Little Red Riding in the Hood

Ah Halloween, that most American of celebrations marked by the generous donation of "candy" - this stuff ain't chocolate as I know it - to an already fat and lazy generation of kids. OK, so I haven't actually seen any more fat kids out here than I regularly do at home, and it was genuinely amusing to see just how excited everyone got about dressing up. We headed out in full costume to see the parade, which really wasn't as exciting as I was hoping (but then we managed to sneak our way in for a few blocks which was more fun) but people did make a lot of effort on the costume front. Mine wasn't quite as spectacular as the parrot affair from the Boat Club's AGM in spring, but still a darn sight better than some of the other little reds we saw.

We have here Roshni the Indian Indian (oh how we laughed), Stacey the purple pirate, Amy as Mrs Lovett who kills people and then puts them in pies in the Sweeny Todd musical and Kirsten Jo Stockton, Audrey Hepburn's character in Funny Face. I watched my very first Audrey Hepburn movie with these kids, Roman Holiday. It was a bit mental, as these black and white movies so often are, but Roshni's comments about the relative attractiveness of Gregory Peck on emerging from the river were priceless.

Wandering the streets of New York is always and adventure, but Halloween was probably more so than I generally expect. We eventually found ourselves in the thronging mass that was Union Square, absolutely full of people in some pretty impressive costumes (my camera was being particularly unco-operative at this point). It became apparent that everyone's attention was directed in one direction, and of course we went to see what was going on. In the middle of heavy traffic, three or four guys were beating each other up with folding chairs. It looked pretty agressive and we were about to move away when I watched one guy reach into his jacket and pull out a gun. Now, sheltered life that I have led, I bricked it, grabbed whoever was closest to me and got the hell away. The police eventually turned up, but no one seems to know what actually happened or if any shots were fired as we didn't hear any - there was even a theory that the whole thing was a ridiculous halloween prank. We reacted the way we do to any crisis in New York - or in fact the way we do to any event of any description in New York: we went to a 24 hour diner.


I realise I look like an idiot in this shot, but Amy is pointing a knife at me - I am not, as has been suggested, checking the menu. Now, from one diner to another - this time a classy post opera outing (to a less than classy diner I might add). As the latest in the line up of NSE events, we went to see Cossi fan Tutte at the New York State Theater, Lincoln Center Plaza. Everything, from the subway sandwich I had on the way there, to my clothes, to the venue, was more interesting the the opera itself. It seemed like a lot of nonsense about two men dressing up and trying to manipulate their partners into cheating on them. The concluding message was that everyone will cheat if given the right opportunity, so you ought to accept it and just get on with your lives. Which is even vaguely interesting as an idea, if the whole thing hadn't been so totally ridiculous. It was impossible to feel any empathy and apart from a few slightly comic moments I found it an utter waste of my $59. However, most of the gang enjoyed it more than I did, so perhaps I'm just an utter philistine. Hurumph.


Anyway, behold Roshni, James and I all funked up in our posh get up. I stumbled around in my 3 inch heels and loved every damned minute of it. Me and Ed even decided to be nauseatingly cute before going back to just generally nauseating. All in all, not a complete waste of an evening.