Cocktails anyone???

Well it's been a busy few weeks with visitors from home and slipping back into tourist mode. Highlights include....

Roller Derby - Manhattan Mayhem defeat Queens of Pain -thanks to a dubious call from the Ref that put Suzy Hotrod in the sinbin for the final jam.

Cocktails on the roof of the Metropolitan Museum of Art......my kind of museum visit. Cheers!!

Bingay.....at Lips in the West Village. Drag queens have nothing on Mitzy and Naomi but was fun none the less. I did like the half-time shows but without the entertaining calls for each number it's really not the same.

Staten Island - sailed past Lady Liberty in all her glory for an afternoon at Staten Island. Most people just do the round trip and don't bother getting off on the island. Other than us, the only people that did get off were either on day release from the psychiatric ward or drug rehab centre or orthodox jews having a picnic with their 14 children. Mazel Tov!

Boston - small and quaint and full of history...and rude cab drivers. Did a brief city tour and boat cruise. Saw the USS Constitution (oldest navy ship aptly named 'Old Ironsides'). Conference was a waste of time but Tugs enjoyed a few days exploring including a trip to spooky (and not just because of the witches) Salem and the JFK Museum.

Yankees vs Indians - on the bleachers which is a little like Bay 13 at the SCG. On a scorcher of a day the Yankees thrashed the Indians 11-2 thanks to a Grand Slam by A-Rod - clearly Cameron Diaz is doing wonders for his game. The heat did nothing to dampen the horny housewives trying to flirt with the outfield players. The highlight was when the whole Bleachers section erupted into a chant of 'asshole, asshole, asshole' at some poor unfortunate patron who happened to be wearing an Indians cap.

Beat it, beat it. No one wants to be defeated...

Yes, I was at the home of the late Michael Jackson. We'll not his actual home....but possibly his spiritual home. Or at least the home of his musical career. Or birthplace...whatever!

Wednesday night at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem is Amateur Night, and there was nothing amateur about it. This is where the Jackson 5 and Alicia Keys amongst others were discovered.

The night kicks off with some kiddy talent which we missed most of due to the exceptionally slow service at the Southern Soul Food restaurant called Sylvias. Although when that mountain of ribs did come half an hour after our order, despite letting them know we were in a hurry, it was worth it.

Young hopefuls step up onto the stage in a packed theatre and give it everything they have. And if the crowd like it they cheer, if they don't they boo. If they get more boos than cheers they get kicked off.

And trust me....the folks up in Harlem sure like to make their opinion known! When a Chinese R'n'B singer came on if felt like we were suddenly transported to the set of a Jerry Springer show. The poor guy won't be pursuing a career in music after that! Ba bye!

Definitely a night worth having even if I did feel like the straight white geek in a crowd of cool, grooving black peeps!

Roll out the red carpet

The last few weeks have been the Tribeca Film Festival, originally founded by Robert De Niro and friends to revitalise the Tribeca area of Manhattan after the September 11, 2001 bombing of the World Trade Centre.

The festival is spread out over several areas of the city and there are hundreds of films to see - and if you go pensioner style to the matinees it's also an absolute bargain.

We got the grey-rinse 3-pack on which we could see three matinees of our choice. Since we are ladies of leisure, this suited us perfectly.

Our first film was a doco called 'The Other City' about the AIDS epidemic in Washington D.C. which due to archaic laws banning needle exchanges has the highest infected population in the U.S and the highest rate of new infections. It was a bit of a tear jerker.

Our second film, also a doco was called 'Monica and David' about two people with down syndrome who fall in love and get married. The movie chronicles their early married live together and was a bit of tear jerker....but this time it was happy tears.

Our third film was a screening of shorts, one of which was an Australian entry called 'The Wake'. The two highlights of this session were 1) a great lesbian short about a girl who fakes a suicide attempt to get the attention of her ex whom she's hasn't gotten over. Strangely this was a hilarious movie despite the subject matter and 2) hearing a hush come over the crowd and whispers that Robert De Niro himself had snuck in in the dark.

After all the films there was question time with the film maker and sometimes the actors too. I was completely amazed at how quickly some of the short films were made. I am almost inspired to pick up the handy-cam myself. Surely it can't be that hard!!!