There's possibly something not right about spending Valentine's Day actively hoping for a fiery relationship breakdown on a television show, but that is life tonight. This blog entry may be punctuated with me yelling "fight!" at the Married At First Sight couples. I am here for the drama.
I haven't blogged every day as intended <insert shocked face>. Frankly I'm still trying to work out what I want to talk about, particularly as I'm hoping to have to consider an audience. I've been pondering everything from whether I should pick a theme, to the length of posts, to whether I can cone up with enough "witty" titles. Long story short, I've decided that I'm just going to write about anything and everything. I'm looking forward to our upcoming trip though. I'm going to blog the heck out of that. (Wifi permitting.)
So....I am not able to give a review of the 90s pop concert I went to last week, as I only lasted one act before the heat got to me and I had to go home. So that's disappointing. I may be able to make that up with a review of the Guns N Roses concert, as I'm off to that on Saturday.
I'll be honest though, as much as I'm looking forward to it, I'm also dreading it. As mentioned my anxiety levels are high at the moment and I'm stressing about everything from the transport there and home to inconveniencing other people at the concert because of my size etc. I'm sure I'll relax once there and have a great time.
God, Anthony on Married At First Sight is behaving so awfully tonight, I had to pause this blog to respond in an appropriate and mature manner... I sledged him via a SpongeBob SquarePants gif on twitter. That'll learn him.
Speaking of social media, the drummer of my favourite band liked my comment on his instagram post today, so that'll be the highlight of my life for the next week.
Hmm, picking the best gif for twitter seems to have exhausted my brain power, so time to close this for the night.
Next blog will involve either excitement because our car is back, or deep despair as we are still without it and continue to be serving "home detention", plus the start of the great kitchen renovation process that will likely dominate future blogs.
Till next time, I hope you have reasons to smile. x
Tuesday, February 14, 2017
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Tuesday rambles - 7/2/17
Journal Entry - Day 67654 of not having a car.
Okay, it's only been two and a half weeks, but no car and no ability to go get gelati makes Courtney go something something...
This craziness is really quite odd considering I don't drive myself. Aaron and I are one of those couples though that do most things together, and we love getting out and about. So weekends usually involve at least one random drive somewhere. (And by random I mean we search out bakeries. Cornish pasties are the truffles to our pig.)
I've never been good at just staying at home, even for a day. Even on a sick day, I get stir crazy. So while thanks to the generosity of family, and Woolworths free delivery days, we have been able to run errands etc, the freedom the car brings has been greatly missed.
The car, Esme, short for Esmeralda, is finally at the repairer, so hopefully by the weekend, we'll be back in the Barossa Valley eating pastry.
In the meantime, I've decided that I'm going to try and blog every day. I will probably not share every post on Facebook etc because there will be dull ones, but also because that's a bit boring for everyone. If you'd like to read them, please always feel welcome - it'll be accessible through the Facebook updates and this URL.
The above said, I won't be blogging tomorrow night as I'm off to a 90s nostalgia concert. Heeee. It's a bunch of British/Irish pop bands. The headliner is B*Witched. Among the others it also features East 17, featuring two original members - unfortunately not the talented ones, and S Club 7 have been decimated, as they are just S Club 3 now. I'm expecting a full range of moments from delight to sheer horror. Probably more horror.
One thing about the show though... It's a 90s nostalgia show. That means many attendees are now old and I really wish it was going to end earlier than 11pm on a work night. Oh well, c'est la vie.
This craziness is really quite odd considering I don't drive myself. Aaron and I are one of those couples though that do most things together, and we love getting out and about. So weekends usually involve at least one random drive somewhere. (And by random I mean we search out bakeries. Cornish pasties are the truffles to our pig.)
I've never been good at just staying at home, even for a day. Even on a sick day, I get stir crazy. So while thanks to the generosity of family, and Woolworths free delivery days, we have been able to run errands etc, the freedom the car brings has been greatly missed.
The car, Esme, short for Esmeralda, is finally at the repairer, so hopefully by the weekend, we'll be back in the Barossa Valley eating pastry.
In the meantime, I've decided that I'm going to try and blog every day. I will probably not share every post on Facebook etc because there will be dull ones, but also because that's a bit boring for everyone. If you'd like to read them, please always feel welcome - it'll be accessible through the Facebook updates and this URL.
The above said, I won't be blogging tomorrow night as I'm off to a 90s nostalgia concert. Heeee. It's a bunch of British/Irish pop bands. The headliner is B*Witched. Among the others it also features East 17, featuring two original members - unfortunately not the talented ones, and S Club 7 have been decimated, as they are just S Club 3 now. I'm expecting a full range of moments from delight to sheer horror. Probably more horror.
One thing about the show though... It's a 90s nostalgia show. That means many attendees are now old and I really wish it was going to end earlier than 11pm on a work night. Oh well, c'est la vie.
(Ha. See what I did there!)
Monday, January 23, 2017
A Blogger Without A Cause
I'm back in the blogosphere. I've been pondering a return for a few weeks and then today I unexpectedly got the push I needed to return.
The push came from my new psychologist. (Long story short, I go to therapy as I struggle with anxiety and a few other issues around self doubt and self confidence etc - maybe I'll talk more about it in another blog. I find it really helpful, now I've found a good one, and I don't mind talking about it.)
Something that's been on my mind lately is that I need a hobby, an outlet for the creativity that, if it exists in me, has been suppressed as I've either got annoyed with activities because I lacked talent, or I'd just decided it was "unnecessary".
Every idea I've had has been quickly dismissed, except for the thought of blogging again. I've been stewing though over the idea of what to write about, a theme, a purpose. Did I even need one? I've been reluctant to be a blogger that talks about other people in my life, or one that talks about general day to day stuff. I have constant, mindless Facebook updates for that. 😏 So I felt I needed something more.
In a bit of a story of my life though, trying to find some perfect to write about, meant I ended up writing about nothing.
So today I was talking to my new therapist (my last one left the clinic) and as I was rambling, she interrupted me with a blurted "Do you write? You should." It led to a conversation about my desire to blog again, and a discussion about what was stopping me.
"I don't have a lot that's interesting to say" *shrugs*
"Do you need to have something interesting to say? Can it just be a chance for you to write?"
*more shrugs* "I guess I could try."
(Amusingly, this is the second time someone has been quite insistent that I should write more seriously. Last time, it was a psychic, but I'm a sceptic so I didn't take it as seriously as this time.)
So, with apologies to Seinfeld, a show I don't actually like, I've decided to actually write about nothing after all. Well, hopefully, not nothing, but things that stand out in my life at the time of writing. Movies I've watched, thoughts, my quest for hobby satisfaction, my holidays and my overwhelming confusion over turning 40 this year etc.
I'll admit, I like an audience, so I hope that if you read this blog it entertains you.
Next post may be about movies - La La Land bad, Sing good. (Hmm just saved you a read...)
Toodles and take care!
The push came from my new psychologist. (Long story short, I go to therapy as I struggle with anxiety and a few other issues around self doubt and self confidence etc - maybe I'll talk more about it in another blog. I find it really helpful, now I've found a good one, and I don't mind talking about it.)
Something that's been on my mind lately is that I need a hobby, an outlet for the creativity that, if it exists in me, has been suppressed as I've either got annoyed with activities because I lacked talent, or I'd just decided it was "unnecessary".
Every idea I've had has been quickly dismissed, except for the thought of blogging again. I've been stewing though over the idea of what to write about, a theme, a purpose. Did I even need one? I've been reluctant to be a blogger that talks about other people in my life, or one that talks about general day to day stuff. I have constant, mindless Facebook updates for that. 😏 So I felt I needed something more.
In a bit of a story of my life though, trying to find some perfect to write about, meant I ended up writing about nothing.
So today I was talking to my new therapist (my last one left the clinic) and as I was rambling, she interrupted me with a blurted "Do you write? You should." It led to a conversation about my desire to blog again, and a discussion about what was stopping me.
"I don't have a lot that's interesting to say" *shrugs*
"Do you need to have something interesting to say? Can it just be a chance for you to write?"
*more shrugs* "I guess I could try."
(Amusingly, this is the second time someone has been quite insistent that I should write more seriously. Last time, it was a psychic, but I'm a sceptic so I didn't take it as seriously as this time.)
So, with apologies to Seinfeld, a show I don't actually like, I've decided to actually write about nothing after all. Well, hopefully, not nothing, but things that stand out in my life at the time of writing. Movies I've watched, thoughts, my quest for hobby satisfaction, my holidays and my overwhelming confusion over turning 40 this year etc.
I'll admit, I like an audience, so I hope that if you read this blog it entertains you.
Next post may be about movies - La La Land bad, Sing good. (Hmm just saved you a read...)
Toodles and take care!
Monday, May 12, 2014
Chicago in a Beanshell
I've got my blog timing all messed up, apologies. Accordingly Chicago is going to be condensed into one blog entry, as we've basically arrived and left since my last blog.
We had two full days in Chicago, and as we're now joining a coach tour and we did most of the obvious tourist things when we were there two years ago, we decided we wanted to be pretty lazy. So both days we didn't leave our hotel room till after 12!
The first day - Friday - we started heading out for lunch at Gino's Eastt, a deep dish pizza specialist. Deep dish pizza is like a pie filled with mozzarella cheese (and in our case sausage) and topped with tomato sauce. They take about an hour to cook so we foolishly had appetizers. Seriously portion sizes here are ridiculous. Aaron's appetizer was chicken tenders. They came out on a full size plate with at least two handfuls of French Fries. I had about 10 mozzarella sticks. I didn't finish them. Which is amazing.
After lunch, we rolled our way down to Navy Pier, a tourist spot we had missed last time. Last time we were in Chicago it was cold, foggy and a little wet, the weather was perfect this time so we could happily walk around and take great, pretty photos. At Navy Pier - which is being redeveloped so a lot was closed but is a big marketplace and old style fun park area - we pretty much just wandered taking photos and being shocked that the endless water we were looking at was a lake, you could have sworn it was a sea.
We then headed back as we were again meeting friends for Japanese BBQ and a movie. Food was delicious and company fabulous. I tried edamame for the first time and liked it.
Then we went to the movies. It is so much cheaper than in Australia, it almost hurts. We saw Neighbors (Bad Neighbours in Australia). I wasn't a huge fan but it did have its moments.
Next day, was again lazy, and like the day before started with lunch at a spot that had been shown on Man vs Food. This time it was burgers at the Billy Goat Tavern. There's a famous old school Saturday Night Live based on the Cheezborger there. It was tasty.
Then we walked down to Cloud Gate, otherwise known as The Bean, or that giant reflective thing that people who go to Chicago pose in front of. Aaron had never heard of it, so we were treated to his trademark underwhelmed face. We then spent nearly an hour staring at the Buckingham Fountain aka the fountain in the theme to Married With Children. (Please note that most of my staring was trying to work which angle would get me the most likes on Instagram....)
We've been super tired so we didn't do much else, just went out to dinner, at a chain restaurant called Grand Luxe Cafe. It was crazy busy, and the food felt rushed so it wasn't great. Although there was strawberry lemonade so I forgave everything very easily.
We're now in Scottsdale - adjacent to Phoenix for two nights from which we embark on a Trafalgar Coach tour. Our day has been spent getting here, doing laundry , going to a smokehouse for dinner and taking some photos of the Old Town area around the hotel.
Now it's time for a sleep. Hopefully I'll be back on blog schedule from tomorrow.
We had two full days in Chicago, and as we're now joining a coach tour and we did most of the obvious tourist things when we were there two years ago, we decided we wanted to be pretty lazy. So both days we didn't leave our hotel room till after 12!
The first day - Friday - we started heading out for lunch at Gino's Eastt, a deep dish pizza specialist. Deep dish pizza is like a pie filled with mozzarella cheese (and in our case sausage) and topped with tomato sauce. They take about an hour to cook so we foolishly had appetizers. Seriously portion sizes here are ridiculous. Aaron's appetizer was chicken tenders. They came out on a full size plate with at least two handfuls of French Fries. I had about 10 mozzarella sticks. I didn't finish them. Which is amazing.
After lunch, we rolled our way down to Navy Pier, a tourist spot we had missed last time. Last time we were in Chicago it was cold, foggy and a little wet, the weather was perfect this time so we could happily walk around and take great, pretty photos. At Navy Pier - which is being redeveloped so a lot was closed but is a big marketplace and old style fun park area - we pretty much just wandered taking photos and being shocked that the endless water we were looking at was a lake, you could have sworn it was a sea.
We then headed back as we were again meeting friends for Japanese BBQ and a movie. Food was delicious and company fabulous. I tried edamame for the first time and liked it.
Then we went to the movies. It is so much cheaper than in Australia, it almost hurts. We saw Neighbors (Bad Neighbours in Australia). I wasn't a huge fan but it did have its moments.
Next day, was again lazy, and like the day before started with lunch at a spot that had been shown on Man vs Food. This time it was burgers at the Billy Goat Tavern. There's a famous old school Saturday Night Live based on the Cheezborger there. It was tasty.
Then we walked down to Cloud Gate, otherwise known as The Bean, or that giant reflective thing that people who go to Chicago pose in front of. Aaron had never heard of it, so we were treated to his trademark underwhelmed face. We then spent nearly an hour staring at the Buckingham Fountain aka the fountain in the theme to Married With Children. (Please note that most of my staring was trying to work which angle would get me the most likes on Instagram....)
We've been super tired so we didn't do much else, just went out to dinner, at a chain restaurant called Grand Luxe Cafe. It was crazy busy, and the food felt rushed so it wasn't great. Although there was strawberry lemonade so I forgave everything very easily.
We're now in Scottsdale - adjacent to Phoenix for two nights from which we embark on a Trafalgar Coach tour. Our day has been spent getting here, doing laundry , going to a smokehouse for dinner and taking some photos of the Old Town area around the hotel.
Now it's time for a sleep. Hopefully I'll be back on blog schedule from tomorrow.
Friday, May 9, 2014
Food Coma
Sorry this blog is a day late, yesterday was a busy and tiring one.
Since I last wrote to you, we've left New York City (*sobs*) and have arrived for a brief stay in Chicago.
So yesterday was our last full day in the Big Apple, and another chance to savour the delicious food choices of the city. New York embraces and revels in its multiculturalism (at least to my eye) which is very reflective in its food offerings. As part of our interest in food (and in maintaining my svelte figure) we had booked a Food Cart tour of the Financial District, with Turnstile Tours. It was by far away one of the things I was most looking forward to on our holiday and I was not disappointed at all.
The tour was to start just off Wall Street, so we got there about 90 minutes early, so we could wander around the area. Wandering around the lower part of Manhattan had been one of our favourite things we'd done on our first trip together to New York City. We ended up at the South Street Seaport, where we had never been before, and stared across at Brooklyn.
The food truck tour started at 12, and was possibly the best lunch ever. We stopped at 6 food trucks, and got samples (but generously sized samples).
The foodcarts were
- Veronica's Kitchen - jerk chicken, so well cooked the chicken slid off the bone. Aaron commented that it was probably the best savoury thing he'd eaten on the trip
- Adel's #1 Halal - best falafel I have ever had. It was so packed with herbs and cooked to crispy on the outside, and soft in the middle.
- Jianetto's Pizza - grandma style pizza. It was similar to the Sicilian at Spumoni Gardens on Tuesday, but with a thinner crust.
- Souvlaki GR - chicken (or pork) souvlaki with the best Pita bread ever.
- Korilla BBQ - Mexican/Korean fusion. Korean beef and kimchi in Mexican tacos and burritos. Because I have some weird allergy towards corn tortillas and thus can't eat tacos, I was given a burrito here.
- Waffles and Dinges - OH MY GOD. Belgian Waffles smothered in cream and a sauce that was as if Anzac Biscuits had been melted. Similar colour and texture as Nutella, but actually tasty, unlike Nutella. (Controversial!). Waffles and Dinges was featured on Man vs Food.
The food was amazing. Genuinely amazing. The tour itself was also very informative. Example - there is currently a 20 year waiting list to get a food truck permit, and the list is so popular you have to win a raffle to even get on that! So anyone new has to find a permit owner willing to lease their permit out. This is a cost of around $20,000!
After the tour ended, we decided the day was beautiful and we should walk the 9km back to our hotel. Obviously we were completely food drunk to think that was a good idea. We did it, walking down Broadway, until we got to Madison Square Park where we swapped to 5th Avenue to avoid some of the crazy foot traffic that exists around Macy's. It took us about 2.5 hours with a few short breaks.
We didn't have a lot of time after we arrived back to the hotel before we had to go out for dinner on the way to see the new musical Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie with Zach Braff in the John Cusack role.
It was okay. The songs were not at all memorable and the very end was so weird/disjointed that it's affected my memories of the show but parts of it were good. Very few of them featured Zach Braff though, unfortunately. He sang better than I expected but he was overacting you couldn't really see his character instead of a Woody Allen impersonator.
This morning we left NYC (I cried again) to travel to Chicago. Where the weather was perfect in NYC, it was in the 30s and very humid here. Apparently it's going to rain tomorrow which'll hopefully break the humidity.
We got to our hotel, checked in and discovered we had been upgraded to a one bedroom suite. Awesome - the lounge suite is so comfy, I'm wondering if the hotel would notice if I took it with me.
For dinner we joined friends in Chicago at RPM, which is a restaurant founded by Bill and Giuliana Rancic. The food was really tasty and served Italian tapas style - even the pasta was shared which with the conversation made the night a lot of fun. I have now also developed an obsession with Zucchini frites. We ate so much food, for a reasonably cheap price (not super cheap but when you realised how much we ate for the price it was definitely reasonable). So I'm in my second food coma in as many days.
No real plans until dinner and a movie with the same friends tomorrow, so we'll see how things play out. :)
Since I last wrote to you, we've left New York City (*sobs*) and have arrived for a brief stay in Chicago.
So yesterday was our last full day in the Big Apple, and another chance to savour the delicious food choices of the city. New York embraces and revels in its multiculturalism (at least to my eye) which is very reflective in its food offerings. As part of our interest in food (and in maintaining my svelte figure) we had booked a Food Cart tour of the Financial District, with Turnstile Tours. It was by far away one of the things I was most looking forward to on our holiday and I was not disappointed at all.
The tour was to start just off Wall Street, so we got there about 90 minutes early, so we could wander around the area. Wandering around the lower part of Manhattan had been one of our favourite things we'd done on our first trip together to New York City. We ended up at the South Street Seaport, where we had never been before, and stared across at Brooklyn.
The food truck tour started at 12, and was possibly the best lunch ever. We stopped at 6 food trucks, and got samples (but generously sized samples).
The foodcarts were
- Veronica's Kitchen - jerk chicken, so well cooked the chicken slid off the bone. Aaron commented that it was probably the best savoury thing he'd eaten on the trip
- Adel's #1 Halal - best falafel I have ever had. It was so packed with herbs and cooked to crispy on the outside, and soft in the middle.
- Jianetto's Pizza - grandma style pizza. It was similar to the Sicilian at Spumoni Gardens on Tuesday, but with a thinner crust.
- Souvlaki GR - chicken (or pork) souvlaki with the best Pita bread ever.
- Korilla BBQ - Mexican/Korean fusion. Korean beef and kimchi in Mexican tacos and burritos. Because I have some weird allergy towards corn tortillas and thus can't eat tacos, I was given a burrito here.
- Waffles and Dinges - OH MY GOD. Belgian Waffles smothered in cream and a sauce that was as if Anzac Biscuits had been melted. Similar colour and texture as Nutella, but actually tasty, unlike Nutella. (Controversial!). Waffles and Dinges was featured on Man vs Food.
The food was amazing. Genuinely amazing. The tour itself was also very informative. Example - there is currently a 20 year waiting list to get a food truck permit, and the list is so popular you have to win a raffle to even get on that! So anyone new has to find a permit owner willing to lease their permit out. This is a cost of around $20,000!
After the tour ended, we decided the day was beautiful and we should walk the 9km back to our hotel. Obviously we were completely food drunk to think that was a good idea. We did it, walking down Broadway, until we got to Madison Square Park where we swapped to 5th Avenue to avoid some of the crazy foot traffic that exists around Macy's. It took us about 2.5 hours with a few short breaks.
We didn't have a lot of time after we arrived back to the hotel before we had to go out for dinner on the way to see the new musical Bullets Over Broadway, based on the Woody Allen movie with Zach Braff in the John Cusack role.
It was okay. The songs were not at all memorable and the very end was so weird/disjointed that it's affected my memories of the show but parts of it were good. Very few of them featured Zach Braff though, unfortunately. He sang better than I expected but he was overacting you couldn't really see his character instead of a Woody Allen impersonator.
This morning we left NYC (I cried again) to travel to Chicago. Where the weather was perfect in NYC, it was in the 30s and very humid here. Apparently it's going to rain tomorrow which'll hopefully break the humidity.
We got to our hotel, checked in and discovered we had been upgraded to a one bedroom suite. Awesome - the lounge suite is so comfy, I'm wondering if the hotel would notice if I took it with me.
For dinner we joined friends in Chicago at RPM, which is a restaurant founded by Bill and Giuliana Rancic. The food was really tasty and served Italian tapas style - even the pasta was shared which with the conversation made the night a lot of fun. I have now also developed an obsession with Zucchini frites. We ate so much food, for a reasonably cheap price (not super cheap but when you realised how much we ate for the price it was definitely reasonable). So I'm in my second food coma in as many days.
No real plans until dinner and a movie with the same friends tomorrow, so we'll see how things play out. :)
Wednesday, May 7, 2014
A Quiet Day In The Chaos
I'm standing at the window of my hotel room, watching 7th Avenue all the way as it interested with Broadway and forms Times Square. The lights of the billboards and signs (and traffic) shining brightly, and thinking how very, very lucky I am in life. It's a mix between feeling very humbled and feeling completely joyous.
As I've mentioned before New York City seems to own a large part of my soul, and makes me emotional!
Today we had no plans, and in New York City where every corner leads you to a new sight or adventure, that can be a little overwhelming, as we really didn't know what to choose to do.
Our first move was a mistake. We went to the reasonably famous Carnegie Deli across the road from our hotel, for their huge sandwiches. The sandwiches were very, very expensive and while very well filled, the meat itself tasted horrible and was really fatty. So blergh. Don't go there.
Amazingly, sitting at the table next to us was a group who had been on our pizza tour yesterday. In a city as huge as this, the odds of that seemed so unlikely.
After feeling a bit down over lunch, we walked to somewhere we know we loved - the beautiful Bryant Park - home of the New York Public Library. (We didn't go in, as we've done it before, but if you ever go, you have to go in - it's amazing.) The weather was perfect and we spent a few minutes just sitting there soaking it up. I also lamented the NFL store that had been there last time was gone.
After I spent time ogling my beloved Chrysler Building, we walked around the park and headed off to get Empire State Buildings photos too. Then in order to satisfy my cupcake craving (it's New York, it's compulsory!) we walked to Macy's to use their wifi so I could find a nearby Crumbs. This walk happened to go past a Sephora, and I do have to give credit to my very patient husband, who followed me around the perfume rollerball aisle without complaint.
Cupcake coordinates acquired, I was standing at a counter wondering if all of them was an acceptable answer when I was asked for my order. I settled on a cookie dough cupcake, because well...cookie dough. It was delicious.
Unfortunately, I've managed to really hurt my arm, nothing bad, but it feels deeply bruised or strained and it started aching so next trip was to a pharmacy for the American version of deep heat and then back to the hotel to apply.
After realising the restaurant we were going to go to dinner at was closed, we ended up deciding to follow the theme of the day and just walk until something took our fancy. Obviously we were easy to please as we got one block before choosing somewhere.
As it's Agents of Shield night, I had to get back! So it's a quiet night tonight as we have a busy day tomorrow.
Till next blog, take care!
As I've mentioned before New York City seems to own a large part of my soul, and makes me emotional!
Today we had no plans, and in New York City where every corner leads you to a new sight or adventure, that can be a little overwhelming, as we really didn't know what to choose to do.
Our first move was a mistake. We went to the reasonably famous Carnegie Deli across the road from our hotel, for their huge sandwiches. The sandwiches were very, very expensive and while very well filled, the meat itself tasted horrible and was really fatty. So blergh. Don't go there.
Amazingly, sitting at the table next to us was a group who had been on our pizza tour yesterday. In a city as huge as this, the odds of that seemed so unlikely.
After feeling a bit down over lunch, we walked to somewhere we know we loved - the beautiful Bryant Park - home of the New York Public Library. (We didn't go in, as we've done it before, but if you ever go, you have to go in - it's amazing.) The weather was perfect and we spent a few minutes just sitting there soaking it up. I also lamented the NFL store that had been there last time was gone.
After I spent time ogling my beloved Chrysler Building, we walked around the park and headed off to get Empire State Buildings photos too. Then in order to satisfy my cupcake craving (it's New York, it's compulsory!) we walked to Macy's to use their wifi so I could find a nearby Crumbs. This walk happened to go past a Sephora, and I do have to give credit to my very patient husband, who followed me around the perfume rollerball aisle without complaint.
Cupcake coordinates acquired, I was standing at a counter wondering if all of them was an acceptable answer when I was asked for my order. I settled on a cookie dough cupcake, because well...cookie dough. It was delicious.
Unfortunately, I've managed to really hurt my arm, nothing bad, but it feels deeply bruised or strained and it started aching so next trip was to a pharmacy for the American version of deep heat and then back to the hotel to apply.
After realising the restaurant we were going to go to dinner at was closed, we ended up deciding to follow the theme of the day and just walk until something took our fancy. Obviously we were easy to please as we got one block before choosing somewhere.
As it's Agents of Shield night, I had to get back! So it's a quiet night tonight as we have a busy day tomorrow.
Till next blog, take care!
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
Deliciousness By The Slice
I know you'd all be surprised to hear that when I discovered there was such a thing as a pizza tour available in New York City, that I was somewhat eager (read as absolutely desperate) to go on it. Today was the day - we went on a pizza tour of Brooklyn with A Slice of Brooklyn tours.
The bus picked us up in Union Square, a part of Manhattan we actually hadn't been before, but we quickly headed out of Manhattan, and into the Borough of Brooklyn for over four hours. (The theme song of Welcome Back Kotter was in my head the whole time, except for the bit when we saw where the opening of Saturday Night Fever was filmed, and I briefly found myself singing along to the BeeGees.)
The theme of the tour was a pizza tour but really the pizza was an excuse to visit Brooklyn and get a history of certain neighbourhoods, including a brief walk on the Coney Island boardwalk. I completely fell in love with Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the sort of place you always see on TV looking rundown or full of gangsters so it was surprising to see beautiful neighbourhoods with mansions or just spacious, pretty, well kept homes and so much greenery. Also so attractive about Brooklyn was the blend of ethnicity there, it felt like the whole world was in the neighbourhood. I'm just smitten.
Oh and did I mention there was pizza?! We tried two different kinds at two famous pizza joints - Grimaldi's and L&B Spumoni Gardens. Grimaldi's specialises in coal fuelled brick oven thin crust pizza and is situated just next to the Brooklyn Bridge. L&B's specialises in Sicilian pizza in the heart of Brooklyn. The pizza at L&B's is a square cut, double baked fluffy crust pizza where the cheese is underneath the tomato paste. I saw it on Man vs Food and didn't see how it would work but it does, it was delicious. So was Grimaldi's. Also cool with Grimaldi's is that there a big lines for it and we got to skip the line *evil laugh*. I probably preferred Grimaldi's but would eat both again. As in, if someone would like to bring me a slice of either one I'm staying at....
After bring dropped back in a Union Square we started the 40 block trek back to the hotel (blocks are small here, so it was about an hour walk with traffic). The walk took us down Broadway, past the Flatiron building - Aaron's favourite building in NYC, through the original Madison Square Garden and oh, how coinicidentally, it took us to Macy's. I saw the lost look in Aaron's eyes as he watched me run into the store shrieking in glee. Macy's did not disappoint. They were having a huge clearance sale, and it was a further 25% off on those items today. *evil laughs again*. I was restrained and bought just three items, including another greatly reduced Ralph Lauren jumper. Honestly to be plus size and be able to buy designer items is just amazing, to be able to buy them for under $30 is beyond stunning.
We ended the evening at Ellen's Stardust Diner. It's a diner near Times Square featuring Broadway hopefuls as the wait staff and in between serving they perform songs. It's a lot of fun, the staff are excellent singers.
We're now back in the hotel room, somehow completely exhausted. Tomorrow is a completely free day, we're not sure where it'll lead us. So talk to you about it tomorrow night!!
The bus picked us up in Union Square, a part of Manhattan we actually hadn't been before, but we quickly headed out of Manhattan, and into the Borough of Brooklyn for over four hours. (The theme song of Welcome Back Kotter was in my head the whole time, except for the bit when we saw where the opening of Saturday Night Fever was filmed, and I briefly found myself singing along to the BeeGees.)
The theme of the tour was a pizza tour but really the pizza was an excuse to visit Brooklyn and get a history of certain neighbourhoods, including a brief walk on the Coney Island boardwalk. I completely fell in love with Brooklyn. Brooklyn is the sort of place you always see on TV looking rundown or full of gangsters so it was surprising to see beautiful neighbourhoods with mansions or just spacious, pretty, well kept homes and so much greenery. Also so attractive about Brooklyn was the blend of ethnicity there, it felt like the whole world was in the neighbourhood. I'm just smitten.
Oh and did I mention there was pizza?! We tried two different kinds at two famous pizza joints - Grimaldi's and L&B Spumoni Gardens. Grimaldi's specialises in coal fuelled brick oven thin crust pizza and is situated just next to the Brooklyn Bridge. L&B's specialises in Sicilian pizza in the heart of Brooklyn. The pizza at L&B's is a square cut, double baked fluffy crust pizza where the cheese is underneath the tomato paste. I saw it on Man vs Food and didn't see how it would work but it does, it was delicious. So was Grimaldi's. Also cool with Grimaldi's is that there a big lines for it and we got to skip the line *evil laugh*. I probably preferred Grimaldi's but would eat both again. As in, if someone would like to bring me a slice of either one I'm staying at....
After bring dropped back in a Union Square we started the 40 block trek back to the hotel (blocks are small here, so it was about an hour walk with traffic). The walk took us down Broadway, past the Flatiron building - Aaron's favourite building in NYC, through the original Madison Square Garden and oh, how coinicidentally, it took us to Macy's. I saw the lost look in Aaron's eyes as he watched me run into the store shrieking in glee. Macy's did not disappoint. They were having a huge clearance sale, and it was a further 25% off on those items today. *evil laughs again*. I was restrained and bought just three items, including another greatly reduced Ralph Lauren jumper. Honestly to be plus size and be able to buy designer items is just amazing, to be able to buy them for under $30 is beyond stunning.
We ended the evening at Ellen's Stardust Diner. It's a diner near Times Square featuring Broadway hopefuls as the wait staff and in between serving they perform songs. It's a lot of fun, the staff are excellent singers.
We're now back in the hotel room, somehow completely exhausted. Tomorrow is a completely free day, we're not sure where it'll lead us. So talk to you about it tomorrow night!!
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