Sunday in Central Park...

I think spending a sunny Sunday in Central Park is perfect - we wandered about, found a nice tree to sit under and just did some people watching whilst munching on hot dogs and ice cream.
We went for drinks at the Boat House on Saturday afternoon, it was rather lovely - it looks like it'd be a lovely place to have meal, it looks right over the pond where the rowing boats are.

The light in the evening was beautiful...

Surf Bar...

We went to the Surf Bar in Brooklyn for a spot of lunch - they do the tastiest, meatiest shrimps and a rather nice tuna burger. When we were finishing a familiar face strolled into the restaurant, it was none other than Denise Van Outen and Joseph (I don't his real name, but the chap she's just married from Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat)! We got straight on to letting Heat magazine know they were there!

We Love NY...

Abi and I have just the most fantabulous little holiday these past few days - it's gone FAR too quickly, and at the moment feels like a bit of a dream, but here's a little bit of what we got up to...


There was yet another Puerto Rican Parade - there were some familiar faces about, riding their Schwinns and some new rather lovely looking vechicles (Abi came close to stealing the Yellow Bronco!)...

We went to the Top of The Rock to see the incredible sky line...

Then we strolled along 5th Avenue, popping into Tacky Trump Towers, FAO Schwartz (we had a play on the piano from Big), then we went to Central Park and enjoyed our chocolately strawberries from Godiva (I say 'we'... Abi let me have some)...

Then we strolled through the village and went to BLT Burger - it has now been confirmed that it's the best Burger in New York (so far...) - they're YUMMY!

What Shall We Do With The Drunken Sailor...

Last night a few of us went to a special screening event for a documentary about Sailor Jerry Collins. It was the first screening in New York, they'd decked the cinema out with loads of Sailor Jerry's stuff, and there was a bar in the cinema that was only serving rum cocktails (and VERY strong rum and cokes!).

The place was rammed with people who looked like they were in rock bands or had just stepped of a pirate ship - everyone was covered in great tattoos - it was fantastic.

There were staggering the screenings, showing the film in two rooms because they had a larger attendance than they'd expected... the atmosphere in the cinema was really fun too, everyone whooping and laughing out loud and having a good time (most of them were drunk I think) - the director (also drunk) introduced the film and did a Q&A afterwards.

It was a good little film, it was really interesting finding out a bit about the history of tattoos and how they were brought to the masses - which Norman 'Sailor Jerry' Collins was largely responsible for.

One of the best things about the evening was the free popcorn!

It's The Final Countdown...

It's been 7 weeks! (Well, near enough anyway...) but Abi arrives TOMORROW!!! WOOOOOHOOOOOOO! It looks like someone up there likes us too because the weather forecast's rather good too. It's supposed to be great weather right up to when Tom's here and beyond - so that's going be great - especially for the July 4th firework displays! I can't wait.

Cows Daddy Cows!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY POPS!

I can't wait to see you with Our Mam when you come and visit... it's just over 5 weeks to go!

Prince Street Station

When you get off the train at Prince Street Subway station, there are these little characters on the tiles... I thought they were great, they show a lot of the people you see on the trains and in the stations - I particularly liked the rather tired looking backpacker!

Soggy Saturday...

Hello!
Today has been a very soggy Saturday, it's been raining since about 11am, and now at 9pm it's still raining. I was going to go to the Mermaid Parade at Coney Island, but I thought it'd be a bit of a wash-out so I went into SoHo for a wander.



I went to find the KidRobot shop on Prince Street and soon found out that Prince Street has LOADS of very very cool shops, Camper, Paul Smith, Alessi, Adidas, North Face, Taschen, and lots that's I'd never heard of before too but they looked rather splendid.

The Morrison Hotel sells the most amazing music photographs - I didn't twig until I got in and saw a photo of the Doors that the shop front looks like the hotel on the front of their album cover. None of the photos had prices on, so I'm guessing they were rather expensive...

This wall the back wall inside the Taschen book shop...

New Shoes!

These are my new shoes... you can't really tell from the photo, but they've got purple laces and purple soles... just my luck the weather's so wet - I don't want to get the soggy just yet...

A New Friend...

I stopped and had a little chat with this chappy this morning - we were both rather wet from the rain (and probably both smelt similar too) - you can't really see it from this photo, but he had the squishiest little face!

Petrolhead

I saw this tanker road the corner from work the other day - the typography's so lovely - it looks like it was hand painted on there... I love some of the old style signage there is about here.

Kid Acne

This painting is on the side of a live poultry shop just round the corner from my building in Brooklyn, the Skeleton character looks VERY much like it was done by Sheffield's own Kid Acne... I'm not sure if it is or not, but the Kid Robot shop here is selling some toys based on his characters - it's a small world sometimes isn't it?

How Much Is That Doggy...

The petshops near Greenwich Village actually have Doggies in the window!

Mexico

I saw this poster the other day - I thought it was an interesting campaign...

8th Avenue Station

Dotted around 8th Avenue station are some fantastic little characters. They're all bronze sculptures by an artist called Tom Otterness - they're bloody great!

B&H

I'd been told by a few people that the B&H camera shop was worth going to both because it's cheap and for the experience. I'd been told that it was all run by Hasidic Jews and had a weird conveyor belt system, so I was picturing a small family run shop somewhere in New York...

I found it today, it's HUGE and has all sorts of crazy chutes and runners, rollers and conveyor belt things running all round the shop, in the ceiling, under the counters, around the walls.

About 90% of the people who work there are Jewish (not sure what the connection is with cameras and the Jewish), all smartly dressed in their waistcoats and wee hats.

It's a bit of a confusing system, but it's a really efficient one, you go to one counter and tell them what you'd like - they find it for you and give you a ticket to take downstairs (but they don't give you the item you want to buy), so you take the ticket down to the checkout and pay for the item, but they don't give you the item either, they give you another ticket... then you go to the pick up counter where your item is waiting for you, already in a bag on a hook! Quite amazing really.

Pigs in Blankets x10...

After being set the challenge by Miss Turner to find the best hotdog in NYC, I think I may have found it! Well, it's certainly going to be tough to beat...

I had a 'Good Morning' hotdog from Crif Dogs on St. Mark's Place (off 1st Avenue).
It was breakfast in a bun... it has a sausage wrapped in bacon, with a fried and egg and a slice of cheese! It tasted a lot better than it looks... I promise.


I took it too the park, along with my Root Beer float and scoffed the lot!

Williamsburg's Weird Machines

Union Square...

I walk through Union Square everyday going to and from work. Every weekend and every Monday, Wednesday and Friday there's a fantastic Farmer's Market selling all sorts of yummy things, there are artists and musicians and performers too - I love it, there's always fascinating characters to watch, there are always buskers, there's always something to look at...

Like Bobba Fett playing the accordian or a dog training class!

The Pictures...

It was pouring with rain on Saturday afternoon, and after walking around getting drenched I went to go and get dry in the cinema. I went to see Away We Go and The Taking of Pelham 123.
I was going to try and sneak into the 2nd film (it's apparently an easy cinema to do that in), but turns out that they check tickets twice for the new films... so I went and got be a tasty burger from BLT Burger instead. I've had some mighty fine burgers since I've been here... there will be a Top 5 count down shortly...

Crazy Queues for BBQs...

This Saturday was the Big Apple BBQ Block Party, there was live music and loads of different stalls with all sorts of BBQed goodness... it smelt AMAZING - it reminded me of Arkansas, all those ribs. I tried to get some but the queues were ridiculously long and they all seemed to merge into one another, I couldn't work out where one finished and the others began.


I ended up just going to the free samples stall and taking about 4 free bits, so I think that'll amount to about a rib's worth of meat...


I opted to queue for a Shake Shack hotdog, but despite the rain it was still incredibly busy and I gave up and just bought one of a street kart instead (still yummy!)

Chicago

Chicago was good - it was good fun pretending to be a policeman sitting behind a one way mirror listening to people talk about our designs, but the novelty wore off pretty quick and I ate FAR too many peanut butter m&ms and chocolate raisins (they were snacks in the room)...


I didn't actually get to see much of Chicago, this is more or less it...

The Hotel Room has a PILLOW MENU! Only thing was, they didn't lable each pillow, so I didn't know if I was sleeping on a medium or a firm down - I do know it took about half the night to find one I liked...

Hello again...

I hope you've all had a lovely weekend - I'm afraid I've got lots of things to post, so I hope you're sitting comfortably... and I'll begin

Can You Guess What It Is Yet?

Lazy Sunday

I had a lazy Sunday afternoon people watching in Central Park...


This lady was having a whale of a time as the band did a cover of
Back In The USSR


These little toy boats were great, I think you can hire them for a while (or until it sinks!),
there was a fair bit of duck chasing going on...

I didn't quite know where this was - but it's right by the toy boats, it's beautiful and pretty huge - although round the back there's a bit of a scary lizard thing that I don't remember being in the Disney version!

Bada Bada Schwinn!

Here are some of the very friendly members of the Puerto Rico Schwinn Club (you can click on the image to enlarge it).

Puerto Rican Parade

When I was strolling to the other subway station there was a little parade about to start (I saw the mounted Policeman and thought there might be something exciting going down so went to investigate...) it was a small Puerto Rican parade, it was a bit of a strange mix - old American cars, rudeboys and rappers, scary clowns, boy-racers, dancing soldier cadets and the Puerto Rico Schwinn Club...