Saturday and Sunday

Saturday was not a brilliant day. Sometimes being on my own, away from home, gets to me a bit and I wonder why I am putting myself through the effort involved.

I had a nice breakfast at a nearby ( 3 blocks) Le Pain Quotidien – a bakery/café chain that has spread since last year. I like their food. They have fruit salad, other healthy stuff as well as nice croissants and other similar things. OK coffee. And lunch stuff. I went back to my room, fiddled with photos and read more of my who-dun-it but could not silence the voice in my head that said ‘get up and do something ( i.e. useful)’  So I did. I thought I would eat at the first place that did not have a queue and then go into Central Park and have a wander over more parts that I have not been to.  The first 4 places had queues, the next was an Indian offering $10 talis . Peaceful and pleasant food. Mothers Day is a big deal here, and brunch is  normally a big deal, hence cafes this weekend are doubly busy. 

After wandering in Central Park I went down to 52^nd st to a shop I had read about..  The rain, which had stopped in the morning, had started again. Thunder, tropical downpour sort of rain. Many contenders for best wet T-shirt . I had my rain jacket, but ended up with wet shoes (again)

Then home for a Skype call with my daughter and her husband. 

Today, I have been back to normal.  My fairly regular morning wake-up ( for me ) / goodnight ( to him)  call helped. Then I went for coffee to one of the 2  very local cafes that I alternate between but have neglected over the past few weeks in favour of the other one. In part of the NY Times that I was reading there was an article about a writer’s preference for solo travelling. It was thought-provoking and several times I felt myself smiling in agreement.

Last year I walked twice , once at night and once in daytime, along the High Line in Chelsea. This is a stretch of about 4 km of a disused elevated freight line that has been turned into a park.  It is great. Last year the first section had been finished , this year the second section , which was there last year , is now complete. It too has several places where you can sit and watch the underlying streets, Lots of timber seats, nooks and crannies, interesting art works. It was crowded, but not too so.

My intention was to have a lobster roll at a famous place in Chelsea Market that I enjoyed last year. Chelsea Market is a big old disused ( I think biscuit ) factory that now houses lots of food shops and a few cafes and a few homeware shops. And, on Sundays at noon , many many people. I quickly scrapped the idea of a take away and decided to go into a nice restaurant . Because it was relatively early (they had not been open for brunch) I got a quiet seat at the end of the bar. I had 2  of 2 different sorts of oysters and lobster bisque and a glass of pinot blanc. Not quite lobster roll, but delicious. The young lady who served me was very helpful.

I forgot – walking around New York you pass many doormen – of fancy hotels , of apartment buildings, of fancy shops – standing around outside their building. Most of them deliberately try to avoid making eye contact  or greeting you if you donot look like one of their customers. On one of my several routes to one of the subway lines I have a choice of, I pass the Beresford – Maid in Manhattan fame – a huge fancy hotel/apartment building.  It is on a corner and has 3 different doors and 3 different doorman. This morning one of them greeted me cheerily ‘ Good Morning Ma’am, Happy Mothers Day’. I stopped and chatted to him for a bit. He made me smile. I was pleased with myself that I refrained from the obvious question ‘How do you know I am a mother?’

On  my way home from Chelsea, at the same corner as the Beresford , I saw a straggly bunch of elderly people from a distance. I caught up to them. They were the Granny Peace Brigade. Banners, placards. They gave me a brochure. Apparently the lady, Julia Ward Howe, credited with initiating Mothers Day in 1870, was very anti-war. She wrote a poem against war – her Mother’s Day Proclamation.

In the afternoon I organized  for tomorrow morning , a bus to Montauk ( pronounced Montork) , a room at a B and B , and a return bus  on Tuesday. Montauk is on the Eastern end of Long Island.  The wind and ocean will be good.