US / Canada / French Canada Tour 09

It was our last day in NY and one of the reasons we had come here was to shop. And shop we did… and then some.

I went to a nearby H&M (which Ant thinks is torture) and Zara combo. We fingered some merch at Zara, whilst I bought a couple of Tees, a shirt and a new belt for about $60USD at H&M. Of note – I had brought about 7 items into the changerooms and I gave a pile of stuff to the attendant on the way out where she screamed at me “These are supposed to be on the hangers!!”. She then made me stand there whilst she was slowly sorting out the merch. If I had more energy I would have just dumped the stuff on the floor and scream “Deal with it bitch!” but I didn’t. I had the mind of complaining about her behaviour to the checkout but I forgot to.

I continued to subject Ant to more torture by taking him to Best Buys across the street. I perused the movies this time for about 20 minutes and decided to buy a couple of Blu-Ray movies. I had bought a PS3 when we were in Singapore a couple of years ago – and whilst it plays Australian PS3 games, it doesn’t play Australian Blu-Ray or DVDs or PS1/2 games. It is supposedly in the America/Asia zone for Blu Ray – so these are a bit hard to come by in Australia. Touch wood they work when I get back home.

We headed in a downtown direction on 5th Ave where Ant “Spotted” a Gossip Girl Cupcake store – “Crumbs”. Ant, being the cupcake aficionado that he is, couldn’t resist himself and bought a couple of $4USD cupcakes (white choc and choc fudge). He was nice enough to get me the choc fudge one. Just to spoil the moment, I went to the nearby Starbucks and got an underwhelming caffe latte (which is a Flat White).

From here – we decided to split up as Ant wanted to queue up for an Asics Store foot measurement/assessment doodad, whilst I wanted to shop for more clothes. I headed by foot to Macys which is apparently the biggest department store on the planet. It was having a “One Day Sale” on the Saturday, and because it was Friday – it had a “preview sale” today… whatever a preview sale is. That said – it was super busy and it took a long time to get to the change rooms to try things on. I ended up buying a pair of Levis and a shirt for about $100USD. The other day – we signed up for a visitors Macy’s Card – which gives you the ability to get 10% off the price of most things – including if the good is already discounted. Most things at Macy’s seem to mysteriously end up as less than the ticketed price at the checkout for some reason. Sort of feels like Myers back before those pesky Sth Africans took it over.

I then went over to (the shame) K-Mart which was across the road from Macy’s and Madison Square Garden. There wasn’t just one, not two, but three levels of clothing you wouldn’t want to be seen dead anywhere… I bought a cheap coke (coke is super cheap here - $1.75USD is the going expensive rate for coke – and it can be cheaper than this) and yet another PS3 game (which again are super cheap compared to Australia – US$60 for a new release game).

I met Ant back at Macy’s – where he had been assessed by Asics as having one normal foot and the other having a high arch. Not only had he been assessed by Asics – he bought a pair of them (they are really cheap again - $120USD for high-high end runners) and was given a free pair of socks just for the heck of it.

We continued some more shopping at Macy’s – where I bought a couple of retro tees for about $30USD each and a pair of gym shorts. Ant bought a couple of tees and some sports apparel as well.

From Macy’s – we headed down to SoHo in an attempt to find the Brooklyn Exchange store. It was super cold and freezing – feels like there had been a cold change because every other day in NY was nice (except for the first). We made a pitstop at Starbucks where I had to make use of their disgusting facilities (whilst Ant did something sacrilegious and bought a Hot Chocolate).

We ended up finding the Brooklyn Exchange store – which Ant had spotted the other night and thought it looked OK. I walked into the store thinking to myself – I’ve bought enough and I don’t need anything else. I walked out with a “Future Fierce” t-shirt and a hoodie – Ant bought a few t-shirts and a man bag.

We walked around outside for a bit more around SoHo where the weather appeared to be closing in and I was only dressed in a light hoodie so I was frreeezing. We walked into a Hollester store (it is an exact clone of Abbrecombie and Fitch, owned by the people that own A&F – with half naked guys and girls plastered all over the walls, and the same shit clothes but instead of “A&F” it says “Hollester” instead). They also have another store called Reuhl which is a clone of Hollester which is a clone of A&F… genus! It was quite hilarious walking in because they have half naked door attendants who say “Wassup?!” as you walk past. Do you come with the jacket? Anyway – we did a quick lap of the store and made an escape to the next door Zara – where I walked away with a $150US jacket (despite me not wanting to buy anything else).

I think we were well and truly shopped out in NY – and it was sort of getting dark so we made a bee-line to the hotel, did some repacking (where my bag was in danger of exploding with all of the stuff in it).

We were catching up with Chris and Samara who moved from Australia to Connecticut about 6 months ago(?). For those geographically challenged like myself – Connecticut is just north of NY and they live right near the border.

We booked some tickets on a train at Union Station for about $14USD each. It was giving me flashes of the series Mad Man where the man character commutes to and from Manhattan to upstate NY via train back in the 60s. It had felt like the train hadn’t been renovated since the 60s either. The more upstate the train got, the more WASPy things felt. There was this group of African American girls sitting next to us – and I couldn’t work out if they were heavily pregnant or heavily obese (or both). It was sort of like a bad racist stereotype – as they were chowing down on fried nuggets and grape Kool-Aid.

Anyhows – the train to New Canaan took just over an hour and we didn’t really get much of a view of outside (because it was dark outside). When we arrived at New Canaan station – we were a little anxious as our ride hadn’t arrived… and it was pissing down. There was the added bonus of the station not really providing any shelter to the rain. High-five. Anyhow – we waited for about five minutes when Samara finally arrived in a big f##k off SUV to save us.

She gave us a quick tour of New Canaan which was where the Stepford Wives movie with Nicole Kidman was shot… if that gives you an idea about the place. (ie: big white houses, big white picket fences, white people).

We drove to a nearby Mexican restaurant – which was aptly named “Tequila Mockingbird”. There was definitely an emphasis on Tequila – with the restaurant serving over 100 different types of Tequila. We waited for Chris to join us by drinking a margarita except for Ant that was wanting to have a quiet detox night by sticking to “beer”.

Chris shortly arrived - and there was more Mexican food and margaritas to be had. Sam was funny by doing the American thing of negotiating with the waiters to order something a bit different (margarita in a big glass hold the salt)… although they kept serving them maragritas sans salt.

Anyhow – about $300USD later (I think there was four or five rounds of maragritas) – we left to a (as Samara puts it) WASP bar. It was definitely getting all WASPy up in my gash tonight. Samara thought it would be funny if Ant and I kissed which might clear out the bar in no time. Anyhows – we had another drink – and then called it quits for the night. I’m not sure how anyone drove back home sober – but everyone drove back nonetheless.

Chris took us to his place which was about 20 minutes out of New Canaan. It was a three storey (if you include the attic) house which sort of felt a little isolated and Friday the 13th creepy. Izzy – their golden retriever was there to greet us in normal dumb happy golden retriever style.