Good morning everybody,
Another day in NY.
What to do? Shopping? I guess.
Time to get some more gifts. Granny wants a nice sweater and mom wants anything (great wish mom!) and Mrs. Moneypenny (Prince's right hand) wants a bag.
Slowly I get myself together, watching the blue sky sparkle over the church across our window. The bells toll every full hour(do they???) and it is a very Christmassy sound.
My spots are still with me, coming and going, inviting family and friends, having a party on my face.
Merry X-MAS family Spot!
I could get into this matter once again, but maybe I should just shut up and get out, into the NY shopping BUZZ.
Since we have done most uptown malls, I choose MACY'S today. They seem to be the most likely, to carry grandma stuff.
It is very busy at Macy's ! Sale signs lure everyone in, people are pushing and pulling and the place looks pretty close to some nightmare scenario after a social uprising. I head up to granny levels and get lucky with a beautiful Cashmere sweater by Charter Club. It is all flowery and soft and I just hope it will fit her, as XL is the biggest, but looking rather small.
Seems like 2009 is Cashmere year.
This one comes from 120$ down to 59$, an absolute bargain!
Next one on gift-list is mom. WISH? ANYTHING.
I am tempted to ask the sales girl where the ANYTHING section might be, but I better keep my humor to myself (I kind of figured, that New York ticks for a different genre of comedy) and browse the Ralph Lauren goods instead. They look pretty ANYTHING and I get a lovely beige CASHMERE (yes, it is the year) cardigan, so soft and elegant and perfect for the colder time of the year. And since it is so nice, I turn back and get one more, who knows when I need a gift again.
MAGIC*** MAGIC*** I can hear the voices in my head... when I find myself drawn to a beauty counter, where giant sparkling letters seem the answer to my vanity prayers. Clinique's promise, makes my eyes open wide with wonder and hope, for the magical " Even better" solution, promising to fade sun damage and heal skin in no time. I will give it a shot and why not?
The chocolate colored sales girl is all smiles and assurance, when she wraps my gift set, a promotional bag of goodies, if I just spend a bit more. 'Even better', I guess it is, as now I purchased the whole line of this promise laden product.
MAGIC, I believe in MAGIC...and fairies for that matter... Clinique, let's see if it joins the two...
Back at ground level I search mountains of bags. I must have done 20 rounds, looking, touching, smelling and diving into leather Everests, confused more and more each time.
I stop myself there and just decide on any bag- which happens to be a DKNY, extremely simple and timeless, in caramel leather. Again, a BARGAIN, for such beauty. I am now exhausted and back outside it is raining heavily.
No cab in sight, but there, once again my favorite Rickshaw, as if waiting for me.
Maybe it all fits with the Cinderella story?
My driver today is from Morocco (is he wearing any of my stolen dresses???) and has no luxurious plastic cover, so I am drizzled on, but I still just love it. I feel free and I can breath in New York, see it, hear it. Very different from the uncomfortable, dirty and loud-undecipherable radio blasting, yellow sardine-box on squeaking rude wheels.
It still baffles me, how the design of a simple taxi has never evolved in a fashionable and happening place like New York.
My driver is by the way very excited, as I am his first costumer, who knows Morocco.
"Do you really" he gasps at me.
"But of course, I love it, it is one of my favorite places" (even though your fellow Moroccans smashed and raided our car this summer...)
Shaking his head he seems in doubt, but smiles when I talk about djellabas and the Bazar.
That was an easy one, of making someone's day!
Djellaba (جلابة) (Moroccan Arabic, also known as Darija (الدارجة)) (also djellabah, galabiya, jellāb(a))[1] is a traditional long, loose-fitting outer robe with full sleeves worn in the Maghreb region of North Africa and in Arabic speaking countries along the Mediterranean.
Prince calls and tells me to book a dinner place for 3, as his colleague will join.
Great, as if I got a huge list of must-tries. (I actually do, but with a business associate?...)
My Michelin list is not small and so I start, with the help of our lovely concierge.
The boys want to eat by 7.30pm, they are ravished they say.
But Michelin universe is not with us. Everything is booked or not available before 10.
I surrender to FROMMER'S. There used to be some good things on his side. So I find a certain ITALIAN, the 1.in NY, still operating and delicious Italian fare. 2 stars by Frommer's, so I give it a shot.
The concierge never heard of it and there was space available, any time.
Maybe then, I should have pulled back, but I did not and so, 30 minutes later, we are in a taxi going to some dodgy area, which used to be a hookers play-ground. (before Rudy Giuliani cleaned it all up) Prince comments, that eateries in such areas tend to be best.
How does he know?
We arrive at a rather inviting west 46th, christmas lights framing the entrance to BARBETTA.
We look inside and wildly shake our heads in the rainy New York night. (only one small umbrella for the 3 of us)
NO!
No!
No!
It may be the oldest place in town, but does it have to look like it?
Not in the mood for a stiff Adam's family dinner, we head for a steak house called "Smith&Wollensky", a suggestion from business associate, but again no table useable for another few hours. Poor boys... they are starving, tongues following the whopping,steaming cow parts flying by on UFO sized plates, when another, heaven-send guest, suggests 5 letters of salvation.
SPARKS.
I think he really felt for the boys or he was send from above.
Sparks, here we come.
In a taxi once again, I tell about my mom's skype call and the bad news of 2010.
Apparently, as seen in the German Bildzeitung (a yellow kind of paper with lots of pictures, especially skin friendly ones) 2010 will be bad news, as 2009 had-has 2 blue moon months. The 2. will appear just now on the last night of December. And this is very very rare!
To explain, a blue moon :
A blue moon is a full moon that is not timed to the regular monthly pattern. Most years have twelve full moons which occur approximately monthly, but in addition to those twelve full lunar cycles, each calendar year contains an excess of roughly eleven days. The extra days accumulate, so that every two or three years (on average about every 2.7154 years[1]), there is an extra full moon. The extra moon is called a "blue moon." Different definitions place the "extra" moon at different times.
-Thank you WIKIPEDIA-
Now, as by very trustworthy Bildzeitung, the last 2 times this has occurred, was just before the 1. and the 2. world-war. Meaning, 2010 can bring no good.
I do hope this newspaper is wrong on this one, as 2009 was already a Pandora box with not much goodies inside.
Finished with this bleak news, the colleague remarks-" Than we must buy oil".
Prince answers: "Let's buy gold".
"No, no I exclaim- FOOD".
Just like out of a movie setting we break into big juicy laughter.
SPARKS looks good. No table,yet, but in 10 we can get seated and fed. Since there is a pretty sizable bar, time for some red tasting.
Our wine by the glass is pretty close to undrinkable (very limited choice by the glass), so we are happy, when the waiter takes us to our table. Time to order something good, because the associate of Prince is a serious wine lover and always knows what to choose. So here we are, "Stag's Leap- Artemis"
Cabernet Sauvignon of 2003.
What an amazing name and logo! I am ready to be surprised, as my knowledge of American wine is pretty much close to ZERO. Ordering our meats from a child size menu (half a meter of food), the wine is served, in style, but still needs some breathing. We are actually very unimpressed by the red, but our waiter promises a change, once given some time. When our spinach salad arrives, the wine is 'more ready' and just beautiful. I am sorry, I am no wine buff, and my choice of words to describe the heavenly liquid are pretty unsophisticated. So to make it simple, it did taste lovely enough, to order a second round. Especially, since our oversized portions (in Europe they serve just pieces, not the whole cow) needed some good vino to be easily swallowed. The meat is delicious though, so soft and tender, shame our dogs are back in Portugal!
Full and sleepy we the dessert menu and head back to 70 Park.
Sweet dreams***
SPARKS
www.sparkssteakhouse.com
210 East 46th Street
New York
212 687-4855
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