Getting used to NYC living

We had a really lazy day today, another sleep in and stayed mostly inside. I the late afternoon I headed out for a wander around the neighbourhood, walked about 50 blocks up and down Lexington, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st avenues. I took my mp3 player and really enjoyed listening to some music. Josh Pyke released his first album a few days before I left - I love his stuff and I think hell do really well for himself, kinda laidback singer/songwriter stuff. A young Paul Kelly/Neil Finn kinda thing. I brought back a latte for Nones and we looked at the Timeout that I bought yesterday. there was a free comedy night at a bar on the Lower East Side and it had Arj Barker doing a spot so we headed down. We had to change subway lines which was no worries, ut I felt really disoriented when we came up from underground. WE couldnt find the street we were looking for and the few people we asked had no idea either. As we were walking up the street, Briony tripped over a crack in the sidewalk and I looked up at the guy walking past to see if he giggled (because sometimes its funny) and thay guy was Arj Barker! I said "Hey Arj, can zou tell us where youre playing tonight?". He gave us directions (thank god!) and we had a bit of a chat. For those that dont know - Arj Barker is a comedian from San Francisco who has done a lot of touring in Australia and is quite popular there. He was going to be at the Adelaide Fringe Festival, but has to cancel at the last minute cos he got a part in a sitcom to be filmed in NY. He said he only works 1 or 2 days a week on that so in his spare time he does things like this. Arj said the place was pretty small and not to expect much, but we werelooking forward to a free night of comedy. Off we went and found the bar - Lolita - and headed downstairs, as the show had already started. The room was tiny, like a hallway, and a few comedians were on before Arj. Arj came down and did his spot, not a routine like he would in Adelaide but just a few minutes of jokes and not a lot of it was funny(!) It was almost like he was embarrassed he was playing to such a small crowd as he isnt that well known in the States. Anyway, his spot finished and we needed fresh drinks so we headed upstairs back to the bar. A few minutes later Arj joined us and we sat around talking for a few hours, hanging out. Good fun! A guy at the bar heard me talking and said "Are you Australian?", thats how we met Antonio, a young bloke from Brisbane, en route to Costa Rica to live there for a bit. So he and his friend Rhonda joined us for a bit before heading to another bar. We also met Liam, the guy who put on the comedy night and after it wound up, he offered to take us to an open mike night he was playing at after at a place called The Bowery Poetry Club, funnily enough, on The Bowery. So we left Arj and headed over to the open mike night. Monday nights are really happening in NY - we watched some cool and not so cool acts including a homeless guy who rambled incoherantly on stage for 5 minutes and a crosdresser with lipstick all over his face, singing along to Reba McIntyre in lycra fluoro leggings. What an experience! At about 2am we felt like a bit of dinner so we walked a few blocks with Liam to go to the best gyro (yiros) place in town. They lived up to the claim...we had a great, unplanned and unexpexted night out. Cara - dont be too jealous, Arj was cool, but he was still pretty normal. But a scab, he was scabbing money off his ladyfriend all night, which was really weird.

Tuesday was another lazy day, rest and recovery.