New York, New York!

Hey everybody! Today I thought I'd tell you a bit about my whirlwind holiday to New York with my mummy. It was actually a birthday present from my Godmother (my mum's boss and closest friend) to me for my 18th birthday and for my mum as an early 50th present.

 

We woke up on the 23rd at the disgusting hour of 4am and left home by 6am, when the rest of the world was only just beginning to rouse themselves. I have always been fascinated with airports and the people using them, all with some place to go. I wondered how many of them would go on a greater journey than they imagined. How many with go through a spiritual, emotional or self-discovering journey as well as the physical one from point A to B. I may be getting a bit deep here but it was 7 in the morning and my mind was severely drifting already. Of course it wouldn't be a Kira story without some coincidence or oddity in it somewhere so here it is, my best friend Ellie happened to be going to New York with her family at the same time and we were on the same flight! It was lovely to hang out with her and chat before we boarded the plane and again when we were waiting to go through security on the other side. Unfortunately we were in different sections of the plane for the flight itself but that didn't matter too much, I had lots of sleep to catch up on and The Book Thief to read (which is a book I highly recommend by the way) and I alternated between the two for the entire journey. I had only started that book on the flight and was half way through by the end of the 7 hour flight, which I thought was pretty good going seeing as it's a hefty book and I'm usually a slow reader. That first day we went straight to Grand Central Station since it was close to our hotel and had a little snoop around. It's very very nice there and I immediately thought of the flashmob at the end of Friends with Benefits when I saw it! Then we walked down to Pier 83 and went on what's called the 'Semi-Circle cruise' by Circle Line Cruises. It was a very good way of cramming in a lot of tourist sights in the space of 2 hours (I only had 4 days to do them all plus shopping remember!) including the Brooklyn bridge and the Statue of Liberty.

A nice little holiday snap for you!

 

After the tour mum and I took a Taxi to the Metropolitan Musuem of Art because that was something on my list of must-do's. I was most interested in going because, well, I'm a bit of a geek/enthusiast when it comes to the Ancient World. I did A level Classical Civilisation and one of our topics was called 'Greek Architecture and Sculpture' which I loved and one the statues I studied in great detail is housed at this museum so I just had to see it in real life! There were also a lot of Ancient Egyptian artefacts there which was also exciting for me because I've always had a soft spot for Ancient Egypt. In fact, when I was 8 years old my friend and I decided that we were going to become Egyptologists together and travel to Egypt in the hopes of unearthing a mummy or something! I guess I'm somewhat still on that same path considering I'm starting my 'Ancient Worlds BA' course at University College London. Anyway, mum and I spent a good long time in there and then finally went back to our hotel for a quick dinner and bed. In total we had been awake for 23 hours that day.

 

I love this bustling city!

 

The next day we got up fairly early to go to the National September 11 Memorial and see the memorial there. It was a truly beautiful and heart-wrenching experience for me. I have got pictures from the memorial but I don't want to put them up because I don't want to spoil the memorial for anyone thinking of going. I didn't know what to expect when I went and I think it made the impact of it so much better. The only thing that I will say is that the designers have made it very clear that something happened here and there was a loss that cannot be replaced in how they've designed it. I read the symbolism in it immediately. Honestly, if you get the opportunity to go, do it.

 

The rest of the day was spent shopping. I went to Sephora, Century 21, American Eagle Outfitters and did quite a lot of damage! I plan to do a make up haul post at the very least so stay tuned for that if you're interested in seeing what I bought. That night mum and I went to watch the opening night of Romeo and Juliet on Broadway, and who should be be playing the lead male but no other than...

 

YUP, ORLANDO BLOOM! ARE YOU JEALOUS YET?!?!

Joking aside though, the show was absolutely fantastic. The acting was superb and it was directed brilliantly. Seriously, go and watch this is you get the chance. After the show finished we went to the Empire State Building to see the whole of New York at night since it's open until 1am. It was still quite busy when we went despite the fact it was past midnight but it was worth it to see the beautiful lights of the city that never sleeps.

 

The next day was basically purely shopping. We started by going into Bed, Bath and Beyond to try and get me some useful bits and bobs for university and came out with quite a lot of stuff (not all for me I might add) and had to make a trip back to the hotel before we could head out shopping again. Next we headed out to 5th Avenue and did a serious amount of shopping there too. We ended up doing the entirety of that road of shops over the space of two days and since I can't remember what day we did what shops on, this is just a list from both days. I bought things from: Steve Madden, Sunglass Hut, Vans, MAC, Sephora (again),  Quiksilver,Uniqlo and Urban Outfitters- phew!

 

I think it's safe to say that my shopping adventure was successful but in my defence I do need autumn/winter clothes! That night we met up with two of my mum's friends who live in New York and they took us out for a delicious dinner. They were a lovely couple with amazing stories and a lot of jokes to treat me to.

 

Our last morning was spent frantically trying to pack and find out how much weight we still had in our suitcases! It turned out we still had a fair bit of weight and a lot of spending money left so we decided that we'd go back to shop on 5th avenue (but you knew that already) after we went to Central Park. We took a trishaw guided tour through the park which was actually very good. Our guide showed us where all the films had been filmed in Central Park including the park scene in Maid in Manhatten, the boat race at the start of Stuart Little and the fountain from the opening credits of Friends.

 

It's the Boat House from 27 Dresses!

 

I definitely had the most incredible time on my short stay in New York but after 4 long days I think it was probably the right time to come home and sleep in my own loving bed. I don't know when or how I'm ever going to afford to come back here but all I know is that I will, someday! This is not farewell forever, New York, I'm not finished with you yet!

 

 

Bye guys and thanks for reading! xx

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday to Me!

I think the first thing I should probably get out of the way is that I really am 18. Honest. I was one of the last people in my year to reach that wonderful milestone but I finally did on July 17th 2013 and I was going to go all out with the celebrations to make up for all the times I'd had to miss out on going out with my friends. It was for this reason that I celebrated my birthday three times and although it may seem excessive it was completely necessary and unavoidable.

My birthday is in the summer holidays which is a pain for many reasons. Firstly it makes me one of the younger kids in my year which has always been a source of mockery from my friends and has earnt me nicknames such as 'Baby Kira'. My friends also kindly liked to remind me that I was not legal to drink alcohol (the drinking age is 18 in the UK) which was bearable when they were just going out to the pub the odd night but was more upsetting when it meant I missed out on some major events. But the main reason it sucks (and the contributing factor to why I had so many birthday celebrations) is that people are always away on holiday for my birthday! It can actually be quite lonely!

 

Celebration #1

On my birthday itself only two of my friends were around to celebrate with me so we spent the day together. We went out for a nice pub lunch (where I ordered my first legal drink and ironically wasn't ID'd- the one time I actually wanted to be!)

 

My first legal drink was a Mojito!

 



It was such a nice relaxing lunch and great to catch up with two of my best friends who I hadn't seen in quite a long time (as it always is with school holidays, you never see your friends as much as you'd hope to). One of the more peculiar things that happened that lunch (and with my friends there was bound to be something odd) was that when we looked out into the beer garden, we saw a lovely white peacock roaming around! I took it as a sign that my birthday(s) would all be successful. When we came home we decided to watch a film and chill out before my parents came home and then we all went out for dinner with some of my extended family. We went to a nice little Italian restaurant near where I live and had so much food! My dad somehow managed to convince my friends and I (who were adamant that we wanted a main and dessert ONLY) to have all three courses so that by the time the main course was being cleared away none of us thought we could handle another course. Of course this was when the lights were turned down low and the cheesy 'Happy Birthday' song came chiming though the speakers and I was presented with my birthday dessert, a Patisserie Valerie cake that my mum had brought to the restaurant earlier in the day! To say I was surprised was an understatement and the thought of eating yet more food made me anxious but somehow between 8 full tummies we managed to eat a large proportion of this cake and wow was it gorgeous...

My simply divine birthday cake (picture provided by mum, taken before she gave it to the restaurant)

 

Celebration #2

The second celebration happened the day after my birthday and the only reason it was held on a different day was because my actualy birthday was a Wednesday, which is a dull night to go out in London. Thursday, however, is much better. That day my two faithful friends Ellie and Scarlett (the girls who had been with me the day before) and I were joined by another friend, Luke, as well as some of my cousins and we headed to a bar called Vodka Revolution in Soho. This bar is a great place to start a night out! It specialises in different flavoured vodkas including jelly baby, chilli and bubblegum, all of which tasted yummy and so is good for when you can still appreciate your drinks i.e. the start of a night or when you're only going for a quick drink. However, the atmosphere was quite mild considering that there was a DJ playing music there and so would probably be a nice place to go for a quiet drink instead. It also closed up at 11pm which was a bit annoying and so due to those two reasons we moved on to another bar and then later to a nightclub. I'd love to tell you what those were both called but since they were not planned in advanced and my cousins pretty much herded my friends and I from place to place so that I didn't have to worry about what was going on, I have no idea what either of them were called. What I do know was that the next bar was a complete let down with no one inside and so we swiftly left and moved on to a nightclub which made up for the last bar very quickly. There was music and dancing and it was so much fun! I love me some dancing you see, that's my one priority when I go out. Oh, and here's a picture from that night for your viewing pleasure (taken from Vodka Revolution)

 

Celebration #3

Well here we are, finally at the last celebration- my birthday party! I know many of you will be thinking 'You already celebrated it, why do you need a party?', well you see I have a large friendship group who I love very dearly and it just wouldn't feel right not to celebrate my birthday with them! Also, the idea for my party had been with me for many months prior to my birthday and the more I thought about it, the more necessary it felt for me to have the party. I wanted a party that was unique and fun and very very messy and so I had a Holi party! Holi is an Indian festival where powdered paint is thrown and it was something I have always wanted to try. Surprisingly, my parents did not shoot down the idea straight away as I had expected but started to help me plan it and work out the logistics. They even let me use our garden for the party and persuaded my cousin's boyfriend to DJ for us (don't worry, we protected his kit from the paint) so it felt like I had an outdoor nightclub in my garden! My poor neighbours must've thought we were all nuts, although we did warn them about the party in advance.

 

We had 25.5kg of powder paint in 11 different colours!

I think it's safe to say that we all had a lot of fun! My house and garden was a mess afterwards with coloured powder absolutely EVERYWHERE but I think it was worth it because everyone told me it was the best 18th they had been to- result! 

 

Before...

...and after!

 

And that concluded my birthday extravaganza!