The working week came and went, with class, the gym and coursework (whhhhyyyyy).
On Friday I met Pri in midtown at a bar called TEDS, we all celebrated the weekend there, moving on to a place called Jonny Utahs, where there is a bucking bull. Never has peer pressure been more effective, but I went on the bull. Lasted quite a long time but am NEVER doing it again. Mainly because I couldn’t get the stamp off my hand for about 5 days. Anna, Sara and I then found some food before making our way to Hoboken to meet up with others. It was such a fun impulsive night. Anna sent me this photo a couple of days later. I have no idea. Don’t ask.
I'm just so excited about this chair.
On the Saturday Loz and I just crashed on the sofa. Then in the evening I went down to New York’s Festival of Lights in DUMBO with Pri and peeps.
Essentially what it is is a really beautiful lights show, incorporating the buildings in with the lights. It’s been done in Berlin and London before and this was the first one in New York.
The festival was rather over crowed and I think they could have chosen better architecture in DUMBO to bounce the lights off and also wouldn’t have created such a bottleneck. The crowds really did ruin it somewhat (still got some cool photos though...)
We then went and got hot chocolate from the Brooklyn Ice Cream Company, it was so rich and I so rarely have milk that I could only really stomach half a cup. But it was very warming, and that was what we were going for.
We then walked the Brooklyn Bridge at night time and it was beautiful, and also inspired me to get a move on buying my winter coat cos it was COLD.
We continued to walk through manhattan to Little Italy and had some stunning food there before heading home. After all that walking I was definitely ready for bed.
Sunday morning was Grand Prix day and Pri, Jack and I made pancakes and watch Lewis Hamilton fail to win the penultimate race.
I’m going to be in Boston for the Last race in Abu Dhabi. IT WILL BE SO TENSE. Hot dang it. I then went into manhattan on my todd to do some exploring of west village and to try on some winter coats. It was such a lovely sunday afternoon/evening of just exploring random streets, going into shops and enjoying the autumnal weather.
On my walk home from work on monday I noticed that CHRISTMAS HAD ARRIVED ON 5TH AVENUE. It made me feel so festive!!!!!
There are also some pretty arty things going on in Union square, which I love to stand and watch. For example this guy just goes around chalking ‘love’ onto the streets, which is very happy :)
Then there was this piano ready for public use put up one day this week too. Along with loads of really talented buskers in the square and in the subway too (they’d put some of the tube’s buskers to complete shame).
(i need to work out how to post videos, cos these guys were amaaaaazing and i stood watching them for yonks)
On the friday Pri and I met in midtown and went to the bar at the top of the Rockefeller center called ‘Rainbow Room’.
I would recommend it to EVERYONE. You get the kiss ass Rockefeller view of the empire state, can go out on a viewing deck and get cold etc etc and then come back inside and have a drink!
You can have two drinks for the price of one ticket up the standard Rockefeller viewing deck. Sounds like a win win to me. They also gave us free olives, popcorn and nuts. So. Damn. Good.
(It was so cold my hands were shaking)
The rest of the weekend has been pretty chilled. On saturday I went up to Shiv’s flat and watched the french film ‘The Instoppables’ (or something along those lines), it was amazing. Absolutely amazing. And everyone provided such lovely snacks too.
(Shiv's photo, Caspar's hand)
What I also did this weekend was get my winter coat. HURRAY FOR WARMTH. I went into Macy’s on the right day, cos I got a coat at 40% off, took it to the till and got an additional 15% off it for some reason! I was ecstatic!!!! Looks pretty fly too. Over and out for now. Love to all at home.
The weekend after all the rebel bingo, gigs and basketball Loz, Rachael and I stayed in the flat with wine. The boys were in Boston so we did a good old traditional girls night in. I don’t know what your tradition is, but mine is wine and food. And now, Laura attempting to do handstands. Saturday we chilled, went to the mall (dammit we’re so American) and then stayed in and watched scary movies. Well, we watched one scary movie (the conjuring, GO AND WATCH IT NOW IT’S GREAT) and then a film called ‘The Frighteners’, which is really very funny and again, I recommend it, and then some desperate housewives. An eclectic mix to be sure to be sure.
Sunday was culture day. We went up to Harlem and were given a tour of the history of Harlem, the first people to live there, the architecture and the streets and what they all meant. That place is FULL of history and is actually really lovely.
There are still some more distressing blocks, like in any neighbourhood, but the atmosphere was really friendly and much more community based than other areas of manhattan. The tour guide joked that they’d know up there when the place had been completely gentrified when there are starbucks and wholefoods. Well, there are already starbucks, and there’s a wholefoods being built. There are clearly mixed feelings in the area about this gentrification, and I happen to agree with some of it. The council (or american equivalent) are putting in place stores which are infamously expensive (buying two coffees in starbucks can easily cost you more than 10 dollars), and wholefoods? well. If you want to buy a cucumber for 2 dollars feel free to go forth and prosper, but I like mine below the dollar mark. Many thank yous and bye. And the tour guide had the point that, they’re putting these expensive shops throughout the district, renting apartments at market value (instead of the rent being a direct percentage of what each tenant earns) but peoples wages are not going up. So it is almost inevitable that those earning less will be pushed out of their area as rent rises and food becomes more expensive. There are already $1 million plus apartments and town houses in the area. It’s not going to take long. Food for thought.
And while we’re on food, after the tour we went for a sober brunch at Syvlia’s, which is a really famous soul food place. There was live jazz (we went to two places, both of which had live music which was GREAT. I didn’t want to leave the first place) and chicken and mac and cheese. A legit meal here apparently (all carbs, just, all carbs). We rolled ourselves home. Watched a film and called it a night as the working week returned.
This week really, in all honesty was a week of halloween build up. Pumpkins and candy EVERYWHERE.
Halloween arrived, and as usual I didn’t have a costume, so went for the staple all black with a spider’s web on my face. Before dressing up we grabbed some food and then headed to the Village parade. It was SO BUSY. Holy smokes. But it was great, I love a good parade and the atmosphere was really fun. There was a building that had a turret on it and they’d made it look as if there were octopus tentacles consuming the building. The floats were class and apparently Whoopi Goldberg was on one but I must have missed that :(
We then fought our way back to newport to get ready to head out in Hoboken for the night.
(so.darn.busy)
Had a great time dressing up …. we both went as some very well planned difficult characters …. headed downstairs, saw it was raining profusely (Hoboken is a wee walk away and heels had been involved in our costumes) so we decided against going out and instead watched scary films. All round success really.
After halloween the weekend was pretty chilled to be honest. Made some fancy food and went for some drinks with Rachael, Laura and her parents (who are hilarious).
I have to say. Having a three day weekend is lush, I have decided it should happen every weekend. I’ll let you know how far I get with that. The following week presented some very low cloud in manhattan, it felt like you were walking through them. Very damp, and suffocating. Made some great photos though (if not a little blurry due to iPhone use)
This week was also definitely Rachael’s birthday week. On Thursday we went to this great rooftop bar in midtown called Pod 39. Its view was stunning, and the whole atmosphere was great.
Their cocktails were a little suspect so next time I might stay on the wine….we then got pizza and Rachael opened her presents back at her flat. The birthday cake her flatmates had got her was great, it had cream cheese instead of icing and was red velvet. Don’t ask, I don’t know why it tasted so good. Cream cheese on cake? mmmidunno.
Friday was also fabulous. We met downtown in St Marks Place Bar, got some cocktails in their happy hour, moved onto a random place nearby who’s happy hour lasted a little longer and we got the BEST sangria ever. I’ll tell you this. NYC can do sangria. Mmmmmm. Then there was this guy whose credit card was poking out of the top of his back pocket. We pointed this out to him and he was very americanly thankful AND BOUGHT US A ROUND. We did not need that round, but due to british courtesy we did see it off. Much to my liver’s disappear. We then got ourselves home and collapsed into bed.
Saturday, was brunch. It was a pretty tame brunch to be fair, and when I say tame, I think I had about 2 drinks. We then went to this cocktail bar nearby and had some fun there before we went to REBEL BINGO.
Everyone should go to rebel bingo. It is such a hilarious concept. It’s in a club/gig venue, they play club music and then pause it and we all play bingo. I lost my bingo sheet pretty early on so just looked around at everyone when they were playing bingo. And it was one hilarious sight. Everyone is jumping around like crazy and then the bingo starts and their heads are down and still, looking at their sheets, in bingo concentration. I flipping loved it. The night ended in its usual fashion and we all headed home. I was shattered and sober compared to those I were accompanying home. The PATH train is this way boys…
Sunday was chill out day, had a lie in, skyped some highly missed friends and family and then in the evening Loz and I went BACK to the same venue Rebel Bingo had be held at to see her all time favourite band (maybe second only to Taylor Swift) You Me At Six. I know. Blast from the teenage hood past right? We rocked (eh eh eh punn intended) up and realised we were 100% the oldest people in the crowd. We were given wrist bands to show we could drink (the law being 21 and over here), promptly got a beer, and waited for the band to come on stage. Now then. Compared to the majority of the audience, we were responsible adults who’s youthful days were behind them, and we were standing in front of some kids who were probably about 15. These 15 year olds really made Loz and I chuckle. They were trying to act incredibly hard core while swigging their bottles of water. When YMAS came on these small children started a mosh pit (really? no) and Loz just shouted ‘I’M TOO OLD FOR THIS’ while we avoided the pre-puberty scrum happening behind us.
(Laura's photo, mine were all blurry as hell)
Side note. They all got kicked out for crowd surfing. When the first one went Loz said ‘One down Ten to go’. Ehehehehehe.
Aside from small children thinking they’re ghetto, the gig was AMAZING. so good. I didn’t know much of YMAS but I came out a fan (of the songs they played). Hurrah.
On Monday I was much more spontaneous than normal and went to go see the Knicks play the Milwaukee Bucks (Basketball) at Madison Square Gardens. Henry had a spare ticket in the JP Morgan seats at a hugely discounted price, so I tagged along. Safe to say I love basketball, I didn’t realise there were so few people on the court though (One Tree Hill had given me false impressions there….).
BUT Faye and I got foam fingers #GOKNICKS.
What was also fabulous was that FAYE AND I GOT ON THE BIG SCREEN. EHEHEHEHEHE. They did a feature in front of us and we were in the background. Safe to say I did the classic waving of arms, and getting waaaaay too overexcited for what was happening (or was I?), may or may not have shouted ‘Hi Mum’.
However, the Knicks lost. THEY LOST. To the team who came LAST last year. The Bucks came LAST and the Knicks LOST. The people in front of us got so upset because of this, and to be fair so did the majority of the stadium, that they left early. At the end of the penultimate quarter the stadium emptied as fast as you could say ’the knicks were losing so badly they wouldn’t be able to retrieve it’ (ehehehe). We stayed till the end. They lost and the whole of NYC wept. We walked back with our foam hands now rather depressingly bright orange instead of excitingly LETS GO KNICKS they had been an hour previous, with one lady in the lift in the apartments saying ‘did they win’? ‘no’, ‘oh don’t worry hun, they’ll win again soon don’t lose hope’. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that was the first time I’d watched basketball, let alone be a hard core supporter of the Knicks (I am now though, gotta support the locals innit, we’ll omit the fact I live in Jersey).
After all that excitement, the rest of the week seemed pretty bland. Which was perfectly fine with me, saves money and lets the ever increasingly dark bags under my eyes recede a bit.
P.S. I found my parents on Google Maps and laughed so hard. Hadley's even featured!!!
13. Columbus weekend, 20 dollar brunches and gigs galore
On Thursday and Friday I chilled out, stayed in, got pizza, Laura was given the wrong pizza and a small tantrum occurred which was hilarious for me, not hilarious for her (it was very very funny and I make no apology for chuckling a lot at the whole situation). Laura went out Friday night and they returned incredibly sober looking….
The weekend arrived, as it does weekly, and I went for brunch with many a Mountbatten to a place that did 20 dollar brunch (absolutely unheard of and it was solid too).
We went of hair of the dog – I have got to stop going to hair of the dog, then moved our way to Brooklyn to a place called Berry Park, which provided a fabulous fabulous view of the Manhattan skyline (it never gets old).
We then moved onto another bar, which turned out to be a gay bar, and there was a show. The guy/gal in the show had absolutely amazing legs, we were all in awe. I then headed home as I quite wanted to go back to DUMBO on Sunday to see a colleague’s show and also the photography display and the art festival going on there.
Which is exactly what Laura and I did. Some of the art was a little wacky for us, although a lot of it was incredibly meaningful.
I love dumbo and I love art and it was sunny so the whole day was great.
We also booked tickets to go see pretty much Laura’s all time favourite band, You Me at Six. I am yet to be persuaded they’re fabulous, but wouldn’t be one to turn down live music so bought a pity ticket ;) Nothing much happened during that week. Loz and I went for a Mexican on Thursday. We both ate a LOT. The hunger came quickly and we ordered a shared starter, and then we ordered mains. I got nachos and didn’t even nearly finish them. But have decided the place was amazing and will definitely take people there when they come to visit … the sangria was really really tasty. quaffable, as mum would say. On friday night Loz and I just picked up a HUGE bottle (or two) of wine and played music loudly in our flat, had a listen along. We were gonna make fajitas but got distracted by chips and guacamole. Yet still drank wine. There was a house party upstairs which we went to for a while. Called it a night pretty early cos the next day we were returning to the 20 dollar brunch place before doing a rather epic pub crawl…
Turns out, unsurprisingly, we were quite hungover on saturday morning. But the God known as Eddie the housemate went out on a bagel run and got everyone (we were all suffering) bagels from down the road. Flat out the best bagel i’ve ever had (except when I came to NYC for the first time, mum will know the ones).
Issues was it was HUGE. And we were going to brunch. And I was hungover. Took me a while to get into brunch, and I wasn’t in any way hungry. However, I took one for the team and powered through. We moved onto the pub crawl. There are a chain of pubs in manhattan who’s titles are along the lines of ‘Hair of the Dog’, ‘Down the Hatch’, ‘Three Sheets Saloon’ and another one…and some others as well. Regardless, this required us to go to four of them (the three i mentioned and the one whose name i’ve forgotten). It was not messy until it was messy. And then it was messy. Loz, Rachael and Dan were not tired. At all. The people on the PATH train found it hilarious (as did I).
The following day we pretty much just wondered around the mall, watched the film Gone Girl (IT IS AMAZING. Does the book justice I think, films always miss things out but it did bloomin’ well) and then made fajitas and sat at a table. It was almost like a Sunday roast, minus the roast. We then bought tickets to watch BASTILLE. WHUUUUUUUUUUT. YES. YES. YES. YES. YES. I REPEAT. YES. The week then moved bloody slowly until Bastille arrived on thursday. They.Were.Amazing. Bah. I love Bastille as it is, but they are phenomenal live.
The only thing that brought it down was the venue. It was at Radio City, usually the venue for the dancing group The Rockettes, so it was seated. To be honest, Laura and I just wanted to get up and have a dance, felt a bit awkward sitting down. Safe to say we got up at the end when Flaws, Get Home, Of The Night and Pompeii in a row at the end….So.Good. Friday was a quiet one for us, welcoming in the long weekend in style. Saturday was a catch up on sleep, skype, and me time, with a trip to the mall. We did partake in something called a ‘Pot Dinner’ where we all bring a pot of something.
Turns out we’re not known for our prowess in the kitchen. Loz and Rachael made cookies and sweet potato fries…We put them to cook on foil because we had no grease proof paper. Safe to say the majority of them burnt on the bottom. The majority of the gluten free ones were okay…the double chocolate chip were a) incredibly burnt on the bottom and b) SOLID. ROCK HARD SOLID. I died. RIP ME. I died
(see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGVg6gjBJ2w for this reference).
We didn’t realise this until we got to the party and had one before everyone else. Swiftly attempted to hide them but they eventually became the mockery of the night (it was very funny). It was BYOB. And we all know how that ends. Sunday was a casual day, I made stir fry and skyped a lot of people. Monday, Laura and I had the day off, for Columbus day (hmmmm, just grateful for the day off). We were FABULOUS New Yorkers. Went to the Natural History Museum. Which was AWESOME.
Saw a blue wale (stuffed…) and it was huge. I still cannot grasp how large it was. I don’t understand how it fits in the ocean (no one comment, I know the ocean is a large large place. BUT IT WAS HUGE).
We then wandered around central park and found a waffle van. Mmmmmmmm. They were really healthy waffles….ahem. um. hmmmmm. I’ve never properly been in Central Park (I’ve been to the zoo and been on a horse and carriage ride), it’s lovely. We went up Belvedere Castle, which gave a beautiful view of the park and made me feel like Rapunzel. Let down your hair!!!
Salut! Sorry, I have just realised how long it has been since I’ve done a blog post. 18th of September. Whoops. No shame.
So after fajita and chicken wings fun the weekend descended. On the Saturday I ventured into Brooklyn to take some photos and generally do some exploring. We went round DUMBO (Down Under Manhattan Bridge Overpass, apparently), had a hot dog, I took a TONNE of photos and it was fabulous.
It was also really warm. I thought it was going to be cool; it wasn’t cool in any way shape or form. A jumper was a bad choice. MILK WAS A BAD CHOICE (10 points if you get the reference, good luck mum). We then walked back over Brooklyn bridge, have to say it was a tad crowded….A bicycle nearly killed me once or twice (okay, I’m being melodramatic, calm down), but some of the views were fabulous. I really loved how you could look through modern steel girders and out onto the calm(ish) water. Was well pretty innit.
Once I’d returned to Manhattan madness I made my way uptown to midtown, lololol, to meet Anna, Sara and Dan for drinks (and eventually food) on a rooftop bar. It was great fun and in no way at all did we rack up a massive tab (which once split was manageable, but still, WHUT). We had beergaritas, where they plonked a corona in your drink (don’t knock it till you’ve tried it kids), and jugs of normal margaritas. It was fabulous.
(sara's photo)
After the bar and passing out at the bill, I ummmm….it all got a bit hazy just then. But we went to Hair of the Dog and then back up to Brass Monkey. I still had my big camera in my bag wrapped up in socks, so called it a night around 1am, aww yeah I’m pretty sure I did well.
The following day Dan and I went to Central Park Zoo because Dan had a corporate pass, so we got in for free. We saw sea lions, Red Pandas (GOOGLE THEM NOW).
The back of a Red Panda, they weren't very sociable when we went....
We also saw many a snake and penguin and then a snow leopard. It was nice to go but made me sad because they all had such small enclosures, and Mr. Snow Leopard looked so grumpy.
Dan then got dragged into a street dance show ‘we need a white guy’ and then pulled him from the audience. Yes it was as funny (and borderline racist) as it sounds.
We then grabbed some food and then headed back to NJ.
ALAS. NO. It turned out we had got the LAST train going into Manhattan from NJ. So despite that fact that it was probably a mile or two at most from where we were in NYC to home, we had an absolute nightmare getting back home. We went up to Penn station, out to Newark, changed at Newark for another train, changed again and FINALLY got home three hours later….safe to say I needed to pee.
The PATH train being down led to havoc the next day when we all wanted to commute into NYC. Anyone who wanted to go to 33rd street had to go via the World Trade Centre train and then get the subway up to wherever you wanted to go. This got expensive fast, and annoying even faster. It was down for a total of three days and BOY the complaining was worse than when it rains for more than a solid two weeks in Manchester. There was one point where they said it would be down ‘indefinitely’ and I nearly lost my shit. Pardon my French. But I did. It is the ONLY logistically sensible way to get from Jersey to NYC. I am not taking a 9 dollar per trip ferry from miles away. No. Sorry Mountbatten that is not going to happen. Ah, all dem feels.
Wednesday evening I met up with Anna in Brooklyn (DUMBO again, cos it’s amazing) and we planned to go to this amazing photography show. Alas, we turned up and it was closed on Wednesdays…whoops. However, there was some incredible street art around, there was a suspicious Banksy which we decided wasn't a Banksy because it was pealing off the wall...
There was also some more legit street art too.
We also enjoy an absolutely stunning sunset within the streets of Brooklyn Heights and down by Pier 5, where we found a rooftop bar (as usual) and enjoyed a truly splendid view of the sunset over Manhattan.
Eventually made our way very slowly back from DUMBO to home. It was a stunning evening, and do not worry. We returned later that week for the photography show. Over and out for now.
Hellooo, so turns out I actually have a few followers on here. Worked that out yesterday, doing well haha. Some people have got in contact via tumblr. No idea how they managed that! Kudos. So peeps feel free to do that too.
I have another blog which i've not really done much with so far. But over the weekend it'll turn into a blog solely for the photos I'm taking while I'm out here. So look out for that, it'll because a tab at the top of the page, like the twitter, instagram, facebook, ramblings and americanisms tabs.
11. Birthday, BBQ chicken wings, Bouquets and extras
Birthday bouquets.
So Monday was my birthday!! I woke up early and opened the collection of cards I’d received over the week.
Just want to say a massive thank you to the pals at home who sent out cards. It meant so much and they all made me incredibly happy. First birthday away from home in a different country. THESE, made it so much more festive. Y'all know who you are. (Obviously, my parents...duh). Love n hugs.
Then I went to work, where my parents had delivered some flowers. This made me ‘well up’ a bit (read - became an emotional wreck and hid it behind the fact I had a cold).
Eva sent round a fabulous work email saying happy birthday, pointing out I shared a birthday with Prince Harry and I should sit down and have a ‘cuppa and a slice’, I found the whole email rather hilarious. One colleague bought me some mini cupcakes from Melissa’s which were REALLY GOOD, and another bought me a huge american cookie which was consumed slowly throughout the day. Much food and happiness.
(mini cupcakes, red velvet, mint chocolate chip, cookie dough)
I bought the office loads of cookies, which went in the 15 minutes I went outside to FaceTime my parents. Dad set party poppers off at one point during the FaceTime call and scared Hadley off into another room - not that I could see this from my end. I ended up carrying my flowers (which came in a glass vase) and the balloon that accompanied it on the rush out PATH train (imagine, someone taking a huge bouquet of flowers with a glass vase and a foil balloon on a rush hour tube….), I don’t think I made many friends then.
I came home from work and there was ANOTHER bouquet of flowers waiting for me from Vicki. Hurrah. Friendship is an amazing thing and I love it dearly.
My flat mates got me a card and cake. Cake in America is weird, they don’t have icing they just put cream on top. Weird….but good. No comment. Help.
We then all went out to Mills Tavern and got ‘Unlimited Chicken Wings’. I thought they just would dump a load of chicken wings in front of me and that would be that. BUT NO. YOU WOULD BE MISTAKEN. You’d finish your wings, they’d take your plate away AND REPLACE IT WITH MORE. AND MORE. UNTIL YOU ASKED THEM TO STOP. I was a tad crafty and said stop after one too many and saved those wings for dinner the next night #budgeting. It was 10 bucks for as many as you want. So we did utilise. I think Henry holds the record of 35 wings…
Moving on from birthday festivities
Tuesday I had class and instead of getting the tube up I decided to walk the 26 blocks to 42nd street. I walked up Park avenue. It is lovely once you get off Park Avenue South (which is just like every other ave. in NYC. I know it seems like I'm now taking it for granted. I'm not. I promise.)
Wednesday night I went over to a friends flat and we made fajitas. Originally he was going to make me fajitas. But as many know, I’m a bit of a control freak so it very quickly became a group effort…
(and yes, that is a college style red cup you see in the corner. WHUTWHUT.)
And that brings us up to date!! I’d quite like to do a post a week…I wrote the first part of this post last saturday I was doing well…until I failed to post it! So we’ll see how it goes. Until next time, check out the ‘americanisms’ tab for everyday comments.
10. Social weekend. I need to be a tourist at some point.
Last saturday I met up with a friend from home and we went to a new bar to me called Art Bar, it was quite cold in there but there was a room full of sofas, and 3 dollar wine so I was content. We then went to Brass Monkey where I went after the welcome brunch, had some fancy cocktails. Cameron and I swapped many a story and it was really great to catch up. Afterwards I headed to East village (I think) to Hair of the Dog to meet three of my flat mates who had been at a 3 hour brunch before - safe to say they were sober….I turned up and the place was FULL of Mountbattens. FULL. Like walking into student union in manchester after a MUMS concert. FULL OF PEOPLE YOU KNOW - sort of. All in all one hell of a fabulous night.
Sunday was ‘life admin’ day…if that sort of thing exists, one may say it’s just begin an adult… I’ll let you decide. But in the evening we went to go see Matilda on broadway, and I have to say it was fan.tas.tic. if you are going to see a musical any time soon SEE MATILDA. NOW. JUST GO ALREADY.
After we went to a restaurant called ‘Guys Kitchen’ or something — meals were quite expensive, I ordered what I thought was a sandwich…
Turns out it was a ‘slider’ which is multiple mini burgers. I never wanted to eat again, and I saved half for lunch the next day too. much food. much food baby. help.
On thursday we went to Yankees vs Red Sox. It was great, personally I loved it. The atmosphere was fabulous, the food was good (if not a little over-priced) and the YANKEES WON. After losing for the entire game in the last inning they got two home runs and one. Absolutely ridiculous.
The crowd went crazy, music blared really loudly. Amazing. Was a bit of a trek back to Newport from the stadium though, ooft. Dan basically fell asleep on the subway. It was SO FULL. Packed of thrilled yankees fans. Not gonna complain there.
Then thursday we met up at 1st avenue again for drinks and went to a loooovely restaurant near by which had great decor.
Laura and I headed back to Newport where we went out to a club called ‘Reign’, loads of Mountbattens were supposed to be there, but they got kicked out before we arrived. Needless to say we had a great night bopping along to the music. We got back at ridiculous o’clock and watched vampire diaries while eating popcorn. Safe to say I joined the gym on monday.
(view from my gym, whutwhut)
Saturday was mental. We went to a party at MOMA PS1. Basically a massive rave. Skrillex were confirmed as headliners about an hour before we arrived, so that was siiiiiick. So much fun. It ended at 9pm (lol, I know, it started at 3pm and by 9 everyone was absolutely trashed). I went home as I didn’t want to spend any more money (eeek) but some people went out and that sounded hi.la.ri.ous.
The next day was 100% recovery day. We went to this Mexican restaurant where they cut the guacamole in front of us. It was so tasty and not too expensive!! I want to go back, luckily, it’s really close haha.
Some people went out to ‘Mr Sunday’, but hell noooooo I had work the next day (there are still some people who haven’t started their placements yet because their background checks haven’t come through. Yet they still get paid. Don’t, just don’t).
Thursday I went to a free art show at the Brooklyn Museum, I love Brooklyn. It’s calmer, and really arty, I am missing having music in my life as much as I am used to from uni, and Brooklyn brings that back.
This art show was interactive - sort of. It was set in a museum and then in between the art work there were musicians and dancers. All different types of dance, modern, street, ballroom, and then there were bands, with incredible singers, instrumentalists.
(sorry for the blurriness, my iPhone has a stella camera...)
It was fantastic Anna (referred to from now on as little Anna, sup gurl) and I loved it. We then went to this retro little bar near the museum. Got ‘small plates’ (starters) and they turned up and we were like, this is basically a main meal. I might bear that in mind in the future, because starters are always cheaper but here they’re also big enough to be a main … money saving magic. We were joined by Laura and tall Anna, they headed back after a wee while and little Anna and I headed into Manhattan to a place that was doing free drinks for women, yay, FEMINISM. We arrived in time for 2 free drinks…lol. So we headed home, and walked passed a bar who’s happy hour was from 12am to 2am…well why not. We went in, sat at the bar, got the 2 for 1 offer and loved life. We were two females, sitting at the bar, with very english accents, so we ended up getting all our other drinks free. The bar man just kept putting fireball whiskeys in front of us….yay for feminism…HA! hilarious.
(Just a cool photo. I live in Newport. Proof the view is awesome).
Safe to say on friday I was a tad tired. Headed home after work instead of going straight out for drinks, and made some dinner, took some time and then headed to a huge flat party in one of the other buildings. I am genuinely surprised it was not shut down….genuinely. It was so loud and messy but it was great fun to socialise with loads of people all at once, be a social bee. We headed out to Hoboken afterwards, I lost everyone so headed back to the flat where I found Laura watching vampire diaries. Perfect.
I was on the subway today, and there was a homeless man eating slices of cheese. He had his eyes shut and was eating slowly, with a massive smile on his face, clearly cherishing every bite.
I found this really moving. I see so many homeless people every day, this scene just really touched me.
I’ll do a big olde post-birthday blog tomorrow, but I felt this took priority today.
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