Orange is not a colour, it's a state of mind

Had a wonderful coffee catch-up with cousin out-law Charlotte today. I haven’t seen her in over 10 years and she’s now settled in New York with a family. Actually I think we only met and talked that once all that time ago but it was like catching up with an old friend – such a shame that we discovered her here when we’re just about to head home! However, great to know another semi-permanent here for when we come back!

Went out to dinner last night at a little cafe in one of the less-travelled streets of Soho that we’d spotted people sitting outside at a couple of nights before. We had no idea what type of food they were offering, just that it looked cool, funky and cafe-ish.

And it was! Not sure what the equivalent in Wellington might be, maybe Lido, but it was definitely a coffee shop by day/restaurant by night with a simple Moroccan (we think) menu. The Mister had a lamb pot-pie and I had the most amazing couscous with a huge dollop of hummus on top.

We tried to remember all the ingredients in the couscous so that we could try making it at home – we like couscous but often wonder what to put in it – plus the hummus went really well with it. Our list got as far as:

• potato
• pinenuts
• sultanas
• egg plant
• coriander
• apricots
• sweet peppers (roasted & really finely chopped)
• red onion
  (basically a whole lot of sweet stuff that contrasted really well with the hummus)

Well, survived a week as a single gal in New York city while The Mister was tripping around San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Las Vegas.

So, was my week alone in NYC like something straight out of Sex & the City? Not really – with no Mister around I had to deal with rather a lot of out-of-the-ordinary things on my own.

• Record temperatures – 36 & muggy one day.
• Set the alarm off at work & had to face the NYPD alone. It was just like a scene out of that movie Panic Room – when they came knocking at the glass front door to the office I couldn’t figure out how to open it, which made me look quite guilty and/or freaked out so they started in on the questions “Are you alright ma’am?” “Are you here alone ma’am” “Ahh, no, there’s a guy here, he’s in the room back there on the phone.” “Are you sure you’re alright ma’am?” (followed by a stare that spoke waaaay more than that … ‘if that man is scaring you ma’am and you want us to break down this door here and come in and get him then just blink once for yes and twice for no …’).
• Massive roach came into the bedroom at midnight (and you probably already read about that here).
• Went out for drinks with a new girlfriend (that’s a pretty cool SATC moment except for the profuse sweating and greasy face because of the humidity) & I had to figure out how to pay and tip on my own.
• Cable TV service went off air in the middle of a programme I was watching.
• A man ran up to me in Madison Square Park all concerned asking if I thought someone was about to jump off a building or was it a statue (not sure if he was going for best pick up line ever?).
• Went to the movies by myself (SATC2 actually) and sat sandwiched between strangers, all girls, and almost pee’d myself wondering how to get out to the loo without someone taking my seat – however in a high school-eque moment asked the girl next to me to save my seat.
• A man came up to me on 3rd Ave one night while I was wandering along eating my gelato and asked if he could bum a cigarette – then apologised profusely saying he thought my spoon was a smoke. Not quite sure why that then needed to involve knowing my name, what flavour ice-cream etc etc. Lucky I was right on the corner by our apartment so I just pretended I was a non-English speaking tourist and scuttled off!

The Mister had a great time in sunny California – a mix of work (at a conference) and play. The trip ended with a night in Las Vegas with Bev, where they took in a show, gambled and went to shoot some guns – which he was quite good at! He said he couldn’t really tell where he was aiming or where the shots were going but when he got his zombie target sheet back they were all kill shots (perhaps he would’ve been useful with the roach…)

The rest of his trip photos are on Flickr.

Went on my first coffee trip to a new place from the NY Times coffee list without the Mister while he was in California. It was a tiny little place in Soho, with space for a few inside to order and wait for their drink and a small bench seat outside.

There were lots of cool people hanging about with their little dogs and bikes, drinking espresso in the lovely leafy street – a great vibe.

The coffee was nice – the milk a bit bubbly, not the best we’ve seen, and the first sip had an almost sticky burnt caramel to it – not bad, but a different sweet flavour than what we’ve experienced so far.

So I sat there on the side of the road, quite happy to have no friends, enjoying my morning coffee.

Ommigod I’m a killer – a huge MASSIVE cockroach came in the window last night about midnight when I was home alone and I had to deal with it! It was late, I was trying to bore myself to sleep with work (actually I think I was emailing my boss at the time) when something flicked in my hair and bounced away – I looked around to see the massive roach sitting waving it’s feelers at me from the headboard.  I grabbed my phone and jumped off the bed, it jumped onto the light and made little tapping sounds as it walked around the metal lampshade.

I stood there in, paralysed, not quite sure what I thought I’d do with my phone, in my nightee with no shoes on so I couldn’t stamp on it – except I didn’t want to stamp on it because of the crunch and the egg thing. Then it got onto the floor and began darting here and there, man it was fast, and I had to do something – there was no way I was going to sleep with it on the loose. WAAAAAA. I grabbed The Mister’s magazine from beside the bed, but still had the squashing dilemma and it was onto me every time I moved and disappeared under the bed.

I made the decision to leave it alone while I went to the cupboard under the sink to see if there was some fly spray deciding that I could spray the bedroom, shut the door, block the gap under it and sleep on the couch. But no, it was back on the light by the time I returned with a can of spray  (so old that it was made of metal and had an actual lid). I put on rubber gloves and gummies and I was good for attack. Except that every time I stepped my boots did a silent little pfffft and a puff of air shot up the back of my leg giving me a hell of a fright thinking the roach had gone up the back of my leg!!

So on with the spray, well there was no spray, it was a stream and after a couple of false starts I managed to get a good jetting mini fire hose going and in a crouching slo-mo interpretive dance type move I guided the stream with one hand, magazine held at the ready in the other hand as I guided the squirting stream around the bedroom, out into the hall and into the spare bathroom where it finally started to show signs of weakness behind the door. Suffice to say I finally got my chance with magazine and boot, and yes there was a crunch – don’t want to think about it.

With the escaped eggs playing on my mind I mopped up the whole kill area with paper towel and disinfectant then had to set about washing the floor in the bedroom, hall and bathroom to get rid of the fly spray – then everything went down the rubbish chute to the basement 30 floors below where any rebirth could be someone else’s problem.

By this time I was roasting: adrenalin and still 30 degrees out and muggy and had to try and sleep without worrying about another one flying in the window to take revenge! Next day I went out and got a new tin of spray, one that actually sprays and is for use around window frames to stop them coming in in the first place. Fingers crossed.

When I get up to pee in the night this is what I get to look at. Pretty amazing and will certainly be missed!

I don’t have much use for nail polish remover so when I needed a little bit I was very happy to find this little sachet version of some – great to have in the cupboard or travel with. Wonder if you can get such a think in New Zealand?

We’re so glad to have found this in a shop yesterday! Even though we’re good at the stand on bathroom scales without suitcase, get off, pick up suitcase, stand on scales with suitcase, difference in weights is the suitcase – it feels better to have this little weighing thing designed for just this purpose.

The Mister tried it out today for his flight to SFO and we’ll be giving it a workout as we push our luggage limits to the limit in 3 weeks on the journey home. And his has pounds and kilos which is very useful!

Yesterday during our East Side wandering we plotted a course for another espresso bar from the NY Times coffee list – and this place was nothing but a bar – Abraco. The review was right when they said only 6 people could stand like sardines in front of the counter! It was basically an espresso machine on the counter, a bit like the Fuel bars in Wellington and seemed to have an area bigger than the customer area out the back that looked like a full kitchen but in the squash we couldn’t see any sign of a menu – it was only after I got home and saw the menu that I saw they offered a cool system of sweets in the morning and pastries and small plates around lunch time.

This time the barista wasn’t a young guy in a trilby hat, but an arm-waving coffee enthusiast with lots of wavy grey hair, probably in his 50’s who called out to people in the street to get their order because we couldn’t fit into the bar. The coffee looked very pale but certainly had a kick – it was a coffee we’d not had before, a flavour similar to Stumptown, and again, what we’ve come to expect from these bars.

Man it was lovely sitting there on a bench seat, some shelter from the trees and a bit of a breeze even though the temperature was about 28 degrees. Lot’s of East Side sights too: bikes, tattoos, people catching up and selling stuff outside their brownstones and while we sat there for about 20 minutes about 20 people when into the bar to get coffee. Again I sat wondering what it would take to have a place like this in Wellington – we reckon the People’s Garage is the closest in terms of decor, vibe and service.

During our random wandering around an area of the Lower East Side that we’d not been to yesterday we discovered a shoe shop on Orchard Street where a couple of cats live. Wasn’t shoe shopping but couldn’t resit going in when we saw their sign on the door warning dog owners to beware!

One of the cats, Marlo, was very smoochy, but the other, Bowery, just sat there and let me pat him but refused to look at me. They were very at home in the shop.

Orchard Street was rather lovely and quaint with a lazy afternoon feel – tree-lined streets with small shops of handmade or collectible items – jewellery, shoes, men’s clothes etc with a little diner or restaurant on every corner.