Pent house dreams

Can't believe its taken us over a week to realise that if you press 'PH' in our apartment elevator then it whizzes you up to the pent house...duh. Even though we don't know who lives in the pent house sweet on the 30th floor, there was nobody stopping us from going out onto the rooftop patio.

Bitches brew and naked balls

 

This evening we decided to check out The Meatball Shop down in Greenwich Village. We got there in good time as just after we were seated people were queuing for over an hour to get a taste of these famous meatballs! The novelty of the tiny bistro is that you get to tick on the menu your choice of meat, sauce and sides and for drinks we tried a speciality pitcher 'bitches brew' which is a refreshing cocktail of lager, strawberry and citrus. 


It seems that wherever you are over on westside walking in the evening you can catch the incredible sunsets that glow down roads stopping people in the middle of the road to take photos. Conveniently, we pass Times Square on the way home with just a minor detour so stocked up on choc at M&M World.

Charlie's Angels

Our lovely concierge on the door calls us Charlie's Angels thinking we are out on a midnight mission......in fact we were just running to the off to the corner shop for wine and B&J's. 

Beach!

Surprisingly there are quite a few beaches around New York which I was not expecting at all. Our first beach we chose to visit during our stay out here is Brighton Beach which is downtown Brooklyn area and about an hour scenic subway ride away. It felt like a million miles away from the busy city and Brighton Beach is actually home to lots of Russians. Our Russian waiter at lunch on the pier was loving the English accents and bragging about his knowledge of British cars and football neither of which we're fussed about, we were just in need of feeding. The beach is very basic but absolutely perfect for a Sunday sunbathing and iPod session...need to take more suncream next time!  

Yeah I'm up in brooklyn

Finally we managed to make it over to the long anticipated Brooklyn Flea Market. Such a good market with a good mix of antique, designer and new things and we managed to make it the whole way round without passing out in the heat and make a few purchases along the way. We called in at Cafe Habana for a slushy mohito before walking back to Manhattan over Brooklyn Bridge and then watching the sunset over at west side. 

Friday night at the Fat Cat

Summer Fridays finishing at lunch time are the best idea since sliced bread. Despite the dramatic thunder, lightening and rain that we concluded was the size of large thimbles, we were not put us off heading out and making the most of our first weekend in NY. We started our at Bowlmor lanes with glow in the dark pins and a bar man who gave us overpriced gin instead of overpriced vodka by mistake. It was very exciting to think that we may have been wearing the shoes or bowling the same balls that celebs such as Mila Kunis, Uma Therman and Freddie Prinze Jnr. We were all pretty terrible at bowling but it was great! 


We then headed to a place recommended in my city guide called the Fat Cat. Quite possibly the most amazing little underground find. A bar full of pool tables, ping pong, chess and darts with live jazz bands playing all night. We sat right at the front on the sofas drinking beers feeling like we were hanging out with Ray Charles. "Praise the Lord!". Magical- we will be coming back here for sure. 

Lunch with pals

Our local park round the corner from Banana Republic has become our lunch time hang out place. 

He squeezed lime on his taco so I squeezed lime on my taco

36 degrees today even walking in the shade I felt like I was getting sunburnt. Besides having a really insightful day at work sitting in on fittings and meetings with Annie from the 'trim' department (if you ever want to know the differences between horn and faux horn buttons then I'm your gal) we still managed to make time for the fun stuff. 


Here we are eating lunch with Eduarda (intern from Parsons, NY) outside the rival FIT University. A quick cupcake stop with the very enthusiastic sales assistant at Crumbs cafe and then downtown to Elizabeth street where we put our faith into our lovely waiter at the taco bar to bring us the finest selection. This is a really cool diner where they cook inside a VW camper van and make yummy sangria, will certainly be going back here! 


Casual journey home where we are staying just round the corner from Bloomingdales. 

The perks and the not so perks

Today has been take two of my first full day at work and wow it has been exhausting. Check out my cute little goody bag including a Starbucks voucher which will come in very handy as we seem to be getting at least one triple chocker decker caramel latte a day. And of course our Banana Republic gift card so we can snatch up something that would normally be too pricey for us students. 


Today I have been hand drawing sketches for Summer 2013 and sending them far far away to made into samples. A really great first day at work then it all fell to pieces when the 15 minute ride back to the condo became two and a half hours due to distraction of shops on fifth avenue and totally screwing up on the Subway. A man coming up to Lauren to tell her her dress was caught up in her knickers was just the icing on the cake!


35 degrees tomorrow going to be a scorcher, thank god for air con...

Day one at the office

First day at the office was spent...out of the office! We had an amazing welcome breakfast where we met the Banana team and also 3 students from Parsons, NY who will be joining us for the 2 month internship. The rest of the day was spent running and subwaying up and down Manhattan trying to sort out our social security numbers which was a bit of a nightmare however we met some hilarious locals one of whom was very kindly pointed us in the right direction when we were heading uptown instead of downtown on the subway duh-think we've got the hang of it now! We sat in Madison Square gardens eating lunch and ended up in the tragic store that is Forever 21 in Times Square buying some cheap bling. 

Trina Turk for Banana Republic

The day before our first day of work at Banana Republic we thought is would probably be a good idea to check out the flagship store on 5th Avenue. Here is the current collaboration with Trina Turk which definitely brightens up the store!

Brekkie

Just making sure the toaster works...POP TARTS!

We have arrived!!!

After we finally managed to convince the concierge that no- we were not lost and we were in fact guests here we were handed our keys and zoomed up in the lift to the 23rd floor. Our chins literally hit the floor when we walked into this beautiful, luxurious apartment fit for JayZ and Beyonce themselves. The only hurdle we had to overcome was choosing exactly which walk in wardrobe would be most appropriate and how many people could we fit in this king size six pillowed bed- choice can be such a chore! Views overlooking Queensboro bridge which crosses to Roosevelt island and our neighbouring sky scraping blocks have roof top gardens and canopies. #cantstopgrinning

Not long now......!

Here is my new blog where I will be recording my 2 months spent in New York. I will be working as a designer at Banana Republic by day and by night and weekend I shall be exploring the city and discovering its secrets! I jet off in just a few days and am getting extremely excited, always up for a new adventure...