Wreck It Ralph...

We've seen a few films over this passed week, Flight (new Denzel Washington film... very good), Skyfall (amazing!) and Wreck It Ralph. Wreck It Ralph was absolutely BRILLIANT!

It's the new Disney animation, it's all about computer games, and I can't wait to see it again. I'm not sure when it's out back home, but it's definitely worth going to see!

Buckyball...

There's a new art installation up in Madison Square Park, a fancy light installation by Leo Villareal called 'Buckyball'...

The two balls light up in allsorts of different colours, in different patterns, at different times - it's pretty mesmerising to watch.

Surrounding the light ball are 4 big wooden lounging benches, so you can lie back and watch all the lights changing... and probably fall asleep, I know I would...

Stars, Stripes, Statues & Skyscrapers...

You can see 'em all outside Grand Central!

The Blue Line...

Out & About (Cars, Cars, Cars)...

 There certainly are some lovely cars around Brooklyn!

Out & About...

From some mooching over the long weekend... 

 

How & Nosm - Bowery Mural...

There's a new mural up on the Bowery Art Wall, this time it's by How & Nosm...

Do Or Dine...

Abi and I have been wanting/meaning to go to Do Or Dine for aaaaaaaaaaaaaages, and last night we finally went.

Do Or Dine (named after Bed Stuy's motto - Do Or Die) is a unique little restaurant in Bed Stuy, it opened a year or so ago and there's been a lot of hype about it ever since. The head chef Justin recently took time away from the restaurant to enter 'The Food Network's Next Star' programme - and won!

He was the 'quirky' one on the programme, cooking things like deep fried fish skeletons (for Halloween) - and there are similar (but less gruesome sounding) things on the menu at Do Or Dine.

So, Justin's got a popular restaurant in Brooklyn, he won a TV competition which means he'll be a host on the Food Network now, he'll probably end up having a book out soon too, but he was there last night, being front of house, greeting everyone who came in, taking drinks orders and bring people their food.

From the outside, you wouldn't really know it was a restaurant - Do Or Dine took over an old bodega/deli shop in a not very nice area on Bedford Avenue (not the fancy gentrified end of Bedford Avenue, it's at our end, the Bed Stuy end), they didn't really change anything on the outside, expect spray paint the metal gate that goes down over the windows...

They've still got the old awning up and everything... which I love.

Then you walk in, through the curtain and it feels like you're in someone's living room or dining room or something, it's very cozy and relaxed, there's a disco ball in the ceiling, a lovely old bar in the back corner and a brilliant mosaic tiled floor...

I think we arrived at the perfect time - we were there at about 8pm, but by the time we left there were people waiting for tables as you can't make reservations. We were able to walk right in and get a table without any problems though.

The menu was amazing - a bit confusing - but fascinating too. Some of the descriptions were a we bit odd, listing ingredients neither of us had ever heard off (it could be seen, and probably is, a wee bit pretentious  but we didn't really mind, as long as we knew what meat we were getting we were sure it would taste delicious)...

The dish that Do Or Dine is probably most famous for is their Foie Gras Donut! Which is on both the starters and the pudding menu... we gave that a miss, despite our curiousity.

Instead, Abi had some amazing nacho dumplings (they tasted like cheese nachos but in tidy little thai dumpling parcels) and I had frogs legs (!) in a Dr. Pepper Glaze. It was the first time either of us had had frogs legs - the crispy bits were delicious, and the glaze was amazing... it does taste a lot like chicken, if chicken was a fish.

Then Abi had a delicious salmon with super crispy skin and crispy mashed potato and I had duck breast on some white beany/buckwheaty type mixture and kiwi... it was all so so delicious!

Even the drinks were good - Abi had a cocktail with a sprig of Rosemary in it, which sounded weird but tasted amazing.

We could see why there was so much hype about the place - and it was certainly popular, by the time we left every table was full and there were people at the bar. There was a great atmosphere, very relaxed and not all showy and snobby, as it could have been serving the experimental food that they do.

Apparently they do a mighty fine brunch, so I think we'll be heading back to try that out soon!

It's great that there's a restaurant like Do Or Dine in our area, I think it'll attract people away from places like Williamsburg and show them that there are other exciting areas around Brooklyn. There's still so many places and areas we've not visited yet - but if there's some delicious food to be had there, we'll go!

Patiently Waiting...

As we walked to the Lincoln Center we passed the Trump Hotel by the park, we could hear a load of screaming from round the corner, and as we got closer we could see a load of girls behind barricades infront of the hotel...  

They were all patiently waiting for a glimpse of... ONE DIRECTION!

The odd thing was, Abi and I were able to just walk along the pavement infront of the barriers, we could have even walked up into the hotel if we wanted... I suppose we don't look like the usual One Direction fan though... but still, I may have wanted to give Harry a hug.

We walked round the side of the hotel only to see the same there too, they had both exits covered. This was during their school day! The school attendance records probably plummet every time One Direction are in town.

Actually, I think Justin Bieber was in New York that day too, so I doubt any teenage girls were at school yesterday!

Staycation...

So, after changing our little Catskills getaway plans 3 times already due to blummin' Sandy related stuff, Abi and I had to cancel our trip altogether yesterday. 

Unfortunately due to the fuel shortage in New York and New Jersey, Zipcar had to cancel our reservation which meant we had no way of getting to the Catskills. I would have been very handy if Zipcar hadn't waited until an hour before we were due to leave before telling us this information though - Zipcar, you can expect a strongly worded email on Wednesday.

Anyway,  despite not being able to make it up to the wonderful looking The Graham & Co or Peekamoose (two places we were VERY much looking forward to visiting), we decided to take our two days off work anyway and have a Staycation in New York instead. We are incredibly lucky that if we can't get to go on holiday our second (free) option is New York City!

The weather yesterday was incredible, it was 16 degrees and beautifully sunny, so we went into town and had a delicious brunch sitting outside at the Coffee Shop... outside! In November!

Then we went up to the Lincoln Center to see Skyfall - we got out a couple of stops early so we could see the leaves in Central Park. I was a bit worried that Sandy might have blown them all away, but as soon as we stepped out of the subway station, we were met with this view...

Stunning!

Then it was cinema time. We'd tried to go and see it on Sunday but every single showing was sold out, so we though Monday lunchtime would be much better... and it was, it was just full of older folks and children bunking off school.

The film was BRILLIANT! Everyone cheered when the Aston Martin DB5 appeared, and I probably laughed a little too loudly at the ejector seat bit... but the whole thing was fantastic I thought.

After the film we had stroll through the park. We hadn't been up there in a while so it was lovely to be able to enjoy walking around before the sun went down. I absolutely love Central Park.

There was just time to sit on a bench and share a Belgian waffle before it was time to head back to Brooklyn. We may not have made it to the Catskills, but we had a bloody perfect day in New York instead.

Take that Sandy... and Zipcar!

Sunshine & Sausage Rolls...

Getting up at 5.30am on my birthday was not fun, but seeing this view as I walked to work made up for it...

As did this amazing birthday cake creation from everyone (but mainly Miss Turner) at work...

(Sausage Roll and Scotch Egg Birthday Cake - perfect!)

And what made up for it even more were the birthday messages, cards and presents from you - thank you VERY much, it's always a bit funny spending a birthday away from home, but being able to FaceTime you and to text and to receive your cards makes the world feel much smaller and makes me feel closer to home.

THANK YOU!

What a Week (or Two)...

First the Hurricane and the cancelled marathon, then the election last night and now snow?!

As I write this I can see the (wet) snow lashing down outside, apparently it's the beginning of another big storm that's on it's way tonight. Sadly I think New Jersey will bare the brunt of the weather again.

Hopefully things will calm down a wee bit soon.

Phew!

Today's The Day...

I can't believe it's been 4 years since I was in Arkansas watching one of the most historic Presidential elections! Tonight's going to be another huge night for America - hopefully they'll make the right choice again.

It's going to be very interesting to see the difference between New York's reaction to the election results and that of Arkansas 4 years ago. I remember going to work the day after the election and absolutely no-body mentioned the fact that Obama won, it was as if no-one in that particular corner of Arkansas wanted to admit that it had happened. If they don't talk about it, it didn't happen. I think this time round there'll be a load of relief and celebration in New York if when Obama gets re-elected. 

I feel that this time round I've got a bit of a better grasp of what each candidate stands for (or at least what they say they stand for). We've watched nearly all of the debates and we've seen the conferences on telly, it's been fascinating to watch and odd knowing that we know who we'd vote for, but we have no say in the matter.

There have been lots of different videos going round the internet, I was watching one last night of Jay-Z at the Obama rally, singing 'I got 99 problems but Mitt ain't one!'. In contrast, I also saw this jaw-dropping video of Romney's supporters in Ohio...

Whatever happens, it'll be another exciting night watching CNN and their interactive maps. They're not a patch on John Snow, but they'll do for now. We'll be eating burgers and drinking Jack Daniels tonight to get into the American spirit.

M Is For Manhattan...

So the G and L trains are still not running, which is a bugger because they're the two trains we take to get to work each day, so this morning's commute was a little different.

We ended getting the M train from a stop about 10 minutes walk away from the apartment. My heart sank as we arrived at the station and saw a queue going all the way down the stairs out of the station and stretching out down the street a little way. 

Luckily (for us, but not for the people in it) the queue was for train tickets, not to get onto the platform, so we were able to skip it and get onto the next train.

All in all our commute wasn't too bad at all, it took 1 hour rather than the usual 30 minutes, and there was a wee bit more walking involved, but I think it's going to be OK until things get back to normal. The nice thing about the M train is that most of it's above ground and it was a beautifully sunny morning, so it made Monday morning a wee bit more bearable.

New York Magazine - Sandy Special...

I don't want to go on and on about the whole Sandy situation, but the latest edition of the New York Magazine has an amazing photo of the black outs on the front cover...

(I'm hoping they won't have all sold out by the time I actually manage to get to a newsagents!)

Beating The Queues...

As Abi and I stood on Bedford and Myrtle waiting for the bus we saw car, after car, after car queueing to get to the petrol station. There were some newspaper reporters talking to one driver who said she had been waiting in line since 6am (this was at around 10.45am!).

As we stood there waiting these three walked passed carrying petrol cans to take back to their car - it seems to make far more sense to walk a couple of miles to get petrol rather than drive, but it sounds like even the queues for people carrying petrol cans are hours and hours long.

A few minutes later a petrol tanker drove down the road, I expect every driver in the queue breathed a huge sigh of relief seeing that roll by (as long as it was full I suppose!).

I wonder how long this petrol shortage is going to last.

Blummin' Big Brunch...

To reward ourselves for not going completely mad from spending a week cooped up inside our apartment, we got the bus down to Putnam's and had ourselves a some brunch...

The one good thing about the subways not working is that we're getting to spend more time visiting the places on Myrtle Avenue that we always forget about. Putnam's do mighty fine sausages!

Queues, Queues, Queues...

This morning we witnessed one of the huge queues for petrol...

The queue was at least 4 blocks away from the nearest petrol station and looked like it went down the road for at least another 3 blocks from where we were. It was crazy.

The odd thing is that there are reports of people driving 50 miles to get petrol, but by the time they've filled up they've wasted 100 miles worth of petrol anyway...? It doesn't quite make sense to me.

I was wondering where the buses get all their petrol from - I'm assuming they have their own private supply at the bus depots or something. I'm surprised there haven't been more cases of people syphoning petrol from the bus depots or from the taxi depots (I think they have their own supplies too).

Good Old New York...

Since being back from my walk, more and more areas of Manhattan have started to get their power back (including our studio). I think they're saying that by midday tomorrow nearly all power will be back on (although there are also reports that some areas of Manhattan will have to wait until mid-November?!).

There's also been another piece of big news - the New York Marathon's been cancelled! There was a lost of debating over whether it should happen or not, some said that it would be good to lift people's spirits and raise money etc. Then there were those who were concerned that if the police were at the marathon, who was out helping the victims of Sandy.

The other major concern was that the Marathon would be starting in Staten Island, and Staten Island has been really severely damaged, they have the highest death toll of all the 5-Boroughs and there are still seriously flooded and have no power. So it would seem a bit perverse to have huge generators over there to power the Marathon events, but not help those without any power.

So - it's been cancelled - which seems to be the right choice. There will be thousand and thousands of disappointed people, many of which have probably flown over to New York especially for the marathon, but in the grand scheme of things there are people with bigger problems in New York.

The great thing to come out of it is that all the supplies that would have been used for the marathon, all the water, all the energy drinks, all the foil blankets and stuff, they're all going to be donated to the people who need them the most.

Also, the people who had booked hotel rooms for the marathon weekend are donating their rooms to people who can't go back to their own homes.

It really is all very strange being out here with all this going on, each day (or each hour really) hearing new stories, new developments on things that are happening around the East Coast - and on top of all that there's the election in 4 days... what a time to be living in America!