A Bite of the Apple!

Sitting in the airport in Kingston, Jamaica, waiting on my connecting flight to Cayman after two days in New York. Its good to be back in the warm weather, though I'm sad to be saying good bye to New York, my sister, and the lads (I'm including Alex in that!).
Friday, I worked a half day, leaving Cayman just after two, via Fort Lauderdale, to La Guardia, New York. Simon and Johnny had arrived on Wednesday, and Scats flew into JFK about a half hour before I arrived. Jumped into a cab around 9 and made my way into the city.
Its hard to believe that I had forgotten how amazing the view of the skyline is as you come in over the Manhattan bridge at night. The city that is so good they named it twice!
Checked into the Holiday Inn in Downtown, Soho, and found Scats reading a paper in the hotel bar. Hasn’t changed a bit. Great to see him.
We dumped the bags and headed off down the road to Puck Fair, where Fiona used to work. After nearly getting lost, we eventually found Fiona outside the pub. I had been excited all week about seeing Fi as I have only really seen her for one day in the last 8 months, and I may not see her again until the wedding next July. It was great to be able to give her a big hug in person.
Simon, the Weir fella, Weir's sister Rachel, her husband, Weir's mate Tori, and Weir's other sister and cousin were already inside the bar. Great to see the lads aswell. I think I was in the pub 10 seconds before the slagging begun. I hadn’t missed that!
I hadn’t even had a chance to sit down before Fiona started dragging me around the bar to introduce me to all her friends and the staff. First up was the closest barman who insisted that I needed to down a shot of tequila in celebration. I had the distinct feeling that it was going to be a long night!
After a rollercoaster drinking tour of Puck Fair, that lasted about 15 mins, I was able to go back to the table and catch up with everyone.
Many drinks later we all left and headed down to a club that Fiona's boyfriend Joe was DJ'ing in. The big queue outside looked daunting, but sure enough, the velvet rope was lifted, and we slipped in through the back door. Literally! Past the kitchens and toilet before emerging in the basement where Joe was on the decks. Smaller than I expect, but a great guy, as I had been told in advance by many.
Joe organised a table for us in the reserved area, but the condition of getting a table was that you had to buy a bottle of liquor, at 300 dollars a bottle! We ordered a litre of vodka that Joe sorted out for half price. The waiter arrived over with buckets of ice, jugs of juice, red bull, glasses, etc , and what I can only describe as an ornate glass bong!
One of the features of the bar is that you smoke this bong, with a basin of water at the bottom, and a mix of herbs in the top. Having never smoked anything in my life before, I reckoned if I was ever going to smoke anything, it would be this. The verdict: it was like breathing in air through rose petals, jasmine, and other fruity tastes. Not bad. Fiona tried to convince me that it gives you a buzz, but after about 8 or 9 drinks, who can really tell!
Joe got to join for about half an hour during his set, and then we headed off again to another bar, where we nestled in between the front of the bar and the bay window until they stopped serving drinks. Scats and Torri and Si were knocking back "Car Bombs", a cocktail of Guinness and Baileys and Jameson whisky. Nasty. I declined.
By 4:30, we were all wrecked, and so we hit the hay.
Next morning I awoke around 11am with the head spinning. Myself and Scats met up and headed out into Soho to find breakfast. We found brunch. Top notch.
Meanwhile, Johnny and Si were dragging themselves off Rachel's couch with plans to eventually meet us uptown.
An hour shopping in Soho was followed by a short ride uptown to meet the lads on Fifth Avenue. Niall and Alex had just touched down in JFK and were on their way into meet us.
I had a list with me of things to get for Jill on top of my own, and top of the list was a visit to the Abercrombie Store on Fifth. The place was rammed, with loud music, and dimmed lighting adding to the feeling of claustrophobia. The lads decided to wait outside for me as I began my mission. An hour and one thousand dollars later I arrived out to a bunch of not very happy faces, with the exception of Niall and Alex who had just arrived. Niall has a goatee!! What's the story, wasn’t expecting that! The pair of them are so good, they arrived to NYC with a present for me, the new Irish rugby jersey! Top notch!.
Fiona meanwhile was working all day, with plans to meet up with us later.
We tried to go to FAO Schwartz but the queues to get in to the shop went back 3 blocks, so we visited the 24 hour Apple Store beside it, where I had to pick up a few iPod Shuffles. Top notch by the way, they're bloody tiny!
After that we headed for lunch in a sushi restaurant on 4th and 57th and caught up.
I headed out at the end to do another half hour's shopping before, we went on walking tour of the city, with Times Square as our destination; me laden down with shopping bags!
A few pics around Times Square and we were off in a cab to go back to our respective homes to get changed.
Myself, Scats, Niall, and Alex headed down to Ground Zero to check out the remains of the Twin Towers.
After that we headed for dinner, ending up chugging back wine and having a few deep and meaningfuls until 11pm. The three of them headed to meet up with the lads, whilst I hopped in a cab to meet Fiona in Solas, a bar that her friend Sammy owns, he who put Jill up when she was there. Fi was there with Caroline, Sammy's husband.....
Have to go board my flight, will continue later...


Right, Thursday morning and I'm finally finishing this post!
So anyway, we met up in Solas for a few drinks. Caroline is nuts. A lovely girl from Clare, with a heart of gold, but definitely mad. After several introductions to random strangers, we hit the road to meet up with the lads over in the East Village. They were boozing in some packed, dingy looking bar that, quel surprise, Caroline and Fiona knew the owners of. Simon and Caroline got chatting and it turns out that they have many mutual "friends", especially considering that Caroline worked in Lillies back in the days when we all worked in Pod. Scats was more than a little insulted when referred to as a "foetus" by Caroline. She meant something else (I hope), but once it was out, the insult was burnt into Scats' memory and forever he will consider her a C U Next Tuesday.
Around 2am, myself, Fi, and Caroline hit the road again, back to Puck Fair, where Joe was DJ'ing. Again, an introduction of the bar and waiting staff ensued, as we settled down to a few pints. At 4am, the music stopped, the bar closed, and people started to pack into the pub!
Surely that isnt right? Well, turns out that Puck Fair is the local after hours spot for most of the local bar staff, cops, etc. We all bailed downstairs where another DJ had started playing, and the Guinness was flowing. Many drunken chats later, thankfully joined by Joe (I finally got a chance to have a decent, if not drunken chat with him), my impending return flight began to weigh on my mind, so we hit the road back to my hotel, where I had to give Fi some of the gifts I had brought for her. It was twenty to seven in the morning, the hotel bar had just reopened, and I was full of spirit to start drinking again. In an ironic twist, Fiona advised me to go to bed. Tables turned! I said my goodbyes, and complied in about 30 seconds
9:30, I was up packing. Not watching the match as I was meant to, but slowly filling my suitcase to catch a cab at 11:30. I headed firstly up to Scats to say goodbye, finding him in as much a heap, but with a towel stuffed down his hotel room toilet. I shouldnt ask!
No queues at the airport, boarded a 747 for Jamaica, nice three and a half hour flight, with a fairly nifty turnaround and back in Cayman by 8:30, wrecked.
Would I do it again? Bloody sure I would.