Entries Tagged 'Out and about' ↓

Had a bit of a wander around at lunchtime today, had to get The Mister out for some air to try and get rid of his germs and had 3 new experiences!

• Yogurt – peach yogurt, organic stuff even, is not white with bits of peach in it, it’s orange. Not what I was expecting however after not having experienced orange cheese, orange  yogurt will do! Did taste peachy but I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.
• Wool ’shop’ – found one near where we live and it was on L5 of somewhere – wasn’t a shop when we got there, it was an office building I guess; we had to buzz L5 and go up in a clackerty lift to a floor that had an acupuncture studio and a room with 2 ladies knitting in it with wall shelves and baskets of wool and buttons and patterns and all things you’d expect to find in a wool shop, just not in a shop! Very strange and intimate. I felt quite bad for them when I left without buying anything!
• Lemsip equivalent – thanks to Jif we found a Walgreens and set about looking for the Lemsip-stuff he’d recommended. Found it on one of the many shelves of cold and flu stuff but in a section that had little locked glass doors on it. A button nearby instructed ‘press for customer service’ – so I did – and out boomed over the loud speaker a voice saying “Customer Service required in the pain and sleep aisle”. Hmmm, all eyes on me. The manager eventually came rushing over to unlock the cupboard. It was a bit like buying champagne in the supermarket minus the announcement!

Woke up way too early this morning, but was rewarded with a beautiful orange sunrise.

Due to The Mister suffering from The Man Cold we headed home a bit early today – but good news, he wasn’t too sick for a coffee stop.  Saturdays Surf, the closest cafe yet to work – and it’s nothing more than a coffee machine in a surf shop. We felt a bit out of our element in a surf shop but man, because they concentrate on the coffee, no food, no tables, no crockery, just takeaway cups – it’s good. VERY good.

We’re rating it second to Ninth Street Espresso from Chelsea Market, and so great it’s so close to work. The Mister reckons it’ll be easy enough for me to find my way there to get our coffee each day (hmmm, thought that might change here). I’m still getting a bit lost around Soho, that’s where the street grid begins to disappear and there are a few very chunky cobbled streets that all look the same …

Got locked out of the office this morning … well, we don’t yet have security cards, so had to go find another of the coffee places from the New York times article. This one is reasonably new and the few tables along a bench seat were all taken – interesting name – La Colombe Torrefaction.

Another very good coffee, had a bit of a ‘healthy’ green flavour, a bit like some carob coffee alternative I had once as a teenager when babysitting for some healthy people, and it was a good temperature.

Wow, what a stormy couple of days we’ve had – there has been non-stop rain and howling wind since Friday. 29 floors up and we’re feeling the swaying – The Mister was convinced I was just imagining it until I pointed out the light-shades swinging from the ceiling!

However, we got out a couple of times, went around the supermarket for a proper look (one we’ve discovered practically in our basement!) and spent a few hours wandering around Bloomingdales – got to see lots of very bored men sitting around in various women’s departments!

Found another good coffee spot (from the New York times list) in Soho a couple of blocks from where the office is – Ground Support.

Again ordered small cappuccino which got us what we wanted, was quite strong but good. And only $3.50!

Not on the New York times coffee list but have found an excellent espresso bar not too far from where we live, like 6 blocks, called Fika.

Beans are from Sweden and we have to order cappuccinos – excellent temperature and taste, will definitely be going back there and scouting out the other 2 locations. Excellent oat raisin cookies too!

Bit of an orange-themed day today which was very cool. Plus another trip down memory lane – to Ninth Street Espresso in Chelsea Market.

In my mind, better than their cafe at Ninth street although theoretically they should be the same. There was a bit of a buzz at the bar because of a piece in the New York Times this morning about New Yorkers finally taking their coffee seriously – a write up of cafes where coffee is all about the art of espresso, single origin and chemex. We’ve already been to a couple of the places listed and have got the paper to tick a few others off the list.

We got some flowers from the corner store last night, such colorful places – who can believe you can get so many orange roses for $10? Slowly adding a bit more orange to the apartment!

We had lunch at a very orange cafe called Forty Carrots,

then the long-awaited dinner in the restaurant above the Museum of Art & Design that glows orange at night – it does and has spectacular views over Columbus Circle and Central Park.

First supermarket trip was to Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods in Union Square. Probably a mistake because both were incredibly crowded (the Trader Joe’s checkout line started at the entrance and snaked right around the back of the store!) and we didn’t know where anything was so had to crawl up and down every aisle. In the pasta aisle when I went to put our stuff in the trolley I realised The Mister had walked off with someone else’s trolley! We’d been walking a while so we had to scratch our heads to remember what the last thing was we put in our own trolley to back track. We found it abandoned by the oil and fell into uncontrollable giggles when we realised some poor person now long gone from there turned to put their oil in the trolley and it had completely vanished. After a quick switercheroo of unwanted items we rushed off and The Mister never let the trolley go again!

Well except for here when you have to take the trolley up the escalator to the rest of the supermarket and checkouts – it rides on it’s own special escalator next to you. Hmmm, I was the only whirly-girl rushing around taking photos of it!

First decent cup of coffee today, walked about 27 blocks to get it – Ninth Street Espresso – was totally worth it and I picked up a little lapel pin to wear on my jacket. Was so excited I forgot to take a photo and now I can’t find the one I took a couple of visits ago when we first discovered it. They’re using a different coffee now, roasted at Intelligentsia Coffee Lab in New York.

We’re here! Spent our first night eating huge slices of pizza and drinking beer and coke and watching the Oscars (that we’d seen being set up in LA) in our hotel room. First full day in New York we had 2 things to get done – bank account and ‘move in’ to our apartment.

Opening the bank account was pretty easy – sat in an office with our passports and a lady and filled out a bunch of paperwork, entered a bunch of passwords, smiled into a camera, tried out temporary Visa debit cards under her supervision and we were done! Money available immediately