New York Excitment

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So, it might not have been the best idea to go out in London the night before leaving. Losing a shoe and having Cat nearly pass out on the tube wasn’t the best start. Although once I was at the airport I was on my way, apart from the minor setback of losing my whole make up and toiletry bag somewhere between Heathrow and JFK. Anyways, on meeting Aoife, turns out it could be worse...she'd forgotten her camera, strengtheners and had to be put on oxygen on the plane. Could not be funnier.

So Dan met us at the airport and was just as enthusiastic as I remembered. Driving to his along the highway to Long Island was so much like the beginning of the Sopranos. All the holiday excitement kicked in and after dumping our stuff we went straight out to his mate Courtney’s gig. Was a real funny night and Mike, Dan's flatmate was a bit of a comic. After a few beers and a bit of a look around we crashed out like the living dead.

It is a bit of an understatement to say I was surprised when Taylor, George and Ashley jumped on me to wake me in the morning. They were from the Maryland delegation this year, not the year before with Dan. Massively disorientating...but a brilliant surprise. That day we went for NY bagels for breakfast and went to the beach for our little reunion with the 08 delegation. Lovely day and was topped off by going for sushi and crazy golf that evening. If nothing else the day pointed out language differences between English, Irish and American. The semi automatic machine gun misunderstanding was one of the funniest things I’ve heard in a while.
We had a well nice night back at Dan's, playing Catchphrase.....where I kind of turned into a bit of a robot in competitive panic to explain myself.
A reasonably early night anyway, ready for the big Manhattan touring day the following day. Was well exciting to see the view of the city from the train. We saw Ground Zero and Brooklyn bridge, whilst being continually educated with Dan’s fun facts...
Funny, Manhattan is relatively so small but before we went we felt like we knew what to expect, from all the American TV you watch at home. What we didn’t realise was how varied it is, in two minutes you pass through little India, Chinatown, little Italy...it’s like a microcosm of the developed world...

Still we thought best to concentrate mainly on experiencing the authentic NY cuisine and we had the best pizza in little Italy. After lamenting the fat tourist pictures for the morning, it seemed like the only sensible option.
The Maryland guys left and we ended up going to a secret private bar thing which was Dan’s big surprise (and explained his bizarre furtiveness that afternoon) and then to see Avenue Q on Broadway. Cracked us all up and was a million times better than expected. The puppet sex and 'Everyone’s a little bit racist sometimes' became legendary..
We stayed at Dan’s mate Jill’s that night in the city, Aoife was pretty chuffed to see her hair strengtheners. But it was just nice to see an authentic NY apartment, that wasn’t in Friends or Sex and the City. The next day we went hardcore on the tourist thing again...braving the queues to go to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis island. Dan must have been a bit bored of it, coz he spent a fair amount of time horizontal, under the pretence of taking arty pictures.

Carnegie Deli did a lot to explain the obesity problem in the states, and we gave a sandwich the size of my kitchen our very best shot. It was about this time that Dan realised it was his girlfriends birthday that day and wondered if he maybe should give her a bell. Presume it was her tone of voice that meant we had to go panic buying for presents shortly after....
After the Rockefeller Centre, a spot of shirt and toyshop shopping and a few more Fun facts we headed back to the subway to meet Dan’s sister Jess. In the 3 minutes we had to get ready Jess managed to do a pregnancy test, Aoife managed to achieve poker straight hair and Dan bought some birthday/apology flowers...so pretty efficient.
Turns out we needn’t have rushed. Dan’s girlfriend had already made up her mind about us...and welcomed us with a suitable frosty reception. There was nothing for it but to go next door and indulge on some potent long island iced teas to numb the awkwardness...
The night turned out to be brilliant anyway, a was a blur of frozen Margueritas, tacos and laughing. We went back to Dan’s girlfriends for a bit, but there was a bit of a segregation and we had to resort to drinking games on the balcony before a group of us finally broke free and hit the town. 10 seconds later Dan did a runner and ended up chasing after us sheepishly.
Anyways, we ended up in some Korean Karaoke bar, singing walking on broken glass (while I actually unintentionally smashed a glass in my excitement) and Bohemian Rhapsody. Brilliant night, although I'm sure Korean Karaoke is a small part of Manhattan nightlife, well, if Sex and the City is to be believed anyway.
Thanking God for the rule of no-hangovers-on-holiday we woke up pretty fresh the next day. It was the day of The Jimmy Buffet Tailgating. Now we had no idea what to expect from this, although Dan seemed pretty excited. When we arrived we realised why. This was like a huge patch of land, with parked cars as far as you can see...and everywhere you looked it was a mass of open 'trunks', tables set up, awnings and fancy dress. As we wandered around we got caught up in drinking games (namely beer pong and flipcup....introduced to leeds shortly after) vodka jelly and dancing. All in the name of Jimmy Buffet.
Apparently it’s an annual thing, whenever Jimmy Buffet concert are on, and Jeez Louise it was a life experience! We ended up meeting these immigration cops that were insistent we weren’t in fact leaving the country.
Anyway, we had a brief audience with Mother Hayes and a swift introduction to 'Wendy's' burgers and sundaes. Mike was apparently peeved at our late return because he had prepared a mammoth beer pong session with a couple of his mates, but he got over it! the night was long and very funny.
it was sad to think we were leaving the next morning. we celebrated the fact with an authentic NY diner breakfast. after that Kathleen came to pick us up.
I had forgotten what exactly to expect from Kathleen, amongst all the excitement, and it was brilliant to see her again. she'd gotten married and lost a heap of weight and was just as insane as ever. Honestly one of the most animated eccentric people I’ve come across in a while! she confessed she hadn’t slept in excitement and when we got to hers it was obvious how much effort she's gone too. I mean, she had Aoife with the hair strengtheners.
After Sweet Pete had showed us round his vegetable patch, Kathleen hurried us all back inside. Like a naughty schoolkid she raised her eyebrows at Pete, obviously in code. Before she pulled out a weed pipe and shrugged apologetically, with a 'Girls, I’m sorry, do you, err smoke?' . The last thing I would’ve expected from a P2P delegation leader but, then again, she never fails to surprise me...and crack me up.
Pete’s mate came and they all took us to the wineries around the area...poor Pete designated driver. Kathleen wouldn’t let us pay for anything and she bought us the cutest little wine coaster things at the first place. We must have gone to a few and it was just so...different...out there, in the middle of what felt like nowhere, drinking different wines with such a random group really - I mean, I never would've imagined it like this! No-one thinks this about New York, you know, you just think Manhattan, but this just had so much...space. It was so country. We headed back after a few vineyards and began to prepare the bbq Kathleen had arranged for that night. Including very very complicated chickpea burgers as I remember. The night went by in a whizz of burgers and beer pong...was so much fun.
The last think I remember though was Dave saying he really liked me and me trying desperately to get Aoife to come and interrupt the awkwardness of the situation...why I was unable to do this I don’t know. We left Kathleen and Pete all curled up on the sofa and headed up. Shortly after I fell over and we found notes on our pillow from Kathleen the Cute.
Our last morning in NY and when we got downstairs Kathleen was already up, a flurry of faffing and fussing around the kitchen. She'd set up a nautical themed breakfast for us all, complete with place names in mini bottle things on the mats. Me, her and Aoife nipped to the supermarket for last minute supplies, she made a MASSIVE fuss about forgotten Pete’s special bagel (anyone would think he was some kind of Nazi) and took them back. That afternoon she took us around the retail outlets for a bit of last minute shopping where Aoife finally got her sexy bag she'd been hankering after. I've never felt stylish - ever - until this day. Kathleen kept asking about our British style and how we'd wear certain things...like I’d know!
By the time we got back it was goodbye time, and it was ever so sad. Dave dropped us off at JFK and we headed homewards, a head full of comedy memories and last night’s alcohol.

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