Broadway, NYC

London's West End, specifically Leicester Square and the Covent Garden, is the entertainment centre of the city. I loved the 19th century feel of the area, with quaint shops, pubs and small theatres. So imagine my surprise when Broadway turned out to be flashing bright neon lights (which are on even in the day), tall modern buildings, American bbq fast food joints, retail shops such as Ann Taylor, Sephora, Gap, Victoria's Secret and tons of tourists with their cameras, and scores of friendly policemen on Times Square standing next to their NYPD cars, posing with tourists.

It was a cold and rainy night when I first stumbled onto Broadway but the lights were so bright and cheery that I clicked and clicked away on my camera even though my fingers were numb. When I got home, my daughter who had passed by Times Square on her way back from dinner with friends also shared the same excitement. I think that if you go to NYC, you must go to Broadway once, preferably at night.

Christie Brinkley was performing in Chicago. We wanted to watch Lion King but it wasn't on that night and the tickets for the next night was about USD145 each so I thought I'll wait till the show comes to Singapore again.Matinees are also cheaper, and so are online tickets but it's best to buy much earlier.


Sticky wings, somewhere on Broadway. If they didn't say so, I'd thought that these were turkey wings. They were BIG.

Broadway in the day is still lively and festive, full of tourists. The lights will make you dance and jump, which is what my daughter and I did.

Times Square btw, is a narrow triangle, hardly the place I imagined where the annual Christmas tree and new year countdown would be held. Can you spot us?

Reehannah was there.

I was about to take his photo but stopped when he saw me. He called out, "Take my picture, take it, please, no donations!" What a sport. And either he's candid or he found an ingenuous way to get your money.

We were in the Broadway area when some friends invited us for dinner. The closest joint to meet was an American-style restaurant but I can't remember the name. It is across from a large seafood restaurant (Red Lobster?).

Grilled salmon.

Tenderloin steak.

Veggie pasta.

BBQ pork ribs, my order. It was good.

Angus beef burger.

Cheese biscuits.

Yi noted something which I didn't notice until she pointed it out. Serving portions in America used to be ridiculously big but on this trip, we found that servings have downsized. I think that's a good thing. The bad thing that hasn't changed is the free refill of fizzy drinks. In the last 3 weeks since coming home, I have been having sudden cravings for soda pop, something I didn't like before. Maybe it's the weather, which has been one of the hottest (34 to 35 C) we've had, or maybe it's the addiction brought on by those free refills.