NYC April 23

Today was the day to shop! 

The group did their own things today with Ania visiting friends in New Jersey, Kate and Andy heading to the outlet mall (and scoring big time), Bas, Ola and Hoho went to Moma, and Isabel and I hit Macy’s.

I’m not sure how I managed this but I bought over $400 worth of clothing but only had to pay $160. Amazing. Everything was 20 % off but if I signed up for a credit card, I got another 20% off, then when I went to pay my first bill, I got yet another 20% off the final bill. I didn’t need the outlet mall apparently.

When we left Macy’s (the biggest department store in the US by the way…I mean physically. It was 4 city blocks), we thought we’d try to get a glimpse of the Empire State building. But since it was really cloudy and foggy, all we saw was the base. I took pics anyway so as to prove I was actually there. We then head up Madison Ave (awwww, Madison) and made our way to Grand Central Station.  Funny too though that when you go to the site, it focuses on food, shops and events….err, what about tickets? 

I felt like I was in London. What a station indeed. It’s weird when you go to places like NYC – you’ve seen so much of it on screen that when you get there, it’s like you’ve been there before. I’m not sure exactly  how else to explain it. The station was beautiful inside but near impossible to get a great shot with the camera I had. It didn’t matter what setting I used – everything came out with an amber glow. Although I will admit, the destinations listed on the boards didn’t float my boat. None to exotic, if you know what I’m saying. New Haven?

We left the station and head toward the New York Public Library  and again, I was in awe of the architecture. We made our way to the main reading room which was very grand and absolutely beautiful. Again I wondered (like I did at Oxford) how much better of a student I’d of been had I had such a gorgeous place to study. Those rooms make you want to be smart; to not waste your time. My favorite part of the building, however, was the children’s reading room. You can see AA Milne’s stuffed animals that he used as inspiration for Winnie the Pooh. The original Tigger, Eeyore, Kanga, Piglet (sorry Isabell, you were right), Mrs. Otter, and of course Pooh. 

We then hit up an Irish pub…and we thought ok, we’ve hit up: Italian, Chinese, Cheesecake and Deli, Turkish, now Irish. What could we possibly hit up for dinner?

Rosa Mexicana  is a fantastic Mexican restaurant and I highly recommend. Of course, you’ll need to book a table. We lucked out. Known for its guacamole and margaritas (which of course, we ended up having), you’ll love the atmosphere, the service, and the FOOOOOOOOD. We got even better service when Bas hit on our waitress telling her she had a beautiful face. Ha ha. So aside from the guacamole en molcajete (which they make in front of you at your table and comes with warm corn tortillas, tortilla chips, salsa pasilla de Oaxaca and salsa de tomatillo y habanero), we feasted on ceviche de atun y camarones, quesadilla de huitlacoche, and empanadas de jaiba. And of course, washed it down with margaritas (me and bas, the pomegranate, isabell the mango). Mmmm, mmmm, good.

The group connected again at Stand up New York  for some laughs. The place is a complete dive, the drinks are gross, but for $10, you get a funny show. Probably not the best place to go for comedy in terms of hygiene, but we had a good time.  We saw headliner Richard Vos who was quite funny, and his wife opened,  Bonnie McFarlane (a Canadian no less)  from Cold Lake Alberta.

 Again it was a long day but it certainly was a fun one. We had only 2 days left in the big city, with tomorrow being the big show day. Isabell and I were excited.

NYC April 22

 

I could have slept more…but instead we made our way for Dean and Deluca for breakfast. How could I not think of Felicity?  While there we had famous person number two citing: From Will and Grace, we saw (and Isabell borrowed a chair from) Karen’s arch nemesis: Beverly Lesley…aka Leslie Jordan. He’s so little. We saw him again later that week but by then, he was old news. 

The three of us then hopped on a train, head to Greenwich to meet the gang and off we went on an epic walk through Greenwich, Noho, Soho, Little Italy, Chinatown, Financial District and across the Brooklyn Bridge. It was EXHAUSTING but quite lovely. This is what we saw:

• Washington Square Park is a park that I see all the time on film and television, with its petit arc de triomphe. It’s actually their memorial arch, but it really is modeled after the stunner in Paris. The buildings surrounding the park all belong to NYU. I was actually quite shocked at how small the park really was – I guess I expected something bigger. It was still lovely though. From there we jumped onto Broadway and stopped at the NoHo market, but on the way, I found a restaurant/café called DoJo. I was giddie. It was my 2 names Dodo and Jojo all smashed up into one. DOJO. I’ve decided its my new jedi master name.  As we walked down the street we quickly realized we needed to separate. Some wanted to shop along Broadway and others just wanted to walk..so that’s what we did. And we found ourselves on Canal Street.

• Now I’ve heard about Canal Street and its knock-offs and I literally just finished telling Bas and Isabell about it when this woman casually sidles up to us and says ‘louis vuitton? Prada? Gucci?’ and we look at eachother and think…what the heck. So I say ‘ya’ and she says ‘follow me’. And we walk at a rapid place for what felt like miles. And she tells us ‘stop here for a second’, and then brings us a catalogue of luigi’s.  We look at the bags but they’re not quite up to snuff. Another woman says ‘you like tiffany’ so I say ‘of course’ and she quickly lifts up the sleeve to her shirt revealing about 50 bracelets up her arm. HYSTERICAL. And then they as ‘you like rolex’ and we figure why stop now?  And again she says ‘follow me’ and we start walking again at a rapid pace, ending up at a church on Baxter Street…but there’s trouble in the form of a police car. She quickly walks in the opposite direction of us but says ‘take picture, be tourist’. Ha ha ha. HOLY CRAP THAT WAS FUNNY. Inevitably we went into the church to get rid of our pusher because a touch of fear and a touch of boredom had settled in. Besides we needed to hit Little Italy for lunch and meet up with the group.

• Little Italy really is little, but it seemed to be the NYC experience I was looking for. Italians all over the place hawking their food like they would in Rome but in a city with a much quicker and less romantic pace. I bought Torrone (nougat) from a street vendor, passed a restaurant called Giovanna's and we ended up eating at the most recommended place on the strip called Il Palazzo.

• Reunited, fed and watered, we made our way through Chinatown, noting a few Flight of the Conchords references, passed the New York City Supreme Court (we all thought of Law and Order), saw a wedding party, and made our way to the Brooklyn Bridge, one of the oldest suspension bridges in the US, and a beautiful one at that. It connects Manhattan with Brooklyn and spans the East River. There are some great views on this bridge! At the end, we caught a train and head for the World Trade Centre.

• There’s not much to see at the WTC site mainly because it is now a construction site. Not that I was looking for anything special, but what we did see was some significant construction of the new world trade centre. The rendering looks lovely. There is a memorial site you can visit – we didn’t as we weren’t personally tied up with the event, but we did want to pay homage. We also went to St. Paul’s chapel across the street, a miracle of its own as it was untouched by the damage that happened literally across the street, and was home base for the rescue crews post September 11. 

• From here we walked by Trinity Church (beautiful cathedral) and made our way to Wall Street – the hub of the financial district. From here you can see the NY Stock Exchange, NASDAQ, the American Stock Exchange and of course, the charging bull (located just off Bowling Green – the oldest park in New York).  Many people were in line to cup his balls, perhaps wishing for fortune and luck, much like how you’d cup Juliet’s breast of St. Peter’s Foot. Whatever floats your boat I guess.

We split up for the night as the 5 from London opted for a cruise around Manhattan. Bas and I were cold, Isabell gets seasick so we head back to Time’s Square into Hell’s Kitchen and found Turkish Cuisine, a yummy place for dinner.  We also found a psychic, who never seemed to be ‘in’, much to Bas and Isabell’s chagrin. For dinner we ate babaganush,  I had stuffed tomato, I can’t remember what Isabell had as an appie, and for dinner we ate baby okra, a chicken kabob and a lamb kabob. All with grilled eggplant, rice, bulgar, it went on and on. Stuffed to the gill, Bas head back to the hotel to pass out and Is and I went for a walk to digest just a bit, and check out Time’s Square at night…although it seemed like day there were so many lights.

Thus day 2 ended and again…I slept like the dead.

Pictures to come soon

A Coming out of Retirement Blog – NYC April 21

 So ya, it’s been six months since I’ve moved back to Canada, and well, I came to realize I miss the blog! Although life in Calgary isn’t near as exciting for me to report, my travels here and there are. Recently, I made my way to New York City, and I thought what better way to preserve the trip than through the blog.

The trip to NYC couldn’t have come at a better time – car is purchased, condo purchased, and I had just moved. Things at work were getting crazy, and I was missing my London peeps. I was ready for a holiday…but its hard to have one in a city that is alive 24/7!

My sister Isabell joined me and we started our trip off right – in the first class lounge in Calgary, courtesy of our sister Gina. Thanks G! it was nice to relax before hopping the red-eye flight to Toronto…then a three hour layover followed by a quick flight to La Guardia. I knew I’d be tired on Thursday, so the drinks and comfy seats while waiting sure helped a lot.

We got to La Guardia quickly and had our first star sighting. Well actually she was on our flight which is where I first saw her but it was confirmed at baggage pickup. It was Ellen Ripley herself…Sigourney Weaver, sans make up, sans fan fare. It was cool. On our way to the taxi stand we ran into a private hire to give us a deal on the ride to our hotel – the Four Points Sheraton on west 40^th.    It wasn’t the fanciest or grandest room ever but it suited our purposes just fine thank you very much! And the price was right!

It didn’t take long before I got my phone call from Aleksandra. The London crew was on their way to Times Square to meet us and the reunion was fantastic. There was me, Isabell, Aleksandra, Horacio, Andy, Kate and Ania. After lots of hugs we took off up 7^th Ave to Time’s Square where you see pretty much everything there is to see: lights, broadway shows, MTV, M&M shop, it just goes on and on. And amazingly enough, is just as bright at night as it is during the day. So many lights!

We made our way to The Stage Deli where we had our first deli sammies – Isabell and I split a Corned Beef on Rye because I swear, there was half a cow in each sandwich. We stopped to grab some beers and made our way to Central Park where in the Sheep Meadow we gorged our selves on sammies, giant pickles and beer wrapped in paper bags. How satisfying! We then walked a bit through the south side of the park visiting strawberry fields a living memorial to John Lennon, and then off toward the lake to see Bethesda Fountain. To the general public, it is a reference to the Gospel of John describing the angle blessing the pool of Bethesda and giving it healing powers. But to me, I wanted to see it as when I worked for ATP and we did the play Angels in America, the crew built a miniature version. It was stunning, on stage and in person.

I then got a call from our little munchkin, the last to arrive – Basar! She had landed and would meet up with us after she got to the hotel. We made our way out of the east side of the park and started walking down fifth avenue. Wow. So much to see all in one street but the highlights were FAO Schwartz (some for the Big piano, others for the Gryffindor scarves…I won’t say who), Tiffany, Trump Tower, blah blah blah. Eventually we got hungry and I’m not sure how…so we made our way back to 7^th, a relatively quick and easy to find location for Bas to meet us, and we went to Benash Deli for some NY cheesecake and some cosmos. Totally touristy, rude and ignorant service, but we got what we wanted anyway so we didn’t care. Not a recommendation that’s for certain, which is why I didn’t bother with a link. But Bas found us and we were all officially together.

We definitely had enough of time square so we walked down 5^th ave seeing more amazing things like Radio City Music Hall and eventually made our way to Rockefeller Plaza. We spent some time taking the pics we wanted to take, like of the ice skating rink, making a plan to come back later in the weekend to go to the Top of the Rock – something I highly recommend.  We decided we needed to get out o f tourist central and took the train to Greenwich where we found a Chinese joint (yes there was room for food) for some noodles and a rum and coke that was 7/8 rum and 1/8 coke. Amazing.

Isabell, Bas and I head back to our hotel; the rest to their apartment, and thus the first day was complete. 

Isabell and I slept like the dead.

i can't believe it's all over

one last winter pimms

i have been avoiding this post like the plague. the draft has been sitting here for a while, waiting for me to add to it and post, but i know when i do it, then my two year stint in london is officially over. although i may have a couple of more posts in me (like maybe some top 5 lists like top 5 destinations, memories, you get the idea).

gio-palooza was an amazing time. my last day at work was november 18th and i went in trying to be tough, but you know me, i crumble easily. i was fine until about 10 am (fine because i made myself watch the eddie murphy delirious clips on youtube) when i went to speak to jan cleary - full time receptionist, part time mom to us misfits. she had just become a grandmother and she told me the most touching story of how her daughter called her at 2 a.m. during contractions, and how for 2 hours, jan spoke to her on the phone and helped her through her contractions. even thinking about it near a week later and it makes my eyes well up a little.

now i've had a few hard days in my life, and i thought i was prepared for this day, but in all actuality, it joined one of my top 5. it's an exclusive list that top 5: when gina moved to melbourne and we thought she was gone forever; moving to london in november 2008; heather's mom's funeral, and the day my dad died. this was right up there.

carlos...still demanding 'don't go!'

but by 4 pm, whilst drinking a glass of scotch with chris, carlos and adrian...i got the calling to go to the kitchen for the farewell speech. it took me a few minutes to get there having had to have a bit of a cry before walking in, and then hiding in one of the booths in the kitchen to gather my wits about me. and so adrian gave a speech...and i didn't mean to make him get choked up - i'm sure he did it all on his own! but this is what he said:

I think someone confused Geo for geologist with Gio for Giovanna in the search for someone to speak so I'm afraid you get to hear my incoherence as a send off for our good friend.

Gio has of coure been a key part of the success of IHS with her marketing skills but it is perhaps not those that she will be remembered for. Nor will it be for the evangelical zeal she has for the beauty of her homeland.

Epsom-ites will know her for her sporting prowess on the badminton court but i speak not of that.

It won't even be for her encyclopaedic knowledge of film useful in the odd pub quiz or two, even after a drink.

Geo of course means Earth, and the earthly and motherly side of Gio has seen her help many a friend through hard times.

But best of all, Gio wins the prize for being the friendliest and most bubbly colleague in the IHS empire. A constant source of entertainment, humour and a ray of sunshine wherever she is.

So now we get to the participatory part. Some of you may have noticed how if you say Gio quickly it sounds like a particularily relevant Italian word - ciao. A word that is used by the English only as a goodbye but fortunately in Italian, it also means helo so it has a more welcoming meaning too. So you can repeat it after 3, 1 - 2 - 3 Ciao Gio.

but my parting gift was one of complete joy - the christmas ornaments i had planned to pick up the next day - henry the 8th and his 6 wives. LOVED IT!

all tears aside (and not just my own tears thank you!), we made our way downstairs to the alchemist where we drank and feasted. although it was a joyful time to be with everyone, one by one they had to go, and one by one i had to say bye. some goodbyes were harder than others, i'll admit. its always hard saying bye because you never quite know if its really a goodbye, or a see ya later. i hope with most cases, it's a see ya later.

the next say was full of excitement...after some last minute christmas shopping, a stroll down oxford, and a visit to the bank to shut down accounts, i made my way to bayswater to watch harry potter and the deathly hallows. what. a. fab. film. i won't say much except that there was not a bit that was disappointing. it was aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall good.

keeping warm waiting for our winter pimms

later that night, there was time for one last meal at busaba eathai - monkfish green curry and the squid mmmmm - some winter pimms at the hog and the pound, and then one last tearful goodbye with horacio and aleksandra. sigh...i can't believe it's all done.

so, to see pics of my final goodbye party in london, visit this photo album and enjoy.

i love all of my uk family. they made that city home for me and made those two years of my life something i will never forget.

so for some of you - see you in january. for others, see you in april. but for all of you...hope to see you as a guest in my home.

the next post coming from my mac

oh my...i'm about to lose my laptop from work which means no more posts until i get back to calgary.

wish me luck on my journey home!

xoxoxo