Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Sunday, September 02, 2007
My sister is sponsored!
My baby sister got a sponsorship deal with Prince! Apparently she is one hell of a tennis prodigy; her coaches called some people & the rest is history. I know very little about the deal, but I am just fit to burst with pride for her. She's barely in double-digit ages & everyone sees a very rosy future. The family came to NYC for the the US Open this weekend & I went with them one day - I just know she's going to be there, kicking ass & taking names, one day soon. She certainly beats me handily whenever we play. :)
Friday, August 31, 2007
London: 9.5/10
[This post has been sitting on my desk in longhand all week - typing is much faster than writing, but it also requires more time than you'd think.] I never thought I'd welcome drizzle! London was a bit damp & after the frying heat of Sharm, I was quite glad of it. We took the very nice Heathrow Express train into Paddington. I don't understand why we can't have trains out to NYC airports like that. The AirTrain to JFK is good, but the pain of getting to Queens for it completely negates its benefits. Anyhow, we met about 10 of his friends at Carluccio's for dinner. Their style of humor, consisting mainly of teasing each other non-stop, took some getting used to, but I immediately understood why SE does it to me all the time. & it's funny when it happens to other people. His friends were really sweet to me & all said a variant of "I've heard so much about you," which is always music to a girlfriend's ears. I liked them a lot. It being a Thursday, everyone went home after dinner. People don't seem to do the weekday party thing as much as here.
Friday SE had some visa issues to sort out at the embassy so I had to amuse myself all day. After breakfast & getting very specific directions from place to place on the tube, , I set off on my explorations. First stop: British Library. I got distracted by Top Shop in Oxford Circus though. I'd read that it's a high street store & that Kate Moss had a line there, so of course I had to see for myself. (Sadly, her stuff was a bit out of budget.) I ended up with a cute polka-dot dress & black lace leggings. SE later explained to me that "high street" doesn't mean really good, as I'd thought, it means the shop is on every high street (meaning "main street"). Basically it's a more stylish H&M. After an hour I dragged myself away & onto the Tube. We love to complain about the subway in NYC but we still only pay $2/ride here & $7 for an all-day pass. The Tube is £4/ride & £5.10/day - that's $8 & $10.20 respectively! They have an unlimited Oyster card which is generally £1.50/ride, but I can't buy one online unless I have a London address so it's still much more expensive for visitors. The trains do come a lot more often, but there's no air conditioning on the trains & they are generally much further underground. I saw electric signs in every station keeping passengers updated about which lines were working, which hints at frequent problems, & though I didn't experience delays myself all the Londoners I talked to complained about unreliability. It's more of a problem there because cabs are also much pricier, so when there's a Tube issue, jumping in a cab is not as easy. Although the cabs are so much nicer I almost think they're worth it. They look really cool, like better PT Cruisers; they're roomy inside, so 5 people or fewer plus luggage can get in comfortably; you can have privacy or talk to the driver by pressing a button; lots of the cars have phones inside, like on an airplane except free; & there are often phone & iPod chargers built into a side panel. I want LTI, the carmaker, to come over here.
So where was I? Right, on my way to the British Library. It's a beautiful building inside & out. There's a very interesting exhibit called Sacred, about ancient manuscripts of Judaism, Islam & Christianity, especially the Torah, Qu'ran & Bible. I've always thought Arabic a lovely-looking language. & seeing it with gold leaf, calligraphy & painstakingly drawn details made quite an impression. I wish I could get a tattoo in Arabic but that would probably be a bit silly. As much as I love the concept of libraries, they get kind of boring after ~5 minutes if I'm not reading so when I was done wandering around the exhibits I made my way to the British Museum. I meandered around the Chinese, Central America, Japanese, Enlightenment & various other rooms. I checked on the Egyptian mummies, too - we didn't see any in the Egyptian Museum, go figure. They are super creepy & I stayed about 4 seconds, long enough to read the description, before I was too nervous to stay touching-distance from a very lifelike dead body. Eventually I got tired of walking around & being by myself in a strange city & decided to go home. I got off the Tube at Oxford Circus & that's when I realized that I hadn't asked SE how to walk from there to the apartment. I couldn't remember how I got to the station initially because I'd gotten lost & asked about 5 people. Plus my sense of direction is nonexistent. I didn't have a map & thought the apartment was northwest of the station when it was actually northeast & didn't recognize landmarks correctly so I spent about 2 hours walking around in circles with painful shoes. I couldn't call SE & was so clueless that when he called to see if I was coming home, I mistakenly thought I was almost there & didn't ask for help so I was unnecessarily lost for another half hour. At length I found the right street & got safely home. Fortunately we had a bit of time for me to gather my wits before meeting some of his friends at an All Bar One (it's a chain) on Henrietta St.
A few glasses of champagne sorted me out nicely. We went to Bar Shu on Frith St. to meet SE's old colleague & his current girlfriend. Bar Shu is an absolutely fantastic Szechuan restaurant, better than in New York - I was so happy. We all got along very well & continued on to Milk & Honey for a drink, where another friend of SE's met us. Since it was a Friday night SE wanted to see how the London club scene was doing & off we 5 went to Paper. We got a bottle of vodka - if you think NYC clubs are bad, imagine paying the same price in £s (= 2 x $s) - & one of Kahlua so we could continue with the Black Russians. Party girls in London aren't as cute as here, but they're as persistent & freeloading. Some slags attempted to pour themselves drinks from our bottles though we didn't know them. Plus they kept trying to talk to SE & slinking away if I came within eyeshot. I've been working on my jealousy & trusting SE more, so after the initial impulse to kick their flabby asses, I found the humor in the situation. The music was pretty good, I really liked SE's friends, & vodka + Kahlua + Red Bull is a nice potent cocktail. I tend to make crazy drinks if left to my own devices, since I can't really taste alcohol unless it's about 80% of the drink. Pretty odd considering my pickiness with food tastes.
We had a great night & came home at maybe 2:30. I couldn't sleep right away & dove back into Harry Potter. SE was woken up by sobbing then & 5 hours later when I woke up ridiculously early (as usual after drinking) & was finishing the book. I must have spent a good 1/3 of it bawling, which is not necessarily because sad things happen - don't want to spoil it for anyone - but how intense & emotionally involving it is.
The next morning one of SE's college friends took us on a walking tour of Westminster which was really interesting. We did some pub-hopping afterwards, saw my friend who moved to London 2 years ago, & had a nice casual dinner at Busaba Eathai on Wardour St. Thai food is hugely popular in London. I think people see it the way we New Yorkers look at Japanese - healthy, yummy & tasty. There are Japanese restaurants but not so many as in NYC. SE & I were very tired, so we went home in the rain instead of staying out even though it was Saturday.
We took a train from Victoria Station to his parents' in Sussex - I was pretty nervous since I'd never stayed at a boyfriend's family home before. They were very sweet & I tried to be helpful. His mother made toad-in-the-hole one night because I'd read about it in a book as a kid, Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World, & never had it. Sausages baked in batter, nothin' wrong with that. SE showed me around the neighborhood, his old school, the trees he used to climb, paths he used to ride his bike on, stuff like that; really cute. I can just imagine him as a boy getting into trouble & outwitting the other kids. He also took me to Brighton, which was cool because I've read about it in lots of books. I met one of SE's childhood friends with his new wife - good example for SE - & they were delightful, plus I learned some embarrassing things about SE when he was little. I'm happy I finally have some stuff to tease him about.
Tuesday morning we went back to London for lunch with his friend who's getting married in November. SE had told me lots about her, how they went to college together, were roommates with 2 other girls & he had a crush on her for a long time so I was a little jealous but once I met her I thought she was lovely & we got along very well. Later we met one of SE's old work colleagues at Ronnie Scott's, a famous jazz club on Frith which makes amazing drinks, before dim sum at the very fancy Yauatcha on Broadwick. It was quite good, maybe the not best in the world but they did a great congee & once I spoke Chinese to the waiters they were falling all over themselves to make sure we were happy. Then one of the best parts of our London trip - we went to Stringfellows after dinner! It's a very upscale strip club & girls can get naked in London, top AND bottom! I had a dance from a wife & wife team (or so they said) & some other hotties. Plus those girls know how to work a pole, oh boy. Flashdancers except better & much hotter. We had a really good night.
The next day SE did some touristy stuff with me; we wanted to go on the London Eye but the line looked too long. The Aquarium is right there as well [see right] - they have storm troopers on the roof! There was some crazy Star Wars exhibit going on.
There was also a Dalí exhibit in the same building so they had sculptures of Dalí paintings outside.
We decided to check out the London Dungeon, which looked delightfully scary. Fortunately we got a FastPass by the Aquarium & didn't have to wait too long. Now, it's quite cheesy & funny but if you're easily startled like me, it's terrifying. The actors jump out at you & wear ghoulish face paint that makes them look dead &/or severely injured so even when they're just walking around they're still awful. We learned about the Great Plague, torture techniques, the Great Fire, Sweeney Todd & Jack the Ripper. I enjoyed the real torture instruments on display but everything else was a re-creation. I was so scared that during the Sweeney Todd part, I refused to lean back in my chair as directed & missed the faux throat-slitting. Not a problem. At the end there's a "free fall" ride. After 1.5 hours of looking around nervously & getting the crap scared or startled out of me every 5 minutes I was completely demoralized, & although it was only a small drop, I screamed like a banshee. Of course they took a picture at that moment & I wish I could show you, because it's the most terrified look I've ever seen on my or anyone else's face. My eyes are popping out & my mouth is open so wide my jaw seems ready to fall off. SE recognized its comic gold & bought it, & every time we look at it we still crack up, it's so ridiculous.
SE showed me around Canary Wharf & the City (the financial area of London) after that. We rode the Docklands Light Railway & I saw bankers in their current preferred habitat. Business is increasingly flowing to the City - the dollar's weakness is really fucking NYC. I like the architecture there, especially the Gherkin, properly known as the Swiss RE building at 30 St. Mary's Axe.
We had dinner with another childhood playmate of SE's at the best kosher restaurant in the city, Bevis Marks, because the friend is converting to Orthodox Judaism. I didn't know much about kosher & just figured it would be crappy like vegetarian food, but this place was great. The Thai crispy beef salad, matzoh ball soup, lamb & salmon were all amazing. Kosherness doesn't seem to make a difference in taste, it just restricts the kinds of foods you can put together.
Thursday, our last full day, we went shopping. First Harvey Nichols, where I had a severe case of sticker shock. Everything is so much more expensive there, they think a rack of £900 ($1800) & under is "on sale." My favorite wish was a luscious pair of leather ankle boots by McQueen with python trim & a skull zipper detail (sorry, Treo takes bad pix) that I really wanted... told my footslave about them. Obviously I didn't buy anything, & got bored perambulating so I went to check on SE who had succumbed to temptation & got a $100 Evisu t-shirt. Silly boy. We then visited the eyesore that is Harrod's - clearly money doesn't buy taste. Although, it's kind of fun looking at the horrible stuff & guessing what outlandish price it is. The most disgusting part was a Dodi & Princess Diana memorial that had an unwashed wine glass from their last night & the engagement ring he got for her the day before. That thing was an utter monstrosity. It's almost the size of my fist & covered in pavé diamonds with an enormous rock in the middle. The placard underneath said this was "proof of their love." Proof of bad taste & Daddy being a billionaire, more like. I would only call that proper proof if Dodi bought it on a janitor's salary. SE was annoyed with the spurious reasoning, though his opinions are a bit skewed when it comes to jewelry & big gifts like that since he's a banker & sees colleagues make those hollow gestures all the time while cheating on their wives. I don't know - I still believe you can do nice things & mean them. We're both cynical romantics but he leans more to the cynical side than I do.
Around 4 we met up with SE's college buddy who just got married (SE was best man & threw him a bachelor weekend in Krakow). He's really cool. Plus I heard some more stories about stupid or asshole things SE did, which wasn't always very comforting - I worry if he's really a changed man now - but hilarious nonetheless. We gathered more friends as we moved from bar to bar, ending up at a Wagamama. It's a yummy UK noodle chain that strongly reminds me of Republic in Union Square. SE said the one we went to was not representative of their normally high quality but I quite liked my ramen. Sadly, in America only Boston has the pleasure of Wagamamas at this point. We went to one more pub after dinner & then everyone headed home.
The next morning SE got birthday sex & I took him out to lunch & the Transformers movie. Liked the first 2 a lot. The Transformers were a little before my time & I hardly knew what they were growing up so I wasn't as into the movie as SE was. The story was also achingly stupid, but I thought the transformations were super cool & the leading ladies very yummy. That Megan Fox has a heartbreaking pair of legs. & Rachael Taylor was what I'd want to look like if I were blonde. SE was excited as a little boy & it was worth the £19.50 ($39, London is crazy!) to see that smile on his face. & that, boys & girls, was the conclusion of our grand tour.
Friday SE had some visa issues to sort out at the embassy so I had to amuse myself all day. After breakfast & getting very specific directions from place to place on the tube, , I set off on my explorations. First stop: British Library. I got distracted by Top Shop in Oxford Circus though. I'd read that it's a high street store & that Kate Moss had a line there, so of course I had to see for myself. (Sadly, her stuff was a bit out of budget.) I ended up with a cute polka-dot dress & black lace leggings. SE later explained to me that "high street" doesn't mean really good, as I'd thought, it means the shop is on every high street (meaning "main street"). Basically it's a more stylish H&M. After an hour I dragged myself away & onto the Tube. We love to complain about the subway in NYC but we still only pay $2/ride here & $7 for an all-day pass. The Tube is £4/ride & £5.10/day - that's $8 & $10.20 respectively! They have an unlimited Oyster card which is generally £1.50/ride, but I can't buy one online unless I have a London address so it's still much more expensive for visitors. The trains do come a lot more often, but there's no air conditioning on the trains & they are generally much further underground. I saw electric signs in every station keeping passengers updated about which lines were working, which hints at frequent problems, & though I didn't experience delays myself all the Londoners I talked to complained about unreliability. It's more of a problem there because cabs are also much pricier, so when there's a Tube issue, jumping in a cab is not as easy. Although the cabs are so much nicer I almost think they're worth it. They look really cool, like better PT Cruisers; they're roomy inside, so 5 people or fewer plus luggage can get in comfortably; you can have privacy or talk to the driver by pressing a button; lots of the cars have phones inside, like on an airplane except free; & there are often phone & iPod chargers built into a side panel. I want LTI, the carmaker, to come over here.
So where was I? Right, on my way to the British Library. It's a beautiful building inside & out. There's a very interesting exhibit called Sacred, about ancient manuscripts of Judaism, Islam & Christianity, especially the Torah, Qu'ran & Bible. I've always thought Arabic a lovely-looking language. & seeing it with gold leaf, calligraphy & painstakingly drawn details made quite an impression. I wish I could get a tattoo in Arabic but that would probably be a bit silly. As much as I love the concept of libraries, they get kind of boring after ~5 minutes if I'm not reading so when I was done wandering around the exhibits I made my way to the British Museum. I meandered around the Chinese, Central America, Japanese, Enlightenment & various other rooms. I checked on the Egyptian mummies, too - we didn't see any in the Egyptian Museum, go figure. They are super creepy & I stayed about 4 seconds, long enough to read the description, before I was too nervous to stay touching-distance from a very lifelike dead body. Eventually I got tired of walking around & being by myself in a strange city & decided to go home. I got off the Tube at Oxford Circus & that's when I realized that I hadn't asked SE how to walk from there to the apartment. I couldn't remember how I got to the station initially because I'd gotten lost & asked about 5 people. Plus my sense of direction is nonexistent. I didn't have a map & thought the apartment was northwest of the station when it was actually northeast & didn't recognize landmarks correctly so I spent about 2 hours walking around in circles with painful shoes. I couldn't call SE & was so clueless that when he called to see if I was coming home, I mistakenly thought I was almost there & didn't ask for help so I was unnecessarily lost for another half hour. At length I found the right street & got safely home. Fortunately we had a bit of time for me to gather my wits before meeting some of his friends at an All Bar One (it's a chain) on Henrietta St.
A few glasses of champagne sorted me out nicely. We went to Bar Shu on Frith St. to meet SE's old colleague & his current girlfriend. Bar Shu is an absolutely fantastic Szechuan restaurant, better than in New York - I was so happy. We all got along very well & continued on to Milk & Honey for a drink, where another friend of SE's met us. Since it was a Friday night SE wanted to see how the London club scene was doing & off we 5 went to Paper. We got a bottle of vodka - if you think NYC clubs are bad, imagine paying the same price in £s (= 2 x $s) - & one of Kahlua so we could continue with the Black Russians. Party girls in London aren't as cute as here, but they're as persistent & freeloading. Some slags attempted to pour themselves drinks from our bottles though we didn't know them. Plus they kept trying to talk to SE & slinking away if I came within eyeshot. I've been working on my jealousy & trusting SE more, so after the initial impulse to kick their flabby asses, I found the humor in the situation. The music was pretty good, I really liked SE's friends, & vodka + Kahlua + Red Bull is a nice potent cocktail. I tend to make crazy drinks if left to my own devices, since I can't really taste alcohol unless it's about 80% of the drink. Pretty odd considering my pickiness with food tastes.
We had a great night & came home at maybe 2:30. I couldn't sleep right away & dove back into Harry Potter. SE was woken up by sobbing then & 5 hours later when I woke up ridiculously early (as usual after drinking) & was finishing the book. I must have spent a good 1/3 of it bawling, which is not necessarily because sad things happen - don't want to spoil it for anyone - but how intense & emotionally involving it is.
The next morning one of SE's college friends took us on a walking tour of Westminster which was really interesting. We did some pub-hopping afterwards, saw my friend who moved to London 2 years ago, & had a nice casual dinner at Busaba Eathai on Wardour St. Thai food is hugely popular in London. I think people see it the way we New Yorkers look at Japanese - healthy, yummy & tasty. There are Japanese restaurants but not so many as in NYC. SE & I were very tired, so we went home in the rain instead of staying out even though it was Saturday.
We took a train from Victoria Station to his parents' in Sussex - I was pretty nervous since I'd never stayed at a boyfriend's family home before. They were very sweet & I tried to be helpful. His mother made toad-in-the-hole one night because I'd read about it in a book as a kid, Dahl's Danny the Champion of the World, & never had it. Sausages baked in batter, nothin' wrong with that. SE showed me around the neighborhood, his old school, the trees he used to climb, paths he used to ride his bike on, stuff like that; really cute. I can just imagine him as a boy getting into trouble & outwitting the other kids. He also took me to Brighton, which was cool because I've read about it in lots of books. I met one of SE's childhood friends with his new wife - good example for SE - & they were delightful, plus I learned some embarrassing things about SE when he was little. I'm happy I finally have some stuff to tease him about.
Tuesday morning we went back to London for lunch with his friend who's getting married in November. SE had told me lots about her, how they went to college together, were roommates with 2 other girls & he had a crush on her for a long time so I was a little jealous but once I met her I thought she was lovely & we got along very well. Later we met one of SE's old work colleagues at Ronnie Scott's, a famous jazz club on Frith which makes amazing drinks, before dim sum at the very fancy Yauatcha on Broadwick. It was quite good, maybe the not best in the world but they did a great congee & once I spoke Chinese to the waiters they were falling all over themselves to make sure we were happy. Then one of the best parts of our London trip - we went to Stringfellows after dinner! It's a very upscale strip club & girls can get naked in London, top AND bottom! I had a dance from a wife & wife team (or so they said) & some other hotties. Plus those girls know how to work a pole, oh boy. Flashdancers except better & much hotter. We had a really good night.
The next day SE did some touristy stuff with me; we wanted to go on the London Eye but the line looked too long. The Aquarium is right there as well [see right] - they have storm troopers on the roof! There was some crazy Star Wars exhibit going on.
There was also a Dalí exhibit in the same building so they had sculptures of Dalí paintings outside.We decided to check out the London Dungeon, which looked delightfully scary. Fortunately we got a FastPass by the Aquarium & didn't have to wait too long. Now, it's quite cheesy & funny but if you're easily startled like me, it's terrifying. The actors jump out at you & wear ghoulish face paint that makes them look dead &/or severely injured so even when they're just walking around they're still awful. We learned about the Great Plague, torture techniques, the Great Fire, Sweeney Todd & Jack the Ripper. I enjoyed the real torture instruments on display but everything else was a re-creation. I was so scared that during the Sweeney Todd part, I refused to lean back in my chair as directed & missed the faux throat-slitting. Not a problem. At the end there's a "free fall" ride. After 1.5 hours of looking around nervously & getting the crap scared or startled out of me every 5 minutes I was completely demoralized, & although it was only a small drop, I screamed like a banshee. Of course they took a picture at that moment & I wish I could show you, because it's the most terrified look I've ever seen on my or anyone else's face. My eyes are popping out & my mouth is open so wide my jaw seems ready to fall off. SE recognized its comic gold & bought it, & every time we look at it we still crack up, it's so ridiculous.
SE showed me around Canary Wharf & the City (the financial area of London) after that. We rode the Docklands Light Railway & I saw bankers in their current preferred habitat. Business is increasingly flowing to the City - the dollar's weakness is really fucking NYC. I like the architecture there, especially the Gherkin, properly known as the Swiss RE building at 30 St. Mary's Axe.
We had dinner with another childhood playmate of SE's at the best kosher restaurant in the city, Bevis Marks, because the friend is converting to Orthodox Judaism. I didn't know much about kosher & just figured it would be crappy like vegetarian food, but this place was great. The Thai crispy beef salad, matzoh ball soup, lamb & salmon were all amazing. Kosherness doesn't seem to make a difference in taste, it just restricts the kinds of foods you can put together.
Thursday, our last full day, we went shopping. First Harvey Nichols, where I had a severe case of sticker shock. Everything is so much more expensive there, they think a rack of £900 ($1800) & under is "on sale." My favorite wish was a luscious pair of leather ankle boots by McQueen with python trim & a skull zipper detail (sorry, Treo takes bad pix) that I really wanted... told my footslave about them. Obviously I didn't buy anything, & got bored perambulating so I went to check on SE who had succumbed to temptation & got a $100 Evisu t-shirt. Silly boy. We then visited the eyesore that is Harrod's - clearly money doesn't buy taste. Although, it's kind of fun looking at the horrible stuff & guessing what outlandish price it is. The most disgusting part was a Dodi & Princess Diana memorial that had an unwashed wine glass from their last night & the engagement ring he got for her the day before. That thing was an utter monstrosity. It's almost the size of my fist & covered in pavé diamonds with an enormous rock in the middle. The placard underneath said this was "proof of their love." Proof of bad taste & Daddy being a billionaire, more like. I would only call that proper proof if Dodi bought it on a janitor's salary. SE was annoyed with the spurious reasoning, though his opinions are a bit skewed when it comes to jewelry & big gifts like that since he's a banker & sees colleagues make those hollow gestures all the time while cheating on their wives. I don't know - I still believe you can do nice things & mean them. We're both cynical romantics but he leans more to the cynical side than I do.Around 4 we met up with SE's college buddy who just got married (SE was best man & threw him a bachelor weekend in Krakow). He's really cool. Plus I heard some more stories about stupid or asshole things SE did, which wasn't always very comforting - I worry if he's really a changed man now - but hilarious nonetheless. We gathered more friends as we moved from bar to bar, ending up at a Wagamama. It's a yummy UK noodle chain that strongly reminds me of Republic in Union Square. SE said the one we went to was not representative of their normally high quality but I quite liked my ramen. Sadly, in America only Boston has the pleasure of Wagamamas at this point. We went to one more pub after dinner & then everyone headed home.
The next morning SE got birthday sex & I took him out to lunch & the Transformers movie. Liked the first 2 a lot. The Transformers were a little before my time & I hardly knew what they were growing up so I wasn't as into the movie as SE was. The story was also achingly stupid, but I thought the transformations were super cool & the leading ladies very yummy. That Megan Fox has a heartbreaking pair of legs. & Rachael Taylor was what I'd want to look like if I were blonde. SE was excited as a little boy & it was worth the £19.50 ($39, London is crazy!) to see that smile on his face. & that, boys & girls, was the conclusion of our grand tour.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
I've totally backslid on my resolution to party less & get more done. Well, I did get a lot done, just mostly not anything I actually needed to do. I visited my parents one weekend, which is always stressful, but it was great to watch my little siblings play tennis & hang out with them. One of my slaves - who has a serious glove fetish - took me to Sermoneta (58th & Madison) for opera-length black leather gloves... amazing. The leather is some of the softest I've ever felt. I wish I could wear them somewhere besides home. Sexy English Boyfriend & I went to the last movie of the GenArt film festival, He Was a Quiet Man. It was disturbing & thought-provoking, although a bit confusing at the end. & Elisha Cuthbert is beautiful. We liked it better than Crashing (the first GenArt movie). I partied Wednesday & Thursday with the girls, & Friday SE actually came out with me. We went to a fantastic Italian place in the East Village, Cacio e Pepe. We had the shrimp wrapped in bacon, pecorino & black pepper tonnarelli & bucatini. It was unbelievably good. Gin Lane & Cabanas at the Maritime Hotel were cool too - Lovely Blonde came with us & helped spice things up. We all danced together & after much experimentation, the best positioning seemed to be one girl on each side. Although I also really enjoyed being the middle of a SE-LB sandwich. SE & I went home kind of early after seeing LB off on her sexy little Vespa.
Saturday we celebrated a friend's birthday at Carne Vale, a churrascaria in the East Village. I really really love meat. Fashionista was being a nasty little bitch but it was great to see our other friends & meet SE's buddy visiting from London. We were supposed to stay & drink more with the birthday boy, but got invited to Scores East so the choice was clear. We joined our friends GQ Banker & Eurasian Beauty & some random people they were hanging out with whom we vaguely knew. Then came the highlight of the evening - no, the month, possibly the year! Eurasian Beauty & I got onstage! We made out, we were topless about a minute into our song & I knelt on stage & bent all the way backwards as EB simulated going down on me. Outside that I basically just did some of my hip-hop moves instead of trying to be a stripper. Oh my god it was so hot dancing with EB. After that we were so excited that we got carried away giving girls in our group lapdances. I'm surprised management didn't stop us. I still know I could never be a real stripper but it was so much fun. I'm quite an exhibitionist when I get the excuse.
Sunday was shopping & exercise-new-toys day. We were exhausted from being out super late the night before but we couldn't resist trying everything. Very very fun. :) This week has been a lot of work & partying - SE is in Poland for a stag weekend so I have to amuse myself. I've ended up hanging out with Eurasian Beauty & GQ Banker every night... GQB has been hitting on me again. He is the friend that had a crush on me first but then SE & I started dating. Friday night all our friends left first & we went to Flashdancers at 3:30 & I chatted with him & his roommate at their place for about 20 minutes before finally going home. I wasn't doing anything wrong but I know I shouldn't have been hanging out with just him. I was drunk enough that I didn't want to resist the male attention. & SE has been away 4 whole days. It is hard to behave... I guess it's good that I'm this reflective & concerned about it though. Last night I made a point of not meeting up with GQB when I could have. He was going to an afterparty at Room Service but when EB said she was going home I said me too instead of hanging out with just him again. Plus I know that I don't want to cheat on SE so I won't.
Yesterday was yet another banner day of drinking. My friend organized an East Village pub crawl, exactly like the one we did for Halloween, except this time he made it like a golf game. Each hole was a different bar with a special drink that was worth more negative points. We started around 3pm & by the time I left at 8:30 I was quite inebriated. It was really fun though. I met a very cute Asian girl & beat her at Connect Four. Also, even though I only played 7 holes I ended up about 11 under "par". I had dinner with Double Trouble & her friend at Wild Salmon, which is much better than the reviews led me to believe. I had the crab & corn chowder & then linguine with clams, both of which were really good. I guess all the liquor filled me up because I couldn't even finish my linguine! & I can eat a lot. Afterwards we went to Penthouse, my home away from home, & I saw one of the sexy strippers I met before & this time she gave me her #. She lost mine last time. Another girl took such a shine to me she got in trouble with management - she asked me to spank her but apparently we are not allowed to do that. Also she is not supposed to bite me (nicely). I saw this other girl who was so thin & sinuous & delicious I couldn't stop staring at her, but once she danced for me I could tell she had her eyes on the goal & that didn't include fooling around with me. Oh well. I started giving Double Trouble a lapdance & security was a little mad, since they'd already scolded me for doing that for the naughty stripper at her request. We were leaving anyway. Man I really love strip clubs.
I am really tired but I'm going to dance class. I have to look good when I pick up SE at the airport tomorrow... I miss him so much. I can't wait for him to come home.
Saturday we celebrated a friend's birthday at Carne Vale, a churrascaria in the East Village. I really really love meat. Fashionista was being a nasty little bitch but it was great to see our other friends & meet SE's buddy visiting from London. We were supposed to stay & drink more with the birthday boy, but got invited to Scores East so the choice was clear. We joined our friends GQ Banker & Eurasian Beauty & some random people they were hanging out with whom we vaguely knew. Then came the highlight of the evening - no, the month, possibly the year! Eurasian Beauty & I got onstage! We made out, we were topless about a minute into our song & I knelt on stage & bent all the way backwards as EB simulated going down on me. Outside that I basically just did some of my hip-hop moves instead of trying to be a stripper. Oh my god it was so hot dancing with EB. After that we were so excited that we got carried away giving girls in our group lapdances. I'm surprised management didn't stop us. I still know I could never be a real stripper but it was so much fun. I'm quite an exhibitionist when I get the excuse.
Sunday was shopping & exercise-new-toys day. We were exhausted from being out super late the night before but we couldn't resist trying everything. Very very fun. :) This week has been a lot of work & partying - SE is in Poland for a stag weekend so I have to amuse myself. I've ended up hanging out with Eurasian Beauty & GQ Banker every night... GQB has been hitting on me again. He is the friend that had a crush on me first but then SE & I started dating. Friday night all our friends left first & we went to Flashdancers at 3:30 & I chatted with him & his roommate at their place for about 20 minutes before finally going home. I wasn't doing anything wrong but I know I shouldn't have been hanging out with just him. I was drunk enough that I didn't want to resist the male attention. & SE has been away 4 whole days. It is hard to behave... I guess it's good that I'm this reflective & concerned about it though. Last night I made a point of not meeting up with GQB when I could have. He was going to an afterparty at Room Service but when EB said she was going home I said me too instead of hanging out with just him again. Plus I know that I don't want to cheat on SE so I won't.
Yesterday was yet another banner day of drinking. My friend organized an East Village pub crawl, exactly like the one we did for Halloween, except this time he made it like a golf game. Each hole was a different bar with a special drink that was worth more negative points. We started around 3pm & by the time I left at 8:30 I was quite inebriated. It was really fun though. I met a very cute Asian girl & beat her at Connect Four. Also, even though I only played 7 holes I ended up about 11 under "par". I had dinner with Double Trouble & her friend at Wild Salmon, which is much better than the reviews led me to believe. I had the crab & corn chowder & then linguine with clams, both of which were really good. I guess all the liquor filled me up because I couldn't even finish my linguine! & I can eat a lot. Afterwards we went to Penthouse, my home away from home, & I saw one of the sexy strippers I met before & this time she gave me her #. She lost mine last time. Another girl took such a shine to me she got in trouble with management - she asked me to spank her but apparently we are not allowed to do that. Also she is not supposed to bite me (nicely). I saw this other girl who was so thin & sinuous & delicious I couldn't stop staring at her, but once she danced for me I could tell she had her eyes on the goal & that didn't include fooling around with me. Oh well. I started giving Double Trouble a lapdance & security was a little mad, since they'd already scolded me for doing that for the naughty stripper at her request. We were leaving anyway. Man I really love strip clubs.
I am really tired but I'm going to dance class. I have to look good when I pick up SE at the airport tomorrow... I miss him so much. I can't wait for him to come home.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Bogotá restaurant scene review
Auntie was really happy to have someone to go out with, so I had some fun trying different restaurants with her. There's La Fragata, which revolves at the top of the Bogotá Royal Hotel. Its specialty is seafood & everything was pretty good, although a bit too sweet for me. I think that is just the taste here though, as well as too salty. The service was perfectly Old World & luxurious. I also liked my veal Milanese at the Hotel Cosmo the next night.
There is an area called the Zona Rosa, where young people hang out at night. Lots of fancy places there. We tried Pesquera Jaramillo, Cabala, Habana Mamma's, & Salto de Ángel, all of which were very good. I had Argentinean cuts of steak - punta de anca & bife de chorizo - at the first two, which don't seem to be available in the States. Fantastic. Habana Mamma's was Cuban, as one would expect, & pretty good although again a bit sweet. At Salto de Ángel I was introduced to the joys of baby beef, which is not veal but about that tender. They don't skimp with their portions either. Every steak I got was massive.
There is a national craze for crepes here, so we went to this chain Crepes & Waffles. I did not much like my crepe the first time, which was too sweet, & the prosciutto was weird, but the second time was better & they make the most amazingly yummy sundaes & mini-waffles. I discovered this scrumptious substance called arequipe which is milk & caramel made into a sauce, & super deliciosa. Oooh & there is this powdery candy made of arequipe plus Pop Rocks-type stuff which is incredibly good. It's called Quipitos Pops! & I really hope it's already being imported here because I haven't the foggiest idea how to get that done.
Astrid y Gastón is an ultra-fancy Peruvian restaurant in a converted mansion. I really liked it. I decided to be adventurous & try some new things, so I asked the waiter to recommend dishes instead of going for what I know I like. I ended up with a very generous ceviche appetizer & a surprisingly filling little seared tuna entrée. For my cousin's wife's birthday, Auntie & I took her to Tramonti, which is on a hill overlooking Bogotá. It's a great view & the food is quite good too. I had an arequipe napoleon for dessert which was heavenly.
Andrés Carne de Res is a really fun restaurant in some city or district called Chia. I have to say, it was the highlight of my trip. I love steak as we all know, & I had a great big slab of it in the form of chuleton. The place itself was the draw though - it's clearly intended for young people & the whole setup is so happy that it made me laugh out loud in delight just looking around sometimes. Then at night it turns into a disco! I didn't dance the way I do in New York clubs but I had tons of fun. Also, their mojitos come in large bowls which could probably hold the contents of two cocktail glasses.
So, to sum up - Bogotá food is generally too sweet &/or salty, there are some fine restaurants though tastes are quite different from in NYC, & the desserts are fantastic. I can't say I'd advise anyone to make the trip for just the food, except maybe Andrés Carne de Res for sheer good fun.
There is an area called the Zona Rosa, where young people hang out at night. Lots of fancy places there. We tried Pesquera Jaramillo, Cabala, Habana Mamma's, & Salto de Ángel, all of which were very good. I had Argentinean cuts of steak - punta de anca & bife de chorizo - at the first two, which don't seem to be available in the States. Fantastic. Habana Mamma's was Cuban, as one would expect, & pretty good although again a bit sweet. At Salto de Ángel I was introduced to the joys of baby beef, which is not veal but about that tender. They don't skimp with their portions either. Every steak I got was massive.
There is a national craze for crepes here, so we went to this chain Crepes & Waffles. I did not much like my crepe the first time, which was too sweet, & the prosciutto was weird, but the second time was better & they make the most amazingly yummy sundaes & mini-waffles. I discovered this scrumptious substance called arequipe which is milk & caramel made into a sauce, & super deliciosa. Oooh & there is this powdery candy made of arequipe plus Pop Rocks-type stuff which is incredibly good. It's called Quipitos Pops! & I really hope it's already being imported here because I haven't the foggiest idea how to get that done.
Astrid y Gastón is an ultra-fancy Peruvian restaurant in a converted mansion. I really liked it. I decided to be adventurous & try some new things, so I asked the waiter to recommend dishes instead of going for what I know I like. I ended up with a very generous ceviche appetizer & a surprisingly filling little seared tuna entrée. For my cousin's wife's birthday, Auntie & I took her to Tramonti, which is on a hill overlooking Bogotá. It's a great view & the food is quite good too. I had an arequipe napoleon for dessert which was heavenly.
Andrés Carne de Res is a really fun restaurant in some city or district called Chia. I have to say, it was the highlight of my trip. I love steak as we all know, & I had a great big slab of it in the form of chuleton. The place itself was the draw though - it's clearly intended for young people & the whole setup is so happy that it made me laugh out loud in delight just looking around sometimes. Then at night it turns into a disco! I didn't dance the way I do in New York clubs but I had tons of fun. Also, their mojitos come in large bowls which could probably hold the contents of two cocktail glasses.
So, to sum up - Bogotá food is generally too sweet &/or salty, there are some fine restaurants though tastes are quite different from in NYC, & the desserts are fantastic. I can't say I'd advise anyone to make the trip for just the food, except maybe Andrés Carne de Res for sheer good fun.
Bogotá, Colombia: 6/10
My assessment may not be quite fair, since I spent the three weeks with my very old-fashioned auntie who only speaks Chinese & heavily accented Spanish, so it's not as though we were out tearing up the town. In any case, my impression is that a great deal of Bogotá is dirty, poor & conducive to crime. There are also some very nice areas with lovely restaurants as well (see separate post), & everything is tons cheaper than in the States. Auntie doesn't have a car so we spent a lot of time in cabs. We'd ride somewhere for twenty minutes & the fare would be, say, 8000 pesos, which is a little over $3.50. In NYC that is the base fare when you get in the cab at certain times! The exchange rate took some getting used to - it's supposed to be 2320 pesos to $1, but the effective rate is about 2200, & price tags of $100,000 never quite stopped being a shock (they use the symbol $, I don't know why).
Auntie is very upset about her soon-to-be ex-husband, which will be her first breakup ever. They were together for almost thirty years, so you can imagine how traumatic it is for her. I spent most of my time cheering her up & telling her about my dating experience in an attempt to bring her up to speed with the rest of the world. The poor woman is so sheltered in that respect. Also, I worked on my Chinese & Spanish - my family barely spoke Chinese while I was growing up, so this was a great opportunity to expand my vocabulary from mainly food-ordering words. It was kind of bewildering because I went from comfortably speaking English all the time to being forced to think of words in two languages I'm not very familiar with. Good for me though. I met a cousin I didn't know I had, too. My maternal grandfather apparently had three kids with his first wife before making five with my grandmother, & this cousin is the son of one of those first kids. It's really weird because he's almost as old as my parents, & his children are exactly my siblings' ages. I feel like they should be my cousins instead of second cousins or whatever. Anyway, I love kids so it was fun playing with them & getting them to like me.
I have to express my admiration for the Colombian bus & train system. I wasn't allowed to go on it, as a pretty young foreigner, but it looks really organized & modern. The buses are called TransMilenios - they have their own lane on the highways as well as pedestrian bridges. They seem to run on a pretty frequent schedule too. The trains come aboveground at each stop & then disappear back under the highway in between. Someone did a wonderful job designing the whole system. I wish that could work here in NYC - trudging up & down the stairs to the subway takes a lot of energy. & the buses cause so much traffic.
The people of Bogotá seem fairly friendly, although sometimes I wished the men would back off a little. Overall nothing bad happened, though. No one tried to steal my purse, my pinky with its new emerald ring is still attached to my hand (despite dire predictions of amputation if I wore my rings), & other than strange men trying to talk to me I was not bothered in any way. It's a funny story behind the ring - Auntie is very superstitious, & insisted that I needed to protect my "fortune" by wearing it. I have a ring at home I could wear but she insisted I needed a new one, & who am I to argue with more jewelry. :) We got a small emerald since that's the major gemstone in Colombia, & it's very delicate & pretty. Auntie also bought me an outfit & if she'd had her way I would have come home with the contents of at least one mall as well. She's really sweet - I got bored at times, but I did my best to be there for her & help her not think about how much of a pig her husband is being. I won't go into detail, but he's done everything awful short of murder, & my aunt slaved away for thirty years making his life as smooth & pleasant as possible while working & taking care of their kids. A little depressing to contemplate.
Bogotá seems to be a little slow in adopting some aspects of modern technology, which is most glaringly obvious in the cars. I did not see one single car, new or old, with automatic windows the whole time, & we took anywhere from one to five cabs a day, so I had a more than sufficient sample to observe. I can't think of a single reason roll-down windows would be popular compared to power ones so I found it very puzzling. Most cars are stick shift as well, which is also a head-scratcher since traffic is really awful most of the time. My understanding is that automatic was developed to cut down on gas consumption & driver effort in those situations. Gas is only slightly cheaper than in the States, even though Colombia is much closer to Venezuela.
We went sightseeing in the country one Sunday. It's really rural right outside the city, with cows & everything. Actually you can find them in the city too, but not so much. It's bizarre to drive by cows grazing peacefully on the shoulder, I'll tell you that. Anyway we went to this Catedral de Sal, which apparently is one of the new manmade wonders of the world. I wasn't impressed by a bunch of giant crosses & prie-dieus carved out of salt in a giant salt mine, but then I'm an atheist & I've never liked the simpering style which seems to be de rigeur for angels. But it was certainly a massive mine & a great many people spent a lot of time hollowing it out in slightly interesting ways.
Bogotá drivers are absolutely frightening. I can't count how many times I gasped in horror, sure that we would crash. People think nothing of cutting each other off & darting in & out of tiny spaces, which would probably earn a shooting in America. I guess they're just much braver - I was scared to death a great deal of the time though. & what is up with the bathrooms generally having no toilet paper? I don't know how mens' rooms work but we ladies need paper! I would say 50% of the places did not provide. It was really puzzling, & don't say bidet because there weren't any either. I suppose they expect women to have fully stocked purses.
I probably would have liked Bogotá better under other circumstances, & I will say that the weather is pretty mild & it is a rather pretty city in aerial view, with lots of history.
Auntie is very upset about her soon-to-be ex-husband, which will be her first breakup ever. They were together for almost thirty years, so you can imagine how traumatic it is for her. I spent most of my time cheering her up & telling her about my dating experience in an attempt to bring her up to speed with the rest of the world. The poor woman is so sheltered in that respect. Also, I worked on my Chinese & Spanish - my family barely spoke Chinese while I was growing up, so this was a great opportunity to expand my vocabulary from mainly food-ordering words. It was kind of bewildering because I went from comfortably speaking English all the time to being forced to think of words in two languages I'm not very familiar with. Good for me though. I met a cousin I didn't know I had, too. My maternal grandfather apparently had three kids with his first wife before making five with my grandmother, & this cousin is the son of one of those first kids. It's really weird because he's almost as old as my parents, & his children are exactly my siblings' ages. I feel like they should be my cousins instead of second cousins or whatever. Anyway, I love kids so it was fun playing with them & getting them to like me.
I have to express my admiration for the Colombian bus & train system. I wasn't allowed to go on it, as a pretty young foreigner, but it looks really organized & modern. The buses are called TransMilenios - they have their own lane on the highways as well as pedestrian bridges. They seem to run on a pretty frequent schedule too. The trains come aboveground at each stop & then disappear back under the highway in between. Someone did a wonderful job designing the whole system. I wish that could work here in NYC - trudging up & down the stairs to the subway takes a lot of energy. & the buses cause so much traffic.
The people of Bogotá seem fairly friendly, although sometimes I wished the men would back off a little. Overall nothing bad happened, though. No one tried to steal my purse, my pinky with its new emerald ring is still attached to my hand (despite dire predictions of amputation if I wore my rings), & other than strange men trying to talk to me I was not bothered in any way. It's a funny story behind the ring - Auntie is very superstitious, & insisted that I needed to protect my "fortune" by wearing it. I have a ring at home I could wear but she insisted I needed a new one, & who am I to argue with more jewelry. :) We got a small emerald since that's the major gemstone in Colombia, & it's very delicate & pretty. Auntie also bought me an outfit & if she'd had her way I would have come home with the contents of at least one mall as well. She's really sweet - I got bored at times, but I did my best to be there for her & help her not think about how much of a pig her husband is being. I won't go into detail, but he's done everything awful short of murder, & my aunt slaved away for thirty years making his life as smooth & pleasant as possible while working & taking care of their kids. A little depressing to contemplate.
Bogotá seems to be a little slow in adopting some aspects of modern technology, which is most glaringly obvious in the cars. I did not see one single car, new or old, with automatic windows the whole time, & we took anywhere from one to five cabs a day, so I had a more than sufficient sample to observe. I can't think of a single reason roll-down windows would be popular compared to power ones so I found it very puzzling. Most cars are stick shift as well, which is also a head-scratcher since traffic is really awful most of the time. My understanding is that automatic was developed to cut down on gas consumption & driver effort in those situations. Gas is only slightly cheaper than in the States, even though Colombia is much closer to Venezuela.
We went sightseeing in the country one Sunday. It's really rural right outside the city, with cows & everything. Actually you can find them in the city too, but not so much. It's bizarre to drive by cows grazing peacefully on the shoulder, I'll tell you that. Anyway we went to this Catedral de Sal, which apparently is one of the new manmade wonders of the world. I wasn't impressed by a bunch of giant crosses & prie-dieus carved out of salt in a giant salt mine, but then I'm an atheist & I've never liked the simpering style which seems to be de rigeur for angels. But it was certainly a massive mine & a great many people spent a lot of time hollowing it out in slightly interesting ways.
Bogotá drivers are absolutely frightening. I can't count how many times I gasped in horror, sure that we would crash. People think nothing of cutting each other off & darting in & out of tiny spaces, which would probably earn a shooting in America. I guess they're just much braver - I was scared to death a great deal of the time though. & what is up with the bathrooms generally having no toilet paper? I don't know how mens' rooms work but we ladies need paper! I would say 50% of the places did not provide. It was really puzzling, & don't say bidet because there weren't any either. I suppose they expect women to have fully stocked purses.
I probably would have liked Bogotá better under other circumstances, & I will say that the weather is pretty mild & it is a rather pretty city in aerial view, with lots of history.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Aruba: 6/10
I have returned safely... Aruba's too hot & humid though. The mosquitos bit me unmercifully, & the whole place looks like a ghetto. On the plus side, the beaches are gorgeous white sand, the cliffs overlooking the water are made of fascinatingly eroded rock, & the ocean is a very lovely shade of blue. I don't see why people make such a big fuss about it, although I think my opinion might be colored by my family's constant sniping at each other & complaining about everything. The best part was hanging out with my siblings. They're a little more grown-up now, so I can connect with them about more stuff, & I got to play tennis with them every day that my ankle didn't hurt. (It started giving me trouble in dance class a week before I left & only healed after 2 weeks of total rest.) I also finished 7.5 books. So I guess I had an ok time. But I'm very glad to be back.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
I'm back
I have safely returned from my family's clutches... finally got to play tennis today. Hopefully Brooklyn Hottie - or someone at all - & I can find time to play here too. I'm exhausted after the tennis & 2 hours (conditioning & dance) at the gym, so I'll post more later. It's good to be in civilization again!
Friday, November 24, 2006
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