Thursday, December 16, 2010

IT'S TODAY!



In 45 minutes the taxi will be here to take us to the airport...
WE'RE COMING HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wahooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! We can't wait!

Father Christmas in Brooklyn...


Father Christmas came to Brooklyn last night!

Christmas Time in Manhattan...

Last night, we spent a bit of time walking around Manhattan looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights - I know I put some of these up last year, but they're so Christmassy and festive I wanted to show you again...

Radio City Hall looked fantastic, with the red Christmas tree, the big decorations across the road, and lots of twinkly trees...

Then, a little further down the road were these...

They were HUGE fairy lights!

Out of all the shops Christmas decorations, I think the Cartier ones are some of the best...

All the shops look fantastic and walking around, all wrapped up in scarfs and coats seeing all the Christmas lights made us both feel VERY festive and ready for a fantastic Christmas at home.

Christmas at 30 Rock...

After our delicious drinks we walked over to Rockefeller Plaza to look at the skaters and the big Christmas Tree...
The tree looked very impressive, obviously not a patch on the tree at Myrtle Avenue, or Vernon Green - but it was lovely all the same. There were a fair few skaters out on the rink despite the cold weather too.

All around the Rockefeller Center looks beautiful, they always decorate it so well - I absolutely love the trees with all the little lights covering each branch (I wish I knew how they did it...)



Christmas Cocktails...

Last night, for a Christmassy treat, we went for cocktails at the Algonquin Hotel.

The hotel lobby looked loooooovely and Christmassy, it was all cozy and warm - although anytime the door opened we could feel the perishingly cold air coming in, it was blumming freezing outside.

It seemed like quite a few people had a similar idea to us as it was pretty busy, but we managed to get a little table to ourselves so we could enjoy some fancy drinks...

Abi had a Strawberry Dacquori - which was like a strawberry smoothie - dangerously tasty, and I had a Parissean - but I can't remember what was in it really, apart from Gin... but it was mighty fine...
As you can tell.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Fa La La La La La La La La...

Manhattan might have some fancy lights - but Myrtle Avenue has this...




Take that Rockefeller!

Monday, December 13, 2010

Sprinkling of Snow...

On the way back from work tonight it was snowing ever so lightly - and just now, we looked outside the window and there's a thin (but still thick enough...) blanket of snow outside...

I wonder if there'll be anymore while we're sleeping - I'll keep you posted!

A Little Idea...

Last week I'd been working on this little idea for a Christmas Card...

Unfortunately I got them printed and they arrived today, but they looked a bit rubbish - the colour was really dark and they'd been cropped all funny so I'm not going to send them out.

I thought I'd share it with you anyway...
(looking at it again I'm not very pleased with it, so it's probably worked out for the best that they didn't print well)


NOT LONG NOW!
(Oh, and this is my 300th post of the year)

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Twinkly Night...

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...



Here's our little Christmas tree (complete with Cadbury's chocolate decorations from Myers of Keswick)...

.... and here's the Elmwood NY Christmas tree (I prefer ours).
I can't wait to come home to the best tree of all on Friday!

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Going To Jeremyville...

On Thursday night we went to the opening of an exhibition of some work by an illustrator called Jeremyville. The exhibition was in the Brooklyn Brother's gallery which handily happens to be on the 7th floor of our building - so all we had to do is go up 3 floors!

Jeremyville is based in New York and Australia and does quite a bit of work for people like KidRobot and skateboarding brands and his show was of a load of prints and a few skateboard decks.

It was absolutely packed in the little gallery - there were loads of people (not many looking at the work, mainly drinking), we had to wait ages to get the lift upstairs!

We didn't stay too long in the end because it was so busy and we'd come straight from work so we were ready to go home... but it was good to see the gallery space in use and meet some of the guys from Brooklyn Brothers (they're a British company that have come to America too), I think we're hoping that they might be some good neighbours to have in the building.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

It's On It's Way...

Crif Dogs is coming to Brooklyn!
This could be very dangerous because it will potentially on our way home from work...

Cozy Evening Out...

It seems to have suddenly got bitterly cold outside, and is only set to get worse - with snow forecast I think we're getting your snow from home... I hope so anyway because I'm getting a little jealous of the winter wonderland that you've got!

So yesterday evening, after being out in the cold, we thought we'd go somewhere nice and warm, so we went back to a little restaurant in Brooklyn called El Almacen. We'd been there a few months ago with Jonny and really enjoyed it and had been meaning to go back for a while - so last night, we did...

We seemed to get there at the perfect time too, we walked in and got a table straight away, even though it was quite busy and then as soon as we sat down - it seemed the whole of Brooklyn turned up wanting a table.

The food was delicious, Abi had a juicy steak and I had some chicken roulade with some truffley mash - it was perfect for a cold December evening.

It was so lovely and cozy in there, it's not a very big place so it feel nice and intimate and the lighting's nice and moody (any moodier and I think I would have been falling asleep).

There's such a lovely atmosphere in the restaurant, the staff are really friendly and everyone there seemed to be having a lovely evening too.

We finished off with some scrumptious puddings, I'll say 'we' had (but really, Abi had) some Churros with chocolate and delche de leche dipping sauce and a little chocolate pudding... they were delcious!

It's a really lovely little restaurant and I'm so glad we got to go back, I don't think it'll be the last time we go either.

Brooklyn Brewery...

Yesterday afternoon Ben and I went to the Brooklyn Brewery for a few drinks and to go on the tour that Tom and I went on in the summer.

When we got there it wasn't very busy, but by the time were were on to our second pint, the place was heaving! Loads of people had gone along to the brewery bar and taken lots of lovely looking food with them. People had tubs full of cupcakes, pigs in blankets, pizza, bagels... all sorts. We were tempted to steal some of the pigs in blankets!

The 'tour' wasn't as good as it was in the summer - the brewery's currently going under a massive expansion, they're going to go from making 10,000 bottles in Brooklyn to around 100,000 within a couple of years. So we weren't able to go into the main brewing room that Tom and I went into.

It made me glad that Tom and I went on the tour when we did, we'll have seen the brewery when it was still fairly small, and had a drink at the brewery bar before it got expanded and made fancier. I think we'll have to go again in February though, apparently they're releasing a special beer called Black Ops which is soaked in beer barrell and they only make it for 1 month - February! So I think a special birthday drink will be in order.

Cheers!


Saturday, December 4, 2010

Ninja Noel...

On Wednesday night it was the first proper Elmwood New York Christmas Doo.
(I wasn't taking any photos, so I've had to steal some other people's - they're not great I'm afraid)

After a few drinks and nibbles at a quiet little bar we went on for our meal at a place called Ninja. We'd heard rumours about Ninja from various people, hearing that you were served food by Ninja's in a Ninja Castle! So, we thought we'd go and see if the rumours were true...

They were.

Our Ninja waitors served us our first course with out own mini Samuari swords, and we had to shout Haaaay-ya! before we could eat it. After the firt course came four more theatrical Japanese dishes - we had some tuna and beetroot stuff for our first course (some people have foie gras), followed by a small plate of sushi (with some caviar!)...

Then came a dish that we had to headbutt to get in to...

It was meant to look like a tree stump, it was made out of filo pastry and full of rice and delicious beef - it was the size a main course, so we were all getting a little nervous about how big the main courses were going to be...

The steaks were absolutely HUGE, far far too big to finish but they were nothing compared to the paella 'for one'...

5 bits of salmon! For one person! It was ridiculous.

Then just when we thought we'd pop, they brought out pudding. The pudding was the most theatrical course with the waitress turning steel ninja stars into chocolate ninja stars and serving us magic potions...

...and not everything was as it seemed...

This egg and bacon was actually a lemon cheesecake with some manjo on top and the bacon was a cinnamon twist. After pudding we had a magician come to the table and do some old fashioned cup and ball tricks - he was great!

It was a really fun night and although we all put on about 2 stone during the meal, the food was mighty tasty (especially the tree trunk dish). Ninja was like no other restaurant we'd ever been to, I wonder if there are any other themed restaurants we could explore...?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Frosty The Snowman...

Well, it might not be snowing in New York - but that doesn't mean we've not been enjoying snowmen like everyone back at home...

This little chap is sitting happily in our bathroom (he's a soap dispenser with apple soap inside) - and his hat is a real knitted hat!

And this happy fella is hanging out over the telly.

I'll send some more photos of our apartment as it gets more Christmassy... not long to go now!