Supping on the Great Lawn

Central Park was a mecca for classical music and picnic lovers on Tuesday night. Being picnic maestros we jumped on the idea of seeing the New York Philharmonic Orchestra doing a free concert and headed off with Dave, Melissa and thousands of others to nosh on a rug on the Great Lawn. And fireworks spelled the grand finale after a rather lacklustre 1812 Overture (fake cannons just don't do the piece justice).

We were so far from the stage that we could only hear the music coming through speakers but it was delightful to be out in the sultry evening, people watch and get amongst it, as they say. Any excuse to eat prosciutto and goats cheese al fresco.

Real Life New Yorker #4 - James

I'm kinda cheating here because Jus knew James from college days but what the hell he's still a New Yorker, right? And he's a New Yorker who blogs about basketball and works in web design. So you gotta love it.

Where did you grow up?
I was born in London, raised in Washington DC, went to University in Melbourne, Australia.

What brought you to New York?
Every young person who grows up in DC eventually gives New York a shot. New York is like DC's cool older brother. I was lured up in 2000 for a dotcom paycheck. I worked at a Razorfish wannabe called Concrete Media. I think I was literally the last person hired by a dotcom in New York before the bubble burst. When I arrived it was all free sushi and in-office massages and cashed-up geeks. It was a bizarro world - where way too many people behind the velvet ropes knew html.

I worked in a fancy space on the far West side of downtown, where a number of upstart tech companies had offices. Every morning the young techies would pour from our modest subway stop in their black manpris, thick glasses, carrying smartphones, zipping across the street on Razor scooters like some herd of albino water buffalo. 3 months later they were all gone. The watering hole was dry, the herd died off or moved on. Maybe you would still spy, from the corner of your eye, the occassional, startled, pale manboy darting across traffic on a scooter, with a tattered Kozmo messenger bag, but otherwise they left no trace.

What do you like about the US?
I like it's lack of modesty, and how earnest and enthusiastic people are. You feel very free here to pursue very stupid dreams. I like the diversity. And the generous return policies on purchases.

Is there anything you hate about America?
Well New York is very untypical of America. What I hate about New York: the rents, the noise, never seeing the horizon, and how difficult it is to get out of town. What I hate about the rest of the country: tackiness, sameness, mass cultureness, chain restaurants, subdivisions, stripmalls, megachurches... I hate the talk radio, the sexual anxiety, that 79% of people here believe in angels, that woman who had 17 kids, the celebrity tabloids, the advertisements on TV for diarrhea medicines, the complete lack of interest in the rest of the world... I hate stories on the news about gas prices that use the phrase "pain at the pump", skyscrapers on beaches, adults who dress like children on weekends.

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
I think of wide open space, breathtaking coastlines, screaming cockatoos, Victorian architecture, redheads, bad nicknames, really bad television, good music, great food, kids in pubs, drinking in public, cafes, happy people, lucky people.

Who do you think is going to win the US election and why?
I think it's Obamas to lose. The Bush republicans have obviously run things into the ground, and Obama is the first charismatic liberal since Clinton. But you just never know. It will definitely be much closer than it should be.

Will you work in New York forever?
As long as I'm in America, I don't think I would want to live anywhere but New York. I am lucky enough to have 3 passports though, including one of those magical EU ones, so I would be crazy to say forever.

If you could visit one place in Australia where would you go and why?
Of places I have not seen, I would love to visit the Western Australian coast, and the rainforests of Kakadu and Dainbtree, and of course the outlet shops at Bendigo Shopping Plaza.

Who is the most famous Australian, in your mind?
I'd wish I could say that the first name that came to mind was someone like Gough Whitlam or, Patrick White, or Banjo Patterson or Vincent Lingiari, and not Russell Crowe. But I can't.

What's one thing everyone should know about New York?
It's way safer and friendler than you think. Also dirtier. Also when a broker describes an apartment as "loft-like" what they really mean is "not loft-like"

Shop It To Me

A little plug for an email newsletter I've subscribed to called Shop It To Me. It's a free service where you:

• sign up


• select your clothes sizes


• select the brands (200+) and online retailers you like


• choose the types of clothing and accessories you are interested in (dresses, shoes, pants)


• specify the level of discount you want (20-70% off)

and they email you when clothing that matches your preferences goes on sale.

Once a week I get an email telling me all the items that are on sale in my size, with photos, original and sale prices and links through to online shops where I can purchase then and there.

You can control how often you get the emails and pause them if you're all shopped out. And you can set it up so only retailers who ship to Australia are included!

With the Aussie dollar so strong you can snap up a Diane von Furstenburg dress for $200, Michael Kors shoes for $150 etc. The list of brands is exhaustive. Enjoy.

I'm loving the clothes shopping here. So much choice. And so cheap. And the sales are frequent and serious. I never thought I was that deeply into fashion but I think my previous reticence was just a function of not being willing to spend heaps of money on the things I liked. Here, where items are way more affordable, I have become a veritable shopaholic.

I've started clothes shopping in stores in a new way in an attempt to get out of my comfort zone and try new things. And because I usually shop alone its sometimes hard to tell whether something is flattering.

So I grab everything that takes my fancy. Everything. The whim items. The 'not sure if I can carry that off' items. The 'this is ridiculosuly expensive but what the hell' items. I get in the change room and try everything on. And I take photos of myself with my camera phone. And then I look at the photos and a strange thing happens: I get more of an objective view of myself and it becomes immediately apparent that certain colours wash me out, or the cut of the dress really does nothing for me, or that the top sits much better than I thought it would.

And for things that I'm a bit iffy about, or should wait for the next paycheck for, I carry around the photo to refer to later. I show Jus when I get home and get his opinion. And sometimes I go poke around in my wardrobe and see if the item will go with anything else. If in a week I still think its awesome and looks good then so be it, but often I go off it and save myself the regretted purchase. Or sometimes its handy to just have it there and then remember to check when it goes on sale.

Taking ohotos has made me buy things that don't look like things I already have. And its made me more aware of what suits me. Try it!

In the Poconos

Played Scrabs and drank wine and spotted chipmunks and squirrels and then fireflies came out. Enchanting.

Lots of US flags at the campsites, lots of hotdog condiments, lots of tin foil bainmaries with pre-prepared food in them and little tealight candles warming them up, bamboo tiki torches, lots of BIG tents.

Massive thunderstorm the next morning and saw a tree get hit by lightning and a branch flew off. Havoc. Staff freaked out, computers down, strange burning smell coming from camp office basement. Never been that close before to a lightning fork. It was so bright I didn't really see anything.

We waited for the torrential rain to stop and then hired some kayaks and paddled down the river, wary of getting staurated at some point. We were lucky. Clouds parted and the sun revealed its sunburning glory to us who had dismissed hats and sunglasses during the storm.

Saw a beaver. They're tiny! Like a platypus. Saw a few russet deer and bald eagles and shad at the end of their upstream spawning swan song.

Lay on a pebbly beach to get some sun. Walked upstream and floated down, swimming against the current and staying still and then spinning downstream and wooshing along with our eyes open underwater, the rocks whizzing by. Sprinted through tadpole-infested shallows and did it again.

When we got back to the campsite the lightning tree had been felled and all 50 metres of it lay in the carpark. The lightning had split it in half. You could see the burnt timber right through its core to the stump in the ground.

Within moments of us being back at camp the thunder rolled again and we hightailed it back to the train, back to Hoboken, back to NYC.

I love a taut tent in the morning

Jus and I are camping in Pennsylvania, where they sell fireworks and have drive thru discount cigarette stores for out of state visitors.
Caught the train up here and got picked up by the camp site from the station.
Warm and gentle and green and lovely. Some Scrabble and red wine from the nalgene this arvo, canoeing in the morning.
Many tadpoles but will try not to think of what that implies.

The evidence

Click on the image to see it bigger.

This is how it all began...

Real life New Yorker #3 - Meredith

This is Meredith, who sits in the next set of cubicles over from me at work, and is a baking fiend and obssessed with a particular dwarf minitiature horse.

Where did you grow up?

I spent my first 6 years in Cleveland followed by a 5 year stint in Chicago and I’ve been in New York since (although not the city – my family lives in northern Westchester (the county just north of the city).

What brought you to New York?

College at NYU and I’ve been in the city since.

What do you like about the US?

Freedom?

Is there anything you hate about America?

I can’t say I’m terribly proud of being a “fat” people.

What do you think of when you think of Australia?

If I were playing word association right now, and you said Australia, I’d say Kangaroo

Who do you think is going to win the US election and why?

Hard to say. The democrats really blew it with the whole long, drawn-out primary, but McCain is old and kinda crazy.

Will you work in New York forever?

Forever is a pretty long time. But yes.

If you could visit one place in Australia where would you go and why?

I’m not sure. I suppose Sydney, but I hear that giant spiders are all over the place and I really hate spiders. (Or the island with all of the Quokka, but I think that might be a part of New Zealand.)

Who is the most famous Australian, in your mind?

I think Mel Gibson is probably the most famous, but 1. he’s not actually from Australia and 2. I doubt you want to associate with him anymore.* So I’ll go with Nicole Kidman.

What’s one thing everyone should know about New York?

Contrary to popular belief, you can’t actually get anything at any hour here, or at least not easily. Oh and bring hand sanitizer.

*If you do still want to associate with him, I think that means you hate Jewish people.

Cue laughter

David Sedaris, memoirist, funny funny man, was doing a reading at our local Barnes & Noble and we thought we'd go along with Katie, who was in town. Seems like about four thousand other locals had the same idea.





This is a 4 storey bookstore and the reading was up the top. Each storey had TV monitors set up because the top storey, where we crammed ourselves, was overflowing and standing room only to the extent that people just stood in the book aisles craning to either see the man in the flesh at a podium about 50 metres away, or a TV screen about 10 metres away. The people sitting down in front of the podium must have been there since midday.

Not the best conditions, but Sedaris read a short story and the entire building literally shook with laughter, and then we climbed our way out of there and had some tapas and lots of red wine. We relentlessly grilled a very jetlagged Katie for news from home:

• What was everyone making of Mr Rudd?
• What's happening with the Opposition?
• When is everyone in Sydney moving back to Melbourne?
• What's happening with the property market?
• Have you watched Underbelly?
• Has it been raining?
• Are people getting excited about the Olympics?
• Has there been much attention on the US primaries?
• Do people prefer Hillary or Obama?
• Have we told you how we are the reasons why Peter Russell Clarke's career has been revived?

And I am ransoming the answer to that last question until someone leaves a comment...

Hot hot heat II: Sunday

On the hot hot weekend the other week, Jus and I dragged our drippingly sweaty selves to Madison Square Park where the Big Apple BBQ Block Party was in full swing. Jus and I thought we'd make the quick walk from our place and check it out briefly and then head to Governors Island, thinking it might be some sleepy affair with a few stands of ribs. How is it that we've lived here all this time and still think anything could be small scale in a city of 18 million? Bit daft due to the heat perhaps.

We arrived and the square had been transformed into a BBQ-off between various Pitmasters from Texas and the Carolinas, the true home of BBQ (or perhaps the closest BBQ-obsessed states to NY). Thousands of people were lining up to get their full of beef brisket, pulled pork, cornbread, potato buns, beans, coleslaw, sausage, crawfish and okra hush puppies and pickles, washed down with beer or Snapple or the latest version of Vitamin Water or root beer floats, followed by S'mores or bourbon, banana & nilla (vanilla) pudding, double chock brownies and PB&J (peanut butter and jelly) cupcakes.

There were VIP queues for people to get the crackling ("that don't come free, sugar") and to skip the lines of plebs who just thought they could rock up and sample a few novelties. Jus and I split up to cover more gourmet ground and reassembled with beef, sausage and a pulled pork sandwich. Sat on the lawn and listened to bluegrass and twangy country tunes, while our t-shirts clung to our back and our legs got sticky itchy on the grass. Couldn't stay in this un-airconned locale for long.

Due to the sweltering temperature we weren't really that hungry but we made room for S'mores and Nilla pudding on the way out.

We caught the train downtown and took the ferry to Governors Island, a tiny islet about 10 minutes ride away. There was a jazz performance featuring music from the Great Gatsby era, and people were encouraged to dress up and go along. We didn't dress up but there were plenty of flappers and men in shirtsleeves and vests and boaters dancing away to the band, who were also dressed in shirts and bowties and hats and had a microphone from WWI and a megaphone to broadcast their tunes. It was very 'wah wah' if you know what I mean.

Governors Island is car free and there is a bike hire place so you can explore. Tour buggies make laps of the island and explain its previous use and the significance of all the old buildings that once housed the Coast Guard. Thousands of people used to live there and now it is one big national trust site. It would make a great uni campus.

It was cooler on the island - actual sea breeze! - and after people watching for a bit we walked to a spot that looked out to the Statue of Liberty and spread our towels and read. Cruise ships slid by, obscuring the statue so that each vessel looked like it had a hand and a torch poking out of its roof.

NYC does excellent thunderstorms, and we ended up fleeing the island when extreme weather warnings were issued and the tour buggies turned into 'round everyone up and get them out of here' vehicles. On the ferry ride back we watched fork and sheet lighting dazzle Brooklyn and felt the air get so heavy with humidity that the eventual torrential rain was just a formality.

The thick heavy drops that rain here are a revelation. I think living in a drout for so long at home does something to your relationship with water. Jus and I stand in our living room and just watch it pour out of the sky, hour after hour, tropical strength. "It's still raining. " "Will you just look at it. " "Is that more rain?" "Has it stopped yet?" Within minutes the African immigrants are selling umbrellas on every corner, there are drenched cyclists tooling along aimlessly and shrieking women protecting their do's.

Keepin' busy

I'm covered in bruises at the moment. The calves have green patches and the hips have brown smudges and the sides of my kness have little purple dots. Why? I hear you ask as you roll your ergonomic desk chair closer to get better a look. Because I have been doing lots of this:

That's me hula hooping on our bed. Earphones in, iPod on, going for it. Has she regressed to childhood? I hear you wonder. Has NY made Meesy lose her marbles?

No, dear reader. It's all very rational and grown up. Sort of. Several weeks ago I read that hula hooping is a great workout for your core muscles, strengthens your lower back and all those invisible ab muscles that do the real work, burns lots of calories and is very, very fun.

So, being generally over the Y and its weak promise of Family Guy eps while I kill time on a treadmill or elliptical or having to swim through the brine of the Y's terribly overburdened 25 yard pool, and also ignoring the stultifyingly boring exercises outlined to me by my physical therapists, I scouted the local toy and sport stores for hula hoops. Came up with nothing.

Then, one fateful Friday night I was strolling through Union Sq and what do I see but a bunch of short fat kids hula hooping away and a glowing yoga type handing out leaflets about a hula hooping workshop in Brooklyn that Sunday afternoon, where they sold hoops too. Ofcourse!

I trekked to Brooklyn, I attended said workshop with 6 other women and 1 guy (who happened to be an Australian yoga instructor), I learnt how to spin the hoop in both directions, in several stances, above my head and on my hands, and I bought a secondhand hoop to take home. It was sweaty, funny fun: hoops fizzling at the hips and crashing to the floor, spinning across the room, bumping neighbouring hoops, bruises blossoming like clover.

Walking down Flatbush and to Prospect Park afterwards with a hoop over my shoulder attracted lots of interesting cat calls and I focused on daydreaming about how long it would be until I could audition for Circus Oz, or whether there were hooping clips of Cirque de Soleil on Youtube (there are. Very humbling).

Since then I have been having a 30 minute session every other day and my back has been pain free for the first time in months, and Justin finds it a convenient source of comedy so we're both happy. It's a surprisingly joyful activity and so I give this phase as good a chance as any of my previous leisure activity fads such as kung fu, ballroom dancing and badminton.

Aforementioned highly inferior 'king cone'

This is the life hey Jus?

Sunset beers on the Met rooftop overlooking Central Park. Happy Friday.

Real life New Yorker #2 - Bob

Bob started the same day I did and was my pod buddy for a bit. Say hello to Bob. He's one of those people who knows every band, book and movie you've never heard of but should. Were people born in the 80s equipped with bigger memories?

Where did you grow up?
Southern Italy. And Northeast Florida. And the Aleutian Islands.

What brought you to New York?
My job at Razorfish. I’m a Content Strategist.

What do you like about the US?
Freedom, faith and family. Joke! Actually, I do love my family. (And what little freedom I have left.) I guess I like the country’s history best of all: lots of fascinating characters and freaky subplots, from Thomas Jefferson to the Haymarket Riots to Buckminster Fuller to Patty Hearst. It’s all good.

Is there anything you hate about America?
Yes! The ubiquitous racism and bigotry that we pretend doesn’t exist anymore. Drove me nuts in the South. It’s one of the (many) reasons I relocated to NYC.

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
“The Land of Deadly Everything”? That, and kangas.

Who do you think is going to win the US election and why?
John McCain. Cause we’re a bunch of latent racists.

Will you work in New York forever?
Nah. Probably got another 5 years in me. Then off to California.

If you could visit one place in Australia where would you go and why?
Ayers Rock, yeah? Elevate the scenario. Activate the dreamtime.

Who is the most famous Australian, in your mind?
Eek. Paul Hogan? The Crocodile Hunter? Those are terrible answers.

What’s one thing everyone should know about New York?
Anything and everything for twice the price. And the weed’s delivered to your door : )

Hot hot heat

In case you've been going to the loo when the international weather forecast comes on SBS World News, let me tell you there has been a heat wave in NY. We've had five days of 30c+ weather in a row although summer has not officially started yet.



Totally melting. sweaty messes. rivulets of sweat running where they shouldn't be. icecream runs at 11pm. waking at 5am. wearing dresses and open toed shoes to work 5 days in a row. taking cooling showers and wandering around house in sarong. Jus working all day in his undies. stinky streets, garbage fermenting in bags on the sidewalk. getting dizzy standing up like a sardine on the subway. birds panting with their beaks open. aircon all night, Kyoto be damned...


On Saturday, although it reached 34c, we decided to cycle the entire way around Manhattan Island. At 9.30am I rented a bike from the shop across the rode and Jus and I pedalled off to the West Side Hwy to begin the slog up to the Cloisters. We sailed up the path, dodging rollerbladers and joggers, right up to the George Washington Bridge and into Washington Heights and Inwood, pleasant family neighbourhoods that I'd never visited before.


View Larger Map

Having reached the pointy top, where I was face to face with the Bronx and saw the start of Broadway, we headed down the east side through a desolate, relentless shimmering mirage of highway and concrete (we were alone on the path at this stage. weird in a city of 8 million), and then Harlem and Spanish Harlem (where I saw the biggest ass I have ever seen on anyone ever: I think it was about 2 ft of horizontal flesh. I was thinking medical condition rather than obesity. Crazy. )and the Upper East Side. I finally saw the Triborough Bridge and Roosevelt Island in their glory.

The shores were lined with fisherman, lots of Puerto Ricans with their flags displaying (Sunday was the PR Day Parade).

At one stage a medical examiner's van pulled onto the path and I quipped "Hope they haven't come to fish a dead body out of the water", and lo and behold, five minutes later, there were the cop cars and plainclothes detectives and a man wrapped in white plastic sheeting on the jetty, his fishing rod beside him. Law & Order in real life, again.

Started to feel very hot, legs getting tired, head a bit achy. Calves covered with grime. Tan lines developing. We stopped and had our picnic lunch: a couple of roast beef sandwiches that tasted like manna at this stage.

The fancy gardens, bikini-clad sunbathers roses and manicured lawns and boardwalk of the UES disappeared in Midtown and we had to take to the streets, which was fairly nerve wracking and suprisingly hilly. I couldn't wait to get back on the path, and when we did it was a complete contrast. The 'between the bridges area' (Manhattan, Brooklyn) and Lower East Side were shady glades where kids played Little League and splashed in water features, a 50s retro band shelter was being set up with band equipment, families picnicked and walk up games of basketball and handball were in full swing.

This morphed again as we got further dowtown and into the touristy metroplis of the South Street Seaport. Suddenly bus loads of people were wandering all over the bike trails and I may have exhibited some NY attitude telling people to get out of the goddam way. Then it was the Staten Island Ferry dock, Battery Park and hordes of visitors stumbling to queue for the ferries to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. We dodged handbag and sunglass and I Love NY t-shirt sellers, and people hunched over maps, and people licking icecreams and we managed to squeeze through by pedalling standing up so people could see us over the crowds.

Rounded the pointy bottom and then started north once more. We found a restaurant overlooking a park with direct views of the Statue, that screams 'take out of towners here for dinner'. Whoever comes next we're definitely going there.

Landscaped boardwalks extended around Battery Park City, the residential adjunct to the Financial District. A few coves, restaurants with al fresco margarita sippers (you may think I refer to the margaritas too often but seriously its what everyone is drinking. i've become a convert), and then past Dennis Conner's Stars & Stripes and America II again, (people are oblivious to their fame, no plaque, nothing!) and then on to more familiar territory within jogging range of our pad.

We got to our local park and beelined to the icrecream man and quickly wolfed down a Good Humor Giant King, the Streets Drumstick equivalent, and Gatorade, and collapsed on the grass where, last time we visited, a homeless man was sleeping. The entire lawn was crammed with sunbathers now, flicking through their NY Times and WSJ. I lasted about 10 minutes before I feared that I would not be able to climb back onto the bike seat and make it home, so we slowly pedalled back to the rental place. Got there at about 2.30pm.

Felt great and was utterly fascinated with what I saw. 60 kilometres of contrasts, pleasant surprises and leads worth further exploration. A must do for anyone with a half day in the city and a desire to see it from a different angle.

Real life New Yorker #1 - Deneva

Welcome to the first of many interviews with some pals and colleagues of mine. Hopefully their uncensored responses to my 10 questions will shed some insight into who I'm meeting and working with and what real life New Yorkers actually think about NY, America and Australia. Feel free to ask questions and comment on your impressions and reactions.

To kick it all off, meet Deneva. Enjoy!

Where did you grow up?
I was born in Ohio.. Midwest!

What brought you to New York?
Hmm.. a while back, I moved from Germany to Los Angeles and had a crazy culture shock. I yearned for Europe but did not foresee the possibility of going back any time soon, so I figured, NYC is as close as I can get physically. With all the outgoing flights, I thought I could take short trips to see my friends in Europe and they could also come to visit me.

What do you like about the US?
Umm. Good question. Since I am American, I can work here. That’s pretty much what I like. Oh yeah.. lets not forget the software development industry is here.

Is there anything you hate about America?

• People can be less than cultured and sometimes not educated about non-entertainment subjects


• People eat to much and have poor eating habits (eating junk or eating out)



• Too much individualism. I don’t like the ‘its all about me’ attitude



• Too much idealism. If your 45 and performing in shows with an audience made of your mom and your friends, you might not become a rockstar in your lifetime!



• Apathetic attitudes and folks blaming others for their misfortunes. This lends itself to the ‘I’ll sue!’ culture and the ‘customer is always right’



• Too many meds! Everyone is on pharmaceutical drugs!

What do you think of when you think of Australia?
Accents and David Gulpilil – one of my favorite actors of color.

Who do you think is going to win the US election and why?
I hate to be a pessimist, BUT .. I have no idea. Ideally it would be Obama.. at worst (or best depending on your take), I will need to immigrate to a poor tropical country and start my own business.

Will you work in New York forever?
Heck no! Even if Obama does win.. eventually I will go to a tropical country and start a business :) Having children in NYC does seem a bit stressful so I plan to do that elsewhere.

If you could visit one place in Australia where would you go and why?
I have no idea.. somewhere in the beach..and somewhere near aboriginals. I love the beach and I’m always interested in indigenous people.

Who is the most famous Australian, in your mind?
Gulpilil

What’s one thing everyone should know about New York?
Time is money. Every moment you aren’t making money, you are losing it. Sure, they say money isn’t everything, just 99%. Its wise to come to NYC with money saved. Its not easy here without it, but if you have great skills and a plan you its possible to make it here.

Do I really want to know?

I finally put some site measurement code on the blog so I can see how many people are visiting and where they're visiting from. I can't see individuals, it's all aggregated, so your preference to lurk out there in the mists of cyberspace is respected.

Funnily enough I've had a few visits from people who typed the word 'botty' into Yahoo or Google and ended up on my post about the Village Voice feature on badonkadonk. Another visitor came by to check the DOA reference hoping to find recourse for their dead Apple Mac. Finally, some poor soul thought they would be able to find the Big Apple Summer Free program here. Oh well, hate to disappoint.

I might spice up the traffic numbers with gratuitous references to Britney Spears nude pics and Lindsay Lohan drug photos and the like. Watch that graph spike, baby.

Pounding the pavement

9pm. Hot. Humid. Sitting in the dark watching season one of 30 Rock. Restless. We decide to go for a run. This is our new resolution, the beginning of another get fit campaign. We dust off shorts, lace up creaky sneaks and take the stairs to the ground floor. We strike out along West 15th towards the Hudson.

The street is busy. Countless men in khaki shorts, pastel tank tops and leather sandals walking fluffy yappy dogs. Women sitting on stoops whispering into their mobile phones. Older couples strolling hand in hand after dinner. Other joggers glancing at us as they run past. Rollerbladers with headphones on cruising down the middle of the road. Delivery guys on bikes - no helmuts!- trying to make good time, plastic bags of food swinging from their handlebars.

We hit 7th Ave and the traffic light is against us so we turn up towards 16th. Past the over-priced flashy Chelsea furniture store, past a dark lit restaurant with its glass walls retracted, heaving with margarita ("A good source of vitamin c") sipping diners.

We make another turn towards the river and jog past the Maritime Hotel, where tinted window cars are idling and clutches of glamazons are hailing cabs. We skip through cabs at the lights and run past another dog walker and through what will be our first of three clouds of ganga smoke for the evening.

Crossing the Westside Hwy we finally feel the cool breath of the Hudson. The lights of Jersey City twinkle on the water. It is relatively quiet and the lapping of the dirty river is almost soothing. We turn south and head for the avenue of pink rose bushes masking the stink of the local garbage truck depot. There are walkers, runners, rollerbladers, couples strolling, bikers, skateboarders all passing silently, whirs of feet and wheels.

We're sweaty now, clamming up. We don't talk, we concentrate on breathing, we're absorbing the smells and sights and sounds. We spy a stretch of grass and we know we'll take a break for some sit ups and stuff.

We slow down and flop onto the grass. There's a guy there sitting in lotus position, his eyes closed, palms turned upwards on his knees, in his own world. There's a homeless person sleeping on cardboard with a sleeping bag draped over his torso and his luggage stacked neatly at his head. We sit between them and start to do our exercises, counting quietly.

My legs are stiffening already. We decide to head back. We cross the highway and are in the West Village, jogging on uneven cobble stones down treelined streets. Al fresco diners chatter as we run past. The aroma of pizza fills the street and I roll my eyes. We zig zag through the named streets: we're off the grid now and the roads go in every direction. The streets are cosier, quainter, dominated by brownstones and neat terrace houses, older style apartment buildings. Our eyes are busy roaming and dreaming.

We cut back to 15th and I can see our building at the next avenue. We're dripping now. Thirsty. My knees hurt and I wonder how stiff I'll feel tomorrow or whether my back will protest that night. We cross the lights and stop to pant in front of our building. Pedestrians glance at us as we loiter, huffing, shiny, preparing to go up to our little apartment and blast the a/c.