Autumn in New York

Finally, I'm getting around to posting this! It's deep in the middle of a freezing winter now, so what better thing to do than to reminisce about warmer days past! Last fall, Adel came to NY/Chicago for a holiday and I spent two days hanging with her.

We met in Chinatown, and promptly proceeded to eat at 56 Mott Street (Still haven't caught the name, even though I've been there subsequent times!), a place which came highly recommended from Ronald and Aileen as having good and affordable Chinese food.

My huge plate of chicken + char siew rice

The funniest part of our day must have been our visit to the Chinese medical hall right opposite the restaurant after our meal. I had been looking for Chinese herbal cough/sore throat medication, and voila, there the store was! And in the end, both of us walked out with purchases of at least US$50, I think. Who've thought that we'd come all the way to NYC to hang out at a sinseh place and get Chinese medicine? Hilarious, really. Well, we thought so anyway. Anyway, Adel's medication apparently worked wonders! Alas, mine did not fare quite as well.

Fog/A really low-hanging cloud/? blocking out an entire third of a skyscraper downtown, as seen from Chinatown. You can clearly see that the /effect-of-nature, whatever it was/ extends to a distance, then suddenly ends, because the top building on the left, which is further forward, wasn't blocked up. Pretty nifty.

We didn't really take many (well, relative to some) pictures in our two days because all we basically did was walk around plenty. Also, Adel is not one to visit tourist trappings (you didn't see the Statue of Liberty et al, did you?). In fact, she's not one to see anything at all! My memory of October is fuzzy by now, but I distinctly remember that as we were walking up 5th Ave towards Central Park and chatting, I tried to point out various things around, like the NY Public Library, Saks, etc., because Adel was totally oblivious to everything around her, much to my bemusement. I remember remarking about this point, saying that it's as if we were merely just walking down Orchard Road for the zillionth time, to which she replied (paraphrasing somewhat here) that the company is much more important than the sights. And I do agree with her. It was really nice just strolling uptown and conversing with a good friend (and in cool weather!).

But Adel, now you know the next time you're here that there're nice public toilets right next to Grand Central at the Hyatt Hotel! :)

We did, as mentioned, walk around Central Park.

Getting (if memory serves me right) a Swedish tourist to take a picture of us on the bridge that was featured in Spiderman 3 (me & pop culture references. How refreshing!)

An adorable (squee!!) animal (what is it???) hanging out in its little cubicle in a tree trunk. This one has star appeal. At least a dozen snap-happy tourists were trying to capture a pictorial keepsake of its squee!ness.

Auto-timered shot on one of the many rock croppings. Featuring a guest appearance by a New York guide book, sponsored generously by the NLB.

It was evening and time to head our separate ways soon, so we tried to search for a restaurant to have dinner nearby at in Time Out magazine. We settled on Southern Hospitality, a restaurant opened by Justin Timberlake, somewhere near 3rd and 76th. And we walked there. I know what you're thinking, and we made the same comments. How teeny-bopper of us to want to eat at some celeb vanity joint. But, the prices suited our budget, and it was sorta near.

Still, we were on the southern tip of the park, aka 50something street, so that was a twenty block walk. In the end, due to time constraints, we gave up halfway and settled on a Japanese restaurant along the way, and Adel gave me a birthday treat. Merci beaucoup! (Don't I sound like a pretentious twat with my random and tired French insertions? lol. I do know more than two phrases now though, seriously!) (Anyway, Ad, I walked part Southern Hospitality last week by chance. Didn't look atas at all. Look like a typical sports bar/restaurant, with TVs showing football, baseball, etc. Just thought you should know!)

One of the places we explored was the East Village, with its assortment of small, indie clothing boutiques (with astronomical prices), record shops and art galleries. Strangely, it was what I thought SoHo would be. But SoHo has since gone more generic-upscale, so the more artsy-but-still-pricy establishments moved eastwards.

Captured in East Village. Heh.

In sharp-enough-to-pierce-through-10-Balenciaga-crocodile-skin-bags contrast to Ronald's couture hedonism, Adel shopped very little. I remember her buying something from the indie record shop, and a hippie-ish hairband thingie from Urban Outfitters from our two days. That was it. I, however, was looking for a pair of shades (The NY sun is seriously much more glaring than that of SG's. Ostensibly due to serious lack of cloud cover). So, I got Adel to accompany me to Century 21, which I recall Ronald saying is known for cheap designer lobangs (Must thank Ronald for doing all the NYC groundwork!).

The fierce-looking pair of shades inspired Adel to strike her best Charlie's Angel pose.

Who strikes the better pose? *ooh, I have a bony-looking thumb*

Why, when both come together, of course! Though the gun pose ends up looking more Japanesey kawaii cheese than sophisticated cool, I must admit. Adel, stop smiling so cheerily!

Anyway, I ended up getting a pair of Kenneth Cole shades at US$15. Though it didn't come with a case, so I've had to carry it with extreme care inside my bag every time 'lest I break it. Lol.

Our plan was to head over to Ground Zero for a tour, as it's right across Century 21, but again it was raining, so that scuttled the plan (It was also raining when Ron, Aileen and I wanted to go. What's up with that?).

I believe we ended up just strolling around SoHo, which I much prefer to 5th Ave. The same labels, but without the crowds! [Outside of post context] Seriously, this past few weeks, every time I walk down 5th, there's a stampede. And at the flagship Abercrombie store on 5th and 56th, there are queues around the block everyday to get in. WTF! And it's not as if there was any blowout sale![/Outside of post context].

For our farewell dinner, we ended up at this small, dark and cozy pizza place in Greenwich.

It was so dark that I had to lighten this pic by quite a bit. (That was a pointless comment for a typical-of-every-blog kinda self-taken before-meal boring picture, just so I had comments for every shot.)

Thin-crust goodness. Though I'm not especially discerning of good quality pizza. (Boy, I'm running out of caption ideas.)

Obligatory subway shot (And it comes down to stating to obvious). I do find the "Priority Seating" backdrop sorta amusing though. No? Just me then.

Adel then went on to catch some live music (Happening!), before heading back to SG the next day, as I trudged back to school. 'Twas a fun time had by both of us for sure though! Miss ya lots, Ad! xoxo. haha.