Yet another check ride complete and signed off. I made a few bone head moves but overall it went well. I scored a solid pass and learnt a few things, what more could one ask for? As I'm already endorsed on Super Pumas, the L2 is only considered a variant and required nothing more than the standard recurrent paperwork, and I'm good to go! But....the L2 contract I was destined for has changed, as they always do in this industry, sometimes on extremely short notice, so now I have to head down to Newark for an AW139 check ride, as that's what I'll be flying at the end of next month in the jungles of Suriname. Two check rides on two complex types in one week! Woo hoo! I've booked myself into a historic old hotel in Manhattan and will be extending a few extra days out of my own pocket, to hopefully get some New York mojo; cafes, cool bistros, some jazz clubs, some off Broadway plays, maybe find some diners worthy of Tom Waits. Being a country kid I was never interested in visiting any big city and New York was pretty far down on my wish list, but having hung out there more than a few times now, I'm a fan of the Big Apple. 
My favourite New York memory is catching some very cool jazz in the Zebra Room in Harlem (the historic Lenox Lounge, opened in 1939, it's famed zebra patterned walls reverberated with the jazz of Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, etc. and also interviews with Malcolm X, it had one very hip vibe), but sinfully, it's been closed as of January 2013. There's some hot Cuban bands scheduled for Birdland and it's quite near to the hotel, so I'm sure to get my New York jazz fix. Other fond memories are scoring scalped tickets to the season opener at Yankee Stadium, with the Yankees vs. the Red Sox, on a hot sunny spring day with my buddy from South Africa and some drunk off-duty New York cops, and just hanging out in Greenwich Village, or that afternoon at the Met......I have yet to see New York in winter, so I'm looking forward to getting a tad more cultured.
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