After a leisurely breakfast of homemade pancakes, we jumped on the Path and rode it to the end of the line - 33rd St station, right next to Madison Square Garden - because nothing says Christmas in New York more than a basketball game. The Knicks games are big sellers here and I had to pay an arm and a leg to get three tickets - upwards of $750 Australian for the three of us to go, but let’s face it, we may only get here once and Jordy had no interest in sport when we visited last time!
Turns out we didn’t have the nosebleed seats - there was a whole other floor above us, and the price was worth it to see the look on Hayden’s face as he looked down onto the court for the first time. To say he was like a kid on Christmas is probably a bit cliche, but there you have it!
Like all American sporting games, this had the same sort of spectacle as the football - cheerleaders, t-shirt cannons, crowd participation - the whole nine yards so to say! Sadly the home team didn’t get the points today, largely due to a poor shooting percentage - just under 40% - but still great to get to the game.
So what next to do on Christmas Day? How about catching up with our fellow footy mates, the Creati family who are also here on holidays. Met up on the corner of 41st and something, and can’t tell you how great it was to see some familiar faces in a sea of strangers. Hayden and Tyson play footy together at Alex Hills, and Maddie and I share a love of all things Pottter. Grant and Brendon have a long-standing sledging mateship and Julianne keeps me grounded at footy games and explains play to me!
Grant picked The Counter for a late lunch - a cool build your own burger joint that was absolutely packed when we got there and even busier as we left! Great burgers, great company and had a delicious cocktail - a Pineapple Mule - a new add-to on my cocktail list.
The Creati’s then took themselves off to the Empire State Buikding for a night time view of the city, while I decided to drag us off to Saks 5th Avenue to look at the Christmas lights and windows.
Ok this was a huge mistake, as every other person in NYC had the same idea. Think 1 million people all trying to get into a city block at the same time. Think what sheep look like when sheep dogs herd them into a tight pack. Think holiday cheer going out the window!
It certainly doesn’t help that people don’t have any organisation while walking on the sidewalk. If people walked on the right in the direction of travel, then things would work. But just like on the roads, there are assholes who have to get there before everyone else and make it difficult to keep movement flowing. You know the guy? Everyone is merging nicely in traffic and there’s the one guy who goes roaring up the outside and clogs the flow of the merge? That guy!
Then there are the strollers. In this packed display of humanity there are people ramming strollers into the fray, swearing and cursing that people won’t move for them. It doesn’t matter that they are not moving because they can’t, these stroller moms just push on through rolling over everyone. One woman screamed at me to move back to let her through. My response - “sure, just let me push this 50 storey building back a foot so you can get through”. Didn’t matter, she just ran over my feet and smashed my shins with the pram and cursed at me as she did so. Merry Christmas indeed.
We finally broke free of the crowds and took ourselves home to watch a bit more basketball in the quiet warmth of our apartment.
Big day tomorrow as we start our NY explorations proper - museums, parks and all the sights of the city.
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