Scavenger Hunt

The much anticipated arrival of warm weather to the City also marks the return of my social organizer status amongst my friends.

At this time of the year, I scour the web in search of fun and different things to do in the City, and with the rise of deals sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial, the task has never been easier.

That is how I found out about an organized Scavenger Hunt taking place in Central Park today. I had little idea of what it actually involved but it sounded like something a bit more active than just lying in Sheep Meadows with a picnic.

I roped in the girls and we met up with a much larger group of people than I had anticipated at Cleopatra's Needle, behind the Metropolitan Museum. We had two and a half hours to answer 100 questions and fulfill tasks that had us walking all around the park.

I must admit that we decided pretty early on not to take this seriously unlike a few people who clearly mistook the event for an episode of "The Amazing Race", donning full work out gear and frantically jogging to each location ... much to our amusement. About half way through it, hunger got the better of us and we gave up on the hunt to have a late lunch at Bar Boulud, opposite the Lincoln Center.

But even though we didn't fully take part, we still learnt some fun facts and discovered little spots of the park that we previously hadn't been to, including some perfectly secluded picnic locations in the Ramble.

Next weekend, we are taking a 2-days sailing course with the Manhattan Sailing School - can't wait!

Belvedere Castle

The Public Theater

Hamptons Weekend

I know I said I didn't particularly like the Hamptons when I went last year. Or at least "the scene" that comes with it, which thankfully is easy to avoid.

But let's face it - with my friend ES having free run of her family's five bedroom house in Amagansett for the summer, it's an incredibly easy way for us to escape the City for a few days to a place that scenically appears to be a thousand miles away, which is why a group of six of us happily made the trip there for Memorial Day weekend.

CS and I took the train there for the first time and it was an experience in itself. While Penn Station was as busy as usual, the real zoo started when we stopped at Jamaica to take the connecting train to the Hamptons.
Before we realized what was happening, hundreds of people were elbowing their way onto the train while CS and I watched in stupor. This resulted in us not getting a seat and instead spending most of the journey uncomfortably sitting on the stairs.
With magazines and books to kill time, we got to Amagansett in just over two hours. But next time, we will be more ruthless in our determination to find seats, as well as bring snacks and wine as everyone else in the carriage seemed to have done. I would still recommend taking the train over driving there, which in traffic takes at least 4 hours.

Amagansett is probably one of the quieter Hamptons and the scenery is in fact reminiscent of a perfectly English countryside hamlet with a quaint feel, lush green lawns, old trees and colonial houses - some of them of manor/castle proportions of course. With the added benefit of sandy white long beaches being minutes walk away.

The "scene" I dislike so much is really only found in a few hot spots, namely Cyril's, the Talkhouse and the Surf Lodge. If you want to see a lot of trust funds kids, investment bankers guys, and the girls that usually seek them out - then these are the places you should go to. Although I must also say that the atmosphere is always fairly laid back - it is the beach after all - and the Surf Lodge is particularly stunning.

We did go to Cyril's one night, of course. It's hard to understand why this small roadside outdoor bar draws the in-crowd of the Hamptons in such numbers but I can only imagine that they come for the same thing we do - the irresistible, "dessert in a plastic glass", that is the BBC cocktail. Banana Baileys Colada. Surely it must be the only reason why, when the place is at its busiest, people (including us) are happy to be in standing room only at the back bar, right next to the portaloos and the dumpsters! But the BBC really is to die for, and particularly good (and lethal) with a Rum floater on top - three of them should be your limit unless you want to forget small insignificant details like what your name is and where you are staying.

The rest of our time was spent having yummy breakfasts at the Farmers Market, lounging by the pool at the house, grilling the most amazing turkey burgers on the BBQ, having oysters and steamed lobster at Botswick's, doing a spot of shopping in East Hampton and just generally completely relaxing away from the hustle and bustle of the City and enjoying spending time together.

I can't think of anything better than that and will be doing much more of it over the summer!

The Rapture

Over the past couple of weeks in the US, the media has been full of talks of "The Rapture", otherwise known as the "End of the World" as predicted to happen by some crazy preacher in California on Saturday May 21st at 6pm. 

Some poor soul even spent his life savings buying up billboards in the City to alert us all NYC dwellers of the terrible tragedy ahead. I remember the day they arrived in Times Square as I was there by chance for an appointment in the middle of a Friday afternoon and was taken aback by a convoy of enormous signs going past me announcing that Judgement Day was upon us. Funnily enough, when I mentioned it to my parents in France, they had heard nothing about it so I guess that the "End of the World" news never reaching our folks across the Atlantic was at least consistent with countless movie scenarios where we are always the last one to know :-)

FM was in town that weekend and our friends and I were certainly not going to let a small thing like that get in the way of all the fun we had planned. Anyway, according to the "prophecy", only the chosen ones would be taken to heaven that day, leaving the rest of the world to deal with the aftermath of a giant earthquake and we were all certain that we have been far too naughty in our lives to "deserve" being sent to heaven first ... if ever!

The fun started on Friday night when we went to Pio Pio in Hell's Kitchen to celebrate FM's birthday. What looks like the entrance of a hotel at first glance is actually a Peruvian restaurant spread over two floors, the lower ground one being a large space very modernly decorated. Little did I know that Peruvian cuisine is famed for its ceviches (which I love) and roast chicken (which was amazing). I was concerned our party of 15 was going to be too raucous but it was not the case - Pio Pio is an ideal restaurant for large gatherings and there were at least another 3 birthday parties going on at the same time as ours.

After going bar crawling until the early hours of the morning, it's a small miracle that some of our group made the trek over to Brooklyn for a celebratory "End of the World" BBQ at LJ's by early afternoon the next day. While gorging on homemade hamburgers, yummy side dishes and plenty of wine, someone had the genius idea that we should fashion ourselves some foil hats to ward off Judgement Day. The amount of creativity displayed by all was breathtaking especially as some unusual materials were used in the process (including an inflated condom and some ornamental fruits!?). 

As the weather was clement that day at last, we hung out outside on LJ's street most of the afternoon wearing our hats of course and certainly attracted a lot of attention from the neighbours, much to our (and their) delight and amusement.

At 5.59pm precisely, we took a group picture of us wearing said hats on a bench in the small park right outside LJ's house. At 6pm, we took a picture of just the hats left on the bench, while all loudly cheering and laughing to the point of tears in the background.

I don't normally like making fun of people, especially such a small minority whose beliefs, while clearly quite misguided, bring at least some meaning to their own lives. I can't help but feeling a bit sorry for the thousands or even perhaps millions who were actually preparing themselves for the "End of the World". What are they going to do now?

But while I don't understand them, I must say that for me:  I never thought I would enjoy the end of the world quite so much ... Bring on October!

Oh and it turns out that we were not the only one who had the idea of setting up our own Rapture pictures.

Pre-Rapture

Raptured!

Love & Hate

I really like this post from The Frenemy. I think it really reflects the love/hate relationship that most New Yorkers have with the City.

You can go and read it on her blog here or read below.



When you move to a city, you become meaner. 

You are harder. Less optimistic. Tough. Do not make eye contact with anybody in the subway. Read the book you’re kind of halfway through, listen to the terrible music you hope you’re not playing loud enough to hear. Pretend you’re the kind of person whose feet doesn’t move when the train makes a turn. Don’t look up, just push and shove and move. In the city, you are the most important person you know. Dislike and accept that. Walk that way, walk so fast and eye roll when somebody slow is walking up the stairs as you are trying to switch trains. People will ask you for money on trains, drunk people will piss on themselves, babies will cry and you just have to pretend they are not there. It’s a subway. You don’t know anybody.

Strut down the street briskly when you are only getting a bagel, a slice of pizza, or a gin drink that will take the edge off of being alone all the time.

Dress like an idiot. When you end up in the suburbs or you end up home you think ‘why the fuck am I wearing so much black and where did these accessories come from?’ Take a long shower, eat your first big meal without alcohol in years, and try not to brush anything and everything off your shoulder. Find yourself afraid of trees.

Still, in a city filled with so many people, you must not acknowledge them. This becomes somewhat difficult because there are so many interesting and attractive things, most of them wearing plaid or shorts. Grumble while eating a falafel or some kind of street cart food. When somebody talks to you at a bar, coyly laugh when they are a part of the city you just don’t venture to. Know a lot of people, just barely.

Be afraid of ‘nice guys’ because you are no longer nice. Be afraid of things that last longer than two months. Get nervous whenever you enter some part of the town that ‘that guy you hung out with’ lives. The city is big, but it is small. Never see anybody again, except some kid you went to high school with. They have a new haircut and you kind of brag about your life because you are nervous. Send e-mails to people telling you how excited you are to be in the city. Be terrified of your bank account as you furiously eat money with no utensils. Bury your head in your hands when nobody is looking. Think about how stupid you were in college, abandon those dreams and make new ones. Find fog really romantic. Find employment really romantic. Drink on Tuesday nights. Meet people on those Tuesday nights that you high-five but never get their number. Make friends and never keep them. Take personal days in the tiny kitchen that is filled with jarred spices, condiments, and a bag of chips. Learn about sushi. Have a small circle you already knew before you moved here, the kinds of people you always complain about your love life to. Hold onto and love those people fiercely. Find friends of friends you think are cute, get annoyed that you meet people this way like in high school. Have numbers in your phone that you don’t need. Preface those numbers with ‘that night at (bar).’ Find it impossible to meet anybody until you do.

Roll around with that person in a small room in your overpriced apartment. Feel like this is an accomplishment until you feel restless. Feel like being restless is a thing you should feel. Try to fix it by getting a pet. Dance in a stupid club and tell everybody the next day you can’t believe you danced. Have ‘spots’ you think are ‘the usual’ except the bartenders never remember you. Fall in love with a new kind of ethnic food and fall more in love with brunch than you thought possible. Make connections with dogs on the street. Spend too much time contemplating life on long concrete walks. See the sunrise more than you should. Barely see anybody you like during the day. Get annoyed at couples grocery shopping and miss making out in your basement. Forget to buy paper towels and use napkins to clean the table. Take cabs at 3am. Pretend to clean your apartment, pretend you are going to eventually do laundry.

Meet nice people somewhere you didn’t expect. Have a conversation with somebody you never thought you would meet. Talk to somebody out of the blue. Enjoy these moments of fate immensely. Have more faith in humanity than you did when you lived wherever you came from.

Come home late smelling like smoke. Wonder how that happened, but really you know exactly how that happened. Promise you won’t spend too much money, expect free drinks but really only get shitty weather. Send texts to everybody you miss who is not in town because you are nostalgic for everything. Be single, ‘kind of single’, and ‘sort of single’ for months. Find somebody you like enough to watch movies with. Send bills in late. Revel in the fact that this is what youth is. Barely eat fresh vegetables anymore. Loathe the summer because it is too hot and miss it when it is gone. Get to know yourself and be surprised by it. You’d never bite your nails, you think, until you bite your nails. Forget all the great reasons why you moved here, fall in love with the reasons you didn’t think- cool breezes, car honkings, and knowing how to get places. Revel in being alone, revel in learning a city. Hate every job you have. Hate every bar you go to. Love both of these. Love everything. Have really, really good days. Stare at the city like ‘I got this.’ Swear you will eventually leave.

Then you stare at the skyline. Hate it. Be satisfied.

--------------------------------

My account of my own love/hate relationship with New York back in 2008 still rings true sometimes today ...

Spring

Spring has finally, finally sprung in the City! I realized it this morning when I woke up to the sounds of the first street fair of the year occupying parts of Broadway, just outside my windows.

It then only seemed natural that we should have our first picnic in Central Park today, along with half of New York's population of course.

Revival?

This winter has been particularly tough on me.

While I didn't entirely go into complete shut down mode (I just can't), every outings required a lot of preparation and willpower in order to face sub-zero celsius temperatures, gail force winds and/or mounds of snow for 5 excruciatingly long months.

I still managed to experience new places around the City.

Most notable amongst them were the amazing food at ABC Kitchen. The cozy atmosphere at Smith & Mills in Tribeca - an old coach-house converted into a diminutive bar. The Ace Hotel bar which is great for pre-dinner drinks and impromptu silly picture-taking sessions in their retro photo booths before grabbing dinner at the Breslin. Oh and of course the live jazz brunch at Fig & Olive in the Meat Packing district.

I also went to a lot of Knicks games and wildly cheered for my beloved boys through the course of them securing a spot in the play-offs for the first time in 7 years. My obsession with the game is now at an all time high and shows no sign of abating. I even paid a lot a money to see them play the Lakers at MSG and even though I was supporting my home team, I literally swooned at how amazing and talented Kobe Bryant is.

I even took a trip out of the island (as I lovingly, yet ironically, call Manhattan) that didn't involve flying when ES, CS, SM and I rented a car and drove up to the Hudson valley for a spot of wine tasting at the Brotherhood Winery, which I highly recommend for the rather eccentric but endearing tour guide, rather than the wine as such.

But regardless of the above, it took no less than 4 trips to sunnier climes in as many months to help me stay somewhat sane - a record, even for me!

I first went to Phoenix AZ for work at the end of January where I was stranded for an extra couple of days because of the crazy snow storms in NYC at the time ... days I of course spent by the pool while working on my laptop.

Followed shortly by a weekend in Miami in February for LJ's annual birthday celebrations where I once again reveled yet laughed at the parallel universe that South Beach is - I still maintain that it is like walking into a "Pimps & Hos" party at any time of the day or night.

In March, the girls and I went to Barbados for 5 days to live it up Caribbean style - it made for an unforgettable trip and tales far too outlandish to publicly share.  I have pretty much been planning my permanent move over there since I got back - something to do with compulsory day time Rum Punch consumption and perhaps also because someone made me appreciate jet skiing more than I ever did before :)

Concluding with my latest escape this past weekend to Treasure Island in Florida to stay with my dear friend FM who lives there. I only booked the flight the week before, on a whim, after spending yet another night at home with my portable heater aimed directly at me in order to stay warm (for context - I have to have an additional heating source because the central heating in my apartment is not enough to keep it above 18C in winter!).

I only spent 48 short hours there but it was worth it. Lying on the beach. Listening to the gentle sounds of waves crashing. Alfresco brunches. Alfresco dinners. Catching up with FM and putting the world to right until the early hours of the morning while sipping wine on her outdoor patio and petting her beautiful Dalmatian dog Bridie.

My next trip, in a week and a half, is not an escape to sunnier climes (although the weather will be pretty nice there by then) but more of an emotional recharge - I am going to my parents for a week to catch up with my family and finally get to meet my adorable niece who was born in January but that I have only seen on Skype. My brother, despite being the youngest one, is the most settled and mature and is now the proud father of a gorgeous baby girl. I thought that I would be fairly blase about the whole thing (as did all my friends and family who know I am not a "baby person") but it turns out that when the brother you utterly adore has an offspring, you fall head over heels in love with his baby too! I really can't wait until the moment I hold her into my arms and see my beloved brother in her, although my entire family tells me that she has my eyes which will no doubt freak me out. And then I want to get 8 hours full sleep for a week. I still have my priorities straight!

The quote that "New York is a great city to live in if you can afford to get out of it" has never felt more true to me until this particularly long and dreary winter, which still feels like it will never end. I know full well how incredibly fortunate I am to be able to travel as much as I do - a luxury that is not available to everyone although my inaptitude for financial planning and desire to live in the present are entirely to blame for it!

But upon my return from France, when the weather should have definitely turned to Spring here too, I should be back to my usual self and hopefully have more to share on this great City than my constant need to escape it!

Hibernation

My recent lack of posts is due to the obligatory phenomenon of hibernation that all mammals in New York City experience at this time of the year.

Quite simply, I have felt too cold, too tired and too damn depressed to do anything worth writing about.

Instead I leave you with a couple of pictures from this past weekend when I was in South Beach Miami - the land of sun, sea and sand. An annual and now ritual escape without which I could not even make it through the winter alive.

My next escape from this cold hell is Barbados in less than a month's time. I am counting the days, while struggling to wake up and function as a normal human being every morning.

I don't remember ever being so prone to SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder) before - I didn't even know what SAD was before I experienced my first winter in New York! Yet I can't quite decide if it's because London doesn't have such distinctive seasons or if it is due to knowing that, while I am trying to cope with a long period of miserable cold weather, a heavenly beach and warm climates are less 3 hours away from me in Florida - so close, yet so far from every day life.

Regardless of the reason or answer, everyone I know here suffers from this "disorder" to various degrees and I can now understand why Groundhog's day is such a big deal and gets massive TV coverage here. If a cute furry animal is telling us that Spring is coming early this year, we all really want to believe it is true and it gives us hope to function one day at a time until it becomes reality.