NYC: my corner of the sky

We took three days in New York City as, no matter how easy it is living close by, there's nothing that beats falling asleep and waking up in the city that goes on and on and on. . . .We loved most taking full advantage of some of the best theatres and museums in the world.

One of the best things was we got to watch the classic Broadway show Pippin. This year it's showing at The Music Box, a beautiful neo-classical theatre with a gorgeous facade and interiors.

The show was brilliant. Mom was alternately shocked and amused that I had no idea what the plot of Pippin was, or even that it was a classic of musical theatre. As ignorant as I was, I hugely enjoyed it, especially the ending.

The other favourite thing we did was visit the Museum of Natural History. I feel like every single person who comes to NYC has seen this place at least once. And if they haven't, they should.

In this iconic museum is, of course, the spectacular display in the entrance hall - a skeletal diorama of a mother Barosaurus protecting her offspring from a hungry Allosaurus.

On view as well were some long lost bison predecessors. 

The Irish elk, an animal reminiscent of the Dire Ravenstag from the new TV show Hannibal.

Sabretooth tiger skulls.

I am definitely stealing this brilliant 2D/3D idea for an artwork.

It wasn't all skeletons though - the animal exhibits are beautiful. A few of them are just weird, like this nematode, which looks like some sci-fi giant sandworm from Frank Herbert's Dune.

By far our favourite area was the Hall of Oceans, which echoes with the sound of waves and the calls of seabirds and ocean mammals - all dominated by the Blue Whale overhead.

In case anyone was too overwhelmed by plants and animals, the Museum also contains artifacts of human history. We were most interested by the cultural displays showing current artistic practices from around the world, including wayang kulit, a kind of shadow puppet theatre practiced in Indonesia.

We were also excited to find a whole set of cases containing Philippine artifacts, including arms, armour and gold accessories from pre-colonial times.

The original writing of the Philippine tribes, Alibata derived from a mix of Chinese, Malay and Sanskrit, even has some Arabic in our logo graphic ancestry.

It was pretty hard to resist buying cute dinosaurs, pterosaur wings and dolphin hoodies at the museum shop, but we managed to harden our resolve, and came home with only good memories and these photos to remind us of our splendid time there.

Magic to do. . . .as we go along our way!