Entries from April 2010 ↓

I feel rather middle-aged going around taking pictures of flowers and trees and oooo’ing and aaaaaa’ing over the spring colours but it really is an amazing season here. I really wanted to experience the whole New York in the fall thing because the world would look so orange (without needing to wear my orange-lensed glasses on (yes, of course I have some)) but spring time is quite stunning too.

The growth rate and change in colours is pretty dramatic – not sure why, could be cold nights, hot days, or it could be because everything is going from nothing to something because there are so many bulbs and deciduous trees here. (As a side note, none of the trees are evergreens in this part of the world. Why is that? It seems such a stark contrast to New Zealand where I’m sure the trees all seem to be half ‘n’ half evergreen and deciduous. Here, they have to spend so much time cleaning up leaves and rotten blossoms that you’d think after all these years that various city councils and gardening bodies would’ve evolved gardens to be more self-managing in this world where we’re trying to cut down human involvement in everything (despite the ever increasing population). So, are the deciduous trees everywhere to give the large population jobs cleaning up; is it for vanity so that cities look pretty and different each season and thereby run the small economy that is the framed series of photographs of the Central Park Mall sold by at least 30 sellers in the entrance to the park; is it to make city infrastructure more able to cope with snow dumps by having the snow collect on the roads and sidewalks and wash away down drains and not weigh heavily in trees, breaking them or having ice clods falling on unsuspecting pedestrians or is it just a simple fact of nature, something so simple that it’s just too cold here in the winter for evergreen trees to survive and by standing as rugged stick versions of themselves they endure the cold?)

Anyway, on with the pretty pictures!

Streets all over the place have beautiful blocks of colour, usually tulips, under trees on the sidewalk.

Trees all blossom at the same time in great fluffy clouds of pink or white. And there are loads of magnolia trees around the city – I thought they were kind of rare and special seeing as they’re often commented on in gardens back home, but here they’re a city tree for sure.

He’s getting quite chatty now according to stories and imitations from his parents plus the occasional ‘word’ beyond “ooooo” that he’s said to me on Skype. He’s almost there with orange, although it comes out as a sing-songy “awREEEnge”. Also apparently he’s mastered “Craig” but Catherine is a bit difficult, he tries, then just resorts to “peeeeple” – ah, relegated to one of many for a bit longer yet.

Here he is looking pretty grown up in the orange vest I knitted him,

and even more grown up now sleeping in a big bed, vest and all!

I can now find my way to work without hesitating on the corner and wondering which way to go, or forgetting which subway exit is the one that gets us out on the right corner so that we don’t have to cross the street.

Off we go along our block, past some toy dogs and their owners from our apartment building out for an early morning pee, past the garden where we’ve seen the tulips grow an inch or so every day from a little tip in the soil to a fully fledged yellow tulip garden, under the construction site where the footpath is totally boarded up (and painted orange) and down into the subway. Don’t use the right-hand turnstile as it’s a bit sluggish with the cards, not me, I’m beyond the tourist too-slow/too-fast swipe and out onto the platform. God I love the smell and rush of the trains. If we’re lucky we’ll have timed it right to be waiting when 2 express trains roar through the middle tracks and if really lucky ours will scream onto the platform at the same time. I love getting lost in the sound – voice and thoughts completely lost for a moment as my head is filled with clanging, whooshing, squealing metal (OK, better stop now, making me sound like a petrol head …). Push and shove onto the train and if there’s a seat, I’ll perch on the edge so that me and my laptop don’t squash my sandwich and apple – 14th Street the train really empties out and I know where to stand in preparation for the doors opening on the other side of the train for that station only on our journey. Then out at the other end – keep right with the crowd pushing up the steps and it’s a real art to take part in the almost choreographed explosion of colour going up the steps if it’s raining as everyone pops their umbrellas one after another on the packed subway stairs. Along Canal Street weaving through the store owners unloading sparkly wares to cram into their stalls, around the corner dodging the lady who catches your eye and mutters in hushed tones “Fendi bag. Gucci Prada Fendi”, past the 2 abandoned bike frames locked to a sign post and across Broadway stepping over the pothole that is getting bigger and bigger everyday. And just when I can’t be bothered carrying my laptop and lunch on my back any longer it’s up the stairs and into the office.

We’re had our first visitors – mother & father-in-law for 3 days. And what a busy 3 days! The sun thankfully came out to give days of about 26 degrees, and we walked and walked and walked everywhere with a few spins on the subway. Mother-in-law had a list of things to see and we crossed them all off. Our sofa bed seemed to work out alright and luckily they’re early risers so the sun blasting into the lounge at 6.30am wasn’t too much of a problem!

In brief, and there are loads of photos on Flickr:

Day 1 – Soho, Chinatown, Financial District, Battery Park, Brooklyn Bridge, Madison Square Park, takeaways and first game for the Yankees on telly.

Day 2 – Chelsea Market, Central Park, 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Centre (including trip to the top), dinner at Morrell’s.

Day 3 – A wander over to Macy’s and back before they left for the airport at lunchtime.

I’ve thought of a couple of things people could invent lately. Well, I’ve invented them, just need someone to make them so I can get rich! So, 2 excellent ideas:

1. Walking to work we followed a guy from our building, 2.5 blocks to the subway and he spent the entire time walking in front of us trying to untangle his iPod earphones. In the end he gave up and listened to the city instead. Need some kind of silicon no-stick spray to spray on them to untangle them or the little fabric bag they’re kept in needs some magical insides with the same properties.
2. Got to work and folks in the office were gushing over the iPad … of course The Mister chimed in. They showed us some of their sites made for mobile devices working on the iPad – including a site that shows video demonstrations of meals being made. So you just prop your iPad up in the kitchen and follow along, pausing the video to do your bit. Enter my invention: little rubber or flesh-like-fabric caps to put on the end of various cooking utensils so you can tap the screen to pause and resume the video! Saves you having to wash your hands or get flour or wet all over it.

So let me know if you get these to market and I’ll take some royalties

Sometimes I’m left gaping at the inefficiencies of some organisations here. Sure, there’s often 3 or 4 people employed to do the job that 1 person would do in New Zealand which does speed things up and get big crowds moving, but other times the introduction of self-help for the customer would make certain activities much less painful.

The post office.

I went last week to post a small packet back to New Zealand. They had a single range of post office standard packing available, pre-paid bags. All good. Nice and simple. Weight limit of x pounds, whatever fits in the box/envelope, priority mail, domestic or international, $13.45.

So, first off, before standing in the long line, I had to find out the weight of my item, which I could guess in grams but no idea in pounds – found a weighing machine which turned out not to be a weighing machine but an enter-your-postcode-and-it’ll-tell-you-the-postage-required machine. Hmmm, not sure what was supposed to be entered for international although it did flash up 2.95lb which was under the limit, so I figured I’d be OK.

Filled out the customs form, including name of the person the package was going to – this seemed to be the thing to do seeing as the green customs forms (demanding To and From addresses) were there by the packaging. Waited in the line.

Got to the counter and asked if I could use the pre-paid envelope to post the item to New Zealand. “What is it?” A gift, just a [   ]. That I want to go via airmail to New Zealand. “No. You can’t use this one. You have to use a bag. You want priority or express?” Huh? Why can’t I use the international pre-paid envelope? What’s the difference between priority and express? Where are the bags? “Hrumfff, I’ll get you a bag.” And off she heaved under the counter to scratch around and find a bag. Why weren’t they on display? Thieves? She produced a bag. About the same size as the envelope, made with similar thick glossy paper as the envelope. “You want express or priority?” I don’t know! I want airmail. “OK, that’s $12.95 and write the address on it, it doesn’t go on that form you got, that bit gets chucked out, and when you’re done leave it here cos I’m on my lunch break now.” However, I was able to write fast enough while she got back up onto her seat and dealt with the money to had it back to her to make sure it did in fact get posted. She dumped the package to the side of the counter with a bunch of other mail ready to go and we scuttled apologetically out passed the even longer line now facing one less counter because our lady was going on her lunch. I felt so bad taking up their time at the counter waiting for a bag and then being told to pack it and address it. If they just provided these things out on the customer side then I could’ve done it there. Groan.

So, if your birthday is coming up on the 12th (you know who you are) there is hopefully something on the way – I hope it makes it – it could be coming on the USS Slowboat for all I know! I tried!

There are always giant piles of bags of trash on the footpath as night falls in New York. And there’s always someone going through the trash looking for plastic and glass bottles and cans, transferring them to another bag, and dragging or wheeling them off in a broken-down cart. I think they’re recycling them for coins.

I’m not so fussed with the iPad, sure it’s clever, but because I have an iPhone it feels a bit like a giant clumsy fingerprint-magnet version of it. However The Mister really wanted on (for work apparently, pressure from the Boss and all that) so he pre-ordered and we went to stand in the special line for pre-orders at the Apple Store on 14th Street yesterday morning. I’m hoping he picked that store because it’s right next to Chelsea Market for me to wait with a coffee … although it turned out, it was so I could deliver him a coffee. It was quite fun hanging out and waiting, and the whooping and cheering and fuss made by all the staff was quite neat to be part of.

Anyway The Mister wrote about it on the Xero blog (including a tiny video I took on our new camera) and here’s a couple of pics we didn’t put in the post.

Oh, and funny story about what happened when I got the coffee. The guy at 9th Street Espresso asked me a couple of times if I was sure I wanted takeaways. When I assured him I did he said “Oh, I’m guessing with that shirt you’re a bit of an authority on coffee so I’m surprised you want takeaways.” I looked down and remembered I had on my Supreme shirt. I quickly cleared up that I wasn’t a barista, just a Supreme fan, and also a 9th Street Espresso fan and showed him the pin on my jacket. He was very impressed when I said we lived on the East Side but went across to the Chelsea Market (on the West Side) for their coffee. I only wondered afterward if he knew who Coffee Supreme were or the fact that the picture on the shirt was a piece of espresso machine that he referred to me as a ‘coffee authority’. Either way I was chuffed!

In case you missed it I posted my 2nd letter to everyone back at work in New Zealand on the Xero blog this week, I’m trying to do one every couple of weeks although now that we’re pretty much set up (which is what the first couple were about) I’m not sure what I’ll be writing for the next few. We’ve had a couple of work meetings so I guess I could summarise those.

Anyway, here are the links:

1 April 2010: Letter from New York – settling in

18 March 2010: Letter from New York

A few random thoughts recently about some food here as we try to find what we need from various grocery stores:

• I’m finding lots of things are much sweeter here – bread, bagels, potato chips, honey (in an unnatural way) and Lemsip is practically sugar granules. We’re now reading the back of bread packets in the supermarket looking at the sugar content.
• The butter substitutes are so slimy, especially after being in a sandwich all day. We found something now that seems to be spreadable butter (rather than ’spreadable with buttery taste’ or ‘butter-like taste’ – obviously not butter) although it is still quite white.
• Gladwrap smells, or cling film or plastic wrap or whatever it’s called. At first I thought it was a sandwich ingredient or the bread that smelled when I opened my lunch each day until the other day I took a half eaten museli bar, wrapped for a morning snack, and smelled that smell. Not sure how we’ll solve that one – go around sniffing rolls of gladwrap in the supermarket I suppose!