A busy few weeks!

Well, I have just had the loveliest visit from my dear friend, Seonaid, who has been staying with me for the past 2 weeks :) Photos will follow but for now here's a not-so-brief run-down of our exploits:


So, we had a delightful time. I was frustrated to get an energy-zapping cold but Seo was struggling with the heat so I think she was pleased to take things at a slower pace. We still managed to do fun stuff every day such as...

Swing dancing at a jazz club called Swing46 with a full-on brass band!

HUGE pastrami sandwiches from Katz's diner (famous for THAT scene from when Harry Met Sally...) followed by drinks in an al fresco bar.

Dinner then a night out dancing with all my chums from school to celebrate the end of our course - we danced into the wee, small hours, showing off our moves from 6 weeks of dance class. The bar even had a map of Scotland on the wall so I could show everyone where I lived!

Horseriding western-style on a beach in southern Brooklyn :)

AMAZING trip to the Empire State Building (twilight, sparkly lights, HUGE orange moon, fireworks, saxaphone player...!)

Thrift shopping at a crazy place with peach prom dresses from the '80s and acres of tie-dye t-shirts!

Cinema trip to see the Edge of Tomorrow - good fun!

A trip to Christie's fancy fancy auction house to sit in on a sale, and look at some art exhibitions - for free! And they were delightfully welcoming to us :)

THEN we got more free stuff when we went to ogle Saks Fifth Avenue and got collared by a Clinque rep who whisked us downstairs in a fancy elevator to a HUGE and fancy spa for a free facial each! I needed to buy new moisturiser anyway so they got something out of us. We were delighted with our free day...

Until we paid $137 each to go and see Wicked!! It was worth it though, we both really enjoyed it and were glad to share the experience. Got huge goosebumps at the end of act one, it was amazing!

Next, trip to Govenors Island (former fort South East of Manhattan)which was lovely but Seo got heat exhaustion and my cold took hold so we were botha bit useless but still had a lovely time!! We got free bikes for an hour before we dipped and that was great fun!

Amazing amazing amazing sunset at Hudson River Park as we waited for American Hustle to start on the big screen - a great (free!) experience :) 

The next day was a trip to Stony Brook film festival with my acring friend Maria but I think I'll have to save that for its own post 'cause we had too much fun to mention!

By the weekend we were exhausted and on Saturday we did VERY LITTLE! We watched a lot of Dexter on Netflix, did some laundry and found a cool for all-day brunch at 4.30pm! (Amazing eggs benedict and popcorn chicken with waffles and syrup! Ooh we had a wonderful time :))

Sunday was busy: Seonaid got up really early to do a tour of Wall street with our friend Kath, who is an actress and tour guide) then I joined them at noon for a tour of Soho and Little Italy. She's a FANTASTIC tour guide, so much fun and really involves everyone. Then Seo and I went for a wander through Chelsea Market before walking the High Line (a former elevated train line converted into a garden walkway) whilst eating the best gelato in NYC! Then we zipped back to Greenpoint, collapsed for 30mins, then cooked dinner for horsey friends from home who came over for the evening!

 We had a LOVELY time and it was really perfect for Seonaid's last night.  She's now en route to London (via Istanbul??) and is speaking at a conference tomorrow afternoon!

I've got a nice day to catch up with myself and then I'm off to Vermont tomorrow to visit my friend Robin from acting school! Should be fun :) Then the next 2 weeks will be reading and classes and making plans for career development so I can hopefully hit the ground running when I get back! :)

This really is the trip of a lifetime :)