Monthly Archives: July 2013
Bermuda
Paradise Views
Yes it really is as beautiful as any images you could have seen of it. It’s incredibly small and easy to get around. The beaches are stunning and the views breath taking. I flew in for a weekend and went to the beach and drank with the crowds. It is expensive as in city prices. And for someone like me who can’t sit on a beach for more than a few days, a weekend was perfect.
Manhattan Hotel Bars
No Diving unless you are a tadpole.
OK not the best photo but I had to take a sneaky photo of the pool on the roof top of Jimmy’s Bar in The James Hotel in Manhattan. It is the size of a pond and as shallow as a puddle so I’m glad they put the No Diving because you know. we were all wondering there for at least two seconds.
Now I’m a bit of a hotel bar slag. I love a good cocktail but, Manhattan your service and clientele are disappointing me. Jimmy’s bar had so many questions to get into the place from security I thought I was going through customs again. And surprise surprise, there weren’t that many people upstairs; and neither it seems was a waitress. Oh wait there was one but just not one for us. In fact I’m not sure who she served. One barman on and one man behind him with not much to do but shuffle lemons place to place and look at the floor with a face saying please don’t ask me anything. Getting a drink felt like an eternity
The seats outside by the pond are park benches. Yes the view is great. That is all that is. Google images make it look a lot better which is why I put my rank photo.
Taken from their site so it will look good
The Thomson hotel well that one was even worse. After looking nervously at a very vexed security guard to again get up stairs and feeling like you are dealing with a headmaster we got sent to the top floor only to be sent back down for half hour to the middle bar where the DJ, who did look amazing, decided she would like to play the music really loudly whilst attempting to ‘scratch’ the records. Painful to all involved. Again service pretty dismal.
We made it to the top and these seats are much comfier and the place more relaxed and chilled. Service was much better. However who you get to sit next to is roulette. You’d think if you wanted a private conversation you wouldn’t bother with others listening, but no. We got to listen in on a guy introducing his boyfriend to his very straight parents whilst the boyfriend said the classic line. It’s not just women who have a biological clock, I do too…. I almost spat my drink out at this point. After they moved we thought hurrah and then got the drunk couple making out. Fail….
Taken from their site and looks better than this
But there is a winner and no it may not have a rooftop but for great service and excellent cocktails and that’s the Crosby Street Hotel. We had someone come over and say they could make us anything we wanted. They put food on the table, they smiled without willing us to curl up and die. They genuinely wanted us there. Bar Staff and any Waitresses. Best cocktails, best atmosphere. Only moan is the bathroom is a mile away.And even though these bars are expensive, best priced. I had an espresso Martini. Delicious. I have been there about three times since. So nice to find a place where the staff don’t think they are more important then the customers.
Miami
After Vegas I headed to Miami to visit my friend. We headed out looking for a strong coffee called Cortadito, which I would say is like an espresso but called something else. We found a great little place in the middle of pretty much nowhere and got our fix. This is of course after having to order in Spanish something that should be so simple and yet both of us floundered with our arms helplessly flapping as we tried to ask for coffee.
I learnt Spanish for a year when I was sixteen, mainly because my boyfriend at the time was Spanish and I wanted to know what his mum was saying about me. All these years later and the simple task of ordering a coffee and all I could think of was how to order a beer and say where is the station? Useless. But they smiled politely and got us what we wanted after what seemed an eternity of lost in translation. I had let myself down, my family down and anyone else I could think of down.
We decided not to do South Beach but drive around looking for Street Art and we found plenty. I have nothing sarcastic to say about any of it. It just reminded me of how I got a B- for effort in art but D for the actual execution. I never quite worked out how to get what was inside my head into art but these people certainly had. I wonder if they draw it first as a sketch or can just do?
We had an amazing lunch at a place called Michael’s Food and Drink; it’s worth mentioning because apart from the tables being too close together, so much so we actually joined in the conversation with the people next to us, I think I had the best Chilli I had ever had. It was a food haven.
Miami behind me I flew for a rest to my family in Florida, on a jet plane. The propeller kind where there is only 20 seats. Now I know why it only cost sixty bucks. How the pilot and attendants do it constantly I don’t know. I felt like I was in the movie Knight and Day when Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz are the only people on the plane bar the bad guys. If only Tom Cruise had made an appearance perhaps all would have been well, but he wasn’t so I shit myself for the hour.
Las Vegas – Days 49 -52
Welcome to the money pit.
The first thing that hits is that New York To Vegas on a flight is a five and a half hour trip. I could almost me back in London by then. The flight was a lot of fun though. It was a real mixture of people but I enjoyed mainly listening to the guys behind me who were drunk trying to chat up the non interested girl sitting between them whilst randomly shouting out ‘Yeah! Vegas!’.
The guy next to me was irritating as he didn’t understand the meaning of personal space. His lanky arms were knocking me the whole time and I had to give him a look of ‘go to hell’ at which he apologised but continued all the same. I stared out the window and as the landscape of the everlasting desert hit my eyes I thought this is one place where there really is nowhere for miles and if we crash landed we would be truly screwed.
When we landed a couple of people clapped. Why on earth do people do that? It was a terrible bumpy landing that felt it was like the pilot’s first time. That or he had been on the Vegas juice himself. The comedians behind me commented loudly at the two passengers clapping ‘ worst landing ever.’
So off the Wynn hotel to meet my parents who are bigger party goers than me. Vegas was having a heat wave but who would have known that? Everyone was in, playing the computer games that take your money; my-self included. When I did win all of twenty bucks I felt terribly embarrassed as the noises of what is similar to a fire alarm went off. I’m terribly English and people are looking. Shush machine, shush. The volume was down from then on.
Hey Everyone come play me lots of love Dolly.
Walking past the nightclubs I did want to point out to some of the young ladies who weren’t hookers that maybe that dress really didn’t fit them. Go a size up – I wanted to say. It will flatter you more. Maybe actually four sizes up. What could I say though ? I spent most of my time eating in amazing restaurants and drinking for free at the machines.
I’ve been a few times to Vegas and so didn’t go to see the shows. I’d always recommend ‘O’ in the Bellagio as the best one. I joined the masses throwing money away in the name of fun but I guess that’s what we used to do as kids on arcades just perhaps on a larger scale.
worldwideattitude 