Monday, July 16, 2007
Pizza Girl New York Shop 'till You Drop Edition.
New York Shopping Blog
Two Dollars and three cents to the pound means only one thing, a shopping trip with the girls in New York. Originally, just two of us were going, but Veronica’s a modern Ms and so ‘green’ she couldn’t justify the air miles for just two travellers, so all eight girls from our West Hill Women’s Latte Society went to validate the plane’s petrol consumption. I totally understood Ronnie’s point.
++++++
New Nork, New York. Manhattan. The Big Apple. This girl’s kind of town. Remember the Beastie Boys anthem “No Sleep ‘till Brooklyn?” If only! We didn’t sleep for five whole days. West Hill Girls on tour or what? Fuelled by a diet of espresso and margaritas (note to myself “don’t give blood for six months”) we shopped 24 / 7 and more. All dressed in pink and black, we were like hens on heat, unashamed Mall Rats, the raucous toast of Tinsel Town. By the admiring looks we got, the New Yorkers were obviously very impressed by our Saturday night Brighton style. We even had a photo taken for the Village Voice street fashion feature which will please my agent. NY’s like Brighton, everybody, simply everybody, has their own PR agent. Mine is in the North Laines conversation area. She handles a few semi celebrity tailors, a trendy green grocer called Bert, and a Graffiti sprayer named HSBC. I’m told she says I’m her most important client. I’ve only been with her a week so I don’t know if she’s any good, but after we visited her Manhattan office which turned out to be a post box in a Vietnamese grocery store in Greenwich Village, I can’t see it lasting.
++++++
We stayed in SoHo, opposite the MoMA, close to Tribeca, near Gramercy Park (just a little like Dyke Road Park but totally very very different.) I usually stay at The Harlem Flop House on West 123rd St (think Abbey Hotel in Norfolk Terrace.) but this time we splashed out on the uber trendy boutique hotel, 60 Thompson. It’s a very happening and now kind of place. We even bumped into Clint Eastwood, Michael Barrymore and Yoko Ono in the cocktail lounge. Yoko and I had only recently been at a TV show together during the Brighton Festival so it was fun to see her again so soon. 60 Thompson suits fine and has the advantage of a choice of 20 different brands of bottled water in the mini bar. My favourite was called Ice Cap. They ship it in from Greenland. You can’t get greener than that!
++++++
Shopping in the El Grande Apple is an intoxicating dream, a consumer heaven, a yellow cab of adventure. If you thought the shopping at the Dials was good, well take it from us, New York is even better. We bought everything, went everywhere, met everyone and still wanted more. Plastic surgery? More like credit card melt-down. I've still got the scars from molten plastic. Lovely. It's just suffering for fashion that’s all... Personally, I absolutely completely never follow trends so when I saw some amazing funky-fun rubber shoes I had to have them. The shop girl (really an actress) said they each have distinctive carbon footprints, so not only am I expressing my individuality, I’m doing something positive for the planet, which is nice. The other girls all bought pairs too. The pink colour matched our outfits perfectly. Ronnie wanted Gumbies what ever they are, but we settled for Pizza at Lombardis, which is kind of like a Dials Pizza but more American. Pizza the size of a car wheel. We had two each. Sixteen Pizzas and as many Cokes for just $80. It makes you sick. Gloria bought the whole The Prisoner series on a re-mastered, hi fi, wifi, super HD, special edition, platinum DVD box set. You know - the series “Who is 67? You are number 60.” “I am not a number. I am a free man.” “Who is 67?” “We want information and we want it now.” “What is 67?” Classic 60s TV. Ripinda bought a book called Why Do People Hate America? by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies-Patel, which she read on the subway train down to Coney Island Brighton Beach. She got lots of looks from fellow travellers. We felt proud to have such an intelligent friend with us.
++++++
Brighton Beach was just like home but with more Russians. We gorged on Nathan’s hot dogs and were lucky enough to watch the world championship Donut Eating competition. It was won by a Syrian woman who ate 37 donuts in eight minutes. It's not as unhealthy as you probably think, because they don't put sugar on them. We spotted her later at the Astro Land Amusement Park. Troyella joked we were lucky she wasn't sitting behind us on the roller coaster. Troyella is a clown.
++++++
We had so many bags between us - Macy's, Bloomingdales, Saks, Alldays - we had to get a yellow cab. Each. What a laugh. We travelled in convoy from Columbus Circle (like the Dials roundabout, but not really because there is only one roundabout in America, and that's in Utah.) We got the usual admiring looks as we shouted to each other from the open windows of our cabs. I honestly think people must have thought we were the Spice Girls. Pink cowboy hats and dark sunglasses do create that feeling of being special.
++++++
The West Hill Women’s Latte Society flew with Fuji Air from Gatwick. The trip was sponsored by System Electronics. Outfits were by Poundland. Photos of the trip might be at brightonpizzagirl.blogspot.com
Two Dollars and three cents to the pound means only one thing, a shopping trip with the girls in New York. Originally, just two of us were going, but Veronica’s a modern Ms and so ‘green’ she couldn’t justify the air miles for just two travellers, so all eight girls from our West Hill Women’s Latte Society went to validate the plane’s petrol consumption. I totally understood Ronnie’s point.
++++++
New Nork, New York. Manhattan. The Big Apple. This girl’s kind of town. Remember the Beastie Boys anthem “No Sleep ‘till Brooklyn?” If only! We didn’t sleep for five whole days. West Hill Girls on tour or what? Fuelled by a diet of espresso and margaritas (note to myself “don’t give blood for six months”) we shopped 24 / 7 and more. All dressed in pink and black, we were like hens on heat, unashamed Mall Rats, the raucous toast of Tinsel Town. By the admiring looks we got, the New Yorkers were obviously very impressed by our Saturday night Brighton style. We even had a photo taken for the Village Voice street fashion feature which will please my agent. NY’s like Brighton, everybody, simply everybody, has their own PR agent. Mine is in the North Laines conversation area. She handles a few semi celebrity tailors, a trendy green grocer called Bert, and a Graffiti sprayer named HSBC. I’m told she says I’m her most important client. I’ve only been with her a week so I don’t know if she’s any good, but after we visited her Manhattan office which turned out to be a post box in a Vietnamese grocery store in Greenwich Village, I can’t see it lasting.
++++++
We stayed in SoHo, opposite the MoMA, close to Tribeca, near Gramercy Park (just a little like Dyke Road Park but totally very very different.) I usually stay at The Harlem Flop House on West 123rd St (think Abbey Hotel in Norfolk Terrace.) but this time we splashed out on the uber trendy boutique hotel, 60 Thompson. It’s a very happening and now kind of place. We even bumped into Clint Eastwood, Michael Barrymore and Yoko Ono in the cocktail lounge. Yoko and I had only recently been at a TV show together during the Brighton Festival so it was fun to see her again so soon. 60 Thompson suits fine and has the advantage of a choice of 20 different brands of bottled water in the mini bar. My favourite was called Ice Cap. They ship it in from Greenland. You can’t get greener than that!
++++++
Shopping in the El Grande Apple is an intoxicating dream, a consumer heaven, a yellow cab of adventure. If you thought the shopping at the Dials was good, well take it from us, New York is even better. We bought everything, went everywhere, met everyone and still wanted more. Plastic surgery? More like credit card melt-down. I've still got the scars from molten plastic. Lovely. It's just suffering for fashion that’s all... Personally, I absolutely completely never follow trends so when I saw some amazing funky-fun rubber shoes I had to have them. The shop girl (really an actress) said they each have distinctive carbon footprints, so not only am I expressing my individuality, I’m doing something positive for the planet, which is nice. The other girls all bought pairs too. The pink colour matched our outfits perfectly. Ronnie wanted Gumbies what ever they are, but we settled for Pizza at Lombardis, which is kind of like a Dials Pizza but more American. Pizza the size of a car wheel. We had two each. Sixteen Pizzas and as many Cokes for just $80. It makes you sick. Gloria bought the whole The Prisoner series on a re-mastered, hi fi, wifi, super HD, special edition, platinum DVD box set. You know - the series “Who is 67? You are number 60.” “I am not a number. I am a free man.” “Who is 67?” “We want information and we want it now.” “What is 67?” Classic 60s TV. Ripinda bought a book called Why Do People Hate America? by Ziauddin Sardar and Merryl Wyn Davies-Patel, which she read on the subway train down to Coney Island Brighton Beach. She got lots of looks from fellow travellers. We felt proud to have such an intelligent friend with us.
++++++
Brighton Beach was just like home but with more Russians. We gorged on Nathan’s hot dogs and were lucky enough to watch the world championship Donut Eating competition. It was won by a Syrian woman who ate 37 donuts in eight minutes. It's not as unhealthy as you probably think, because they don't put sugar on them. We spotted her later at the Astro Land Amusement Park. Troyella joked we were lucky she wasn't sitting behind us on the roller coaster. Troyella is a clown.
++++++
We had so many bags between us - Macy's, Bloomingdales, Saks, Alldays - we had to get a yellow cab. Each. What a laugh. We travelled in convoy from Columbus Circle (like the Dials roundabout, but not really because there is only one roundabout in America, and that's in Utah.) We got the usual admiring looks as we shouted to each other from the open windows of our cabs. I honestly think people must have thought we were the Spice Girls. Pink cowboy hats and dark sunglasses do create that feeling of being special.
++++++
The West Hill Women’s Latte Society flew with Fuji Air from Gatwick. The trip was sponsored by System Electronics. Outfits were by Poundland. Photos of the trip might be at brightonpizzagirl.blogspot.com
Labels: brighton, New York, seven dials. Pizza girl. west hill
