Intimidation

On Monday Krista 'n Geir (to me, some couples become like a double worded thing... like fish 'n chips...) and I had a dinner at Spice Market. Notoriously hard to get into, all beautiful inside: Indian-inspired elaborately carved 'pagodas', all downlit and exotic, waiters in flowing, scarf-life costumes in red and burnt orange, and magnificent smells coming out of the kitchen. We were seated, then promptly ignored. Much of the meal was spent trying to get the attention of our main waitress, a blonde and gleaming woman with that NYC-waitress-mean-streak in her eye. I swear the hospitality staff here are more intimidating than the cops, who are either small and just graduated high school, or huge and heading towards a mid-life crisis or a heart attack.

Seemlingly hundreds of meal and plate carriers swarmed around us but here, the roles are very well defined so no luck getting help. The meaner you are, the higher up you get. The meal itself was good, fish and Asian this-and-that. Geir and Krista are much braver than me (as well as being much more hip in general) and tipped less than the standard 15%. As she deserved. But I still had visions of me walking home with my bags of groceries (Spice Market is a couple of blocks from my apartment) being chased by scarf-clad waiters bearing huge samurai kitchen knives....

This is the Meat Packing district. you can see from the cobbles it would be hard to escape crazed wait-staff if you were wearing heels.



Tuesday I was supposed to start my meditation class but ended up taking part in a work-related workshop - Wall St 101. The irony did not escape me.

Wednesday night, a second salsa class (forward, backwards, side side and TURN!) was followed by a small concert for Kiwi band The Black Seeds. Didn't know much about them, but their sound has that distinctive Kiwi flavor - syncopated rhythms, keyboard, guitars, horns, bongo drums - reminded me of beaches and barbeques and grass...Bumped into an acquaintance from about six years ago who is changing the world through Kiwi music...bringing Kiwi bands to the US. I've offered to help if I can, seems like a worthy cause!

Walking home from dinner tonight (food this week has consisted of posh dinners out and leftover take-out) there is a shivery breeze. Last night was warm, thundery and muggy. It's as if New York is stuttering into Fall; it can't decide. Stick with summer, stick with summer! I'm going to miss the warm days, especially given my extremities seem to be forgotten and neglected by the rest of my circulatory system.


For the sake of adding another pic...this was taken in the midst of the August heatwave. All the water you can see on the footpath is from air conditioning units placed in windows...most windows have them. Expensive and environmentally detrimental, but it is hard to survive in 40 degree heat and humidity without them.

Anyway, they drip. A lot. So, when walking under a residential apartment building, you can almost get a shower....or at least a light sprinkle. While avoiding the dog pee. NY is an interesting olfactory adventure in the summer!



Oh, I left out the highlight of my week! A visit to the doctor! But it's late and I need to sleep...