"Max, are we driving through plutonium?"

Yesterday afternoon the heavens opened and the New York City heatwave ended. We left our hotel to go to the cinema around 4pm or so, and while it still felt like we were walking around inside a giant hair dryer (as it had been for the previous few days), there were large drops of rain starting to rain. About 9 subway stops later and we emerged to find ourselves in the middle of a massive thunderstorm. Heavy rain, strong wind, and lightning strikes. Even the locals were sheltering wherever they could. We were getting in people’s way, I’m sure, but even the locals didn’t seem willing to run out into the rain. And they knew where they were going; we didn’t.

We found the cinema – filmforum.org – which was only about a block away from the subway exit, but it was still a mini-adventure getting there from the subway exit because the streets don’t seem designed to cope with that much rain in such a short space of time. Tickets purchased, and we stood in the foyer waiting to cross the road for a pre-dinner drink and a snack at a nearby pub, but the lightning was that fierce we weren’t sure whether we should stay put or not. We eventually got brave, and ran across the road.

So anyway, Cathy took me to see ‘Annie Hall’ in this awesome little art-house cinema in Greenwich Village. Looked to me as though they screen current foreign films as well as ‘classic’ films from the past – probably my ideal cinema, and I want there to be one in Canberra. ‘Annie Hall’ is a film Cathy has seen twice and I’ve seen a number of times (not sure how many), but the double attraction for me was seeing it on film for the first time, as well as seeing it in Woody Allen’s city. The immediacy of that second point was that it was a mere five minute walk (five blocks) from my hotel door the next morning to stand on the street corner that frames the film’s final shot. An unrepeatable moment in life.

I had to visit the mens' room midway through the film, and as I was leaving the cinema, I noticed a sign that said (and I'm paraphrasing) "ticket stub required to re-enter cinema". Who keeps the stub?

The rains had ended after we emerged from the cinema. The temperature seemed to have dropped a clear 10C at least, and it was suddenly pleasant to walk around. Cathy seemed like she was walking on air. We got a cocktail at a bar called ‘Employees Only’, which the SMH reckons is the best cocktail bar in the world (of course, I ordered a Manhattan), then dinner at a Swedish restaurant (no Muppet jokes were made).

This morning (after my short stroll to West 63^rd street) we got a cab to Penn Station to get the train to Boston, which is where we are now. Some unbelievable views of Manhattan as the train left Penn which I’m looking forward to seeing again on our return trip. Looks like we might be inside now for the night, we’re both a bit pooped so hopefully a good night’s sleep will see us rejuvenated for the next couple of days here.