Home again

We went to a matinee on Wednesday afternoon - Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. A new musical adaptation of Pedro Almodovar's movie - the costumes were colourful, the pace was frantic, it was funny and fun to watch. Apparently it is still in preview's and doesn't actually open for a couple of weeks. So I guess Shirley and I are in the forefront on this one.

We went back to Greenwich for dinner, and had pasta at Patsy's - I had a cannoli for dessert because I'd never had one. The cheese filling is very tasty.

Thurday we got up and packed and cleaned up Tanya's apartment, then caught the shuttle to the airport and took the plane back to Calgary. We arrived late, watched a little TV, then slept - and I caught the plane back to Saskatoon today. It's nice to be back in my own little house.

Chelsea

Yesterday we walked around Greenwich Village, then up to Chelsea. We went in to Chelsea Market (photo) to find lunch. The market was totally decorated for Hallowe'en, rather cool.

Then we went up and down the streets where the Chelsea Galleries are - art gallery after art gallery. Over to the Hudson River to gaze at New Jersey. Then we continued up to Macy's (which we wandered through - it is huge) and Madison Square Gardens (nothing on, but we peeked in). The subway back to our home area, and dinner in a little organic cafe a block from the apartment. And a quiet night at home. Shirley got frustrated over the baseball game and I read a book (a complete book - Mistress of Nothing - I stayed up late!)

So far today we've booked our shuttle and gone over to the Greenmarket at Union Square to pick up fresh baking for breakfast - I was disappointed the Pretzel Man wasn't there, but did well without him!

Brooklyn

Yesterday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge (photo). It is a very scenic walk, and the walkway is elevated above the traffic so the views are great. Once we crossed the bridge we went down under it, and ate pizza at Garibaldi's for lunch. The small pizza, which we shared, must have been 16 inches. Good thing we didn't order a large! They used fresh mozzarella, which makes quite a difference in the pizza. V. Good.

After lunch we walked around Brooklyn Heights, following a walking tour in Shirley's guide book, so we saw the oldest house, the promenade, and all sorts of other things. An amazing number of houses had their doorsteps decorated with pumpkins and spider webs. Hallowe'en must be big in Brooklyn. Photo of typical houses.

When we finished our walk we walked down Court Street to an ice cream shop and patisserie that Shirley had found out about for afternoon tea. We asked there how to get to the venue for Maureen's thing and they printed out a Google map for us. The Google map took us under the el (elevated portion of subway system) in a rather sketchy part of town. We found the rather unprepossing front of the building, and then walked on to see what else was around. Not much was the answer.

After a bit of looking around we hit on a spot we thought looked adequate, and went in to spend a couple of hours having supper. It was actually quite a lovely bar/restaurant with pressed tin walls and ceilings, leather banquets, lots of polished mirrors. The food was Italian and also excellent, and we had a lovely dinner there.

After dinner we quickly walked the 3 blocks to Bell House, which looked much better with its lights on, and was actually quite a nice "alternative" venue, for the Science film festival. The prize for the Science magazine "Dance your PhD" contest was awarded before the other films started, and my niece Maureen McKeague won! After her acceptance speech we all left, took a taxi back to Manhatten, and went for coffee on the more upscale part of town!

Lady Liberty

Yesterday was bright and sunny and not windy, so we went off to see the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which require a short ferry ride, both being on tiny islands. We purchased our tickets, and then went and stood in line. 2 hours later (after airport type security) we boarded our ferry. At the time we bought our tickets they said there was an hour line-up, but they under-estimated. Shirley and I felt really sorry for this German couple in front of us (he was at least 35 - 40, she was 20 at the max) - they stood in line in front of us for an hour and 45 min, then turned around and asked us where you got tickets (we were finally approaching the point where they asked for the tickets). I hated to break it to him that you purchased the tickets prior to standing in line.

The statue looked good, holding up her torch (photo). Ellis Island was interesting - the arrival hall and registration hall were huge, and easy to imagine filled with thousands of scared immigrants, including Dave's great aunts.

When we caught the subway home we discovered we had hit an express, and had to get off a little early or go way past our spot. We were feeling pretty good about our expertise with the subway the day before (having finally figured out how to find subway stops on our street map), but we went down the uptown entrance instead of the downtown one for our trip to the ferry yesterday morning, and then hit the express later. We still need more experience I guess.

Last night we stayed in quietly.

Today we're off to Brooklyn!

Darn internet again

On Friday night we went to Wicked - enjoyable - I particularly liked Guh-linda (as she was known before showing her solidarity with the goat and changing it to Glinda) - the wicked witch was also great. On the way home we stopped and watched the skaters at Rockefeller Plaza.

On Saturday we went Downtown - that is, south of where we are instead of north (Uptown) where we had been going. And then yesterday afternoon I wrote a nice blog about it, and it got lost in the ether as the internet at the cafe went dead. I'll try again. We saw the great ironwork on the Singer building, a Picasso statue, Ground Zero (a big area with a high construction fence around it and at least 10 cranes at work - photo), Century 21 (a discount designer department store, not real estate), Wall Street with its bronze bull (covered by other people going for photo ops and thus interferring with our photos), and Pier 17 (or is it 21? - photo with Brooklyn Bridge in background). We went to a museum solely for the purpose of a clean washroom - the security check was a small price to pay.

Then we went to the useless internet cafe. Although the internet didn't work, I did have fun. A group of youngish people (my children's age) came in, and came over to me. They were doing a scavenger hunt and would I please spank the young gentleman's bum as they took a photo. After 3 tries they got their photo. Then the man kind of giggled and said "Now I have to give you a lap dance" - so he gave me a fake lap dance for more photos. I don't know if the scavenger hunt specified a white haired woman or if there was just room to take a picture at my table.

Last night we went to Carnegie Hall and saw Hugh Masekela - a South African trumpet player, and his jazz group. Very good. Except Andrew Carnegie must have been an awfully short man as the seats were quite uncomfortably close to the row in front. I figure you could get more young men to attend cultural events if you made the seats comfy. The acoustics in the Hall were fantastic.

This morning we asked the doorman for directions to Starbucks - their internet seems better.

Internet Cafe Disappoints

Shirley and I came out this morning to our local internet cafe to do e-mail and blog, but the internet wasn't working. So we bought a coffee for no good reason!

Yesterday we took the subway Uptown and went to Carnegie Hall (to buy tickets for a show tomorrow). On the way we stopped at a fantastic paper store - I think Kate's Paperie - Caileen would love it! After that we stopped at a deli for lunch - I thought a hot pastrami on rye would be appropriate. I forgot that deli's tend to pile a pound of meat on your sandwich. I still have 1/2 in our frig. Then we went to MoMA (Museum of Modern Art). The special exhibit was photographs of sculptures - sculpture being pretty loosely interpreted to include chewing gum, etc. Another special exhibit was woman photographers. Then there was just lots of modern art - I like the old modern artists (like Picasso) better than the new modern artists. After MoMa we went and purchased tickets for a show tonight (Wicked). Then we went home for a short break - it started to pour rain soon after we got to our apartment, so we just stayed in and watched TV. "Bones", "CSI" and "The Mentalist" - it seemed just like home.

Today we got up and were frustrated by the internet. Then took the subway Uptown and saw the Chrysler building up close, and the U.N., and Grand Central Terminal, and other high spots like Bloomingdales. Shirley and I both helped out New York's economy a little. We came home for supper and the internet before going out to Wicked tonight.

The photo is our apartment building (corner, 3d floor) through Washington Arch.

Central Park

Yesterday we got up, did the internet cafe, then Trader Joe's and DSW, so that we ate lunch at home before heading off to the subway down to Central Park.

We entered at 72nd street (the Dakota apartment is on the corner) and the first thing inside was Strawberry Fields (John Lennon - Dakota - got it). I took a photo as soon as we saw the lake (above). We put off all the young men who wanted to cycle us around in their rickshaw, and walked. We saw Bow Bridge (people are always walking over it in movies - photo also above), saw a commercial or movie being filmed , saw fantastic buskers, horses and carriages, the little remote control boat lake, people rowing on the bigger lake, where the skating rink is in the winter, various statues, artists painting the view, and so on. We stopped and had tea at the Boathouse. We wandered around Central Park (143 acres) for about 3 hours. Very pastoral, except for the tall buildings you see over the trees, and the traffic noise. I was surprised at the large rock out croppings all over - I never think of New York as being rugged country, but I guess it was at one time.

We went to Times Square and bought more show tickets - last night we went to Driving Miss Daisy with James Earl Jones (great voice) and Vanessa Redgrave. We also got tickets for a matinee next Wednesday. We hope to see lots of shows.