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Published: October 27th 2009
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Day 14.
I cant believe that i have been here 2 weeks today, it has flown by, and already and feeling sad to think that i will be soon leaving NY! So, i last left you on the start of approx 4 days of constant rain. Without a winter jacket or shoes that keep the water out, the temperature drop was not very welcome! But living just off museum mile, i did the first of my museum trips with the Natural History Museum. This was very impressive and just as huge on the dinosaur front as the uk sister. The exhibitions were very well presented, and the building did well at making you believe it had history too. I watched a planetarium show with Whoopie Goldberg narating about the life of a star, the seats did the vibrating things, and with a domed roof as the whole screen my good old motion sickness kicked in a tad!
The days that followed consisted of more rain, but rachel and i kept ourselves amused well. We attended a book reading at Soho House, which was in a beautiful bar, and had an amazing roof terrace we broke into with a heated
pool! Would have been amazing - if not raining! the view was very beautiful. That weekend we went for a full body massage at a thai salon - which was extremely relaxing, and had my first ever proper manicure! We headed east the next night to catch one of rachel's colleagues gig, we turned up late and kinda missed it, but stayed in the area and had a wonderful tapas meal. New favourite thing is Dates wrapped in bacon and chorizo and cheese lollipops! After this we walked around looking for a dodgy underground entrance which rachel assured was a secret speak easy bar. After 10 odd mins (i'm sure she will argue it was 2) she did indeed go down a random set of steps, and a bouncer appeared out of no-where to ID us. (Its great by the way to be here where it is often over 25, so EVERYONE gets id'd, not just me!) We continued through some more fire-escape alleys and finally came to a steel door. Inside there was the most beautiful 1920's lush decorated bar! It had chandeliers, red velvet everywhere and chaise lounges! We even had Cocktails out of tea cups!
The
rest of the weekend consisted of sample sales in the rain, a vintage flea market, beautiful tacos (beef and spinach) and watching Zombieland with woody harrelson. funny film - catch it if you can. After all this in the rain with leaking shoes, a day in bed fighting off a cold followed on the monday! I had picked up a new box set though, so i don't feel this was a waste of a day! (not quite supernatural or O.C scale though to be fair) However, it worked and Tuesday i felt right as rain again.
Tuesday i visited Long island to spend the day with Leanda, an old friend from the uk. We had a lovely day of lunching, toy shopping, and amusing one very hyperactive 4 yr old! They live in Hewlett, and this is one very pretty area of long island. The houses are huge, and all have their own yards with fences rather than appartments! The trees are indeed turning now, and the front gardens were all Halloween decorated already! I am finding the scale of halloween here surprising - it is HUGE! They send cards, costume shops pop up everywhere, all the major bars,
venues, cinemas and museums are hosting events, and all seems to stop for 24 hrs! crazy, but great to see.
I rode the LIRR (long island rail road) home into a gorgeous sunset and headed off to Madison Gardens for a Knicks game!! I had been looking forward to this for ages, and sods law this was to be the one thing (and first to be fair) that went wrong! After having booked tickets through a third party ticket company, the gardens wouldn't warrant the sale and refused us tickets!! (only go through the gardens or ticketmaster for future ref!) Long story short, after approx 40 mins of going from manager to manager, and much argueing, we managed to locate our tickets from a season holder who obviously sold the seats for the games he didn't attend, and we got in!!
The stadium is HUGE, and very well laid out so all had a pretty good view, and we were one level up, with great seats. The game is very fast -paced, and the players are simply massive. They must all be at least 7ft tall. It was the knicks and Boston celtics, and they were neck and neck
all the way through, but the knicks won at the end - of course! The entertainment between the periods was the best part, it ranged from cheerleader/dancers, egotistical guys having one shot at a hoop(for which they win a grand!), children racing to dress in full uniform and dribble a course, audience volleyball with beach balls, 'dance cams' in the aisles, which included one old dude stripping to dance music on the huge screen, and t-shirts were constantly being thrown into the crowd. There is a constant soundtrack of cheesy sound effects, and many chants over the microphone, and everyone shouts the name of the player who scores straight after - Very entertaining. Here i had my first american hotdog too!! It was very good and spicyer than frankfurters from the tin! All in all, something i had looked forward to experiencing, and once we acutally got in, it lived up to every minute!
Wednesday, myself and a friend Tim headed to Coney island and Brighton Beach! This seafront area was apparently a massive beehive of activity in its hayday, but now feels very neglected and run down. Evidence of the popularity still stands with the amusement rides and
seafront shops and cafes. The promenade is busy, but as it was out of season, no attractions were open. I would have loved to have seen the 'shoot the freak' attraction in action, and also the famous sideshow. Being a beautiful day, it was amazing to be on a beach in the scorching sunshine. It hit us out there that the only thing you could hear was the sea and birds! It really does seem like there is constant noise in the city, of roads, car horns, sirens, all around the clock. It felt instantly relaxing to be in actual peace and quiet and back next to the water, having missed it massively from home. The area here in coney is largely russian, and 'moscow' cafes were everywhere. There were some very bizarre people around, but between the nature of the attractions and being told it has high substance abuse in the area, i was not surprised! A fantastic day all in all, followed by an amazing sunset enjoyed with a pint in williamsburg - Perfect!
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