RULE NUMBER 12.

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights

Brooklyn Heights

View of Brooklyn Bridge from Dumbo

View from Brooklyn Bridge

Brooklyn Bridge

Live Hip Hop

Inside 'Please Don't Tell' bar

Amie entering the hidden bar

Amie entering the hidden bar

Hot Dog shop where the hidden bar is located

Panna II Indian restaurant

Lads

the beer menu at D.B.A with my mysterious silhouette

Cool coffee shop in Tribeca

Amie and Steve in da subway

Katz Diner

Amie and Gem @ Pink Pony, Lwr East Side

East Village

RULE NUMBER 12

Tears, laughs, raps and headaches.

Hello,

Last night i received a text from a close friend informing me that her father had passed away. Our hearts sank to learn that Rachel Cresswell's dad had succombed to a very aggressive form of cancer. I will remember Don Griffiths as a good example of what a father figure should be and i was always impressed by his ability to be the 'invisible' glue in a family of strong willed women. Definitely a sad day and I feel terrible that I will not be able to pay my respects in person.

Inhale. Exhale.

Well, i have been a little flat today and only managed half a day's work before walking out. I reckon its a good idea to blog about some good things we have been fortunate enough to experience over here in the last few days.

We had my sister Amie and her hubby Steve over here from Thursday until Monday morning so it was an adventurous weekend. Thursday night they arrived in time to have a late dinner at Il Bagatto - our fave Italian joint down the street. No celebs this time but the food, wine and service did not let us down.

i had to hit work on Friday so Gem took the guests through lower east side to the candy shop, to Soho for lunch and a wander around Greenwich Village. I was a wee bit exhausted after a very difficult week at work so a wake-up drink was in order before dinner. Enter the Double Down Saloon...a rock n roller joint around the corner that is...ummm...well...different. I doubt anybody we know will be 100% comfortable in this place but i reckon half of our friends would be at least...kind of...at home here (i am looking at you Humphries and Kapiteyn). Its dark, covered in graffiti and has signs like "SHUT UP AND DRINK" and "YOU PUKE YOU CLEAN". The staff are friendly...for the most part...and they show interesting *cough* things on the TV's. I know our parents are reading this so i will stop there but if you want to know what was on the TV then feel free to ask us later. Despite all of this, the place is always busy - filled with Wall St types as well as rock and roll types. Strange. Intriguing. Disturbing.

Why did we go in to the DD Saloon i hear you asking? Well, it was the sign out front that said "$5 BEER AND SHOT"...mmmm....classy. Turns out the shot of the day (and everyday) is called ASS JUICE. Yep, you read that correctly. Despite the name it was quite tasty and the beer hit the spot. Ok, enough about that. After a couple of beers we wandered down to Mary O's for that famous shepherds pie. Nice.

Saturday was a quiet one. I hit the gym in the morning and put my back out ("i am too old for this sh#t"). Spent the day chilling out with my girl and her belly. Amie and Steve went uptown to check out 30 Rock and go iceskating. They ended up having a huge night on their own (they have that ability) while Gem nursed me back to full health.

Was feeling better Sunday morning so we planned to train down to the financial district and the 9/11 memorial. Before that, i had to put in a couple of hours at work ahead of meeting up with the gang at Katz's Diner for session two of the meatfest sandwiches. There was a queue this time...for a sandwich!!

9/11 site was a mission to get to but impressive to see. The new construction is well under way but it must be a few more years away yet. Following that we wandered through Tribeca and grabbed a coffee before heading back home for a cat nap.

Sunday night was great (Monday morning was not). We walked up to a bar called D.B.A for a pint and then continued up the street to the most bizarro Indian restaurant i have seen...and i have been to India. There are basically three restaurants in a cluster - two upstairs and one downstairs - that look exactly the same. They all have thousands of little Christmas lights hanging from the ceiling which is very difficult for tall people. Apparently, the one we went to (recommended by Anthony Bourdain) was the first to do the light thing and then the two other joints basically copied then. They each have someone outside fighting over your dollar and the is no shortage of trash talking between businesses. Food was great and we polished off two bottles of Spanish wine that we picked up on the way up.

Following the meal we went to a hidden bar (an old prohibition bar) called 'Please Don't Tell' - a small bar that is hidden behind a wall in a hotdog joint. You basically walk into the hotdog place, open the door to the public phone booth, pick up the phone and dial 1...and then wait to be let in via the false wall. Think Maxwell Smart. Very cool and the cocktails were tasty....including the tailor made alcohol free one for the babymama.

Time to go home. But wait, there is more...as we walked home we came across a bar that had a bunch of black dudes out the front and some serious beats coming from within. We cant remember the name of the bar but it was pretty cool and worthy of a couple of beers. As it turns out it was an open mic hip hop night and we were pretty much the only white peeps in there! I was almost talked into dropping some freestyle raps (think Eminem in 8 MILE) but Gemma talked me down off the ledge....thank goodness. Overall the talent was of a high standard and the beats were very cool.

Ok...its definitely time for bed now.

Monday started with a bang...until i realised it was just a pin dropping from the other room...ouch my head! Said goodbye to the little sis and her hubby and then went to work - like the diligent student i am. Needless to say that i didnt get a heap done but it was the right thing to do. I was grumpy that night. Gem spent the day cruising around downtown Brooklyn, Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo and then over the Brooklyn Bridge.

Celebrity Watch: Gem and the gang saw Chris Hemsworth (the buff dude playing THOR in the new movie titled......THOR). Gem also saw Jennifer Carpenter (DEXTER) twice and Henry Rollins walked past us while we were digging into some Japanese near work. We also bought tix to see another play in our last week here, this time starring Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Patric and Brian Cox (with a few other familiar faces).

Baby Watch: the highlight of the week for me was feeling my first kick! Apparently you don't usually feel kicks on the outside for a couple more weeks so it was a great surprise. I fell in love with this baby for the second time.

Work wise, things are ticking along fairly well. Last week was a tough one and this week has been a bit disrupted but overall its going well. Last Friday was day one of our 'artist in residence'. Her name is Bobbie O'Steen and she has worked in a few different areas of the film industry. She started as a story editor before moving onto screen writing and then editing. She is now a noted educator at NYU and author. Her husband (who died in 2000) was Sam O'Steen who edited...wait for it...COOL HAND LUKE; THE GRADUATE; ROSEMARY'S BABY; CHINATOWN; FRANTIC; SILKWOOD and WORKING GIRL amongst other classic titles. She brought in the actual line script for The Graduate and we worked through certain scenes and the decision making process that went on behind those scenes. Was very informative and she was great fun. Before the end of the day she viewed some of our work and gave a critique...gulp...fortunately she really dug my piece - a film trailer for DOWN TO THE BONE starring Vera Farmiga (THE DEPARTED and Clooney's love interest in UP IN THE AIR).

Overall, i am ready to stop studying. This 6 weeks has been very challenging and i am looking forward to relaxing in NYC with my bride before our final tour around the south of the great U.S and A.

ummm....thats it.

Will chat again on Sunday.

love Ads and Gem x