Today started off like any other day. Jonathon didn’t want to get up out of bed. Mum yelled at him a bit. I was still feeling pretty crook but determined to go. And Dad spent a lot of the time texting Mr Dighton.
I haven’t really made it very obvious who is now travelling with us. After Auntie Mandy left us, we were joined by our very dear friends the Dightons. Ashley Dighton has been Jonathon’s best friend since the first day of school but unfortunately Ash isn’t travelling with the Dightons at the moment. The Dighton party consists of: Mr Dighton/Peter and Mrs Dighton/Anne as well as Ben, their eldest son and his girlfriend Charleise. It’s a refreshing change to see some friends, and to hear people talk with an Australian accent! Note: I will sometimes alternate between Mr Dighton/Peter and Mrs Dighton/Anne, this is only because when we were kids, Jonathon and I called them Mr and Mrs Dighton – but as time goes on we mostly call them Peter and Anne. I alternate a bit.
So today Peter, Jonathon and Dad decided to go and explore the city – Seinfeld style. I don’t like watching Seinfeld at all. Sorry but I don’t find it funny, but those three love it so off they went to find the sites and setting of Seinfeld. Benjamin decided to go off on his own; read the paper and have a coffee, as Benjamin does and so Anne, Mum and Charleise decided we ought to go shopping. I was, of course, obliged to follow along.
It probably was a good thing I had to because I am certain Mum wouldn’t have even got to Grand Central without me (a place I have referred to plenty of times because we’ve been there almost every single day). And unfortunately, I discovered that Mrs Dighton is just as bad as Mum. We get on the subway and both sit convinced and betting MY life that we are going the wrong way. But of course, they’re wrong.
Our first stop on our shopping adventure was Bloomingdales. There is this rumour that Queenslanders are “early to bed, and early to rise” and maybe this is true because we got to Bloomingdales before it even opened. It opened at 10am – how late is that?
But we did hang around and get in and I, being the expert shopper I am, headed straight for a chair, sat down and read my CSI: NY book. The first paragraph was about February being the coldest month of the year, and like a local New York-an, I agreed. Bloomingdales is a crazy store though. I thought it would be a department store – like Macy’s or Myer but in fact it’s more like a mall with Louis Vuitton, Coach, Prada and those other really affordable brands. We didn’t even want anything except a Brown Bag. For those who don’t know, Bloomingdale’s bags are marked “little brown bag”, “medium brown bag” and “large brown bag” – depending on the size of your purchase. Anne bought something (no idea what) and was able to proudly carry around her “medium brown bag”.
The next destination was H&M, a shop I’ve seen in Europe, Asia and America but never at home and that was certainly more in our price range and our style. But of all the clothes in the store – Charleise and I bought the same coat. She wore it today, so I’m hoping to wear it tomorrow but I am so sick of my pale blue coat. Remember how excited I was when I first got it? Yeah… I think that’s because I was going skiing and it was perfect for that… and then I was going to Florida so who needs a coat there? Now? I’m over it.
But the next, and by far the most important stop was TIFFANY’S! And would you believe it – everyone of us bought something. Mum even bought two somethings. I got a key with a pink sapphire in it, Charleise got a different, larger key (yeah we didn’t get the same jewellery), Mum got a bracelet and necklace and Anne got a rose-gold and silver free-form hearts. We all proudly carried our little blue bags and met up with all the boys here, who were thrilled to get out fast and onto our next stop.
This is probably because our next stop was a brewery where we stopped to have lunch and they sampled a heap of beers. I guess it’s lucky they don’t have to drive because we catch the subway a lot – which does get tiresome and I think Anne and Mum were feeling it today when we were going to Brooklyn and they were getting a bit whiney, but out of that came my favourite moment of the day:
Mum: “You’re just jealous because I’ve got two blue bags”
Anne: “You keep lashing out at me because I have a medium brown bag”
Can’t you just feel the love?
We were going to Brooklyn to meet a friend of ours called Joe. Joe is studying in NYC, and I don’t know him really well but he’s a very nice guy. We all went out to dinner at a Latin/Columbian restaraunt with his room-mate Alex. The ten of us had a really great time. I don’t know whether it was because everyone got along so well or because there was a large amount of alcohol involved, or perhaps a combination of both – but it was a fantastic night.
At one point, however, I felt apprehensive. Having been sick for a few days, I wasn’t very hungry and decided to have some soup for dinner and there was one I thought looked really nice but one of the ingredients listed was “spicy chipotle broth”. My thought process was basically “Okay… I know chipotle is spicy… any reason why you’ve mentioned that?” and then I started looking for other items with “spicy chipotle” but that was the only one. I then thought “When a Latin restaurant says ‘spicy’… you should probably take that seriously”.
So even against what I thought to be my better judgment, I ordered it and the server did a double take as though nobody has ever really ordered that before… or at least no-one who’s not Hispanic, and then he said “That one’s my favourite”. Normally when a server says that to you, you feel somewhat reassured and smile and say thank you. This time, I smiled and said thank you and wasn’t sure whether it was a good thing or not.
Well, basically, I didn’t think it was too spicy at all. Anyone who did is wimp, in my view.
Tomorrow, it’s my last full day in NYC and you’re very lucky because soon you’ll see the last of me unless you choose to follow my regular blog which is far less interesting. The only thing I want to do tomorrow is buy tacky souvenirs. That’s it.
I apologize that there’s no photos today… I didn’t really take many.
“I want to be a part of it – New York, New York!”
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