Have had another really great week in New York. On Monday, we woke up early to sing happy birthday to Elizabeth (Ashling's youngest sister) who turned 14 and she opened her presents. Sara left Rockaway that day to meet her Mum in the city for the week so the three of us headed into Times Sq, meeting Phil on the way. He has come to NY for a 10 days and is then is flying to LA for a gig. After the both checked into their hotels, we went for a long walk in Central Park. We stopped to watch a softball game in the park and stumbled across a really nice cafe. After a bit of shopping we met Ashling's dad for a meal back in Rockaway. When we got back to the house, it was full of Elizabeth's friends as she had a sleepover for her birthday, so we stayed well out of the way!
On Tuesday, Phil came to meet us in Rockaway. We went for a short bike ride and then went to the beach for a quick dip in the ocean. It was much calmer than the other day so we were able to actually swim a bit but it was still quite cold. That evening we all went out to a bar with some of the locals. Phil and I got signed up for a beer pong tournament, apparently its extremely popular here and involves aiming a ping pong ball into small cups of beer. We did really well against a couple of experts who had been winning all night, making it down to the last cup each, but they just beat us!
We spent Wednesday in the city again with the aim to try and get some cheap tickets for West Side Story. Ashling, Phil and I put our names down for a lottery draw for very cheap front row seats but while we were waiting for the results, we blagged ourselves free tickets to see the David Letterman show, a popular chat show that is recorded in the city. The recording of the show and the matinee performance both happened at the same time so we were really hoping we didn't win the cheap tickets too, and Phil almost did as he was called out as a standby winner. Luckily all the tickets were sold, but we will definitely be entering the ballot again, they do the same for Shrek the musical so we may be able to see them both. The show was good fun, they have a live band who play in the commercial breaks to keep the audience entertained and the guest was Ray Romano from Everybody Loves Raymond. It was broadcast the same night at 11:30, but we fell asleep before the end where you could catch a glimpse of us clapping in the audience.
Yesterday was our first proper beach day here with really nice weather. It seems the rainy weather is on its way out, just as Kelly and Danny have left to go back to England. Elizabeth came into the water with me and tried to teach me to 'skin surf' properly, where you ride the waves on your chest, without a board. Some of the waves were pretty big but just wiped us out. In the evening, I went for dinner with Phil at the famous Katz Deli. We shared a huge pastrami sandwich, its most popular dish, which was filled with a lot of meat. We then met up with Ashling, Sara and both their mums and sat in Times Sq. It was really bustling with lots of TV crews interviewing people about Michael Jackson, and quite a few people walking around with boom boxes playing his music.
Today we decided to take on a bigger bike ride to Coney Island and back again. Phil is riding to Paris in August with Ben, so it was good training for him! It was about 10 miles each way and it was surprisingly easy to do. At Coney we rode on the Cyclone roller coaster again and had an ice cream before jumping on our bikes and heading back to Rockaway. It had been a really hot afternoon, but after about 5 minutes on our return home, the weather turned on us and a huge thunder storm broke out with really heavy rain. We were completely soaked through and when the lightening was much closer we decided to take cover until it passed. We stood under a sports centre entrance watching the fork lightening for about 20 minutes and eventually were able to get going again. It was really great fun, I think we did the return leg in a fraction of the time as we were so eager to get out of the rain! Tomorrow the next street down is having a block party which we have been invited to. They do them throughout Rockaway all summer, closing down a road at a time with all the residents chipping in to throw a big party all day. Ashling's cousins are very excited as there is going to be a gunging tank which they want to get us in. Photos will be coming soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment