October 2011
40 posts
An Englishwoman in NY.
This place is weird. They have different names for everything (store not shop, candy not sweets, couch not sofa, surround wrap not clingfilm, xerox not photocopier, fries not chips (though chips mean crisps) etc). If they do have the same name, they invariably pronounce it differently a-LUMinum (kitchen foil) so over the past 6 weeks Max and I have got (or gotten as they say here) quite a few...
Pick 'n' Mix
Found this AMAZING pick and mix shop in the West Village and it made me think of my lovely Swedish friends and our escapades over the summer. I promise not all the posts on the blog will be about food or drink :-)
Nom.
This was our remedy for the stress of the last week. Homemade hot chocolates and a chocolate sundae with brownie, your choice of homemade ice cream, caramel sauce and sprinkles. All from a local Creamery. Caro & Tom I’m defo taking you back here!
Red red wine.
We have had real difficultly buying nice wine so far in NY. The first couple of bottles we tried were hideous but we assumed it was just bad luck or that we’d been cheap so we went to an upmarket wine shop where we chatted to the guy for 20 minutes and explained our dilemma. He told us that we hadn’t been selecting the right type and pointed us towards another bottle that he promised...
Crispy, crunchy leaves.
So Fall (that’s what we have to call it now-along with various other words and phrases we’ve had to adapt in case people look at us weirdly!) is here! As I think you can see from the the photos, our trip to Cold Spring was a HUGE success and welcome break from the madness of NY. I was like a small child before Christmas. Kept talking about the country and smiling to myself absently...
WatchThe automated car park
Open House New York
Last weekend, as part of Archtober (NY’s month of architecture), the beautiful and the unusual buildings of New York opened their doors to the public, for guided tours and for an internal experience not available the other 51 weekends of the year.* There’s far too much to see in one weekend, at least 100 venues; there’s even a guided tour of the manhole covers of 14th street (I...
New lows
Friday morning. 5.10am - I wake up early. It’s still dark, furniture and brickwork in our bedroom are exposed in orange. Something’s buzzing and I am alone in bed.
I look around. Steph’s silhouette is crouched by the window. My throat anticipates the first words of the day. Better make ‘em good.
“Nnngghhh…what’s going on?”
“Someone’s...
The Good, The Bed & The Ugly
The best picture I can paint of what our landlord is like in person is by quoting a psych report I was reading on Thursday, on the behaviour of a suspected serial killer (involved in the case of the West Memphis Three). The similarities to our landlord’s character are uncanny. … and this is a suspected serial killer.
• Self absorbed individual with narcissistic tendencies. He is able...
4 Wrestlers, 3 Cats, 2 Dogs
I’d like to elucidate on the mention of our landlord made earlier. Besides him threatening to evict us, there was also The Mattress of Doom. I think it’s easiest just to quote a passage from a letter we wrote to him a couple of weeks ago. Says it all really:
————
Regarding the separate issue of the mattress, the room was advertised to us as...
This week has been busy as work. Which is great. The highlight was that Waris was asked to donate a piece of jewellery for an auction that took place in LA on Friday night for Bill Clinton’s 65th birthday and the 10th anniversary of the Clinton Foundation. The piece and its’ box was handmade, hand engraved and totally bespoke. Click here to see the piece. It was a great example of...
Yellow Cabs.
Getting a cab in NY is a totally different experience from London.
1) They won’t always agree to pick you up in the first place, sometimes they just don’t take a fancy to where you happen to be going.
2) Even if they do agree, they often have no idea where they’re going and you have to explain a number of times/use your limited knowledge of NY’s complex one way...
Overheard in NY
People in NY are loud. One of my first experiences of this was a guy describing (well it was more of a monologue) in GRAPHIC detail to his friend (whom I swear I saw stifling a yawn and who didn’t get a word in edgeways) about the latest guy he’d met. The high point was him recounting, without a trace of irony that, ” we just have so much in common, good Chinese food, a love of...
Laugh or Leave.
Despite what it might appear from the blog, it hasn’t all been easy this whole moving lark (as I’m sure you’ll be delighted to hear!)
- we found a great place then couldn’t move in because we tried to deliver a bed
- then found another great place but had a load of problems moving in including (but not limited to!) the landlord threatening to evict us for no reason,...
The Wilderness Downtown
Another small video I saw in the MoMa: this time an interactive music video. I won’t spoil the surprise for you, but this will make your skin tingle.
http://thewildernessdowntown.com/
The land of opportunity
After three years trying to get a job in the UK film industry, it took me three weeks to get a job in New York. Okay, so technically it’s an internship, but the point is that it’s paid, I can still apply for more permanent jobs and I’m doing exactly what I want to be doing.
I work in the acquisitions department for a DVD and digital distribution company called New Video who are...
You Are The Mayor →
BMW and Guggenheim have developed an “Urbanology” game to give people a simplified idea of how differing policies effect crucial factors in a city. At the Lab, it’s played in group of 20 or so who debate and vote to democratically decide how their city is run. The virtual city can then be compared to those around the world. The open environment of the lab allows for strangers...
WatchI spent the weekend back at the BMW Guggenheim Lab in the Lower East Side. This time I dragged Steph along and luckily she caught the best lecture there that I have seen so far. I’ve never heard of the Danish “rock-star” architect Bjarke Ingels, but judging by the crowd of students and scholars who gathered to see him speak, he’s kind of a big deal.
For two hours, Bjarke...
Madison Square Gardens.
Max and I were in town yesterday and had a lovely time walking around the Flatiron district (which I thought was pronounced Flat-ee-ron like in French, doh!). Even though there are skyscrapers all around, preventing you from suspending disbelief that you are in a city, there is something beautiful about the reflection in the water and the deep blue sky. There were lots of children around and we...
RIP Steve Jobs.
The shock of the death of Steve Jobs has reverberated around NY. Apple is omnipresent here, even more so than in the UK. As so often when someone great but who you knew very little about dies, I found myself spending a large part of Thursday reading about him. His life, his upbringing, his vision and ability to turn that vision into a multi million dollar industry. And at the root of it all, the...
Yummy Mummies.
This is a shot I snapped a little too late as the yummy mummy brigade passed me in the West Village. Matching buggies and babies. Keeping up with the Joneses starts early!
The first electric scooter.
On Thursday night Waris was on the judging panel for the first electic scooter. There was a reception and display of all the models at the Penthouse of Milk Studios in the Meatpacking District. We looked out over the amazing view from the roof terrace whilst sipping Pink Gin and chatting.
One of the bike models. Apparently Tron?
Fernan doing dashing.
General Knowledge Quiz.
If you turn up at this car park and your car is at the top, how do they get it down? Drive off each car individually? Is there a cavity underground? Answers on a postcard please…
NY architecture.
I love how loads of different buildings are all crammed together in NY. Churches rub shoulders with skyscrapers, industrial warehouses and cute clapperboard houses that look as if they’ve been transplanted from the Deep South. I love the way this church is just standing here as if for decades, oblivious to the skyscrapers and cranes popping up around it.
Sunday afternoon.
Nem and I went to the biggest street fair in Brooklyn on Sunday. Such a nice way to spend a sunny afternoon, just ambling and browsing and sampling various culinary delights (below notwithstanding!)
Would you risk it?!
Great smile and great dress. Spots are so in this season.
Halloween.
As you may know, Halloween is a really big deal here. As you can tell from this picture. Which was taken in September. All the shops fill up with novelty crap and people get really competitive as to who has the best garden display.
There have also been some beautiful Autumn (or rather Faaaall) displays in the high end grocery stores. Here are a few from Dean & Deluca and Eataly.
Max...
Spandex World.
As you can see, there are more people than you might think sane/normal shopping in Spandex World. And they’re not all the kind of people who should necessarily be wearing Spandex. In my first week I saw loads of people carrying bags from this shop and wondering where the mystery shop was. Turns out it’s just down the road. Amazing.
Date Night.
Just your average date night, ice cream & a movie. In Times Square. In New York, argh! Still can’t quite believe we live here. Went to an amazing ice cream shop where they put the ice cream onto a frozen surface and then mush the cookie dough, chocolate chips, caramel etc into it. Nom.
one happy customer.
Brunch.
Brunch in NY is an institution and I’m going to make a big effort to sample as many brunches as I can while I’m here. Last Saturday I met up with Nem and her friend Georgia for brunch in Park Slope. Mmmmm Eggs Benedict. Georgia is a brand new doctor currently working in a trauma hospital in London and it didn’t put me off my eggs at all listening in rapt admiration to her tales...
Sorry!
Dear faithful readers of the blog,
I’m so sorry I haven’t written for so long. No internet at the loft and busy at work, but it’s no excuse. It won’t happen again. Get ready for lots of reading!
Thank you again to everyone who has told me how much they enjoy the blog, we enjoy writing it and it makes us enjoy NY twice as much knowing we get to share it with you!
Love...
We are gentrification
On the bus today going through Bed-Stuy, a young, black, well-dressed couple sat directly in front of us. The lady had pulled up Martin Luther King’s “I Have A Dream” speech on her Blackberry and was reading it passionately, in full, to the man. Steph and I sat silently, listening. I had never heard the whole thing before. The parts that I have heard are moving certainly, but to me they remain...
Skills to pay the bills
Got my first paid job last Saturday, as production assistant on a promo-video for the BMW Guggenheim Lab. As the website explains:
The BMW Guggenheim Lab is a mobile laboratory [which] addresses issues of contemporary urban life through programs and public discourse. Its goal is the exploration of new ideas, experimentation, and ultimately the creation of forward-thinking solutions for city...
Twitter comes good
I have mastered Twitter. It isn’t only proof of our attention-deficit society; it isn’t just the swan song of the printed press; it isn’t simply a platform for gratuitous self-promotion and insults. It is the highway to an infinite world of exploration and possibility in uncharted arenas. It is the truth, the way and the light. It even provides us with free tickets to see...
