Himself offered to take me to New York for my 40th
birthday. Forty you gasp?? Yes, alas…
But we won’t dwell on that… Obviously I was happy to forfeit a large 40th
par-tay for the chance of going to the Big Apple so we booked tickets and a
privately owned apartment, instead of an hotel. A bit of drama there – you pay up front to
someone you never met in the hopes there’ll be an apartment waiting for you at
the other end. There’s a whole lot of
trust going on (and many horror stories on Trip Advisor). So we paid but then didn’t really hear from
the person who we rented the apartment off, waited, waited, waited, and then started
stressing. She had said she would send
details closer to the time. A week out,
still no directions – had we been scammed???
Finally when they arrived we found out why she’d been holding out… WE’RE
RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO THE NYC CHAPTER OF THE HELLS ANGELS!! That’s right peeps, we arrived last night and
there it was. Apparently they’re great
neighbours but I’d say it might scare a lot of her potential customers off… I wonder
why? Happily the apartment is just like
the pictures, really nice, clean and TINY.
Anyway, we’re here now, after a 26 hour flight via Seoul
(the less said about that the better) then through the US immigration (the less
said about THAT the better). We got in about 7pm 24/12. This in itself is a bit weird as we only left
Sydney 9am that morning J. It was sleeting as we came into Manhattan – Himself
did have to explain to me that no, it wasn’t snow, it was sleet. “But what’s sleet? It looks like snow to me…”
*sigh* “it’s like rain and snow mixed, it doesn’t settle” “oh” (Irish boy meets Darwin girl). The yellow (yep!) taxi dropped us off a
building down from ours (apparently the Hell’s Angels don’t like taxis too
close to their hogs) and then we struggled up 4 storys of very steep stairs to
our shoe-box. Yep! It’s so tiny!! But bigger
than an hotel and definitely a more NYC experience. The place is great in a tiny kinda way; there
will be no cat swinging, so we put away our BDSM gear with regret*…
It’s also really warm… took us a while to figure out where
the ‘hot’ was coming from as there appeared to be no way to turn it down…
FINALLY figured out it was coming from the innocuous pipes which ran from floor
to ceiling through the apartment. As an
aside I have read in various fiction novels, about the ‘pipes’ in apartments in NYC being
noisy and had wondered about that. And
now we know, are they ever!! They gurgle and grumble like an old man’s indigestion
(yes Dad, just like you).
Once we’d thrown our stuff down we attempted a Skype with
the Wee Girl, she’s staying with the olds in Darwin – and before you think we’re
mean, we’re not – she’s going on a 5 month jaunt to Italy at the end of January...
Due to our lack of charge (Himself bought the wrong adapters… just saying) and
the lack of PC savvy in Darwin it was very short and lacked sound, but the Wee
Girl held up all the lovely gifts Nan & Grandpa had given her and we text
and used sign language back :-)
Afterwards we hit the streets of the East Village in search
of sustenance. We found an all American
bar which was still serving dinner (as they all do, up until I don’t know late)
which was fantastic. I had a delicious
cider flavoured with cinnamon (how very festive!) and Himself had a beer, we
then ordered some fries, which were delicious and I had gumbo and Himself a
chimmichanga. Very exciting to try legit
gumbo! I’ve made it heaps using various recipes but of course have never tasted
the real thing – it was delicious (of course, mine was almost as delicious
haha) but once I get hold of their super smoky sausage there’ll be no holding
me back!
Regretfully after eating, due to jetlag, we headed back to
the apartment. Also, on the plane I
either came down with shocking hayfever or a head cold (nooooo) so there was a
lot of sneezing and blowing going on (and still is the next morning). But it is now the next morning, and after a
rather ordinary night’s sleep (again jetlag, as the bed is actually really
comfortable) we’re thinking about breakfast.
I’ve peered out the windows and there’s some fairly interesting
views. My favourite (below) is of a
weird gap between the buildings that I can’t really figure out what it’s for (a
light well maybe?) but here’s a pic anyway, maybe one of my 11 loyal followers
could fill me in?
Today we’re going to check out the window displays at Macy’s
(apparently it’s what New Yorkers do on Christmas Day) do a bit of sight-seeing
and have dinner at the Bull & Bear which is in the Waldorf Hotel (yes the Waldorf) I’ll definitely be getting
the salad…
*HA! Just kidding Mum!!
No comments: