Thursday May 10 – Bleary-eyed and unshowered, I went downstairs to say goodbye to Calvin. It was so sad to see him go, and it was something of a sign that I was about to enter the next stage of my New York adventure, too – one that was likely to be very exciting, but a lot more solitary. I grabbed my (now standard) roasted garlic and cream cheese breakfast bagel, and we sat in the common room and chatted until it was time for him to get the bus to the airport. I don’t think he really wanted to leave, but then who would? It’s New York! And so it was “Adios, Calvin!” I’m sure we’ll meet again.
After he was gone, I had a shower, put my thinking cap on and tried to decide how my time could best be spent for the day. In the end, I decided that I needed to collate all the ideas I’d been having, write down all the events I was interested in and put together some sort of plan, because now I was nearly down to 6 weeks instead of two months, and I had a veritable plethora of things that I still wanted to see and do!
And so it was that I had one of those lazy-but-productive days. I sat on my bed in the dorm room, which was pleasantly empty for the day, and took advantage of all the power points and peace. I spread out all the leaflets I’d collected, whittling them down to a reasonable number, and then set about draining the monthly WiFi quota for the hostel by looking up all the events calendars for local parks and venues. I pored over the fabulous http://www.theskint.com , following links to interesting events, and did google searches on swing dance stuff and other items of interest. I was a MACHINE of awesome things to do. Before the day was through, I had about a zillion things on my makeshift calendar which would have to be narrowed down to a more manageable number if I was to get any standard, touristy sightseeing done as well. Blimey! I guess a lifetime really isn’t enough to do everything you want.
Eyes square and back aching from hunching over my laptop all day, I decided I had better actually go outside at some point and seek food and/or human contact. To that end, I went to the Malaysia Grill – just around the corner from the hostel – with my book and an empty stomach. As far as authentic Malaysian food goes, I can’t vouch for it because a lot of the menu looks more Thai, Vietnamese or even Chinese, but what I ordered, I enjoyed. I had the grilled lemongrass pork chop with brown rice, and it was very nice, thank you very much. A lot of the trendies in the restaurant gave me wierd looks, I guess because I was on my own. I found that quite unusual; usually as a traveller I don’t get that kind of trouble en masse with a restaurant crowd. Maybe from one or two tables, but not from everyone. So, either I had horns growing out of my temples that evening or there’s something about the clientele at the Malaysia Grill that makes them… well, rude! 🙂
After dinner I tried to resist temptation, but as with The Borg, “Resistance Is Futile”… I ended up at the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream parlour again, chowing down on giant scoops of delectable yumminess in the shape of Heath Bar Crunch and the Americone Dream. Nom nom nom nom nom!!!
And uh, that about sums up the day really. No wild adventures, but a well-earned rest and some much-needed coordination, which of course didn’t stop there, because as a tourist in New York your choices are endless and I found it almost a full-time job just to keep on top of what I wanted to do! Still, nice work if you can get it…!
Thanks for stopping by,
Tara. 🙂
Born in Hong Kong and raised all over the world, I've been tootling around for 33 years now. A Spanish friend of mine once said that "the smallest pot has the finest marmalade"... I have to agree with her! I'm small but I can still make 6-foot Brazilian bodybuilders cry if the need arises. And I never need to whinge about legroom on a plane!
little tara 
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