Wednesday, April 23, 2003

 
I am still digesting all those New York impressions and things I have forgotten about: wailing police / fire engine / ambulance sirens, musicians in the subway .. body oder in the subway ... wearing socks again ... wearing SHOES again. People coming up with loud stories in the subway asking for money, 80% of people wearing headphones, trying to ignore each other as much as possible. Restaurants asking for "20$ food order per person minimum". Seeing tax / calculating tip on the check. Fighting over taxi cabs. Doormen. Dry cleaners on every block. Blocks. Cable internet connection ... i must have downloaded 4 GB of data today ... in ONE day ... the ISDN plan I may get in Fiji will cost me 5 times of what I would pay in NYC and I am restricted to half a GB for the whole month .. sigh. Cable TV .. around 100 channels yeah !

Tonight we went to the opera to watch La Boheme. We met Ritsu's friend Yuka and had food at PaneVino, which is the closest to the opera. What was nice was that we were promply seated and the waitres took into consideration to ask if we are going to the 8 PM show. So our food showed up fast ... I had seared salmon, and while not bad in preparation, the bread that came with it had more flavor and the red beet sauce and the asparagus were just the wrong combination .. Ritsu and Yuka has some spaghetti with clams .. the sauce was so yummy that I ended up dunking my salmon in it ... and if a place comes up with a "20$ food per person" minimum, it seems cheeky that all but one pasta dish are around 17-19$ ... ah well ...




Sad to see that the Met now too has severe security controls (but it went way faster than thought) and we got nice center seats all the way up in the top level balcony ... The production was pretty good, though me and Ritsu nearly fell asleep during act 1 (on my part, having had only 3 hours of sleep the night before, no wonder. Ritsu is still taking her painkillers ... ) ... but act 2 and 3 were very good .. and it got molto dramatico in act 4 ... why do all these people have to die .. and sing their pants off while doing so ???

Anyways .. a great great evening ... and after I had to upset some old ladies who thought they can jump ahead of us and steal our cab, we were on our way home ...



posted by Peter 1:26 PM