18.01.2008

bye bye now

on the last day in new york i felt compelled to force my complaining body out of bed, a prospect made only just bearable by the thought of nice coffee and croissant at ceci cela. so Jim and I went there and my croissant with bonne maman blueberry jam made things considerably sweeter.

then we walked to century 21, down church st again, talking about houses and renovations, as you do when you walk with a friend in downtown manhattan. met up with bruce inside century 21 for some serious shopping. century 21 is this amazing shop, like a designer dimmeys, full of last seasons and last years designer clothing at discount prices. bruce did very well, getting a couple of pairs of lovely trousers for 20 dollars each, but all the things which caught my eye in the chaotic and overflowing womens department were at least $150, and i just couldn't do it.

in the end i gave up and, having a deep need (and an even deeper imperative urged upon me by peter corrigan) went to the metropolitan museum on central park. I got there about 12.30 and stayed til it closed. my oh my, it was truly amazing. as amazing as everyone always says.

my favourite parts of the museum were all the rooms they have which are examples of a particular historical epoch. in many instances they have gone to a place and taken a whole room, more or less intact, and then re-built it at the Met. so there is not only the room itself, with its wood panelling or oak floorboards or plasterwork, and its window frames and doors, but also all the furnishings, light fittings, furniture and decorative pieces like vases, china bowls, even paintings. it is truly superb. you feel like you have been transported into a multitude of different places and times. for example, there is a bedroom from a venetian palazzo, an english reception room, a french drawing room, two rooms from a french house in the middle of paris, and this incredible studiolo, which was created in Gubbio in italy for the duke of Urbino in 1478. it is a small, irregular-shaped study which you can walk into, and the walls are entirely made up of intarsia, which is wood inlaid to create patterns or pictures. in this room, every panel creates a different picture through a window, as if the study looked out onto all these different views. it is absolutely amazing. i didn't even get to see all the rooms they have. and then there is an egyptian temple...the whole thing pretty much, in situ, as it would be, and an egyptian grave, and a room from an ancient roman villa.

it sounds so old-fashioned and indeed romantic, to say it, but i really felt the humanising vision and influence of this collection. it is a massive tribute to human endeavour and achievement; all of the wonderous works it enfolds in its walls and also what it is itself. i felt privileged and inspired to be there.

then i needed a lie down.

so i went back to the hotel and rested for a brief while and then we all went out to dinner with some of the other australians in new york for the conference. we went to John's Italian Restaurant on East 12th Street and had beautiful traditional italian food. i had homemade goats cheese ravioli with a mushroom sauce which was incredible and so were the italian greens with garlic, and apparently the veal parmigiana was excellent too.

then we sat around and talked for a while over a bottle or two of red and then after the waiters gently kicked us out we walked back downtown in the very bracing cold to James's bar because we really had to say goodbye to him, and come on, it was our last night in new york. he came to see the show on the last day, which was so great. he said it had been at least ten years since he had been to the theatre, and he loved it.

and everything was going fine at the bar, you know there were more photos, more crazy conversations, until i decided to have, as my last sort of cleansing drink (!), a margarita...not that i was messy...no not messy, but floaty, yes. yes, floaty. it was all lovely and eventually floated down the road to bed.

together with at least one other of the touring party wasn't too sparkly in the morning, but it was a travelling day, so a little bit of shush was fine. we got to toronto about 4, and from the plane we could see snow! very excitement!

after a lot of palaver in immigration, which, with my developing headache, was almost unbearable, we arrived at our hotel, the very luxurious westin harbour castle hotel. out of my fifteenth floor window i can see the harbour, the lake, lots of trees, some boats and quite a bit of snow!!!!

was sad to say goodbye to new york, we had a such a great time there, but toronto will have its own charms i'm sure. there are some photos us on site in new york in my gallery (thanks to bernadette sweeney our production manager) and a review of us today with a slide show of photos (just one of us) in the new york times in the theatre section. bye bye now.