How’s them Apples? (Ch 8)

Well, Gentle Reader, as you may already know, a minor miracle has been wrought as Easter approaches (In Real Life).  The Lost Photos have been Found (well, accidental copies of them anyway) allowing our Family’s FairyBlogTale to continue – an event that may not quite be up there with the resurrection of The Lord JC, but certainly allowing a spotlight of relief to flood the darkness of the Mother’s pre-Easter gloom.

Shall we settle down with a brew of your choice and pick up where we left off, with our Family sleeping in the Best Beds in the World after their first few hours in The Big Apple?  Okay. You talked me into it…

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As morning settled in over New York City, our slightly jet-lagged Family snoozed.  Despite being just metres from one of the brightest, shiniest, non-sleepy blocks (in the world), they slept on and on in their fluffy-yet-not-too-soft beds, the aural and visual noise of The City kept at bay by very thick glass windows and excellent curtains.  Finally, rested and ready for their First Full Day in The City, the Family stretch and wake to check their clocks.

9.45am.

YIKES!

Remember, this Family are 6-6.30am risers at the very latest.  So with many plans for the day ahead, minor panic at being three hours behind schedule ensued.

What did they do first, in this place of Sparkle and Glamour and Famous Things?

In the spirit of Keeping it Real, dear Reader, they did…

LAUNDRY…

Yes indeed – four people who have been travelling for four days manage to rack up an impressive mound of used clothing.  So, after momentarily checking the hotel’s laundry pricelist and having a minor heart attack, they stuffed the offending items into one wheeled suitcase (the black one, to glam it up) rugged themselves up against the infamous chill of The City, and ventured out into the streets…

Their first lesson was that Three New York blocks might not sound like far, but it is infact not unlike Three Miles of walking.  Or perhaps it just felt like that with two hungry wee ones and a large suitcase.  Anyways, they located a Laundromat, then located LOTS of quarters (that quaint American coin which is really 25c) and managed to get three machines going at once.  Which was pretty impressive in the Extremely Confined Space and Sharp Competion for washing machines with unsmiling native New Yorkers.

The satisfaction of managing the feat of Doing Laundry in a Foreign City almost made the Mother faint. Or perhaps it was the fact that she had not had breakfast yet. Seeing her low blood sugar situation, the Father sent the Mother on a Reconnaissance Mission for food where she discovered that Dunkin’ Donuts was not just about actual donuts.

Who knew?

Many quarters later, the Family were once again fully laundered, and as mothers/assigned washerpeople the world over will tell you, there is a certain sense of lightness when this state is achieved.  And as they raced back to the Hotel to offload the black suitcase and freshen up, the Mother felt little butterflies in her tummy for the meeting that was about to take place.

If you haven’t been around long, you may have missed the fact that the Mother schemed and plotted to meet a very special blogger with whom she had been communicating for years.  Someone she had never met (and deep down, feared she might not get the chance to meet)

But some seriously convoluted machinations went into this meeting.  Some New Age machinations.  With lots of Old Fashioned Timing.  Here’s what happened:

Some months earlier, The Mother had managed to ‘friend’ this blogger’s daughter on Facebook.  And then, a few weeks later, she happened to notice the Daughter was online one day and the following conversation took place:

And so the seed was sown by two people who had never spoken to or seen each other before.

A few FB conversations later (all in FB Chat away from public/Mother’s eyes) and some flooding later, and some associated changes of heart (to and fro)  later, and LO, the Family were in NYC … and in mobile phone texting contact with Debby’s Cara.

Cara had managed to make it to the the pizzeria they had agreed to meet at some 15 minutes early. And with our freshly-laundered Family running about 5 minutes late (through freezing NYC winds and along strange streets) this meant that by the time they arrived, Cara had greeted several complete strangers (not really knowing what The Mother/BB looked like) and Debby had begun to get frustrated that Cara’s ‘friends’ were just Plain Rude.

The look on Debby’s face when the Mother finally walked over to their patiently-waiting party was part-confused (Cara has GROWN UP friends?), part-intrigued (Why are these people looking at me like they know me?) and part-dawning realisation (Gosh those children look like BB’s Dash and Violet, Gosh that man looks like BB’s husband… Gosh…).

There was a LOT of ‘Gosh’s’ in the next few hours…

And it made the Mother just grin and grin…

And drink chardonnay.  Naturally…

The Mother was so delighted with her Grand Plan coming off, that she nearly busted.  But she also recognised the enormous efforts (and fabulous scheming) put in by all members of Debby’s family.  Cara for the Master Plan (a future in General Tactics is assured), Dylan in Ability to Keep Secrets and Shepherding His Mother and Choosing a Great Restaurant for the Meet Up…

And the Wonderful Tim – for being quietly In On It the whole way along, for orchestrating some Proper Wheels for the Pennsylvania-NYC journey and for Coming Too.

The Mother fell in love with the whole crew and said a LOT of Thankyous and internal Oh My Gosh’s throughout the meal.  Her friend Debby (now IRL as well as online!) was EXACTLY as she imagined – shining blue eyes sharp with intelligence and soft with affection for those gathered around her.  Tim was more talkative than anticipated and just a darling – even exchanging his Tractor Supply cap with The Father, in return for a Brangus one.

The lot of them ate a lot of this…

Delicious, divine, New York PIZZA.

Well all of them except…

The Spaghetti Monster.

The Mother apologises for this photo to her friend Debby (blasted fluoro lights) but it was the only shot she took of the amazing walls of John’s Pizzeria (check the website for a better view).

And then they were off exploring The City together…

Walking and chatting and chatting and walking… with the Mother sneaking some quick snaps in of the amazing familiar-yet-strange architecture around them…

They were in search of a special building among many special buildings…

The detail of which managed to hook the Mother’s attention momentarily en route…

With the crew drawing close to what appeared to be a Very Big Park (can you guess which one, dear Reader?  It’s very Central to things…)

Oh look!  They found the place that Debby’s Dylan had chosen for our next adventure…

FAO Shwartz.

Or as the Prince and Princess would say: Kid Heaven.

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We shall visit FAO Shwartz tomorrow, Patient Reader, in Chapter 9 of our FairyBlogTale…. because this chapter is so long it probably just broke your internet.  And it’s time for a caffeine refill.  Or bed. Or work…

We promise to be back real soon with the Rest of the Adventure with Debby and Co… and Dash and Violet getting down in The City.

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For those who missed earlier chapters:

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7