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Published: September 10th 2010
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The M&Ms Store
It's fabulous! After a day travelling, a day recovering from being sick and a day looking at all the most depressing sights NY has to offer, I decided yesterday that what I really needed was some fun. So I went to Starbucks for coffee and cake for breakfast and walked down to Times Square.
On the way I met 2 red Elmos and a blue Elmo and found the M&Ms store. It's 3 floors of M&Ms memorabilia and it was so ridiculous that I walked round with a huge smile on my face. As well as being able to buy every shade of M&Ms you can possibly think of, there was a whole array of M&Ms products, from plates and cutlery sets to soft toys to...ahem! lingerie! You can just imagine it, can't you? "Darling, you look so sweet tonight I could eat you all up!"
The most surprising item though had to be the M&Ms chess set. I bet Kasparov's got one
Having been cheered by this I then went into the much smaller and much less impressive Hershey's shop, sneered and walked out.
Times Square is like Piccadilly Circus but bigger (quel surprise) and I thought it
was quite fun. Lots of gigantic posters up for all the Broadway shows and lots of scrolling news bars, including one which mentioned Cameron's most recent round of cuts. Good that they keep up with the international scene. Major headline over here at the mo though is the book burning pastor. Apparently because he's protected under freedom of speech they're considering using fire regulations to stop him. Most creative!
I went in McDonalds at Times Square and found the menu is pretty different to ours. They certainly don't do supersize anymore. I had an Angus Mushroom Swiss which was spoiled by the fact that it was covered in mayonaise. It tasted just like the sandwiches from Hackney Tescos. Ugh! I was also amused to note that it was a 'third pounder'. A quarterpounder's not big enough, oh no.
Having managed most of my burger I then went to an Irish bar and had 2 cocktails. In NY there are cocktails and there are martinis. The martinis don't usually contain martini so I'm not clear what the difference is. Anyway, I had two martinis but for the purposes of us Brits, they were cocktails! I had an Island Martini,
Southern Confort, peach schnapps and fruit juice, very nice, and a Green Tea Martini, Hendricks gin, chilled green tea and some syrupy stuff, okay but a bit like Jagermeister (and we all know what that did to Oly). While supping martinis in New York I got chatting to the barman and he told me his best friend was from Hackney but now lived in Romford. What are the odds!?!?
Following the supping I felt rather fine and dandy and took a walk down to the Chrysler Building, a skyscraper designed to look like a car. Didn't look like any car I know, except maybe Flash Gordon's rocket car.
I then stumbled upon Midtown Comics, which I will return to today to load up on superhero adventures (hey, I'm on holiday, I can be childish if I want. It's not like I'm working and have to behave like an... oh, yeah, I see). I decided to really take the plunge then and bought a hot dog off a street vendor. I had to point to the picture in the end coz he kept thinking I said 'a bottle of coke' when I said 'hot dog'. Like, whatever! The dog
M&Ms Souvenirs
No idea what they do but they look sooooo cute! was okay but the ketchupy onion goo that he put on was far too sweet. Still, when in NY...
Then went home to watch the opening game of the NFL season in my hotel room. Should have been good but was pretty dull. Still, at least it's on before midnight over here.
Overall I've had a lot more fun yesterday. I'm thinking of going to Coney Island today for all the fun of the fair. I can reenact Lost Boys. (No, not the bit with the topless saxophone player.)
I also need to sort out where I'm heading on Monday when I leave NY. One thing's for sure, I need hostels from now on. While it's quite nice to have some time to yourself, I'm gagging for a proper conversation and some socialising. I'm a social animal, me.
Thank you all for writing to me, it's very nice to hear all your voices in my head and keep in touch. It's the first thing I look at when I wake up in the morning.
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Carbon Heresy
Steven Rooke
I think the blue one was evil Elmo. He certainly looked nasty.