Commemorative garbage ...

Amazing how people will try to make money. This morning I again saw the advert on TV for the commemorative medal/statue of the Twin Towers. It is a pretty tacky looking medal, 100% "gold-plated" (whatever that means), with a silver inset of the Twin Towers which "flips up to form a stylish relief sculpture". uh-huh... The silver is "priceless, sourced from the vaults deep under ground zero. It is a finite amount of silver, so when resources run out, this unique run WILL END!" The confidential voice of the man then continues to say that this offer is "only available to collectors, with a limit of 5 per order"(!!) but for a limited time only the price is "reduced from USD49.95 to USD29.95". Could that honestly be more insulting to those affected by the events of 9/11? Firstly they try to make out it is unique and priceless, and then offer a discount on the price, and secondly, limit sales only to COLLECTORS, but each order can have 5?? Amazing really! It really makes me want to chuck something at the screen!
Tonight I am going to try to see some of the Halloween parade on 6th Avenue - apparently it is one of the 100 things to do before you die. Not so sure on that one, but I will confirm tomorrow one way or the other... meeting some friends for drinks first, so hopefully I will still make it. I am off the alcohol at the moment after last Tuesday night in any case, so I should be bright eyed and camera wielding by the time I get there. Although having said that I am quite tired today - it must be the change in time zones with daylight saving ending, and then also getting up early for the gym each morning. One of life's mysteries I guess...

Windy weekend in NY

Well, I just had a very busy weekend. Opera on Friday night (Madama Butterfly, which was just beautifully staged, although the singing was not fantastic, inasmuch as I am any expert). Saturday involved getting up after the heavy rain stopped, getting the paper, then heading out for a matinee. I actually ordered my first home delivery meal as well, one of the best Pad Thai's I have ever had. Sunday got up early, went to the gym and did some washing, and then met my friend Les and his friend Mike at Madison Square Park. Sunday was FREEZING cold, and really really windy - the kind of wind that blows you sideways.

We headed off to brunch at Cafeteria, got a table reasonably quickly, and then who should join us but Susan Sarandon and her two sons. Nice of them (she is the one wearing the hat in the photo - couldn't use flash as that might be a bit...rude?).








Brunch was lovely - this time I had the crabcake and poached eggs, whilst Les noshed on the Green Eggs and Ham, and Mike went suitably masculine with the eggs benedict with swiss chard...

So then the three of us headed up to Central Park to find Strawberry Fields (for Mike, who turns out to be a closet Beatles fan, and kept thinking every small Asian woman we saw was Yoko Ono). Had a good wander around, taking shelter behind large rocks out of the wind.
















As you can see from my picture, my hair suffered rather in the constant bombardment, but the colours of the trees were just beautiful. We watched the ice skaters for a little while (thenks to Trump for sponsoring the rink of course!), and then Mike lost his spare AA batteries over the edge of the large rocks we were sitting on and decided to be an intrepid rock climber to recover them. He did get one back, but after smacking his head on a tree limb decided discretion was the better part of being a cheapskate, and maybe he could just buy another couple of batteries.
Was a lovely day. After taking pictures of Cleopatra's Needle, and Les taking a quick rest on Hans Christian Anderson's lap, we headed out again and finally found a bar after walking 20 blocks in the driving wind, keeping our mouths closed to avoid inhaling the dust, leaves and rubbish that was flying around. After a few beers (Les), a Corona with an umbrella in it (Mike) and a half of Guinness (me), I headed off for my evening commitments, all set for another early start this morning.

And, picking up on the rubbish news reporting again, this morning in the gym I had the treat of watching NBC (channel already set by someone on the treadmill behind me), and they had a reporter from Baghadad (not Baghdad as normal). How very reassuring on quality control and checking! We also had the Governator of California talking about the arsonist over there (something along the lines of "we must catch the scumbag"). The rest of the news here is solely about George W Bush and the mid-term elections in just over a week. Given W is not even up for election, it is really all about how he is being used by the opposition to try to discredit Republican candidates... So there has been lots of footage of him talking about the "Internets" and how he uses "the Google". Always ample fodder for next year's book of "Bushisms".

News reporting in the US ...

... still haven't found a decent news channel outside of BBC World (which at least has SOME international content). An example of the news reports that were on the various TVs at the gym this morning (don't you love how I included that little reference showing I was at the gym?):
* there is a fire in California started by arsonists - the report said: "Three firefighters killed in arson fire, one critical". Okaaay - so the other two are just dead but not critical?
* talking about the situation in Iraq, the news headline read: "will our soliders [sic] be brought home?". That is not my typo - that was the spelling that was repeated for at least the whole hour I was watching the program
* lots of reporting on the press conference with Donald Rumsfeld where he started having arguments with the journalists about the tone they were using, and fingerpointing. I thought they might start having hissy-slaps the way it was going. Such impressive reporting
I still very much enjoy the Geico (car insurance) adverts though. They spend a fortune on advertising as it seems that they only do phone quotes. The adverts usually involve a real Geico customer telling a story about the accident they had, interspersed with a paid celebrity's comments. The paid celebrity sits next to them and jazzes up their rather boring stories. Kind of B-list celebrities, but recognisable eg Little Richard, Chica, couple of older actors, the guy who does the voiceovers for movie trailers. They are very funny though, and nice idea.
The weather now in NY is COOOLDD. About 15 degrees C (mid-50s fahrenheit), and yesterday it was also very windy. Tonight it is about to start raining very hard in time for a wet and windy and cold weekend - YAY. I don't have enough clothes for this sort of weather, and can't start buying too much more at this point, as I will need to cart it all back to the UK in just under 5 weeks time. Yes, I can now count my return date in weeks. And of course for 2 of those 5 weeks I will not even be in the US ... Not that the weather in London is any better I understand, but it is more the logisitics of moving large coats, woolly gloves and furry hats.
I should say also, that I wrote up two posts in between the last one you will see published, but Blogger decided to crash on both occasions, and as fellow bloggers will know, it is no fun trying to repost the vitriol for a second time. So you missed out on my pronouncements on autumnal "fashion" in NY, and also the amusing story on the subway. However, I will be trying again to post my photo montage of a day in the life in NY. Unfortunately I did get so drunk the day/night I took the pictures, that none really survived after the one of me and the martini ...

Tartare is NOT the same as carpaccio...

... today I am going to be a princess. Went to dinner last night at Tre Dici on W26th street. Lovely place, and food is always good. But last night I order as a starter the Beef Carpaccio, which was described in the usual way - carpaccio with baby arugula and a mustard vinaigrette. What arrived was a square of beef tartare. I have a big issue with textures of food - I don't like slimy, sloppy, mushy or gelatinous. Basically all the things that make tartare tartare. It was even put in front of me and announced as tartare. I said "Oh, is that the carpaccio?" and was told "yes". Well, the flavour was lovely, but the texture - ugh! I could not finish it.
Luckily the main made up for it - a beautiful dish of triangular pasta with lobster, zucchini (courgette), peppers and other bits and pieces in a tomato cream sauce. It was absolutely stunning. Dessert (why not) was the 20 stack crepe with caramelised banana. Banana was perfect, warm and crispy topping. The stack of crepes was literally a slice of a stack of crepes, all sandwiched together with a light creamy spread. It was to be honest a little bland - the creamy sandwiching could have done with a flavour through it eg vanilla or lemon. My dinner companion had the strip steak ravioli in herbed butter and then the "fire and ice" which was vanilla gelato with warm berries on top, served in a martini glass all topped off with a warm strudel "lid". He said it was very interesting, but very nice. It looked good, although a bit of a challenge to eat elegantly I would think. And all washed down with some lovely wine.
So Tre Dici can stay on the list of places to visit - it is not cheap, but the food really is of a very high quality. We were going to go to Sapa on W24th, but it was booked for a private party - maybe next week.
So this weekend I am thinking of annoying the boys at Westpoint with a visit. I am at the stage where I need to fit everything in before leaving, so my to-do lists are coming out. Jazz bar on Saturday night (maybe Jim Hall trio at the Vanguard), more time at the gym, and Westpoint and the combined tour with Woodbury Common on Sunday ... or that is the plan at the moment anyway.

Americans as travellers

Well, I do have to say that Americans make very interesting travellers on planes. My most recent observations that come to mind are:
* loads of hand baggage - as US airlines seem to lose baggage more than any other jurisidiction (apart from Ryanair which is a law unto itself), and also take AGES to bring the baggage through to be picked up, everybody takes the maximum hand luggage on with them
* boarding order - for some reason US airlines assign an order of boarding as follows:
1 - frequent flyers and first class and business
2 - second most frequent flyers
3 - people seated in economy in window and centre seats
4 - people seated on the aisles
Such a stupid concept - I prefer to travel on the aisle usually, so this means I am always getting on last to a heaving plane, with all baggage areas stuffed to the gills. I may have to consider window seats, as I have no standing with US airlines at all
* very demanding on "beverages" - I have actually embraced this concept. First noticed this when sitting next to an American woman on a transatlantic flight. When asked what she wanted to drink, she asked for a "full can of pepsi and also a glass of water". I loved this - she just got what she asked for. So from now on (particularly long haul flights), I always ask for two drinks - usually a tomato juice (spicy if possible), but also a water. Works a treat, and helps with the constant dehydration and wondering when you are next going to get watered.
* strange demands - on one of my recent flights there was the usual problem with storage space with the gigantic amounts of carry on luggage. One guy had put his rather nasty puffy jacket in the overhead bins. So the flight attendant asked "whose jacket is this?" he replied it was his. She handed it to him, and said "we are out of space so I just need to re-arrange this bin to fit another bag in". he replied testily "Oh, so my jacket can't go up there now?" she said "Sir, I will try to fit it up here once the bags are in, but otherwise you will need to hold it on your lap". He replies "oh, because my jacket is really heavy so I don't want to hold it" ?????!!! By this time, she has managed to shove the last bag up, so takes the jacket and wrestles it into the space as well. He says "thank you so much" and she says "your welcome, my pleasure" all very politely. Meanwhile at least everyone sitting nearby was craning to see what sort of twit would make demands like that ....
* carry on baggage and toiletries - I notice that you can now carry some toiletries and liquids on to planes, but only if they are in less than 3oz containers (90ml for the non-imperially challenged of us), and separately kept in a plastic zip lock bag. Riiiiiight. That makes me feel safer in the skies.
So apart from travel observations, what is happening in NY? Well, lots of rain recently. Temperature is still holding up well on average - should hit 74 today (23C), and clear up hopefully. Work is rather busy as usual, and I have a lot of travel ahead of me. I have an official end-date for the NY secondment, being 30 November, so at that point the blog will end by definition. This week when there is a clear day I intend to do a "day in the life" photo montage trekking my day - I am sure that will put you all into a stupor, but may help to show my exciting life in more detail. Will have to see what happens - not sure I can deliver any more celebrity sightings unfortunately. I may also do a "re-integrating into London/how not to renovate a Georgian flat" blog, but we shall see if there is sufficient interest/content for that one!

Noo Yawk

So after over 4 months in NY, what am I now good at? Well, I can catch subways like a local, and sometimes even do it late at night; I am becoming all about convenience, and get very annoyed when my glass of icewater does not arrive within 3 minutes of my sitting to eat; I now expect severe delays at airports when the skies are just heavily clouded, let alone raining (I have to say nowhere else I have ever lived is so bad for delays, cancellations and baggage losses as the US); I can do a proper fake American accent now; I can automatically convert time zones from Eastern time without first going through GMT; my apartment feels like home, and the doormen actually smile and say hello to me now (guess they think I will be here until Christmas - huh!); I no longer cringe when the Dulcolax stool softening ads come on TV; I am seriously considering signing up for some Proactiv (that Jessica Simpson could sell ice to eskimos); I know where my local Junior's cheesecake outlet is; I know what a Philly cheesesteak is (ugh); I can catch a bus to Woodbury Common blindfolded; I know the exact layout of Saks and my local Duane Reid, Sephora, Banana Republic, Filenes, Loehmans, TK Maxx and Wholefoods; I have a favourite newspaper and local news channel (more for hilarity purposes than for news - there is no international news service in the US outside of BBC world service); I can get to work in a round trip of 14 minutes on the subway, door to door, and I know which exits and carriage doors I need, and where to stand on the platforms; I have 3 standard lunches that I eat, which I alternate as necessary to keep myself engaged; I am so used to re-runs of various American soaps that I have seen re-runs of the re-runs at 3am in the morning; I have two favourite jazz bars; I know the fastest public transport routes to Newark and JFK; I not longer have to carry my NFT guide with me everywhere; I push NYers out of the way on "sidewalks" as opposed to getting shoved myself; I can mutter about lousy tourists and their slow pace of meandering; I still hate Macy's but love Saks; I consider various options to get out of the city on weekends; and I hobnob with celebrities, as shown by...
my lovely meeting with a decidedly underwhelmed John Travolta which capped off last week! Could he look any more unimpressed? The venue was Ciprianis on 42nd, and the occasion the American Australian Association's annual black tie dinner. Lovely way to spend a Thursday night I have to say. Although running across the floor as John returned to his seat squealing "Mr Travolta! Mr Travolta! Sorry to be so annoying, but would you please allow us to have a photograph taken with you?" was hardly in keeping with the general ambience of the evening. But an opportunity too good to pass up!

I'm back baby!

Back in New York. Seems surreal after two weeks of floating around looking at icebergs and the occasional seal. Loved the trip - although the average age on board was about 65, that just served to make me feel like a teenager again. As with every long trip there were ups and downs, but mostly all ups. Don't think I will do another cruise for many years though, even though this trip could not really be described as a cruise - an expedition perhaps... I had also forgotten what cold was (funny since I normally live in London). With one pair thermal liner socks, one pair thick thermal socks, one pair long silver infused super heavy weight socks worn all at once, under neoprene lined rubber boots - my feet were STILL cold sitting on a zodiac. Amazing really. I also discovered one important fact about myself - I don't get seasick. Of course every time is different, but when most of the ship were lying retching in their beds crossing the Denmark Strait, I was tumbling along the corridors, or trying to shower whilst clinging to a wall as anything on the floor of the bathroom sloshed frantically from side to side whacking me on the ankles as the ship pitched in huge seas and a force 10 gale. Try shampooing whilst blind drunk, as someone hits your legs with hard objects and you will get the idea...
Nice to be back here in a lot of ways - I felt like I was home walking into the apartment - freshly cleaned and empty fridge. That is me! So went to Wholefoods last night (still the same), and staggered back under my usual heavy bags - damn my predeliction for freshly squeezed ruby red grapefruit juice I say!
On the upside, I returned to a lovely invitation to join my office's table at the Australian American Association's annual black tie dinner at Cipriani. Well, if I must ... So it was off to Saks today at lunch with Gayle to see what I could find to wear. Found a lovely Kay Unger cocktail dress which will do the job. Still need some shoes though... Unfortunately in my last trip back to the UK I took a lot of my formal clothes and also the summer stuff with me to forestall the inevitable problems when I move back. I seem to have accumulated a LOT of stuff here. How did I fit in 3 suitcases on the way over?? I see problems ahead. Best not to think about it yet.
It is a long weekend this weekend - Columbus Day of all things. I have no plans yet, but that is never a problem. I am weighing up whether to head out of town on a little train trip, or whether to stay in town, see some jazz, do some sightseeing and some sports activity in Central Park. So many options. Sleeping in also seems nice. After a week of staying up to 3am on the boat drinking with the only other people under 40, then up at 7:30am for breakfast and another day of hiking, iceberging etc, I am overdue some sleep. Plus reading the papers - I really missed the news on the ship. With no mobile coverage, and no TV etc, the world could have gone to war for all I knew. There is something both relaxing and frustrating about that.
And by news, I don't just mean missing the last couple of episodes of Project Runway. To be honest I did not give a thought to the final designers and what was happening. I was more concerned about the Middle East and what was happening with Tony Blair. Guess that means that I am either more grown-up than I thought, or just more boring!