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Published: September 3rd 2006
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The Late Show
with Daaaaavid Letterman! G'day guys, fill your coffe mugs coz this is a bumper edition. Sorry if they are extremely long but i am trying to keep them as entertaining as possible...
I know it has been a while between drinks, but i am having way too much fun.
Well, we left off in the early days of New York. Baz and I had arranged tickets to see the David Lettermen show the day before the girls arrived. Unfortunately for them (fortunate for us) they were unable to get tickets to the show, and this being the last recording for the year, were quite disappointed, but we weren't about to surrender our tickets. The show was great. The main celebrity fetured Jamie Fox (actor/musician/comedian). He starred in Any Given Sunday, Collateral and Ray. He was a very funny man and preformed a song from his new album.
After the show we bolted down to Madison Square Garden as we had bought tickets to see the Ice Hockey. We watched the New York Rangers against Tamper Bay. I hadn't really gotten into the Ice Hockey but after viewing a game, i could quite easily sit down with a six pack and bowl
Goofy
Some say i looked like Goofy, but it did the job of Nachos to pass a couple of hours. The game featured plenty of action and hard hits. It was 2-2 with a couple of minutes to go and NY scored twice in those 2 minutes.
Most days in New York were around or below zero degrees but come to think of it, it really didn't impact too greatly on our adventures. Some of the things we did and the attractions we saw in NY were the Rockefella Centre (with their huge chrstmas tree), Ice Skating at Central Park, the Googenheim Museum (and building next door that George Costanza designed), a boatride around Manhatten Island, Grand Central Station, Tom's Restaurant (aka Seinfeld Restaurant), Empire State Building, New York Improv - Comedy Show, Intrepid Air and Space Meseum, Statue of Liberty, Chinatown, Ground Zero (World Trade Centre site), Wall Street, Brooklyn Bridge, Trump Towers, Flat Iron Building (not sure if that is it's technical name) and many other sites and sounds.
The streets of New York are littered with people trying to flog off pirated DVD's, Imitation handbags (Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanell) and Jewelery. Amongst this black market i managed to pick up a fantastic deal on a genuine Rolex
Ice Skating
Seriously... Its too cold for that watch (he said he would post the Guarantee to me).
We had christmas dinner at a small Italian restaurant and because none of us are stickin rich, decided to do Kris Kringle (with a $5 limit) rather than buy presents for each other. I received a pair socks which actually came in handy because it belted down christmas day and we got drenched. Thank you to those that sent their christmas wishes through, it was great to hear from you all.
New York, like many major cities that i have visited has an abundance of homeless people and Bazza being the good samaritan that he is gave some of his change to one of them. Instead of a thank you the homeless fella said (and i quote) "I don't wan nofin from a white fella!" Haha - i couldn't contain my laughter, i wanted to go back to see if my charity was suitable enough for him to accept. Funny stuff.
After Christamas we headed to Washington for three days, and while it wasn't the most exciting part of trip, it was nonetheless interesting. I seemed to keep saying to myself, oh yeah, i remeber this from
World Trade Centre
The site of the former twin towers. the Simpsons. Sad, i know. We visited the National Archives (from the movie National Treasure), The Capitol Building, Washington Monument and reflection pool (Scene from Forest Gump), Lincoln Memorial, World War 2 Memorial, Holocost Meseum (probably the most interesting of the lot), Jefferson Memorial, and Arlington Cemetary. This was a fair amount to cover in three days and we walked to just about every one of them.
After Washington we caught the bus back to New York and settled in for the New Years Eve celebrations. We were staying at a hostel right in the heart of Times Square. The streets were filled with people from around midday and the roads were blocked off but fortunately for us we were able to get a spot around 7pm due to our street running right into the heart of Times Square. So this basically meant we only had to wait around for 5 hours, whereas others were lining up for 12 hours. They were expecting around 750,000 people but i'm not sure what they got. As for the show, well it was spectacular, the music was pumping, everyone had party hats on or were waiving balloons and the atmosphere was electric.
Rockefeller Centre
Giant Christmas Tree at the Rockefeller Centre These people do know how to throw a party. The music included Mariah Carey, POD, Mary J Blige and others, whilst these wouldn't be my first choice of music they were entertaining. And when the ball dropped at midnight everyone went crazy. This certainly was one of the highlights of the trip, so far.
The next day was spent shopping in Chinatown for clothes (suits etc) to take to London. The great thing about chinatown is that you can barter with them, and i certainly tested their patience at times. I guess i have learnt that from the best... my dad?
We left the girls and took off for Chicago on the 2nd Jan for 4 days. We had planned to see a basketball game that night - Washington (Aussie Andrew Bogut) Vs Chicago but the bad weather in Chicago prevented us from taking off on time. We sat at the top of the runway for close to 4 hours and because it was only a short flight, there was no food on board. The passengers, including us, were getting quite edgy to say the least. After landing we had to find ourselves a room for the night
Madison Square Garden
With a couple of late goals, the Rangers took the points so by the time that was done we had basically lost a whole day. We checked into a crappy little hotel, called the Tokyo Hotel (a rundown building with a dodgy service elevator) the next day and walked down to the United Centre and booked ourselves some seats for the Ice Hockey (Chicago Tomahawks Vs Vancouver Canucks). We were actually going for the Canucks as this was the first team we watched way back in November when we were skiing in Whistler. This game was a corker! It took only 22 seconds for the first fight to break out. I don't quite fully understand the rules of Ice Hockey but when two blokes are punching on, everyone else (ie their team mates) have to stand there and watch. We were chanting for an all in brawl, but that never eventuated. There were however little spotfires going all game which kept it entertaining. The final score was 5-3 - Canucks.
Other highlights of Chicago included Sears Tower, Wrigley and Soldier Field (Baseball + Gridiron Grounds) and Lake Michigan.
The second night we were there we were looking for somewhere to eat, standing on a street corner looking in every
Tom's Restaurant
Aka Seinfeld Restaurant direction like a true tourist, a bloke approach us and ask what we were looking for. We told hime we were in search of world famous Chicago style pizza. He said "Giordanos' is the best pizza in town!" Follow me. He was on his way home from work and seemed like a nice enogh bloke. We made idle chit chat on the way and when we eventually got there he asked if we would buy him a beer from the bottle shop, we looked at each other and agreed that this was reasonable. He then said if you like i can get it if you give me the money. "$4 a piece" he said. We just laughed, handed him $2 and thanked him for his kindness. Ha - $8, what was he drinking, Johnny Blue Label? The nerve of this guy. I should however be noted that, the pizza was top notch.
We spent a couple of nights watching the Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl (which are like the grand finals of the College Gridiron teams) at our now favourite establishment, Hooters. The lovely waitress, i think her name was Megan, sat down with us for about an hour
Liberty
A donation from France as a measure of friendship between the two nations explaining the rules of the game and who we should be supporting. She was from Florida and had no interest in working that night, rather concentrating on the game. We were just decoys! I feel used. College games are absolutely huge over here, and i'd probably have to say alot more entertaining than the national games. The games are a lot faster, more athletic and generally more exciting then the NFL. The Orange Bowl went into tripple overtime.
I am now in Hawaii, which is fantastic but will have to write about that some other time as this email is fast approaching novel status...
Keep the emails coming, it is great to hear from all of you.
Until next time
Nick
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