Luica’s Blog

My first Thanksgiving dinner was great fun! Queenie and I went to a supermarket on West 4th Street and picked-up some ingredients for dinner at David and Ken’s place in Brooklyn.

Queenie was in charge of the turkey while David made clam chowder and Ken was responsible for the delicious corned beef and spaghetti.  Others were also cooking and I was just a little helper.  We ended up with about 20 people and more than 12 dishes and desserts.  The turkey turned out to be really nice and juicy.

It was fun to meet some new friends from Hong Kong, especially in New York. Most of them have a degree in architecture and they went to the same university as Queenie.  We started cooking at three in the afternoon and finished dinner just before midnight.  The journey back to Manhattan was actually not bad.  I guess Brooklyn sounds further away from Mahattan than it actually is.

The weather is terrible today. It hasn’t stopped raining since I woke up at 8 this morning. I hope it will get better this afternoon.

The meal I had with Queenie at Five Ninth was great! I had Pork Belly (Both Ways) - it came as two separate dishes; normal pork belly and sliced pork belly on an egg! The Banana Pudding with dark chocolate ice-cream was the best I have ever had. Queenie had a few drinks and we decided to have an early night, so headed back at 11pm.

Today is the day before Thanksgiving. Apparently, it is a big thing in the US and everybody is so cheerful today. I bet they can’t wait until tomorrow when the long weekend starts. There is already a holiday mood everywhere. The train operator kept greeting us with Happy Thanksgiving and so did the girls at Starbucks.

We are planning to see the preparation of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade tonight after mid-night. It should be good fun!

I woke up quite early this morning at 8:30am.

I walked down to 54 Street and had pancakes and Canadian bacon at the Madison Restaurant. I love the fact that they keep topping up my coffee here in NYC. It was a satisfying, big and unhealthy breakfast all for less than $10.

I was going to follow the self-guided tour in my Lonely Planet through Central Park but the weather was too dispressing to spend an estimated two and a half hours in the park. I changed my plan and took some photos at Times Square, Radio City, Public Library and Grand Central Station before heading to SoHo.

Queenie’s computer is not working so I had to come to the Apple Store to check my e-mail and write this blog. I am a bit disappointed that they haven’t had any iPod socks in yet!

Arrived New York JFK at 6:30pm and was exhausted! It was only less than eight hours’ flight but it felt much longer.

Luckily, I met Lina and Kelly (both in the fashion industry) on the plane. Lina was from Sweden and was so scared of flying that she had to keep drinking whisky. Kelly was a pretty Engilsh girl who liked to watch girlie movies.

It was very kind of them to offer me a ride into Manhattan. It was almost eight when we got out of the cab somewhere on Broadway and 77th Street. I bought a local SIM card from T-mobile (which was quite expensive!) and arranged to meet Queenie at 9:30 in a bar called Public on Elizabeth Street.

It was nice to see Queenie again and I am sure we will have fun for the next seven days!