bigapplecrumble

Last weekend started at another gig, but this time it featured a friend of mine from the town where I grew up who was doing a mini tour of New York’s Irish bars with her folk band. They did a great job, with a huge repertoire of songs – they even managed to get the regulars to join in, many of whom knew an impressive amount of the songs! I love when people from home pass through NYC so always let me know if you will be in town!

And then on Saturday morning, having seen the weather forecast for a beautiful day and needing to escape the city, Dara and I headed, as you may have guessed from the title of this post, into the woods! Harriman State Park to be precise.

We hopped on a bus, our bags stuffed with a picnic, suncream, sunglasses, some sketchy directions and several litres of water, and hopped off again at a town called Tuxedo. After a little difficulty locating the trailhead, we found a couple of other friendly hikers who clearly marked us out as amateurs (maybe we gave it away by setting off on a nine-mile hike clutching a bundle of papers and our iPhones rather than a map) and showed us the way. Trails in this part of the country are marked by a series of blobs on trees, e.g. follow the red dot on white blobs, then at the big rock, switch onto the red dash on white etc etc.

However, once we found the start, I’m proud to say we navigated with success, crossing treacherous rivers….

Climbing over boulders…

And of course, chilling by the lakes that we found along the way … Exhibit 1:

Lake Sebago

Exhibit 2 where we ate our lunch:

Lake Skenonto

There were only about 10 other hikers out all doing a variety of different trails so we all kept bumping into each other and advising on which trails to take and by the end of the day we felt we had made loads of new friends. It was also so peaceful – you could hardly hear a thing once you were in the woods! Such a great way to spend a day.

We got back to the town a bit early for our bus back to the city so we celebrated our success with a couple of beers at the town’s one bar, which just happened to be playing country music, making us very excited for our upcoming trip to Nashville!!

Happy Hikers!

Sunday was another beautiful day so after a quick brunch at Uva (I know I went there last week but there was so much on the menu I wanted to try), I headed down to Central Park with my friend Anastasia to lie on the grass and read in the sun. We also took a detour to the blossom trees which were showing off their beauty in the sun – I love this time of year!

And then you’ll never guess where I ended up on Tuesday evening – I would never have guessed this either. A colleague of mine had a spare ticket to a benefit being hosted by the Archaeological Institute of America called “Saving Ancient Places” and asked if I would like to go along. Never one to turn down an opportunity, of course I said yes. It was a black tie affair so we donned our glad rags and set off down to the venue which was right on the river with a great view of the sunset. I’m sorry I didn’t take any photos so you’ll just have to use your imagination. As we sipped on champagne and admired the view, we saw plenty of archaeologists in the crowd but also many others who had just taken an interest in archaeology and the need to protect history, particularly in light of the events taking place in the Middle East. We took our seats for dinner which was themed around traditional ingredients of the Mayans, the Romans and the other ancient civilisations. We feasted on octopus ceviche, duck papusa with cherry mole, filet mignon with figs and gorgonzola and a Cassata di Oplontis for dessert, a traditional honey-based dish (in Pompeii I think!), before an auction started. This was the first time I have ever had an auction paddle so I was very excited, although sadly the bidding quickly went out of my price range….

I’ll try to get on a more regular blogging schedule again but check back again soon for this weekend’s adventures (hint: it includes my new favourite place in NYC:  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrh8qDdvBhNZpFehMUNDm8A) and my upcoming birthday celebrations!

What a difference a few weeks can make – New York has gone from being snowy and miserable into a sunshine-filled spring! I started my first weekend back at my friend Dara’s brother’s gig (Michael Blume – check him out on Youtube – he’s really good!) at Rockwood Music Hall which is a great place for free live music in the city.

We decided to pretend we lived in Gossip Girl on Saturday morning and headed for brunch on the Upper East Side to a restaurant/wine bar called Uva whose website just does not do it justice. Cute rustic decor, a buzzing but not crazy atmosphere (I snapped the photo below when that table had just left to steal decor ideas for my future home), great frittatas and then a stroll in Central Park to make you feel wholesome on a Saturday morning.

Sunday morning was even more virtuous as Dara and I had signed up to the run the four-mile, hilly inner loop of Central Park with the City Parks Foundation. My alarm went off at 6.45am, and I sleepily dragged myself onto the balcony to see the sun was shining ahead of a beautiful day. I had a bit of time to kill before it started so I wandered down to Bethesda fountain and enjoyed a few moments of peace before heading to join the 9,000 others in this race. Pretty proud of my photography skills below…

I’m proud to say I ran the whole thing without stopped, considering I haven’t run outside since about October, and it was great to be outdoors again after a long, cooped up winter. The early start even meant I managed to get showered and dressed before church to watch my friend Cynthia get confirmed at St Bart’s – all before lunchtime! I spent the rest of the afternoon revising CFA on the lawn on my roof – being up in the clouds definitely helps to take the edge off studying! (Also check out the new banner picture – a panorama from the roof!)

People seem to be coming out of hibernation now the weather has turned, meaning the city has a lot more buzz. This always makes me want to go out and about so I set about trying a few more restaurants. My friend Alex and I tried out Cookshop which prides itself on sourcing everything locally and in season. To start, I had my first taste of devilled eggs (below) – basically boiled eggs with toppings – a Southern Staple:

We shared a pizza and a steak for main but the standout was dessert: “Apple Crisp Galette – flaky pastry, local apples, oat crisp topping, served warm with buttermilk vanilla ice cream” – bet that makes you hungry just reading it!

Cynthia and I went to Bistango on Wednesday, a really nice Italian near where I used to live and had a great time catching up. Dessert was once again my favourite part – a classic key lime pie! Maybe I have a sweeter tooth than I thought….

I can’t wait to tell you about what I got up to today (hint: it invokes two lakes and lots of incline) but you’ll have to wait until the next post! Have a great weekend!

As the winter drew to an end here in New York, I was ready for a much-needed vacation so I hopped on a plane at JFK, London-bound. I was excited to spend a few days there without the stress that comes with going home for Christmas when everything is crazy-busy and I made the most of the time to catch up with friends and family.

First stop was Champor-Champor, a Thai-Malay restaurant, with my friend, Sophie. We started with a delicious but really spicy papaya-tofu salad which had both our mouths on fire for about 20 minutes, followed by (luckily) less spicy main dishes which were still great – I had a sizzling steak dish and Sophie had edamame dumplings.  

I still struggle to hold back my inner tourist now I live in NYC so Sophie indulged me and we walked off our dinner via Tower Bridge which was all lit up and looking pretty awesome…

The next day was even more touristy, starting with a spot of afternoon tea. The scones (and pink champagne) were definitely the best part but I’m ashamed to say we got so full we barely made a dent in the cakes (Note to self: must train weekly to improve afternoon tea-eating stamina so I can devour it all next time – I hear Berdorf’s in NYC has a good one):

We walked off our afternoon tea by climbing the 528 steps to the top of St Paul’s Cathedral and although the sun failed to come out for us, I have no complaints about the view! London, you still have my heart, even if it’s temporarily based in NYC (New York, pretend you didn’t hear that – there’s still plenty of time for adventures with you too).

Brunch at Somerset House with some of the girls was Sunday’s activity where we enjoyed catching up over every different kind of eggs under the sun:

And then enjoyed the “Beard” exhibition afterwards – is it me or do 50% of the population of London look like this at the moment?

A great weekend in London but I also wanted to guarantee seeing the sun so me, my Mum and my sister hopped on a plane to Barcelona for a few days away. We stayed in an air BNB which was actually great and enjoyed a leisurely few days of good food, wine and sunshine (although I think we slightly overdosed on Patatas Bravas)! Here are a couple of highlights:

Me and Lulu (briefly) braving the sea at Barceloneta beach:

The outdoor escalator on our way up to Park Guell (if only they had had one of these at St Paul’s…)

We were rewarded with this view at the top:

Not sure it was quite warm enough for bare legs…

Walking around the Gothic Quarter:

All too soon we were back and it was time for Easter celebrations. I decided to bring a bit of America to our celebrations and whipped up an Easter-themed Key Lime Pie which was a roaring success. Don’t worry, we did still have hot cross buns!

And on my last day the sun did finally come out in London, showcasing the blossom in all its glory!

Bye England, you were awesome!

I have survived a slightly jet-lagged week in NYC and have been promised that the temperature and weather are onwards and upwards from here on out so watch this space for more fun activities in the sun!

Well, I’d like to be able to start this post saying the winter feels far behind us but sadly it seems I spoke too soon in my last post as New York saw in the first day of Spring with, you guessed it, 2 inches of snow…

After all the progress we had made with the snow starting to melt, everything was once again blanketed in white. I’ve been desperate to get back outside again and want to see signs of summer on its way so I had to take matters into my own hands.

This meant a trip to the New York Botanical Gardens. I stopped off in Macy’s on the way which was starting its annual “Art In Bloom” show and has filled the entire shop with flowers… You just have to forget what’s outside and enjoy the burst of colour:

Then, the girls and I hopped on a train to the Bronx and strolled along the lantern-lit path to the glasshouses which held the Botanical Garden “Orchid Chandeliers” exhibition.

We arrived at the glass house as the sun was going down and stopped for a quick photo.

We headed in and, glasses of prosecco in hand, were completely surrounded by a canopy of orchids. Photos can’t really capture how spectacular it was but we tried out best.

The main event:

Under the biggest chandelier of all (pictured above):

A beautiful exhibition! Not quite ready for the evening to end, we took the secret lift in Grand Central to The Campbell Apartment – a speakeasy-esque bar with old-fashioned cocktails and live jazz! It has a very relaxed atmosphere where you feel like you have gone back in time to another era and much calmer on a weekend when you don’t have the after-work rush.

Today was warmer (around 3 degrees C and very sunny) so I decided to test out the sun beds on the roof deck (if you had experienced how cold it has been here, you would be sunbathing in 3 degree weather too!). Yes, that is the Freedom tower you can see in the distance. I am looking forward to spending some more time up here over the next few months!

I took a stroll to the shops and captured this typical New York sight in the sunshine – iconic yellow taxis, a food stand, St Patrick’s Cathedral and skyscrapers!

Have a great week! I’m heading back to the UK for a little holiday soon so the next post might feature fewer yellow taxis and more red buses!

“When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death,
And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again”

– C.S.Lewis – The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

It feels like we have been living in Narnia and we are slowly moving out of winter into spring at last here in New York. The temperature has been hovering around a balmy 7 degrees C over the past few days (it’s all about perspective) and there is optimism in the air! There is still snow on the ground but my dreams of seeing grass and ground that isn’t white don’t seem so far-fetched anymore!

The big news since last time is that I have moved apartment and I now live in the heart of Times Square. It wasn’t exactly my first choice of location but it does have a roof terrace which is definitely a redeeming feature! It was a beautiful sunny day when I moved in so I headed straight up to take a few snaps! I’ll definitely be having the odd glass of Pimms up there when summer rolls around…

The next day could not have been more different but I’ve been promised there will be no more snow from now on!

I enjoyed a couple more restaurant week dinners including the Stanton Social where I had chicken n’ waffles (had always wanted to try this – it’s an odd, but surprisingly good, combination) but my favourite was dessert…. we shared a s’mores panna cotta (which tasted exactly like toasted marshmallows!) and a Guinness pudding with Baileys ice cream and caramel sauce- what more could you ask for?

Speaking of desserts, Magnolia bakery is just around the corner from my new place – I can’t decide if this is an amazing or a very dangerous thing… cake for breakfast, anyone?

I may also have indulged in some macaroons from my favourite macaroon shop earlier this week (La mason du macaron) because everyone sometimes needs a macaroon or two to get them through Tuesday (the green one is key lime pie!). Hopefully it gets warm enough for me to try the Godiva soft serve chocolate ice cream I keep seeing in the window of the shop in the near future!

I realise this post has been quite dessert-heavy so I’ll leave you with a bit of culture. I took a trip to the Morgan Library and Museum last weekend which has Pierpont Morgan’s library as well as other artefacts and a great exhibition on Lincoln. Here are a couple of highlights:

The rotunda ceiling:

And the library which, even if you don’t like books, is pretty spectacular:

It even had some classics like Tom Thumb, the first fairytale printed in English:

On that note, did anyone get excited when they saw Disney is releasing Frozen 2? Just me?  Well, you should be! Have a great week!

I’m proud to say I got told today at work how well I was coping with the US winter. In their words, “this winter’s been pretty brutal and you haven’t complained once!” We’ll see if I can keep that up if this lasts through March though… Last week, we saw just how brutal winter could be as the temperatures dipped to -17 degrees C (and back there again today!) Here’s the proof if you don’t believe me: -24 degrees with wind chill! Brrrrr! (P.S. if you’re not sure where the title quote came from, you need to go and watch Frozen, right now!)

Nevertheless, restaurant week is restaurant week so Cynthia and I braved the cold for a $38 three course dinner at Sushi Samba in the West Village. We had a great time catching up over wine and sushi, but our favourite part was definitely dessert – banana cake with rum ice cream and caramel!

My dad was in town over the weekend so we went to see Cabaret on Broadway (one step closer to learning more broadway songs for my next trip to Marie’s Crisis Cafe!) It starred Alan Cumming, who was amazing as the host, and also Sienna Miller so quite a famous cast in a theatre designed to look like the original “Kit Kat Klub” where the show is set!

I started out the weekend by making some new friends, but watch out! They can be a bit frosty at first…

And then the real snow came down… This is exactly what you would describe as museum weather, so after a hearty breakfast of oeufs en cocotte, it was up to the Guggenheim which lends itself to arty photos – never been so grateful for my Russian hat!

The art itself, however, left something to be desired so it was on to Central Park which had once again transformed into a deserted winter wonderland.

We’re standing next to the frozen reservoir in the picture below, with an almost non-existent view of the New York skyline across from it:

Now, if you ever come to New York and want to see a real piece of “old New York”, I have the place for you. The 21 club (a former speakeasy during the Prohibition) has been frequented by New York’s rich and famous for years, ranging from Frank Sinatra, to most of America’s Presidents, to Charlie Sheen in the film “Wall Street”. The ceiling is covered in donated memorabilia (apparently you have to be asked to donate) and along the entrance are about 30 iconic jockey statues. The service is fantastic and they insist upon formal dress so it makes for a very elegant dining experience, slightly contrasted with the ceiling, which even features a model “Ryanair” concorde…

Of course, I can’t say all of this without a mention of the food… I couldn’t resist the duck with a glass of Malbec (of course!) and then for dessert, the special was a giant raspberry chocolate soufflé which was incredible! I would definitely recommend this place for a special occasion.

And finally, I couldn’t let the weekend go by without celebrating Chinese New Year – the year of the sheep/goat/ram (this is the same as the year I was born so we know it will be a good year!) As temperatures moved above freezing for the first time in weeks, I waded through the slush (the downside of the temperature rising) to Chinatown to watch the parade – a burst of colour during a cold (and seemingly never-ending) February!

Gong Hey Fat Choy!

My love affair with New York continues but as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder so it was time to take a little time apart as I jetted off (took the train) to Washington DC last weekend. I went with my friend Dara and a couple of her friends for a weekend of cultural (and not so cultural) activities.

It started, as all good weekends do, with cwoffee and heart-shaped Valentine’s doughnuts from Dunkin’ Doughnuts’ (it seems America has changed me…). The temperature has plummeted over the past few days so we headed to the place where it’s summer all year round – the Botanical Gardens! Someone should definitely consider opening up a spa here…

I found my ideal chandelier…

Refreshed, we headed to the museum of American History – DC is the land of museums after all! We decided to do a tour which started with everyone saying where they were from – I quickly regretted saying London when our tour guide said “I’ll go easy on the revolution against the British then”. The rest of the tour continued with the odd pointed comment like “this is the cannonball that the British fired which sunk our ships” (see below) or “this is the tax the British used to steal our money…” – it was all done in good humour but I certainly got a few suspicious looks from the other participants.

I also enjoyed the Julia Child exhibition, especially this advert although I’m sure it would cause uproar if published today…

Of course, we weren’t going to let Valentine’s Day go unmarked so we bundled up (see below) and headed out into the snow to a table booked for 5 at Georgetown’s most romantic restaurant.

It was a shame they held back on Valentine’s decorations… you could barely even tell what the occasion was…

After charming the waiter into giving us all Valentine’s monkey toys with our dessert, we continued our night with Karaoke and a dive bar where the rum came in plastic mustard bottles, but who were we to complain…

It was straight to brunch (where else?) the next morning where we devoured red velvet pancakes, scrambled eggs, mac and cheese and all the other brunch delights, accompanied by our monkeys of course!

With temperatures hovering around -5 degrees C and being museum-ed out from the day before, we just went to the cinema in the afternoon (I’m sure you can guess what we saw, and no, it’s not worth seeing) and then had a final farewell brunch on Monday morning (thank you, Presidents’ Day!) of salmon tacos, a healthier contrast to the rest of the weekend!

Have a great rest of the week!

To sing “the weather outside is frightful” on Monday would have been an understatement. CJ and I got an idea of what a true New York winter could be like. Snow, sleet and freezing rain came at us sideways as we slipped and slided along the icy sidewalks. However, determined not to let this stop our fun, we headed down to the East Village to go to the Tenement Museum, which documents how the many immigrants lived when they first came to New York. It was really interesting as so many “Americans” have origins elsewhere and it’s hard to imagine that as late as the early 1900s, their ancestors would have arrived from elsewhere to start a life here. The tour we took covered an Irish family and how they would have lived when they first arrived. You weren’t allowed to take pictures but the encouraged us to take them off their website so I’m taking them up on the offer!

http://www.tenement.org/media.php

Ready for lunch, we headed to Katz’ Deli, from that scene in Where Harry Met Sally, for an indulgent lunch, well deserved after battling through the snow. It’s a fun atmosphere, surrounded by neon signs and memorabilia, with an impressive collection of famous people who have eaten there! CJ went for a chilli dog (better eaten there than off a street cart!) and I had the classic smoked salmon bagel – Yum! And yes, we even made a dent in the pile of pickles!

We had a relaxing afternoon with a bit of shopping before heading out to meet my friend Alex for dinner at Murray’s cheese bar (the place with that cheese fondue if you remember from a few weeks ago). You’ve forgotten? Ok then, here it is again…

There’s a bar I had been meaning to try for a while down in that area so we slipped our way up the road after dinner and arrived at Marie’s Crisis Cafe. It’s a piano bar with a twist – the only songs you can request are broadway show tunes. Everyone stands around the piano and sings along – there are clearly some regulars who knew every song and harmonies while CJ and I could join in about every 4th song… looks like I will need to go see a few more broadway shows while I’m here to build up my knowledge. The pianist had a great sense of humour and even mimed cutting his hair during “I dreamed a dream” from Les Mis (played when some French guests asked for “something French!”). Only in New York could a bar like that exist – another reason I love this city!

On Tuesday, the sun showed its face again, much to our excitement! We had a farewell breakfast at Penelope’s, this time with pancakes and a chorizo scrambled egg croissant – it just gets better and better!

And then it was up to Central Park to work off our breakfast and play in the snow! Truly a winter wonderland…

“Do you want to build a snowman?” came into our heads, and it turned out we did… (we had to be creative with the accessories…)

And we stumbled across a real life gingerbread cottage complete with icicles…

We warmed up in the Natural History Museum, marvelling at their amazing collection of stuffed animals and looking up in wonder at the life-sized blue whale suspended from the ceiling, and then went to somewhere where you can get a bit more up close and personal with the animals… Fao Schwarz, the oldest toy store in the US.

CJ found her favourite… the Despicable Me quote, “It’s so fluffy I’m gonna die”, comes to mind here… (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82utG7Q3G_k)

And I had a slightly nostalgic moment… too tempting to resist doing this…

All too soon, it was our final evening. I’m sure you’ll notice one tourist sight in particular has been absent from CJ’s visit so far – yep, you guessed it, last stop Times Square! CJ got the classic tourist shot before we headed to the theatre for Les Miserables.

We took advantage of Broadway week to get half price tickets and it was an amazing show although somewhat of an emotional roller coaster! The songs are still going round in my head 5 days later…

A fantastic four days – thanks for coming to visit me, CJ!

Last Friday, the London-New York flight transported something a little more exciting than usual in the form of my friend CJ who came to stay in the Big Apple for a few days! After a quick catch up over pizza and champagne (because why not?) on Friday night, I whisked her straight to Penelope’s on Saturday morning for the New York institution of brunch. Here we are peeping out through the glasses over my usual order of Nutella French Toast and Feta Scrambled Eggs:

Brunch at Penelope’s

Saturday was a beautiful, cold, crisp day so we wrapped up warm and headed out to make the most of it, taking in all the sights and snapping the occasional (ok, frequent) selfie. I’ll just include a few here….

Grand Central where we had fun at the whispering gallery

Excited to be in a snowy Central Park

Snow covered Literary Walk

American Girl World

And of course, what would a first day in New York be without the breath-taking views from Top of the Rock:

Sunset over New York

This just happened spontaneously, I promise….

Empire State of Mind

In the evening, we headed out for drinks with some of my friends, starting at Wine bar where the waiters will advise you on the slightly daunting wine list and serve you giant glasses accompanied by delicious tapas:

Winebar

And then it was on to one of New York’s famous “speakeasy bars”. This one was called Fig 19 – you walk along on the look out for a bouncer guarding what looks like an empty art gallery on the lower East side, go in and walk round a corner to find a coat check and then enter through an almost invisible white door on a white wall to find a cute prohibition-style bar serving beautiful cocktails. Here’s a sneaky snap I stole from Cynthia (yes that is a stuffed peacock by the mirror!)

Fig 19 Speakeasy

On Sunday morning, we revived ourselves with breakfast at Little Italy and then walked off our pastries facing freezing winds on the Brooklyn Bridge. We did manage to resist the temptation to join the masses and buy a selfie stick and stuck to classic shots instead.

Brooklyn Bridge

I’ve got to give CJ credit for this arty one of the Manhattan skyline:

Brooklyn Bridge

Having worked up an appetite again, we walked back up to Chinatown for some soup dumplings (literally dumplings filled with soup… I was as surprised about this as I’m sure you are!) We couldn’t help but notice these helpful shops along the way just outside the New York detention centre (if you can’t read it, it says “Bail Bonds: Any NYC Jail, Any NYC Bail”) – hopefully I’ll never need to use this new knowledge…

How to get out of jail

Our next stop was the Terra Blues bar on the lower East side for an awesome evening of blues music with Larry Johnson and the Pioneers. If you want an idea of what it was like, check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hrcXMq-9M0&spfreload=10

Larry Johnson at Terra Blues

I’ll leave it there for now – look out for part 2 coming soon! On a side note, looks like I’ll be staying here a bit longer so I’ll be able to show you New York in all four seasons!

A while ago, I devoted a lot of words to the delicious Mac’n’Cheese at Beecher’s Handmade Cheese, but this week I made a new discovery. Sorry Beecher’s, but you’ve been knocked off the top cheese restaurant spot by Murray’s Cheese bar in the West Village. The cold winter weather we’ve had recently just makes you feel like cosying up in an Alpine log cabin and eating cheese fondue, and while it’s no log cabin, Murray’s cheese bar certainly delivers on the fondue! There’s also a cute bar right across the street where charming bartenders will pour you a glass of bubbly while you wait for your table as an added bonus.

We went for the house cheese fondue, a goat’s cheese, fig and pistachio salad (the most amazing combo) and a cheese and meat plate:

A close up of the fondue… that pot was empty by the time we were done!

We had a couple of nights out with work on Thursday and Friday (Note to self: Tequila salt + dry winter hands = pain!), where I made it back to the Rum Bar which once again delivered with live music and great cocktails.

Saturday was a beautiful sunny day so I met up with my friend Cristina at the MOMA to browse some of the pop art and other collections, while also taking in the great views the museum has.

You wouldn’t believe it was -8 degrees outside! The sky always lifts my mood here!

They’ve finally taken the scaffolding off St Patrick’s Cathedral on 5th Avenue. Here it is looking pretty spectacular in the late afternoon sun as I walked home:

Yesterday, New York rained, and when it rains here, it pours all day. What better to do then than head up to Harlem for some soul food at Red Rooster. The chef, Marcus Samuelsson, has Swedish and Ethiopian origins and mixes the two cuisines with great success. Two of us went for the “Fried Yard Bird” (below – beats KFC any day!) Our other friend had catfish with grits (still not convinced on these but I like the idea of eating catfish) and Helga’s meatballs are another popular dish! Live music adds to the atmosphere and almost helps you to forget it’s raining outside!

All at a loose end for the afternoon, we googled rainy day activities in NYC and decided on bowling! We headed to the heart of Times Square which boasts a bowling centre with 50 lanes and 5 different themes. Our area was “Chinatown” and we bowled the afternoon away…

Some of us even turned out to be quite good … not that I’m boasting or anything… 😉

I went to Hillsong church on Sunday evening which has branches all over the world. It’s much more modern than the one I had been going to here and had a great talk on how your reality reflects your routine, so changes in life often don’t come until you change your behaviour. The question we were left with was: What habits will you break and what habits will you make in 2015? Definitely a good thing to thing about as we start a new year.

Today was Martin Luther King day so I had a nice relaxing day off and have just got back from an amazing meal at Gramercy Tavern with Dara. I went for duck confit (I can never resist duck when it is on the menu) which was so tender and they didn’t serve huge American portions so we actually had room for dessert too. Turns out coriander sauce with lime cheesecake actually works!

I’ll leave you with a Martin Luther King quote to mark the day: “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michaelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'”

Have a great week.