2nd show day in New York….

So its been nearly a week since i ran or worked out, i was determined to go for a run today so last night at the meet up i arranged to meet Jason at his hotel and both of us go up t central park for a run. As it turns out Jason had forgot!  Also it appears that my running shorts that i brought with me from the UK are still hung on the back of hotel bedroom door in…… Cleveland!! ugghh. I went down to Paragon sports  about 10 blocks from the apartment and bought a pair of cheap black shorts.

When i was on my way back  yesterday from shopping i noticed one of those bill board type paintings being done on the side of a huge building. There were 2 gantries going down the building, the guys on the right were white washing the wall and the guys on the left were painting the mural for a soon to be released film. I've seen these before but never seen how they are done and was amazed.

I also took my camera down today and on the way back took a few more shots to see how far they had got in 24 hours.

   

It was crazy watching them paint, they had what looked like a hug line drawing  on the whole wall but I've no idea how on earth they stand back and look at it as they go along to see if everything looks ok!! These actually look like photographs when they are done as anyone who has seen them in NY will tell you.

 

I got changed into my running gear and then went over to the Hotel Pennsylvania to see if Jason was there but he wasn't. I took the subway up to central park and started a run round the reservoir. Its a great little run and you get to see all building on the East and West side of the city while running. Man could i feel all those canolis, steaks, Long Islands etc in me!! it was like i was sweating them all out on my run. Its about a 1.5 mile track around the reservoir and it nearly killed me!! i didn't give up though and also ran from the park all the way back down to East 28th street (from East 90th) they say each block in NYC is about 2/3 of a tenth of a miles so you work it out!

Brads wife Julee had been out the night before with one of her friends, the first time since she had had baby Milla 8 months ago! They went to a new Italian Market place type thing that also had restaurants in it and was called Eataly.As i was gasping for air and feeling like id just run a marathon Julee was telling me how good of a place it was and how nice the food was. I went in the bedroom and crashed out for a couple of hours before having a shower and getting ready to go to the bar to meet up with everyone. I felt great tonight, the run was exactly what id needed and i felt so much better than i had the last few nights since not doing anything apart from eating and drinking.

I headed out around 3:30 and walked down to say hi to a friend in one of brads stores. As i was walking back and toward the meet up bar i saw  the sign for the place Julee had been telling me about, Eataly. it was amazing inside, it was like an authentic Italian market with store fronts to buy cheese, wine, Parma ham , gelato, fresh pasta etc etc at the back of the complex were five or six places that you could eat, these included pasta, Pizza, cooked chicken and ham and cheeses.

The fresh meet, Pasta and ham counters at Eataly

   

I headed to the pizza area and put my name down for a table for one, she said to come back in 15 minutes. I wandered around some more in awe at the foods, they were all so fresh and looks amazing.

The bread, chicken and dessert counters.

 

I headed back to the pizza place and ordered a margarita and a glass of red wine. They cooked the pizza right in front of you in a huge log fired brick over and all the pasta was freshly cooked right in front of your eyes.

It was THE nicest pizza i have ever had in my life!! seriously, it was so light and fresh and tasted so good!!

Maria called to see what time i would be at the bar and to see where i was, “heaven” i told her, that's where i am,lol For anyone that lives or visits NY i would 100% recommend this place, its on 23rd and 5th. I shall be going back in few weeks time when I'm in NY again that's for sure. Can you tell from the above that i liked this place ?? lol

Maria was with a few others and had just got Roger to sign a couple of things as he drove in through the entrance to MSG, its cool to hear he is still doing this, he would always sign things if there were people outside waiting. I headed up to the meet up bar and it was great to see Greg and Scott make it up from Philly. We had THE best time at this bar in 2006 and drunk far too many long island iced teas! i think the bar knew Greg and Scott were coming as the frst Long Islands they bought were pretty small compared to the second ones! Theres no trying to con these two guys when it comes to Long Islands!!

Long islands: Greg, Myself and Scott: Mark & Beth, my surrogate mom and dad!: Emil, Greg and Scott

     

Was also great to see my friend Thomas and his son Dennis had made it over from Germany. Elliot & Vito from Queens had made it tonight as had Joe from NJ whom we’d met up with in Boston earlier in the week.

Emil and I                                                  Group shot after the show 

   

 

Second New York show details and trip up here to Buffalo( where i am now) coming soon

Road trip starts now……….

 

So i have 10 days with a rental car now:

New York to Buffalo (today)

Buffalo to Washington DC

Washington DC to Long Island

Long Island to Hartford (via Cape Cod)

Hartford to Newark

Might be a bit of a delay in Blog posts for the next couple of days but will try and get some stuff up when i can. Had a great night last night at the show. Was funny to watch Jim Carey rocking out  who was sat right in front of us, kinda hard to take a pic when he was that close! Here heis below sat with Rogers girlfriend. Also a pic of everyone after the show. More details soon.

So what do you all think Roger is thinking ?

Thanks to my friend Col from Hull for this excellent picture!

New York day 2…….

Its been a while since i was in NY, 2 years i think, it used to be my second home! I've known my friend Brad who lives here since 1999 we met through Rogers music and have been good friend for the last 10 years!

I was an usher at Brads wedding 3 or 4 years ago. I had made and brought him a Dark Side of The Moon Yhamakee for his wedding, we both wore one and It went down a storm at the wedding and everyone knew i was Brads “pink floyd friend”

I woke around 9am and left the apartment around 10. Walked down to Union Square and did a bit of shopping and then walked over to see a friend who works in one of Brads stores. I met up with my friend Paula for lunch and she took me to a great place a couple of blocks from where she works on West 20th St. It’s an old church that used to me a nightclub called Limelight, it was a pretty infamous place and became a bit of a drug hangout and got a real bad reputation from what i can gather. They've turned it into small gift stores inside and in the back there's a great make your own salad bar and a nice little sandwich place. Its the kind of place you'd go to buy a gift and get something either hand made or something that you wont be able to find in the rest of New York. It was quiet inside and i really hope it takes off  and doesn't close down due to not being known about!

Paula had a salad and i had a caprese baguette, it was great to catch up. I've known Paula for the last 10 years and with the exception of last year (and soon this year) id been at her place for Thanksgiving dinner for the last 6 years!! as i said, NY used to be my second home!

I walked back to the apartment via a few stores and got back around 2pm. Chilled out for a couple of hours before making my way over to the meet up place just across the street from Madison Square Garden. On the way i called in to the Hotel Pennsylvania to meet my friend Jason, he had flown over from the UK yesterday just to see the two MSG shows. We got to the meet up around 4:30 and Renate and Eric were there already.

After 30 minutes or so the place was packed!! We had all met up here since 2002 and it was kinda tradition to meet up at this bar before the shows now. if its fine then they open the rooftop patio and its a great place just to chill out and drink, eat and people watch over the edge onto 33rd street!

RON and Col arriving                 Paul, Natalie and I                    Thomas, Myself and Thomas’s son

   

Col, Renate and Myself                     Jason and Emil                               Mark, Kami, Maria, Thomas & Beth

   

A good friend of mine Thomas in San Diego wasn't able to make the show tonight but he sent his sister along instead who sent him a message back!!

It was also Ron's birthday today and Beth had been out earlier in the day and bought a cake, after a few problems with the manager at the bar not wanting us to bring outside food in we arranged that we could open the cake, add the candles and do the happy birthday thing but we wouldn't eat the cake on the premises.

Ron opening his Birthday card

    

Rons birthday cake

We stayed in the bar till around 7:15 before all of us making our way over to the venue across the street. We bumped into the “homeless man” Brent outside the venue and had a good chat with him.

Took a great panorama made up of three pictures inside the venue after the show:

More pictures from the meet up here:

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New York day 1…

Maria, Renate and i took a cab into Manhattan from JFK. I was staying with my friend Brad, Maria was at a hotel 2 streets away from me and Renate was at a hotel on the west side of the city.

My friends Brad and Julee had had a baby girl Milla 8 months ago and this was the first time id got to see her.

 

I took a walk down to my friends UPS store (he owns  seven Manhattan UPS stores) and dropped off a box that i had been carrying for the last week. Jens had ordered some shoes for his girlfriend and when they arrived they had sent the wrong size so i arranged to send them back by UPS but hadn't had chance to take them to a store to drop them off since Boston. Brad and i hung out for an hour before i headed back to the apartment and wrote yesterday blog.

Milla is adorable and hardly ever cries.we sat and watched TV together and Julee introduced me to  Yo Gabba Gabba, what a shame i wasn't in town the night before as they were doing a live show at Radio City Hall! so upset that i missed it,lol

We ordered Chinese takeout for dinner and just relaxed and chatted till i went to bed around 10pm

Goodbye Boston, Hello New York……

I hardly slept at all last night probably got an hours sleep in total, just kept waking up and couldn't get to sleep at all. We got the hotel shuttle at 9:30am, we had checked in online for the Jet Blue flight to New York so didn't have to be there real early. Got to the airport around 10 and sailed through security, got a couple of Yoghurt Parfaits at the Starbucks and sat in the departure lounge waiting for the flight.

I slept pretty much all the way to NY and remember waking up a couple of times and the turbulence was pretty bad and for the first time ever i felt a bit ill on the flight! It was only 5 minutes to landing and by the time we touched down i felt better.

Goodbye rainy Boston                                          Hello rainy New York

   

My friend Renate from Switzerland was flying into JFK 10 minutes after our arrival so we took the air train over to terminal 8 and met her off her flight, then Maria, Renate and i shared a cab into New York.

The Danes go home….

Maria and i took a taxi to a hotel near the airport where we were staying for one last night before flying to New York tomorrow. Lars, Jens and Thomas headed out in a taxi to get some breakfast.

The hotel was a good 10 minute cab ride north of Boston, managed to check in early and just laid on the bed and did my blog for a couple of hours before speaking to the guys, finding out where they were and taking a cab back down into Boston.

They were al sat in a bar around the corner form the hotel, Jens was sat there with his foot up on a chair, a beer in his hand and couldn't have been happier! We all joked how Thomas and Lars would have some fun at the airport pushing Jens around in a wheelchair. Whilst the swelling had looked to have gone down a touch the bruising was now coming out and it was black and blue both sides of his ankle.

My friend Glenn was coming down from Portland for tonight's show and he called to say he was half an hour away. We met Glenn in 2001 when he came over for Gilmour's shows in London, id driven up to see him 4 or 5 years ago one time when i was in the US but Jens hadn't seen him since 2001. He arrived with hi son Ryker who he was taking to the show. We all headed to the reception of what had been our hotel for the last 3 nights and sat and chatted in the lobby till it was time to say goodbye to Jens, Lars and Thomas. There were a few tears shed and i was real sad to see the guys go, we'd had some great times over the last 3 weeks and all 3 really are great guys, I'll miss them on the rest of the tour that for sure.

Maria, Glenn, Ryker and i met up with Mat and Drew who had been to all the Boston shows so far and al walked across the street to pick up some tickets and head inside the venue. I’ll do a review later for the show but suffice to say it was another cracking show which i saw from the front rail.

We met up after the show at the same place we had the night before but now there was only 4 or 5 of us in the group. Glenn headed back to Maine and we headed out for a drink before Mat and Drew left Maria and i in the bar, and then there were two!! We got a cab back to the hotel via McDonalds as Maria hadn't eaten all day and was craving junk food! We went through the drive through in the cab and all the cab driver seemed to be worried about was his credit card machine had stopped working and kept asking us to make sure we had enough cash to pay him! Even as we went through the drive though he shouted “ don't spend all your cash, my credit card machines broken, i need you to pay me cash”

Night out in Boston

So it was a night off last night, no show to go to. We all agreed it would be good to head out and have some nice food in a real restaurant for a change! Thomas and Maria arrived at our room around 7pm and we headed out to walk over to the North End area which is Boston's Italian district. It was real busy and we were thinking we may have to wait an hour to get a table at most of the restaurants. We passed a few places and walked past Mike Pastry’s, the line outside was real long and id guess there must have been at least a half hours wait just to get through the entrance into the shop!

We headed further down the street and found a nice looking restaurant with an outdoor patio to the side along with a roof top patio and indoor tables as well. After asking how long it would be for a table of 5 we were surprised when the hostess said about 10 minutes! the place was packed!! 15 minutes later we were seated outside on the patio. 20 minutes after that we were seated at a table indoors! it was freezing outside so the waiter arranged for us to go inside.

Outside on the patio.                                 Table inside

 

We ordered a very nice bottle of red wine that I've had before when I've been in the US, its not cheap but Lars, Jens and i were sharing it so that made it a bit easier. When it came and Lars took a sip he loved it! It is the smoothest red wine I've ever had.

Lars and Jens had pretty much decided on the 18oz Lamb porterhouse steak, however, when our waiter told us the specials he said they had a Bison ragu on the menu tonight! Bison has been on Lars’s list of food he wants to eat for a while so they were both now totally stuck as to what to order, they chose the Bison in the end, I had decided on having the Caprese and then the Taglatellia as a main.

Lars went out for a cigarette and did his usual scary face at the window and Thomas joined in this time! (click on Thomas’s picture for a larger version to see his scary eyes!)

 

Our waiter did the rounds around the table and Thomas asked for the dish that had Octopussy in it! We all just busted out laughing and explained to Thomas it was indeed Octopus. The waiter came round to me and for some reason the words that came out of my mouth were not what i was going to choose. I’ll have the veal T bone with the Truffle mash and truffle oiled onions i said!!

      

It was great to just sit in a nice place and eat some decent food, we all agreed we should have done this a little earlier in the tour instead of the greasy cafe breakfasts and burgers for dinner!

We headed back to the hotel and called at Mikes Pastry’s on the way so that Maria and Thomas could buy some and see the store, it was their first experience of Mikes. Maria and Thomas then took a cab back to their hotel and Lars, Jens and I headed back to our hotel.

 

At first i thought Jens was dancing!! however when he actually went down onto the road i knew he’d fallen. There was a small pot hole in the road just by the curb and Jens hadn't seen it and twisted his ankle straight in it as he stepped off the curb! he fell straight down, don't worry Thomas and I managed to make sure the box of Cannolis were fine! The box landed flat on the road!

He hobbled back to the hotel and it had clearly swollen up like a balloon by the time we got there. The girl in the hotel reception was very nice and went and got some ice wrapped in a towel, when she returned she went a bit pale after seeing his ankle and we were more bothered about her passing out that we were about Jens!

Jens’s foot at the hotel:

 

His foot was getting bigger every second and we could see it swelling up more as we stood and looked at it! he made it up to the room, iced it and elevated it on the bed. We were all just thankful that it happened the day before he was leaving and not the day he got here! Lars asked him if he needed anything or needed the TV turning on or anything else and was talking to him like he had an hour left to live! Jens shouted “I'm not fucking dying you know”,lol

 

Woke around 9am this morning, had a shower, packed my case, went downstairs and had 3 boiled eggs and two slices of toast for breakfast! Felt great to eat some “normal” food for breakfast again. I then headed upstairs and found Lars eating his last connoli, i remembered i had one left in the fridge!! Ugggghhhhh it had to be eaten! that's it though now now more sugar for me!

Jens’s foot was still badly swollen this morning, he hadn't had a great nights sleep at all and could hardly walk on his foot when he got out of the bed! Lars went downstairs to get the luggage trolley for us all, during this time Maria and Thomas arrived at our hotel. Getting the luggage down was the easy part, getting Jens down was going to be the hard part! until we thought of the luggage trolley!!

Moving jens to the reception

The receptionist gave us a bandage and i did my magic on his foot! I wrapped the bandage pretty tight to keep compression on it and said if your toes start to turn blue then we’ll slacken it off. Sure enough after 5 minutes we could see it was on too tight, Lars wanted to leave it on and see how blue we could get his toes  but we slackened it off for him.

        

 

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