Spring in New York

So after resting up in Florida and moving onto New York I turned up still exhausted.  Who on earth escapes from a city like London to come to a city like New York to rest?  Lucky for me that I have a couple of very good friends in New York and I was looking forward to spending some quality time.  I didn’t have an apartment arranged until Day 11 so I stayed with a good friend until then on the Upper West Side.

The Upper West Side is probably my favourite area of New York to be situated in.  It’s residential but has a lot going on with cafe’s, supermarkets and of course banks.  You can’t not look up and see a bank so no need to worry about that for a second in Manhattan. Banks that have the biggest waste of space known to man.  I entered through the door and then turned to left and walked what felt like a mile to some  cash machines.  There was nothing in that empty space apart from my thoughts. I could have moved into that space and it would have been bigger than an average studio apartment in Manhattan.

Although I was staying in an apartment that had a married couple and two small children it ended up being a pleasant experience.  The little girl aged three could rationalize like a thirty-three year old so that proved challenging at six in the morning when the life, universe and everything needed to be discussed.  Even trying to convince her when she put the light on that maybe we needed more sleep time I was met with ‘ No it’s daytime and in the day time we get up and are awake.’  By day eleven, the conversation was flowing with

‘Morning’

‘ Morning’

 ‘Sleep well?’

 ‘ Yeah.’

‘  It’s awake time?  ‘

‘Yeah.’

End of any argument.

  The second child who I stayed with is an anomaly to all babies.  At five months old I’ve never seen such a happy chilled out little chubster.  I was told that if you get the timing of the milk wrong  by the minute you will certainly hear about it but honestly I was present in the room whilst the baba was changed and bathed over half hour and I didn’t even realize that had happened.  His mother’s nightmares are that she forgets him somewhere because he can be so quiet.  She is not wrong.

A place to walk

So the first few days I was in family land.  Eating home cooked food and chilling out.  Watching rubbish TV and going to bed early to rise early.   Central Park has become a place to go walking.  I didn’t realize that from Broadway you can walk a few blocks one way and come to Riverside and walk by the Hudson and go the other way and you are in Central Park within ten minutes.  And Central Park is huge.  A sudden haven in the concrete jungle.  I already have a favourite place to walk around which is the Jackie O Reservoir. 

Day 9 the Sunday I ventured out to a place in the Lower East Side called Fat Buddha.  And one thing I love about New York bars is that if you sit up at the bar and you are friendly enough the drinks start coming for free.  Yes you heard it free.  You don’t know this is happening until the end but when would that ever happen in London?  The place where alcohol is measured by a thimble, here they may as well be holding you down and pouring it down your throat and for a borderline British alcoholic and most definitely a lush this was Manna.   The next morning of Monday (day 10) waking up at half six to work was most certainly not.