Have been looking forward to today for some time now. Knowing there were a lot of cool things planned. On advice from a friend we’d secured some audience tickets to a recording of the Drew Barrymore Show.

Fortunately the rain is well passed now and it’s shaping up to be a beautiful day outside. We get going early-ish as we need to be at CBS Studios by 9.30am. The line isn’t too long and we take our place as the security outside starts to give instructions. Phones will be locked up, your bags will be thoroughly checked, if you have pocket knives or pepper spray they will be held by security till after the show etc etc. As the guard reaches us in the queue he stops and says hi and recognises our accents and asks where we’re from. It seems the British and Aussie accents aren’t so easy to decipher. When we tell him we’re from Australia, 2 ladies in front of us spin around and say US TOO! We find out they are a nan and granddaughter traveling together from Melbourne. The nan was actually well familiar with the Central Coast and it was great to talk all things travel and NYC to pass the time. 

We can only take one pic outside before our phones are locked up for the remainder of the time. So we pass through security and are ushered into a holding area, carefully placed into seats, we are greeted by our ‘warm up guy’ Joey who annouces the guest list for the day. Everyone cheers when we hear Selena Gomez, Benny Blanco and Elizabeth Olsen and that we’ve also come on a day there are giveaways. He also gives us some instructions on hand signals he uses to control the responses of the crowd. All very contrived, although natural responses, we’re just asked to be a bit more enthusiastic in our laughter and making sure we clap loud and high (no golf claps).
Before long, and after waivers signed, we are asked to stay in our lines as we were seated in the studio, a delicate game of human Tetris. Then the time has come to meet Drew. I am so happy to see she is exactly what I expected. Kind, funny, down to earth, and literally just felt like you were hanging out with a friend having a chat on her couch. Her dog is on set, which clearly is a second home, as he cuddles up to Drew and the guests on the lounge too.
Selena and Benny were cool to see in the flesh. Selena is a very familiar face as my daughters were big fans of the Disney show Wizards of Waverly Place.  I couldn’t wait to tell them about seeing her. Selena and Benny were there to promote her new products from her make up brand Rare Beauty and their joint upcoming album they’ve done together. 

Elizabeth Olsen came on to talk about an upcoming movie Assessment, which sounds so interesting. I think what was actually so cool was how Drew engaged with her guests. She just sidles up next to them and hugs them so tightly, showers them with genuine compliments and shares some personal stories and experiences as well. 
The fun giveaways were one of the new products from Selena’s line, and a $100 voucher to Carnegie Diner, gifted under the guise of a game Drew and Elizabeth played given their joint love of getting stains out. Each half of the crowd were given a person to support and the winning side would get the voucher. Watching them both made me laugh as they had a variety of cleaning products to remove a mustard stain from a white t-shirt. After Drew won, she said “everyone gets a voucher”. I know where we’re going for lunch!

The show filming ends and we walk down to the diner with giveaways in hand. It is a stunning day outside and the walk is easy and so pleasant. 
Suitably full and ready for a chill before tonight’s NBA match, and we pass through Time Square where I notice a Disney Store. I’ll have to save that for another day, as I think mum has reached her step limit already and is keen to get back to the hotel to put her feet up. It’s already about 4pm by now so mum naps as I take the chance to check in back home with the family, and arrive back in the room to find mum asleep. Luckily she stirs as I tell her we probably should get going.

Having been fortunate to see 2 NBA games on different past trips – one at Madison Square Garden too – I was excited to be able to organise this experience for my basketball loving mumma as it would be her very first time.

NBA matches are sensory overload with so much to see. The crowds, the entertainment and of course the actual basketball. The game was pretty close in the first half, all tied up. But for some reason my poor self was so tired I got the nods during the game. The final score went the Knicks way convincingly which made the crowd happy. We stroll home and realise how perfectly positioned our hotel is to so many of the great things we have been up to. 
Tomorrow will see me tick off my final item from my NYC bucket list, a Broadway musical. Very much looking forward to that, as well as exploring the Disney store I saw earlier today.
Exhausted but satisfied, I am ready to sleep and already excited about our final full day in NYC.