A new restaurant

On my walk on Sunday I happened upon a Japanese restaurant that I hadn't seen before- it was shut but I perused the menu and noticed in had nasu dengaku and okonomiyaki- what more could a little nippon-ophile want?

And so tonight I ventured forth and tried out some of my favourite dishes New York stle and the restaurant was very similar to many in my experience in Japan.

Perhaps I can introduce some of my friends to the fun that is Japanese dining that isn't sushi!

The waiting to get in may put them off but the wait as far as I was concerned was worth it!

Wedensday in the Bronx

Walking in the rain on the way to a school in the Bronx the change in the leaves really captured my attention.

Clutching my umbrella and groping for my camera I managed to take a shot down the "channel" which I hadn't noticed until last week but there it was looking gorgeous with leaves falling and the leaves almost filling the air.

I wanted to get the perfect shot of the leaves... the colours, the glistening rain and then my feet were there but in the end I decided I quite like the shot and it is vaguely in focus.

Friday's in Manhattan

Signs of Autumn

Signs of autumn- through the school fence at 117th Street

The curry night dinner at Annie's

The view down Broadway from Annie's on a rainy night

A walk

Walking home from the school in Harlem.

The sun shone brightly and it seemed the perfect opportunity to get a feel for the city in autumn.

Central Park is always a delight.

Friday's in Brooklyn

We traveled to Leonie's for a great night of home cooked Thai food.

The adventure included traveling on the N and fining our way to her lovely apartment.

The food and company was great and then we had the joy of the journey back to Manhattan on the N ....

One thing I don't miss about living in Bay Ridge is the long train journey to and from any event- the trip back home reinforced that.

Just loved the black and the shoes and colours.!

A day scrapbooking

It was a chance to get things done. I spent from early afternoon until a little after midnight with the wonderful crew at Manhattan Scapbooking Meetup.
The pages I worked on were the pages for "Stories from my mother's house" album

I worked on the embellishment lessons from Get it Scrapped and was really pleased with the results.

The garden and the outside of the house lent themselves to so great pages.

I am so glad I took loads of photos in July 2008.

A year ago

It seems difficult to believe that a year has gone by.

A night at the Opera

I knew last weekend that this was going to be a busy week. Having been to work and then to some training on using the interactive whiteboard Sue and I came home and straight to Hurley's for a quick tea. Cooking was beyond us as I also knew I had tickets for Aida. I wasn't too fussed about being on time or if need be leaving early. I wanted to pace myself and enjoy the evening as well as be capable of working the next day!

The St Malachy's church bells were ringing before I left the apartment. I caught the 104 bus up to the Lincoln Center and was seated in my seat before the auditorium lights made their ascent! The snowflake crystal chandeliers are truly lovely .

The production of Aida at the Met is splendid. The sets, the costumes the music in that glorious auditorium. It was a wonderful evening's entertainment.

I still struggle with the squat, rotundness of some of the singers- in this particular production there seemed to be more than the usual smattering of them.

Not all the entertainment for the evening was contained on the stage. At the first interval a man, seated about four rows in front and to my right, stood up and turned around to the people behind. It was as the stage curtain closed and the lights had yet to come on in the auditorium- he bent slightly and yelled at the person behind "Would you turn that thing off!" That got all of our attention. Turns out the guy behind had some electronic thing that kept beeping and annoying the "yell-er"- I just hope it wasn't a pace maker or life support system that the man wanted turned off!
At the first interval I walked out and looked at the refurbished fountain and the lovely view that is the Lincoln Center at night.

On my way back in to the theatre I passed an usher selling DVD's and a patron said to him "Are you getting your ties back?" The usher in an open necked shirt replied yes in the winter. I remarked to the usher that it was obviously an important aspect of the patron's visit to the opera.


The next act was splendid .... the synopsis doesn't prepare one for the lavishness of the production.

Tuesday tutors

It seems like a year ago but it was on January 18 that I decided I should volunteer for something within NYC and registered with NYCares. That was a tad fraught as my blog entry from them records. But I finally managed to be "trained" and now all this time later I have found a project that a) I could get in to and b) I wanted to do.

So tonight I toddled along to my first of a series of volunteering for tutoring. When I registered I hadn't realized it was for such a long period of time but this has worked out well for me (although I have to work next Tuesday at the time the tutoring is - a slight hiccup but easily overcome ie don't tutor and recommence the following week).
I found my way to the address and in to the building on 40th Street. It is actually a "homework" program and I ended up with a group of three children two boys in grade 2 and a girl in grade 1. We got to know each other a little and then got stuck in to getting their homework done and reading their take home books. Lovely kids- all with a bit of get up and go in them. The girl was a live wire minding everyone else's business but her own. A handful! The two boys were helping each other and interested in what they were doing. All were fascinated with my accent.
I had a better run than a couple of other tutors who asked in the meeting after the session

1. How do you get them to tell you their real name? Turns out this wondrous child when asked his name said all manner of things ranging through superheroes from Superman to Spiderman
2. How do you know what their homework is? One lovely child said they didn't have any and they didn't know what it was.
3. Will I always have 5 children in my group?
   

So my three ended up being pretty well the easiest to manage and get on with.

I left at 6:20ish feeling quite exhilarated by it all. Lovely to have conversations with and work with kids.

It's Monday

A great way to start a week with the opportunity to watch the full moon make it's way across the sky.Sitting in my usual breakfast spot (the couch in Sue's room) I saw the moon beginning to "peep out" from behind the Biltmore
It was eventually in full view and by the end of the week somewhere out of sight and waning I guess.

Happy Birthday Bridie- hard to beleive that you are now 30! Have a great special weekend.

Fall morning

After a day of sitting around in semi gloom due to the rain and clouds of yesterday seeing the sunlight this morning promted the desire to head out on a walk before breakfast.
Straight up Broadway to Central Park- it was such a lovely clear morning although beginning to become a little steamy. But that made it perfect for photos in the park.

The light filtering through the trees and the steamy haze of the damp warmed air- wonderful!

It was time to just stop and look and enjoy and try to capture the lovely shades of green and white light against the shadowy trunks.

I walked across the 59th St end of the park and in the process passed the Jose Marti statue which had a wreath at the base of the plinth.

"Those who have you O Liberty do not know you.

Those who do not have you should not speak of you but win you"

Jose Marti was a leader of the Cuban independence movement as well as an esteemed poet and writer. He is revered as a great national hero.

There was a lot of rain yesterday which hasn't completely dried up and left wonderful puddles and images of the city on the footpaths/pavements.


I walked back down 5th Avenue enjoying the clear footpaths and the opportunity to really see the displays in windows without the inconvenience of crowds! The Bergdorf Goodman windows have themes of silver and black and some great silver antiques.

Writing and pizzas

After a day of trying to get some writing done what better way to relax than to spend it with friends enjoying home made pizzas.


It was lovely to kick back relax and share the day's and week's events in the comfort of our our lounge room sampling some fine wine and great conversation.

Everybody be glad it Friday!

That's exactly how I was greeted by a very cheery man resting against the wall of a building on Manhattan Avenue in Harlem. It only 7:50am and I was walking to work from the subway. He was fairly accurate as I was quite happy it was Friday even if it was a short week.
I turned into 123rd Street and headed to the school and the crossing guard greeted me with "Thank God it's Friday!" It seemed to be a bit of theme happening here.
The day was full at work and pleasant. It is such a quick trip from there home which makes it even more pleasant.

It's is hard to believe that this time last week we were in...

... Quebec City. Such a lovely place.

Full of street musicians and....

and churches... these candles fascinated me in terms of colour, "light" and pattern.

The range of number of art installations and art works were around every corner and on ever street. The flowers were even part of an installation at the museum.


A lovely city.

Happy Birthday Michele- hope it was a great day!

In the morning light

The light this morning was amazing.
Clear and crisp and that lovely warm glow on building in NJ

All the way to the Statue of Liberty- you need to look really closely

.... it's that little thing glowing between the buildings

At the end of the month

How about this I made it to the end of the month and did a post for each day. Well yeah I did do a whole heap all at once but I have managed it.

Work is starting to kick in again and I spent the day working with someone who stated "My life on a thumb drive"Given the quantity of thumb drives she was plowing through trying to locate a document I think it summed it up pretty well!
Having only one photo for the day I liked the idea of looking at photos from "this time last year" and looking through the Japan photos found these ones illustrating the "sartorial splendor" of some of the Japanese your women.
I also managed to snap a photo on the train of this young woman who was dressed in "Sweet Lolita" style Sometimes we'd spot someone dressed in this way.

But the highlight of the day was our meal at the Okonomiyaki spot. It was such a great feed and a great experience.

And then on this day in 2007 Rose and Peter were here- gosh time is flying by.