Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Monday, August 17, 2015

New York: The first weekend...

The flight over the pond was fairly smooth and we got to Manhattan fairly easily. Eight of us (Tim, Andy, Michael, Andrew, Andy, Kev, Stu and me) were staying in a fairly basic AirBNB in midtown E59th St and Darren, Vince, Mark, Chris and Hudd were on Lexington in the New York W Hotel. Mark's current squeeze Steve would be joining us the following day. 

We went out for a fairly humdrum Italian meal shortly after arriving and then headed home for some well earned kip. Michael and Andrew were on a later flight and Mr Ruffet who was feeling slightly under the weather had stayed in the apartment to let them in. We were all pretty knackered to be honest.  

On the Saturday we all met up for an organic brekkie on 7th Avenue before taking a wander through Central Park. We stopped at the John Lennon memorial and then the Loeb Boathouse for a beer. The weather was gorgeous. 

Then we walked down to the Rockerfeller Center and purchased tickets to go Up The Rock. There was a hour or two to wait for our time slot to we went for an open air lunch - burgers and a beer. Of course we were all caught out by the American chips = British crisps blunder. 

The view from The Rock was, as ever, amazing. 

We then went for a disco nap before everyone came round for beers and pizza on our roof terrace. It was great fun to be in the open air on a hot sultry Satuday night in Manhattan. New York playlist in the background. 

Later on we got cabs down to The Eagle to finish the night off - the way you do. 

On Sunday we went to a nearby diner for a ridiculously large breakfast - do Americans actually serve small breakfasts?  Then we took cabs to the High Line and walked its length from near Penn Station meeting up with Darren and Vince towards the southern end. It was a fun thing to do and we continued walking afterwards which took us way down into Greenwich Village. 

After a trip to pay homage to the Stonewall Inn followed by a few beers and nachos in a nearby bar we were ready for home to get into our glad rags for Darren's 50th birthday meal. The reason for our trip!

The venue was the Ace Hotel which had set aside a private area just for us. The drinks flowed and the food (so much of it and so delicious) as brought forth. It was lovely to sit next to Darren and help him see in his birthday. Bless. We had five doggies big bags to take home with us. 

Afterwards we went for one for the road at the boys' hotel before hitting the sack.  Exhausting but lovely day. 

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