Fairytale of New York

We're back home after a lovely, manic, exhausting few days in New York.


The flight out was fine. After consuming a few glasses of champers in the lounge, we then got a couple of glasses on the flight as Stephen has a gold card. YAY for the gold card! We were off the flight and through immigration really quickly, then had to wait 1 1/2 hours for the bags to come off. There was a "problem with the system" which meant that about 10 bags from our flight came off then that was it for 1 1/2 hours. The ground crew were getting dogs abuse when, after 1 hour, bags from a different flight appeared on our carousel! I could sympathise with the woman who practically had this guy by the throat demanding that our bags should be given priority as we had been waiting much longer...we were all getting tired and fractious!


The blast of cold air when we walked to the taxi rank was a shock! How quickly we forget!! Even with a heavy coat on the wind was biting. We were relieved that there was a very tiny line at the taxi rank and we were soon ensconced in the warmth of the rear seat of a yellow cab en route to Manhattan. I sat there and thought: its as though we've never left. It was a slightly strange feeling...


We got to the hotel, dropped off the bags and headed out for a wander about Times Square before heading into "Johns" for a superb wood-fired pizza. Its something of a tradition of ours to go there, and have recommended it to everyone I know who is visiting NYC...which probably explains the enormous throng of people waiting for a table! After dinner we walked up to see the tree at the Rockefeller Center which was as lovely as it looked on TV. They use 5 miles of lights to decorate it. Can you imagine how long it would take to untangle that lot??!!


It was exceedingly festive around the Rock. Saks 5th Avenue have giant snowflake lights on the side of the building and they were synchronised to music, and there was an avenue of angels leading from 5th Avenue to the skating rink. It was exceedingly festive and exceedingly busy!


Thanks to a combination of Stephen forgetting to switch off his mobile and his brother texting at 6am there was no snoozing on for me, although Stephen managed it! We had breakfast in a deli, and it was very much NY style! OJ, endless coffee and 3 eggs, bacon, breakfast potatoes and toast...enough to keep you fuelled up for a few hours! Mind you, the weather was so cold you certainly burnt off the calories! We decided to do the Christmassy things first and after a walk around Times Sq we headed off to Bryant Park where there were shops set up alongside the skating rink... We were snapping away when a couple skated up and asked us to take a photo. I passed camera duty over to Stephen and as the chap handed over the camera he whispered something in Stephen's ear. Ah-ha, somethings up I thought! Stephen played his part really well. He was all "oh, I need to take another one, stay there" as the chap reached into his coat pocket. He pulled out a ring box and dropped onto one knee...and got a resounding yes from his lovely girlfriend. I was all teary. It was very romantic! Proposing on the ice rink at Bryant Park on Christmas Eve, whilst having the presence of mind to ask someone to take photos is very romantic indeed and beats the heck out of when Stephen proposed to me!! (Even he will admit that it wasn't terrifically romantic!)


We jumped a cab down to Canal Street for some designer fake shopping. It was the first time we'd really done more that pass through it and it was quite fun! I was bag shopping (of course) and was lead down though this arcade of shops, further and further back to the bowels of the building. When we stopped at the room with the curtain across the door and the chain barring the way I was checking that Stephen was following and thinking "what the hell...", but the lady pulled back the curtain, lifted the chain, switched on the light and invited me into handbag heaven! I got a beautiful bag...it is the softest leather and the stitching and the detail is exceptionally fine. If it wasn't for the price tag, you'd swear it was authentic. Stephen got a watch - $160,000 in the shops, $110 on Canal St...and it hasn't even turned his wrist green yet!

Dinner was at Ruths Chris steakhouse - another favourite. We had a G&T sitting at the bar...or rather we had a G sitting at the bar. I don't think I could taste any T in it at all!! It went straight to my legs! We were too full of steak and gin to do much more than stagger back to the hotel and into bed...well we did try one bar, but they were closing up for Christmas and sensibly we called it quits.

Christmas morning was grey and cold. We pulled on a suitable amount of clothing and headed out. Our hotel was just off Times Square and we commented on how quiet it was as we crossed it en-route to breakfast. We had our Christmas breakfast in the Stage deli, served by possibly the rudest waitress in the world! She wasn't overly rude to us, but some of the other tables - wow! It was staggering! One British family were getting the full treatment and you could tell that Dad was not happy...you could sense that special Christmas day feeling was in danger of being spoiled as she kept on about their son's order (he'd ordered sides and she was pointing out repeatedly that they cost extra, and Dad was pointing out that he could order what he wanted as the $3 for the side wasn't going to break the bank). I did feel like pulling her away and saying "In the UK its a tradition that you can do and eat pretty much what you want on Christmas Day". My God, kids back home would have consumed about 5 chocolate bars before their breakfast, so the fact that the kid wanted a side of bacon was really no big deal!

We walked up to Central Park and wandered through the park along the snowy paths. I had my sensible, warm boots on and I was walking across the snow and ice with the confidence and agility of a mountain goat. Its a shame they weren't actually comfy, supportive or waterproof! After several miles of wandering my feet were wet and broken! My jeans were also wet to the knees and crusted with grit - lovely! We walked back to the hotel and passed back through Times Sq which was now significantly busier than it was at 9am...

After a shoe change we walked along 6th Avenue and joined the throng admiring the sculptures of Christmas Lights and Baubles, along to the plaza at the Rock which was absolutely heaving with folks taking photos of the tree. After a spot of lunch we walked down 5th Avenue to have a look at some of the department store window displays. Not that we managed to see much of them! It was absolutely heaving with people! After being rammed up the back of the legs with a buggy several times we gave up and went in search of a Starbucks which was open and not thronged with people. We failed! I was keen to sit down by this point, so we ended up on a couple of little chairs in Times Sq - just us and the millions of other people with the same idea!

Booking the Russian Tea Rooms for Christmas Day dinner proved to be an inspired choice. What a fabulous place! It was possibly THE most gorgeous decorated restaurant that I have ever eaten in! We were whisked upstairs with Stephen making grumbling noises (downstairs also looked fab and he was worried that we were being led off to some crap upstairs room reserved for tourists). As the lift doors opened we could see that wasn't the case! The room sparkled from the lights of many chandeliers and the walls of art deco stained glass positively glistened. It was gorgeous!!! The food was also very special, the service was good and we managed to spot a rather delicious wine which was patently mis-priced on the menu! They did come out with the lesser wine from the same vineyard (which was more expensive), but Stephen held firm and sent the waiter back to get the correct bottle.

We walked back through the throngs of people back to the hotel. When we passed the guys selling stuff on Times Sq it became apparent that I'd been mis-hearing them on the first night, and now things finally became clear. The guys would stand at the side of the pavement saying "Horlicks, Horlicks, Horlicks" which confused me. Why would they think that I'd need a malted nightime beverage?? My this time I fully had my ear tuned in and I realised that they were saying "Rolex, Rolex, Rolex"....

Stephen's brother continued his excellent early morning alarm call service and for the third day on the trot I was woken early by the beep of a text message arriving. On this day I wasn't too grumpy as it was Shopping Day!!YAY!!! We grabbed a Starbucks and headed down to the Worlds Largest Department Store - Macy's on Herald Square. OMG! It was INSANE!! We started in the gents department, found a complete bargain - a cashmere jumper reduced to $35! We picked one up and headed up to the gents casualwear in search of shirts. It was as we were paying that I realised that we'd been totally and utterly stoopid! Cashmere jumpers for $35 and we only bought ONE.... We headed back down the stairs and back to the stand to pick up a couple more. It was totally packed out on the ground floor and the lines for the tills weren't really moving. Whichever till I picked it was guaranteed that the person at the front would begin negotiations to buy the store. I stood at one line and didn't move for 10 minutes before stropping off in search of a queue that was actually moving. I released Stephen to do more fun stuff and I headed up and began shopping for me. I was laden down when I headed into the fitting rooms, and only marginally less so when I headed for the till!

Getting back down from the 7th floor was interesting! I have a down escalator phobia so the only way down to the ground was by elevator. Easier said than done I have to say! Despite the fact I was on the second from top floor, every elevator that came along was stuffed to overflowing. Eventually after about 10 minutes I just made it into a lift. The only way I could get in with the enormous bag of shopping was to stand facing into the elevator with the bag in the gap between legs. I was horrified when the door opened on the next floor down and a moderately elderly lady said in a singsong voice "Oh, there's room for little me", shoved me in the back and launched herself into the lift. I was completely off balance and nose to nose with the person behind me, mouthing "sorry" to her. I was exceedingly relieved to make it out of the craziness of the store. Not so relived when I realised it was still absolutely pelting down with rain...thank goodness they put a plastic bag inside the paper bag, coz the paper bag disintegrated within about 15 minutes!!

After walking along to 5th and tackling Lord & Taylors gents department my feet were broken! They took a pounding on Christmas Day and they were making their presence felt. Stephen wanted to look round Best Buy, then walk to the Apple Store so I took one for the team and offered to take the bags back to the hotel. What an idiot!! They weighed a tonne!! And trying to juggle handbag, shopping bags (some hand carry, some shoulder carry) and an umbrella all the way back through the crowds to the hotel was no mean feat (or feet haha!). After dumping that load of shopping I headed back out to do the all-important Sephora make-up shop. I was buying some things for a friend as well, so was walking round the store happily filling up two shopping baskets as I went. I won't divulge how much I spent, but I got an e-mail today from them to say I'm now a VIP shopper!!!!

We had made arrangements to meet up with Gracy for a drink at the hotel, and it was lovely to catch up and have a good gossip! She had been at the holiday party with the folks from the old office a few weeks before, so it was good to hear how Dawn and Tim et al were. It was lovely to see her!

We hadn't booked anywhere for dinner on Saturday as we'd been hoping to catch a show. As it turned out we couldn't get tickets for the shows we fancied so we just headed off in search of a restaurant. Stephen fancied BBQ, but the hotel recommendation had a 45 minute wait for a table so we trudged on through the pouring rain. Eventually we came to Famous Dave's BBQ where we were overwhelmed with food. We ordered potato skins expecting maybe three to come out. There were 6 1/2 potatoes topped with cheese, onion and BBQ pulled chicken on the plate. Enough for 6 to share! The mains were equally enormous and overwhelming! Stephen decided on ribs and the waitress actually talked him down from a half rack to 4 ribs. (How refreshing to be talked down!) Even so, he could only manage 3. Mind you, these must have been bigger pigs than we're been used to eating - they were not babyback!

As I was once again wearing jeans which were soaked to the knees we stopped by the hotel before braving the lake that was Times Sq and heading to the 8th floor bar of the Marriott Marquis - our favourite cool spot to watch the craziness of Times Sq! It wasn't actually so very crazy by this time as it was just SO wet that people had thinned out to a few hardy souls. It was nice to sit with a drink and relax for a bit as we'd barely stopped to draw breath since we arrived!!

I couldn't believe our final day had arrived. We got up and threw a few things in the case, and realised that we'd need another bag to take our shopping from the day before! We headed out to grab a coffee and headed off down to take a few photos. We found a suitable bag and I got the pleasure of carrying it back...I am still the pack horse!! After packing we checked out and left our multitude of cases and coats with the bellhop before heading to the Met. We were determined to tick off another few corners as it is totally vast and we'd barely scratched the surface up to now. I'm not sure we scratched much below this time either!! We were both absolutely bone weary and walking was bearable, but standing still was excruciating!! We did get round a fair bit - we say the beautiful Christmas tree, the new American wing, the Armour, numerous Old Masters and the photography exhibit along with the Greek and Roman wing. By that time we were pooped, so we jumped a cab down to the shops on 5th. Traffic was slow and I was so tired I actually nodded off in the cab!! 5th Avenue was insanely busy so we decided to head over a block and go down 6th. This strategy worked well for a few blocks, then we got to the Rockefeller Center and Radio City Music Hall....just at the time when one show was coming out, another was about to go in and everyone else in New York State was there to see the Christmas Lights and Baubles statues. It was packed solid! I haven't been in such a crowd since Edinburgh during the Millennium Celebrations. Not only were the pavements gridlocked, the roads were too. We had a little panic about missing the flight and decided to get back to the hotel and jump a cab to the airport. We were allowing loads of time to get through security at JFK as we'd heard of big delays in the UK due to the extra checks being carried out after the terrorist attempt on Christmas Day. The driver had thought that it was likely to take 1 1/2 hours to get to the airport...in the end, the traffic melted away and he was dropping us at the terminal 45 minutes later!! Security was no worse than normal and so we spent simply hours in the Lounge!!