NO MORE SOUP FOR YOU!

Alrighty then. Time for another hot dose of Tez and Mark's BLOG! (as dodgy as that sounds, and smells....;)

For those of you that are still with us and have not zoned out after day 0, or those did not nod off at the sheer mention of "Tez & Mark's most Excellent US Adv......zzzzzzzz", you will be happy to note that New York has given us tales, trials and tribulations. All told with a waft of pretentiousness and geekiness, with a touch of naivety, that just seems to come being in our general company...

Today, we are definitely in a New York State of Mind. And what better way to kickstart the day (after our midnight 'Sleepless in Seattle'-esque style rendezvous atop the Empire State Building - I was Meg Ryan....) with a visit to the Soup Nazi himself! NO SOUP FOR YOU! (for all you Seinfeld lovers you will know what this is referring to, and to all those that don't, well, that is just sad and we don't think we should be associated with you anymore......Kidding!).

He has turned into quite the franchise ol' Mr Soup Nazi, but of course these political correct days, he calls himself 'The Soup Man'. I had the Lobster Bisque, and Bondy had the Seafood Bisque.

Seafood bisque before.

Seafood bisque after.

Yes, yes, i know. Years ago I would not have gone NEAR a Bisque let alone knew how to spell it, but here we are...). Both were awesome, and although not quite as good as the Lobster Bisque from the previous night at Chez Josephine's (which WAS about 47 times more expensive...), it came with a crusty bread roll, a banana (?!?) and a small Lindt chocolate ball (?!?!?!?!?). Nice touch Soup Nazi. NEXT!....
Time for the 'Blurgh' trip of our trip. And before you think we are going to get down and disgusting (that's for later), those '30 Rockers' out there (think I might trademark that call right there) might realise we are off to The Rockefeller Plaza! (no skanks allowed...) Apparently Rockefeller Plaza has THE best view of NYC and it does not disappoint. Check out these amazing pics!

The Rockefeller Building

View of Central Park from Rockefeller

View of the Empire State Building and city

The Big Apple (yes, we are on a nickname basis now) is an amazing city, with the city skyline an amazing thing to behold, and I recommend the Rockefeller to get all those picture postcard perfect shots from there. Absolutely amazing. We visited actual 30 Rock, and bought up geekily big in the NBC Studios shop. T-shirts, Fridge Magnets, i-Phone holders, What the WHAT?!?!!? Shopping for geek items. Good times.....

30 Rock!

Now, off to The Daily Planet! For all you Superman aficionados, you will know of course that here is where Clark Kent and Lois Lane work. And despite there being no more old school phone booths anymore to quickly get changed into costume, and the fact that The Daily Planet was a little unrecognisable now, we could still feel the aura of 'Supes' in the air.

The Daily Planet

Revolving doors where Clark Kent transforms into Superman

We also checked out Grand Central Station which is another amazing building. Many films were shot here, including the first X-Men movie amongst countless others. Is still tres old school and has all of that old school charm (not totally unlike your modest hosts of course...).

After another day of much walking, we thought it time to douse our fiery feet and throats with a sampling of some NYC beer! Decided to get somewhat frocked up (ie. deodorant...) we decide to do as members of the village do. We go to the Village! We take the advice from our lovely young ballet-training gay Subway friend, and hit the streets of Chelsea, THE happening gay area of NYC apparently, but from what we've seen, there's members of our batting team everywhere (not that there's anything wrong with that...). We decide to check out a Sports Bar first, a gay one! Called Gym! Well, gay guys like sports like any guy? Or is that more that they like guys who PLAY the sport....;) Either way, we check it out, and the beer goes down a treat in this 30 plus degree beautiful weather. We decide to go for something to eat, but upon our leaving we get held up by a hot built african-american guy who calls us the 'new' guys, but also the 'hot new' guys. As we leave the building blushing and giggling, "oh, stop it you...." we walk up the road with a new sense of chest pump. Time for another gin and soda methinks please Miffanwe!

For food, we decide upon a great looking Greek place called 'Nisos' with a great menu, some lovely service and fine wine. Oraiaos indeed!!! We have some clams in a nice broth for entree, with myself having the swordfish fillet and Mark having a lovely little linguine with steamed mussels and asparagus, topped off with a nice bottle of Greek wine that I shall not even bother attempting to pronounce...

Yum.

Time for another Bud Light methinks...We track down another Sports Bar. What is with the gay fellas and their sports??? Has it to do with the competitive drive and teamwork, the passion of the game, the physical stamina and endurance? Or the fact that lots of well built fit blokes run around in sometimes not much at all, patting each other on the a**. Hmmmm, maybe a bit of both ;) Shall leave it with you...

We meet some lovely people at this bar. (Viv and crew you know who you are...!!) And we meet an assortment of characters, of all levels of sobriety, some bordering on seedy, but nothing a quick backhand can't fix! Much guffaws and D&Ms later, we head for home, not sober, not regurgitatingly legless, just that happy medium. :)

The next day after all, is our day of shopping, where we visit Woodbury Common, a shopping mall so huge that it has its own Zip Code. Factory Outlets galore, where, given the state of the Aussie dollar, you can buy a Armani Suit for $13.60 and still have room for a tip. Bring on the excessive Credit-laden goodness!

And of course, for the main event..... Alicia..... But you are going to have to wait for that one....

Til next time transfixed viewers, and those viewers that are reading our Blog like driving past a car crash. Disturbing, ugly and with the slight smell of burnt rubber, but still, you can't look away.

I dare you to look away....

TW