The Mardi Gras report

According to the press, this year’s Mardi Gras in New Orleans was a big success. Hotels were booked, and the city had lots of visitors. Thank goodness. Eric sent some pics of the festivities:

On a float in Babylon's parade.


Zulu parade on Fat Tuesday.

The true Mardi Gras: Mardi Gras Indians.


What can I say? It’s Mardi Gras.

Next big New Orleans events will be French Quarter Fest & Jazz Fest this spring. However, anytime is a good time to visit; this week’s Daily Candy Travel email echoes this sentiment.

The joy of air travel

So it snowed in NYC last Wed. Hardly a surprising event, especially since it's winter. However the local airports were totally snarled. My former client was in town for research, and she rented a car to drive back to NC. Rick's brother Mark was one of the people trapped in a Jet Blue plane on a JFK tarmack for several hours. Jet Blue is in the midst of a PR nightmare; almost a week later, the airline is trying to rebound from last week's storm. Today they published a Customer Bill of Rights. OK. But here's a novel idea: don't screw up in the first place, and then you won't need to issue vouchers and refund fares.

Forever in blue jeans

Did not see this one coming… Garet got tix for a Super Diamond show at Irving Plaza Friday night. Had not expected to spend the evening in a venue packed with screaming 30-somethings watching a band from San Francisco play famous (and some not-so-famous) songs written by Neil Diamond. But after a rough week, why not? Oh my. I felt the band took performing pretty seriously; it’s a lifestyle choice for them. Opening act was Hair Supply; they cover Air Supply songs in a metal way. Holy shit. They were much more tongue-in-cheek. And they’re NYC-based. I suspect I will see them again.

"Surreal Neil" in action.

I was hungry

Gave Tina the link to my blog & she was surprised I write so much about food. What can I say? A lot of the NYC social scene is structured around eating & drinking. I don’t feel like a food snob, but we all need to eat (and I don’t want to/can’t cook). Won’t bore you with the play-by-play of every meal for the past 2 weeks, but here are the highlights:

• Latest installment of DOG was Dennis Foy, a Tribeca new-comer. News flash: I didn’t get lost in the neighborhood this time. Solid meal. Stand-outs were actually the appetizers: gnocchi + a crab tian.
  Spotted: Tim Zagat sitting at the table next to us.
• Rocking Horse Café in Chelsea. Have been wanting to go for several years, and I finally did. Margaritas = fiesta!
• The Grammys are cheesy. That’s a given. But paired with the premiere of a new Justin Timberlake video? Very cheesy. What better way to celebrate than with cheese fondue? Rick served it up with some sautéed mushrooms mixed in for good measure. We also had chocolate fondue for dessert. Valentine’s Day brought a little reprise (more cheese fondue) and the chocolate was resurrected in the form of a chocolate bread pudding. Hey now.

It has been too cold to blog

Sorry to have been absent for a couple of weeks. No good reason, aside from the fact that it's been super-cold here & I've been unmotivated. But today it's above freezing -- time to blog!

Typically I prefer to walk to Union Square in order to take only one train to work. But due to the recent arctic weather, I've been forced to take the L train and transfer. Notably, the L train now has displays showing how much longer til the next train will arrive. I got spoiled when I went to Barcelona seven years ago; otherwise I would've been content to keep leaning over the platform edge looking for train lights. Thankfully the MTA is trying to catch up with Europe, Washington D.C., etc.

Sorry, I'm actually not done yet

Nadira & Matthew after Christmas dinner.


I just love this pic. Happy hour at the Galle Face.

Fire dancers that performed after Shani & Michael's wedding.


Lal (our driver in Colombo and the jungle), Clara, and Raven (Michael's nephew). FYI, this is Lal's happy face.

Final reflections on my trip

Didn’t intend to return to NYC & immediately start blogging about bar crawls. My trip to Sri Lanka was really amazing. I now understand the value of traveling so far for a vacation. Would definitely go back to South Asia. Would even return to Sri Lanka, as it’s a large country and there is plenty we didn’t see.

As well they should have, my journeys did make me think quite a bit about race, nationality and gender. Here are some of my observations:

Sri Lankans are obviously not Caucasian. While in Sri Lanka I never felt threatened because of my fair skin, though I definitely think I was the whitest person in the country (and therefore sometimes felt like a zoo animal). I do recommend that everyone spend some time in a place where they are the racial minority. It makes you more aware of what it’s like to be a minority, and hopefully the experience will make you more sensitive to others’ feelings.

Aside from the people who came for the wedding, I met no other Americans during my time in Sri Lanka. This was actually rather nice. There were some people from Western Europe and a few people from Australia/New Zealand, but that was it. Typically when I travel I don’t admit I’m American, mainly for security reasons. However no one in Sri Lanka seemed to care about America; many of the locals even seem confused about where it was located. Pretty refreshing, considering how much of the world absolutely hates America. The current turmoil in Sri Lanka is Sri Lankan-on-Sri Lankan violence. Hurting or kidnapping Western tourists doesn’t “help” the cause, so they could care less about Americans. Therefore I didn’t feel like as much of a target traveling in Sri Lanka as I do traveling in Europe.

Most surprising was being singled out as a female. When Clara & I were down South at the beach, we could get a drink. But ordering a 2nd round was like pulling teeth. Mainly because drinking is a man’s activity in Sri Lanka, and women typically don’t do it in public. However, being female really hit home in Dubai. Western women do not need to wear traditional dress in Dubai. However Clara & I were the only women showing our heads, arms and feet, so we got plenty of looks. At the airport the arrivals/meeting area for women was different from the one for men. There was even a separate mosque in the airport for women.




In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been so taken aback by all this. I suppose it shows how little I know about Arab culture. America has plenty of gender inequalities, but seeing female roles in Sri Lanka and Dubai made me appreciate the opportunities women have here in the States.

More snaps from the wedding

Shani & Mike's photographer captured some cool stuff. Here are some of the things I didn't have on my own camera:


One of the formal bridal party shots. Note Shani's cousin Auden at the far left. He was refusing to get in the group picture.


Dancers that performed during cocktail hour.


Aerial shot of the ballroom where the reception was held.