Last week we went to Balthazar for dinner after work – I was a little bit nervous that it would be full of skinny trendy Soho people and me with my laptop in my Bloomies bag and jeans looking a bit too start-up would stick out, but it was so busy and crowded that I don’t think anyone noticed. Although a few people would’ve seen us in passing because we were seated right near the front door at a table that some discerning diners up and left from claiming they ‘didn’t like the menu’ – more like they didn’t like everyone coming in the door and looking right at them. We grabbed it to save having to wait an hour and it was rather entertaining watching everyone arrive and picking from their body language and bags whether they were tourists, locals, with reservation or without!

It’s a French restaurant and the food was pretty spectacular.

Menus were like those we’d been given in restaurants in Paris

I had duck cottage pie (something rather different for me and it was delicious although not quite enough mash!), The Mister had duck confit (also delicious apparently)

I had pavlova (not usually into pudding but wanted to try it, it was excellent), The Mister had profiteroles (delicious)

And while we were there Ewan McGreggor stood close to our table (we were by the door remember) waiting for someone to find him a table. We kept calm and didn’t get out the camera – trying to blend in a be aloof in a French/Soho kind of way!

Balthazar, 80 Spring Street (between Broadway & Crosby), Soho, New York

Living here means I get to attend at the last minute amazing conferences that just wouldn’t be run or have the attendance in New Zealand, although this conference was very like one of a series of Ignite conferences we went to at the Paramount the night before we left Wellington to come here.

So for 2 days in late April I attended the NYC 140Conf - a conference about social media – aptly named 140 Characters (that’s how many characters are available to you in a tweet) where 140 people spoke for 10 minutes only, or took part in a 15 minute panel, over 2 days. A very engaging format – sure some people were a bit boring and by the end of it we were starting to hear the same things again and again – but still a very cool way of presenting a conference.

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I noticed last week that our glass tables were gathering dust quite quickly, not good! So I got out the trusty Windex and cleaned. Weird thing was that the handy towel came away green. Bright green. Thought it was strange, that someone perhaps had spilled something. Then a couple of days later, the same thing. Have worked out that it’s pollen! All the trees here have just exploded from blossom to green and it must be drifting up in through our windows that we’re having to keep open more and more as it warms up.

So that explains why The Mister is sneezing a lot and why some mornings I feel I have a really sore throat and worry I’m catching a cold but it disappears by day’s end.

Check out the transition from brown to green out our window:

Mid-March

Late March

Early April

Mid April

Late April

The green bit that’s most fascinating to me is the lovely soft looking wall of ivy just slightly below mid-centre in this last photo. I guess it’s going to change through amazing colours in autumn.

Getting used to the commute now. No wi-fi or reception in the subway but can tap out an email response or 2 and send them from the surface. Train is not usually this empty – must’ve been coming home after 7.30 this night.