News Flash - John Mayer 7th April 2007

John Mayer came back to Australia for another round of concerts within 6 months.
If you do read this, John - Thank you for making the effort to come this far for us Aussies. We went to your concert at the Vodafone arena and we are still amazed. DS is hoping to achieve a level of guitar playing that is measurable to one small iota of your great talent. Truly a great musician!

Knitty City - New Year's Eve 2006

Deciding we couldn't walk any more, we took the subway down to Grand Central and the 42nd St shuttle to 8th Ave back to the hotel. We still had a bit of walking from 42nd to 44th in the subway. This time we were treated to a sight we'd never see if we had not been here at this time.
Security in Times Square is tight for NY's eve as you would well know. Guests at hotels here are given ID's to facilitate their comings and goings with security and NYPD. The intersecting and affected streets are sectioned off early in the morning.
We stumbled off our shuttle and shuffled to the 44th exit when we saw them assembling in the subway.
Hundreds of NYPD
assembled and ready to go.
Impressive but unnerving at the same time.
It was about half past 3 in the afternoon.
As we surfaced at 44th and 8th, we knew why.
Our intersection were already packed with people queueing to get in to Times Square.
It was while shuffling and jostling in the crowd that I realised I needed to check the days that Knitty City was going to be shut for due to New Year's. I thought I had enough time. When we got back to our room, I rang Knitty City and they were going to shut at 5pm til the 3rd of Jan. Eeeeeeek!
Thus my mad solo dash out again. I wasn't having my crew with me while running to a yarn store!
Here is Knitty City






The name of the lovely owner of Knitty City escapes me this minute. We had a nice chat and the store was filled with people getting their knitting needs for the long weekend. If I could have my own yarn store, I'd like it to be as warm and inviting as Knitty City. I was impressed with the variety of yarns at this store ranging from lovely affordable yarns at USD 6 to over USD 30. This was where I spotted Wagtail yarns. For us Aussies, Wagtails is not available at our own retail stores. This is unfortunate but a reflection of our discount shoppers here as we scour the bargain bins at Spotlight. Do we wonder why Aussie LYSs and the yarn industry can't survive?
Looking for yarns that were not available in Australia, I picked up some balls of Frog Tree merino (so lovely and soft) and some Sheep Shop Yarn skeins. I was also fascinated with my first look at the South American yarns on this trip - Rio De La Plata, Manos and Malabrigo. Beautiful kettle dyed colours - they were not as soft as I had thought they might be.
(Post-note: I do want to try some of Malabrigo's later offerings of 2007 as I hear these are softer).
My first LYS visit and I love Knitty City!

New Year's Eve 2006 Afternoon

This New Year's eve post has been broken into 3 parts being the most vivid rather than most eventful day.
Our Harlem Spiritual tour trip ended with travelling back to Midtown via the east side. We asked Daryl to drop us off at the Guggenheim to pick up DS's registration and souvenirs for tonite's run in Central Park. Not bad for USD40 - a non member's registration fee. DS picked up his race numbers, a long sleeve T-shirt commemorating the run, a commemorative mug and a packet of Emerald Nuts Cereal :).
Here are some pics of the lovely residences and street on the east side.





We walked back via Central Park or only a very small part of the South East end of the park. By all means, don't underestimate the size of park.... it is huge!
The walk from the Guggenheim point to the edge of the park at the top of 5th with stops at the various sculptures took us 2 hrs and a bit.

finally a knitting post....Squiggles and Blobs she said

Remember Celia's lovely handspun? It was meant to be a beanie right from the start - that was clear. Asked DD what she'd like for the main 'body'.
"you know, squiggles and blobs"
"squiggles and blobs?"
" the curly wurly squiggly things and blobs"
hokay......
This is my first beanie ever. Hadn't even knitted one from a pattern. And she wanted Squiggles and Blobs hmmmm....
I figured I may as well knit free hand - just coming up with anything and turning any time I felt like it (x5).
It fits! and she likes it!
phew!

New Year's Eve 2006 Morning

Joined the Harlem Spiritual tour this morning. This was one of the many experiences we missed the last time we were here. It's always a good idea to do a tour with a native Manhattanite-New Yorker. I love listening to their take on life, US politics and celebrity news, general newsworthy affairs. Daryl, our tour guide, was very entertaining (thks, Daryl!) I don't have a photo of him and think that he'd be camera shy anyway. He reminds me of the late Gregory Hines (brilliant brilliant tap dancer and actor)

He joked about there being no black people in Harlem anymore as most would have realised gains with the high demand for Manhattan property. Lots of new migrant faces from Africa. We finished off late morning in the Shiloh Baptist Church and witnessed a baptism of a young boy. The choir was magnificent! We were standing and clapping along and as the service was going to be pretty long, Daryl ushered us out after an hour.



When we arrived in NYC on the 23rd, we had passed the BB King club on 42nd street and noted that James Brown was due to perform there New Year's Eve. And here we are in Harlem in front of the famous Apollo Theatre...
James Brown, may you rest in peace....

Macy's and a Grrreat Dinner at Yama's - 30th Dec 2006

SHOPPING ROUND 2 - MACY'S!
This trip proved to me that men are no slouches when it comes to bargains. DH and DS were right into the thick of things while we girls tried the after-5 dresses, boots, shoes, tops but resisted temptation. One full day topped off with a fantastic sushi dinner at Yama's on 17th. Just Brilliant! The stds (maguro etc) are delicious but be sure to try the eel sushi there

A Slow Day - 29th Dec 2006

After yesterday's AMNH marathon, today was going be a slow day in Midtown. Visited M and M's NYC, bought lots of music songsheets and books at the Colony Music Store and tried to get tics to The Late Show. No luck there - Shows start on the 2nd and we'd be out of Midtown by then.

NBC Studio Tour and The American Museum of Natural History - 28th of December 2006

Started the day off with a nice breakfast on 8th not far from our hotel before heading off to the NBC Studio tour nice and early.
We had booked an early session 8am-ish so that we could get to the AMNH - the American Museum of Natural History when it opened at 10am.
Having been to the AMNH in June 2004, this was the only other place we were resolved to come back to see. (Other being Woodbury Commons shopping outlet). Back then and having seriously underestimated the time it would take to visit almost all the venues then, we thought we could cover the Museum in about 4 hrs. Oh no....no way.
We spent our whole 4 hrs just in the Rose Center Planeterium and rushed off to catch Hairspray that evening.


So this time we planned - 10am to 6pm. Now surely you'd think we'd finish every section of the place.
So here goes...
"Dear Curators of AMNH,
My family members and I commend on what an absolute tremendous educational feat you have achieved with this museum. It is truly a wonder that you have captured what most museums struggle with - the attention of its visitors. Every exhibit is riveting and informative intriguing the young and old.
Having visited the AMNH in June 2004 and only managing to experience the Rose Center, we wanted to come back and spend a whole day there.
And we did.
Our visit in Dec 2006 was well prepared. We would go back to the Rose Center and catch the latest showing at the Hayden Planeterium and proceed quickly to the other areas of the Museum that we missed last time.
We were at your doorstep at 10.15am.
We queued. It was short. We got our tickets!
We headed straight for Cosmic Collisions thru to the Big Bang and down the Universe spiral path to the ground floor.
It was 11.30am. The crowds had built up. We headed for the Butterfly Conservatory.
By 1pm, we were out of that area and the crowds were no longer small. There were SWARMS everywhere.
We checked all the dining places. All had queues that stretched around the corner and at least 1 hr long. We decided to queue at the Soup Kitchen in the Food Court. The queue looked shorter. It was barely coping with serving and stocking its its displays and shelves with food. Almost everything was gone. Worst still, there was no place to sit. We took our purchases up to the 4th floor where the Gold Nugget cafe was. We wanted to be within easy reach of the Gold show. Like many, we had to sit on the floor near the stairs to have our lunch. The eating areas looked like refugee shelters with people unable to get tables.
We finished our visit with the Imax viewing "Roving on Mars" and the Dinosaur exhibit before leaving close to 6pm having covered about 70% of the museum hampered by the crowds.




We would love to come back some day. Yes, even after our ordeal and a rushed one at that. May we suggest that if at all possible,
- 2 day ticket options for avid visitors like us.
- Limited tickets for sale per day for crowd control.
- more rest areas.
It is truly amazing to see a museum full to the brim like this but most undignified to have your visitors trying to rest or eat while sitting on floors.
Yours Truly
Your Number One fans from Down Under"

On With The Show.....

Have finally been able to post something! Much has happened since my last post and I am determined to keep it up chronologically so on with posting about our end of year trip.... :)

27th December 2006 - Top of the Rock

We've been watching the weather reports for clear or rainy days to plot what to do next. And the 27th was supposed to be a clear day which meant it was great to go to the Top of the Rock - the top of the Rockefeller Centre. We took the local advice and avoided going up Empire State Building as the queues are always long. The Rock took us 15 mins at best. It was freezing up there but we has the best views of New York and of course, Empire State building herself!
We experienced the only snowflakes up there in all of our entire trip. It was either raining or terribly muggy - it was the warmest Dec for NYC for 80 odd years with temps 15F above normal. It was averaging 50 to 60F everyday. We didn't get to see any snow (although the West Coast and especially Denver got a huge continuous dumping). With the freezing air, we all had a few snowflakes land in our hair. No White Christmas but it made us happy!
We took so many pics but I'll only post 2 :)



Later that afternoon, we went to NYRRC on the east side near Guggenheim to register DS for the Emerald Nuts New Years Eve 2006 Midnite Run. DS was excited to join the event and it would get us out of Times Square that nite. News reports were already estimating a turnout of at least 1 million people anticipated there!
Later that nite we met up again with our grand aunt and cousins. This time we headed off to Flushing for Steamboat! or as it's known here, Minni's Shabu Shabu. Inexpensive and the variety fantastic, the place had a queue going out the door. It is advisable to try and make it here btwn 5.30 to 6pm to get a table. I was tempted to order the exotic items on the menu but decided agst it as DH's lot appeared to be a little on the conservative side. Love the condiments and quantity of food!

Boxing Day 2006 - Buy Buy Buy!

Are you kidding? Miss the post Christmas sales here in New York? No way!
We caught the 8.15am bus and came back on the 6.45pm one.
Here are the troops still shopping after 5 hours flat at Woodbury Commons Premium Outlets. Girls' efforts paled in comparison to the guys who went berserk at Timberland, Aldo, Van Heusen, Reebok.......
That cart was so full!

Christmas Day 2006

Our 40-odd hours of travel to New York finally caught up with us. The troops found it hard to get up this morning but we managed to have brunch @ Sapporo (www.frommers.com/destinations/newyorkcity/D39071.html) and got to the midday Christmas Spectacular with the Rockettes at Radio City.


Later that nite we met up with our grand aunt from Chinatown and cousins galore from Flushing. Went to Danny Ng's in Chinatown for a great dinner that nite.

Catching up on pics...

Pics as follows -
1)This is Saks on Fifth ave

2) Rockefeller Centre skating rink

3) St Patricks Catherdral

4) The BIG keyboard players.

and
5) Serendipity.
It was 4pm and we were told there's usually a waiting line to go in. We could see it was still busy inside!