anyresemblance

Dreams come true

I met these two last week when I was walking Charlie.  The one at the front is called Apple and loves dogs.  The cop told me she thinks he actually is a dog.  Charlie was really not quite sure about that giant head coming down to sniff him but he stood his ground.  I asked her if the NY mounted police ever held an open day and she told me to just knock on the stable door and come by any time.

On parade

We had a splendid Thanksgiving or more precisely 4 days off work.  We did observe the tradition of watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade.  My pal lives in an apartment directly on the route and invited us and a few other people around for a viewing and snacks.  We walked over and were congratulating ourselves until we got to the slew of crowds on 57th street but some judicious elbowing and coming throughs finally got us to the other side where some extra politeness got us in via the back entrance to their building.  As it turned out the view was fantastic - almost on eye height with the balloons.  I found the whole thing quite charming especially the b list celebrities waving from cornucopia floats, the marching bands and the diligent men following behind the police horses to pick up the manure.

The story arc

A bearded white man in his thirties got on the subway last night.  "I am not going to tell you a long story" he began.  The whole carriage shuddered and desperately tried to avoid eye contact. "I came here from Santa Monica, California to take up the job as an executive chef at one of the Upper West Side's best French restaurants." I am already suspicious.  The job falls through, he's already committed on a lease he can't really afford, he gets into litigation, his fiancé is in a women's shelter, he had to leave the men's shelter as there were too many drugs and a lot of violence.  He asks for money, prayers, food or our subway cards.  A middle aged woman and her  daughter are sitting close to him.  The woman is obviously a tourist as she talks to him and is wearing flat open sandals and a woollen hat when it is 4 degrees outside.  She asks him "why can't you just go back to Santa Monica".  I am dying to hear the answer but now they are talking quietly together.

Why did I assume reasonably fluency equated untruth?  The guy must have told his story 100 times that day as he moved from carriage to carriage so no wonder he could carry the story arc.  But maybe he needs to anticipate the objections and help people like me overcome their scepticism?  Anyway, I had $10 left on my subway card and gave him that.  If nothing else, he had to endure the humiliation of laying himself bare in front of strangers.

Slaylist

We watch a LOT of television.  We finished This is Us which we started when ganching was staying with us and love, love it.  It's so hard to describe the tiny moments of pleasure, the amazing nuanced performances and the wonderful human foibles on display.  We just finished The Good Place which is in tiny 20 minute chunks and easy to watch an episode while waiting for something to cook.  We're also almost finished Stranger Things which I adore but sometimes it is so full of tension that we can only watch one episode at a time.  I am delighted to discover that Spotify has themed playlists to accompany it so I am listening to Nancy's Slaylist while I do my Monday morning culling of emails.

Last night I walked the pup over to 5th avenue.  It was around 5pm so a bit tricky around Radio City as there were enormous lines to get in to the Rockettes.  The tree is up in front of Rockefeller Plaza but surrounded by scaffolding in readiness for decoration.  NYC is at its best decorated for the holidays.

There was a flurry of snow this morning at 6.30am.  So excited!

Not Da Vinci

I often work at home on Fridays but am glad I went to the office as a) it was deserted and peaceful but b) the big boss unexpectedly stopped by and was gladdened to see me.  She was about to attend a meeting which she did not expect to go well so I got her water, made sure she had lunch and was an all round carer.  Although she is nothing like my delightful and charismatic boss of old, she has been very kind to me and told me a couple of weeks ago, in relation to my child's illness, "You can only be as happy as your unhappiest child."  S asked me "have you become her PA now?" I think I would make an excellent PA, it's just a shame that the pay is so rubbish.

S and I are planning a road trip.  After some thought we have decided not to do Montreal for Thanksgiving but to head south.  We'll probably overnight in Baltimore and then head to Richmond, Virginia for the weekend.  I'm excited about getting on the road.

This weekend I have a list of chores and some fun outings.  On the list is sorting out Christmas shopping so I can get things in the post.  The city is starting to look delightfully wintery, the ice rink is in front of Rockefeller Plaza.  Amie and I walked past there the other day on our abortive trip to see the $450million Da Vinci at Christies.

 

Mostly good

Had a 7/8 good, 1/8 annoying day yesterday.  First off, Australia got its act together and overwhelmingly voted for marriage equality and for once we got the job done right.  Then Australia made it to the World Cup.  I have little interest in football but the current captain , Mile Jedinak, plays for Crystal Palace who were my grandad's team and has a magnificent beard

Balance that against a tedious day a work and some breathtakingly bad leadership behaviour which I am still seething about but then take a look at how nice these autumn plantings are.  Focused on being kind and thoughtful today.

Dogging it

No, not another pup post.  When I was in secondary school in Lanarkshire, dogging it was playing truant.  

I worked from home yesterday as planned but I got a text message from my old friend from grad school, A, who was on a train to Manhattan to see the Louise Bourgoise exhibition.  We'd had an aborted plan to meet a couple of months ago when I was too paralyzed to leave the apartment and then she had sent me all sorts of suggestions on how I could come and stay with her and I was just feeling more and more in the pit of not being able to do anything so I didn't really reply.  So when her text came in yesterday, I really didn't want to put her off again so I said I'd meet her at MOMA at 3pm and I did and I was so glad I did.  Anyway, we had 90 minutes together, did a rapid assessment of Louise, walked to Christies to try and see the last Da Vinci (but the line was closed to new people), walked up to 57th to a small gallery on top of a high rise where there was an exhibition of Kathe Kollwitz and Sue Coe which was startling and political.  Then I left her to walk back to the apartment listening to a conference call and I thought, "I really need to leave the house more".   

Not sponsored

Ha! as if I am the kind of blogger that gets sent product sponsorship. 

With the kid in London and a busy schedule, I tried out an app I kept seeing advertised, Wag.  Think of it like Uber for dogs where you can schedule an on demand walk.  They send you a free lock box you can leave a key in, or in my case, I leave it with the doorman and that's it.  The walker is pre-screened, there is a GPS tracking service where you can see where they go, they can send you in app videos or photos and mark where the dog, ahem, marks his territory and you get a report card after.  I've been happy with all the walkers so far and Charlie gets a big run.

Last night I ate salmon fishcakes with left over mash potato, some chili for spice, coriander and lime juice (sort of fashioned after Delia Smith ones) with salsa verde.   I took Charlie down for a late night round the block before bed and realized I had green stuff in my teeth from the salsa verde but reckon the handsome Brazilian boys in the lift were more interested in Charlie than my spinach-y teeth.

S gets home today, I'm working from home (bliss) and we have a cosy dinner planned.  

Daily bread

I've been so down in the dumps that I feel I have forgotten how to cook.  Last week, I wrote a list and ordered on line from wholefoods.  For all I whine about NYC, the ability to have anything delivered anywhere at anytime is amazing and I am sure I will miss it.  Anyway, our bags of groceries arrived within 2 hours and I made the best hummus I have ever made (recipe from Molly Yeoh, the trick being to add some water and whizz for way longer than you ever think necessary), little flat breads from Diana Henry and some spicy lamb mince and feta to go on top  as sort of Turkish pizzas, a delicious crunchy salad of cucumber, radish, parsley and lots of lemon juice. I also made a giant batch of bolognaise (I see the NYT version of the Marcella Hazan recipe is now exploding on social media but I learned that milk in the sauce thing from my friend Rose, who probably got it from Marcella 30 years ago).  By the way, my single best kitchen gadget is a mini food processor and I use it to chop onion, celery and carrot for the easiest mire poix for about a hundred things I cook from a Nigella tip from eons ago.  I also made the hummus in this.  I have a cuisinart one which has a strong engine and a sturdy blade and a bowl that can deal with being chucked in the dishwasher.  

It was a week of good dinners (and lunch leftovers) so with renewed optimism I ordered groceries again yesterday and am planning on:

• beef bourginon (to use up the very ordinary red wine I bought at the Tuscan castle in Napa)
• a spanakopita (I managed to order a giant tub of feta as weirdly, despite having grown up with imperial weights, I have lost my ability to conceive just how cheese a pound is)
• tray salmon with olives, cherry tomatoes, green beans and anchovies
• pasta with broccoli and sweet Italian sausage

I forgot to order bread so I made some.  I have had two disasters with wholemeal bread in this kitchen but I mixed in a little bit of white bread flour and made the mixture wetter and it seems to have been very successful so I am renewed in my optimism.  

Also, my boss was in town from California and she discovered an Italian deli within 10 meters of the office where you can buy excellent produce (including giant fresh made sandwiches for $6 including a bottle of water) and have none of the Wholefoods lines, so I feel very optimistic that the cooking star is rising.

Family ties

I am baffled by people who don't have much to do with their families.  I say that as a person who moved thousands of miles away from mine but I saw my parents just about every year until they passed away and am in constant WhatsApp and Facebook contact with my remaining siblings even though we live in 4 different countries.

My daughter is in London this weekend for a posh wedding and her aunt (my former sister in law) drove her up to Northamptonshire to see her grandfather.  She had not seen him in 8 years and he is in his nineties now.  His wife passed away last year and he is rapidly declining.  She said he cried when he saw her, stroked her hair, asked how her renegade sister was (such an accurate description) and hugged her close.  She learned so much of family stories in that 24 hours from him and her aunt.   I was so happy she reinforced that connection to him and her cousins and her aunt and uncle.

In other news, I have a shocking headache and spend most of the night throwing up.  I haven't had food poisoning for years but think this is what is was.  Thank heavens I did not pay for the expensive dinner that I suspect was behind it.  I also left my thick hat and good north face gloves in the uber and doubt I will ever see them again.

It is cold here (finally) but yesterday was a clear blue sky.  I had not realized there was a veterans parade and ended up walking 30 blocks home but I enjoyed the steps and listening to my audio book as I trudged.  I just finished listening to Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny which was very funny and touching on relationships and parenting.