Finally getting around to doing the recap of NYC trip…
Thursday night flew in on a Virgin flight. I arrived 1 hour late having managed to watch Volver (the new Pedro Almodovar) and The Queen on my flight. Got into JFK, ran through customs and hopped in a fast-driving taxi on my way into the city. I was staying at Greg’s loft in Tribeca which happened to be on the fifth floor. You can imagine how thrilled I was to look up the long, narrow stairwell and realise that there was no elevator. Thankfully, Greg being the gentleman that he is carried my rather hefty suitcase up the stairs. I took a quick shower, was introduced to his flatmate Ori, drank a few glasses of wine and then we ran out to meet up with our old friend Dan.
greg’s loft
Went to 66 right around the corner from Greg’s place. It was a cute Asian fusion lounge restaurant. Turns out that Dan lives exactly one block from Greg which made our meeting for dinner that much more convenient given my jetlag was approaching rapidly. Downed a few vodka tonics, ate some dim sum and then headed to the Tribeca Grand for a few more drinky-poos with Dan (Greg had ditched us at this point since he is super Mr CEO responsible guy now).
Next day woke up at about 5 am freezing my ass off and not able to sleep anymore. Sat in the living room of the loft contemplating purchasing about 12,000 pairs of wool socks and finally fell asleep for 2 more hours. Received a call from Benji around 11 – he had flown in from Vienna the night before – and made a date to meet at Bathazar for lunch at 12.30.
benji and steph at balthazar
Balthazar was lovely. Had some steak tartar (yum raw beef for breakfast) and then Benji and I started having a few cocktails. White wine, glass of vodka, the usual. Then we decided to take a stroll and do some shopping while we waited for the boys to arrive on their flight from Vienna.
I love shopping in New York or the States for that matter. It is so great to be paid in sterling and then shop in the US. Like 2 for 1 everywhere! Ended up purchasing quite a few things. My jetlag was starting to rear its ugly head again, but we kept on. Finally the boys (Albi and Thomas) arrived when Benji and I were having some champagne at the Soho Grand so we jumped in a cab and headed on over to Philippe’s flat in Union Square to meet them.
Got to Philippe’s and started to make our plans for the evening. Not an easy prospect to get a dinner reservation anywhere cool for 8 people at 7.30pm on a Friday, but we somehow managed.
Headed to Greg’s where we had a few more glasses of wine and off again to meet up with the crew at Blue Water Grill for some dins. Food was good (not great) although my jetlag didn’t really allow me to eat anything anyway. Drank a few cocktails and had some laughs.
philippe, steph and thomas at blue water grill
And this is when we really realised that it was Halloween weekend in NYC. Crapola! I forgot how seriously Americans take Halloween having been absent for the festivities for the past 6 years. And it really wasn’t even Halloween until the following Tuesday, but parties were in full swing and all the girls were out in their best slut costumes. No wonder guys love Halloween!
dinner folks
After dinner we ran out into the pouring torential rains to steal taxis from people and headed off to a bar that was holding a Halloween party. At this point I was feeling a bit tired so I opted to ditch the bar and went back to Philippes with a six pack of Heinekin. Ended up falling asleep on the sofa. The boys rolled in around 5 and started talking to me which I completely loved. NOT. Slept until 9 am then went back out into the flash flood to find a taxi home to Greg’s house. Arrived to Greg’s only to find that he himself had not made it home yet. I guess I missed a pretty eventful evening!
Again, woke up at about 10 and got ready for brunch with the crew down at the Stanton Social Club in the Lower East Side. Had a wonderful breakfast with little donuts and pancakes and other magical little tapas dishes. The chef of the place was in love with Lucy and kept sending up complimentary dishes. Yum! Afterwards went and did a little shopping and strolled around in the rain. Ended up in Soho eventually and spent even more money. The whole goal of the afternoon was to get our Halloween costumes for the evening which is a little more difficult than one can imagine. We ended up choosing a group outfit and finally we were done.
albi and steph at stanton
Michael arrived from Los Angeles and then the legendary Johnny from London so at long last the entire posse of Austrians and myself were together for our crazy evening out on the town. I met up with the boys at a small loft party where we dominated the scene dressed as the Boy Scout Troop from Den #2 with only myself as the girl scout. Loved it. After a few vodkas we headed out to another loft party down the street which was absolutely amazing. Complete with two Borats and lots of other good looking folks having a great time. That lasted for a little bit longer and we were out in the blistering cold again to yet another loft.
the borats
We finally ended up at Pure/Pear (can’t remember) where we had a table booked. 4 bottles of vodka and a lot of crazy dancing later (the place now tops my list of bad clubs) we all headed back to Philippe’s where we contemplated the sexual virility of 30 year old women (contemplated, I said – not practised so get your minds out of the gutter). I ended up in a taxi in my boy scout uniform on my way home around 7 am where I fell into a deep and peaceful slumber for about 3 hours.
the troop
Spent all of Sunday on the sofa at Greg’s watching the 60″ tv and ordering from various delis in town. We ended up being so desperate, stupid and hungover that we actually watched the entirety of Oliver Twist AND discovered that CSI is about the worst written show in the entire world, not to mention far too much about the world of competitive eating. I digress.
The boys phoned me for dinner at about 7.30 and after vehemently refusing (at least in my own head) to go, I got up and got dressed. Met up with Michael, Thomas and Benji at Le Souk for some wine then ended up downstairs at the club for a few cocktails. Yes, I am a trooper. Got home around 3 and passed out.
Last day, Monday got up at 9 and packed up the room that I had completely destroyed with all my shopping bags and 17,000 outfits. Met up with the boys (Benji, Thomas, Johnny and Mike) at Balthazar for brunch which we happened to miss by about 10 minutes so ended up having lunch. Walked around town again for a little more shopping time, it was a gloriously crisp and sunny day. Finally around 4 pm we had to catch our taxi to the airport with our taxi driver named Butt Faisal. Exhausted.
thomas and johnny
I had arrived a bit too early at the airport since the boys had their flight to Vienna 2 hours before me so I ended up getting a massage, manicure and foot massage at the Express Spa in JFK. What a great invention. I love that place.
Got on my flight, took 1/2 a sleeping pill and passed out for the entire 6 hours which happened to be the most I had slept the entire weekend.
HILARIOUS time with the band again… Wonder where we will end up for the winter break?!?
