Friday 20 September 2013

That haunting feeling

It's weird really. Sometimes you're sitting at home and then suddenly you feel it. From another room, from a doorway, from the corner of the room. It's uncomfortable. That weird feeling, that real sense that YOU. ARE. BEING. WATCHED. You're eyes start surveying the ground directly below you, is it a ghost? Is someone in the house? So you look up, your gaze is met by the murderous-looking, steely eyes of...

Paco. He does this so often I had to write about it. And this is the first time I've managed to get proof of it. He's really creepy sometimes. 



Sunday 15 September 2013

Off the beaten track

Either Hipster Dufus and I don't really listen to each other or it's the best thing about our relationship. That after almost eight years together we are still discovering new things about each other. My money is on the former... So we discovered that he doesn't mind hiking but that I actually love it, and just (and now this will make me sound stupid) didn't know what the name meant! I just assumed it meant climbing while I prefer more of the getting "lost" on a trail and feeling like you're exploring the woods.

As you know I always want to explore the city but whenever it's his turn to curate an exploration of New York he immediately gravitates to outside of Manhattan. This is a great balance really, by the time we leave we'll have fully explored the greater New York area. I had so much fun and like I said before, just because I went hiking doesn't mean I gave up on looking presentable! Who said you can't hike in pearls?


Saturday 7 September 2013

From the Bronx

So I realized that I never did tell you how long we were in the Bronx for. Now we're usually explorers. We love nothing more than going to cities and seeing what there is to offer. So far our weekends are still mostly taken up by choosing an area to go to explore. So on this fatal Saturday when we had nothing to do, we impulsively remembered that there was an authentic Italian area in the Bronx. Little Italy. This is where the good stuff is, the little stores with the in-store freshly made mozzarella. I couldn't wait. Then we got off the train. Now in London everything is by area, there are good ones and bad ones. In New York it's very much about streets. You can be on a really amazing street and if you turn right rather than left you suddenly find yourself in the crappiest place on earth. And we turned right.

From the get-go we knew we were in trouble. Immediately we were uncomfortable. It was everything about us. The way we walked, commanded the streets and dressed. Hipster Dufus couldn't have looked more preppy in bright summer shorts with a button up in a sea of below your bum jeans, attitude and swagger. I was holding a giant Lord & Taylor department store bag. Everything was made worse by the fact that the only map either of us had was on the iPhone. Every time he tried to get it out I'd shriek "please put your phone away!". Things got more tense when the map told us to walk down the roughest looking road in history. A cul-de-sac with a little click of imposing teens waiting at the end. "I'm not walking down there", "nah me either, I really need to look at my phone to see where we're going Ney". No matter how much I moaned I knew we were in trouble when I tried to hold Hipster Dufus' hand "you know what?" He started "I would really feel more comfortable if you didn't hold my hand right now". Wow, no Cheerios love here then! Who could blame him, after the fifth head had turned to look at us, we really didn't need more to call attention to ourselves. We struggled with the idea of going home, I really didn't want to be those pissy middle class idiots. But you know what, I wouldn't go and hang out in an estate in Brixton for fun so why should this be any different? When we saw another subway station, we looked at each other and it was mutual. Let's go home. This was 15 minutes later. 

Sunday 1 September 2013

The calm before the storm

When I disappear from social networking it may seem that I'm out and about doing some really interesting New York-y cool stuff. Fear not my friends, you are all still the most important things to me. My absence as usual is because something gets in the way. This time it was Hipster Dufus who took a week off work. As I've mentioned to a lot of you September to December is the busiest time in the calendar for him and so in prep we decided a break was much needed. We also felt that an actual holiday would be too much hassle and so opted for a stay-cation.

We started out with the best of intentions but in the end these two photos sum up our entire week. Trips to museums and lounging about at home. This picture in Central Park was simply because we wouldn't look as cute on the floor in the apartment! And so my adventures will continue next week when I'll be flying solo.