Hunting for Audrey and Mia (Ch 15)

The FairyBlogTale FINALLY continues, patient reader. The blog’s author is re-living (and occasionally re-writing) her family’s visit to the U S of A, through her Nikon-captured, rose-tinted time-enhanced goggles. If you need to, the back chapters of this long, image-laden but fun tale are listed conveniently at the end of this post.  We will wait while you get up to speed… this Chapter marks our Family’s final full day in Noo Yawk,  returning from a Walk in The Park. We are attempting to go upmarket, so if you could leave your thongs/flipflops/uggboots at the door, it would be appreciated!  (Or not, just don’t tell me, okay?)

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It had been a big morning – so much had happened and so much been explored already, that the concept of a detour on the walk back to the Hotel was hotly debated by the Mother and the Father.  But the Mother was adamant that THIS detour was not only a good idea, but actually essential to the Mother’s ‘Whole of New York’ experience.  (She was tending to get a bit dramatic – maybe it was the tiredness of packing so much into such a short time, maybe it was the full-on-ness of the everything that inhabits this amazing city, or maybe she can’t shift the blame of her theatrical tendancies. Maybe she’s just a Drama Queen at heart.)

Anyway, the Mother had a win.  So they walked by THIS building…

Yes, I hear you say, SO…?

If you don’t know this building, my friends, then you haven’t watched enough old movies yet…

This is the Mother going all AUDREY HEPBURN on you…

Oh COME ON!

Use your imaginations a little…

Surely you can see the similarities?

For instance, the highlighted brunette hair.

The… ummm… the BUILDING!

The family (much to the Father’s reluctance) actually took shelter from the biting winds and did more than window shopping.

Not to the extent of actually BUYING anything to put into one of those famous little blue boxes… just to the extent of using their toilet facilities (very nice, apparently) and testing their patience with some under-dressed Aussie browsing and leaving lots of little fingerprints on immaculate glass showcases.

Actually full marks should be awarded to the lovely store ladies and gents who were very welcoming despite the Family clearly not falling into the category of Potential Customers.

Having thawed out and ticked off this particular Must Do New York experience, the Family dove back out into the fuh-reezin’ weather to head back to the Hotel before their next Amazing American Experience.

No, not THIS place …

(Oh dear, the Mother realised, I MISSED this essential activity! But she wisely held her tongue and kept on walking.  Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em...)

And while the Father and the Prince and Princess retreated here to warm up and rest their weary legs watching one of a gazillion American television channels…

…The Mother went a-hunting.

Not with a gun though.

With her wallet.

And she joined a queue of other hunters – all freezing their patooties off and with wallets also at the ready…

The mob of hunters, all lined up like intestines winding back and back and back upon themselves to fit into the limited waiting space, were surrounded by the chaos of unmade decisions.  Five story-high unmade decisions.

Oh, which show to choose? Phantom or Priscilla or Rain or The Addams Family or Mama Mia or Mary Poppins or …

It took the Mother a couple of hours and frostbite to her extremities and a thousand brochures to finally decide and purchase tickets to the best show for her family.

And what did she finally choose??

MAMA MIA – at the famous Winter Garden theatre.  (It’s not just a Bris-Vegas shopping centre, apparently? Who knew?)

This theatre proved gob-stoppingly, jaw-droppingly amazing.

(I am not at all sure it is legal to share these shots, but I figure they aren’t of the show itself so I should be safe!)

The inside of the theatre is all kinds of olde-worlde WONDERFUL.

Check out those LIGHTS and those BOXES and those CEILINGS!

The Mother thought it was all beyond cool, while the Father tried to shush her and pretend his wife wasn’t shooting everything in sight.  (With her Nikon – so the Mother’s hunting had become an image chase as opposed to a ticket chase. No wonder she was tired – she really must just learn to SIT and ENJOY!)

The Father ESPECIALLY didn’t understand why a LIGHT FITTING was worthy of shooting.

But I/The Mother ask you, dear reader, how can you simply call this a light fitting?  It’s ART!

Didn’t they scrub up nice, our Aussie Bush Family. (The Princess had insisted on stripping down to this summer dress – her prettiest apparently. Thank goodness for an excellent heating system.)

While the Prince (who is readily influenced and had seen New Yorkers wearing their scarves so stylishly) was happy to keep his intricately knotted around his cold little neck.

They were all ridiculously exhausted as they settled into their chairs and the curtains drew back…but the show… OH the SHOW!

It managed to keep them all awake and singing and seat-dancing THE ENTIRE two-and-a-half hours.

And if Benny or Bjorn are reading this (G’day fellas!) they need to know that two little Aussies SO loved Abba after this show that SIX MONTHS later it is still the most-requested band on the family’s car ipod system.

And the Princess TOTALLY wants to be the middle one when she grows up…

And so the family fell asleep in the world’s most comfortable beds for the final time that night. And it was with sleepy imaginings of little blue boxes, and elegant cigarette holders and fluoro flares and Greek island parties and Dancing Queens sashaying through their weary heads.  I will leave it to you to work out which dreams each had…

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For those who missed earlier chapters:

CHAPTER 1

CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER 3

CHAPTER 4

CHAPTER 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 7

CHAPTER 8

CHAPTER 9

CHAPTER 10‘

CHAPTER 11

CHAPTER 12

CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 14