I love this city!

Careful … long post ahead …

This day was fantastic. There’s just no other word for it. It began – as any day should – with a nice, long hug on the corner of Central Park West and 59th. Don’t you just love the “Free Hug” people? I do. There was a small group of women doing the hugging this morning, and of course I couldn’t resist. A good start to my day.

I was actually on my way to having breakfast. I sort of remembered this diner on 6th Ave from about 12 years ago, and I was very happy to see it was still going strong. I managed to grab a nice table right away, and then had the nicest conversation with the two English ladies at the next table. Only here will you ever catch me just chatting up people I don’t know … Anyroad, they were from London and we had a nice chat about – among other things – Harrod’s and the old letch who owns it, Hitler’s influence on German sensibilities today, and German school curricula. Yes, nothing like a bit of light conversation to start your day.

I bid the ladies goodbye after an hour and enough coffee to keep me going for a while and took a stroll down 5th Ave, sort of meandering in the general direction of the Broadhurst Theater. Took a few photos on the way – OK, I admit … more than a few – and ended up at the theater just in time to see Richard Griffiths, Daniel Radcliffe, and Kate Mulgrew arrive. The guys were hard to miss as they arrived in honking huge black cars but I almost missed Kate, as she just walked up to the theater. Besides, she IS tiny, Even in her high-heeled boots she only came up to my nose. But oh she looked great in a nice leather jacket and jeans. :-)

After a bite to eat and another coffee I went back to the theater to enjoy “Equus”. The play is great and I really did enjoy it much more than I thought I would. Of course I can’t remember much of what went on in the scenes with Kate except for her but the rest was brilliantly written and acted. Poor Daniel, however, was pretty sick and kept coughing throughout the play. Very professional of him to go on stage anyway.

Today was the last day of the BC/EFA charity drive, and after the show they were collecting donations. I got to talking to one of the stage people who were holding a collection bucket and wished him well for the “Gypsy of the Year” event. I’m sure they’re going to win and told him so. He seemed quite happy and managed to conjure up a nice little something for me for my donation. I am now the proud owner of an “Equus” playbill. Signed by the whole cast. Yes, all of them. Even the horses. Whee! That’s almost as good as having seen Kate in front of the theater.

After the play I got something to eat and then walked over to Bryant Park to watch New Yorkers of all ages fall on their butts on the skating rink. This is a free rink, and it was absolutely full. Fun to watch, and there’s a nice bar right next to it as well as a nice little holiday market. By now it was really dark, so I decided to change locations and went uptown to Harlem for a spell. I took a nice walk along Frederick Douglass Blvd and up to the Apollo Theater but it was way too cold to walk around for long. Oh yeah, I haven’t mentioned yet that it was below zero in NYC today, have I? I think the news this morning said something about “feels like -10°C”, and it sure did.

I ended the day with a short stop at the American Museum of Natural History to take a photo of the Christmas raptor they have instead of a Christmas tree. Actually they have two. Then another stop at the huge B&N at the Lincoln Center for an Eggnog Latte and some dessert, and then back to the Y for a hot shower. Well, semi-hot. Seems like more people had that idea at 10pm … the water was hot for about a minute and turned ice-cold after that. Fun when you still have shampoo in your hair …

But even that really couldn’t ruin the day I had. Let’s see what tomorrow brings. I can’t wait.