absolutum dominium

it's not a white christmas in new york. at 8 degrees, it's not cold enough for snow. it is however, very rainy. so much for snowstorm.

but just a brief recap of the past 2 days; yesterday on christmas eve the 4 of us wanted to visit the guggenheim museum but by the time we got there after a yummy lunch @ this north indian restaurant at greenwich village near lionel's place, it was closing. so we walked across the road to central park with the view of renting bicycles. we ended up walking halfway through central park till it grew dark and we decided tt it was too dark to ride. so we adjourned to find the american museum of natural history (the one with the big t-rex model inside), which was also closed; walked down to lincoln centre (i intend to catch the new york ballet's "nutcracker" repertoire while i am here), and then went for japanese food back at greenwich.

i attended my first presbyterian (is tt how you spell it?) service last night at the new york first presbytarian church on fifth avenue. it was an interesting experience. contrary to what i used to think, there isn't really tt big a difference between christian and catholic services/masses. in this case, the responses to the readings and the gospels use different phrases, and most noticeably there is no liturgy of the eucharist, but tt said it was still lovely.

we then headed over to the black fat pussycat - this pub/club/comfy chill-out place for drinks, but to be honest some of us were more hungry than in the mood for booze. so 3 of us ta-baoed pizza (i ordered pepperoni sausage after some misunderstanding with the pizza guy) to lionel's place and talked cock till we were sleepy. i read till 4am.

christmas morning saw me waking up at 12.30pm, but fortunately i wasn't the last to wake up. 3 of us decided tt since most stores and attractions would be closed for the holiday, we would catch a movie. so we caught king king after a yummylicious (and v cheap) lunch at this viet restaurant a block from the cinema. it's amazing to watch a movie set in new york, in new york. you're looking at times square 60 years ago and it doesn't seem v different from times square now. even the yellow cabs may have used ancient cars, but they're still as rampant and as reckless. it must be so cool to watch a movie as a new yorker, coz it's almost always set in your city.

we met the other law people, adrian, sandra, michael tang and bryna, for dinner. had it at this italian (i think) restaurant called pennyfeather cafe. the calamari was delicious, altho adrian insisted tt there was a place tt served it even better. and for some reason the waiter seemed to have a thing against siyuan. but we celebrated eunice's birthday by getting her a free chocolate mousse cake, and it was really nice. actually the food was really good. i ordered a shrimp scampi, which is shrimps cooked in some garlic butter sause served with mashed potato and fries.

and after dinner we adjourned to this place called the living room @ W hotel on times square for drinks with some of lionel's friends, including peggy pao. met emmaline there, who's my law/hwa chong humanz/ fcg senior as well. ordered a maguarhita, and omg it was so fucking strong. too much tequila. plus i haven't actually drunk anything in almost 2 months, so my disposition towards alcohol is a lot worse than expected. about half a glass and i was so sleepy and woozy it was embarassing. bleah.

ended up having supper at mac's. i thought i was hungry but i think it was just the alcohol talking. coz my stomach was complaining. so i had a hot chocolate, a cheeseburger, and mozzerella sticks. feel incredibly full now (overate!!!) but at least my stomach isn't doing double-somersaults. oh well. and tt was my christmas.

tomorrow: woodbury common with the law people! i need to do my post-xmas shopping!!!