Phew!

Basketball & Skyscrapers...

Also, as we strolled through Union Square Park yesterday evening, we noticed (how could we not notice!) a basketball court had been set up slap bang in the middle of Union Square.

It was for the People's Games (I think), and there had just been an LA vs. NYC game being played... if only we'd left work 20 minutes early, the photo would have been far far more interesting!

Tuesday Evening...

Yesterday evening/late afternoon, after we'd finished work, Abi and I walked across Union Square and got ourselves a little treat from Dunkin Donuts and sat on a bench in the evening sunshine.

It was a beautiful evening, and made even more special for just being able to sit and soak up the New York atmosphere for a wee while before getting on the subway.

The low light was creating some beautiful silouhettes of the surrounding buildings...

I can't wait for more evenings like that as the summer draws nearer.

Happy Birthday Mops!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OUR MAM!

I hope you have a lovely, relaxing day and that sun shines back at home, the sun's shining for you this morning in Brooklyn.

Hopefully you'll be enjoying something a little stronger than Orange juice a little later today, it's just gone G&T time hasn't it? It's not long now and I'll be able to give you a belated birthday hug.

Happy Birthday!

Terrific Twos...

It's been 2 YEARS!
I moved to New York two years ago today... I can't quite believe it. It's gone blummin' fast!

Berry Park...

Yesterday afternoon was a bit of a scorcher, it was beautifully sunny and about 21 degrees.

In the afternoon I met up with Jim (Steve's friend - and I suppose my friend...?) for a couple of drinks, I'd not seen him in a few weeks so it was nice to catch up. We went to a new bar (well, new to us, but it's been around for ages) called Berry Park, which was funnily enough on Berry Street opposite Berry Park, in Williamsburg - near the bowling alley.

The bar had a fantastic roof top beer garden, with amazing views of the Manhattan skyline...

It wasn't very busy when we arrived, but within the hour it was rammed... it was great little find and definitely somewhere to go back to - we didn't samply it, but the menu sounded good too, duck fat fries! YUM!

Easy Rider...

Kool Man...

This AMAZING genuine-o Brooklyn ice cream van was outside Brooklyn Stoops as we arrived...

Summer must be just around the corner!

Brooklyn Stoops...

Last Sunday, when Abi's friends were here we all went to the new Brooklyn Stoops Café for some breakfast. Today Abi and I went back to try out their luncheon menu - it was just as good as their breakfast...

It's about 5 minutes walk (a couple of blocks) from our front door, and is a really friendly little place. The people there recognised us, despite having only been there once and I spotted someone in there that was there last weekend, so I think it's probably very much a 'locals' kind of place - our plan is to become one of those 'locals'.

We some tasty panini's and some little nibbley mozzarella sticks and chicken wings and sat by the window people watching. It's pretty ideal little place for people watching.

We noticed last time that the cafe has a lovely looking garden round the back, with decking and some BBQ grills, so hopefully when they've finished out there, it'll open and we'll be able to enjoy the sunshine with some BBQ burgers on sunny Sunday afternoons.

It's great that it's so close, hopefully it'll stay open - I suppose it's up to people like us to keep going there to make sure it stays put. There's also a little bar next door (that we went to last summer) called Project Parlor, maybe there'll be some other new little places opening in our neighbourhood soon... who knows?!

What I do know is, we'll be going back there soon - probably next weekend for a cup of coffee!

Go Mets!

On Tuesday night we had an office outing to Flushing Meadows to see the NY Mets play the San Fransico Giants.

It was a beautifully sunny evening - nothing like the forecast (it was supposed to be stormy) and we arrived at the CitiField Stadium as the sun was starting to set. The Stadium is very close to where the Tennis US Open is held, on one side of the train tracks it's baseball, on the other it's tennis.

The new stadium's very impressive, it doesn't feel quite as huge as Yankee Stadium, but Yankee Stadium doesn't have this brilliant Pepsi sign!

We'd managed to get extremely cheap tickets ($5!) that were up in the heavens, but I liked being up high, you got to see everything that was going on.

As usual, it wasn't the most thrilling game in the world - but the Mets seemed to be putting up a good fight against the reigning 'world' champions (World as in World Series, as in the competition that only Americans play in...?).

The Mets managed to get a couple of home-runs in, and when they did a massive Met's Big Apple popped up beneath the huge TV screen!

As the news about Osama was still buzzing around America, there was a special presentation for the armed forces, they had representatives from each of the forces and they all pitched the first ball. They also had various videos and presentations through-out the game. It was all very American!

A little later into the game Ben and I went to get a hotdog on the lower level, so we were able to get a bit closer to the action and see the game from lower down...

The stadium was looking rather lovely as we left to get the train back to Brooklyn...

We didn't stay till the very end, as it was getting a wee bit boring, but it was a fun night. The atmosphere's always great at baseball games. Maybe we'll be able to get see another game this summer, before the ticket prices go through the roof!

Abi's Famous...

Miss Abi Turner was quoted in the New York Post this weekend!!!

In an article about the Royal Wedding, Abi Turner was quoted as saying...

I was hoping to get my own comment from Miss Turner, but she's refusing to do any further interviews.

History In The Making...

Last night, as the news broke about Osama Bin Laden's death, we flicked over to CNN to watch President Obama address the nation.

It was a bizarre night really, hearing the broadcasters talking about the events, flicking to shots of people celebrating outside of the White House and then hearing Obama's speech. It was a very calm, and controlled speech, none of the stupid macho/americanism that would have spouted out of George Bush's mouth.

It's always quite amazing hearing Obama talk, he's a great talker and from what I've seen, a great president and I'm glad that he was realistic in his address - he didn't make out like the 'war on terror' is over, and he made sure that he acknowledged that it won't bring back the people who lost their lives on September 11th.

I was expecting people to be jubilant in New York today, but it didn't feel any different. No-one really mentioned it at work, there were a lot of things on twitter about it, but I think overall (and perhaps especially in New York) people are a little wary of what might happen now in terms of retaliation.

No matter what though, it was amazing to be able to be here and hear the words from the President, live.

Drippy Door...

We also saw this painting on a door, it was all done from dripping paint...

I think it was for sale, but I couldn't see the price tag.

Citrus Citreon...

On the way back from the flea market I spotted this beeeeeeautiful little van...

I want one.

Brooklyn Flea...

On Sunday morning, after a rather tasty breakfast at the newly opened Brooklyn Stoops cafe (which is a 5 minute walk from our apartment, and has very tasty croissants and coffee and will soon be serving dinner too) Kate (Abi's friend), Georgie (Abi's friend's special friend), Abi (my special friend) and I (Me) went to Williamsburg Waterfront to the Brooklyn Flea...

The weather was incredible and McCarren Park looked absolutely beautiful in the sunshine.

The Brooklyn Flea, which is normally in Fort Greene, has now set up a Sunday spot down by the river in Williamsburg, so you have the most amazing view when looking for hidden treasures...

There were so many brilliant things at the fair, lots of Americana type things, like flags and cowboy boots and leatherjackets, tshirts with eagles on and brilliant bicycles...

There was a lot of furniture, some great old school lockers, some beautiful wood tables, a reeeeally lovely old artist's/architect work desk. I've seen a couple of old wooded work desks recently and I've decided that as soon as I have room for my own little studio, I'm getting an antique work table - just incase you wanted to know.

There was a great selection of old wooden letterpress printing blocks too...

I got myself a little wooden & for $3.
We also got ourselves a huge Absolut Brooklyn bottle for our bar...

Unfortunately it's empty.

I love going round the Brooklyn Fair, and as the weather's getting nicer I imagine we might go back there a few times. Come the end of May they're opening a special food fair, as there are loads and loads of food vendors at the flea market, they're opening their own fair... that's guaranteed to be DELICIOUS and I think we're guaranteed to go and sample a few vendors this summer!

Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Range...

On Saturday I (slightly nervously) went to a shooting range with Ben and Tet.

After a hearty breakfast at the Court Square Diner in Queens (which was rather tasty) I met up with Ben and Tet and we set off towards to Poconose, a beautiful area just outside of New York state, full of hilly countryside and forests.

We stopped off on the way for a quick hotdog at a little dive place called Libby's Lunch, it was famed for being on of the best hotdogs outside of New York, but to be perfectly honest, it wasn't anything special really. I prefer the Central Park Hotdogs...

After a couple of hours, we finally arrived at the Sunset Hill Shooting Range.

As we stepped out of the car, we were instantly being deafened by the sounds of gun shots firing just over the fence, and as we walked across the gravel we looked down and noticed that the gravel was an even mix of stone and old shells...

After donning our safety glasses and ear protectors, we made our way over to the range, which was a bit like a gun buffet, you were assigned and instructor who asked you which guns you'd like to fire, they were all on display, so it was a bit of an eeny-meany-miney-mo moment.

I can't really remember to order of the guns we fired, or all their names - but I know that we fired a Desert Eagle (the big silver one!) which had quite a kick to it. But more exciting than that was shooting a Smith and Wesson cowboy gun, the barrell was soooooo long. I felt like Dirty Harry!

The bullets for the Dirty Harry gun were HUGE, it cost $5 per bullet if you wanted to fire one, so we just shot one bullet each...

After shooting 3 or 4 hand guns we moved onto some rifles. I wasn't really that bothered about the rifles, they scared me a bit because you have to rest you face on the gun to aim... they weren't easy to fire either - it made me really appreciate how good Tom must be at shooting to have gone to compete at Bisley!

I can't really remember the names of the rifles we fired either, apart from an AK-47 - that's a famous one that I'd heard of before (probably for all the wrong reasons though!).

Finally, we ended the day on a pump-action-shot gun, which was GREAT fun and felt just like being in a film (which is probably the completely wrong attitude to have, but I couldn't help it!)

We shot clay pigeons with the shotgun, which I was convinced I'd miss every one, but I managed to hit 3 out of 5... not tooooo bad for a beginner.

The orange in the mound is made up of lots of old broken and unbroken (including the 5 that I missed) pigeons...

At the end of it all we were allowed to keep a few old shells and our target, I was quite pleased with mine, I think I killed the rather camply posed character, all 5x or 5 points!

It was an interesting experience, and something that I can only really imagine doing in America.It certainly made me appreciate how amazingly brave soldiers have to be to train and be prepared to go to war, surrounded by the horrific sounds of gunfire, and actually using the guns for their purpose rather than for recreation.

I ended up enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I didn't really enjoy the rifles that much (I think at one point was closed both eyes when I was aiming!), but firing the Dirty Harry gun was great fun.