Blue Sun against a Starry Night

Day 2.

Waking at quarter to eight, I looked at Amy (undoubtedly awake for hours again) and asked, “Do we wait for everyone? Do we just get up and go? Or do we buy breakfast and come back, the heroes of the hour?”

Amy’s eyes obviously lit up at the thought of riding triumphantly into the kitchen bearing breakfast, so we dressed hurriedly and got out of the apartment, banging on the bathroom door and shouting at biped that we were off shopping and she had better let us in on our return.

We took the subway to 110th street at the north entrance to Central Park. This was where we had sheltered the day before. It wasn’t raining today but it was pretty muggy. We had in mind that we would return to the Upper West Side to a bakery we had seen, hoping to buy bread that wasn’t laced with sugar and preservatives. We wanted to take the pretty route there though so walked a short way through the park.

It really was quite amazing: a quiet oasis of green grass and trees and serene lakes. However, like something out of a horror film, we found ourselves caught in a tide of joggers, speed-walkers and *shudder* lycra-clad cyclists. Crossing the road required using every skill learned from Cambridge and then some. We made it out of the park alive and retraced our steps from the day before.

Before we could get to the bakery we spied, we found an even better one. It was white and bright and had dozens of bread varieties and, oh my, tastier brioche than in my wildest fantasies (okay, you’ve got me- I don’t actually fantasise about brioche but I should). We bought bread, two chocolate brioche, two raspberry and chocolate brioche and two apple and raison brioche. Somehow we contained ourselves and instead of starting on it straight away, we picked up orange juice and loo roll (hey, we needed it) at a grocery store before heading off home on the subway, brioche untouched.

There was a general fanfare as we entered and everyone fell to their knees to praise us except Q who was in the shower. As always. There was also some giggles as we realised that three of us (daisy, biped and myself) were wearing the same t-shirt design. We could not persuade sus to join our ranks and put hers on though she too owned a matching t-shirt. That’s the problem when you share obsessions with people- they all buy Blue Sun t-shirts.

Eventually, we were on the road. I debated whether I should stick with the Hobblings or drag Amy away so we could do our own thing (you can’t imagine how hard it was to get around New York as a large group unless you were there- everyone needed the loo at moments when there was only one available and walking paces varied considerably). In the end apathy won and Amy and I followed the other Harlemites.

We took the subway down to 42nd Street and came out into Times Square. Now this is where I get my New York buzz. The lights: they dazzle. I feel like I am thrown into a film. My head whips and the camera swoops in large arcs as I try to take everything in. It is full of outrageous camera angles and dangerous close-ups. I feel like at any moment there will be a screech of brakes as a yellow cab comes close to hitting me and Spider-man swings down and carries me off in his arms.

Or something. It doesn’t have to be Spider-man related. I get visions of pretty much every film ever set in New York. Except Highlander- that didn’t show Times Square. Alas.

Moving on from my poor film knowledge (that is poor knowledge of films, not knowledge of poor films), we gaped as we walked up Broadway. We stopped off at the Virgin Megastore being a group of dvd freaks and then turned down a street past “the Muse Hotel” much to Em’s delight (she treated us to some Muse at the apartment through the cunning technology of the ipod- I was mainly unimpressed and even covering my ears begging it to stop at some point. I think sus is quite right to say that if you’re going to like that kind of music at least listen to Radiohead…. Though I would prefer something cheerier). Turning up 5th, we saw St Patrick’s Cathedral and the roof garden opposite where Spider-man took Mary Jane.

Obsessed? Moi? At least people joined me in this obsession. Even Q which was a surprise.

Eventually we reached our destination (just as it was beginning to rain): The Museum of Modern Art. It was, I believe, Heather’s recommendation. Though she, Rian and Paul were out driving to Massachusetts that day, the remaining nine tourists decided to come here anyway. We split up quite soon into the museum tour. Biped and sus went off on their lonesomes and the antipodeans made themselves into a group (I think- I may be wrong). Amy and I stayed together of course. I spent a comical amount of time exchanging text messages with Dana trying to find her in the large building but we were always one or two steps behind the other.

There were a couple of good pieces towards the start of the museum mainly involving video or photographs. Or a fake prison-cell window. I particularly enjoyed a room with a video projected onto each wall of a tour through some former Nazi interrogation rooms. One video seemed to show a person hanging though a different angle later would reveal her to be levitating. It was spooky and rather disorientating.

Amy and I decided to inspect the top floor café for lunch prospects but found it both much too expensive and much too busy to seat us. Collapsed outside were four other hungry hungry Hobblings. We all decided to get outta the joint and find lunch. We had different ideas of what we wanted so Amy and I split up again to get something light (I hear that the others had large diner-style food). We ended up at Jamba Juice and got some healthy concoctions from there. We had a free “boost shot” so I chose “energy” and Amy chose the dubious “female health” option. We also grabbed some more solid food from a shop and scoffed the lot in next to no time. I think this was really our first time to sit down and chat. It was nice.

We went back into the museum and continued with the tour around the pieces. It seemed slightly better than the Tate Modern but that wasn’t saying too much. We eventually found biped, who introduced us to a piece that was created from chocolate and steel. Nice. She directed us towards the better pieces on the uppermost floor (if I designed a modern art museum, I would put the better pieces near the start in the same way that history museums start with the Egyptian section and supermarkets start with fruit – cue Eddie Izzard sketch). There were some genuinely good pieces up here. I left the museum having seen some Magritte, Picasso, Van Gogh ("Starry Night"- beautiful), Monet and some other names I have forgotten and so was moderately happy with the experience. Given the weather, I am not sure there was anything better that we could have done with the day.

All nine of us gathered at closing time and left the museum to go to the closest bar. I am of course not used to bars having avoided them for my entire life due to the smoking. Despite living in California for 18 months now, I am still not used to the concept of a smoke-free bar. And so I sat quite awkward watching other people drink (obviously my early afternoon drink the day before was an anomaly caused by extreme circumstances). It wasn’t long actually before four of us were yawning and we left for the apartment.

Amy, daisy, sus and I went back to 42nd Street subway via the Virgin Megastore (to buy things this time) and a small shop where I made the mistake of buying a Milky Way (aka Musketeer Bar). On very little food, the sugar made me feel ill and faint. I wolfed down a pastry in the Virgin café which helped matters a little being slightly more substantial but really I didn’t feel better until after dinner. We reheated some of the pasta from Carmine’s as they boxed our remains up for us. There wasn’t a nifty button on the microwave that said “pasta “ so we weren’t sure what to do for a while but we figured it out. We settled down that evening to watching “From Dusk Till Dawn” with all the bad language and rude bits cut out (I know, what is the point?). Amy left first for bed and then I followed, enjoying a rather nice bath that night. I found it hard to sleep that night until the others returned. But once they did I slept happy and well.