Wednesday, August 24, 2011

NYC with friends under the pouring rain

A long planned weekend visit to city seemed to fizzle out as any other plans but at the last moment it worked out fine with the generous help of D and her sister N who gracefully allowed us to bunk our drunk asses at her place.  A long 2 hr train ride took us to NYC, a bit gloomy but cool and breezy. So plan included eating a bit and walking around the city. After a long confusion on where to eat, we eventually ended up in bustling and lively Greenwich village. After a long discussion we decided to stop by Kathi Roll place to hog on to some of the best and delicious lamb and chana masala rolls. The next stop was "3 Sheets Saloon". It was loud, kind of very damp and close bar. Anyways we just had a beer each just to get us going.



What we were looking for was an open seating bar and little quieter place. It was kind of difficult to find such place especially it started to drizzle by then. Anyways we made a stop by a bar which looked a bit less noisy.  So after few drinks we decided to move our asses to South Street Seaport (Pier 17). I have mentioned a lot about this place in my previous posts. Its an awesome place next to river with a nice view of Brooklyn bridge. We  got ourselves a drink and sat next to the river. It was nice and soothing talking there in absence of any noise and under the open sky. Midst all this fun we forgot to realise that the place from were we bought our drinks was closed and we couldn't pay for our drinks. Anyways who doesnt like free drinks. After the drinks  it was time to get some cheap and simple food and hence we grabbed some chicken sandwich and Philly loaded with Jalapenos. Thank god we left at the right time coz it started to pour like anything right after we left. Unfortunately we got cought in rain anyways. Not drenched but we were wet on our walk from the subway station to the house. Trying to run away from the rain I slipped and fell miserably right before the main door. It really hurt. I still have the bruise.  Anyways we had good night sleep with bucket full of rain pouring outside.

The plan of kayaking the very next morning was thwarted by the continuous rain. So it was the perfect opportunity to have a long and lazy breakfast at Le Pain, thanks to D for taking us there. It was awesome with different kind of bread, jams, belgian waffle with berries and soft boiled egg, and not to mention all organic. It was long lazy and delicious breakfast something that I rarely relish.





As we couldn't do much outside, the plan was to enjoy matinee show of The Rise of the Planet of apes. After India this was the first time watching a movie from balcony, something that I rarely got to do in India coz my pocket never allowed the luxury.I thoroughly enjoyed  the movie, engrossing, sensible script, appropriate character development, honest casts and intelligent treatment of the story, nothing too overboard. And obviously Caeser. Alan Serkin as Caeser was awesome. Despite CGI, his eyes conveyed a lot of emotions. Especially the scene in which he draws the window in the sanctuary was heart wrenching. Overall, this is how you make completely entertaining movie with lots of sensibility.

After the movie we walked to whole foods next door to grab some biscotti and coffee for some snack. And soon enough it was time to part our ways and get back to the land of no fun and work with a wishful thinking of doing it again soon.

Thursday, August 11, 2011

Bea(it)ches and water

It was another of those stint with friends. A drove to stony brook to have get his dose of good ole long island. Evening spent drinking, smoking and catching up with tits and bits. Oh yeah and we accompanied D to see the last of harry potter. It was tough to follow what was going on but was filed in by A and D that Harry is trying to kill the "Villain" whose life is hidden in different objects. I have never followed harry potter even though the world was going berserk. May that was the reason why I never felt the interest. If I remember correctly, D was successful enough to drag me for a previous Harry potter movie too. But to her or for that matter my surprise I slept through most of the movie. First time ever in my life. Well you can imagine how much of a fan I am. Anyways the special effects were great. A was watching it for the third time. Kudos to him.

Evening at portjeff

Next day we drove to Greenport (another tip of LI) and took ferry to get to Shelter Island beach. It was kind of cloudy and a bit colder than usual. Not a great time to visit beach for a dip. Surprisingly, water wasn't too cold. In past six years of living in US and 4-5 visits to beaches, this was the first time I actually took a dip in water. It was scary, cold but at the same time a lot of fun too. Oh by the way did I forgot to mention that we spent freaking 40 bucks on a beer and two gin-tonic. It was a big rip-off. SO a sane advice please avoid any drinks/food by the bea(it)ch.



We spent couple of hours in water and rightly so decided to return back as it started to rain by then. We stopped on our way back at Mason Ole to have mexican food, A's favorite. Alas we were deeply disappointed with food except Bean soup. However we had a good laughter due to the following picture..."look at the hand".


Other than the disastrous food, the trip was awesome.

Few more random pictures:
I don't know what they were thinking when they named this dorm.
D with Rascal: he is having time of his life.