8^th June

Very amused to read recently about a Miss America contestant – Miss Ohio, to be precise – who, when asked for a positive female role model, in real life, fiction, movies, chose Julia Roberts character in Pretty Woman…The journalist who wrote about this was more amazed by the fact that Miss Ohio couldn’t think of a more recent movie than this (1990!!) than by the fact that she chose a hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold who is rescued by a wealthy businessman as her best role model…

My friends Pauline and Barbara are having a wonderful three weeks in New York City.  Pauline has given me permission to use some of her emails to put on this blog, so I am going to dish them out, one at a time.

NYC #1

I have become more accepting of our bijou apartment, even though I spent a considerable amount of time poking a long metal curly pole called, apparently, a "snake" down the bath which would not empty and had water sitting in it all day following our morning showers. I called the owner who came around armed with two large containers of draino and another version of the "snake" and vague promises to call a plumber if it happens again.  The lounge is comfy and cosy and there is a huge whole food store almost next door which sells wonderful food.  It is absolutely enormous and covers a whole block and sells cooked food and salads as well as the raw ingredients for the making of same.  Plus there is a small park next door - the Sara Roosevelt Park, which always has young black men playing basketball and I find it endlessly fascinating sitting on a bench watching them, they are so skilled and athletic and handsome and they do say "yo bro".

Barbara and I just cannot understand the patois of the black community, no matter how hard we try.   And many people have great difficulty understanding us, not just the accent but also the lexicon.  For instance, in Barnes and Noble, America's first and biggest and now only book chain (following the demise of Borders) people looked at us blankly when we asked "is this the queue?"  "Q, Q, what do you mean Q?" said in tones of complete bewilderment, until some man in an upper-crusty way said" "They is speaking the proper Queen's English and queue means line.”   Oh.  And so on... Also, we just cannot figure out such things as how to order things, where to pay, what "line" to get into, etc.  And everyone talks and moves so fast.....

Yesterday we did manage to figure out how to buy a metro card so that we could travel on public transport.  Even though Manhattan is teeming with yellow taxis the traffic is constantly gridlocked and they would cost a fortune, so I would rather sit people watching in a bus than meter watching in a taxi.  We then walked around a tiny, tiny part of the vast Central Park, went to an enormously huge upmarket toyshop, the name of which I have forgotten, but it is famous, had a wee at The Plaza whilst pretending to be rich, then went on the open top tourist bus around Upper Manhattan.  That took hours.  Then we took another one around Midtown and Lower Manhattan, where we got off because that is where we live.   It was amazing, truly amazing.  The millions and millions and millions of people walking the streets, the buildings - the Met, the Guggenheim, the Empire State, the Chrysler etc etc.  I was gobsmacked.  The movies don't do it justice.  And the buildings in Park Avenue, where recently Jacki Onassis's one bedroom apartment sold for 22 million dollars.

New York is divided into a number of really distinct mini-cities, each with their own style, history and inhabitants.  We are in Soho, which is too cool for school.  I have spent some time walking the streets of Soho, Nolita and Little Italy.  The vibe is indescribable really.  Such funky shops, such beautiful things, so many cafes, bars, restaurants, little galleries and cool people.  You would all love it (crappy apartment notwithstanding).

Today I intend walking to Chinatown.  Barbara's knee is so sore that she is having a lay day, so I will go off on my own and try not to get lost.