They arrived

Anne Marie and Jenny arrived in the middle of our Saturday night pizzas. We actually knew they were coming cos it was from Australia and despite Anne Marie's capacity to drop in at short notice this wasn't one of those times.
We had a small gathering for pizzas- Sue, Jude, Martha and Annie and were enjoying the chat and conversation.
Anne Marie and Jenny had traveled for about 26 hours and basically pulled up chair at the table we poured a champagne and the conversation and pizzas continued.
As it is Jenny's first trip back to NYC- the original trip 20 years ago was fraught not the least by bad weather and sick toddlers. So we were in the mood to ensure that she had a far more enjoyable experience this time round. They are here for 10 days and have theatre and other delights planned.
Sue suggested that we all go to Ellen's Stardust Diner on the corner of 50th St. It was such a lovely warm night and a great way to launch the NYC holiday. This seemingly strange photo of Anne Marie is because she is holding her phone out for Barry to hear in Australia that she is in NYC and the guy singing is singing Barry's favourite song! The guy started singing Anne Marie said "That's Barry's favourite song I'll ring him" what else do you do when you've been in NYC for an hour and someone starts singing a song you like!

Changes to Broadway

During the weekend changes were made to traffic on Broadway- in fact there is to be no traffic on Broadway between 47th Street and 42nd St except for traffic on the cross streets. So in effect it is a pedestrian mall.
On my way to work the media was out interviewing cabbies and anyone stopped at the traffic lights to see what they thought. One report ...here
I need more time to check it out but the little folding chairs in the middle of the road seemed a tad odd but guess they are for use until there is other seating and more elaborate arrangements.

Up on the roof!

Our night to celebrate Giz's end of course went really well.
We prepared cheese and nibbly things in our apartment and snacked and chatted until most people arrived and then people grabbed their glass and drinks and a plate of something and we went up on the roof. We were a tad impressed by Gabrielle's and Anne's shoes...
Sue stayed at the apartment finishing the pizza preparation and answered the door to any one who arrived after we left. Martha was the only one at that stage and as she didn't know the building Sue brought her upstairs. It was a lovely evening to be outside as it was warm enough but not too hot. We had a table large enough for all of us (10- eventually 12) to sit around. There were 3 Americans in the end and lots of Australian chatter and laughter.
The time seemed to really fly and eventually we had to leave the roof as the building guys wanted to lock it up. There were some other people from the building up on the roof too- one group was a group of about 5 guys who only had pop corn to eat so I gave them our left over pizza which they wolfed down- actually only three slices but they enjoyed it.We went back to the apartment and sat around chatting and eventually everyone drifted away at about 10:30. A lovely evening to celebrate Giz's end of her painting course. We went to her exhibition opening a few weeks ago and she is now in the process of packing up all her things and heading back to Australia.

Light on the way to work

I have been slack of late not taking photos each day but on the way to work the light shining on the building really caught my eye so in true philosophical fashion I stopped and made the most of the moment!

On the train

On the train this morning there was a really amazing little boy (about 4 years old) and his mum.
He was next to me and like all little kids had no awareness of space ..... he was relaxed and leaning up against me during his conversation with his mum.

He and she were sharing his book which was a book of the fifty states of the US. She was reading about Rhode Island ...... reading him information about the capital and asking him questions. He was really genuinely excited when she read one particular thing about Rhode Island.


Then he asked her to try and trick him so she was asking the names of capitals of different states, their emblems, what the state is famous for etc etc. A few times she said "are you sure isn't it such and such" and he'd say no and find the pages in the book and point out her mistake. She was the one who was tricked. One time he said the capital of Oklahoma is Oklahoma City and she looked at him as if to say are you sure... he just flipped the book open and read the information to prove he was right!

She eventually said I can't think of any more states and he said what about Alabama and Alaska. He truly was amazing.

My concern is what is going to happen to the poor darling once he goes to school and they insist on teaching him his colours and the alphabet.

Dog in a cart

If you look carefully you'll see the little white, fluffy head peeking out of the shopping cart. I had struggled up the subway steps behind this person who was struggling up the steps with the cart. My thoughts were other than kind. Then when she was settled further down the platform I noticed what it was she was packing in her cart.... her little dog! It was a quick snap at a distance!

Sunday at home

Having had a day on Friday completely swapped around I spent the afternoon doing a page in my art journal. While we were flying back from Las Vegas I had a brilliant idea (well brilliant for me) I hadn't really found my motif for the art journal pages from my class with Dina earlier this year and my brilliant idea was to use a snow dome shape given that I have collected 100's of them . So on the plane I spent some time drawing a shape that I could use. The drawing was/ is very simple so how long can one take to draw it- with my artistic skills a very long time. However I had the outline and used it on Friday to create my first Art Journal page using the snow dome motif. I also used some of the confetti from Elton John's concert in Vegas. I felt quite inspired by the end result so yesterday spent time working on another page which I quite like but am not sure what to write on it so will wait until the right phrase enters my stratosphere so to speak and will write. I have a couple of pages in the journal that are incomplete and perhaps I'll be able to do something on them soonish.
The final page I completed this afternoon and I'm really pleased with the lightness of it and its simplicity. I wanted to put the simple thought of "Savouring the moment" because of what occurred for me this morning.
I wrote my "Celia's Sunday Soiree" entry for this week in which I was pondering about the Pete Seeger concert we went to last Sunday evening. I decided not to write a great long review of the concert but to record what I was thinking at the time which was....... how I came to be so familiar with Pete Seeger's songs. Having written about a high school friend I decided to see if I could find out anything about her... the ever reliable Google.
Once a few years ago when I was at the ATM in Footscray a woman was waiting behind me and when I turned to leave I thought "That looks like Beth". I haven't seen her since she left high school - a high school on the other side of Melbourne so the likelihood of it being her was quite slim. Needless to say I didn't say anything to this person who may have been my friend from years ago. When we were at school together she was smart and funny and generous. But one goes ones separate ways.
So in my google search I tried to find her and found that she was part of a social service organization that does great work for the homeless. She wasn't just part of it she was the CEO. I found the information on one page then checked out another report which was for last year in which there was an obituary for her. What a silly person I was not to have done something more proactive earlier and so my art journal page to "savour the moment" and make connections with those who matter to me.

Art and Artist

It was a busy week and the night at Giz's exhibition couldn't have been at a worse time really in terms of Sue's work but I am so glad we went because she was so pleased that we made the effort and the work itself was great to see...... and bright.
The views from our windows painted and so large are really interesting. Some I wasn't too sure about but on th whole I really liked most of them.
Giz did warn me that there may not be much of me in the painting but there was my knee and hand and the shadow of my head on the newspaper. Talk about being self-centred!


So can we afford to buy one? Hmmmmm.