Sunday, September 1, 2013

Bogan in the City... Over & Out

Hello everyone
As some of you may know, this is my final post of Bogan in the City.  Tomorrow night at 11pm I set sail to Jakarta for a new assignment.  For the few of you out there that are sighing, no need to worry I have another blog in the midst - Bogan in the Big Durian.... I will save the root of the name until my first post.

So since my last post, this Tour Guide Barbie (think Toy Story Two) has been busy again.  It was like one day after I posted last time that I found out I was moving, so Lisa (Brett's youngest sister) who was planned to come to NY in December for her first trip overseas, had to bring forward her trip and get on the plane 5 days later.. a pretty impressive feat given she didn't have a passport.

Given I had to work out my last month, I took on tour guide by weekend and night, and Lisa either self-directed herself or went on days trips with Brett.  She managed to do a number of my standard tour items - you know, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Empire State Building, the Statue of Liberty, the flea markets at Williamsburg ....
and Hell's Kitchen (check out the Brass Giraffe I picked up!)

, the Baseball (we had front row tix!)

 Central Park, Museum of Natural History, Movies at Bryan Park (it was closing night and ET was showing this time - cried my eyes out the entire time), Woodbury Commons for some serious hardcore shopping (Brett & I took the opportunity to stock up on cheaper shoes, jeans, boots etc. etc. etc.), Niagra Falls, Washington DC, and plenty more that I just can't remember at the moment.

I got us some tix again to America's Got Talent - this time the Backstreet Boys were performing.. they've just released another album, though I'm afraid the debut single is a little lame, even for BSB standards.  No VIP tix this time either, we were up in the nose bleed section, way up in the 4th level!  We went out for farewell dinner with Lindsay at a funky Mexican in SoHo where the chefs cooked in a Kombie van, and they served amazing White Sangria's (not too good for the head the day after), and afterwards checked out music at Rockwood Music Hall.


We introduced Lisa to the Burgel - a Brett&Michele creation of a hamburger in a bagel... bloody brilliant and bloody delicious!  This is going to fund my retirement one day.  If I see this in a takeaway place in Australia, I'll know it is one of you that stole our idea!





I got in a few things that I hadn't done before, the first being Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),




 (we called this the Tetris Room)...

and then that afternoon a hip hop festival in Central Park.  It was a fun way to spend Lisa's first day in town.  She even made a little friend - Destiny...


Another one on the bucket list was Woodstock.  We headed upstate to the beautiful little hippy town about 2 hours out of the city, only to discover the location of Woodstock festival is actually in Bethel, about another 1 1/2 hours from Woodstock! ... you don't find them publishing that in Woodstock as they profit from the name.  Obviously, Bethel didn't quite have the same ring to it... but actually the reason it was called Woodstock is that the festival was organized by the Woodstock Art & Music foundation.  Anyway, it was a beautiful trip across the state from Woodstock to Bethel and after we made our way up this small windy road, starting to believe Apple Maps was taking us on a bum steer to a farm, over the ridge we find the location of the most famous festival in the world!... and there happened to be thousands there (we apparently came in the back way) all there for a Blake Shelton concert.



Another new thing was checking out the Talent Show at the Apollo Theater in Harlem - it was too cool.  For the performers, if you are good, you are guaranteed a cheer, but watch out for those that are not so good - they get booed straight of the stage, accompanied by the "Exterminator".


We went to Sylvia's restaurant before the show, a famous Soul Food restaurant in Harlem where Fried Chicken & Waffles were invented.  The history is that in times of segregation, the white folk would have their own jazz shows, but they'd finish at 2am.  Following this, the real party would start with the local African Americans who would party through to the morning.  Over to Sylvia's they'd go and after a night of booze, they craved some good ole fried chicken, but to make it acceptable to eat for breakfast, they paired it with waffles, and so Fried Chicken & Waffles was born!



The last thing I knocked off the list was watching a football match.  It's pre-season, but it was NY Giants v NY Jets, so a great match.  I tell you, no matter what the sport, the New Yorkers sure know how to put on a show.  There were fireworks, music, dancing... no cheerleaders though which was a little disappointing...We somehow managed to score good seats for this game too, so we had a great view of the field.  After 20 months in the US I was even able to explain the game to Lis.







Whilst I spent the first half of this week in Mexico, Lisa set off to England to spend time in Caimbridge and London with some friends she has living and travelling over there.

It hasn't quite hit me yet that we're leaving, it seriously happened soooooo quickly (so don't feel bad if you don't know), but I sure feel like I've filled in the 20 months I've been here and this is where I'm so grateful for this blog - reminding me of great time I've had and the crazy things I've seen... I think I may have to bind it up into a little journal for myself.  Going from NYC to Jakarta is certainly going to be very different, but hey life isn't life without some sort of adventures, and I have no idea what sort of posts you'll get from the Big Durian... but that's the fun of it.

In the meantime, this Bogan in the City is signing off from NYC!  Thank you for following me along the way and for all of your positive comments.  It's been fun for me and I hope you've all enjoyed it too.

Michele




Saturday, August 3, 2013

"Live When I'm Alive, Sleep When I'm Dead"

Hi Everyone,

Coming up I've got the second half of the Crompton / Carville tour, and then a couple of cool US experiences in store for you.

When I left you last, I was on a rest day with the kids, trying to get some additional battery charge for week two. One thing I missed from the last blog (rightly pointed out by one of my mini-guests) was one of my highlights, which was post fireworks on July 4, our glow stick party. That was a blast - music pumping and nothing lighting up our bad dancing but red, white and blue glow sticks! The landing on our stairwell made a very good podium (those that know me from my Rosies and Storm days know that I don't mind a boogie on a podium). The old house that I live in didn't know what hit it!

On the Monday night of week two we went to Bryant Park for the Monday night movie series. Movie of the night was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, the Gene Wilder classic version. It was a cool atmosphere - there was a naked painted lady in the crowd, they were dishing out free chocolate tacos (mmmmmmm), and the Oompa Loompas were clear favorites with the crowd.



The rest of the week was spent with a visit to Ground Zero - they have really put together a beautiful memorial (this is the new Freedom Tower); 


Wall Street (this is Mitch kicking back NYC style in Wall St)
 including a stop at Maccas (or Maccy Dees to the Yanks) where we had prime visibility to the misfortune of this poor photocopy delivery guy
 We took the Staten Island Ferry past the Statue of Liberty, we found a hidden Central Park Treasure - Belvedere Castle which used to be the viewing point of all of the lakes in the park to see if they were iced over;

 Jack is trying out his skills as a nature photographer!
 That plaster that mum's rocking comes in handy in crowds!
Nic and I enjoying a Mango cocktail pre-Yankees

We went to Yankees v Kansas City where the Yankees were in fine form with 2 home runs, and we managed to get ourselves on the big screen - one of the most exciting moments of my life!!!... and yes, there was some silliness required to get us up there! 

We went to the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum which ended up being a highlight for the boys. They have a retired Air Craft Carrier Ship (named the Intrepid), a submarine, a British Airways Conchord, a lot of war planes and choppers, and my favorite, a Space Shuttle.



We checked out a dodgy Chinese restaurant in China Town - delish, dirt cheap and the quickest service ever; 



Luckily the dodgy chinese had no negative effect, because the next day was farewell day.  It was sad to say goodbye to the fam, but knowing we will see each other in my quick visit back to Aus in September (to graduate) made it much easier. 

Since the fam left I did as I said I would, which was sleep for a whole weekend, getting ready to go back to work. In my first week back I flew off to Costa Rica for the week, and then the second week the whole team came into NYC for our annual meeting, so there has been no rest at all! This week was my first week at my desk in 5 weeks. 

Last Saturday night I headed off with Teena and Matt to MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to check out Jersey's own Bon Jovi. After reading some dodgy reviews of his previous concerts on the tour (unfortunately without Richie Sambora) he obviously took on board the feedback and came out in (pardon the pun) a Blaze of Glory! He came on stage after the J.Geils Band, who I had no idea who they were until they broke into Centerfold. Clearly a one hit wonder, but a bloody good hit at that (the lead singer was still rockin' sparkles!). 

Bon Jovi came on at 9 and played non-stop until 11:45! The encore went for 8 songs with my two faves in there - Livin on a Prayer and Always - bloody awesome. LOVED IT!

I then headed back to the Intrepid on Sunday morn with Brett where it happened to be Space Fest.  There were astronauts there (yes, real ones!)



Then this Wednesday was a fun experience. We went to see America's Got Talent be filmed at Radio City Music Hall. It was a results show so none of the 'talent' actually performed but I didn't care because Robin Thicke came on with his posse of girls and sang Blurred Lines - love that song. We somehow must've fit the demographics they are targeting for the show because we got selected for the VIP section - we were only around 10 rows away from the judges - Heidi Klum, Mel B (Scary Spice), Howie and Howard Stern. They were all really good and interactive with the audience. It was a really cool experience - I can now add being on tv to the list of being pulled up on stage on Broadway, and being on the big screen at Yankee Stadium, the TRIFECTA!
 Mel B (Scary Spice)
 Heidi Klum
 Me & Liz
 The Robin Thicke set (I was too busy boogying during his set to get any pics)



I hope you all enjoyed.  Look forward to catching up with many of you in September!

Michele xx

Monday, July 8, 2013

Viva Las Vegas!

Hi Everyone!  It's sure been an exciting few weeks.

Firstly, I finally after 5 years finished my studies!  I get my final results next Monday, but after completing my final exam three weeks ago I'm pretty confident I did ok - enough to pass at least!  What a feeling to know that I no longer need to write assignments, stress out for exams, and most importantly, no more feeling guilty on weekends knowing that I should be studying when I'm not.

What better way to celebrate than a trip to Las Vegas.  I went over Friday week ago.  This more excitingly was the meeting point with the family.  I met up with mum at the airport (somewhat tired after a long flight to Australia, not made any easier with her wrist in plaster), and we then made our way over to the hotel (New York, New York - not my idea) to meet sister Nicole, her husband Mick and the three fabulous kids, Taylor, Jack and Mitchell.  They were also travelling with another family of four - Jane, Andrew, Alisha and Jasmin.

Las Vegas was experiencing their hottest heat wave with the temparature around 46 degrees every day!  Day one, we escaped the heat by hitting the factory outlets.  It was good for me because the sales tax is cheaper in Vegas than NY so I picked myself up a few bargains. 

The main reason for the trip to Vegas was to see Nicole and Mick renew their vows 15 years after they got married.  So, I figures, if a wedding was on the agenda, so was a hens night and where better to do a hens night than in Vegas.  Friday night we hit the town, boogied our butts off, and let our hair down.  It was a great night that finished at about 3am.  I'm very proud of that effort given I had flown in from NY that day, gotten up at 5am NY time / 2am LV time to get the plane... so all in all I was awake for 25 hours!




The next day, Saturday, the day of the wedding, the two brides - Nicole and Jane - were not in a good shape at all!  There was doubts they could make the wedding without an IV drip of gatorade.  A walk down the strip in 46 degrees was not the best medicine, so following that they both retreated back to bed to sleep off their sore heads.  I bought this tshirt for Nicole so she won't forget...



Luckily, about 1 hour before the ceremony, the brides came good, just in time for the limo pick up.  The ceremony was absolutely fabulous, led by one of the top ten Elvis impersonators in the US, at the very same chapel that Bon Jovi got married and where Hamish and Andy had a unification ceremony as part of their Caravan of Courage tour of the US.  The chapel was also next to the pawn shop of the show Pawn Stars to add more cheese to the whole affair.



Unfortunately no pics with the real Elvis here - no cameras allowed in the chapel... you have to pay for those of course!

The next morning we set off to NYC!.  Since then it's been a whirlwind of a tour.  We've hit the Museum of Natural History (set of Night at the Museum)




FAO Schwartz...

Toys R Us...


Times Square where the famiily got famous on the big screen

Ellen's Stardust Diner (a place where out of work broadway stars get to still shine!)


The Brooklyn Bridge...


Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory...

Coney Island...



.. including Nathan's, the home of the International Hot Dog Eating Contest


We had a Fourth of July BBQ at home where I attempted to smoke and slow cook St Louis style pork ribs and short Beef Ribs - a process that required 5 hours by the BBQ.  What a success - the ribs were cooked perfectly and enjoyed by all!

 We saw the fireworks down the street and we all got in the spirit by sporting our red, white and blue.
 ... even Jack the dog

We girls all went to Broadway to watch Matilda (absolutely AWESOME!) and enjoyed some sushi before hand

We've also hit Central Park, the family went to the Empire State Building, shopping, shopping and more shopping! 

... it's been an exhausting week to say the least!

The crew is here until Friday... the time is going way too quickly.  We still have a lot more on the agenda and then I am just going to sleep all weekend... 

Signing off until next time!
Michele