Most weeks when I was in the UK, I would buy 2 four pint bottles of milk, semi skimmed organic from Sainsbury’s preferably. Never really thought much of it until I got here. There is a ridiculous number of types of milk in New York supermarkets. We start with your ordinary milk, it is low fat, 1 or 2 per cent. Is that semi skimmed? 3 per cent seems to mean whole milk, so is that full fat? Or maybe I should opt for some DHA Omega 3 milk? What is that about? I think it might be closely related to the milk with added vitamin A and D. Soy and goats milk I’ve seen before, seems reasonable for bodies that can’t cope with milk, but here they go one step further and have lactose free (probably flavour free too). There is rice milk, coconut milk, buttermilk and organic milk from cows which are grass fed. There is almond milk for those nutty moments and local milk for local people. Half and half anyone? Half of what? Is that semi skimmed? And a whole selection of creamer, what’s that, surely it is just thick milk? No. It is specifically for coffee (not tea, of course, there’s a whole other piece begging to be written on what Americans do to tea). And I still don’t know which one to get!
Monthly Archives: December 2012
The lights are on, but there’s no one in
Not in a New York taxi anyway. Logically you would think that if a taxi shows a light on its roof it is available for hire. Well it is and it isn’t. A taxi shows a light for available and it goes off when it picks up a passenger and becomes unavailable. But it also has two smaller lights on either side that say off duty. From a distance it is hard to tell which is on and it is very annoying. This annoyance is componded by the advertising shaped like a luminous toblerone stuck to the roof of the taxi that stays lit regardless. We aren’t the only ones to feel this way and the rather boring sounding but self explanatory New York Taxi and Limousine Commission met a couple of weeks ago to agree with us that this is a barmy system and should be phased out. So by the Spring all taxis are either available or unavailable. Doesn’t mean they will take any notice of you when you are waving your arm in the pouring rain trying to get one to stop, though.
Desperately seeking sarcasm
British people are, on the whole, experts to varying degrees in the art of sarcasm. I like to think I am pretty expert myself, mix it with a bit of irony and a dab of humour and it keeps me entertained for hours. I have been experimenting with it in New York and so far no takers. Although I was hugely excited to talk to someone earlier who, when describing another person, looked at me quite sincerely and said ‘…and I am being sarcastic there, I don’t mean it’. Fantastic. Not only did I not realise he was even being sarcastic (as everyone here seems to be so sincere all of the time), he had to tell me he was doing it. I congratulated him on being my first experience of the hallowed art and walked off smiling. There is hope yet.
Rockefeller christmas
We visited the Rockefeller Centre (Center) to see what all the fuss was about. New York stopped on 28 November when the christmas tree lights were switched on. It is magnificent. A 30 foot tree covered in 30,000 lights on a staggering 5 miles of wiring. This tradition started in 1933, the year the Rockefeller Plaza was opened. The fabulous TV series, 30 Rock is based on this famous address, with the wonderful Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin. Just around the corner is the famous Radio City, a venue currently hosting the christmas Rockettes, but soon to host Ed Sheeran and Keane, both British, I think. So many people there on Saturday, late afternoon. We tried to flag a taxi down but many were reluctant to go to the Rockefeller, we ended up changing our approach and asked for a street nearby. The streets are shut off to allow pedestrian access, tourists cram into the small spaces and I heard the inevitable comment about why bring a stroller (buggy) to this? I note this wasn’t directed to any of the many users of wheelchairs also enjoying the spectacle. Yes it was horrifically busy and a slow grind through the crowds to look at a tree may seem an odd way to spend a couple of hours, but it was worth it to share this New York tradition. Somehow the lighting of the tree donated by the Norwegian nation that sits in Trafalgar Square just isn’t the same.
Alcohol free
My beer bottle tells me not to drink when driving and not to drink when pregnant but it doesn’t tell me how alcoholic the content is. When I bought the beer, I had to tell the cashier my month and year of birth when I am clearly, very clearly over 21. But beer bottles do come in matching carry cases, so I can look stylish whilst kidding myself that someone thought I looked young and falling over drunk because I have no idea how strong the beer is. Cheers!
Ready, willing and able
All around the streets of our bit of New York I have noticed men in bright blue trousers and jackets emblazoned with the phrase ‘ready, willing and able’. There is a reference to the Doe Fund, which I assumed was the Department of Environment. Turns out it’s actually a charity that helps the homeless who have problems with drugs and alcohol get back on their feet through a 9-12 month programme with the Fund. The guys (I have yet to see a woman) in blue are picking up rubbish (that would be trash here) from the pavement (sidewalk) and emptying bins (trashcans). In one year they pick up 9,000 tonnes (tons) in the city. I can’t work out if they are under contract to the Dept of Sanitation who deal with residential rubbish, or if the city does this as well. As well as working, the guys in blue also get a lot of support to help with addiction and get themselves back on their feet and back into the workplace. It’s impressive. At the other extreme I have seen some people carrying, usually on a knackered old buggy (stroller), massive plastic sacks of empty plastic bottles and drink cans. They are getting to the bins before the guys in blue and picking out the bottles and cans from the general rubbish (trash) and then taking them to machines dotted around the place to make a few cents on each one. I am pretty sure this doesn’t exist in the UK. It seems very old fashioned to make money on old bottles and years ago you could get money back on returned bottles, but that wasn’t necessarily about recycling. I find it deeply depressing that in this city of wealth and the land of opportunity, people are driven to do this.
Too many breaks
Sex and the City first aired in June 1998 and I think I have seen every single episode and most of them many times. Watching it in New York should be perfect. I am used to fast forwarding through ad breaks using Sky+, but 3 in 30 minutes, so short that my new Tivo remote (ah yes, a return to Tivo – bigger here than in the UK, where I think we were the only users until they cancelled the listings and forced us on to Sky) can’t stop quick enough and I constantly have to back up. The show starts with a ticker tape running across the bottom of the screen, telling me about stars and their babies/divorce/affair and it is very distracting. Bizarrely the credits for the show display at top speed on the bottom left of the screen, what’s that about? And the episode I have recorded cuts off 30 seconds before the end, so I have to play the start of the next one to see the end. Then it cuts straight into the next episode with no break. Aghhh. It isn’t perfect, but on the ridiculously large TV that R bought, it’s a great way to see New York.
Tip top tipping
Or not as the case may be. Tipping as something I do when in a restaurant, mostly taken care of by the bill coming with 10 – 15 per cent tip included and I don’t think too much about it. I’ll tip the cab driver, give the guy who delivered my paper in the sun, rain and snow at Christmas and that’s about it. In the US, and in particular here in New York, tipping is a way of life and it is expected. I am told that the tip should generally be double the sales tax, which in New York is 8.875 per cent. This is fine if you have bought a service, like a meal, a cab ride, a pedicure etc. Confusion begins when there is no sales tax barometer to use. So what to give the guy who delivers my groceries on Sunday afternoon. I ask the doorman in my building and he is reluctant to advise when I ask, but comes up with 3-4 dollars. So I give the very pleasant delivery guy 4 dollars and he seems happy. I am typically British in my nervousness in not wanting to cause offence by getting the tip wrong but too embarrased to ask every time. I think it may take some time to work this one out. And most importantly, I must stop thinking that the tip is the place R likes to go on a Sunday afternoon with a car load of rubbish.
The Warsaw Pact
I went to the Polish Nail Spa for the eagerly anticipated pedicure. Nice shade of shiny grey. Turns out they’re not from Poland.
Plastic fantastic
In the UK, there is a strong drive to reduce plastic bag usage. Visit the major supermarkets and you now have to ask for a plastic bag and those that are available are so thin, they are hardly worth using. Anya Hindmarch led the style crowd with her I’m not a Plastic Bag which came out in a heavy canvas with thick rope handles in 2007 and instantly sold out. Every major retailer, museum, even school has their own hessian bag of sorts as we all salve our environmental conscience. Every week I would take my bag of bags off to Sainsbury’s smug in the knowledge I would not need a bag, annoying the sales assistant when I refused to put my loose veg in a bag and it rolling off on to the floor. So I brought this attitude to New York and thought it would be pretty much the same. I already have a massive collection of plastic bags: double bagging at the supermarket and just in case, let’s stick yet another bag over that chicken, which has already been aggresively shrink wrapped. One bag for the washing liquid in case it escapes from the child locked bottle. Agh, i cannot bear all these bags, even in the health food shop they’re at it and you’d think they would at least make an effort! I do refuse bags but that seems to be unusual. I haven’t quite summoned up the courage to recycle my Fairways bags – mostly because they pack for you and I’m too scared to ask them not to. I had this romantic notion that everyone in the US used large brown paper sacks and held their groceries like a small baby, but I’ve only seen brown bags in use once: when they were inside a plastic bag.
nw3 to nyc 