Gramercy Tavern... Then Snow

Friday night was amazing, we had spent the day recovering from our bourbon and French dinner and Marg had somehow used her Aussie accent to weasle our way into one of Manhattan's most exclusive resturants, Gramercy Tavern.

We headed in early to grab a drink first and found a great place called Flutes that specialised in champagne. We each tried a round the world tasting plate with three different champagnes and it was acompanied by a brilliant strawberries and cream dish.

We waddled over to the resturant for dinner and ate ourselves stupid. The food was brilliant with more than 6 dishes each. Afterward we headed back home in a New York cab. We will be paying off the dinner for the next 20 years but the memory should last nearly as long.

This morning we woke up to snow falling and bacon and egg bagels. Fantastic

So far this morning we're watching the Simpsons and doing not much while we wait for the new years eve parties to roll on.

Foie Gras, Bourbon and Pizza

Thursday night the three of us headed out to a local French resturant called 'Fada'. We had our first tast of Foie Gras (that means a lot to Iron Chef freaks like us). It was ... OK.
Afterwards we headed out for some drinks at another trendy local bar.

After more drinks, and some more drinks we decided it would be a great idea to grab some oversized New York pizza slices.

The Pizza was a great idea but didn't stop us from having a Lazy day the next day.

Central Park...

Wednesday we headed into Central Park. I wanted to sneak into the Park Plaza but it was closed for renovations - scaffolding seems to be a theme in our travels...

Central Park is amazing. We wondered around the lake which we had watched King Kong skate across earlier in the week and climbed over the Alice in Wonderland sculpture.

After a visit to the Central Park Zoo we then headed to the Guggenheim Museum and guess what? More scaffolding!

Never mind, a sticky beak at the Scientology Celebrity Centre made up for it. (But no sign of Tom and Katie)

The Local

Mikey introduced us to his local in Brooklyn last night - 'Iona's'

It is a cozy little bar full of interesting characters and a very talented pianist - they even played 'New York, New York!'

Sooo much shopping!

Last night Mikey took us to a cool local bar (full of puppies - what the?) and then we headed out for a fabulous Thai dinner. Brooklyn rocks!

Today we really hit the post-Christmas sales. Mikey had to work so Wes and I went into Manhatten and bought 4 pairs of shoes, jeans, makeup, tops, shirts - you name it we bought it!

God love the pound!

Merry Christmas!!

The day before Christmas Eve we headed into Times Square. For some reason we thought heading into the most populated area in New York a couple of days before Christmas was a good idea... Toys r Us was amazing - they have a ferris wheel in the store! After getting a bit claustrophobic we decided to head home.

That night Mikey invited a few of his friends over and we ate and drank the night away while playing Cranium...

On Christmas Eve during the day we headed into Macy's to have our photo taken with Santa for Mum and had a ball visiting 'Santa Land'.

On Christmas Eve night, Zoe came over and the plan was to have a big dinner but we filled up on picks and booze so decided to save the food till Christmas Day! We headed up onto the roof of Mikeys apartment building to take in the views of the New York skyline...Wow.

I went to bed nice and early so I wouldn't be tired for Christmas Day and of course Mikey and Wes were up to the wee hours of the morning. Wes tried to wake Mikey up and tell him to go to bed but to no avail. At about 6am I awoke to a 'bang' and a '@#%&!'. 'Santa?' I thought? No - just Mikey trying to get to bed...

Anyway, Christmas morning we all woke up and excitedly opened up all our pressies! Mum (god love her) had spent months making the three of us custom made Christmas stockings crammed full of fabulous gifts including leggo which we were all very exited about. The blow up kangaroo who we have named 'Gary' was also a bit hit!

So in true Christmas tradition we ate and drank ourselves stupid and then hit the couches for some lollies and DVD time. Unfortunately no snow for us - the weather here has actually been unseasonable hot! (8 degrees)

We all miss our families so much at this time of year - I think no matter were we are next year we will be coming home for Christmas! But for now our focus is the post-Christmas sales in NYC - boo ya!

London - Paris - NEW YORK!

What a crazy 48 hours.
We started by leaving London and heading for Paris where we spent 3 hours before heading to New York.

Paris (well, the airport anyway) was cool, we had a bagette each and did our best to avoid the smokers. We borded our plane and headed for New York.

The flights were OK though at one stage it did sound like someone was tourturing a small child for a good porion of the trip to NY.

We arrived at JFK and gave Mikey a call to let him know we were here before grabbing a cab and heading into Brooklyn.
Mikey's appartment is amazing, it has 18 foot ceilings views of the Empire State Building.

Today we went into the east villiage for some brunch then in to the city to shop, shop, shop! We went right into Times Square, Macy's and Toys R US.

More to come soon, I am going to pass out now..

Some Frank Sinatra Song

Well we are off to NEW YORK now to spend Christmas and New Year with Mikey.

We've only packed 1 bag to take with us and plan on filling another with shopping whilst we are there. New wardrobe here we come.

This will be my first trip to the US and I am sure to be grilled on the way in while Margie the US citzen will cruise on by and probably be given popcorn to watch my cavity search (sorry for the mental image there).

Anyway better finish packing.

We are sure to have lots to update the blog with over the next 17 days so keep coming back to see what we're up to.

Move over Michael Usher...

Go Jodes!
(P.S Remember us when you're famous :)

The party season is here!

Well... last week the work Christmas parties were in full swing!

Mine consisted of two parties - one at a Salsa club and another at a club in Kings Road which was a 'Heaven and Hell' fancy dress...

Wes' work crew had the classic long lunch followed by many, many, many beers at a local pub. These photos show his brand new candy thong.. (thanks Secret Santa)

Hope you are all enjoying the silly season too.

xx