The week of Lucy!

Dear all,

Happy Easter btw.

My week as been somewhat hectic and I have been largely surviving on adrenaline and coffee (given the Starbucks lent ban has now subsided)

Monday after work I met Lucy in Grand Central Terminal after dropping off some work at Mountbatten. I gave her the tour of the terminal, we posed for stupid photo's before heading to 14th street for dinner. We indulged in some gastro-fantastic burgers and fries with ice cream soda's. Twas good :) Somehow this lasted until around 10pm so we headed back and were in bed around 12pm.

Tuesday I introduced Lucy to the most important people in NY. Bagel man & Smoothie man. Together they provided us with a very nice breakfast before Lucy headed off to do here sighseeing. After work /Lucy's Sightseeing we met and went to Mid-town for the show. We grabbed a McDonalds (because we had just been sooo healthy up until now- lol) Then ran to the theatre just in time to see the curtain raising. Well timed I'd say. The show was good - Hairspray. It was at The Neil Simon Theatre on Broadway. Lucy bought a T-shirt on the way out and plans to wear it proudly (someone hold her to that) when she gets home. I bought a c.d.
On the way back from the theatre we came across the magic that is the M&M store. Well.. you could hardly pass up such a grand opportunity now could you?
There was ceiling-to-floor tubes of every color M&M in such varieties as 'st patricks day mix' and 'the red sox mix.' You could buy just about anything from pencils to life size M&M people. I know scary ay?
We settled for a bag of multi colored M&M's.
The Hersheys store across from this was hardly on par. Lucy was not impressed.

Wednesday Luce went off somewhere up-town. I met her after work and we headed to the West village where we found the rice pudding cafe!! I mean how amazing!! This place had over 50 flavours of rice pudding - and nothing else! Oh course we had to try it, and very good it was too. Then we strolled over to a place called BLVD, where there was a fashion show/ art attack/ Reggae music night. The advertised time was 7pm But when we arrived at 7.30pm it was empty! Never fear, we amused ourselves with drinks and talking to the guitarist- whose name we never did get but he assured us he would dedicate a song if he got the chance. How nice.
The fashion show turned out to be short and sweet and mainly consisted of a few girls walking around in leg warmers and silly 'street' wear. The music was good tho. But then when is live Reaggae not good? The place was largely filled with those who looked like singer-song writers themselves, there were lots of interesting coloured dreadlocks on show. Meanwhile a woman painted the singers in one corner of the room using only a few colors and then sold auctioned this off at the end (apparently we didnt stay that long). We left around 11.30pm and found pizza. Then home around 12.30pm-ish.

Thursday I was tired. The late nights and early mornings coupled with drinking were beginning to get to me. Luckily Lucy had been to the Magnolia bakery the day before and bought me a cupcake! :) You see why I love my friends? This helped no end in the keeping me awake game. After work Lucy and I decided we both needed to chill. Her feet were killing from all the walking around. And I was trying to hold down a full time job and evening events schedule. We stayed in. Of course we drank wine and ate chinese while staying in. (you never can be too domestic) and then went to bed.

Friday I had taken off work. We got up at 6.30am. Jumped on the 7.15am train to the city and took a bus from Times Sq. To D.C. It took 4 hours but the couple in front made it seem more like 10. At one point the guy turned round and (having annoyed several other people by turning up late and asking them to move so they could both sit together as there were no empty seats left by then) they asked us if we could exercise some curtesy and not talk!! It was mid morning on a bus full of people! They claimed we were being very inconsiderate not knowing they had had no sleep all night and then had chosen to take a long bus journey in the middle of a holiday weekend! pft! I did not of course share my thoughts with said idiot. We just smiled stupidly and continued talking. Passive aggression I think this is called.
When we arrived in D.C it was a lot better. It was a really nice day, hot and sunny, so we ate a quick lunch in chipotle then headed off to the sights. We saw the White House, several memorials, some camping people?(I dont know why they were camping outside the white house), took 'flying pics' (see photo's to come) and then took a pedalo out on to the lake.
This would have been simple- if a)lucy hadn't been wearing a very nice skirt that day... b)the men in another boat hadnt insisted on chasing us round the lake and ramming us, and c) we hadnt had a giggling fit in the middle of the lake and almost lost lucy in the lake.
At one point we escaped and paused for an M&M break. Pedalo-ing is a tiring pass time! When we arrived back on land, we were tired and laughing l;ike idiots so needed to calm down. We walked around a bit more and took pictures in front of the Capitol building. Bought a post card in the town and found a coffee before jumping back on the bus.
We got back around 12.30pm knackered. Went to bed.

Saturday we slept in. Around 2pm we hit the city. Had nails done, shopped then went over the Brooklyn Bridge, pausing to consider the difficulty and balance skills required to jump from the bridge on account of the immense no. of steel support wires and the fact the footpath is in the center of the bridge. Lucy photographed the Statue of Liberty, my building and Brooklyn (all visible form the bridge) and a sign post which appears on enetering Brookyln 'Welcome to Brooklyn How sweet it is'.

We queued for Grimaldi's for around an hour. This was not lost time however. We colour- co-ordinated out bridesmaid dresses with flowers of the appropriate season and considered the pros and cons of ice cream. Who says girls can't have stimulating conversion! When we finally got a table the food was good. We made our own pizza and drank wine. All was merry. Then we jumped back on the subway and arrived in Hoboken for ice cream from the Ben & Jerrys shop. Legendary! It was good- dont worry all the walking/shopping/ lack of sleeping was counteracting the calories. :)

Sunday we went for brunch. This was possibly THE best brunch I have had since arriving. Texas Spiced apple pancakes, bacon, garliky fries and Molijitos! (its sounds gross- its not - its amazing!) Lucy also was loving the food combo.
After brunch we wandered the West Village, then up 5th ave, visited the MBC Store @ the Rockerfeller Center, Central Park (where some guys were performing in a skating show), we saw the Strawberry Fields tribute Yoko Ono had put there, and then went home to get ready for the evening. The evening we hit the Habibi lounge for some shiesha and Cocktails. The barmen were v. nice and gave us extra freebies for being English I think.. All was well. We chilled and afterward we graced the 14th Street Diner once more (as Lucy has named this he new favourite hang out) and had munchie food. Time does fly somehow and it was 1.30am when we got back.

Today I am suprisingly awake. I had to drag Lucy's suitcase through the PATH system and down Wall Street with me today, but I was on time! Lucy is doing some last min shopping before meeting for lunch and then jetting off back to snowy ol' England so I hear. (It's a hard life being an international friend!)

We have had a crazy but fun weak. Watch this space for all the pics!