I read via JMG that it is once again possible to visit the crown gallery of the Statue of Liberty.

If I were ever to visit the States, and if while there I fitted in New York, I’d definitely want to do that. I’m a bit of a sucker for tall buildings – eg see this post about Paris. The first time I took P to Paris, I had a “Heights of Paris” tour planned in my mind. That was when I discovered he has vertigo. And when I was in Munich for a week last summer, I climbed a mountain, the Olympic Tower, the church in the city square, and the statue of Bavaria. Probably because P wasn’t able to come with me.

Inside and outside Bavaria
   

But there’s the whole am-I-ever-going-to-NY/the USA question.

For someone who loves travelling, I’ve actually never been that far from home (either culturally or physically). Although I have been outside the EU, it has only been to countries that have, erm, subsequently joined the EU. The furthest afield I have ever been was Cyprus.

But even if I did get further afield, would I want to visit the States? As a teenager, I was vehemently anti-American, a position I have radically dialled back from as time has passed, due in no small measure to meeting lots of lovely American people, and realising that actually I choose to spend much of my leisure time happily consuming American culture.

Obviously I had a personal ban in place of visiting the US under Bush, should I reverse that now that we have a more sensible president?

As an avid consumer of US TV there are of course dozens of places I would quite like to go.  Can you see Frasier’s flat from the Space Needle?  How about the chances of bumping into Denny Crane on the streets of Boston? Or buying a few rocks of crack from Omar in Baltimore (or would that just get me a one-week-only guest slot in Homicide?)? New York, home to Law and Order and CSI: New York and countless other films would make an interesting stop, but I’d also wanna do SF, LA and all the other places with two letters in CA.  You couldn’t miss Washington (home of The West Wing).

One major decision still to make is where we go on honeymoon.  How about a coast-to-coast roadtrip? Actually one of the key considerations about our honeymoon has got to be, how happy is that country with gay people?  And whilst New York and California are probably OK, you’d have to drive through a lot of states that are much less keen on us.

Countries I would quite like to visit but am probably unlikely to

• North Africa, eg Morocco
• Israel (eg the Holy Land)
• Iceland

Countries I really ought to get around to visiting not least because I have friends living there

• Spain
• Sweden
• erm, the US
• Greece

Countries that really are just too far away

• Australia / NZ

Millennium Dome, Elephant has the latest instalment of his Credit Crunch diary over on Lib Dem Voice today – and it’s well worth popping over and reading all 3,400 words when you get a spare moment.

In the meantime, here’s a fluffy extract:

And then any credit [hoho pun] Mr Frown MIGHT have gained by being seen to be working towards SOME KIND of SOLUTION [at G20], however misguided, was then drowned out by the Conservatories wailing ON and ON and ON about some smears that NEVER ACTUALLY HAPPENED. In fact, if anyone smeared the Conservatories it was THEMSELVES and their not-remotely-housetrained semi-detached associate in the blogosphere. Oh you know who I mean. Irritatingly, it was Mr Frown who was left with the STAINES.

The underlying significance of this story is that the Conservatories, Mr Balloon, Mr Oboe and all the little Etonians you can’t remember, had nothing, literally NOTHING, to say about the most significant economic crisis of the decade, in fact NOTHING to say about ANYTHING except:

“wah wah wah, Gordon won’t say sorry for the nasty things that his friends didn’t say about us. Boo hoo hoo we’re really upset.”

So, I said half an hour ago I wouldn’t spend this evening looking up which are the Grade II* listed buildings in Nottingham as I am too busy.

And yet, here’s the list:

• Newdigate House And Attached Railings And Boundary Wall 64
• People’s Hall, Heathcote Street
• “Rj’s Homeshop 57” – what used to be Pearsons Department Store, 52-57 Long Row West
• Elite Building 25, 27, 31 And 33
• 19 Castle Gate
• 24 and 26 Low Pavement
• Gate And Railings To Forecourt Of Number 24 And 26 Low Pavement
• Willoughby House 20 And 22 Low Pavement
• Railings And Gate To Forecourt At Willoughby House
• 1, 3, 11, 15 And 17 Stoney Street (Adams Building)
• Enfield House And Attached Area Wall, 18 Low Pavement
• Nottingham Playhouse
• Boots D90 Headquarters building
• Former Police Station Adjoining Shire Hall
• Shire Hall And Adjoining County Gaol
• Sheriff House 64 St James Street
• 56, Village Road, Clifton
• Colwick Hall
• Bromley House 13, 14 And 15 Angel Row

Wollaton Hall

• Doric Temple And Attached Bridge 200 Metres South-east Of Wollaton Hall
• Lenton Lodge (former Gateway To Wollaton Park) And Attached Bollards
• Camellia House 100 Metres South West Of Wollaton Hall

Churches

• Church Of St Andrew And Boundary Wall (Mansfield Road)
• Church Of Holy Trinity (Lenton)
• Church Of St Leodegarius And Attached Grave Enclosure (Basford)
• Church Of St Nicholas (Maid Marian Way)
• Cathedral Church Of St Barnabas And Attached Boundary Wall (Derby Road)
• Church of St Wilfrid (Wilford)

Universities

• Arkwright Building, Nottingham Trent University
• Newton Building At Nottingham Trent University

So, erm – lots in the city centre. Lots of churches.  Nothing for Nottingham University, but two for NTU – one of which I once voted to demolish! The Playhouse is the most recent one,  I think.

Google have a gadget for tracking predictions for the Eurovision Song Contest, which is next weekend.

Its current prediction puts Norway in the lead with Turkey and Greece close behind on over 200 points.

Rather amazingly, it also rates the UK in the top 10, something that hasn’t happened for quite a while.

You can find the gadget here – unfortunately I can’t embed it because my blog doesn’t like the embed code for some reason 😦

EDIT: my host made some changes and now I can embed:

 http://eurovisiongadget.appspot.com/?lang=en

Over in the blogosphere, some people take ESC very seriously indeed, not least thoroughlygood, who has written at length about every song, and fisked Terry Wogan’s remarks.

For me, although I watch it most years, the pleasure comes in seeing all the songs for the first time on the night, usually with a big group of friends and a bit of alcohol. Hopefully that’s the plan this year too.

And hopefully, the UK’s entry, whatever it is, won’t completely tank again.

EDIT: here’s a unique and lolsome rendition of the UK entry.  The longer you watch, the more extreme the facial expressions get.