19/7/22 The Outlet Mall

 Not a very exciting spectator day, mostly shopping. A month since i arrived - and my feet are telling me that it's been a very full month.

To start the day I plumbed the delightful depths of the Port Authority Bus Terminal

This makes it look far more upbeat and happy than it really is. This is where hopes and dreams go to die, and you can see the echo in the soulless eyes of the ticket booth staff. It’s also brown and mustard yellow.

 I got my ticket and onto the bus to the Woodbury Common Premium Outlets, like a bloody great big Dressmart but outside and lots of tarty sounding shops like Maje, Furla and Vilebrequin. The last one sounded a laugh but apparently “premiere luxury French resort wear” is no laughing matter.

The beautiful New Jersey countryside.

It’s a fair way away and took over an hour on the bus, cutting through New Jersey and back into New York State, passing by some interesting car dealerships - specifically Lamborghini and McLaren stick in my mind. I did notice one that said “Ford - All American” and thought that’s not the brag you think it is. The unreliability of a French car that rusts more easily, the doors don’t close properly and the engine is underpowered.

Not camouflage’s finest hour. It only makes it more obvious and worse than just a cell tower by itself. The entire road was spanned by ugly power poles with great heavy wires all over them, this just seemed a bit pointless.

After the unpleasantness of New Jersey the roadside in New York was quite green and lush which was a nice change. A stark difference from a few weeks ago when I was driving through deserts

What seems to be a lovely little shopping place soon becomes a never ending maze of walkways and shops with miserable men sitting outside, despondent as their life savings are pumped into the cash registers inside. And me? I went to the shops that I wanted to go to, I bought what I wanted and then left. It was fantastic (as far as clothes shopping can be fantastic, which isn’t very)

The street photo above is the left hand bit of the orange section. Something like 220 stores here.

It may be a NY institution but they can keep it. The old Wendy’s Shake n Dog was miles better than this.

Pizza here is the best in the world. Hot dogs? They haven’t got a clue.

Fries, loaded or plain? Plain.

How does Plain translate to “with cheese” in any language, especially when both are speaking English?

No, I haven’t chewed this, dropped it or found in in the rubbish. This is how it looked, and surprisingly it tasted worse. This #4 Eagle was more like an old buzzard. It was made fresh, I watched the guy cook it and yet he managed to make it dry, tough, stale and just downright nasty.

It went into the bin where it belonged.

Lovely green hills and weather. New York to the left of NY City is quite nice.

I now own some Ralph Lauren clothes that had several lots of % off, which was more of a draw than the name. The other day I found out that along with the XL size, there is also an XLT which means Tall, of which I am not and now have a couple of nightdresses. Ralph Lauren had XLB size which is the sideways version of tall, which resulted in me throwing money at them.

I went into the Adidas store and bought a bunch of shirts, some bags and bits. I took them up to the counter and the lady behind it immediately pointed to the sales screen and said “your total is there”. I assumed that this was the previous customer’s total and mine would come up when she scanned my stuff.

Nope - this was my total. The whole system is RFID based so as soon as you put your purchases on the counter it knows what you have there and adds it. Witchcraft! I loved it.

After the food crime earlier I needed something that at least had a fighting chance of being good.

Raspberry & White Chocolate (although I swear it had normal chocolate in it) and Rum & Raisin. Plus a Mango smoothie. It was great.

Everyone crammed into the bus for the trip back, husbands sobbing quietly into their empty wallets and wives smothered under bags of shopping. This is somewhere under the Hudson River going through the Lincoln Tunnel.

Tomorrow - might do the Museum of Natural History, I really liked that last time and a bit of a wander through Central Park.