Well it is Thursday (around midday) and we have just heard that the transit strike looks set to finish. The workers went out on strike on Monday night which means there are no subway trains or buses which has caused a fair bit of chaos in New York. Walking or a rip off taxi fare is the only option – we chose walking!! It hasn't stopped us doing what we had planned – just rejuggled our schedules a bit to do things closer to home (if you call walking 50 blocks closer to home!!)
Since being here we have seen 7 shows – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Forbidden Broadway (a take off of Broadway shows), Mr Marmalade (starring Michael C. Hall from Six Feet Under), Woman in White (the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical), Avenue Q (using puppets as some of the characters), Radio City Music Hall Christmas Spectacular (absolutely amazing with moving orchestras, live ice skating and falling snow and soldiers) and The Color Purple (based on the book and bank rolled by Oprah Winfrey). They have all be very good and very different and we are certainly enjoying the choice we have in shows!!
Our television experience is quite a story. We had just purchased tickets to Avenue Q from the discount ticket booth at Times Square and we stopped to put our tickets in our bag when a young woman walked past and asked if we wanted to see the David Letterman show the next day. We both took a double take and said, "YES!" We had to answer a trivia question (luckily Christopher knew the answer) and we got a sheet to take to the theatre the next day at 3.00pm. We queued up to get tickets and returned at 4.30pm to prepare for the taping of the show. It was a great and unexpected experience and something we had sort of joked about doing before we came and never thought we would get the chance!!!
On the weekend we went to the Union Square markets and looked around Greenwich Village which was nice. The first day we couldn't find Magnolia Bakery (made famous in Sex in the City and a definite must see for Christopher on behalf of the cupcake team) but returned the next day and bought some cakes and ate them in the park nearby. We also went to South Street Seaport which is right at the bottom of Manhattan and will return there to see Ground Zero, financial district and catch a ferry to Statue of Liberty before we go.
Have also visited Guggenheim Museum and museum of Natural History (quite amazing) and have walked across Central Park from the east side to the west side, seeing lots of squirrels and frozen lakes (and people!!)
Have visited many shops and thank goodness we didn't travel with full bags. Went to Colony Music Shop which is a print music heaven with everything you could imagine from scores to albums to posters etc. Virgin Records has also been visited on several occasions and we definitely notice how cheap their dvds and cds are (as long as they are not imports). Crate and Barrel (similar to Freedom) is on our way home from the city so we have stopped in a few times – they do international shipping so it could be dangerous!!!
Weather is cold although once you rug up and drink multiple Starbucks coffees a day it is OK. Hope all is well with everyone and your Christmas and New Year are happy and relaxing!! We are off to Las Vegas for 4 days next Tuesday to see Cirque du Soleil shows and will write more when we get a chance!