Katie Arrives

So its been a couple of days since we last updated everyone. Things here in NYC have been ticking along nicely. Today is Zab and Ruth's last day with us, which is very sad. Its almost two years to the day since we met them at the Legislator Building. It was an interesting day as Ruth had just come of night shift and Zab had just discovered that the office he was supposed to be going to work in for the UN in Africa had just been attacked. My my my time fly's when you are having fun. We will miss them a lot.

Thursday Morning was rather  boring. We went for a workout in Central Park using some chin up bars we found. Afterwards, I went to the laundromat (which I swear is one of my favorite things to do here) while Sam went and got some more groceries. The weather was pretty bad given we'd had such a hot sunny day at Coney Island the day before. There was a thunderstorm and it rained for most of the day.

In the afternoon we explored Greenwich Village a little bit more. While Sam was at a Cafe doing his thing, I went and explored some of the high end fashion shops. I ended up bumping into a dog walker, who was walking four dogs at once and struck up a conversation about the time I worked as a dog walker in Auckland (ah those were the days - Sam's convinced that I actually paid more money in fuel driving to the places to pick up the dogs than what I actually got paid walking. It was worth it though).

From Greenwich Village we caught the E-Train to Queens and met up with Katie. She had flown into JFK and this was the best place to meet her based on the subway routes. Unfortunately, it turned out to be a pretty crazy neighborhood. Its a funny stop because this is where everyone from the wider NY area would catch the subway to get to JFK, so it was a weird mix of travelers with suitcases moving as quickly as they could from the Subway to the Air Train while the rest of the world on the street was a chaotic mix of taxi cabs, angry New York drivers and possibly the most multi-cultural crowd I have ever seen. Anyway, we managed to find Katie (actually we thought we saw her several times before we actually did see her - turns out from behind Katie can easily be mistaken for a African American women (or four). I can't believe that it's been a year since I saw her last. 

Katie was doing pretty well given the long haul flight that she'd just been on (Wellington-Syndey-LAX-JFK) and once we got her back to the apartment and all set up we convinced her to come out to dinner with us at Lombardi's. Lombardi's is hailed as being America's First Pizzeria and was first licensed in 1905. The pizza was amazing we ordered one with meatballs and a garlic spinach and had a refreshing glass of sangria on the side.

Yesterday we let Katie sleep in while Sam and I went for a run in the Park. Once we prized her out of bed, I.V'd her with espresso and got her oriented with our hood (Yes, it is a hood - a least until we get two blocks South then it becomes a really nice area), we headed downtown. We got off the subway at Grand Central Station and let Katie have a bit of a look around. Then we took her for an explore around the Library and then to Time Square. So basically being to Katie what Zab and Ruth have been to us.

 Once we had a bit of a look around and taken in the sights we got on to more important business. Shopping. Well I say shopping, I can't really buy anything as I have no room in my backpack - so Katie went shopping and I lived vicariously through her. We literally shopped for four hours (when I say literally, I mean literally in the true sense - we shopped from 1pm until 5pm).

Katie - shopped out after our four hour session.

After we finished shopping we went home for dinner before once again heading to our local in Bleecker for a cupcake (Molly's Cupcakes that is), heaven forbid that Katie misses out on that key NY experience. Afterwards we went with Ruth and Zab to the Comedy Cellar for some classic NYC stand up comedy. It was hilarious and surprisingly not as rude as we expected. There were five comedians that did their routines during the night, many how made fun of some of the aspects of NY that we have been here long enough to appreciate. It was a fantastic way to spend our last evening with Zab and Ruth.