About those parks... I was wrong

Another retraction... I'm like the Private Eye of blogs. Well, no-one is suing me, but my conscience is pricking me. This time it's those mean comments I made about scrappy little New York parks.

A recent visit from my favourite little sister re-opened my eyes to the magic of Central Park. We walked from the Natural History Museum on the west side, across to the Met on the east, via the Ramble, the boating lake, and its little cousin the model boat pond. Plus we consumed the best icecream my favourite little sister has ever had - those Van Leeuwen dudes know just what to do with a roasted banana.

We also took in the High Line, of course, and enjoyed cups of tea in both Bryant Park and Madison Square Park. Both of which are charming little city parks (if a little over-run).

The lovely Bryant Park.

But most excitingly for the park lover in me - and thanks entirely to my favourite little sister - I have discovered the joys of the lesser known Riverside Park South. It's a relatively new park, below the Trump Place buildings on the West Side Highway, up in the 60s and 70s.

Until recently my riverside runs only took me as far as 55th Street, at which point crippling pain sent me hobbling back home like a lopsided pixie. Then my favourite little sister, who happens to be a brilliant physiotherapist, told me that my gastrosoleus complex was so tight it was not allowing the old tibialis posterior to function correctly. No wonder it hurt.


God bless the NHS! After a couple of weeks of targeted stretching and strengthening exercises, I have added another couple of miles, or twenty blocks, to my run.


Now I get to enjoy the lovely winding paths, interesting public art, windswept marshes, ghost piers and all round envigorating experience of the Riverside Park South. It has a low profile, quite the opposite of the jam-packed High Line, and I suspect it's a park for locals. The rest of New York is missing out.

And I was wrong: New York City has many excellent parks. Sorry NYC...

Beautiful, green, historic, charming, learned New Jersey

I take it all back!

Yesterday TLOML and I went to Princeton for the day. His cousin was playing soccer- go Tigers! - and her parents were in town. So we went to hang out, admire the silky skills of the Tigers, take fright at the brutality of the Columbia girls (who play a little rough), and wander around the campus.

Princeton Tigers 4 - Columbia Rough-housers 1.

Princeton University is part of the Ivy League, and is older than most of America  in that it was established before the Revolution. The campus is absolutely gorgeous. There are some really lovely old buildings - and some probably built in the last fifty years, but doing a great job of looking older. There are also lots of trees, and little patches of green crossed by gravel paths, between the buildings. It feels miles away from anywhere.

Yet the other side of the famous gates is a smart little town. It's pretty idyllic.

Afterwards we had dinner with TLOML's aunt. She is quite beautiful, highly educated and very well dressed. Like the polar opposite of Snooki. TLOML's aunt always has good stories about TLOML as a child, and throws in a few good Korean sayings for good measure. Like the 'frog in the well'.

The frog in the well thinks the water in his well is an ocean. Perhaps in my Manhattan-centric attitude to this part of the world, I have been a bit of a frog in the well. I'm sorry, New Jersey, I take it all back. (Still hate Penn station though).

Park Life Reconsidered

Maybe I was being a bit churlish, pouring scorn on the scrappity bits of dust New York claims as parks.

I took a long walk yesterday - from Chelsea to Williamsburg, no less. On my way through the West Village, Greenwich, Nolita and Soho, where the grid system breaks down and little triangles emerge between the diagonal roads, I saw lots more of those scrappy/ crappy parks.

This one is called Little Red Square, and is not much bigger than the Rabbit Hutch:

This one is called the Playground of the Americas, which is rather grand considering it consists of a single slide.

Like I said, I'm a spoiled Londoner. Plus I have happy memories of all those beautiful, well managed parks in LA. Sure, you had to pay $15 to park, but they were so well equipped!

Still, this is New York and the standard is different. Rather than deriding these lame efforts - perhaps instead I should applaud the bravery and sheer insouciance of a city that says 'yeah, that's our park, whaddayagonnadoaboudit?'.

These neighbourhood corners are not really parks so much as statements: 'eff you, this city's so great, and central park is so awesome, we don't need anything more than a bench and a tired looking tree on our block'

Or, as the Euro would put it, go big or get out.

Harlem Update

TLOML just got to reading my last post and has 3 additions and 2 corrections.

1. A video of Sylvia's, in case you - like us - enjoy watching a large man eat fried chicken:

Brits - Man Vs Food is a show where this dude tours America to take part in eating competitions. Like 'Eat a 12 lb burger and you get a free t-shirt'. He is TLOML's hero.

2. A photo of the vibey atmosphere in the Lenox Lounge's Zebra Room:

That's Sweet Georgia Brown on the left, the crazy Swiss in the middle, and a bunch of Danes on the right. Cringe!

3. Further elaboration on the Swiss dance moves. It was sorta like this:

4. A corrrection: that innuendo-laden singing I mentioned? TLOML says it was rather more direct. These are the lyrics he was thinking of:
'Don't touch my leg, 'cos then you'll wanna touch my thigh
Don't touch my thigh, 'cos you'll wanna touch my cherry pie'
Cherry Pie, by the way, is the name of Sweet Georgia Brown's new album. Presumably it's full of songs about her, um, lady bits.

5. Finally, and most importantly of all, TLOML would like it to be known that he is not a house husband. Although my last post made him sound like one a bit. (But if he were one, he'd be really good at it).

Bigger, better: a correction

A correction, in response to some heckling from my Wondertwin. (See, TLOML, we don't always agree on everything.)

THIS is Kentish Town Post Office.

That other one I showed was the old Sorting Office on Leighton Road. Busted! But they are similar in size. The real thing is just less charming, and more full of people who've wet themselves or are having a massive crack-addled argument.

Either way, my point still stands. They are considerably smaller than the great big Post Office near me in NYC.

That's one big lady of a Post Office...

Over and out.