camera batteries hehe, my camera was fully charged when i arrived at the exhbition and the battery had died by 11.35am. Apart from when the tours came in my camera was on the entire time and being used

I decided this was probably a good time to stop for lunch while trying to work out what i was going to do about my camera, i had the charger but needed to find somewhere to charge it!

Chicken broth for lunch today, i should have remembered from Friday that 12oz would be too much needless to say i was convinced that it wouldn't and of course i was wrong and couldn't finish it lol

I thought of Fred as i ate my soup (as ya do) but mine wasn't chicken noodle ;) and i wasn't about to go and dance hehe

Was done with lunch by 12.20pm so hopped back to the exhibition and looked around hopefully for a power outlet, there was a spare where the home video of the Misouri waltz was playing so i hoped they wouldn't mind too much, i still wasn't too sure about use of the camera at all lol, but other people had been taking photos when they'd come in with the tour groups and the guides hadn't said anything which i could only take as a good sign!

I spent my time while the camera was charging looking at parts of the exhibition that hadn't yet caught my eye and also watching the video clips, included in them were, Ginger singing 'Lets Call the Whole Thing Off, followed by the dance on Roller skates and Ginger as Linda telling Lady Tarrington that she's never going to divorce Peter from 'Shall We Dance', Cheek to Cheek and The Piccolino, song and dance number from Top Hat, the very end of The Major and the Minor and the part in Kitty Foyle where Kitty is being warned by 'her self' in the mirror about why she shouldn't go back to Wyn. They'd formally had a clip of Fred dancing with Harriet Hoctor as well (some people lol) but after several tip offs that it wasn't Ginger they'd finally removed it :) They also have Lela Rogers home video taken on the set of The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle" along with a 8mm film version of The Missouri Waltz showing along with the studio footage as comparison :)

Thankfully the camera didn't take to long too recover, i think i took photos of pretty much everything in the exhibition and then some haha, when i have recovered from all the jetlag and got meeting for placement over with i will upload all the lovely photos

I stopped taking photos around half 3 and just gave myself half an hour to look around the exhibition one last time, even after 7 hours i could easily have spent another 7 and not gotten bored of it. That is the gift of Ginger ;)

I'd forgotten to retrieve my charger and then got told off for using their plug socket when the guy came in to switch off the movies, he came in earliar than i was expecting (on Friday he'd come in and switched off at 4.10pm but today he switched off at 3.50pm which disappointed me because i was watching the missouri waltz when he came in. After that i had a last look round, just saying thankyou to the wonderful photos hehe and blowing kisses ;)

Then i had a last look at the small display cabinet containing artefacts formally belong to Adele and Fred Astaire before leaving the library at 4pm. I really did not want to leave and could quite happily have set up camp in the exhibition but i'm not sure they'd have taken that so well lol

Plus i had to find a post office, do some last minute food shopping and make it the airport by 5.45pm for my 7.45 flight

i saw George the train guy i'd chatted to on Friday again which was nice, unfortunately i didn't get to say goodbye in person as he had to deal with a problem but his colleague said he'd pass it on and waved me on to the train without letting me swipe my card to pay ;)

Got off the T for the last time of the trip at 4.30 and then took a hop down Mass Ave (Massachusetts Avenue to see if i could find a post office to send off a special housewarming gift, fortunately i found one just as i was starting to despair handily two stores from CVS, i got really confused with which box to use and finding an envelope so not to get the most important part of the gift spoilt and then about what address i should enter in the from box.. i ended up putting my home address, then waiting ages in the very long line just to get to the front to discover that i had to put as US address on the box :/

Also the box i used had a flat rate regardless of weight so the guy supplied me with a new box so i could rectify the address issue and also to save me money just having to pay for the weight :) By the time all that was sorted it was 5.05pm and i had 40 minutes to get back to the hostel and pick up my bag and get to the airport! Although I knew that as long as i got to the airport by 6.15 then i'd be ok!

Because of the close proximity of CVS i popped in there to pick up some last minute groceries :) i ended up with two packs of my favourite chips ahoy peanut butter cookies, 4 boxes of candy, a bag of dum dum pops, 2 bags of cheese ritz bits and a big box of fruit loops! As long as they fit in my suitcase it'll be fine! fortunately the shopping only took 5 minutes (i knew exactly what i wanted lol) Although i was disappointed as they'd sold out of cans of Dr Pepper, but hopefully i'll be able to get some at the airport :) I've clearly finally got the hang of this hopping thing as i managed to get back to the hostel by 5.25pm, they were most accomodating with calling me a cab, which oblidgingly turned up within 5 minutes of it being called :)

The traffic was a lot lighter today than it had been on Thursday, with it being the same time of day more or less this was a pleasant surprise and we made it to the airport at 5.45pm exactly (much faster and also cheaper than thurs!!) giving me plenty of time to check in, get through security and relax before my flight which was good, i got my remaining krispy kreme donuts through security without anyone pointing out that i had 3 items for carry on (when the max is 2) and fortunately i was able to buy dr pepper once i was in the departure area :) 4 bottles should last me a little while lol

Boarding was fairly simple, i knew from checkin that the plane wasn't going to be that busy, the set out was different from the flight out and it turned out we'd had an equipment change from a Airbus 340-600 to an Airbus 340-300, the main downside it appeared for this plane was that we were stuck with movies on a loop rather than AVOD (audio video on demand) as it turned out in the end mine wasn't working anyway and i ended up with a dvd player instead, which meant that i didn't get to see J Edgar which had been looking forward to watching again, i could have moved, but i had a spare seat next to me (of the middle 4 only the 2 aisle seats were occupied) so i chose to stay where i was, plus that way i got to put my foot up :) It was a pretty smooth flight however, although not as enjoyable as the flight out, sad to be leaving the US but looking forward to seeing Anneliese and hopefully can come back soon!

photos to follow!