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Monster Contest: Results

Saturday, May 6th, 2023

It’s time for the second five subjects – and final results – of our Monster postcard art contest.

To summarize the midway point, I had 3 wins to Bernard’s 2. The voting had been tight, and the art quality had been improving every week. Onto the next five then:

Skeleton

It was clear by this point that we were both taking this very seriously, and both of these show more detail than most of the previous entries. Mine on the left was supposed to suggest a giant skeleton, hunched over due to his massive bulk. He was a king in life, and is a boss in a Soulslike game in Death! Bernard’s (on the right) was – in his words – based on an image he saw on Etsy!

Once again the voting was close and any one judge could have changed the result with the decision. I won 2.75 to to 2.25.

The judges were much more verbose during the second round. Here’s their skeleton comments:
“The skelly on the right is more of a dude.”
“The detail in the skeleton of left is very well done. I like the almost reptilian spine and the massive rib cage. I’m just not sure about the floating crown and laser beams. They seem like an afterthought that don’t really suit the skeleton. Right is bold and striking. I like the blood moon and the bloodied knife but I don’t like his oversized jacket or his button nose.”
“This is a tie. I love the detail on the spine on the left, specifically the curved round saw like vertebrae. The contrast and the samurai tie in on the right are just too cool though.”
“Right reminds me of Japanese flag and Seppuku (I think that was the intention with the yukata), but the sword is too small. Left has impressive depth expression on skull and shoulder bones; I can feel the back pain. I don’t know what that crown is for though. Old king aging or back stabbed by enemy???? And as you know both are anatomically quite wrong.”

Vampire

Bernard is left, I am right. I love that we both went for a minimalistic style here, and I think in each case this was the least ink we used the entire contest. I was going for a ‘poster art’ style but my portrait of Lugosi never looked quite right to me. Bernard’s lady was very subtly vampiric, and even in person the teeth are tiny!

The judging was extremely close and the winner switched with every vote! In the end Bernard won with 2.55 to my 2.45!

Here’s what the judges said:
“Left could be something else.”
“The male vamp is very traditional. Lugosi? It’s also too good not to receive at least a portion of the mark. The reason I prefer the female vamp is it does more with less ink. Sentimentally, it also reminds me of the Redheads matches mascot, despite this gal being a different kind of “bloodnut”.”
“Left gets points for minimalistic hot girl vibes. But I love the kitschy feel of the right.”
“I love that the left vampire is female. I love the sensual curves of hair and the bloodshot eye. She’s fresh from a feast and still dripping with blood and enticing her next foolish male victim. The right vampire is very stylised and cartoonish. He is the classic villain of childhood tales but with laser beam eyes. I don’t like his red teeth.”

Demon

Another subject in which we both spent a lot of time. My original intent was ‘tattoo art’ with my Japanese Hannya Oni portrait (on left) and Bernard went with what to me looks like an almost Tolkienesque depiction of classic evil on the right. Mine took a long time to do since the red ink bleeds into the postcard so I had to be extremely careful not to overwhelm the black. I wanted the Sakura flowers to look good as well, without distracting from the face. Bernard actually covered the entire card in red ink, so his demon appeared flying in a conflagration. It’s a dramatic sight!

The judges seemed very impressed with both, and several indicated this was a difficult choice. Ultimately I was the victor with 3.14 to Bernard’s 1.86.

The judge’s comments:
“…the grinning skull leaps off the page, whereas the twin-sword demon is less distinct and less threatening.”
“I can see some good ideas in both of these”
“Left is immediately recognizable and just drew a tapestry of different texture with these markers. The flowers even look soft! Very clean drawing. I really personally love the style right was going for and credit the use of contrast. I absolutely love the “halo” feature and the wings. Also using a red background was probably time consuming and conveys an absolute MOOD. I can picture this scene in an anime. Ultimately left wins due to excellent & clean lines but I loved both.”
“Left: Love the detail of the teeth and flowers! Right: I like that entire body is shown.”
“I love the detail and design of left. The patternation in the face is very pleasing and the horns are perfectly crafted. The flowers are lovely and well done but the contrast of the beauty of the flowers with the misshapen jaw and teeth of the demon detracts from the overall impact I want the image to have. The form of right is perfectly constructed and the bold use of deeply applied colour is striking but the detail in and around the face is frustratingly lost and blurry”

Alien

Bernard is left, and I’m right. For me this was the most difficult category since the possibilities seemed endless, but I made an early decision to not do a grey alien since I thought there was a good chance Bernard would. I debated characters from shows such as Star Wars or Doctor Who before going with the iconic extraterrestrial itself: ET. He’s an ugly bugger and hard to draw, but I think I nailed the face enough to be convincing (just don’t look at his shoulders closely…).

Bernard on the other hand went with an amazing rendition of the cabinet art from the side of the original Space Invaders arcade machines. It’s an extraordinary work since the detail and colour saturation is amazing: it looks printed and not hand drawn. Obviously this image spoke to me, but I had a feeling it would be lost on most of the judges…

The results were closer than I anticipated. While I won with 3 points to Bernard’s 2, one judge gave him the entire point since mine wasn’t scary enough! Once again therefore, the result could have changed with the votes from a single judge.

Here’s the comments:
“I always appreciate the more detailed drawings! Also right one has better use of red color.”
“Excellent likeness of both a Space Invader and E.T.”
“Very good contrast on the left”
“I love these images!! Left is everything I want an alien to be. His terrifying form is beamed out of space with dark and electrified menace. He’s a black hole come to life to diffract and suck the light out of everything around me. Right is so well known and beloved by all. His image is beautiful and endearing. The line work is superbly executed and his tiny red spark just so adorable.”
“It’s hard to judge this one as both artworks are incredibly well done and pleasing to look at. I ask myself what I want to see in a monster image and unfortunately it is something scary, unsettling or disturbing not something I would cuddle up in bed with.“
“Left is interesting with the contrast but… I wouldn’t call it an alien! Wolf man maybe? Gets some points because of how much effort went into the black contrast. Right: I mean, I really like it and I didn’t really like ET as a child. The movie terrified me. This is a great rendition. It has me wondering, did the artist play the long game? Marker color choices are perfect for this content. I’m just saying we might be dealing with a Kira level master mind with how far ahead this artist was thinking. Anyway, great ET, I can see the whimsy in his eyes and that he comes in peace.”

Werewolf

Mine is left; Bernard’s is right. I think these are the two most similar images of the entire contest. I originally started drawing something else but had to colour over it with solid black since it wasn’t working. The tail was a late addition and the moon an afterthought. I originally told Bernard mine was weak but grew to like it more after I had mailed it. His has incredibly detail (the fur texture looks oily!) but – in his words – his art has ‘a fatal flaw’! Did the judges notice…?

Yes they did, since a few of them mentioned that Bernard’s was more wolf than werewolf. Once again I was the winner, and a bit more decidedly here with 3.2 points to 1.8.

Here’s the comments:
“I love the angst of the left werewolf howling at the full moon and the striking moon against the red sky. I love the line work on the right werewolf. He is a ravenous beast dripping blood from his fangs. I particularly like his pointy ears.”
“Wow!! These are great! Both are really great.
Left wings for the high contrast red black and white. Amazing! I feel like this is something I could have drawn haha. So… I love it. Right is an excellent wolf man head!! I would have loved to see the paws and claws, haunches, tail, etc. obviously a wolf head, but where is the man???”
“Head/Mouth detail on right is great. Like the full body view with moon on left. Get a sense of his torture.”
“They’re both technically proficient. However, the drawing on the right, in not showing the body, could merely be the head of a large wolf.”
“Both look like Shiba inus but I figured out with my keen eyes that the intention was werewolf.”

Final Results

With ten subjects drawn, posted and judged, what were the final results?

I won, with 7 victories to Bernard’s 3!

This was a hard-won victory, since what I had assumed would be a leisurely (only two colours) and somewhat whimsical contest turned into a real struggle with every week being a battle! I think if you look back you’ll agree the quality increased week-to-week.

Here’s some of our own opinions on the contest:

  • Bernard felt his best piece was alien, and I agree with him. He felt his worst was dragon, and I also agree with that.
  • I felt my best was demon but Bernard thought it was my sea monster. I felt my worst was zombie and he agrees.
  • Bernard believed he should have won alien and I agree.
  • I believe I should have won bigfoot but he disagrees.
  • When asked for a comment for the judges, Bernard said: “They all ought to be ashamed!” (ouch!)
  • As for me, my comment to the judges is: “It’s reassuring to see that they looked past sensationalism and recognized the souls of the artists :)”

What remains is the awarding of prizes, which will happen soon. While I’ll be sending Bernard a special prize for his Space Invader unfortunately since he didn’t win he won’t be getting the amazing $8 retro 1980’s sticker I purchased for that purpose. It’s a good thing there’ll be another chance in the 2024 postcard art contest…

What will the theme be? That’s a surprise for now, but I will say as with 2022 the judges will once again have their say 😉

Posted in Art, Family, Postcards | Comments Closed

Monster Contest: Halftime

Saturday, April 1st, 2023

Once again Bernard and I are doing a postcard art contest. This year the subject is ‘monsters’ and we collectively decided on 10 subjects before starting. Each week we’re taking turns picking the next subject.

The rules are a little different this year. Firstly we’re using identical media, specifically only the markers in the above pic. I bought two sets of each and sent him one, and (aside from pencil for the initial sketch) this means our art is black and red only.

Secondly I printed the postcards in advance with the subjects on the front. This means, unlike previous years, we only get one go at drawing our art and can’t just grab another postcard and start again if we don’t like it or make a mistake!

The judges are the same as last year (JF, JK, SMS, SS and AW) and as far as voting is concerned the only change was I formalized that they could split their votes (which most of them had been doing last year anyway). We’re now half way through and here are the results so far:

Bigfoot

Lessons were learned on card one. I hadn’t done any testing of the markers, and was very surprised to note how much they bled into the cardboard of the postcard. I had visions of fine detail in our pictures that faded fast when this became apparent. Even so I think we hit the ground running, with Bernard’s creation on the left and mine on the right.

The voting was incredibly close, with Bernard’s 2.51 points just beating my 2.49. Most judges commented how difficult it was to choose, and how surprised they were by the quality 🙂

Some judge comments:
“It’s a strong start. The depiction of trees in the first artwork is very well done as is Bigfoot striding through the forest. Although I would have preferred for him to refrain from smiling at the artist.”
“The second artwork is stunning. The shape of the head is very pleasing and the use of negative space creates effective dimensionality. He’s a scary beast even though his square chompers are only built for chewing grass.”
“I like the way we see him in his environment in left image. And I like how scary he is in other image.”

Ghost

Mine is on the left, and Bernard’s on the right. This was another tough one for the judges, although I had a ‘judging question’ about the lack of red in the right picture (it is there, just difficult to see without zooming in). Some judges questioned whether mine was even a ghost!

Voting was very split and seemed to rest on whether judges liked a darker or a more whimsical ghost. Ultimately I won with 2.65 points to Bernard’s 2.35.

Here are some judge comments:
“Right is clearly Casper!”
“There’s not much I don’t like about left. I particularly like the flame, and the teeth. Right…… it doesn’t capture me unfortunately.”
“Love the bony hand and lantern flame!”
“…I do actually like the left pic better. But right is a much better ghost.”

Zombie

Bernard is left, and I am right. This one led to another judges question about whether multiple subjects was acceptable. We hadn’t discussed that in advance, and after this one we decided to keep it at one only going forward. By this third week some judges had observed that one of us was using the same style weekly, and the other was mixing it up. Although they didn’t know who was who, I suspect this began to be factored in to their judging (one suggested that variety was advantageous).

Bernard’s apocalyptic vignette scored him an easy win with 3.26 points to my 1.74. None of the judges noticed that mine was supposed to be Michael Jackson…

Here’s what the judges had to say:
“The vertical lines speak of skeletons, the horizontal lines the prison of the life of a zombie endlessly driven to feed. Baby zombies barely exist and the mushroom cloud of death is a creature of its own advancing on us. The bloodied satiation of the zombie family gives the viewer a moment of peace to view the encroaching doom before the hunger takes hold again.”
“Right is a punk zombie head on a red gingham picnic table cloth.”

Sea Monster

I drew left, and Bernard drew right. I had a vision of a medieval style ‘monster on old map’ which didn’t quite work out, but I love that we both basically drew the same idea. Both artworks have a lot of fine detail; I wonder how much the judges noticed?

Voting on this one was very split, with three judges giving us equal points! Ultimately though the other two preferred mine and I won 3.1 points to 1.9.

Here’s the judges comments:
“Both squidtastic!”
“Impossible to choose.”
“I love left. But right will get a few points because I dig the night sky contrast.”
“Left is very well crafted. The use of white space, the detail of the ship, the twining tentacles, the striking contrast of the bold red of the monster, the minimal detail of the background that gives the artwork perspective. I like everything about this artwork??”
“Right which depicts a sea monster attacking at night conveys a terrifying sight with the cavernous mouth and enormous teeth about to envelope and destroy the ship. The detail of the ship gets a little lost in picture with the tentacles of the monster and the waves of the sea. The spotty creature looks a little diseased.”

Dragon

Mine is left; Bernard’s is right. This was a somewhat controversial piece since two judges have very strong opinions of what dragons look like and one of the above pieces not agree with their expectations!

Voting was a blowout, and I won 4.05 points to Bernard’s 0.95. I was pleased by this since I put more effort into my dragon than any previous piece, but had been nervous since I had wanted to draw hind legs but couldn’t work out how to add them! I also liked that judges noticed I’d gone (more successfully this time) for a medieval art style.

Here’s what the judges said:
“While I’d like the artist to have shown the back legs as well, I prefer it to the “hairy” dragon on the right.”
“Left: great detail of body, especially scales and excellent flames. Right: Torching guy!”
“Left is really charming. Reminds me of medieval illustrations. I tip my hat to right for the dynamic flaming I feel in its depiction!”
“I love the shape of the flame and the traditional look of the dragon on left. A good solid effort”
“Right is a bit of an abomination I’m sorry to say. Being an ardent fan of the dragon I emphatically reject the enormous hairy slug that is for some reason breathing fire. The only saving grace of this artwork is the charred remains of the valiant knight who is a charming and comical figure.”

Halfway through I’m ahead 3 to 2, which means with five subjects remaining this is still anyone’s game.

I asked Bernard for his comments at this point and he said: “Once again the judges appear to be unable to recognize true art when they see it. My remaining five pieces will be of the same stellar quality as my initial five pieces have been.“

As for myself, I’ll probably still continue trying a different style with every piece and hoping the judges appreciate the detail and work that has gone into my mini-masterpieces 🙂

Come back in five weeks to find out what the remaining five subjects were, and who wins this years postcard art contest!

Posted in Art, Family, Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

Fireworks 2022

Tuesday, July 5th, 2022

We went to Rochester to visit the parents and once again we brought fireworks with us for a July 4 extravaganza…

As you can see that’s an impressive haul (and yes everyone was amused at me arranging them for a photo) ranging from tiny little things to monsters that go boom in the night!

The box designs continue to be creative, featuring multiple points from which the sparks/projectiles fire. Although not visible in the photo above the Pyro Engine is mounted on rotating base for a dramatic effect when lit! We also bought a lighthouse with windows that light up. You can see both in the video below.

The two fish were different prices and the most expensive one (about $25) was longer and much more spectacular than the other. The tiny Saturn Missile Battery shot all 25 of the little missiles into the air and only cost $2! Far more impressive was our 196-shot Roman candle (the big black tube in the top photo) which was only $13 and didn’t disappoint!

As with previous years much of our fireworks were fountains like the above. These are what are legal here, and sold in local shops in the month before July 4. It’s always a mystery what these fireworks will actually do when lit, but most of the ones we set off last night were very pretty 🙂

We had a lot of hand-held items this year, and they seem to be a little bigger and… dangerous… every year!

The weather was beautiful and the temperature just right. We had a delicious grilled dinner immediately before the fireworks, although I’d been setting off a lot of the smaller ones all afternoon!

That handheld one was like a portable lightsaber! The flames roared as they came out, and I could easily feel the heat holding it as I was. The theme of this item was the Statue of Liberty, and the flames changed between red white and blue.

Of course the more dramatic ones are better suited to video, so here’s a little montage movie I put together of some of the highlights:

Happy Independence Day 🙂

Posted in Family, Holiday, Home | 1 Comment »

Animal Contest: Results!

Thursday, April 14th, 2022

At the halfway point of our animal painting postcard contest, we were tied at 3 wins apiece and it was anyones game. All the paintings are now complete, sent, received and judged. It’s time for the final results! With no further ado…

Anglerfish

The judges (who were picking the subjects) began to get creative here, and this pick was one that would test our ability to paint lighting effects! Mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left, and you can see our approaches are quite different. Mine seems cartoony, but I learned doing research that there are quite a few different types of anglerfish and I did my best to reproduce one of the more unusual breeds.

The judges had trouble with this one, and three split their votes. In the end I won with my fish 3.1 – 1.9, with many judges citing my light as being the decider. Here’s some specific comments:

“The fish on the right because of how well the glowing orb has been rendered.”
“The fish on the left looks a bit like something else – an orc or goblin. I think that’s because the surrounding murk looks like hair and a neck.”
“I like how dark the one on the right is and the creepy eyes.”

One judge may have said Bernard’s looks like an orc, but I can’t unsee what Bernard himself said his fish resembles: Mr T!

Porg

And here’s a judge giving us a not-real animal! Mine is on the left and Bernard’s on the right, and… well oh dear. I made a critical error in rendering the rainbow in the background (for no reason other than to use my new neon paints) and Bernard himself cited his method was to produce a portrait in the shortest time possible. Overall, the judges weren’t too impressed with either of these and it seems they were mostly choosing the one they felt least unimpressive!

Bernard won 3 – 2, and my two votes – both for the rainbow – were countered by three votes against the rainbow! It seems the judges had difficulty seeing past my the rainbow when evaluating these:

“The rainbow looks a bit half-hearted.”
“The one on the right looks like a spaniel.”
“I haven’t thought too much about the size of these artworks up to this point. I have always known that they are on postcards so in fact quite small. I can appreciate the difficulty of creating a detailed and interesting artwork in such a small space, especially in watercolour. Still the one on the right feels a bit lazy. Has the artist become bored with the competition. Is he lacking inspiration? Perhaps he is not inspired by the subject? Perhaps, like my hated of Minions, he despises the supposed cuteness of the fictional creature whose existence seems completely worthless. The banality of the subject has been rescued in the artwork on the left by the splashy rainbow, and this artwork therefore wins.”
“I LOVE the right. That porg pout. Holy bajesus!”

Quokka

Mine is on the right, and Bernard’s on the left. Do these paintings even depict the same creature? If you’re wondering, I had attempted – and utterly failed – to paint a fur texture freehand. Even before the paint had dried on mine I said to KLS “This is Bernard’s to lose” but in the back of my mind I hadn’t forgotten the judge’s comment on the his porg and thought perhaps I could sneak a win?

It turns out I had no chance, and his painting blew mine away. The only surprise was I got any votes at all, and that his win was only 3.5 – 1.5. And yet this shouldn’t have been a surprise, since the judges continued to be as unpredictable as ever! Their comments:

“These are both delightful but the one on the right wins.”
“This is a tie. I think left presents the subject a little bit better but fundamentally it looks quite derpy. Also the nose looks weird. The right has an evil look on its face… I don’t trust the right quokka!”
“Having seem them up close in real life when I visited Rottnest Island, I feel confident in selecting the artwork on the left as the one which most accurately captures the quokka’s stupidly happy spirit“

Frog

The very first thing that entered my mind when frog was given to us as the next subject was a frog prince. I rejected it as too whimsical, and instead planned to paint a poison dart frog. But black paints are problematic (see my gorilla…) and I couldn’t get the prince out of my mind. Plus I did have some metallic watercolour paint…

Mine is on the left and Bernard’s on the right, and this one gave the judges quite a bit of trouble! Both approaches are fundamentally different, both striking in their own way and neither easily dismissable due to technical faults. Judging for this one was easily the longest of the entire contest, but in the end I won 3-2. Here’s what the judges had to say:

“King frog is best frog!”
“I love the gold crown on left, but I adore the slight leftward angle of the right head.”
“I like the color contrast of poisonous frog on mushroom. I like the eyes and soft feel of the painted frog, a little bit like Monet, but the coloring is too weak.”
“Left seems crafted to appeal to the supposed preferences of the judge. One might find the bright pretty colors and shiny baubles somewhat obvious and patronizing but I hate to admit I love this picture. Simple, balanced, well-crafter. The crown is magical. While this artwork is largely fairytale it’s as charming as a prince.”

Spider

There’s over 45,000 different types of spider on Earth and yet – with no collaboration – we both chose the same one! To Americans this is a black widow, but to both of us this was a redback spider. Going into this one I had a comfortable 6 – 4 lead, so I knew at least the contest would be a tie, and as such perhaps the pressure was off. But I redoubled my efforts, and in this case that meant I put extra effort into the web and perhaps not as much into the spider: mine is on the right and Bernard’s on the left.

As soon as I saw Bernard’s I knew the win would be his, and yet I was once again surprised when the judges agreed, albeit with a slight 2.9 – 2.1 victory. It turns out my web was impressive enough to score me a few points! Here’s the comments:

“The left spider is superb. How the artist was able to create such dimension with just two colours is genius. The natural stance of the spider is perfectly captured. The legs are well defined and the abdomen beautifully bulbous, ready to devour her mate.”
“The one on the right has a cartoon quality. The spider is cute but harmless. The colours are bright and the definition in the artwork belies the medium. The web is particularly well done.
“A tie. The shadow on the left is pretty nice. The web on the right I appreciate because it looks like it took a bit of effort. In the end though they both need to die in a fire because spiders!”

Scarlet Macaw

Mum chose the first subject (Panda) and it was finally time for her second choice. We were expecting squirrel but for our last animal she chose a colorful parrot! Bernard’s is on the left and mine on the right, and once again our efforts confounded the judges.

This was the third time three judges split their votes, and perhaps fittingly this was the result with the closest final score. In the end I squeaked in with a 2.7 – 2.3 win, and it literally came down to the very last vote of the contest! Here’s what the judges had to say:

“I vote for the one on the left, which has the best watercolor technique.”
“Left has more depth.”
“The colours are done well in both birds. The face gave each of you trouble. The winner is the one on the right; I love the composition.”
“The one on the right sparked the most joy.”
“Left is the better watercolour but right has better colours.”

Final Results!

Twelve animals over three months, and 60 individual evaluations by our panel of judges. It’s time for the final results…

I won, with 7 wins to Bernard’s 5!

Looking at total points, I scored 33.8 to Bernard’s 26.2, which means the final decision came down to only 4 votes. Looking at individual entries, it could be argued that Snake won the entire contest for me (since I swept that 5 – 0).

Looking back on the contest as a whole, here’s our opinions on our work, and the results:

  • Bernard felt his best piece was his cat, and while I agree it was superb, I think his very best was his spider.
  • I felt my best piece was my eagle, and Bernard agreed.
  • Bernard felt his worst was his Porg, but I believe his snake was weaker.
  • I felt my worst piece was my quokka, but he thought it was my cat.
  • Bernard believes he should have won cat instead of me, and that I should have won eagle instead of him, and I agree with him on both of these.
  • When asked for a statement on the judging, Bernard said this: “My win was clearly stolen by a panel of judges easily distracted by bold colors and metallic paints!“
  • My comment on the judging is: “My win was harder than it should have been due to judges overlooking blatant rules violations by an opponent who brought pencil sketches to a watercolour contest!“

Jesting aside, thanks very much to all the judges for your valued and wise critique. Watch your mailboxes for a special reward from an award-winning artist…

We didn’t take as many work-in-progress pictures this time around, but here’s a few of mine:

I used washi tape for my spider web, which I cut lengthwise before applying to the postcard and then painting over with a grey wash before removing the tape. I did this three times in fact (for practice), and the other two are in the mail on the way to lucky recipients. Of course while this looks good, the problem was the web was too small to paint a large spider on, and that it was extraordinarily difficult to find a reference photo posed correctly so I just made up the spider 🙂

The above shows my anglerfish, which used only two colors. As you can see by this point I had mostly eschewed sketches and was applying the paint from a sort-of palette.

The size of the images sent to judges made detail difficult, and I was especially concerned (for no reason, as it turned out) that the metallic paint for the crown on my frog wouldn’t be visible. The above is a detailed photo showing how fancy that paint looks!

So another annual contest has ended. If you’re keeping track I won Postcards (in 2020), Bernard won Portraits (in 2021) and now I have my second win for Animals in 2022. What will the 2023 contest be? Perhaps we already know… but you’ll have to come back next year to find out 🙂

Posted in Animals, Art, Blog, Crafts, Family, Miscellaneous, Postcards | Comments Closed

City Christmas

Sunday, December 19th, 2021

After canceling Australia, we booked a (very!) last minute trip to NYC to ‘save Christmas’. In other words, get my mind off a disappointing event and buy some Xmas gifts at the same time.

We stayed in our usual hotel. The room wasn’t quite as fancy (or expensive) as last time but was still cozy and had a wonderful view, especially at night:

That’s the Bryant Park ice rink, which they set up for a few months every year. The whole park gets a makeover in fact, with lots of temporary shops and restaurants. Here’s a better view of the rink:

Mostly we shopped, and as usual we absolutely filled our days. But we also found time for eating, like delicious mochi donuts (made using rice flour):

Or this mozzarella potato corn dog:

We visited Madame Tussaud’s for the first time ever, which was crazy busy since it was raining and everyone else chose to go as well, but it was fun seeing the incredibly lifelike mannequins:

And to our surprise you could pose with almost all of them:

Of course we went to see the famous Rockefeller Center tree as well, which was dazzling at night:

And – to our surprise – Saks 5th Avenue had a 3.5 minute fully animated light/music show using 700,000 lights over the entire facade of the building:

Oh and the city was mobbed with people. In fact this was maybe the busiest we had ever seen NYC, and certainly the most people I’ve seen since the pandemic began. Of course the unfortunate side of this is that NYC is currently seeing pandemic-record covid numbers (due to the variant which affected my trip…) but it was great to see near-ubiquitous mask usage (even out on the sidewalk) and testing/vaccination tents on every block:

We had a whirlwind trip but a fun one. We packed a lot into 2.5 days and returned with an astonishing amount of goodies. This last photo shows most of what we bought (certain Xmas gifts are omitted). Can you guess which of these will soon inspire a blog post of its own?

Posted in Blog, Family, Food, Holiday, Trip | 1 Comment »

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