Lizzie and Scott

09 December 2024

Just for something completely different today, we walked to the Museum of Modern Art in downtown Manhattan. I have to say, art is really not my thing. I certainly appreciate the talent of the artists who can take a blank canvass and create something, but at the end of the day I just don't "get it".

Lizzie enjoyed it though, so that it the main thing!

We saw Monet's waterlilies - and I was entirely underwhelmed (have you noticed you can be underwhelmed, even overwhelmed, but you never hear anyone say "I was whelmed"?). We even say Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe portrait, and of course his famous soup cans. Again - I wasn't impressed.
There was even some "art" that was nothing more than a couple of old strips of wallpaper that had been removed from a wall somewhere, and stuck up on the museum wall!

But the one that really took the cake was a display that consisted of two square shaped canvasses, each about 2 metres square, placed side by side on the wall. One was painted blue, the other white. That's all - no designs painted on them, just block colours of blue and white. As I walked past them, there was an older couple looking at them and the woman was raving about them to her husband - "Oh, aren't they spectacular! How beautiful!"

I don't know what drugs she took prior to going to the museum, but it seemed like she was on the trip of a lifetime!

From here, we wandered back home and spent the afternoon washing and tidying up, followed by another evening of; you guessed it; Hallmark movies!

10 December 2024

A lazy morning today for us. Steady rain outside, so neither of us had any desire to jump out of our warm bed! We did manage to get up before midday though, so let's call that a win!

Once up, we headed downtown to visit a spy museum called Spyscape. Along the way we passed by this "cute" little antique shop that was sandwiched between high rise buildings! Good on them for holding out!!!
It was actually pretty cool, and we saw a few things that I hadn't seen before, like a real Enigma machine from WWII!
When we came out of the museum, Lizzie spotted a little hole-in-the-wall place selling soup, called the Soup Kitchen. We both thought soup sounded nice on such a miserable day. It turns out, this place was the inspiration for "The Soup Nazi" character on Seinfeld!
The soup was DELICIOUS!

Then we meandered back uptown and found a market at Columbus Circle which we perused. As it was right next to Central Park, we went and took a look at Wollman Rink to see what it looked like at night time (the sun is setting here by about 4:30 at the moment!). On the way to find the rink, we happened across an old carousel in a large brick building. It was a beautiful old machine, so we took a ride just for the fun of it!
It turns out that this carousel was built in 1908!

We continued our stroll past the Taverrn On The Green which looked beautiful with its decorations all lit. Then it was back home to pull on the trackies and watch yet more Hallmark movies.
11 December 2024

Raining again today! But, we were on a mission today to travel across town to the East Side so Lizzie could visit a Hallmark store (are you seeing a pattern yet?). We had crepes for breakfast at a place just around the corner from our apartment called "Le Crepe" on Columbus. We experienced the worst service so far in NYC! When we walked in, Lizzie said good morning to the guy behind the counter who just grunted at us. We ordered two serves of crepes and a cappuccino. I paid, but as we are finding in many restaurants now, when you pay upfront, the machine asks if you want to enter a tip. Whilst I understand tipping is the custom here, I refuse to tip when I haven't yet been served. So I rejected the option to tip.

The guy wasn't happy at all, and when he made Lizzie's coffee, he just put it on the counter and didn't say anything. Lizzie saw it and I got up to collect it, but when I picked it up, it felt light. As it turned out, Lizzie wanted more milk in it anyway, so I took it back up and asked for more milk. The guy topped up the milk, but then just placed it on the counter without even turning around to face me. He just kept his back to me.

So Lizzie and I simply walked out with our crepes and absolutely no tip. Funnily enough, the business emailed me seeking feedback on our recent experience, so I let them have it. No punches pulled!

Oh, and the crepes were CRAP!

Then we caught a train across town to Grand Central Station and walked two blocks in the rain to the Hallmark store. I have to admit, this shop was pretty cool, and Lizzie was in heaven! We traded a quite a few dollars for some of their ornaments and then walked back to Grand Central Station where we checked out the holiday market inside.
By this time we were both hungry and we found Carnegie Diner, opposite Carnegie Hall which is under renovation.
The diner was incredibly busy, but they managed to squeeze us in. The menu is impressive, and the food on offer had me salivating. I ended up choosing a double stacked burger with bacon, and Lizzie a standard cheeseburger. They both came out with a HUGE side serve of fries and salad!
I didn't bother touching the green stuff - I was too full from eating the good stuff!

Then we had a brisk walk home to work off the burgers, and spent the rest of the night in...I bet you can't guess what Lizzie did that night!