My first visit outside New York City was to Washington DC. On Saturday morning at 7.00 am caught a bus from China Town for DC and paid a small sum of $35 (with return) for the journey.

Touched DC around 11ish, which wasn’t that bad considering that I still had most of the day left. The weather wasn’t that hot as it had been in NYC, so it was a welcome change since I am not that fond of summer (after all I am a December born). The hotel was just couple of blocks away from where the bus dropped us off, which was another good thing as it saved the time and money to-and-fro hotel transfer. After checking in our bags, I and my best friend set off to explore the Capitol city.

National Gallery Of Art

Walking from the hotel to the Capitol Building (about 20 minutes) was in many ways like strolling thru some big production movie set. I mean everything was placed where it was meant to be, nothing seemed even a wee-bit off its place or out of proportion. Cleanliness was the key-word here; it felt as if even your shadow was shinning on the spanking DC surface. Our first stop on the way to the Capitol Building was the National Gallery of Art. Now even if you are not an arty fan this place is still worth a visit. Amazing abstract and contemporary paintings, sculptures as well as some really cool vintage movies. Also they have a real good cafeteria at the bottom of the gallery with a variety of fast food, not too expensive either - paid $10.00 for a pizza slice, couple of chicken nuggets and a mug of Lemonade.

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Whenever I was asked as to where I would be put up in New York City, people would often raise an eyebrow with an ‘O’ expression on hearing my reply. Yes, I am staying in Brooklyn - A suburb known for its notorious neighborhood. I was advised not to venture out alone at night, always watch my back and look at least 10 times left & right before unlocking the apartment doors. So even though I thought I could handle living there, I did have my apprehensions.

But once I got here, everything that had been feed to me was quite off tangent (so I felt). The apartment where my wonderful hosts live is on a quite and neat residential block in Brooklyn. It is a beautiful red brick building with a tinge of ancient era in it. The neighboring buildings are quite unique from one another; some red and some beige, some with modern look and some with an antique one. And then there are some blocks which have same architectural buildings all across. Beautiful trees planted every where, side by side.

Yes, not all blocks are as rosy as the ones described above. There are the ones that I had been warned about, they simply stand apart. One doesn’t need to know about them in order to point them out, your guts will simply start hammering once you are there. The urine stinge, dis-oriented folks on the sidewalk, overfull garbage cans chained against the grilled staircases and a very intimidating feeling inside. It would sound crazy but it just feels as if the blue sky turns dark grayish matter in these allies. Everything here feels as if it’s yelling out to you to ‘get-out-of-here’ cause you don’t belong.

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Yes these guys have finally arrived. The awaited pups were born on 7th August at 5.30 am. This time round we have two boys and one girl and my Spike has become a proud father for the second time.

Unlike Dallas, Tweety is an extremely protective mum and wouldn’t let us even come close to her babies let alone letting us hold them. When I went to see the puppies, the way this women charged at me there was this moment that I thought I would surely be getting my butt bitten off. Thankfully she just sniffed around and went back to her babies.

The girl pup is the thinnest of the litter and also the only spotty one. The boys on the other hand are very healthy and pure white cotton balls. For the next couple of weeks they will be just eating, whining and pooing. Their spots will develop each passing day and so will their activeness.

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