Back in NYC

A conversation with Michele has put new purpose back into my blogging. Well getting back into it is the idea. We were talking about a reminder of an event and she had looked back at her blog and realized that it was around this time that our new kitchen was installed in 2011. Then she had looked at other things happening over the past couple of years.
I've been thinking about that conversation and since thought that I really should get some retrospective use of my photos and my blog so hopefully I'll be able and inspired to continue to do this and get things up on here.

Some of my fellow commuters

Having returned from the USVI I've spent a couple of days writing for work and it was the day to go and present some of the writing to the school. This journey involved a trip on the J train which goes over the Williamsburg Bridge. Great views down the river on the Manhattan and the Brooklyn Bridges. All around me people were on their phones reading playing games and chatting to someone. I watched one woman who was holding her phone to her ear and I wasn't sure if someone was on the other end of the line as she was talking very quietly and chewing gum so it appeared she was talking constantly. This made me think (again) that some of those people one sees on the streets of NYC who are always talking to the voices they hear only need to hold a phone to their ear or even just have one of the blue tooth things in their ears to fit into the city people-scape.

I stopped off at 34th street and heading to the office from the N train. This bridge between buildings caught my eye. I've since looked it up and found the follwoing on the "Forgotten New York" website
Filigree and decoration like this would be deemed unnecessary, ostentatious and needlessly expensive in ensuing decades. Since 1925, when the overpass was built, inter-building bridges have gotten ever more utilitarian and boring.
But, when Gimbels’ Department Store, Macy’s great rival, decided to bridge West 32nd Street at its 6th Avenue flagship, they hired the Shreve and Lamb architectural firm. A few years later, the same firm designed the Empire State, the King of All Buildings.

I needed to get some pages printed off for the house purchase. A simple matter one would think however for who knows what reason the US still use feet and inches and also has paper sizes that no one else in the world uses. So having something printed on A4 was an issue. However I found via the web a  place where I just emailed my attachments and they printed them off on A4 paper (or perhaps they cut some paper down who knows).
I could have had the pages sent back to me but i chose to walk to 55th and Lex. A pleasant day to enjoy the sights and sounds of the city.
The difference in walking around the city during the working week is that there are so many more food trucks out offering a huge array of "cuisines". The "Halal Guys" have two carts on either side of the corner of 53rd and 6th. The queues are always long- apart from anything else i couldn't be bothered with the queue. I found a review/comment online about it....

The yellow umbrella is the food cart

 As it accompanies all places that are super hyped, I was bracing myself for some disappointment. It was a little cart at the corner of an intersection, and the line was short: only about half a block long. My friend got me a classic chicken and rice bowl, which was basically.. a bowl with chicken and rice. Nothing more nothing less, exactly what the name implies. After I got my bowl, I was instructed to a section devoted to the sauces. There was a thick white sauce, and a lighter red sauce. Do not be fooled by this "lighter" red sauce. It is one of the spiciest sauces I've ever put on anything ever.

I think the white sauce is where the money's at for this place. It is a mayonnaise-based sauce that is simply delicious with the food in your bowl. Most people drench their bowl in this sauce, and I followed suit. I have to admit, the seemingly mediocre bowl of chicken and rice suddenly tasted unique and delicious. However, I think the bottom line is that this place depends 100% on their white sauce, while their rice and chicken is nothing special. Still not a bad deal for like 6 bucks, and they give you a lot! Overall, these places never live up to their hype, but I think Halal Guys comes pretty close. It is a place you definitely want to check out if you're in the area.