Another eventful journey on the subway. Deeply engrossed in the New Yorker (a great read, if not a bit too frequent) on the way home on my own, when suddenly there is an uproar in the carriage. A rather relaxed, possibly high, old guy is standing there nonchalantly smoking a cigarette. The smell is over powering and fills the carriage very quickly. The people sitting near him are shouting at him to put it out, telling him that he can’t smoke on the subway. He is getting it from all angles, I have never known so much passion on the subway before. He smiles and seems confused. He looks at his cigarette longingly and drops it on the floor, lightly stepping on it to put it out. The he picks it up, blows on it and in an attempt to re-use it later, he pops it into the brim of his woollen hat and walks out of the carriage at my stop. His hat is smouldering.
Brooklyn buildings
Impressive buildings outside of Manhattan? Why yes, there’s a couple in Brooklyn.
How about the Brooklyn Museum? Although its steps appear to be missing, replaced with a rather odd glass atrium out the front. It is a formidable presence, towering over the very busy Eastern Parkway.
Or the Brooklyn Public Library? Certainly not your average public library with gold leaf columns. Check out how tall the front is, when you see how tiny my mum looks on the steps. Those are big doors!
And the glorious Brooklyn Botanical Gardens nestled between the two. No pictures of buildings, just an oasis in the middle of urban car noise.
Bargains, bargains
A bit like TK Maxx but so much better. Century 21 immortalised in Sex and the City and still going strong. Despite its 80s facade and out of the way location up a side street near Fulton Street subway and close by to the 9/11 Memorial site, it is bargain heaven. It sells clothes and accessories over 5 floors and is rammed. I try to get served, which seems to be an art in itself, as I elbow my way past the thousands of tourists who seem to have heard about it too. I am on a mission to get a new pair of sunglasses. Fendi, Madam? Why yes, you can have last season’s sunglasses for $60 plus tax when they used to be $300. Some Michael by Michael Kors sunglasses retailing at $110 for $39.95 plus tax? Why thank you very much and yes, they do look fabulous.
New York’s gone Irish mad
It’s St Patrick’s Day tomorrow, but New York is in full Irish mode today as the St Patrick’s Day Parade is underway. Unfortunately it has just started snowing here, but I doubt that will stop any of the enjoyment and excessive Guinness drinking. I saw people going into Irish bars early this morning, bedecked with green clovers and flags. Even in Fairways they are in the same spirit with these rather fetching cup cakes!
A note to Mr Sainsbury
So I noted the obsession with cleanliness that seems to exist here in NYC. It has just gone one step further. Presenting wipes for your supermarket trolley (that would be ‘cart’ in the US). The photo below was taken in Target, a massive retailer of food, clothing and home stuff across the US. In one section you pull out your wipe, use on your trolley and then bin it in the hole next to it. What a brilliant idea. No more wet trollies to plonk your toddler into; no more disgusting gloop on the handlebars for your oral 15 month old to gnaw and slobber over. Sainsbury’s take note.
Tea talisman
I don’t drink coffee. In fact I have said on this blog before that I love tea. Big time. But I don’t feel the need to walk the streets holding a cup of it all the time. I like it at home, in a mug, sometimes with a biscuit. Nothing fancy. But here, my goodness holding a styrofoam or some other kind of cup, it’s like a fashion accessory. I was in the 42nd Street area earlier today, this is the busy bit around Grand Central Station, and I think that pretty much every person I went by was clutching a cup from all manner of places, slurping or just holding it like a talisman. It’s encouraged: the small silver coloured carts sit on most street corners dispensing drinks for a bit over a dollar and a range of artery hardening sugary snacks to boost the energy levels. They are cheap. Very cheap. But gone by midday to be replaced by the hot food vendors: caveat emptor, that’s all I can say about that. So off I go to my 10am appointment and I am strangely driven to go into one of the many food places that will make the enormous bagels (blogs passim), get a cup of tea, English Breakfast, black, and clutch it hoping some of the magic will rub off on me too.
Jazz it up
Introducing the salt and sugar combo of Jazz It Up Mix from my local Fairway. I’m thinking birthday bacon all over again. It is strangely salty and yet sweet. It contains chocolate, raisins, some form of pretzel, peanuts and cranberries. So far, so normal. Silicon dioxide, bulgar wheat and turmeric a bit odd. But salt beef powder – what??? Really, what benefit does it have to include salt beef powder in a tasty snack? Doesn’t stop me eating them but my god I am very thirsty afterwards, they can’t be good for me. Pass the water, would you?
Laundry levels
Level 1: you have a washer dryer in your own apartment. You are smug in your ability to wash whenever you like.
Level 2: you have a washer dryer in your building, probably in the basement but you don’t have to wait long because there are lots of machines and the facility is well run.
Level 3: like level 2 but you live in an older, less well run building and have to get up at 5am to beat the rush and get your stuff washed and dried before the masses descend.
Level 4: you have to save up all your laundry and hoik it to the laundrette in a canvas draw string bag with your name on a label and leave it with the person behind the counter and collect it later, paying by weight.
Level 5: you put your own laundry in the washing machine, move it into the dryer and watch the paint dry and thereby waste an entire morning of your life.
These are the New York laundry levels.
The pleasure of the Met
What a lovely morning. The Metropolitan Museum of Art invited members to come in early, before the public are allowed in, to see the Matisse exhibition. I’m not a particular fan of Matisse, but I like to see exhibitions where the art is collected from all over the world into one place for a short period of time. The Met is huge, so big, I get completely lost in there. Being allowed in early is a real treat, it’s quiet, there’s no queues, the attendants are happy and smile at you. The galleries have a wonderful peace about them and the light is lovely this time of day. I went with J out of his buggy, always a challenge with a marauding 15 month old, but he loved it. Not too many people so that he gets lost amongst them but enough to catch his eye and make him and them smile. He walks in straight lines and veers off randomly, looks up at ladies mostly and does his shy thing. He’s in heaven when a succession of young women who work at the Met walk down a corridor and say hi to him. The exhibition itself isn’t too long and luckily nothing is at toddler height but I do carefully prise J’s beaker from his hand to stop him hurling it at some priceless art. The ladies in the shop offer him some work but he seems uninterested and off we go back through the modern art galleries, also empty, stopping to take in an Edward Hopper or two. The cafe is also very empty and we watch the squirrels and dogs in central park from the enormous windows at the back of the Met, drinking tea and munching on croissants. Wandering back to find the cloakrooms we get completely lost and end up in the wrong entrance, full of backpacks and teenagers and noise. The gentle quietness, the privilege of the empty Met quickly lost as we forge our way back to the cloakroom and out into the cold, snowy Manhattan morning. How lovely.
Watch your step
All along the streets of New York you’ll see cellar doors open, just like the picture below. How people don’t end up falling down them on a regular basis, I don’t know. They are used to bring supplies into restaurants mostly but seem to be open pretty much all the time.
I did a bit of research to see if there were lots of casualties, but all I could find was this:
nw3 to nyc 