Back in November we were able to check out the new Barclays Center – which is only a few blocks from our place! The event was ‘Brooklyn Hoops’ – this is where local and other college teams get the chance to play in this great stadium.

Back in 2008, I attended the University of Maryland for two weeks on a study tour during my Masters. It was such an amazing experience. Back then, we saw them play Holy Cross and Maryland has been my college team ever since! Here I am with some of my RMIT pals back at the amazing College Park stadium –

We got the train to Barclays after work and saw immediate changes as the subway doors opened. A train nerd, I was excited by the new signs at Atlantic Avenue station. It used to be called Atlantic Avenue-Pacific Street… but no longer!

Everything was so NEW!

As soon as you exit the station you are at the doors of the stadium. Everything looks so new and bright and the place really stands out!

Inside, we did a whole lap of the bottom level and then a whole lap of the top level and then got some dinner. This is where it became disappointing – the prices. Oh my gosh. It was expensive! We didn’t mind because it was a night out for us but if we were going to Nets games every week, there is no way I’d be eating there.

We got our food from Fatty ‘Cue and it was good but was not worth the price. My advice? If you are going to Barclay’s check out one of the many awesome restaurants our area has to offer and give the stadium food a miss. The only other downer was the way the seats are you feel like you may tumble over the edge while you are getting to and from your seat.

My mac cheese with some brisket from Fatty ‘Cue –

We were there very early –

The first game was the local Long Island University vs Morehead State. It ended up being a close game with LIU just losing. A great thing about Barclays is they have AWESOME wifi – so I was able to FaceTime mum and dad from our seats and share the new stadium with them! Crazy!

The best thing? We ended up being in the Maryland ‘area’ for supporters.

This game bought back so many memories. The crowd did the same thing back in 2008 as they were doing here when Kentucky were being introduced –

To make it even cooler? Jay-Z was there watching too! Huzzah!

We enjoyed seeing the game there and we loved being able to take a a quick walk home, down our leafy street after having a fun night out! We left early as we were tired and Maryland were down by a lot. By the time we walked in the front door, they had come back but not enough to beat Kentucky. Sigh!

Our end thoughts? So while we would definitely go to events there (it really is a great stadium) we would patronize some of our local eateries before we went rather than purchase the stadium food.

Another awesome night out that we had last year was when we visited Eataly and then went up to PaintAlong NYC for a painting class.

Owned by Lidia Bastianich and Mario Batali, Eataly has been open for a while and we still had not got the chance to visit. It is basically a huge Italian specialty food store with multiple restaurants right across from the Flatiron building.

It was almost like being back in Rome! We were able to stock up on some beautiful specialties as they had a sale on when we were there.

Here is a little tour –

We got some pizza at the restaurant La Pizza & La Pasta – it was REALLY good. Simple and delicious food. It was a little pricey but it was fine for a special night out. I couldn’t see it as our local Italian place if we still lived in Chelsea.

After dinner we wandered outside and sat on the border of Madison Square Park just passing the time until our painting class.

We don’t do this often enough. It was so relaxing… could you ever get sick of this view?

We wandered up Lexington and picked up some Tasti D-Lite. It was so perfect as it really was an ice cream kind of night! I wish we had one near us… but then again maybe that it is a good idea that we don’t.

PaintAlong was one of the most enjoyable activities I’ve done in a a long time. I have never painted before but walking into the studio, everything was set up for us. You basically walk in, paint with an instructor and go home. No setting up, no cleaning up – you are just there to focus on your painting.

One thing that surprised me, even though I was concentrating on trying to do it right, it was really relaxing. There were about 15 people in our class and we all just did our thing. It was very interesting to see how they broke up the painting into parts so we could get the final result. I didn’t do very well on the sun part of my painting, but I did better with the reflection in the water and silhouette of the trees.

If you are in New York and looking to do something a little different, PaintAlong is really good fun. I didn’t think I did too bad considering I’ve never picked up a brush and it was done in two hours!

The only problem was when we jumped into the cab on the way home, I was already trying to work out what to do with two of the same painting. As a result, one is now hanging near my desk in the library and Bill has his on display in his cubicle. It doesn’t really match our ‘look’ at home!

Back in September, Bill and I headed into Little Italy for the San Gennaro Festival. It was so much fun!

We started the night with Mass at the Most Precious Blood Church. It was a great Mass as it was San Gennaro’s Feast Day and it was a packed church. When Mass finished, there was a procession of the Statue of San Gennaro that was slowly walked around the block and up Mott St. Those that carry the statue have to kind of ‘sway’ the balance as they walk. It is amazing to see!

View from the church steps as the procession started –

Seeing these photos may look familiar if you have have seen the Godfather…!

While walking up Mott street, following the statue we ate… and ate… and ate. The food was fantastic.

Here is some video to try and capture it all –

Yes, it is insanely crowded and you don’t want to be carrying a lot of things but wow – it was a great night out. The walk was slow, there was so much people watching and everyone was just having a great time. We cannot wait until the 2013 Festival now – it really really was SO much fun. I hope these photos gave you an idea of just how good it was… MOLTO BENE!

A couple of months ago, it was the 30th Anniversary of ET. The first movie I ever saw. Mum’s cousin took me to see it at the Forum in Melbourne when it was still a movie theater. I was so young but have never forgotten it. I had an ET doll that it seems we donated to charity that is now worth a lot more money than we ever paid for it and I had the “Read along with me in your book” version of ET that was read by Drew Barrymore.

For Christmas last year, Bill got me the gorgeous ET box set with a book, dvd and other goodies. Then when I saw there was going to be a special 30th anniversary screening at Union Square, I HAD to go. It was so amazing to walk into the cinema and see this at the box office –

I nearly fainted when the lights dimmed and I saw this on the screen.

By the way, these weren’t taken when the movie was on. We had a special segment that screened before the movie that had quiz questions and interviews with the cast and crew.

It was as magical as I remembered. The movie just has to be screened on a big screen. The music is so full of emotion… it was just perfect.

Elllliiiioooottttt.

If you haven’t seen ET recently, you really should watch it again.

Listening to theme… awwww. Goosebumps! My favorite scene…

I can’t watch this and NOT cry. “I’ll be right here…”