Still crossing cafes off the NY Times coffee list we found our way across town to Stumptown Coffee Roasters – they supply a few of the cafes and used to supply 9th Street espresso so we thought they’d be good. The cafe is not so much a cafe but a bar, simply an espresso bar – no tables and chairs, no food counter, no tea – just espresso and coffee beans.

It’s in the front of the very trendy Ace Hotel which has a very dark lobby with people gathered around laptops using the lobby as their office. Quite a good meeting point. We got some of their coffee to use at home – their blend called ‘Hair Bender’ – it’s very good and makes our filter cup we have to have in the mornings a little more bearable!

The coffee was good, very strong in the porcelain cups, I think the regular takeaway would’ve been perfect.

Stumptown Coffee Roasters, 18 W 29th St, New York

This weekend’s visit to Central Park was one we’ve wanted to do for a while – to start at the top and walk all the way down. The park itself is 55 blocks long so we got out at 110th Street and set off. In the first 10 minutes we saw very large geese and a turtle – almost more exciting than seeing a squirrel! We’d never walked beside the Jackie Onassis reservoir – I knew it was huge, but it’s really quite big for a ake in a city park.

After we’d popped out the other end of the park we continued on our walk home, a further 25 blocks – didn’t think about it until we got home that we’d walked 80 blocks in a day!

It was a pretty full weekend – the next day we walked all around the other end of the island – through the Financial District and around Battery Park. Lots of sunshine and blue sky.

Watched an inner city New York delivery this weekend. We wondered why the street that runs by one side of our building was to be closed for a couple of hours, and when a crane appeared we were even more intrigued. Perhaps an air-conditioning unit for the roof of the school, there was a trailer with a big white square on it waiting near the crane. Then we noticed a few people scurrying around in a backyard down below us, sweeping, collecting twigs and things. So thought perhaps it was some building materials.

But no, turned out to be a spa pool, being craned across the top of the row of apartment buildings down into a handkerchief-sized backyard completely enclosed by surrounding apartments. There was some excellent crane driving skills there, and probably a rather hefty delivery bill!