LONDON EYE, CONTEMPLATING LONDON UNDER OUR FEET

Today, The Winsors and The Grandma have visited London Eye, the famous wheel situated on the South Bank of the River Thames in London.

 

Núria and Mari Winsor suffer from vertigo and they have prefer to study some English grammar with To Have Got verb and Prepositions of Place.

 

More information: To Have Got

 

More information: Prepositions of Place

 

More information: House & Furniture Exercises

The London Eye or the Millennium Wheel, is a cantilevered observation wheel on the South Bank of the River Thames in London.

It is Europe's tallest cantilevered observation wheel, and is the most popular paid tourist attraction in the United Kingdom with over 3.75 million visitors annually, and has made many appearances in popular culture.

The structure is 135 metres tall and the wheel has a diameter of 120 metres.

When it opened to the public in 2000 it was the world's tallest Ferris wheel. Its height was surpassed by the 160-metre Star of Nanchang in 2006, the 165-metre Singapore Flyer in 2008, and the 167-metre-tall High Roller (Las Vegas) in 2014. Supported by an A-frame on one side only, unlike the taller Nanchang and Singapore wheels, the Eye is described by its operators as the world's tallest cantilevered observation wheel.

The London Eye used to offer the highest public viewing point in London until it was superseded by the 245-metre-high observation deck on the 72nd floor of The Shard, which opened to the public on 1 February 2013.

The London Eye adjoins the western end of Jubilee Gardens, previously the site of the former Dome of Discovery, on the South Bank of the River Thames between Westminster Bridge and Hungerford Bridge beside County Hall, in the London Borough of Lambeth.

The London Eye was designed by the husband-and-wife team of Julia Barfield and David Marks of Marks Barfield Architects. Mace was responsible for construction management, with Hollandia as the main steelwork contractor and Tilbury Douglas as the civil contractor. Consulting engineers Tony Gee & Partners designed the foundation works while Beckett Rankine designed the marine works.

The rim of the Eye is supported by tensioned steel cables and resembles a huge spoked bicycle wheel. The lighting was re-done with LED lighting from Color Kinetics in December 2006 to allow digital control of the lights as opposed to the manual replacement of gels over fluorescent tubes.

The wheel was constructed in sections which were floated up the Thames on barges and assembled lying flat on piled platforms in the river. Once the wheel was complete it was lifted into an upright position by a strand jack system made by Enerpac. It was first raised at 2 degrees per hour until it reached 65 degrees, then left in that position for a week while engineers prepared for the second phase of the lift.

More information: The London Eye

The project was European with major components coming from six countries: the steel was supplied from the UK and fabricated in The Netherlands by the Dutch company Hollandia, the cables came from Italy, the bearings came from Germany (FAG/Schaeffler Group), the spindle and hub were cast in the Czech Republic, the capsules were made by Poma in France and the glass for these came from Italy, and the electrical components from the UK.

The London Eye was formally opened by the Prime Minister Tony Blair on 31 December 1999, but did not open to the paying public until 9 March 2000 because of a capsule clutch problem.

The nearest London Underground station is Waterloo, although Charing Cross, Embankment, and Westminster are also within easy walking distance.

Connection with National Rail services is made at London Waterloo station and London Waterloo East station.

London River Services operated by Thames Clippers and City Cruises stop at the London Eye Pier.

More information: Visit London

When I was a youngster my grandparents
took me sightseeing and we went on the London Eye.

Stuart Broad

NOLITA, A 'CALÇOTADA' WITH THE GRANGERS IN NYC

Today, The Grangers & The Grandma have been enjoying a calçotada in one of the most important Catalan restaurants in Nolita, New York City. Before eating, they have practised some English grammar with Have got, Countable & Uncountable and Some & Any.

 

More information: Have got

 

More information: Countable / Uncountable

 

More information: Some / Any

 

Nolita, sometimes written as NoLIta or NoLita, and deriving from North of Little Italy is a neighbourhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.

 

Nolita is situated in Lower Manhattan, bounded on the north by Houston Street, on the east by the Bowery, on the south roughly by Broome Street, and on the west by Lafayette Street.

It lies east of SoHo, south of NoHo, west of the Lower East Side, and north of Little Italy and Chinatown.

The neighbourhood was long regarded as part of Little Italy, but has lost its recognizable Italian character in recent decades because of rapidly rising rents. The Feast of San Gennaro, dedicated to Saint Januarius Pope of Naples, is held in the neighbourhood every year following Labor Day, on Mulberry Street between Houston and Grand Streets.

The feast, as recreated on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Houston Streets, was featured in the film The Godfather Part II.

In the second half of the 1990s, the neighbourhood saw an influx of yuppies and an explosion of expensive retail boutiques and restaurants and bars. After unsuccessful tries to pitch it as part of SoHo, real estate promoters and others came up with several different names for consideration for this newly upscale neighborhood. 

The name that stuck, as documented in an article on May 5, 1996, in the New York Times city section debating various monikers for the newly trendy area, was Nolita, an abbreviation for North of Little Italy. This name follows the pattern started by SoHo (South of Houston Street) and TriBeCa (Triangle Below Canal Street).

The neighbourhood includes St. Patrick's Old Cathedral, at the intersection of Mulberry, Mott, and Prince Streets, which opened in 1815 and was rebuilt in 1868 after a fire. The cornerstone was laid on June 8, 1809. This building served as New York City's Roman Catholic cathedral until the new St. Patrick's Cathedral was opened on Fifth Avenue in Midtown in 1879.

St. Patrick's Old Cathedral is now a parish church. In 2010, St. Patrick's Old Cathedral was honoured and became The Basilica at St. Patrick's Old Cathedral.

The Puck Building, a nine-story-high ornate structure built in 1885 on the corner of Houston and Lafayette Streets, originally housed the headquarters of the now-defunct Puck Magazine.

Since 2010, a Little Australia has emerged and is growing in Nolita on Mulberry Street and Mott Street.

More information: Compass

In the middle of Little Italy little
did we know that we riddled
some middleman who didn't do diddily.

Big Pun

NEW YORK, NEW YORK. SINATRA, MINNELLI & LADY GAGA

Today, The Newtons & The Grandma has visited Radio City Music Hall where some old Grandma's friends have been singing some different versions about New York, New York, one of the best-known songs about New York City.

Before arriving to the Radio City Music Hall, the family has been studying some English grammar. They have chosen To Have Got and some State Verbs.

More information: To Have Got & State Verbs

New York, New York is a 1977 American musical drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Mardik Martin and Earl Mac Rauch based on a story by Rauch. It is a musical tribute, featuring new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb as well as jazz standards, to Scorsese's home town of New York City, and stars Robert De Niro and Liza Minnelli as a pair of musicians and lovers.

The story is about a jazz saxophonist (De Niro) and a pop singer (Minnelli) who fall madly in love and marry; however, the saxophonist's outrageously volatile personality places a continual strain on their relationship, and after they have a baby, their marriage crumbles, even as their careers develop on separate paths. The film marked the final screen appearance of actor Jack Haley.

More information: The New York Times

The regrets of yesterday 

and the fear of tomorrow can kill you.

 Liza Minnelli

Theme from New York, New York or New York, New York is the theme song from the Martin Scorsese film New York, New York (1977), composed by John Kander, with lyrics by Fred Ebb. 

It was written for and performed in the film by Liza Minnelli. It remains one of the best-known songs about New York City.

Composer John Kander and Lyricist Fred Ebb stated on the A&E Biography episode about Liza Minnelli, that they attribute the song's success to actor Robert De Niro, who rejected their original theme for the film because he thought it was too weak. The song did not become a popular hit until it was picked up in concert by Frank Sinatra during his performances at Radio City Music Hall in October 1978.

In 1979, Theme from New York, New York was recorded by Frank Sinatra for his album Trilogy: Past Present Future (1980), and became closely associated with him as one of his signature songs. Don Costa received a Grammy nomination for the energetic orchestration.

Sinatra occasionally performed the song live with Minnelli as a duet. 

Sinatra recorded it a second time for his 1993 album Duets, with Tony Bennett.

More information: Frank Sinatra

Start spreading the news,
I'm leaving today
I want to be a part of it
New York, New York

These vagabond shoes are longing to stray
And step a round of heart of it
New York, New York

I want to wake up in that city, that doesn't sleep
To find I'm king of the hill
Top of the heap
My little town blues,
Are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it
In old New York
If I can make it there,
I'll make it anywhere
It's up to you
New York, New York
New York, New York

I wanna wake up, in the city that doesn't sleep,
To find I'm king of the hill, head of the list
Cream of the crop at the top of the heap
My little town blues are melting away
I'll make a brand new start of it, in old New York
If I can make it there, I'd make it anywhere
Come on, come through New York, New York

More information: Song Facts

 There's no place like New York.
It's the most exciting city in the world now.
That's the way it is. That's it.

Robert De Niro