17th July 2016 / My birthday!

Woke to another beautiful NYC day (and a very warm one in our room as I refuse to turn on cold air con) and was rearing to get up and go. But first, I realised there was no Red Bull in the fridge so lovely Tashy went to fetch me some as it was MY BIRTHDAY. We didn’t have a lot properly planned out except for The Book Of Mormon at 7pm so we had the whole day to eat, shop and drink.

Firstly (after having a Red Bull and some food from Pret A Manger to fuel us) we decided to get the subway downtown and eat at a cafe which is Australian created and run, which means that we’d be able to get some delicious egg based foods. The cafe is called Coco & Cru and we’ll pop a post up about it as well so you can check it out. It was really good!

After eating we went shopping around SoHo at Victoria Secrets, Sephora and Ricky’s NYC stocking up on underwear, make up and all that jazz. Not having had our fill of shopping we decided to subway down to the Financial District to hit up Century 21 and do MORE shopping. At this point the day was going really fast so we thought the best thing to do would be just shop for an hour and then grab a subway home and get ready for our night at the theatre.

I’m not sure what happened but pretty quickly it was 5.20 and we were still in Century 21 – Tashy did end up buying a really lovely Marc Jacobs bag and a couple of other items but then we had to scoot out. Around this time it was probably almost 5.30 and we headed to the subway. We saw there was a Shake Shack at the station so spontaneously thought maybe the best idea would be to grab some food now and then just head straight home, get changed and go to the theatre.

So Shake Shack is amazing. It’s a real NYC institution and we can see why – it’s pretty tasty fast food, that’s for sure. It took us a while to order as it was a little overwhelming to begin with but we went with the ‘shroom burger, fries and cheesy fries. Then we went to wait for our food…which took a while…and then suddenly it was 5.45 and I started getting anxious.

If it’s going to take us about 10 -15 mins to get uptown, then 10 mins to walk to our apartment, 10mins to get changed and then 10-15mins to walk to the theatre, we were cutting it very fine. Particularly as our food hadn’t arrived! Finally it arrived and we gobbled it down then raced to get our subway train…

Only to find that the ones we would normally catch were not running that afternoon.

F**K.

So we then had to take a beat to figure out what the hell our options were.  We found an alternate train that we thought we could catch but now it was 6.15 and we were starting to panic as it seemed like we wouldn’t have time to get home and change. Worst case scenario was that we just had to go to the theatre in our day clothes and all our shopping  bags. I was distraught by the whole situation but as we ran up to try  and catch the train we got momentarily confused as to whether the train that was waiting was the right one. Was it going Uptown or Downtown…ahhhh, we don’t know!!!

As we deliberated, the doors shut and it sped away. And we realised it was indeed the one we needed.

It was now 6.25. The next train was in another 10mins.

F**K. F**K. F**K!!!!

Ok now we were realising that not only did we not have time to get home and change but we may actually not even make it to the theatre on time at all. And The Book Of Mormon often don’t let you in if you are late. And these were very very good tickets and had cost us $600 NZ in total so long story short I was almost in meltdown mode and Tashy was in full ‘it’s all good – it’ll all work out’ mode. BUT SHE WAS FOOLING NO ONE. We were in a quiet panic and just hoping the next train wasn’t going to be late.

When it pulled up we got in and I tried to hold back the flood of emotion that was just WAITING to burst out and every single stop that took a second longer than it should was making my entire body seethe. At our station we ran out of the subway and along the streets (with our giant shopping bags!) and got to the theatre to see a huge line that was being let in. Thank the lord, but one of the security guys who was checking bags saw we were in a panic and helped us by fast tracking Tashy in to get the official tickets. He then proceeded to try and amuse me by trying to do a NZ accent – thank god it worked as it seemed like we had made it in the knick of time.

Tashy came out with tickets and we went to our seats (which were amazing) and then the show started about 4 minutes later. And it was AMAZING. We laughed and laughed and the songs were hilarious and catchy and it was just SO GOOD, you guys. SO GOOD. All my moodiness dissipated and it was probably the best musical experience I’ve had – was so so so so good.

At the end after lots of standing ovations, we left the theatre on a high and went to another Shake Shack to finish the night. Was an intense day full of all sorts of emotions but seeing that show was a major highlight of our stay so it was a memorable birthday that I won’t ever forget. It just makes me want to see more shows!

Ju xx