a weekend as a tourist

I've been a proper tourist this weekend! baby sister and I had grand plans for Friday morning. instead we were nearly late for our tour as we were watching people carve up pumpkins on telly. to be fair, the guy who won was immense. he made this Medusa head with moving snakes coming in and out of her head.

 we then went on a tour around grand central station and the Chrysler building. we were introduced to this amazing bar called the Campbell apartments, which is inside the station. brilliant story in that a rich couple used to own it as an apartment for when they were in the city. imagine, right next to the station! our guide was the most expressive bloke I've ever met. big arms, big gestures, stretchy face. I hope that makes some sense.

we then went to Xian Famous Foods for some beloved cumin lamb. theo
wner was in that day making the hand pulled noodles and I have to say, they were the best I'd had there.

we then joined the queue for uniqlo free Fridays at Moma. I can't believe it's taken me so long to go there. the array of stuff they have is immense, including the phallic creations of Yasuma, which the Boy and I saw at the Tate last year. As ever, the sheer scale of paintings is incredible. Monet's water-lilies over three canvases is vast and Matisse's 'the dance' is interesting in the way it plays with perspective. Moma does an excellent job in showing you how each era of art builds on each other. really fascinating and so worth it! even the queue to get in for free wasn't too bad. 45 minutes and in by four.

we then hot-footed it to barcade for beers and old arcade games. I stuck with what I know e.g. geeky tetris. I even got onto the scoreboard at 8th position, which is impressive stuff given that we were in a geeky arcade bar. you'll find me as Evi as I couldn't work out how to control the letters. we ended the evening in a diner and I ate chicken and waffles with fake maple syrup. pretty dirty.

 Saturday, I officially broke my sister. I made her traipse around Manhattan doing new York open house. we saw one apartment that was only 400 and something square feet and had a whole wall that ran along a track so you could separate the room out when you had visitors. another apartment had a puddle of water on the ground floor, over which you had to traverse on wooden blocks. his bed overhung the ledge of thefirstfirst floor and he had a prison toilet in his bedroom. the apartment also has a waterfall that runs around the perimeter of the apartment. extreme. we also went to the Freemason's head lodge. it frustrated the hell out of me. it's basically an old boys' club. every question that was posed was basically batted away or deferred to someone on a different floor. the most I learnt was that the colour of each room matches the tiles in that room. oh for Christ's sake. we were running late so jumped into a tour of one room late and left early. the Boy's face was bright red, which my baby sister hasn't noticed. had she known, she said she would have just shouted out " boring!" to embarrass him more.

after an epic combination plate meal at stage restaurant - stuffed cabbage, bortsch, bread, sausage, pierogi - my sister said 'no more!' she went to bed whilst the boy and I went out for more. it was getting late and stuff was closing. we got to one place that was closing, but the guide kindly showed us the apartment through the window. hopefully, the pictures will upload OK this time.

 we then went for the world's cheapest and amazing massage. that was followed by Texan barbeque at mighty Quinn's. the brontosaurus rib is immense (think the size of my arm) and the wings deliciously tangy.

today, we entered the book of Mormon lottery but weren't successful. apparently Sunday matinees are the lightest so we will be back. instead we went to see avenue Q, which was very entertaining. not side-splitting, but so clever and impressive, particularly when you realise there are only 7 actors playing multiple characters. for lunch we went to pure Thai cookhouse, which seemed to have really authentic flavours. the meats and seafood were accessible for western palates, but super tasty. tea was homemade fish tacos. additional pineapples this time, which pumped up the tastiness volume. 24 hours on the clock with baby sister :_(