Friday dawns cold and wet. Only our second wet day in three weeks.

We enjoy a slow and lazy morning: packing a bit, sorting out our apartment, washing.

We then head out to the Flatiron district to a photography museum. There is a display of animal photos which we’d like to see.

It wet as we leave and we don’t have our umbrellas, it’s only 4 minutes to the subway. We make it. The rain is a slow hazy mist so not too annoying.

The museum is a short walk from 23rd street. As we enter we are almost knocked over by the internal heat. We ditch our jackets and buy our tickets to the exhibit.

We spend the next couple of hours looking at the images. Photos of mostly cats and dogs, with the odd snake, bird, ferret and rabbit adorn the two floors of the exhibition.

People that look like their pets is a fascinating display of portraits. Images of people with features identical to their pets.

Photos of pets being bathed, with their families and kids. Elegant cats, scruffy dogs and everything in between. It’s all very fun and interesting.

We look at another exhibition. Photos of celebrities shot in interesting and weird ways. David Bowie, Barack Obama, George Clooney all feature in this interesting display.

After the museum we look for some lunch. Mardi finds an Irish pub near by. Always warm and inviting, a good pub will always offer a great atmosphere and good meal.

Remember, I grew up in a pub.

We enjoy a chicken pot pie and a burger. And sit for a while. The pub is internally lit up with hundreds of Christmas lights. Music plays and the late afternoon crowd is buoyant with animated conversation and cheer.

We head back to our room thinking it’s a cold evening ahead so a good chance to do some more packing.

Out of the blue Bob and Cathy call us and invite us to an off broadway show.

Sure. We are keen.

So we get dressed and arrange to go out. The packing can wait and we meet Bob and Cathy at the theatre. It’s on 50th between 8th and 9th Avenue.

The show is called Mind Mangler. We saw a play in 2019 by the same company featuring the same actor, called the play that goes wrong. That was hilarious so we are hoping for a fun night.

In essence he presents a show about a bumbling illusionist, magician, comedian where everything goes wrong. He can’t read mind or do tricks. And his so called audience participants are obvious and deliberate plants.

It is ingenious and hilarious. We laugh non stop for two hours. There is a lot of audience participation and I even get to go on stage and assist with a trick with a Rubik’s cube. Thankfully I’m not the only one!!

After the show we walk back to 8th Avenue and have a late dinner at the Carnegie Diner. We sit and chat for an hour or so. We have had a great night and we enjoy their company. We eventually leave the diner, it’s still drizzling and the streets are still packed; it’s almost Midnight.

We walk the six blocks back hotel and call it a night.