Entries from May 2010 ↓

Bakeri is the first place we tried from the NY Times coffee list on our hot-day trip to Williamsburg – it was really really hot inside the cafe, hotter than outside so we took our coffee and freshly baked treats down to the river park nearby.

The coffee was quite strong but great taste – and the little mini croissants and cinnamon rolls were just lovely. It really does seem than places that proclaim to be ‘espresso bars’ and do nothing but coffee, maybe an occasional baked treat or couple of tables, can be trusted to do consistently good coffee.

Bakeri, 150 Wythe Avenue, Brooklyn, New York

Had one of the most stinking hot days I’ve ever had in my life on Sunday wandering around Williamsburg in Brooklyn. We went over to attend a comedy show that night so thought we’d take a look at the shops and cross another couple of places off the NY Times coffee List while we were at it. I thought being the leafy ‘burbs’ it might be a bit cooler, but no.

We headed down to the river to take advantage of the breeze off the water and have our coffee.

There were people everywhere trying to cool off in the shade, just laying about chatting or reading or paddling (just feet, the river is not that clean).

You can get right down to the water’s edge and even though it was a river scene that reminded me of many tv and movie scenes where a body floats by it did provide the breeze and gave us a different view of Manhattan.

However, we’d gone over to explore Williamsburg a bit so decided we couldn’t really sit by the river all afternoon so forced ourselves to walk, v e r y s l o w l y through the streets, poking in vintage shops and taking in street sights a bit different to Manhattan.

Spotted a bunch of orange numbers and signs in one half block at the weekend and despite the stinking heat I stopped to take photos as only an orange addict would!

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.