There's No Place Like Home

Just a quick note to let you all know my wonderful mother has clicked her ruby heels together and organised me a ticket to Oz for Christmas!

I will be arriving Christmas morning and staying in town until January 14th.

Fire up the barbies, chill the chardy... this marks my fifth Summer in just over two years!

Can't wait to see you all xo

The Year of Yes!

"That woman speaks 18 languages, and can't say 'no' in any of them." - Dorothy Parker

In surfing the web recently, I came across a novel by Maria Dahvana Headly, a New Yorker who decided her romantic life had been too bleak for too long, and in an inspired move decided for one year to date absolutely everyone who asked her out. A very bold move in this city of bold men. (And women!)

From her website:

Over the next 12 months, Maria ended up dating most of NYC: a homeless guy who thought he was Jimi Hendrix, a subway conductor, a mommy-obsessed millionaire, a guy who wanted her to bite his…well, you can guess, a woman who asked her to have her baby, an ice cream man who gave her a free cone – no euphemism here, he really did, a 70-year-old salsa dancer, a Playwright, a 30-year-old virgin,a Colombian Cowboy/Handyman, a Player King, a matched set of Princelings, a reincarnated dachshund owned by her mother in the early 70’s, and more. She fell apart. She fell over. She fell into a few beds. She fell out of a few beds. And most importantly, she fell in love. Twice.

I haven't actually read the book. I'm not even sure how much of it is true. But I'm intrigued by this idea of saying yes to the universe, at the very least to come up with more material for this blog.

And so, since Halloween eve marked the anniversary of me unexpectedly becoming a single New Yorker, I have decided to embrace Headly's spirit and start saying yes to EVERYTHING I get invited to do. Not within reason, not that I can fit in. Just everything. All the time.

I should point out that this is not about me and Men. This is about me and New York.

#1 HALLOWEEN

So here I am as Betty Boop. (I didn't say this experiment would be without embarrassment.) The costume actually caused more confusion than you might imagine given she's a classic American icon, but I guess these hipsters were more your Jessica Rabbit generation. (One guy saw me standing next to Edward Scissorhands and asked if I was meant to be from 'Beetlejuice')

The party was at the private home of a friend of a friend from school. (Madonna, pictured below). That friend is a doctor and lives in a huge 5th floor loft in Soho. It was fully catered, fully DJ'd, and perhaps just little too fully attended. However, besides the usual vodka cranberry spilled down the front of my dress and some girl's vomit dangerously close to my shoes (300 people, one toilet does not for an efficient bathroom dash make) it was shaping up to be a pretty happening shindig. Then the 4th floor neighbours arrived to report their roof was cracking, and generally showing signs of giving way, so the DJ relaxedly reported we might want to finish off our beers and head out. This officially goes down as the closest I've ever been to 'bringing down the house'. (Lame perhaps, but seriously, when will I get another chance??)

#2 THE WILD DUCK, BAM, BROOKLYN

One day I need to write an entire blog devoted to the benefits of living with a Finnish movie star. For now it's enough to say that Finnish movie stars date Norwegian movie stars who work in the Norwegian theatre, and are able to get you free tickets when the National Theatre of Norway comes to New York to perform Henrik Ibsen's The Wild Duck.

Even better, is that as well as seeing a great show, in great free seats, and as well as getting a tour backstage in perfect timing for the champagne toast to close out the season, we also got invited out to dinner with the entire company. (And by invited I mean enticed to the point of kidnapping!)

I learned two things that night; Norwegians LOVE to toast! (I must have raised my glass to join in 'skoll' at least 18 times) and the Vikings know how to treat the ladies. Jenni and I were fully treated to a three course dinner at "Queen" restaurant in Brooklyn Heights, (voted #1 Italian in New York City 2006.) The $115/bottle wine flowed so freely the only way to stop it being poured was to leave a full glass in front of you. Sacrilege in any language! Then we were put in a car and delivered safely back to Manhattan.

It was one of those magical, spontaneous New York evenings that reinvigorates the creative spirit... but that could just be the good wine talking.

Here is a picture of Jen and I with Harvard, the Sound Designer and our chaperone, looking a bit tired after Halloween the night before. I think Harvard may actually be experiencing an allergic reaction, after I insisted he try my shrimp appetizer. Apparently I was so overcome by how delicious it was, that I completely forgot Harvard had not ten minutes before told me he was allergic to shell fish. He thought I was testing his manhood, and so rose to the challenge. Ah... the Vikings.