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.


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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.