Thursday 25 June 2009

Just One Of Those Days.....................


I had a lazy start to the day yesterday. Not lazy in terms that I didn't get up, more lazy in terms that I didn't go out until the early afternoon,as I was busy faffing about with photos and cursing the computer for being a Mac and not a PC - yeah I know they are prettier, but it's over ten years since I had one and I've forgotten all of the keyboard shortcuts, and besides it was raining - again.

By around 2pm I've finished and decided to go to the Guggenheim Museum. I put my camera in my bag, and my waterproof and set off, walking up to Madison, then catching a bus up to 89th St. On the bus i sit and watch the streets roll by, then my eye is taken by a man who got onto the bus and is carrying three large circular platters of sushi, which are covered with clear plastic lids and taped together for ease of carrying in one hand, in his other hand he has a carrier bag of unknown substance. As we travel up Madison the bus gets busier and busier, and the man with the sushi is looking decidedly nervous. MY guess is that his goods are probably for a dinner party or cocktail evening, and probably cost a couple of hundred dollars. At first he tries to keep anyone from sitting next to him, even thought there people standing, but eventually a rather smartly dressed woman insists he moves and allows her to sit. She's only there for three blocks, then she alights at 57th St, and most of the other people that are standing do too, and by 61st, there is plenty of room on the bus and the man with the sushi looks slightly less worried and laces it on the seat next to him to answer his phone - yep you guessed it - two men get on the bus and on their way to the back of the bus, the driver has to break suddenly for one of the kamikaze taxi drivers and one of them loses his balance and gets thrown so he sits on the expensive take away. 'Sushi man' gets a bit irate, meanwhile 'sush squasher' protests his innocence and blames the driver, the driver blames the taxi driver, and then tells sushi man he should have had it delivered anyway. Sushi man says his wife will kill him and wants 'sushi squasher' to pay for a replacement. Sushi squasher tells him to do something unlawful with the sushi - it's as good as any Broadway comedy. Then just as the 'seaweed might hit the fan', so to speak, the police arrive, and try to calm the situation down. I desperately want to take a photo, but daren't, and I've been dying to laugh, but have been biting my lip hard to stop myself (I can do it occasionally when I have to). The policemen stay on the bus until both injured parties have left at their respective stops. The advise sushi man to tell his wife it was an accident, and they sit down, but this time I can't bite my lip any longer and I have to say to them, maybe it wasn't an accident, maybe it was an 'act of Cod' and the back of the bus erupts with laughter, as we have all been dying to laugh but not dared to until sushi man had left.

By the time I get to my stop most of the audience of the sushi incident have left and the policemen too. I walk two blocks in the sunshine and then I get my first glimpse of the Guggenheim, the Frank Lloyd Wright building, which is celebrating its Golden Anniversary this year. I take my camera out of my bag and set up a shot from the side street, press the button, and the display says - battery dead! Now I know what it's like to have your sushi sat on.

I decide not to go into the museum after all, as if I can't take any pictures, there seems to be little point, so I decide to come back another day and walk a little way down Fifth Ave by Central Park, before catching another bus that will drop my by St Patrick's Cathedral. No Sushi man this time. As I leave the bus I feel a few spots of rain, there's a tremendous clap of thunder and the heavens open. I step into the nearest door, which happens to be a rather high class cigar shop. A gentleman asks if he can help, and I tell him I just want to get my coat out of my bag and then I'll be on my way.

It takes about 45 minutes to walk home in the rain, as the buses are full, and I don't like the subway, as to me it feel like you are traveling inside a central heating system, a very old, dirty and smelly heating system.

By the time I arrive home I am well and truly soaked from the bottom of my waterproof down, and drip quite unceremoniously in the lift. I have just enough time to grab a sandwich and get changed and then head back out to see Diana Krall at Carnegie Hall.

For those of you that aren't familiar with her music I have put a link to a site below. Carnegie Hall was very impressive, as was Ms Krall, her quintet and the orchestra. The ninety odd minutes passed too quickly, with a combination of material from her new album 'Quiet Nights In' and some from her older albums.

The bus ride home was thankfully uneventful, and the short walk thankfully dry.


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