Jun 2005

Well before I get all reflective i will start with a run down of the past week!
After the ridiculous weekend of binge drinking and spending way too much money I headed to work on monday!Monday evening I went for dinner with Paige at this little place on 'Restaurant Row', I saw the 'Ha' Comedy Club that me and Katrina had gone too last year!!!We headed up to Bryant Park where it was the opening evening of the al fresco film showings that they hold throughout the summer!Tonight it was "The Way We Were" (That film totally reminds me of Sex and The City"!) As the movie began the crowd went crazy!cheering, dancing, arms waving in the air, it was insane, I loved it!Then grabbed some Tasty-D-Lite on the way home!!!
Tuesday saw my last day at Rebecca Taylor, its been great, Ive learnt a lot and I have established that the New York Fashion industry is where Im supposed to be in life, as much as I love the underground diversity of London fashion, when I graduate I will 100% be making that big transatlantic move over to the Big Apple.Rebecca and Zac have put me in contact with the chief designer over in Tokyo for the Japan line so Im looking forward to meeting up with her when I get there! We celebrated my leaving that night by Me, Kristena and Nichla going to Little Italy for dinner followed of course by Tirimisu from Ferrera!
Now work is over Im starting to feel sad even though I have a good few days to do exciting things in the city, It was hard enough the last time around that I left but now I have met even more amazing people and Im just so attatched to both the lifestyle and industry over here.Anyway I wont dwell...In 2 weeks time I will have experienced to new places on 2 totally different continents, now that is an exciting thought!!!!So while I wont get all nostalgic I shall tell you about wednesday....Met up with Kirstena and we went to see the Chanel exhibition at the Met, which was fantastic, they had so much stuff!!!Really cool exhibit!My addiction to buying art and design books kicked in and Kristena had to restrain me in the bookshop!She reminded me that I have to carry my backpack around Asia for the next couple of months and not to be so ridiculous!So I shall be ordering it on Amazon so its at home waiting for me when I get back!Grabbed some Ice cream on Park Avenue before Kristena headed to work and I ventured to Brooklyn Bridge again!Somehow I found myself in Strand bookstore again, lucky as a huge thunderstorm errupted!!!!
Wednesday evening continued to be exciting!Went to Nichla's apartment for a while before we headed to Magnolia Bakery where we spotted Patricia Field (crazy, quirky stylist and designer!) we sat and ate our cupcakes before finally going to 'Trailer Park Lounge' which Ive wanted to go to for ages!Its a trailer trash themed bar with Elvis Memorabilia, trinkets, neon, fairylights!It was sooooooo cool, its really inspired me for an upcoming project!Its my favourite place in the world!Had an incident that night, homeless guy sprawled out in the porch so couldnt get in the apartment block, luckily sexy Tom from upstairs was coming home so he helped me in, i loved it!
Thursday I had to say farewell to my good friend Emma....we went for lunch at New Star Cafe, same place we went to the last time we said goodbye!Im going to miss her a lot!Also Ive met her daughter Pamela now and she couldnt make it to the lunch so I guess Ill have to see her next time im in New York!I hate goodbyes!Spent the day wandering around Times Square and reading Tennesse Williams in Central Park! Thursday Evening was once again another farewell, met Karen at Blockheads for our final Margaritas and Nachos and she gave me a thie cute little frizzy haired doll to wish me good luck on my travels!!!!
Friday!!!My last Day in NYC, I cant handle it, I dont want to leave!Today was one of those rubbish days spent running around, going to the Laundrymat (which was strangley full of Drag Queens today!), doing last minute shopping, trying to pack...............Tonight however was amazing...we all went out....Me, Paige,Nichla, Frank and all of his friends!we went to the Alphabet Lounge to see his mates band and then continued to bar hop and get very drunk!!!Im going to miss Frank soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much, actually Im going to miss everyone and everything but lets not get silly here...... Ill be back asap!Bring on California!!!!!!!!!!

Oh my God...I sont know where to start...this week has been crazy....
I guess I shall start at the beginning.....
So firstly, last Sunday Paige took me to The Chelsea Flea Market which was really cool, lots of vintage clothing, antique jewellery, amazing furniture....we then went to this really nice place and had a cup of their famour Cold Hot Chocolate...its actually made from melted Belgian chocolate, it was divine!Spent some time in Tompkins Square which was having some sort of film festival thing where there was free beer and food, before we had a look at the Flatiron building!
Monday I had an unbelievable suprise.....I got a phonecall whilst at work....It was Andy saying him and Louise are in New York!!!So Plans were made for that evening and I introduced them to Blockheads!was great to catch up over Tequila!
Tuesday was a corker, ended up in this ridiculous Irish bar for a few wich wasnt so great....until later that evening, I had a hell of a rendezvous. To cut the story short....me in Strawberry Shortcake pajamas....1am...cigarette...Graham Norton!Couldnt believe my eyes!
Thursday was craziness....ended up back at the Strand bookstore off Union square...come on that place has 18 miles of books, managed to get a whole Tenesse Williams Collection for $2!!!I then went to gaze at the Empire State bulding once again before heading home to get ready for the evening ahead!!!

Well the delights of the night-time expoits...Me Nichla, Andy and Louise all met up at this Tex-Mex diner which had ridiculously big margaritas....we were all drunk off one!It was just a ludicris chain of events, Andy burnt his lip on the fork, Nichla was an hour late and went into the wrong place, made the mistake of having 2 of these industrial strength cocktails....so funny! We then got into a taxi where the driver appeared to be opperating a sex line from incide his cab so this brought on fits of laughter and eventually we made it to the meatpacking district!!!Following this we walked for miles and ended up in a really nice bar called 'Lift', quiet with a few seats outside, had a few drinks then noticed we were more or less right under the Chrystler Building so the views were amazing!After hours of chatting and giggling we had to leave when they took the chairs away!

Made it home around 4.30am , so much for a quiet night and woke up the following morning with the hangover from Hell!!!Paige was quick to make me get ready for the day ahead after force-feeding me a slice of 'Rays Pizza' and we headed on the almighty ride to the 'Cloisters Museum' in Washington Heights. Was worth the trek and Im glad I managed to be prised from my bed!Its an old monastry set in Fort Tyron Park,with lovely views of the Hudson River, it was really great!Decided to get the bus back and trust me this bus went EVERYWHERE which gave me a chance to see a lot of stuff I had never seen, Im more of a Downtown girl so I finally got to see Harlem, Columbia.......

Last night was once again a chain of events....arranged to meet Nichla for dinner in Little Italy, we ended up at this amazing place called 'Il Piccolo Buffalo' on Mulberry Street which had the most amazing stone oven pizza I have ever had in my life!Andy and Louise rang so they came to meet us and we all went for Tiramisu at 'Ferrera'!!From there Paige had invited us to a party at the 'White Horse Tavern' which was a shady little establishment full of cute Frat boys! It was a good night!!!
Today was really exciting! Decided to head up the the Malcolm Shabazz African Market in Harlem which was a lot of fun, amazing jewellery, clothes, drums!Loved it!Took a stroll into Spanish Harlem which was really interesting, a lot of kind of 'Hang Out' areas decorated with dolls in the trees, toys, mannequins, all very creative!From there we were in need of sugar so headed down to Magnolia Bakery...I just love the cupcakes from there!!!!Oh yeah and saw Carrie from Sex and the Citys' house!!!All in all exciting day!

Well after a super busy week of working, partying and too much socialising me and Paige decided to be tourists for the day and leave the Island......Our first adventure was to board the Staten Island Ferry as in her 2 years living here Paige has never actually been on it or see the Statue of Liberty close up!A weird toilet situation on board...note Eastern European Elderly lady washing her feet in the sink as she sold homemade jewellery...very surreal!Following this we headed to Brooklyn as Paige is soon going to be moving here so we figured it would be fun to explore the area!!!I had read about Greenwood Cemetery Brooklyn, didnt know a great deal about it but it turned out to be quite a treasure!This place was huge and incredibly beautiful!We got given a little map and it was great, all these little avenues and pathways, really amazing!Cant believe more people dont go here!!!It was very peaceful and a nice break from the hustle and bustle of the city, it was just such a suprise to find this place!
Following this we went up to Prospect Park which it turned out was hosting Brooklyn Gay Pride so it was all a bit crazy, lots of sparkly drag queens, al fresco BBQs , stageshows,and a lot of cute handbag dogs!We took a walk around the area and there are so many cool houses around there...I fell in love with this Wizard of Oz house, it was painted purple, had a yellow brick road, lots of cool signs up about ruby slippers and munchkins....I want that house!We went to a couple of great vintage stores one of which is called 'Olive's Very Vintage', had lots of pretty things!
Tonight was ended with a couple of much needed Gin and Tonics!!!
Prior to my exciting day Ive had quite an eventful week....work has been busy, kind of exhausting but exhilerating at the same time, Im really enjoying it and its fantastic to work with such energetic people, its a lot of fun!Me and Kristena from work have sampled just about every food place in the vicinity on our extended lunches!!!!
Been out with Karen a couple of times this week, found a great place called 'Blockheads' with extremely cheap frozen maragritas and gorgeous nachos!Plus me and Paige are still on our mission to sample as many bars as possible in the search of eligable bachelors and free drinks!!!Friday afternoon we went to the MoMa which was really great, some wonderful exhibitions on, I so want this perspex chair with plastic flowers inlaid, and its free on fridays!
Anyway sleep is calling me...........

Well, to bring you up to date as to what has been happening this past week......
The remainder of my weekend and Memorial Day was spent strolling around Wall Street, seeing the New York Stock Exchange, Federal Hall....Made another visit to the World Trade Centre, for some reason this time it seemed a lost more vast from what I remember. After walking around Battery Park and being suitably harrassed by a guy called Norman I took a stroll and found myself in a place called Veteran Square, only a tiny place but there was a lot of vietnam veterans paying their respects, singing, all in military uniform which was interesting to see with it being Memorial Day.

Started back at work on Tuesday which was like going back in time!!!!This time around they have moved to a super big, impressive studio, its pretty amazing!!!Was nice to see all the familiar faces and have a good catch up with everyone and hear all the gossip!!!I mean its all about the gossip isnt it?!?!?Theres a few new people aswell some of which are pretty crazy so Im looking forward to getting back in there and doing some seriously hard work!
So this past week has been pretty intense at work but Im loving every minute!Its so good to be doing something I love everyday of my life, those months of working in a tedious and uncreative, job to fund this big trip are totally paying off now!!!!!Its totally puts everything into perspective!!!!So work is going great, my evenings have been spent trying to experience as many bars in NYC as I can, going out for dinner to some great places and enjoying pizza and trashy TV with my housemates Paige and Taos!Im having the most amazing time!!!!Did some serious shopping yesterday which was a lot of fun, probably not so great for the backpacking budget which is yet to kick in....Im figuring that I wont start thinking about it till I reach Asia...naughty!
Today was a very random day!!!Finally got to make it to Coney Island!Last time round it was winter and people said it was kinda shady in the off season but today i eventually got to go!Stillwell station had recently reopened in the past couple of days and as the weather was amazing today it was destined to be reaaaaallly busy!Had a great time, we went to the fair, saw the freakshow.......

After this we walked up to Brighton Beach which was really cool, it has a really strong Russian Community so theres all these amazing Russian Restaurants and little old ladies on deckchairs!I loved it!
After the long trek back all the way through Brookyln to Midtown me and Taos went out to a really quirky chinese place and the food was gorgeous!!!
Tonight Paige took me for Martinis at the 'Hudson Hotel', it was so beautiful, all designed by Philip Stark, it was amazing!We sat on these big stone seats amongst lanterns and twinkly lights and enjoyed lycee and mango martinis!Shockingly expensive but well worth it!!!!Back to work tomorrow.......