Livin' for the Weekend

The weekend of about 3 weeks ago (time flies!), I third-wheeled along on Ronald and Aileen's NYC travels. You might recall the previous weekend I spent with Ronald, where I bunked at his exceedly crummy hostel room. Well, thankfully, Ron and Aileen's room this time was much improved (there was a en-suite bathroom!), though not Plaza-esque or anything like that still of course. There was only one big bed which they shared, thus I lugged to the city a thick comforter borrowed from my room-mate, which I laid on the floor to serve as my bed. My improvised pillow? A pack of Ronald's clothes. Well, I slept soundly enough, so it sufficed.

Saturday was supposed to be outdoorsy, with a trip to the WTC site and Coney Island, but the rain put paid to that plan. Thus, we spent the afternoon at the Met. Incidentally, one can pay any price >$1 that one chooses, though the "recommended" adult and student prices are $20 and $10 respectively. I paid $5, and got a stare from the cashier. Whatever! Heh.

The entrance to the museum. Unfortunately, you need a super wide lens to capture the entire museum.

Maybe I could make it a thing to do each time I'm out in Manhatten: Find a replica of the Statue of Liberty to pose with

I (literally) scared the shit out of Ronald, which you can see he was trying desperately to hold in.

It's tragic how we don't know how to appreciate art and instead concern ourselves more with taking pictures with the art pieces, which are reduced to mere props. Oh, the (sorta) young and shallow...

All sorts of Greek/European sculptures. Perhaps NSFW? The top middle one is young Hercules, if memory serves me correctly. Ronald, with his flamboyance, adds a dash of colour to the collage.

There're many artists and art students who sit around various sculptures to draw/sketch them. This dude, who's hella talented, is one of them.

I took this while he went off for a while, perhaps for a pee. Beautiful, isn't it?

A pretty nifty-looking, if unwieldy, chess set. It sorta reminds me of wizards' chess in Harry Potter and The Philosopher's Stone.

And whilst on the subject on Harry Potter, here's the Mirror of Erised!

This could very well be the very first (or at least amongst the very first) advertisement in the world! It's promoting sculpture services, I think. Can't you just picture this in Singapore's JC Decaux ad stands next to bus stops?

On to the ancient Egyptian collection. Here, Ronald and I present Posing with inanimate objects: An Introduction.

Men of ancient Egypt. It's extremely insensitive of me, but the first thing that popped up in my head when I saw this was: "That's the FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists List".

Ron's practicing his product endorsement pose.

The only picture of 3 of us for the weekend! Oh, I didn't take any with Aileen too.

Sunday was mostly spent in Brooklyn. Under the pretty darn glaring sun, we walked across Brooklyn bridge. Tried B&W pictures just because.

It's hard to comment on pictures of oneself. What can one say except "lookin' good"?

Manhattan viewed from the bridge.

Empire State Building viewable thanks to the kickass 12x zoom function of my camera. Thanks Ash!

Spot anyone (or two) familiar?

Across the bridge finally! We went to the Brooklyn ice-cream factory just next to the bridge and I got myself a huge triple-scoop!

Next, it was a 30 min subway ride to Coney Island, which, with its old-school amusement park and quaint charm, seems a world away from the urban sophistication of Manhattan.

We took this ferris wheel ride, which was more thrilling than the usual, because there are two times along the ride where the cage would slide. It was a tad too thrilling for some though. That's the view of the beach through the grills of our cage.

And that was the end of the weekend! I un-thirdwheeled back to school, while Aileen and Ronald continued onwards to Dallas. Next up, Adel!