Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 9:59PM I’ll be back later with stories from Charleston, but right now, just let me show you how beautiful the windowboxes are.
I saved my favourite till last.
Gorgeous, aren’t they?
USA in fun, road trip, travelling Thursday, June 16, 2016 at 3:56AM
Well, we all have our little routines, don’t we?
We really love to step out along Fifth Avenue at this time of the day, to gaze up at the skyscrapers and to wonder what it must be like to live here and to deal with this constant hustle the whole time.
Of course, we are heading for our favourite breakfast venue. We found the Red Flame on our first visit to the city quite a few years ago now and it never changes, thank goodness. When they refurbished a few years ago, they replaced like for like – the same layout with the same formica tops, the same leatherette banquettes and the same brisk service.
We had the same as we always have: corned beef hash for he who loves corned beef hash.
French Toast for me who likes French Toast.
Simple.
Suitably fortified and ready to start the day for real, we walked up onto 6th and snapped the traditional National Debt photograph. That number keeps increasing and I must refer back to previous photographs to compare the figures. One such photograph can be found in this blog post from 2011 when that number began with a 14 not a 19.
Anyway, rather than ponder the US National Debt, we continued down 6th Avenue, stopping by M&J Trimmings, another favourite haunt. No, I didn’t need anything.
Yes, of course I bought something! I blame it on my hero for encouraging me to go inside in the first place!
Anyway, the obligatory shot of the Empire State Building followed.
Followed by a quick visit to Rickys where the buttons amused us.
But I was after hair product – no better place to buy Redken!
And sadly, that was it for New York this time around. It was time to pack up, to check out and to hail a cab back to JFK and fly to the start of our real Road Trip. We’ve loved the few hours we spent here and are delighted we decided to stay over and not simply change planes here.
We booked Jet Blue to Charleston and made our way to Terminal 5 at JFK, a bright modern building with bright, modern systems in place. We’d checked in already, had chosen our seats ages ago and had only a couple of things to do before boarding.
So we printed our bag tags and our boarding passes, dropped off our bags at the carousel and made our way through security. The staff here seem to be all as bright and modern as the decor too – perhaps a pleasant, clean working environment makes for cheerful and efficient workers as well?
The flight was scheduled as two hours or thereabouts, but no sooner had we boarded than the Captain announced it’d be just an hour and a half. He went on to draw our attention to the free onboard wifi – or should I say “Fly-fi” – which Jet Blue proudly offer on board their aircraft. This was a new one for us.
As we taxied to the runway however, he returned to the microphone with apologies. Not only had we been re-routed on a more westerly route which would take longer, we’d been restricted to 8000ft for the whole journey and there’d be no Fly-fi as a result – it only kicks in at 14 000 ft it seems. Boo.
All was not lost though. We’d been flying for five or ten minutes and he was back. Wait for the “ping” he said – we’d been given permission to ascend to the magic altitude and could get those computers buzzing. Of course, the flight passed by in no time!
We landed just five minutes late in Charleston, noting immediately that Mary’s flight had been delayed for more than an hour. Poor Mary started early in LA, had to change planes in Charlotte and now was experiencing further delays. What a day she was having.
Whilst we waited, my Hero sorted the rental car and I sat on one of the comfiest loungers in the baggage reclaim area and chatted to my friend Dorothy via Messenger. That hour passed quickly too, for just as my battery was beginning to fade, a familiar face was spotted in the arrivals hall.
Let the Road Trip begin! Bumps and scratches checked, mileage noted, Sat-Nav fired up, off we went.
Back in the old routine and the Hampton Inn “clean sheets” post it notes.
We were all tired and hungry, so we took the easy option for dinner and went straight to the highly recommended Hyman’s (thanks, Wes!)
I don’t think the spelling is quite right (there are 4 ys in the name), but whether it was the real deal or the impostor, I hope he/they enjoyed their dinner as much as we did.
And although there’s a mug of discussion cards on each table, unsurprisingly we didn’t have any need of those tonight – we had quite a lot of catching up to do!
Feeling very full and weary, we staggered back to our hotel in the sultry South Carolina heat. Better get used to that, I suppose.
USA in friends, fun, road trip, travelling Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 12:15PM We have the best friends. No argument, no question of that. There are some we see fairly frequently and others we see only occasionally. We’d not seen Jordi for several years though we keep in touch and when we do get together, we take over where we left off, wherever that might have been.
We share a joy in so many similar things. I know what will float her boat (which is why we carried an enormous bag of Cadbury’s chocolate and Bassetts Liquorice Allsorts all afternoon) and she knows what hits the spot with me.
We had shared our planning of this year’s Road Trip with her, because we knew that she had a great deal of first hand experience of some of the places we’ll visit. She made recommendations, spoke to her friends and gathered information for us which she shared in a long email conversation.
She also made us a little gem of a book with details of three cities inside. Our own, hand made guidebook, tailor made for our trip and jam-packed with personal recommendations.
Each listing comes with a few special details, gathered from those who know about these things.
And the whole thing is an absolute joy to read!
She even left some pages “intentionally blank” for us to add a photo, perhaps, or our own observations. I can hear my Mum saying “Ooooh, I don’t want to spoil it!”
No guidebook or online forum can possibly offer this kind of detail – what a treasure!
The thing is, our friends know us rather well. When it came to choosing where to have dinner last night, Jordi suggested Cabana, a “nuevo latino” style restaurant she thought would suit us well. She was right, too. Not only did we enjoy the best Margaritas (!) the food was great too – not that we could manage it all. The starter in the picture above – Baccalaitos (Crispy-golden salt codfish cakes, served with an avocado salsa) was enough for the three of us really and main courses were equally enormous. But fresh, tasty and served with great spirit – loved it!
It was only when we returned to the hotel later and I was blogging that a little bell rang in my head. Hadn’t we been here before?
My hero and I racked our brains to think…we didn’t think so and yet…I searched my blog for details but found none.
Then it came to me. I spotted the three locations of Cabana: Midtown Manhattan, a couple of other NY listings I wouldn’t have been and Del Ray Beach in Florida…of course. Our friends Jane and Allan took us to the Cabana in Del Ray Beach when we were with them and sure enough, the restaurant we recalled (and have frequently referred to because of the amazing cocktails and fabulous food) is one and the same Cabana.
Good grief.
Did I say we have great friends who know us well?
(See you in Charleston later, Mary!)
Wednesday, June 15, 2016 at 2:05AM Sort of.
Well, we have to start somewhere and this time it was at Heathrow on Monday night. We need no persuasion to stay over when we have an early check in and on this occasion, it gave us chance to catch up with Amy and Edward over dinner at Bibendum. They’re excited at the prospect of moving into their new apartment next week and it was lovely as always to share their company.
Our flight was at 8.30am, so it was a really early start this morning.
I split my stuff into two cases, which meant record lows when it came to the scales!
Heathrow was as bustling as ever though, in spite of the early hour.
Our 7 hour flight was trouble free and uneventful I’m glad to say and we were super comfortable upstairs in a newly refurbished 747. I’d already looked at the entertainment schedule and decided what I was going to watch: Brooklyn which I’ve been wanting to see since I read the book and Room, about which I was less certain but rather curious. I enjoyed both, though Brooklyn got my favourite vote. I caught up with a few journal notes, listened to a couple of Desert Island Discs and might have had the odd snooze now and again as well
No problems till we got to JFK then, where the queue for passport control was incredibly long. The arrival of a couple of large plane-loads of people soon overwhelms the system and waiting in an area beyond the sight of the immigration hall itself, we feared it could be hours before we got through. In the event, once we started to move it all progressed fairly quickly and within the hour we were jumping in a yellow taxi and heading for Manhattan.
With my usual New York soundtrack of Simon and Garfunkel playing in my head, we were soon within sight of our mid-town destination.
Our super-trendy hotel (with a glass wardrobe) is well situated, so after a quick wash and brush up, we wasted no time at all in getting out and getting on.
A sunny afternoon on Fifth Avenue awaited us!
We were heading for the Metropolitan Museum, where we’d arranged to meet Jordi on the steps at 3pm. On such a beautiful afternoon with a few minutes to spare, however, we couldn’t simply walk past an ice cream kiosk, especially since it’s Grom, one of my favourites!
Of course, the museum was busy, but in spite of that it was fairly cool and we wasted no time in heading straight for the exhibition we’d come to see: Manus x Machina – Fashion in the Age of Technology.
From the first exhibit we saw, we were enchanted. This was a large and very well staged exhibition and even though there were lots of visitors, there was still room to get a good look at every single item.
I couldn’t begin to say which was my favourite at this stage, though a few will certainly percolate to the top of my list before long. Here’s a couple of rather intriguing dresses, though.
These particular designs were created from polyurethane gel and iron filings. Yes, I know – or rather, no, I don’t! I have no idea, in fact.
Most designs were very wearable if one had a 14 inch waist (or thereabouts) but this one by Hussein Chalayan took the biscuit for being totally impractical. It was described as a “remote control” dress with Swarovski crystals and rear entry panels with motorised hinges. Sure enough, a short video alongside showed how the dress was accessed and remotely controlled and how the little spring loaded “pollen” could be activated at the touch of a button.
The centrepiece was this wedding gown, designed by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel. Made in scuba nylon, the dress itself was pretty solid, but it was the train which caught the eye.
This was the image on the posters, the one which many had come to see. From a distance, it appeared as a kind of brocade, but a closer look revealed a clearer digital design.
Lagerfeld himself drew the brocade design which was then digitised and subsequently completed using a mix of hand and machine techniques. The rhinestones were applied using a heat technique, the gold painting done by hand and the pearls and gemstones sewn by hand. There was no record of how many hours/days/weeks this took, but it must have been phenomenal.
The lower level of the exhibition was focused on the different “metiers”. Here, it’s the leatherworkers whose skills were to the fore.
This laser cut and exquisitely free machine stitched jacket was one of my favourite pieces for a short time. I think it’s by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen.
But this dress and coat by John Galliano for Dior was shown opposite and for me, at least, it pipped the jacket to the top of the list for a while. Again, it’s laser cut leather, machine stitched.
Well, I didn’t say everything was wearable, did I? I think we’re talking about the pleaters here whose skills were displayed in a rather more familiar format with Issy Miyake’s work.
Just around the corner stood four Chanel suits. Taking a closer look, the cream boucle wool design looked pretty familiar, styled in the traditional manner.
A closer look at the others revealed something interesting, though.
Layers of fabric trapped behind this mesh-type surface which had been 3D printed. who’d have thought it? Even the “quilted” surface had been engineered to be formed by means of a digital design and 3D printer. So clever. Again, Karl Lagerfeld had a hand in the concept which was completely hand finished and as he stated “the perfect marriage of hand and machine”.
There were rather more obvious examples of 3D printed “garments” too.
But what I liked most about the show was the juxtaposition of contemporary, machine made dresses such as the two McQueen designs above, alongside the 1920’s “presentation gown”. What a fascinating show! I hope it travels and finds its way to London, where I would be there again to take another look, for sure.
Before we left the museum, we took a quick look at four of Turner’s masterpieces; in this case his whaling pictures. Three normally reside in Tate Britain, the fourth being at home here in the Met. But for a short time, the four are being shown together, alongside some sketches and other related work which inspired Herman Melville’s writing. But by now we were flagging a little and the thought of finding somewhere for a sit down and a drink suddenly became very appealing indeed.
So we left the crowds in the museum and followed Jordi’s lead to one of her favourite Upper East Side watering holes: Demarchelier . Here we found entertaining company, interesting conversation and some excellent cocktails which set us up nicely for dinner at Cabana a bit later.
But by the time we’d finished dinner, we knew we simply had to give in. We’d tried really hard not to work out how long we’d been going today but right now it felt long enough. We said our goodbyes to our sweet friend, promised not to leave it so long before we return and came back to our super-cool room, where I’ve kept myself going an extra hour or so by blogging.
I’m giving in now!
Sunday, June 12, 2016 at 1:47PM
Not to mention the night before…
I was in Brighton, with 5000 or so of my closest friends. The WI were in town and on Friday night, there was a lively mix of weekenders, Hen and Stag dos and us.
Although Brighton is a seaside town, it’s not your average seaside. For a start, the beach was pretty busy, but look. No families, no beachwear or deckchairs here. Strange.
We had booked to join in the fun of a “fringe event”: The Brighton Belles WI had invited us to take part in “not your average Brighton tour” on Friday night and at 6 o’clock, we assembled at the Pier.
We sorted ourselves into teams, gathered a map and a local guide (or two) and set off in search of “treasure” – a set of photographs of specific things in specific places. I posted the results in a Facebook album and have giggled at the memory of certain situations!
You’ll know that I don’t post (recognisable) pictures of people here on my blog so I’ll leave the fun (and Nigel’s legs) to your imagination. Suffice to say that we saw the sights and had a great time!
The evening finished in the North Lanes Brewhouse, where a table and a bottle of red were waiting with our name on!
It was a little noisy for the likes of us, so we decided to move on in search of something to eat. The original Bills was not so far away, so we headed in that direction and though it was good, I missed the old style abundance, now it’s become a rather more corporate affair.
On Saturday morning, we were eager to find our places and get the day started at the Brighton Centre.
Our 101st year got off to a cracking start with the usual Jerusalem, experienced by yours truly sitting in the second row, thanks to a VIP invitation this year (ooooo!)
There was the usual lively mix of thoughtful (and passionate, at times) debate and excellent speakers. In the morning, Rona Fairhead, Chairman of the BBC Trust spoke remarkably well, impressing me with her thoughts and leaving me with the distinct impression that the BBC is in good hands for the next four years at least. The afternoon speaker was Baroness Da Souza (above), Speaker for the House of Lords. She too was an impressive speaker but possibly rather less entertaining. The afternoon slot is a challenge too, being right after lunch, but there was no way I could fall asleep, sitting where I was!
After rousing choruses of Happy Birthday, Your Majesty and a Proms-style singalong, the anthems were sung and it was time to go our separate ways again.
See you in Liverpool next year, girls!
