Something for the weekend
Last updated at 14:17 25 November 2004
Visit the 'maternity ward' at legendary New York toystore FAO Schwarz
Playtime in NYC
Those heading to NYC to buy toys will be relieved to discover that the legendary FAO Schwarz reopened yesterday after being closed for almost a year. The 65,000sq ft shop at Fifth Ave and 57th now has a grand hall with a 30ft ceiling studded with 20,000 lights.
There is a new zone for older children with a shop selling Vespas. Baby dolls are sold from a replica maternity ward (below).
The ice cream parlour can furnish the most ludicrously New York offering: the Volcano - a chocolate cone that holds 12 scoops of ice cream and costs $100. Or why not pick up a child-sized Ferrari for $50,000 or a life-size version of the giant keyboard that Tom Hanks dances on in the film Big ($150,000). It's not all pricey. For $40, girls can create their own doll, choosing skin, hair and eye colour. Teddies start at $7.99 and go up to $15,000 for a life-size elephant.
Oh, and aspiring Park Avenue Princesses can submit their own dress designs and a couturier will make them up for $800. Gotta love New York.
Room at the inn for Mary and Joseph
A British hotel chain is offering couples called Mary and Joseph a free night's stay over Christmas.
'We are trying to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve 2004 years ago,' said Sandy Leckie, manager of the Travelodge hotel in London's Covent Garden.
'Our hotel is definitely more comfortable than a stable. I just hope they don't bring their donkey,' he said.
But the offer has just one proviso - the Marys and Josephs have to prove their identities first.
All that jazz with Woody
Monday evening and it's off to hear Woody Allen and his New Orleans jazz band at the Carlyle Hotel (to my mind, New York's finest). Getting a table in the Carlyle Bar (capacity about 100) is not easy, so book far in advance. It is intimate, with couples sitting at tables having dinner and martinis while the band plays. The staff, in spick-and-span linen jackets, hark back to an era when service was all. For a taste of refined old-school NY glamour it cannot be trumped.
Catch Allen at the
Hammersmith Apollo
on 19 December
After the show, go next door to Bemelmans Bar, named after Ludwig Bemelmans who wrote the Madeline children's books.
His drawings cover the walls. Apparently he couldn't pay his bill at the hotel - a favourite with JFK, Jack Lemmon, The Beatles and Princess Diana - and offered to draw on the walls instead.
Such is Allen's devotion to jazz that he turned down the Oscars ceremony one year, when nominated, in case he didn't get back in time to play.
Those unable to visit NYC can see Allen at the Hammersmith Apollo on 19 December (0870 606 3400). The Carlyle Hotel, Madison Avenue at 76th Street, NY, NY 10021, (001) 212 744 1600.
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