In the 6 weeks or so which have elapsed since our visit to Cape May the season has completely changed. At this time of year this is obviously not at all surprising, but looking back at photos of sunny beaches whilst a cold wind howls outside makes it feel like a lot longer ago.
Is there anything more satisfying than when circumstances line up nicely? Since we moved away from the area the Upper East Side hasn’t exactly been on our must-visit list, but last Thursday night the stars aligned, and I found myself breaking my journey to meet some friends for dinner by dropping into the opening reception of an art exhibition. This show was of particular interest as it featured an installation by an artist friend of ours. (And I must say that popping into a gallery opening en route to dinner felt like a very New York thing to be doing!) Continue reading
Spending a second Christmas in a place means that I’ve been there a long time, so I’m well aware of all that moving house involves, and really you’d think I’d be quite the expert by now. Nevertheless, I recently found myself packing up once again in the midst of organising two conferences, which is really not something I’d recommend. (Tom, sensibly, managed to be away on business for the weekend of packing, and then busy with work for a fair amount of the unpacking.)
At rest
One of our favourite things to do with visitors is go to the Sunday morning jazz brunch at Blue Note. We’ve probably been around 5 times now, and whilst the performances have been a little hit-and-miss in terms of the kind of jazz we like, the food is decent and the price extremely reasonable, so it’s always an enjoyable event.
Tom’s parents are particularly keen on jazz, so for once we actually did some research about the group scheduled to play on the Sunday they were in town, and sadly we weren’t that impressed. Not-so-sadly, this meant expanding our horizons and looking into who was playing at some of the many other excellent jazz venues, and the Monday evening of their visit saw us all lining up outside the door to Smalls in the West Village. Continue reading
Since the beginning of October, Halloween decorations have been creeping across our neighbourhood. Skeletons, zombies and other ghastly figures jostle for space, a plethora of pumpkins parade up steps, and scarcely a railing has been left uncobwebbed. So far we’ve resisted the temptation to join in, although a mini pumpkin and some orange fairy lights have found their way into my shopping basket thus far. We’ve also been stocking up on candy in anticipation of trick-or-treaters on the night itself, and I happily invested in a rather natty pumpkin-shaped bucket to put it all in.
Admittedly some of the decorations were more cute than scary…
Leaves from the big apple 