NYC

We arrived in NYC in the early evening of Wednesday 1 October (yes, I'm even further behind now!) Dinner was at Zen Palate, a vegetarian restaurant focussed on Zen temple food, was just a few short blocks away. Dinner was fairly ordinary, but we did try the vegan banana creme and key lime pies for dessert. I am still dreaming about that banana creme pie - T and I talked about it for days after the event. We took a stroll around midtown with some pear and chocolate vegan sorbet from NYC Icy before heading back to the hotel. It was like walking around a quiet small town before we had to cross the hubbub of Times Square to get back to our hotel. 

Our next day in New York started with brunch at Blossom, where we got to talking with a lovely couple from Los Angeles. They struck up a conversation with me while T was inspecting the cake cases by asking if I was from London. We ended up talking for over an hour - it was so nice to talk to a couple who had very similar ideals to both T and I. 

We worked off (at least some of) our lunch by taking a huge afternoon walk in Central Park. I have always enjoyed wandering around and seeing what you come across there. I experienced some severe dog-envy when going past the dog runs and seeing the millions of dogs being walked by their human companions. We also checked out the Guggenheim, Strawberry Fields and the Dakota building together, as we had both been to these places individually but not together. 

I do find it quite peculiar and macabre that people have their photo taken outside the Dakota building smiling and laughing where John Lennon died. We happened to go past where Heath Ledger died downtown, and people were doing the same thing there. I guess people want to mark that they have been to these places (see this photo, here's the proof!), but it does make me feel quite weird.  

Dinner was at S'Nice in the West Village. I particularly enjoyed my vegan Thanksgiving Leftovers sandwich, which included brussel sprouts, gravy, roast sweet potatoes and tofurkey - Wow!! Grabbing a vegan cupcake each to savour on the walk to Irving Plaza, we stopped at various street corner bars to join the throngs of people crowded around televisions to watch the Obama - McCain debate. We reached the venue just in time for Atlas Sound aka Bradford Cox from Deerhunter come on stage. He was supporting Stereolab (who I am not a fan of at all), and T treated us to tickets given we had missed out on Deerhunter in Oakland when we saw NIN

Bradford Cox' voice totally and utterly makes me lose my mind. I have never heard a voice that is so beautiful, vulnerable, fragile and strong all at the same time. There were moments during his set that I cried it was so beautiful. And afterwards T managed to nab Bradford to talk for a few minutes. I was so gushy and throwing out superlatives like there was no tomorrow, but he seemed genuinely happy to talk and he hugged me twice. Not one, but two huge bear hugs! Plus, Bradford told us that Deerhunter are coming to Australia early next year! Thank you so much T for getting us there, grabbing Bradford and then suggesting we escape Stereolab. You know me so well!