NYC photos

So we arrived in NYC last Monday evening after a good flight with Delta. It would have been great but all the aircrew bar, one chunky stewardess on the other side of the plane, were portly, grumpy men. Nothing like the stereotype. Dumpty Airlines would have been more appropriate.

We arrived at Sarah’s quite late and it was lovely to see them all. A bite and a few drinks and up early next morning to do breakfast and take the boys to school – my fave task. Rather than give you a blow by blow account of the whole holiday I thought I’d take a kind of photo journalistic approach and show a load of disparate images of odd NYC sights linked by just a few telling words.Here we go….

First up a shot flying over glorious Greenland…

First morning looking out of Sarah’s window and spotting a neighbour hot-tubbing on his roof early morning, headphones on, singing along to Madonna (I’m guessing)….

Next up a lovely brownstone terrace – I love these buildings – likely cost for a single family fully restored home can cost as much as £25m. Ouch….

A beautiful morning and strolling down Central Park West we come across a film crew filming in the Park less than 50 metres from Sarah’s building…

One of the many street-side covid testing centres dotted all over town…

Next one of many patches of street soil which are normally planted up for shrubs but increasingly are being seeded by bulbs and other flowers adding a welcome splash of colour to the pavements….

Look at the brassware on display at this stoop….

We always do a lot of shopping whilst the boys are at school especially for some cool clothes (hello Lululemon), towelling goods (Marshalls), kitchen/dining ware (Williams Sonoma), and bedding (Pottery Barn). It’s tiring but the quality is excellent. Here I was having a sit down whilst Carol was in-store and spotted this Halal street food van. Nothing exceptional but I loved the guy’s slogan – don’t know if you can see it – ‘No Pork in my Fork’ ha!

After school I loved helping the boys with their home work and I was amazed at the high standard of Elliott’s work – especially the maths. He had to show me how to do much of it! Anyway after doing a session I took him to his Taekwondo class which was great fun for a proud grandad…

 

I’d try and. collect a coffee for Sarah after returning from dropping the boys at school. I passed this place every morning – don’t be coy tell us what your speciality is….

And it was. Next some of the inspirational quotes in the Lululemon shop. What great store and some fantastic clothes – even I get some v cool leggings…

Lunch with Sarah and E before collecting the boys (we had to give this restaurant’s manager a rollicking for his staff’s slow service – a very unusual occurrence)…

Next a fantastic ice cream parlour owned by one of Sarah’s clients…

Walking back via the Park and passing the Dakota building. Remembering JL…

Dinner the following evening at a very lively California-themed place which the boys love. We came out of here properly stuffed and we did have a few beers….

We stayed at Sarah and E’s for a couple of nights but moved into a great local hotel (The Lucerne) to give the guys some space. It was unpretentiously good. When we weren’t doing breakfast for Sars and the boys we had brekkie in the very popular Nice Matin restaurant attached to the hotel. It was super – take a look at these lighting pillars – bonkers….

It’s like something you see at Blackpool Pleasure Beach. Speaking of honest hedonism, here’s a a pic of the local Oirish bar but here’s the thing – this one is genuinely over 100 years old. In bar years that’s positively Jurassic in Manhattan…

The following day we headed down to the great shopping facilities around Columbus Circus and did a bit of damage to the wallet. Incidentally I thought the Columbus Day episode on The Sopranos was my least favourite of the whole series (apart from the dream sequences. Discuss)…

This giant bronze figure inside the shopping hall was uncannily reminiscent of someone…who could it possibly be?

Over at Nordstroms for men I had to decide should I stick with my all black outfits or opt for the latest styles in NY. It was a close call…

…but black it is.

Next morning we headed up to Sar’s early in preparation for a zoom session with Eliiott’s class where he and all his classmates were doing a presentation on all the  reasons to visit China. The kids had to do their own research. Elliott focused his presentation on the Terracotta Army and he did it beautifully. Proud grandad…

Later that day Sara, Carol and I headed over to the upper east side for a bit of further shopping at another Lululemon store followed by a visit to the Museum of the City of New York located at the top of museum mile in east Harlem. I visited once before when we lived in Manhattan some 5 years ago. It’s a bit of a little secret with very few visitors. It is located in a beautiful old merchant’s building with a cool little cafe and a simply fantastic contemporary collection covering topics such as the NY music scene in the 1980’s, a history of activism, and a super installation on life for immigrants from the Far East and near Caribbean. It was just brilliant and I’ll just show you a selection of images from the place…

Last few pics I promise. We were going to catch up with old friends Shay and Marta but they had to cancel as they’d caught covid sadly. Hey ho. However we had a super few glasses/bottles of wine and some excellent French food at a local bar called Vin sur Vingt. We loved it as did the boys despite the rain. It was our fave meal in NY. Boys completely chilled….

We did have a lovely last night with the guys but all too soon it was time to head home. A 4.30am start didn’t faze us as we are often awake at this time. A traffic free journey to JFK airport and a totally smooth and trouble-free flight home with Virgin Atlantic which was everything Richard Branson promised – fantastic stewardesses, good wine, arriving ahead of schedule. We landed home at exactly midnight UK time. Long day but we had the best of short holidays. And to top it all off, Becksy had a fantastic time at the respite care centre we found for her in Stratford. She suggested that we should stay away longer. Ha! Huge relief.

Many thanks Sars and E  and love to those beautiful boys. Next time hopefully S&M.

pp

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