For the first time in 3¾ years, I met up with some other Kiwis (New Zealanders) in New York! Better yet, I knew them - it was my sister and brother-in-law, Jo and Pete. They had been on a business cruise up in Alaska (as ya do) and then stopped off in NYC for six days, so we met up until last Friday in Manhattan.

I had no classes on Friday, so while IceQueen was at work, I met up with Jo & Pete at MoMA in Manhattan, the recently relocated Museum of Modern Art, and wow that place is amazing. Even disregarding the artworks for a moment, the building itself is a work of art - the architecture inside is simply stunning. The artwork in there.. hell, words can't cover it.. it's like, hey look, there's a Picasso, and there's another, and another, and there's a Lichenstein, and look, a couple of Salvador Dali's works, oh, another Picasso, and a Matisse, and over there a Cézanne, René Magritte, Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, omg it just keeps going.. we were all kind of numb by the time we left. My favorites were Dali's Illumined Pleasures and The Persistence of Memory (the famous 'soft clocks' artwork) .. of course everything was original. There's nowhere else in the world you could see such an extensive and amazing collection of modern art. If you're in NYC, go see it.

It was a hot day (in the 90's - or the 30's in °C for the Kiwis) so what better to do than go to an Irish pub? A friendly little place right next to MoMA called Connelly's (I think) with an Irish comedian for a bartender sorted out our lunch - after telling us we'd need to be really hammered to want to eat there.. hehe. The food was great by the way, as was the atmosphere.

A quick trip to downtown in the subway spat us out by the World Trade Center site around 6pm, where we met with Pete's brother Dave, who lives in upper NY with his Mrs, Jane, and quickly stopped in to Century 21 so Pete could grab a few items. I went to university in Otago (NZ) with Dave - we were in the same year - so we all knew each other. Dave looks just the same! Dave went to flag down a taxi but a nice black Lincoln Towncar picked us up instead (car service as opposed to yellow cab), and the Indian guy driving couldn't stop saying 'incredible' every 20 seconds or so when he realized he had a car full of Kiwis, pretty entertaining. Eventually we got through the traffic and to our next stop, which was the Heartland Brewery in Union Square.

What can I say about Heartlands beer? hmm.. flat piss that encourages the gag reflex? Yup, that would cover it. I guess if you had enough of it, you'd get used to it, but none of us were impressed with their micro-brewed beer.. and we tried a couple of different types too, just to be sure. Apparently the place is pretty famous, but I'd hate to think it was famous for their beer... probably just insulted a heap of people, but hey, if you want to drink the stuff, by all means rip into it. Rather you than me.

Jane (Dave's Mrs) arrived (I've met Jane before too - she's really nice) and we bailed out of there and found another chic bar not far away - the sort of place you could imagine the 'Sex in the City' crew turning up at. The beer was better (I think I had a Sapporo) and the waitress actually knew basically where NZ was, as she had a friend from there - she was even wearing a small koru made of bone like the pewter one I used to wear (the one that signifies 'new beginnings'), so that was all groovy.

A little after 8pm we headed to the restaurant where Jane had made reservations, where IceQueen met us (coming from work) - the place was on E22nd and Park Ave - an Italian restaurant named 'Novita'. The restaurant and service was pretty impressive and the food was good - certainly a little more in the 'upper' class of Manhattan restaurants. The conversation was good, and a bottle of champagne and a bottle of red went down nicely. A couple at a table near us were finishing at about the same time as we were, and the staff gave them our bill by mistake.. you should have seen the look on their faces when they opened it up and saw the total.. classic! Dave & Jane kindly paid for the lot, which was very generous of them. Actually, everywhere we went (other than MoMA) I kept trying to pay for stuff and Pete would get it, and then Dave & Jane at the end. The other weasel, IceQueen, I think enjoyed meeting everyone - she was nervous about it, and we're waiting to hear Jo & Pete's feedback (which I'm sure will be positive - I could tell). After dinner we all headed home, then Jo & Pete flew out the next morning - they went to Los Angeles in California for a few days before heading back to NZ, although it's a shame we didn't spend more time together, but they had a busy schedule as did I with classes and study. It was great to see everyone after so long - I forgot to bring the camera, so no pics sorry.

Just hit quarter of a million visitors to this site (that's visitors, not page hits). 250,000. Who woulda thunk? Groovy.