NY Day 4

Friday, June 27, 2008
New York City, New York, United States
This morning we wandered down 8th Avenue to 34th Street and spend the day at Macy's. Macy's defines itself as 'The Biggest Store in the World'. It probably is, there are 5 whole floors of menswear.

We did a bit of shopping, Steven bought some new shoes, and I bought a new suit (and it fits!) . Next time we go back, Steven swears he's going to get himself a new suit too. They've got Nautica, Boss, Calvin Klein, Polo all for around $250 (in other words, about a quarter of the price as at home).

We went to the basement for lunch. I ordered the bbq chicken (free range, hormone free etc.) with rice and potato salad. The box with my chicken was handed to me just as Steven was about to order the beef stew. I noticed something funny about my chicken, it was heavy; unbelievably heavy. I took a peek, it was half a chicken! The serving size for one was half a chicken, for $7.99! Steven didn't bother with the stew. See? We're getting smart about food and we had a cheap lunch.

Steven had still not flushed his cold. When we got back to the hotel he wasn't looking the best, but insisted we go to see tonight's show, In The Heights. We ate an early dinner in our room and got to the theatre with plenty of time before the show.

The set was spectacular, a reproduction of the street near the 181st street subway station entrance, in Washington Heights . On seeing the set my expectations slowly grew.

Just before the show began a couple came to sit next to us. The man was next to me, and his girlfriend the other side of him. He was drunk. Really, drunk, and he stank of booze and smoke. He was noisy, he talked most of the way through the first act and used his phone. I would have asked him to be quiet but he was a scary man. Imagine Jack Nicholson in Prizzi's Honour. He had the accent, the clothes, I'm sure he was mafia. I felt it was safest to let him do what ever he wanted.

We didn't stay for the whole show. It wasn't just sitting next to a 70's mafia figure that detracted from the fun, the show itself wasn't working for us. It was really a play for a New York audience, it didn't translate very well to us. Half English and half Spanish, the accents were hard to hear around and the jokes mostly went over our heads. The characters seemed stereotyped to me, and the plot (what I could make of it) was half 'West Side Story' and half 'Rent'. But the rest of the audience loved it; really, really, loved it. They cheered as every actor came on the stage and roared and screamed at the end of every song. It was difficult to leave the audience behind.

We made it back to the hotel early, and aside from the fire alarms going off at 11:30 and the almost complete evacuation of the hotel, we had our earliest night yet.

Tomorrow is a rest day, I think Steven needs to sleep for a day to get over his cold, and I don't mind the idea of a day in bed watching TV.

Comments

2025-02-14

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank