Raining and grey today, that fine but ever-so-wetting rain,
so rainy day plan was invoked again. I
decided to check out Macy’s, which was a bit of a yawn fest. Very much like Farmers/Myers I would say, and
while there is absolutely nothing wrong with Farmers/Myers, it wasn’t what I
came to New York for. So I caught the
subway over the Saks Fifth Avenue, to check out what they had in store. Oh my……..
this was more what I came to New York for in terms of fashion, but oh my,
the prices !!! The old adage is true, if
you have to ask what the price is, you can’t afford it. Nice Burberry handbag, $2700. Gorgeous Valentino handbag with butterflies,
$3k. Funky skirt (that I got brave and
tried on with no intention of buying) that had red lips sewn all over it,
$595. Thankfully even the largest size
didn’t fit, so I could with a clear conscience give that as the reason for not
buying it J And the most expensive thing that I saw the
price of, a faux fur bomber-style jacket which was a cool $23,500. And yes, I checked the label three times to
be sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me. I
seriously want to know who has the money to actually be able to afford to buy that
kind of stuff ??? And how on earth can
you justify that cost ??? However they
did have a stunning display of Carolina Herrera gowns, the sort you see on
Stuffs “Best and Worst dressed” blog.
And my, they were stunning.
Really intricate pieces that had clearly had hours and hours of work put
into them. And they did look totally
amazing, so it was worth it to be able to see some of her gowns at close range. I then made my way up the various floors,
with prices getting lower the higher you went.
By the time I reached the 7th floor, it was the shoe
department, and I still couldn’t find anything I could afford. There was an outrageous pair of Brian Atwood fringed
knee high boots, a cool $3000 and a pair of fabulous Sophia Webster’s that were
pretty stunning too. Lovely to look at,
way too expensive to buy, but it was fun to see all this stuff close up, as I
cruised the store in my manky worn-for-five-days travel pants, my
solid-but-ever-so-practical walking shoes and
two-days-old-and-getting-a-bit-wiffy t-shirt.
I’d had enough by midday, you clearly need to be VERY
wealthy and VERY thin to look fabulous in this city, and I don’t fit either
category J
So in the afternoon I swung by Mood again to swap my “thank
you Mood” s-shirt for a smaller size and do another lap to see if there was
anything else I just had to have.
Managed to dissuade myself by thinking about the luggage racks, and came
home empty handed.
Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening trying to plan
to visit the Statue of Liberty and Rockefeller Centre tomorrow as the weather
is set to be fine.
As for Joe – my shopping day started out with a list of hobby
shops to visit ( no surprise there ). The first one was near Macy’s so after
bidding farewell to Deb outside Macy’s I started hunting for it. Well oh lordy
was it hard to find! I went past the address three times at least , as I was
expecting a street level shop and just could not find it – and I even went a
few streets up & down looking for is
at sometimes the address cam be a bit misleading (eg if the store front is on one
street but entrance is on another). So on the verge of giving up , and fearing
that the shop had been turned into a Subway ( the only shop I could see at that
address !) , I turned on data roaming and chewed up some precious phone balance
to see if the shop was still operating and where the heck it was ! Well sure enough
I had the address right , but it was on the 13th floor of the
building , and there was no signage on the street. Sigh , well at least I had
found it. This was Gotham Trains , www.gothammodeltrains.com,
and what a gem of a place. Dedicated to trains of course , they had some superb
models available , including a lot of engines and rolling stock all in brass !
The next on the list was another hobby shop close by , but
they mainly specialised in out of the box r/c with only a few kits , so I moved
right along to the last on my list , the Red caboose.
Well, what an absolute gem of a shop. The red Caboose ( www.theredcaboose.com ) is located on
23 west 45th street ( about 10 easily walked blocks from Gotham
Trains, on 224 west 35th st , level 13!) and was a small , basement
shop absolutely CRAMMED full of goodies. And when I say crammed I mean,
CRAMMED!!! There were model boxes and
blister packs and all kinds of books and accessories stacked, stapled and
stashed against almost every single available space. It was hard to move in
there and oh what joy ! There was even a shop cat , a big ol’ ginger tom , that
curled up on the books or counter (and let me pet him a few times). The owner
was a delight and there was much “ excuse me , sorry” as we had to manoeuvre around
each other as he replenished stock and I tried to stop gawping at what was on the
shelves (and failing). I could only agree with the reaction of a young African-American
guy as he came into the shop, and couldn’t stop exclaiming “oh my god…oh my
god..I gotta bring my son here …oh my god”. I had a good chat with him, and we
both agreed this was a stellar place. I visited the shop twice this day and can
only say again that it’s an absolute gem and is worth a visit if only to
experience what it’s like on the inside. On my second visit the owner
discounted my purchase and he was a delight to listen to as he talked with his
other customers. I can only describe his
accent as pure ‘Noo Yawk” and I’m sure if he drinks coffee it’s pronounced “cawfee”
J .
No photos edited for post yet, might try and add later.
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