Enjoyed the end of the week with the chest reading rads, again observing them interpreting CTs and XRs, doing lung biopsies, and attending conferences with free lunches (yay!). I love sitting in on meetings between radiology and different departments. Friday morning was one with the respiratory physicians where the attending chest radiologist interpreted CTs of patients, then asked the respiratory attending to give him the patient’s story. It was really educational as he would go through the scan slowly, explaining everything to the other doctors in the room, and then they would talk through the patient’s history and management plan. Then we had a lunchtime conference, given by the chest radiologist about acyanotic heart shunts, followed by images that the senior residents had to interpret. I’ve attended these each day, but this particular lecture was really engaging. It was mostly paediatric cases, so it made me really excited for my paeds rotation which is first up when I return home.
Finally getting over my cold. It’s been lingering, probably cause I’ve been going in and out of heating, and it’s still so cold outside. They predicted snow this weekend but nothing happened. Instead it’s just freezing outside, and the wind chill is horrible!
Dave joined the gym on Friday, so we had a workout before hitting the town that night. We tried to go to Rockwood, a live music venue in the East Village. Walked down there but it was packed! There was no room to even open the door to get in. So we jumped in a cab and headed to the Meatpacking area. Got out at the Gansevoort Hotel and looked around, deciding where to go first.
Out and about in the meatpacking
The hotel doorman gave us some good tips which we followed. First stop: Buddakan Restaurant and Bar. I recognized the front door instantly from the Sex and the City movie. Wow, gorgeous inside! We sipped on a drink slowly, then moved on. We had so many places to try, and not enough days left to do so, so decided on visiting a few in the one night. Next stop: Budda Bar. Walked along the street but couldn’t find it. Followed a crowd through an unmarked door, and what do you know, it was Budda Bar. Wow, again. Spectacular inside, huge! Tried one of their amazing cocktails, then moved on.
Cocktails at Budda Bar
Walked outside and saw Hogs and Heifers on the corner. Had been told how fun that pub is, but with a $10 cover charge, we thought, “Na, there’s other places to visit that won’t cost us to get in,” so walked on to Los Dados, a Mexican restaurant that we’d been to on a previous visit. They have a fun, small bar in the front, and the bartender was really friendly to us. At one stage, too friendly. On the way to the bathroom, Dave gestured to him that the drinks were fab (we’d left the selection to him – I got some chili concoction, strange and hot, but yummy!). He put his hand to his lips in an Italian kind of “Bellissimo” sign, and the bartender took it as Dave asking for a smoke… a special kind of smoke. Dave laughed nervously, and said, “Na mate, I meant the drinks are great,” and hurried on.
Obeying a recommendation from the friendly barman, we moved on to Brass Monkey. Packed! Headed straight upstairs, where we had a great view out to the Hudson River, and had a little boogie. Quickly became sick of the pumping, sweaty crowd, and moved on ;)
Haphazardly ended up following a crowd into Bagatelle. Cool place. It’s more of a restaurant, but we got there about 11pm, so people had finished eating, and were now standing up on the couches and chairs, grinding to the DJ. Following crowds seemed to be doing us good that night, so when we spotted a group filing into a different section of the bar, we jumped on the end. This time though, the bouncer minding the entrance stopped us and said… something. We could not understand him and all, and literally said “Pardon?” about 6 times. He became impatient and was less than impressed, so we turned around and decided that the main area was good enough for us. Felt like such a delinquent. Definitely want to go back there, perhaps for food this time though.
Saturday was freezing! Dave had spotted some shoes at Daffys near Union Square that he wanted, but when he returned later to buy them, they were gone. So on Saturday morning we journeyed to a bigger and better Daffys at Herald Square, and bingo! They had the shoes. Returned home, and decided that being outside was a stupid idea, so we relaxed, and I did some study for the afternoon.
Saturday night, dinner at Tribeca Grill which is co-owned by Robert DeNiro (like everything in Tribeca). Great food, gorgeous setting. Highly recommended.
Now it’s Sunday, and not just any Sunday, but Superbowl Sunday!!! I do not claim to know anything about American Football, except that they have different offensive and defensive teams, and that it’s a really stop-start kind of game. Got some tips from the resident I’ve been with all week about places to watch the game, but Dave and I have decided to stay in and watch it on our TV – with homemade guacamole and Nachos, and a big-gulp soda from the convenience store on the corner. The Today Show told us that Superbowl Sunday is the day with the largest avocado consumption all year.
The final is between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints. The Saints are the underdogs as they’ve never been in the NFL final but have been in the league for 43 of the 44 years that the league has been running. Apparently the Colts have won the last 3 of 4 finals (I think), and they are expected to win, but most are rooting for the Saints……
Now resuming writing later on Sunday, and the game has just finished. The Saints won! Yay!! A tight score made for a really entertaining, on-the-edge-of-my-seat match. Still don’t understand many of the rules, but got the general gist of it, and actually got into it. I don’t know that I’ll ever be in the US again for Superbowl Sunday, so am happy to have been here and experienced the hype.
