New York New Yoooorrrrkkk!

Well, it's come to this- I am on the way home. Last night consisted of SEINFELD- he was brilliant. Loved it! Absolutely loved it! My expectations were massive and it definately met them. Such a good show- making fun of coffee drinkers, texting, inability to have face to face convos, facebook, marriage, children, Las Vegas, Starbucks. Well, really making fun of modern life in general. Was awesome to hear his new material as it is different to last time he did a show. Since then he has been married for twelve years and has three kids, so much of the show was talking about his new lifes. Even those who are not Seinfeld fans, and I'm not mentioning any names here, would have enjoyed the show.

Leaving Las Vegas was actually a good thing for me- as you know I am recovering from the flu and being in Vegas, esp on the strip, is not helpful!!! When I was in Los Angeles I thought that instead of good ol' Shakespeare's 'all the world's a stage' I would turn that into 'All of LA is an audition'. Mainly because wherever you go people are singing and dancing like they want you to discover them. So, for Vegas my phrase is 'all of Las Vegas is an ashtray'. Seriously, I haven't been able to breathe in days. A guy asked me today for a smoke so I told him just to inhale the air on the street and that was smoke enough. We got on our bus and for $20 it took us to Los Angeles. For those who are safety peeps you'd be so proud! When exiting the bus a random man offered to take us to the airport for $30 but we said we would catch a REAL cab. Hear that?? Oh how I've grown in my safety knowledge!! Catching a cab was very difficult but eventually went into a store and asked for help. In true LA style the lady told me she couldnt help on the cab front, yet I'm a new yorker now so I have a phrase that gets attention. No, Liisa, it is not swearing at them! It is simply this-' can you please tell me where I can find someone who will be helpful?' After that she turned nice and went and looked up cab companies online. The cab to the airport was just over $50, but I was willing to pay a little bit more than giving random, strange man money for taking me to the airport.

A pleasant surprise when I arrived to LAX- my bag weight was okay, mainly because I am carrying on everything that weighs massive amounts- also means if I do have you a gift and it is weighty then I'm prob going to throw it at you when I return. So we are now here for five hours, actually only two to go. We have made friends with a Doctor and his wife, both Brissy peeps, and the dr has just come back to tell me Starbucks has apple cidar!!They just don't advertise it. So, I'm off. Next time you hear from me, unless we are delayed, is to tell you I have arrived safely. Thank you dear friends, and some random strangers, for joining me in my adventures. It has been a pleasure updating you all with the pros and cons of travel. I look forward to sharing many more memories with you all!

So, it has been a couple of days since I uploaded the good ol' blog. Reminds me of the Ab Fab episode where Eddie's daughter says to her, "Why didn't you tell me what you were doing?" and her answer is, "I was too busy doing it!" I will try and think what I've been doing since Christmas Eve. Oh, so Christmas day we went to Time Square Church- it wasn't shut but it sure was crowded. We were able to get seats in a room above where the service was. The choir once again was outstanding. The preaching was great and relevant. He compared the time of Jesus' birth, with its political and finanical security to today and spoke about how to regain security. Follow Christ and give to the poor was the basic summary I got.

Next up we headed into Union Square to get tickets to "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close". It was very special seeing a film about Sept 11th in NYC. Strange sitting in a room watching a movie about Sept 11th after visiting Ground Zero a few days ago, and seeing it with New Yorkers made the movie even more impacting. I think it only comes out in Feb in Aust- very sad, but well done.

The next day (our 26th) we did a bit of shopping and then had to catch a skybus out to the airport. I checked out the village (where Friends is set) and found the coolest bookstore in the world. Found some funky, last minute gifts, and seriously wanted to move into the bookstore. I'm not convinced they'd allow it but it is quite big so I think I could be there a few months before they realised So, for those interested, here is where I will now be living -http://www.strandbooks.com/

See, this is my point, I am writing my blog at a motel next to us, as there is a restaurant with free wifi. I'm just typing away and asked a guy if I can have a coke and he said the bar wasn't open and I had to go over to the shop. I sat back down and kept writing my blog, within a minute the dude came back with a big soda for me and said don't worry about paying. My point? I'll miss you, USA !!!

Anyway, back to the blog, basic summary, as my battery is going flat, we flew out last night to Las Vegas. The flight was slightly delayed, which freaked me a little as it was one year ago yesterday that I was stuck at JFK for 29 hours. The flight was only a little delayed and we sat next to a fascinating guy- retired detective with NYPD. Will tell you more later though as I have to charge laptop. He had some interesting and sad stories- he was a detective in nyc when Sept 11 happened so he spoke about that a bit, and told us a bit about what it is to be a detective. So Law and Order like

Our new motel is awesome- has three starbucks IN it- ha ! Vegas. Oh btw, before I go, the reason for ahhhh was I have our SEinfeld tickets. Will update more later. See you all soon, unless you are a random reading my blog, then I may not see you

Well, Australian peeps, even though you dont have broadway, a functioning Star Bucks on every corner, an Empire State building or Macy's, you are way ahead of us! So, Merry Christmas to you all. I have been getting a few texts saying Merry Christmas and reminding peeps that it isn't Christmas yet. As I explained on Facebook, explaining that to Bubba Gump just didn't really work. When Bubba has no idea what you're talking about he normally pauses and then says- 'bye, love you', and he did just that.

Yesterday was my 'low key' recovery day, which ended up being walking for five hours whilst looking at shops and central park. Central Park is truly beautiful. Amazing how quiet and peaceful it is whilst being in the middle of a massive city. I went to Jersey Boys last night and absolutely loved it. I was surprised how entertaining it was and could see why it won so many Tony awards. The music was amazing and I'm still in awe whenever I hear the singing on Broadway. Once again, we all did a standing ovation, which seems to happen at all Broadway shows. I also realised at interval that I'm quite the local now. I saw sodas cost $7 pffffttt as if a local pays that! So went up to the door and the dude said to the people ahead of me 'You're gonna need your tickets to get back in'. I had left mine in my jacket as I'm a local now who leaves her jacket on her seat So I said to the guy, "I don't have my ticket." His response? " Oh , you're fine. " Alrighty, so I went outside to a local stand, within a block, and bought a can of coke for $1.25 and brought it back into the theater. Thankfully I smiled at the man as I walked past the sign about outside drinks. $7? Think again NYC. Meantime in my adventure outside I also helped an English couple who were looking at the technology at the evil store from last year. So I stopped to explain it's not good to purchase from those stores and told them to buy at Best Buy. Where is the nearest? Corner of 62nd and Broadway. Local much??

To celebrate having 'low key' day, I went shopping after the show and returned home around 2am. Went to Macy's again and met some nice sales peeps. Well, they are all nice at Macy's but one man (when I was signing the credit purchase thingy) said, 'Donna Brown. I like your name, Donna. Donna Brown. Sounds like a writer. War and Peace 2, by Donna Brown'. Ha! I told him I did in fact have a bit to say about War and Peace

Today was Coney Island day! We left our motel room at Time Square and now live in a motel right near Macy's. Our view to the left is the Empire state building. Coney Island is the setting at the beginning of Beaches. It was exciting being on boardwalk, singing "Under the Boardwalk" etc and I of course had to say quite a few of the lines from Beaches. "Be sure to keep in touch CC". "Why sure, we're friends aren't we. " That was a real 'bucketlist' moment for me as Beaches is one of my all time favourite movies. It was just like the movies, except hardly any people and it was absolutely freezing. Not really helping was my goal to put my feet in the water! Ahhh like ice, yet totally worth it!

Tomorrow is our Christmas so I'm hoping Time Square Church is not SHUT on Christmas. Will check it out tomorrow and see the new Tom Hanks film that is released in USA tomorrow. Well, trust you are enjoying your warm Christmas. Will look forward to my presents on return!!! I'm off to Starbucks, again

Just thought I'd update my blog to say that I'm alive. I havent updated for a couple of days, mainly because life has not been that interesting. Just been singing "dont die, dont die, dont die , dont die. cause living is good. dying, not as good. dont die..." buuuut you have to be a true seinfeld fan to know that tune Special thanks to all my praying friends, Jen for the lemonade and to Heidi for suggesting I buy a humidifier (which has helped immensely with that whole ability to breathe thing).

Today was the first time I ventured out since the deathly illness. Was funny as I walked outside and was thinking-' why is it so bright? what is that?' then realised it had been a while since I've seen the sun!

I went to the discovery museum today which has 'the famed Dead Sea Scrolls, an actual stone from the Western Wall from the Second Temple in Jerusalem and more than 500 never-before-seen artifacts from biblical times.' It was fascinating reading biblical text whilst seeing artefacts from biblical era. I was also able to see the oldest, best preserved parchment scroll of the ten commandments- it's only in nyc for two weeks so was special to see that. Jenny really needed to go there though and tell them how to set out a museum as the layout was a tad frustrating, given the crowds there. Still, a special experience for my first day back in the real world.

Empire State was next. I did that last year as well. It was still amazing, and somewhat scary being so high. Took plenty of photos, but didnt see the scary guy Nat and I avoided last time He's probably off attacking other well known buildings. On the way home I checked out my homeland - Macy's- but was just saying hi to the store and will go back tomorrow to make some last minute purchases. Macy's is open non stop until christmas so I'm sure I'll find time.

Well, off to starbucks to get my latest addictive drink! Black iced tea lemonade. Sweet. I'm sure the peeps at Starbucks think I'm casing the joint. They're probably having meetings saying, "But surely nobody would actually drink that much black iced tea lemonade...." Thankfully it's so busy at all times that I could go in a hundred times a day and they wouldnt question. Which is kinda what I'm doing Trust you are all doing well in Australia!

Well, I have a crazy NYC flu thing happening! Ahhh I'm doing stints of roaming streets and doing cool things and then going back to motel room to recover. The great thing is the motel is, as I've already stated a billion times, right in the middle of NYC.

I went to Ground Zero again yesterday. I wanted to go to the new memorial, however the line was massive, so will check online to make reservations. The funny thing is when I say 'the line was massive', in NYC that literally means the line went for blocks!

Last night was a highlight- seeing Godspell on Broadway. I absolutely loved it- quite a few recent American political jokes and some cool cast memebers. Just so well done! I met a few of the cast after the show and got some autographs. The toughest thing was refraining from singing all songs during production. The funny story was 'Oh I just thought you were freaking out', and once again, I will need to explain that when I return.

Today I have done a little shopping- NBC store- yay! Also went to Magnolia Bakery as it is the best. Relaxing for a bit now before I go and check out cheap tickets for tonight. So, even though I am very sick, it is still so awesome being in NYC.