Day 13 and Day 14- THE END

As the holiday comes to a close our days become less filled with activity and more with sleep. On Day 13 we woke up late and caught the subway to the world famous Katz Deli. Despite the huge lines, we were determined to taste the pastrami on rye sandwiches. Though the pastrami was very juicy and tender rare cooked beef, it definitely does not deserve the fame it gets around the world. We all felt sick afterwards so we wandered around SoHo for the next couple of hours in the blistering cold till we found some more shops to explore.

Day 14 was just as slow but much colder than any other day. Today the temperature was minus 3 degrees, everytime the wind blew it felt like someone had poured a bucket of ice down your back. We woke up late and went over to try some mexican food before we left New York. Mexican is just sloppy greasy microwaved food with chilli on top. Afterwards we went to the TKTS booth and caught some last second tickets to Mary Poppins musical on Broadway which was excellent. Theres nothing like a musical to make you sing and skip through the streets in joy. Afterwards we all decided to finally taste some American Burger King and we found a super high class version called the 'BK WHOPPER BAR'- seriously. Despite the fancy name and setting, the burgers still tasted like stomach ache.

Tomorrow we head off back home, and its perfect timing. We spent the last night wandering through Times Square marveling at the flickering screens and blaring lights, saying goodbye to this amazing city.

Though to the untrained eye, a city is simply a conglomerate of people and concrete, in reality a city is a living, evolving entity, encompassing its people's habitats and governing all scales of social interactions. Though New York city has the obvious pragmatic problems associated with a population of over 8 million, it handles incredibly well the problems of utility, waste and logistics. This city is not only the centre of our civilisation, it is an intimidating but gentle giant where its evolution has developed an ambience of historic charm and future character controlling its society with a beautiful chaotic order. It has perfected a parallel of bureaucracy and culture which empowers its people with with an incredible sense of protection and personal identity. Truly an incredible city offering endless activity and fun.

This will be a hard holiday to beat...ever! Now i need a week off

See you all soon guys

Day 12 pt 2 dinner and cupcakes

Daisy really wanted Chinese food for dinner so we searched Zagat for the closest awesome restaurant. The one we found was a small restaurant in a side street which sat on the first floor of an apartment block and has a little staircase leading off the street to the entrance. When we got there, the door was boarded up and the lights were off so we thought the place had closed down since the Zagat review. Daisy and I stood in the middle of the street peering over the first floor windows in the street to make sure we were in the right place. All of a sudden, a really old asian man strolled out of the boarded up door and head down the staircase to the street. In curious excitement I went to the guy and asked 'is there a restaurant in there?' The man looked confused and grunted at me- he didnt speak a word of english- NOT A WORD. Daisy and I struggled to gesture our situation to the old man who was desperately trying to get away from us. Bec, tired of hiding her true identity any longer, casually walked up to the man (I swear to GOD this is not exaggerated) and, without a stutter, she said 'phu mai loi?' the man instantly pointed at her, nodded his head with a smile and led us to the restaurant entry which was a few doors down. As Daisy and I struggled to recompose ourselves from fits of uncontrollable laughter- Bec thanked the man and wished him and his family a merry Christmas (that part may or may not be true).

After dinner we headed to the famous MAGNOLIA BAKERY for their world known 'velvet cupcakes' for dessert. There was a line out the door and the smell was amazing. The cupcakes looked much better than they tasted, but they were still fresh and warm and made your insides feel like christmas.

Day 12 pt 1 Seinfeld and The Guggenheim

We woke up as if it were a lazy sunday and after a few rounds on Harvest Moon, we headed off for lunch at the restaurant made famous by SEINFELD!! I could barely contain my excitement as my sights focused upon the iconic red neon tracings of 'TOMS RESTAURANT'. Naturally, i scanned the streets looking for Jerry and the gang in case they desperately needed me for their next scene- even though the last episode of Seinfeld was over 13 years ago. The restaurant itself is more like a diner and it looks nothing like the place on Seinfeld- probably because the series had its own set and didnt actually use the inside of this place. Even so, we all ordered a cheeseburger and milkshake which was nothing spectacular but tasty enough to eat, and we headed off to another of my anticipated destinations- Frank Lloyd Wrights Guggenheim Museum.

We took a stroll through the upper west side and central park to experience this beautiful portion of the city. We walked past some sort of college campus which contained endless amounts of very large, incredibly ornamental and characteristically Gothic cathedral buildings. We than cut across the city through Central Park where Daisy, in her element, skipped, danced and sang her way into the murder hit lists of all New York's joggers- she bumped and tripped every single runner that tried to get past her.

We walked for a while whilst me and Bec kept our distance so we wouldnt be mistaken for Daisy's friends if one the runners came back with a machine gun, the building finally came into sight. A low lying, plain white, circular rotunda with the iconic strip windows streaming across the facade- completely out of place in its typical Manhattan surrounds. After years in uni of studying Frank Lloyd Wright's work, i was so excited to experience the marvel of spacial sequences intended by the master of the modernist manifesto i had been so intensely educated upon. It really is a magnificent piece of architecture- i was not so interested in the museum's displays as i was in the building. Whilst i marvelled at the building, Daisy and Bec rushed off to look at Kandinsky, Picasso and a few other artists who also died broke and alone. Unfortunately, the museum curator, who got their qualifications from that coke dealer in times square and has obviously no sense of the architectural marvel they have the honor of maintaining, put up some stupid exhibition right through the middle of the Atrium and the true sense of the place could not be experienced. The spaces inside are absolutely incredible. The entire complex is a jungle of expansive white concrete walls with slits for lights and windows- but plays on volumes of space making the experience walking around absolutely incredible. you walk along the ramp filled with light and space from the atrium, all off a sudden theres a room with huge blank white walls and ceilings which absolutely take your breath away. Its simplicity and elegance give it an incredibly complex character- dad would love it- it reminds me of our fireplace, but not hideously ugly.

Though the conceptual framework governing the design of the ramps is very unique and exciting, one thing Frank lloyd Wright didnt consider, is the time it would take someone to walk to the top of the damn building. I could only marvel at this architectural masterpiece until I needed a drink of water and a defibrillator. After half an hour of walking wide eyed along the uphill walkways, I was sweating, had a stitch and was panting that high pitched breathing that sounds like your old and have emphysema. As I was consoling myself that i had experienced this architectural wonder, I looked down to realise i had gone up a total of 2 levels of the 6 storey building. After cursing the bones of Frank Lloyd Wright's father, i quickly caught the elevator to the top level, took some photos and took the elevator back down to the gift shop.

Afterwards we were all so tired, we ventured back home to get some rest before dinner. However, as payment for all my sins, we somehow walked past a store called ANTHROPOLOGIE, which is Bec's bestest favouritest shop in the whole world. The store actually has some really amazing girls clothes that you could NEVER get anywhere in Australia. Think of 1920's charm with 2011 elegance and character- some really beautiful stuff. Bec ran around grabbing coat hangars off racks and shoes off shelves like a Somalian kid in woolworths. After an intense fun packed 2 hours, we finally left for home.

Day 11- MOMA and serendipity

Today we went to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and what a beautiful museum it is! A very well designed elegant labyrinth of suspended polished walkways and endless pure white walls. There are exhibitions filled with the original works of the modernist masters like Mies Van Der Rohe, Le Corb, Louis Kahn- it is absolutely inspirational to see the real life pencil scratchings of the Architecture greats on paper in front of my eyes. The real stand out however, was the visual art. We walked through halls of Picasso, Cezzane, Kandinsky (Bec's Favourite), Van Gough, Monet and the rest. It is absolutely surreal to see the structured brush strokes and thick swabs of paint on the canvas, it is mind blowing.

After about 10 minutes walking the halls of the museum engaging in the endless wisdom of the modern era- the girls got hungry, sleepy and dehydrated so we left to get something to eat. We went to the famous eatery called SERENDIPITY3. We decided it would be worth the 1.5hr wait to dine at such an iconic place. After burning some time at Bloomingdale's- yes even more shopping- we returned to our reservation at SEREDIPITY3. The restaurant is about 4m wide and 30m long- a tiny little nook in the city and incredibly busy- you can barely squeeze past the front door to get to your seat. The setting itself is really beautiful, there are coloured lights and intricate hand made chandeliers all over the store. the food, however, has much less to be excited about.

I ordered a Chicken with creamy brandy sauce, i got a chicken and chocolate schnitzel. Bec ordered a chicken salad sandwich, she got a bland boiled chicken on sweet bread. Daisy ordered a lemon chicken and got lemon with eggs. Dessert was much better, we ordered a 'no regret sundae' which was supposed to come with a pie and hot chocolate fudge. It would have been perfect if the pie was a much anticipated 'apple pie' and not a coogee bay hotel style peanut butter (and shit) pie. New Yorkers have a crazy obsession with peanut butter and not the sweet dessert kind- the straight packaged peanut butter that tastes like someone smothered butter all over their armpits before doing the dabke for 2 straight hours. The ice cream and chocolate fudge was really nice, but the peanut butter pie was a shock to the taste-buds not easily overcome. After eating as much as we could we got up and left....the half chewed chunks of peanut butter and shit pie all over the table next to us was definitely not our fault.

Day 10 Hair and Central park

After we woke up we all decided, after a pillow fight with feather filled pillows whilst dressed in light blue and pink pyjamas, we would all go and get our hair done. In a fit of excitement and ecstatic joy in my new found bestest friends i decided to go first- i straightened my fingers and stiffened my wrist, cupped the top back of my head and and firmly but gently pressed downward and proceeded to my forehead...DONE! For those who dont know, this process doesnt work on girls' hair because it hasnt taken 3 hours and my weekly wage. After waiting the entire morning in the apartment consoling myself with comical thoughts of them coming back bald, the girls came back looking like they had just left, but poorer.

Though they both completely did not understand my frustration, they interpreted my anger for hunger, and so Bec made me a beautiful tomato and methylated spirit toasted sandwich. After vomiting shards of my liver, we were ready to go to central park.

Central park was really beautiful, the deciduous trees crawl and climb over the sky line giving it an incredibly charming character. The landscape was absolutely beautiful and we came across a staircase with huge sandstone balustrades endowed with extravagantly carved cast iron decorations. Everything was going swell until i saw a street artist and had the bright idea of getting a portrait drawn of Bec and myself to capture the memories of the beautiful moment. The artist spoke as much English as an Ewok- he could only point and grunt sounds that mimicked popping open a bag of potato chips. We both sat down in front of him and it appeared as though he was looking at us and replicating the light and shade in our faces on to his canvas in a 'still life' masterpiece of chalk. He scratched away with his chalk a resulting image that looked as though he had drawn the fond and distant memory of the wife and son he had left back home to come to the land of opportunity where he could draw enough pictures to pay his way though ART SCHOOL!! Maybe he didnt understand our intention and he thought we wanted a portrait of his family... BUT Why the hell did he keep looking at us as though he was drawing us?? Ive uploaded the photo for your viewing pleasure. His charges were huge but i took some solstice in the fact that he was incredibly ecstatic when i actually paid him the money- which was literally enough to sponsor a kid in Cambodia for a whole year.

After the shocking drawing- which took more than an hour- we went to the "BOATHOUSE' on the lake. We all ordered from a really high society menu and the food was really good- except for Daisy's dish- which was a grilled fish served in a plate of its own piss.....with vegetables- so that its healthy