Kaz in the City

It was raining and sunny at the same time and I was walking along First Avenue with my fiance.  He said “It’s like life, it rains and shines at the same time in life too.”  This made me think of a few things I love about New York City, and a few things I love sharing with out of town visitors…

1. The Big Piano at F.A.O. Schwartz, it still gets me after all these years.

2. Knowledgeable sommeliers at wine stores.  Forget the grumpy man at the Liquor store who is reading the news in a foreign alphabet and scratching his beard.  New York has too many great stores for you to settle for the nearest non-friendly liquor store.  Check out Serendipity, on First Avenue between 82nd and 83rd Street if you live uptown.  If you live downtown, you will loooove this shop and its owner:  http://www.winegeeknyc.com/  He is very animated, he’s got maps and anecdotes about the regions where the wine came from, and he is very veeery generous with pouring the wine during the tastings.

3. The names of the colors of nail polish at beauty salons:  Wrapped in Rubbies; Montauk, the end; Curtain Call.  I think I spend more time reading the names of the colors and wishing I had that job of naming the colors than actually getting any beauty procedures done.

4. The Ziegfeld theatre!  (http://www.clearviewcinemas.com/ziegfeld/ziegfeld-history.html) I beg you see a film there if you have never been.

http://www.clearviewcinemas.com/ziegfeld/ziegfeld-photos.html

5. The little obscure hair salons that are cheap, fast, effective and make you look truly dazzling.  I like Hair Mates and Dea Beauty Salon, but there are others…  Hair salons on a street block are inevitably more attentive than the ones on main avenues and busy intersections.  Needless to say, the chain ones are never good.

I’ll leave it High-fidelity style with only my top five.  Being a foodie, I could say lots of things about Chelsea Market but since that’s right by the High-Line park, my new favorite spot,  I’ll write about those two separately in a Summer entry.  The point is, there will always be spots in your life’s map which are covered by a cloud, but there are sunny spots too, you just have to find them.  And to keep moving forward.

The Spring morning weather in New York yesterday was very English.  I was listening to Mika, Kaiser Chiefs and Kate Nash on my iPod on the way to work, as their music suits this light rain mood.  One of my American co-workers got into the elevator with me and asked me what I was listening to, and upon my response, he goes “Don’t encourage this weather to stay”.  As it turns out, I do have a melancholic-yet-beautiful appreciation for rainy days I didn’t have before.  I welcome the serenity it brings – the “let’s sit at the pub with chips and beer and watch the football (soccer) on the telly”.

 

The time I spent in the UK was interesting, especially the times I spent in London.  But because the time I spent in Bristol was often boring and lonely, I tend to forget the things that got ingrained in me by living there.  I go make tea when someone is trying to wind me up, I put onion marmelade in most sandwiches, I say “wicked” and “brilliant” more than I should, and the cynicism has definitely stayed.

 

Working in an office full of Brits, words like cheeky, mufti, rugby and mate are an integral part of my vocabulary.  On most rainy days I can’t even tell I am in the US from nine till five.  When I’m out at a pub and Noel Gallagher’s voice plays, I can’t help but singing along.  With the World Cup approaching and the level of excitement in my office increasing everyday with the countdown, I long more and more to join avid soccer fans in the banter about their teams.  61 days till the first day in South Africa.    Brazil will play the first game on June 15^th,  against Korea.  Then we will play Cote D’Ivoire and Portugal and come out victoriously as the top team in Group G.

 

So I may not miss the cricket, and I certainly don’t want the clouds to hang around forever… but in the meanwhile,  I’ll enjoy and Blighty Spring that has lingered over Gotham.